Business Commons^™

Workplace Spirituality, Meditation, And Work Performance, Pawinee Petchsawanga, Dennis Duchon

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

This paper reports two studies that examine how an organization might enable more productive work practices by encouraging the expression of its employees’ spiritual selves in an eastern context. Study 1 shows that people who regularly practice meditation have higher workplace spirituality scores than people who do not regularly practice meditation. Study 2 reports a quasi-experimental study in which people practiced insight meditation. The data did not reveal a direct effect for the meditation, however spirituality does relate to work performance. Moreover, the practice of meditation is also found to partially mediate the relationship between workplace spirituality and work performance.

Coaching As A Catalyst: Distance Learning For Personal Innovation (Revised Presentation), Connie I. Reimers-Hild

Kimmel Education and Research Center: Faculty and Staff Publications

Abstract of the paper and basis of the presentation:

Coaching is emerging as a tool that can be used to achieve sustainable personal and organizational innovation, and distance education technologies have made coaching more accessible, affordable and available. Distance learning professionals are in a unique position to help technology-based coaching evolve in an effective and sustainable manner. The expertise and experience of distance learning professionals has the potential to advance the interrelationships between teaching, learning and coaching in an effort to help individuals and organizations achieve sustainable and meaningful innovation. A coaching case study utilizing the Inner Leader Coaching Ecosystem …

Coaching As A Catalyst: Distance Learning For Personal Innovation, Connie I. Reimers-Hild

Kimmel Education and Research Center: Presentations and White Papers

Abstract of the paper and basis of the presentation:

Coaching is emerging as a tool that can be used to achieve sustainable personal and organizational innovation, and distance education technologies have made coaching more accessible, affordable and available. Distance learning professionals are in a unique position to help technology-based coaching evolve in an effective and sustainable manner. The expertise and experience of distance learning professionals has the potential to advance the interrelationships between teaching, learning and coaching in an effort to help individuals and organizations achieve sustainable and meaningful innovation. A coaching case study utilizing the Inner Leader Coaching Ecosystem …

Invasive Species And E-Commerce, Invasive Species Advisory Committee

National Invasive Species Council

ISSUE

Internet commerce (hereafter e-commerce) is a growing and vital part of the United States economy. Total e-commerce sales in the United States for 2011 totaled $194 billion, an increase of 16% over 2010. From 2002 to 2011, the proportion of reported e-commerce sales in the U. S. grew from about 1.4% to 5.5% of total retail sales (United States Census Bureau News 2012). Globally, e-commerce is expected to increase at a rate of 13.5% annually, amounting to $1.4 trillion in yearly sales by 2015 (Enright 2011). A portion of this activity includes the sale and trade of living organisms. …

The Freedom To Create Your Destiny, Connie I. Reimers-Hild

Kimmel Education and Research Center: Presentations and White Papers

We have a unique gift in the United States, and that gift is freedom. The Declaration of Independence guarantees all of us “certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

This means we are free to pursue our lives and our vocations in any way that makes sense to us. Freedom is what makes America so great. What we do with our freedom is up to us. It is our choice. Freedom is our grandest opportunity and should be protected, especially in challenging times.

This radio update presents discusses the importance of freedom.

Nebraska Monthly Economic Indicators: May 18, 2012, Eric Thompson, William Walstad, Adam George

Leading Economic Indicator Reports

The Leading Economic Indicator – Nebraska (LEI‐N) increased at a moderate 0.44% rate during April 2012. The increase in the LEI‐N, which predicts economic growth in the state six months in the future, signals that the Nebraska economy will grow during the fall of 2012. However, recent evidence signals modest growth. The LEI‐N grew by 0.44% in April but declined during March. Further, there was mixed evidence of growth among the underlying components of the leading indicator. Rising manufacturing hours, positive business expectations, and declining initial unemployment claims all point to future growth. But, other components declined. Building permits and …

