Business Commons^™

Strategies For Succession Planning And Sustained Business Profitability For Small Business, Icy Mae Barton

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Baby boomers are retiring rapidly and vacating prominent small business positions, leaving no one to replace them, which may result in business failure. When a small business fails, all stakeholders, including small business owners (SBOs), investors, employees, customers, and the community, suffer emotional and financial distress. Grounded in Argyris and Schön's organizational learning theory and Burns's transformational leadership theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore strategies SBOs use to develop an effective succession plan. The participants were seven SBOs in the Washington, DC/Baltimore, MD metropolitan area who had been in business for more than 5 …

Credit Abuse, Interest Rates, And Loan Performance Of Ten Nigerian Banks, Diala Ugwumba

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractThe ongoing failure in the Nigerian financial system has been a source of concern to the regulatory authorities, stakeholders, depositors, and the banking public because of the role these financial institutions played in the Nigerian economy in the last decade. The root of the problem was credit abuse performed by the bank’s credit officers and executive directors which made it challenging for financial institutions to recover the loans granted by the banks. The issue made investors lose their investments and bankers lose their jobs. The crisis resulted in poor asset quality that eventually eroded the Nigerian financial institution’s capital. Using …

Strategies To Retain Seasoned Federal Acquisition Employees, Patricia Dianne Wells

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Failure to retain seasoned acquisition employees negatively impacts an organization’s performance and outcomes. Managers need retention strategies to retain seasoned employees, as failure to retain seasoned employees results in capability gaps, decreased productivity, and increased expenses associated with recruiting and training new hires and transfers. Grounded in the social exchange theory, the purpose of this qualitative single case study was to explore strategies midlevel managers use to retain seasoned acquisition employees. The primary participants consisted of six midlevel federal acquisition managers of a federal agency who used strategies to retain seasoned acquisition employees. The secondary participants were five employees from …

Credit Abuse, Interest Rates, And Loan Performance Of Ten Nigerian Banks, Diala Ugwumba

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractThe ongoing failure in the Nigerian financial system has been a source of concern to the regulatory authorities, stakeholders, depositors, and the banking public because of the role these financial institutions played in the Nigerian economy in the last decade. The root of the problem was credit abuse performed by the bank’s credit officers and executive directors which made it challenging for financial institutions to recover the loans granted by the banks. The issue made investors lose their investments and bankers lose their jobs. The crisis resulted in poor asset quality that eventually eroded the Nigerian financial institution’s capital. Using …

Strategies For Reducing Voluntary Employee Turnover In Small Business, Sherale Bell

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Small business owners who lack strategies to reduce high rates of voluntary employee turnover experience decreased organizational performance. Grounded in the two-factor theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore strategies that small business owners use to reduce high voluntary employee turnover to increase organizational performance. Participants were four small business owners from Midwestern Illinois who successfully used strategies to reduce high voluntary employee turnover. Data were collected from semistructured interviews and internal documents and analyzed using thematic analysis. Four themes emerged: (a) employee turnover, (b) job satisfaction, (c) employee engagement, and (d) monetary incentives. A …

Processes And Skills Manufacturing Organizational Leaders Use To Implement Corporate Restructuring, Eric Darko

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Corporate restructuring implementation failure has the potential for adverse business outcomes. Business owners are concerned with corporate restructuring implementation failure, as it is the number one predictor of the collapse of businesses. Grounded in transformational leadership theory and business process reengineering model, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore the processes and skills business owners use to minimize corporate restructuring implementation failure. The participants comprised 10 business owners of the manufacturing sector who minimized corporate restructuring implementation failure. Data were collected using semistructured interviews and a review of the organization’s corporate restructuring information on social media …

Workload, Work–Family Conflict, And Job Satisfaction For Women In Science, Elizabeth Ervin

