Business Commons^™

Wine Company Analysis In “The New World” And “The Old World”, Jiaji Liang

Theses and Dissertations--Agricultural Economics

There is a growing global market for wine. In our research, we mainly examine wine companies from four countries: France, Italy, the U.S. and China. Data used in this analysis comes from the 2010 to 2013 Plimsoll Top 500 report, focusing on wine companies’ financial performance. The primary goal is to identify which factors may have significant influence on the firms’ profitability. Two-way fixed effects panel data analysis indicates that the firm’s shareholders’ funds in total asset have significant and positive effect on companies’ yearly profit. The results suggest that four years could be a reasonable period for most wine …

A Conjoint Analysis Study Of Preferences And Purchasing Behavior Of Potential Adopters Of The Bureau Of Land Management Wild Horses, Omotoyosi O. Adekunle

Theses and Dissertations--Agricultural Economics

This study uses conjoint analysis to examine the preferences of buyers for Bureau of Land Management (BLM) wild horses based on physical attributes of wild horses and individual characteristics of the buyers. Generalized ordered logit models and multinomial logit models are used to study the impact of the buyers’ demographic characteristics such as age, gender, knowledge about wild horse care, and number of wild horses previously adopted on physical attributes of the horses such as color, age, height, training status, temperament, conformation, and unique markings. Using a choice experiment, taken together, these attributes determine buyer’s preferences for a wild horse. …

Assessing The Production Revenues And Forecasting Models Of Lexington Children's Theatre Productions, 1998–2004 And 2008–2014, Shea Henning Bartlett

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

This paper assesses the accuracy of the ticket sales and revenue forecasting model used by Lexington Children’s Theatre, a Central Kentucky Performing Arts non-profit. Research suggests that if bias is present in the models, it could be a result of the Optimism Bias, which is a tendency for humans to predict favorable outcomes. Recent data seems to suggest that humans may also act pessimistically with forecasts if the endgame would work in their favor.

"The Lexington Children’s Theatre provided data for 108 productions over a twelve-year span from 1998 – 2014. Using a series of regression models, I found that …

Mathematical Modeling For Platform-Based Product Configuration Considering Total Life-Cycle Sustainability, Tian Lan

Theses and Dissertations--Mechanical Engineering

Many companies are using platform-based product designs to fulfill the requirements of customers while maintaining low cost. However, research that integrates sustainability into platform-based product design is still limited. Considering sustainability during platform-based design process is a challenge because the total life-cycle from pre-manufacturing, manufacturing and use to post-use stages as well as economic, environmental and societal performance in these stages must be considered. In this research, an approach for quantifying sustainability is introduced and a mathematical model is developed for identifying a more sustainable platform. Data from life-cycle assessment is used to quantify environmental factors; criteria from the Product …

A Framework For Sustainable Material Selection For Multi-Generational Components, Ryan T. Bradley

Theses and Dissertations--Mechanical Engineering

The early stages of a product’s design are a critical time for decisions that impact the entire life-cycle cost. Product designers have mastered the first generation; however, they currently do not have the ability to know the impact of their decisions on the multi-generational view. This thesis aims at closing the gap between total life-cycle information and the traditional design process in order to harbor sustainable value creation among all stakeholders involved. A framework is presented that uses a combination of a life-cycle costing methodology and an evolutionary algorithm in order to achieve a sustainability assessment for a true multi-generational …

A Comparative Life Cycle Assessment Of Denim Jeans And A Cotton T-Shirt: The Production Of Fast Fashion Essential Items From Cradle To Gate, Tara Hackett

Theses and Dissertations--Retailing and Tourism Management

As a result of harmful textile production, sustainability has become the movement by which the apparel industry explores solutions to improve procedures in fashion design to maintain a healthy environment. However, the issue is consumers trust the sustainability claims and marketing materials of apparel products at face value without knowing its environmental impact. The overall purpose of this research was to compare the environmental implications of widely produced and owned apparel products through a life cycle assessment approach. This life cycle assessment study examines key environmental impact categories of the materials and production phase (cradle to gate) of a pair …

Data Privacy Preservation In Collaborative Filtering Based Recommender Systems, Xiwei Wang

Theses and Dissertations--Computer Science

This dissertation studies data privacy preservation in collaborative filtering based recommender systems and proposes several collaborative filtering models that aim at preserving user privacy from different perspectives.

The empirical study on multiple classical recommendation algorithms presents the basic idea of the models and explores their performance on real world datasets. The algorithms that are investigated in this study include a popularity based model, an item similarity based model, a singular value decomposition based model, and a bipartite graph model. Top-N recommendations are evaluated to examine the prediction accuracy.

It is apparent that with more customers' preference data, recommender systems …

Non-Profit Financial Viability During The Great Recession: A Case Study Of The Ronald Mcdonald House Of Greater Cincinnati, Madison Holbrook

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

The Great Recession from 2008-­2010 adversely affected the non-­profit sector as charitable donations were greatly reduced in the United States. While aggregate measures are useful to look at the non-­profit sector as a whole, it does little to show how each non-­profit individually handled its finances during the recession. To show an individual non-­profit perspective, I examined data from the Ronald McDonald House of Greater Cincinnati to determine whether or not it was financially viable during the Great Recession. To answer this question, I used data from IRS 990 forms to complete a series of financial ratios that evaluated different …

What Do Auditors Promise Their Governmental Audit Clients? What Do Governmental Audit Clients Want? Audit Proposal Evidence From Governmental Audit Procurement Processes, Yu-Tzu Chang

Theses and Dissertations--Accountancy

This dissertation, consisting of two studies, analyzes a dataset of audit proposals to investigate auditors’ impression management strategies and audit procurement quality in the public sector. Text based analytic methods are employed to examine the content of audit proposals, which were submitted for government audit engagements in fifteen states.