Book Review: Tim Wu, The Master Switch: The Rise And Fall Of Information Empires, Robert A. Mittelstaedt

Department of Marketing: Faculty Publications

This book is both a chronicle of the past and a look to the future. The author, a law school professor at Columbia University on leave at the Federal Trade Commission when the book was published, reviews the history of the telegraph, telephone, movies, radio (amplitude modulation [AM] and frequency modulation [FM]), and television (broadcast and cable) industries. In all of these, he finds a recurring pattern, a cycle in which the industry begins in a state of chaos with many entrepreneurs competing for the right to provide peoplewith the means of receiving and/or sending information. The chaos period is …

Recognizing Leadership At A Distance: A Study Of Leader Effectiveness Across Cultures, Peter D. Harms, Guohong Han, Huaiyu Chen

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

The present study investigated whether personality and leadership evaluations based on photographs of Chinese CEOs made by Western raters were accurate at predicting organizational outcomes. Consistent with implicit leadership prototypes held by Westerners, perceived effectiveness was associated with higher levels of perceived intelligence, dominance, and positivity. However, actual organization performance was associated with the culturally appropriate leadership trait of risk taking. These findings suggest that although it is possible to use perceptions of personality based on photographs to predict objective leader effectiveness, individuals using a leadership paradigm suited to Western cultures are poor judges of potential success in Eastern cultures.

Book Review: Steven D. Levitt And Stephen J. Dubner, Superfreakonomics, James W. Gentry

Department of Marketing: Faculty Publications

I listened to Freakonomics on audiotape borrowed from the library and liked it sufficiently to spring for the sequel SuperFreakonomics. The authors place great emphasis on the role of incentives in generating human behaviors. One does not need to read the first book in order to enjoy the second book, as the latter is just an extension of the first that focuses on new issues. I do recommend reading both books as they are thought provoking, which is my highest praise for scholarly communication in any form.

The strength of the book is that the problems facing society are …

Critical Success Factors Of Location-Based Services, Natalie Jun Pei Chin

College of Business: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Location-based services evolved with the advancement in mobile technology and wireless technology. Researchers have studied location-based services in terms of privacy, trust, and user acceptance. Statistics suggest the percentage of location-based services users is still relatively low. Therefore, the main objective of this study was to gain a comprehensive and holistic understanding of the critical success factors of location-based services. The electronic brainstorming approach was used to gather the opinions of an expert group of practitioners, researchers, and users on the critical success factors of location-based services. Through grouping similar factors together based on past literature, 15 categories of critical …

Acknowledge Your Inner Leader Worksheet, Connie I. Reimers-Hild

Kimmel Education and Research Center: Presentations and White Papers

Before you lead others, you must first lead yourself! The Inner Leader program walks participants through four phases of developing their inner leader: Discover, Decide, Design and Dare.

Each phase of the Inner Leader Coaching Ecosystem can be used for personal innovation. Participants in this session will take Innovation Actions focused around personal and professional fulfillment.

Nebraska Monthly Economic Indicators: April 20, 2012, Eric Thompson, William Walstad, Adam George

Leading Economic Indicator Reports

The Leading Economic Indicator – Nebraska (LEI-N) fell for the first time in four months in March 2012, posting a 0.32% decline. The decline in the LEI-N, which predicts economic growth in the state six months in the future, suggests that the Nebraska economy will grow slowly during the fall of 2012. A rising U.S. dollar, which would reduce exports, was one primary reason for the decline in the LEI-N. The other primary factor was a sharp drop in airline passengers. A modest increase in building permits and growth in manufacturing hours each made a positive contribution to the LEI-N …

Shareholder Returns From Supplying Trade Credit, Matthew D. Hill, G. Wayne Kelly, G. Brandon Lockhart

Department of Finance: Faculty Publications

We examine shareholder wealth implications of supplying financing to customers. Robust results demonstrate that excess returns and trade receivables are directly and significantly related. Further evidence indicates the value of receivables is higher for suppliers with stronger motives relating to operating and contracting costs. The results also suggest a discounted value of receivables for financially unconstrained firms. Overall, we conclude that investors recognize trade credit as an effective instrument in mitigating frictions hindering sales growth. Thus, certain suppliers are positioned to derive increased strategic benefits from credit policy.