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Job dissatisfaction among women working in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields costs the United States up to $1.5 billion per year. Understanding work-life balance is important for pharmaceutical leaders to assist in enhancing job satisfaction for women in science. Grounded in the work-life balance theory, the purpose of this quantitative correlational study was to examine workload and work-family conflict in predicting job satisfaction for women in science. Survey data were collected from 76 women employed in the pharmaceutical industry who completed a combined Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire and Warr-Cook-Wall job satisfaction questionnaire. The multiple linear regression results were significant, …

Perspectives On Gender Stereotypes And Glass Ceiling Beliefs Of Male And Female Corporate Professionals, Shellie Cecelia Jones

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In the United States, as of 2021, women comprise almost half of the entire workforce (46.8%), yet only represent 24% of top earning officers and 6% of CEO positions. A phenomenon known as the glass ceiling is recognized as an unofficial barrier to advancement within a profession or a company that specifically affects minority populations, including women in business. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between the glass ceiling barriers to career advancement for professional women and gender stereotypes. The framework used for this study was based on the role congruity theory that proposes prejudice towards …

Determinant Of Employee Productivity In Listed Manufacturing Firms In Southwestern Nigeria, Omoneye O. Olasanmi, Omotola O. Olajide, Olugbenga A. Ojubanire

International Journal of Applied Management and Technology

The study analyzed the level of employee productivity and identified factors influencing employee productivity in listed manufacturing firms in southwestern Nigeria. The descriptive survey design was adopted for this study. A sample of 394 respondents was selected using a simple random sampling technique. Data collected using a structured questionnaire were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The study showed that a majority of the respondents (58.33%) had average productivity levels. Results further revealed that management and organizational factors were identified as having the greatest influence on employees’ productivity, followed by organizational/technical factors, and then production and finance factors. In addition, …

Exploring The Influential Determinants Of Iot Adoption In The U.S. Manufacturing Sector, Ronville D. Savoury, Jodine M. Burchell

International Journal of Applied Management and Technology

Manufacturers have been hesitant to adopt the Internet of Things (IoT) due to a lack of understanding of factors related to IoT adoption. This correlational study uses a combination of diffusion of innovation theory and technology–organization–environment framework to examine if a relationship exists between relative advantage, complexity, compatibility, technology readiness, top management support, firm size, competitive pressure, and regulatory support and intent to adopt IoT in U.S. manufacturing organizations. A sample of 168 IT leaders was used. Multiple regression analysis indicated significant relationships between intent to adopt IoT and three variables: technology readiness, top management support, and competitive pressure. The …

Leaders’ Strategies For Motivating The Millennial Generation To Sustain High Levels Of Performance, Juan Alvarez

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Failure to identify and implement strategies to address the needs of the Millennial workforce can lead to a decrease in productivity in the organization. The increasing number of Millennials in the workforce creates a challenge for many business leaders in maintaining or surpassing the productivity levels found in organizations where the baby boomer employees are the majority. Grounded in transformational leadership theory, the purpose of this qualitative single case study was to explore the strategies that warehouse supervisors use to enable Millennial employees to maintain or surpass productivity levels in organizations. Interviews were conducted with six warehouse supervisors who had …

Developing Workforce Capability In Nonprofits Through Effective Leadership, Catherine Byrnes Smoyer, Rocky J. Dwyer, Janice K. Garfield, Brandon D. Simmons

International Journal of Applied Management and Technology

Leaders of nonprofit organizations in the United States must build workforce capabilities to meet increasing demands for services. This single-case study explored strategies nonprofit leaders used to build workforce capability to address increasing service demands. The conceptual lens for this study was the full-range leadership theory. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with senior executives of a single nonprofit organization located in the Midwestern region of the United States, which included internal organizational and workforce performance data, strategy plans, annual reports internal and external financial documents, and publicly available information. Four major themes related to building workforce capacity emerged from …

Enabling Sustainable Organizational Change: A Case Of Cognitive Diversity In The Automotive Industry, Tonja Blom, Yvonne Du Plessis, Hamid H. Kazeroony