The first study investigates auditors' marketing language and hypothesizes that CPA firms will project a cooperative, non-independent image in audit proposals to impress potential clients. The results suggest that CPA firms, especially larger ones, project a persona of a cooperative and trustworthy service provider than to present themselves as independent auditors. …

Why Supplier Development Works? A Knowledge-Management Perspective, Liang Chen

Theses and Dissertations--Business Administration

Supplier development (SD) has been intensively and increasingly used in practice and studied in academia. Many studies find that SD can generate operational, capability-based, attitudinal, and financial performance measures for both the supplying firm (supplier) and the buying firm (buyer), but very few studies systematically explain why SD yields supplier’s performance improvements and, in turn, buyer’s performance improvements. Using a meta-analysis approach, this dissertation finds that SD does lead to positive outcomes, but SD is found to have very weak or even negative relationship with performance improvements in some cases. Such findings further support the importance of examining the main …

Modeling Large-Scale Cross Effect In Co-Purchase Incidence: Comparing Artificial Neural Network Techniques And Multivariate Probit Modeling, Zhiguo Yang

Theses and Dissertations--Business Administration

This dissertation examines cross-category effects in consumer purchases from the big data and analytics perspectives. It uses data from Nielsen Consumer Panel and Scanner databases for its investigations. With big data analytics it becomes possible to examine the cross effects of many product categories on each other. The number of categories whose cross effects are studied is called category scale or just scale in this dissertation. The larger the category scale the higher the number of categories whose cross effects are studied. This dissertation extends research on models of cross effects by (1) examining the performance of MVP model across …

From Grapes To Wine To Brands To Culture: A Qualitative Study Of Kentucky Wineries And Kentucky Wine Producers, Benjamin J. Triana

Theses and Dissertations--Communication

The Kentucky wine industry has grown from six wineries in 1999 to more than sixty wineries as of 2013. However, the industry has reached a crucial point in its development as funds allotted from the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement ended in 2014. As a result, Kentucky wine producers must navigate the demands of local, regional, national, and international wine markets without the same amount of economic support provided in the early stages of the industry’s development.

The purpose of this study was to investigate (1) how Kentucky wine producers use cultural associations to manage their brands, (2) communicate with multiple …

The Influence Of Affect On Product Evaluations And Enduring Consumption Enjoyment, James A. Mead

Theses and Dissertations--Marketing and Supply Chain

This dissertation consists of two essays on the influence of affect on consumer intentions and behavioral responses. In the first essay, the influence of negative affect on consumer satiation is investigated. In the second essay, the influence of conceptual fluency, a positive affective response of “feeling right” during advertising evaluations, evoked by the structural properties of memory networks, is identified.

In the first essay, how anticipated consumption variety influences consumers’ affective responses to slow satiation in the present is investigated. Prior research has focused on how cognitive appraisals of present variety influence consumers’ satiation rates. However, in addition to cognitively …

Two Essays On The Recommendation Behavior Of Multi-Line Salespeople, Sarah R. Magnotta

Theses and Dissertations--Marketing and Supply Chain

This dissertation consists of two essays in which we examine the recommendation behavior of multi-line salespeople. Multi-line salespeople are those who are able to choose among overlapping, competing manufacturers’ products to make a recommendation to their customers. In this dissertation, we seek to explain why and how multi-line salespeople may recommend particular products to their customers.

In the first essay, we examine why salespeople may recommend a particular product. Manufacturers frequently face the challenge of motivating distributor salespeople to focus efforts on their products rather than on their competitors’. Thus, manufacturers often rely on outcome (e.g., rewards) and behavior (e.g., …

Factors Associated With Philanthropic Giving And Their Correlation With Donation Amount: A Case Study Of The Indianapolis Zoo 2014 Donor Survey, Ashley N. Marcum

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

The Indianapolis Zoo, located in the heart of Indianapolis, is a staple of the community. Celebrating its 50th year anniversary in 2014, the Indianapolis Zoo is known worldwide for both its excellence in animal care and its dedication to local and international conservation efforts. The intent of this paper is to provide the Indianapolis Zoo Institutional Advancement Department with an in depth analysis of its 2014 Donor Survey. Understanding the factors that can affect donor motivation to give philanthropically and the correlation these factors may have with gift amount will help the development team hone their soliciting practices.

It is …

Building The Case Against Human Trafficking: Developing And Evaluating A Training Module For Law Enforcement Officials, Katie Sanders

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

Since the passage of federal legislation to address human trafficking in the United States, efforts to measure and combat the crime have continued to grow (Victims of Trafficking and Violence Prevention Act of 2000). Measuring human trafficking has continued to be a difficult task for researchers, law enforcement, and victim services providers. The combined efforts of these groups has lead to the recognition that without more widespread identification of victims and perpetrators of human trafficking—a crime referred to as modern-day slavery—estimates will continue to be inaccurate. In order to improve the identification process, this specific proposal focuses on law enforcement …

Two Essays On Corporate Finance, Soohyung Kim

Theses and Dissertations--Finance and Quantitative Methods

This dissertation consists of two essays on corporate finance. The first essay investigates the relationship between dual-class shares and firm’s risk-taking. While costs associated with dual-class shares are widely documented, the benefits are seldom studied in the literature. We attempt to fill this gap and find that dual-class firms tend to have fewer business segments, higher volatilities in their cash flows, earnings, and investment opportunities compared to propensity-matched single-class firms. Business segments within a dual-class firm are also more positively correlated in their cash flows, earnings, or investment opportunities than those in single-class firms. The results are consistent with the …