Sentiment Analysis: A Study On Product Features, Yanyan Meng

College of Business: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Sentiment analysis is a technique to classify people’s opinions in product reviews, blogs or social networks. It has different usages and has received much attention from researchers and practitioners lately. In this study, we are interested in product feature based sentiment analysis. In other words, we are more interested in identifying the opinion polarities (positive, neutral or negative) expressed on product features than in identifying the opinion polarities of reviews or sentences. This is termed as the product feature based sentiment analysis. Several studies have applied unsupervised learning to calculate sentiment scores of product features. Although many studies used supervised …

Perceptions Of Personnel At Selected Texas Community Colleges Regarding The Impact Of Technology On Their Libraries, Sharon K. Kenan

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Technological innovations have transformed all areas of community college libraries. Automated library systems, office software, and Internet access have altered work processes for library personnel and have changed research methodologies for students and faculty. The purpose of this bounded multiple case study was to explore how the adoption of technology has changed important areas of four community college libraries in Texas. Using purposeful sampling to select community colleges with high technology libraries, the study explored how the adoption of technology by the case college libraries changed the libraries and the roles of people employed within the libraries by examining the …

Nebraska Monthly Economic Indicators: March 16, 2012, Eric Thompson, William Walstad, Eric Ransom, Adam George

Leading Economic Indicator Reports

The Leading Economic Indicator – Nebraska (LEI‐N) rose for the third consecutive month in February 2012, posting a moderate 0.93% increase. The increase in the LEI‐N, which predicts economic growth in the state six months in the future, suggests that the Nebraska economy will grow at a moderate pace in mid‐2012. A declining U.S. dollar made the largest contribution to growth in the LEI‐N. Positive business expectations also contributed to the increase. Manufacturing hours, building permits, and the number of airline passengers were essentially unchanged. Rising initial unemployment claims detracted from growth in the leading indicator. Looking at earlier months, …

The Power Of Setting Smartr Goals, Connie I. Reimers-Hild

Kimmel Education and Research Center: Presentations and White Papers

Welcome to the Extension Update! My name is Connie Reimers-Hild, and I am an Extension Educator focused in leadership, innovation and entrepreneurship at the Kimmel Education and Research Center in Nebraska City. In today’s Extension Update, I will present the power of setting SMARTR Goals!

We all hear about how important it is to set goals, but very few of us to actually do it. What if we made the process of goal setting more personally fulfilling and more fun? As a Certified Professional Coach, I have used SMARTR goal setting with my clients. Establishing SMARTR goals can be powerful …

Technical Report: Coincident And Leading Economic Indicators-Nebraska, Eric Thompson, William Walstad

Leading Economic Indicator Reports

Introduction

State, Federal, and private entities produce a myriad of data about the national and state economy. Much of this data, however, is released with a substantial lag of several months up to several years. Much of the data also only reports on segments of the economy, rather than providing an overall measure of economic progress. Yet, there is a clear need for comprehensive and current measures of the economy, and current updates about the economic outlook. This information is provided at the national level by the Conference Board, which produces a leading and coincident indicator for the national economy. …

Nebraska Monthly Economic Indicators: Febriary 17, 2012, Eric Thompson, William Walstad, Eric Ransom, Adam George

Leading Economic Indicator Reports

The Leading Economic Indicator – Nebraska (LEI-N) grew for the second consecutive month in January 2012, posting a moderate 0.51% increase. The increase in the LEI-N, which predicts state economic growth 6 months in the future, suggests that the Nebraska economy will grow at a moderate pace in mid-2012. A declining U.S. dollar, a rise in the number of airline passengers, and improving business expectations all contributed to the increase in the LEI-N in January 2012. Manufacturing hours and building permits were essentially unchanged and rising initial unemployment claims detracted from growth in the leading indicator. Looking at earlier months, …