International Journal of Applied Management and Technology

In diverse societies such as South Africa, organizations continue to face inclusion challenges when implementing change. This study proposes a different method and new dimension of diversity management within the cognitive diversity construct, namely human niche theory, to tackle the diversity dilemma of exclusivity. The research question asked whether human niche theory, as a defined concept within cognitive diversity, could be utilized by managers to enable inclusion and promote sustainable organizational change implementation. Conceptually, this paper relates human niche theory to seven themes in the change process, namely, communication, training, motivation, resources, control, monitoring, and feedback. An exploratory single case …

Determinants Of Effective Change Management For Software Deployment Projects, Abebaw Zeleke, Walter Mccollum

International Journal of Applied Management and Technology

Software application deployment change management is one of the emerging research themes that is gaining increased focus day by day. Our study examined the factors that affect software application deployment change management in Agile software development settings. Our study provided a systematic review and synthesized the approaches, practices, and challenges reported for adopting and implementing deployment change management. The prime objective of our study was to systematically synthesize the data extracted and formulate evidence-based practical recommendations that are influential in software deployment change management. Six research themes are proposed to evaluate the rationale of the research question. This qualitative study …

Emerging Market Firms’ Response To U.S. Economic Recession And The Subsequent Period’S Performance, Tewhan Hahn, Ravi Chinta

International Journal of Applied Management and Technology

We investigated the changes in behaviors of firms in emerging markets in response to the U.S. economic recession and the impact of those changes in strategic behaviors on subsequent periods’ operating performances. Specifically, we adopted an event-study methodology, using a sample of emerging market firms, to investigate the nature of the effects of the U.S. economic recession on firms in emerging markets. Based on 5,887 firms in nine emerging countries, our results show that firms in emerging markets exhibit changes in strategy variables, and those changes have a significant effect on the subsequent periods’ operating performance. In addition, we found …

The Linkages Between Commitment To Sustainability, Organizational Culture, Quality Management, And Organizational Performance, Lillian Y. Fok, Yun-Chen Morgan, Susan Zee

International Journal of Applied Management and Technology

The growing economic pressures, rising awareness of the importance of environmental protection, and stringent global regulations are leading to more integration of sustainability initiatives into corporate strategies across multiple industries. These sustainability initiatives can alter organization cultures and affect employee perceptions and organizational outcomes. In this study, 331 respondents from a wide variety of industries in the South were surveyed. Results showed that companies’ overall green/sustainability orientation is related to organizational culture, quality management maturity, and companies’ performance. The findings implied that it is imperative to develop an organizational culture that is supportive of quality and sustainability to ensure the …

Innovative Strategies To Grow Sales Of Women-Owned Smes In Emerging Countries, Adeola O. Ogunyemi, Gene E. Fusch

Journal of Sustainable Social Impact

This paper is a discussion of a 2020 multiple case study research involving five female owners of retail small and medium enterprise (SME) companies in Lagos State, Nigeria. Multiple data collection methods employed included semistructured interviews, direct observations, review of company documents, and keeping a reflective journal. We established reliability, validity, and data saturation through triangulation. One major finding was that by deploying innovative ideas, business owners were able to overcome challenges and grow sales. The implications for positive social change include the potential to provide both existing and emerging women owned SMEs with the strategies to increase patronage to …

Mediating Role Of Perceived Value On The Relationship Among Perceived Risks, Perceived Quality, And Purchase Intention Of Private Label Brands, Meenu Mathur, Sanjeevni Gangwani

International Journal of Applied Management and Technology

In the current competitive retail market, retailers constantly strive to deliver products to consumers at a better value. Consumers are becoming more price sensitive but still seeking quality products. A retailer can establish value with a brand. Consequently, retailers are introducing their own private label brands (PLBs), which also differentiate their products from competitors. The role of perceived value in the purchase behavior of PLBs and its relationship with quality and various risk dimensions has received scant consideration in the retailing literature. Our study suggests perceived value is a mediating part in associations amid perceived quality, perceived risks, and purchase …

