Business Commons^™

Transportation Managers’ Perceptions Of The Diffusion Of Innovation Within Logistics Clusters, Stephen Mcdonald Puryear

Dissertations

The human capital capacity for innovation is crucial for business success. Cluster theory posits that this capacity for innovation is enhanced by industrial clustering geographic proximity. The innovative capacity is expected to be facilitated by institutions for collaboration, informal knowledge flow, short feedback loops, and collective action regimes. Research on logistics clustering has supported this supposition. Still, no research has explicitly examined whether being physically located in a logistics cluster enhances a company’s human capital capacity for innovation.

This study uses the Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) approach to determine the innovative operational processes involved in the diffusion of innovation within …

An Empirical Analysis Of Factors Affecting Autonomous Truck Adoption, Christopher Mondy

Dissertations

Autonomous vehicles have the potential to revolutionize the transportation industry. The segment of truck transportation is no exception. Autonomous vehicles have the potential to improve trucking safety, to increase shipping velocity, and to decrease costs. Additionally, autonomous trucks could be an important tool to help alleviate the ongoing driver shortage that the trucking industry is contending with.

Autonomous truck adoption is not guaranteed. Transportation equipment decisions are market-based, and autonomous trucks must present a compelling business case to transportation professionals. As such, it is imperative to understand the decision-making factors that drive transportation solution adoption, and how autonomous trucks could …

A Multi-Skilled Approach To Property Maintenance Considering Temporal, Spatial And Resource Constraints, Anthony G. Vatterott

Dissertations

With the continued increase in age of the United States housing and building stock, as well as the continued need to maintain properties across the U.S., the need for timely, cost-optimal maintenance is ever more critical. This paper proposes the application of a mathematical model to aid in the scheduling and assignment of construction and maintenance tasks, considering the multi-skilled workforce. The benefit of this approach is to take advantage of the economies of scale that can be developed using cross-functional skilled workers with varying levels of competence and efficiency. This approach schedules and assigns tasks using data from maintenance …