How Do You Define Success?, Connie I. Reimers-Hild

Kimmel Education and Research Center: Presentations and White Papers

What exactly is success? Many of the books, blogs and other for-profit resources available on success would have us believe that success is making it big in terms of money, power and fame. If you happen to have an executive title or big paycheck, you must be successful, right? This type of success is largely associated with external motivation and gratification.

What is the cost of getting “to the top” or “making it big?” Sometimes, we forget to consider the tradeoffs associated with perceived success, or we only hear about the positive elements of money, fame and status. Rarely do …

Coaching For Personal Innovation: The Role Of Intuition, Connie I. Reimers-Hild

Kimmel Education and Research Center: Faculty and Staff Publications

Innovation has become essential to survival and success in the 21^st Century. Globalization combined with the rapid rate of change and explosive population growth have created a need for entrepreneurial activity, both inside and outside of new venture creation, that leads to continuous innovation while considering social and environmental impacts. Entrepreneurs are needed to establish new ventures and to employ others while developing new products, services and solutions. Entrepreneurial individuals, who may or may not start a business, are needed because they are innovators who behave or act in a proactive manner and move organizations forward.

Many different structures, …

Smarter Intentions & Authentic Goals, Connie I. Reimers-Hild

Kimmel Education and Research Center: Faculty and Staff Publications

Intentions influence our actions and behaviors. If intentions are established with awareness, truth, and meaning, they can help us experience a life filled with passion and personal fulfillment. Lack of understanding around our true intentions often causes frustration and confusion, which is one reason people oftentimes do not achieve their goals. Many goals are written; however, they are not established with honest intent. It’s time to get brutally honest about your true intentions so you can achieve authentic goals.

Intentions have the power to strengthen your Inner Leader and move forward in a meaningful way as long as they represent …

Economic Impact Of Stable Flies (Diptera: Muscidae) On Dairy And Beef Cattle Production, David B. Taylor, Roger D. Moon, Darrell R. Mark

Department of Agricultural Economics: Faculty Publications

Stable flies, Stomoxys calcitrans (L.), are among the most damaging arthropod pests of cattle worldwide. The last estimate of their economic impact on United States cattle production was published 20 yr ago and placed losses at $608 million. Subsequently, several studies of effects of stable flies on beef cattle weight gain and feed efficiency have been published, and stable flies have become increasingly recognized as pests of cattle on pasture and range. We analyzed published studies and developed yield-loss functions to relate stable fly infestation levels to cattle productivity, and then estimated the economic impact of stable flies on cattle …

Nissan: Innovation For All -- Hard To Explain, Easy To Experience, Unl Nsac 2012 Agency

College of Journalism and Mass Communications: Student Advertising Projects

The demographic landscape of the United States is changing. Now more than ever, larger populations of multicultural individuals are present and fully integrated into all parts of American society. As such, building a market share in the African American, Hispanic, and Chinese Millennial markets is absolutely necessary. Nissan recognizes the need to connect with these audiences and will do so by generating increased awareness about its innovative brand. The University of Nebraska-Lincoln NSAC Team has devised an effective, buzz-stimulating campaign to target these audiences.