The Evident Need For Banking Reform In The Legal Marijuana Industry, Jonathan T. James, Steven C. Tippins

Journal of Sustainable Social Impact

Marijuana reform legislation has created a lucrative industry for legal marijuana on the local and state level in some jurisdictions. Federal laws have forced legal marijuana dispensaries to be cash-only businesses with limited banking options. The lack of normal banking services has also affected firms’ ability to manage profits earned from operations. Our hermeneutic phenomenological study was grounded by the conceptual framework of the motivations of humans and humans’ need to feel safe. The participants in this study were owners and operators in the legal marijuana industry in Colorado. Data were collected through interviews, although the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic of …

Strategies To Improve Financial Profitability In The Banking Industry, Khalid Said, Yvonne Doll

International Journal of Applied Management and Technology

More than 50% of business failures in the United States are because of leaders’ inability to manage working capital. This qualitative, multiple case study is grounded in the cash conversion cycle theory. The purpose is to explore the strategies bank leaders have used to improve working capital management in three banks in Kentucky to increase bank profitability and improve financial stability. Data were collected using semistructured interviews with three different banking leaders who have implemented successful working capital strategies. Using methodological triangulation and Yin’s five-step data analysis resulted: (a) risk and liquidity, (b) top-down approach, and (c) investment approach. The …

How Does A Responsible Leader Win In A Competitive World?, Patricia Macneil, Rocky J. Dwyer, Maggie Matear

International Journal of Applied Management and Technology

Competitiveness demonstrates a firm’s effectiveness in achieving an advantage over others. A leader’s competitiveness can facilitate higher profits and growth. It can also lead to unethical and irresponsible corporate dealings. This paper suggests competitiveness can be responsible.

Responsible Leadership defines two main responsible leaders (RL), integrative and instrumental. Integrators are linked to social responsibility and multiple stakeholders, while Instrumentalists are associated with competitive advantage and shareholders. Missing from extant research frameworks is how the two RLs experience competitiveness.

We examined the lived experience of a group of Top 100 Leaders in Canada, finding that both RLs practiced responsible competitiveness. A …

Content Analysis Of Hospital Reviews From Differing Sources: Does Review Source Matter?, Sayeedul Islam, Sara Mir, Caroline Defina, Carolina Silva

Journal of Excellence in Nursing and Healthcare Practice

Social media has had an impact on how patients find and evaluate medical professionals and their experiences of modern healthcare. Qualitative research in healthcare has increased its focus on social media. The present study examined 497 reviews of hospitals in the Pittsburgh area across three websites: Google, Yelp, and Healthgrades. Using computerized content analysis tools (CATA), we analyzed positive and negative comments to identify key themes. Key themes and words included “doctor,” “hospital,” “staff,” and “time.” These findings highlight the importance of medical staff to patient experience. Results indicated that Yelp had the lowest average rating. CATA also revealed that …

Returning To Solvency Through Quality Improvement, Matthew Faciane, Susan K. Fan, Rocky J. Dwyer

International Journal of Applied Management and Technology

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore quality improvement strategies senior manufacturing production managers use to reduce Cost of Poor Quality (COPQ) to increase profit. The participants for this study were production managers within a manufacturing company located in the southeastern region of the United States who successfully developed and implemented strategies to lower COPQ to increase profitability. Six major themes emerged from the study: continuous improvement, quality assurance, employees as agents of quality improvement, communication between stakeholders, holding all firm members accountable for quality, and training. Manufacturing managers can use these strategies to lower COPQ and …

Understanding Successful Strategies Human Service First-Level Managers Utilize When Addressing Workplace Incivility, Mary Elizabeth Barlow

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The social problem of workplace incivility is a well-researched issue that impacts employees, work groups, and organizations across the nation. The purpose of this study was to understand how first-level human service managers describe employee turnover in relation to workplace incivility and what first-level human service managers view as successful strategies they have used to address workplace incivility. The theoretical framework utilized for this study was incivility spiral theory, as described by Andersson and Pearson. The purpose of this generic qualitative study was to gain an understanding of successful strategies that first-level human service managers utilize when addressing workplace incivility …

Effective Decision-Making Strategies That Support Long-Term Sustainability In Nondenominational Churches, Andre Paul Davis Jr.