Nissan offers many innovative features that appeal to Multicultural Millennials. This target audience, however, does not …

Sustained Growth, Eric Thompson, University Of Nebraska-Lincoln

Business in Nebraska

U.S. Macroeconomic Outlook

he U.S. economy remains on a path of sustained, moderate economic recovery. Growth persists despite a stalled U.S. housing sector, recession in Europe and slowing growth in China and much of the developing world. These factors undoubtedly have slowed growth in the U.S. economy, and are a continuing source of uncertainty, but U.S. economic growth has continued just the same. The credit must go to a flexible and agile U.S. private sector. Since the financial crisis began, businesses have continued to improve their balance sheets, invest in productivity, and seek out opportunities in growing sectors of the …

Boots On The Ground: A First-Hand Account Of Conducting Psychological Research In Combat, Peter D. Harms, Paul B. Lester

P. D. Harms Publications

At the height of the surge in Iraq, Captain Paul Lester, an Army research psychologist, embedded himself with the 2nd Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment in order to study leadership and psychological resilience in combat. Few researchers are ever presented with the opportunities and responsibilities inherent for a psychologist in this situation or with the decisions he faced when agreeing to take on this mission. In his own words, Captain Lester explains the nature of this mission, what makes research in this context so unique, and what lessons he learned.

Heterogeneous Beliefs And Risk Neutral Skewness, Geoffrey C. Friesen, Yi Zhang, Thomas Zorn

Department of Finance: Faculty Publications

This study tests whether investor belief differences affect the cross-sectional variation of risk-neutral skewness, using data on firm-level stock options traded on the CBOE from 2003 to 2006. Using well known proxies for heterogeneous beliefs, we find that stocks with greater belief differences have more negative skews, even after controlling for systematic risk and other firm-level variables known to affect skewness. This result also goes beyond the net price pressure hypothesis suggested by Bollen and Whaley (2004). Factor analysis identifies latent variables linked to systematic risk and belief differences. The belief factor explains more variation in the risk-neutral density than …

Simulating School Closure Policies For Cost Effective Pandemic Decision Making, Ozgur M. Araz, Paul Damien, David A. Paltiel, Sean Burke, Bryce Van De Geijn, Alison Galvani, Lauren Ancel Meyers

Department of Supply Chain Management and Analytics: Faculty and Staff Publications

Background: Around the globe, school closures were used sporadically to mitigate the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic. However, such closures can detrimentally impact economic and social life.

Methods: Here, we couple a decision analytic approach with a mathematical model of influenza transmission to estimate the impact of school closures in terms of epidemiological and cost effectiveness. Our method assumes that the transmissibility and the severity of the disease are uncertain, and evaluates several closure and reopening strategies that cover a range of thresholds in school-aged prevalence (SAP) and closure durations.

Results: Assuming a willingness to pay per quality adjusted life-year (QALY) …

Natural Resources In Nonmetropolitan Nebraska: Use And Priorities: 2012 Nebraska Rural Poll Results, Rebecca J. Vogt, Cheryl A. Burkhart-Kriesel, Randolph L. Cantrell, Bradley Lubben

Nebraska Rural Poll

Many rural Nebraskans say they already recycle a lot and face no barriers. However, many rural Nebraskans cite lack of programs and difficulty getting materials to drop-off sites as barriers to recycling. Persons living in or near smaller communities are more likely than persons living in or near larger communities to say their community doesn’t offer recycling. However, most rural Nebraskans say their community offers either curbside pickup or drop-off recycling for all of the materials listed with the exception of glass bottles.

Most rural Nebraskans are in favor of building the Keystone XL pipeline, but think it should be …

Quality Of Life In Nonmetropolitan Nebraska: Perceptions Of Well-Being And Church Life: 2012 Nebraska Rural Poll Results, Rebecca J. Vogt, Cheryl A. Burkhart-Kriesel, Randolph L. Cantrell, Bradley Lubben, Philip Schwadel

Nebraska Rural Poll

Most rural Nebraskans are positive about their current situation. And, they continue to be generally positive about their future situation. Over one-half (51%) of rural Nebraskans think they are better off than they were five years ago and just under one-half (45%) think they will be better off ten years from now. Certain groups remain pessimistic about their situation. Persons with lower household incomes, older persons, and persons with lower educational levels are the groups most likely to be pessimistic about the present and the future.

When asked if they believe people are powerless to control their own lives, most …