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Ineffective financial decision-making has frequently led to nondenominational church failures and contributes to 4,000 to 8,000 churches closing each year in North America. Grounded in stewardship theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore effective financial decision-making strategies in nondenominational churches that support long term sustainability. Participants were 10 church leaders who successfully used financial decision-making strategies to support long-term sustainability in Central North Carolina was used for this study. Data were collected from semi structured interviews and internal church documents relating to church leadership's financial decision-making and analyzed using thematic analysis. Four themes emerged: budgeting …

Empowerment, Personality, And Leader-Member Exchange Quality In Physicians, Tony S. Reed

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Nearly 100,000 people suffer injury or death each year due to errors in the United States healthcare system. Researchers have identified that empowerment by physicians can address this significant social issue. Despite this knowledge, qualifications to empowering behaviors in physicians have not been identified. A quantitative nonexperimental correlation approach was used to determine the role that personality type and high-quality leader-member exchange may play in the physician’s ability to create empowerment at academic medical centers in the United States. The theoretical framework of empowering leadership, Jung’s psychological types, and leader-member exchange quality informed the research design and contributed to the …

Leadership Strategies For Implementing Organizational Change, Aljanal Hamer Carroll

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Change initiatives within the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) industry fail because business leaders are not successful in implementing change readiness strategies. Grounded in transformational leadership theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore the strategies that some leaders in HVAC companies use to implement change initiatives successfully. The participants consisted of 4 business leaders from 4 HVAC companies who successfully implemented change initiatives within their organization. The 4 businesses have fewer than 100 employees located in Charlotte, North Carolina. Data collection procedures included semistructured interviews and a collection of organizational documents. Validating the study …

Key Strategies For Small Business Information Technology Consulting With Sustainability Beyond 5 Years, Christopher Lassiter

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractSmall business information technology consulting owners lack strategies to sustain their businesses beyond 5 years financially. Small business owners are concerned with sustaining their businesses, as their livelihood and employees are at stake. Grounded in Porter’s five forces theory, the resource-based view model, and Hax and Wilde’s delta model, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore strategies small business information technology (IT) consulting owners used to achieve financial sustainability beyond 5 years. Data were collected by semistructured interviews from 5 small business information technology consulting owners. Performance and financial success documents augmented the data collection of …

Small And Medium Enterprises Strategies For Winning Mining Contracts For Profitability And Sustainability, Patrick Sipopa Akayombokwa

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Zambia experience annual failure rates of 20%. SME survival is essential for improving national economic development and social benefits. Grounded in a resource-based view and Freeman’s stakeholder theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore strategies supply and contracting SME owners used to avoid failure. Data were collected through semistructured interviews from four successful SME owners in Zambia and a review of company documents. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Three themes emerged: competitive quality products, interactive marketing and financial strategies, and resource acquisition and effective utilization. The key recommendations …

The Effect Of Victim’S Responses To Coercive Sexual Harassment On Bystander Intentions And Moral Perceptions, Inna M. Learn

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Female graduate students are targets of coercive sexual harassment (SH) three times more than female undergraduates; 67.8% of their harassers were university faculty. While SH victims expected peer support, peers often socially rejected female victims of coercive SH. Gray and Wegner’s theory of dyadic morality and Bowes-Sperry and O’Leary-Kelly’s bystander response model guided this quantitative study to examine the effect of victim response on helping intentions by peers. After reading the same vignette that described coercive SH, 207 student participants read one of four randomly assigned victim’s responses: victim did nothing, directly confronted the professor during the incident, sought peer …