Business Commons^™

Revisiting The Purpose Of Business, Joseph Bamber, Andy Borchers

Faculty Publications

While it is easy to see the ways that business has gone global today, it is less easy to see how scriptural ideas for holistic business are currently put in practice. We have outlined themes related to business found in Scripture and used them to create a holistic scorecard for businesses. We also compare recent views on the purpose of business and some businesses that follow these models using the scorecard. We include the classic 1970 essay by Milton Friedman (“The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase Its Profits”) and continue through John Elkington (Cannibals with Forks), Mackey & …

Fraud In Small Businesses: A Preliminary Study, Esther Bunn, Jack Ethridge, Kaili Crow

Faculty Publications

This study investigates the attitudes small business owners and managers have towards fraud and internal controls. Commonly small businesses consist of long-term friends and relatives and tend to embody a culture of family, love, and trust. Four factors were identified that lend themselves to a lack of internal controls and a breeding ground for fraud. A survey was distributed to small business owners and management. The responses were analyzed and compared to the data in the 2016 American Certified Fraud Examiners Report to the Nations. Of the four expectations studied, only the anticipated results of Expectation 1 were confirmed.

Incivility In The Workplace: The Experiences Of Female Sport Management Faculty In Higher Education, Elizabeth A. Taylor, Robin Hardin, Natalie Welch, Allison B. Smith

Faculty Publications

Access to higher education for women has dramatically increased in the United States during the past 50 years. Female college graduates have reversed the figures and gone from being outnumbered by their male counterparts 3 to 2 in the 1970s, to now outnumbering male college graduates 3 to 2. Women also graduate from masters and doctoral programs at a higher rate than men.

However, increases in the number of women obtaining college and advanced degrees has not translated to comparable representation in faculty positions or leadership roles in higher education. This lack of women in leadership positions, as well as …

Special Business Entity Reporting: One Plugged Hole Is Better Than None, Mary Fischer, Treba Marsh

Faculty Publications

This discussion includes an overview of special business entities and their status and outlines legitimate uses. It also illustrates what can and has happened, when individuals who lack integrity direct special business entities. Problems are identified that can arise when special business entities are not used as they were intended, namely, inaccurate financial reporting. The company in the illustration walked the line between legal and illegal, but was past the line of what was morally right, and in the shareholder’s best interest. The discussion concludes with an accounting solution for the special business entity problems.

Consumer Brand Relationships Research: A Bibliometric Citation Meta-Analysis, Marc Fetscherin, Daniel Heinrich

Faculty Publications

This study examines how scholarly research on consumer brand relationships has evolved over the last decades by conducting a bibliometric citation meta-analysis. The bibliography was compiled using the ISI Web of Science database. The literature review includes 392 papers by 685 authors in 101 journals. The area of consumer brand relationships research is notably interdisciplinary, with articles mainly published in journals for business and management, but also applied psychology and communication. We show the impact of universities, authors, journals, and key articles and outline possible future research avenues. The study explores seven sub-research streams and visualizes how articles on consumer …

How Are Brand Names Of Chinese Companies Perceived By Americans?, Marc Fetscherin, Adamantios Diamantopoilos, Allan K.K. Chan, Rachael Abbott

Faculty Publications

Purpose – The purpose of this paper was to conduct an experimental design of Americans’ preferences for the English version of Chinese brand names by drawing from prior research in psychology, linguistics and marketing. The impact of string length and semantic relevance to English on meaningfulness, memorability and likeability of brand names from Chinese companies was assessed. Design/methodology/approach – A 2 × 2 experimental design was used, whereby brand names are categorized by string length (short vs long) and semantic relevance to English (with vs without). Respondents’ perception of the Chinese language in terms of pronounceability, language familiarity and language …

The Ceo Branding Mix, Marc Fetscherin

Faculty Publications

What do Donald Trump, Mark Zuckerberg, Oprah Winfrey, Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos have in common? They are not only CEOs and living icons of the brands they created but also brands themselves. There are many reasons why CEOs today get more attention than in the past. When the media are looking for a business story they often turn to CEOs or founders. Some companies are larger than countries in terms of number of citizens or employees or in revenue. For example, Walmart has about 2.2 million employees, comparable to the population of Qatar, Namibia, or Slovenia, and its revenues …

The Effect Of Product Category On Consumer Brand Relationships, Marc Fetscherin, Michèle Boulanger, Gustavo Q. Souki, Cid Goncalves Filho

Faculty Publications

Purpose - This paper aims to investigate the effect of product category on consumer brand relationships. Design/methodology/approach - Based on a total of 800 consumers, respondents evaluated their relationship with their favorite brand in one of the four product categories studied (soft drink, mobile phone, shoes, cars). EFA, subsequent CFA, SEM and ANOVA were used to assess these relationships and the product category effect. Findings - The authors find that brand love positively influences brand loyalty and both, influence positively WOM and purchase intention. Looking at the directionality of these relationships, the results show no product category differences. However, the …

What Type Of Relationship Do We Have With Loved Brands?, Marc Fetscherin

Faculty Publications

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide a discussion, testing and comparing two different relationship theories and their underlying scales as applied to brand love. Current brand love studies neglect a detailed discussion and analysis of the appropriate relationship theory and underlying measurement scale to be used. Design/methodology/approach – We use a 2 × 2 experimental design where we compare two relationship theories (interpersonal versus parasocial) across two samples (USA and Japan). Model testing were conducted using exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and multi-group structural equation modeling techniques assessing the type of relationship consumers have with …

The Impact Of Corruption On Firm Tax Compliance In Transition Economies: Whom Do You Trust?, Anna Alon, Amy M. Hageman

Faculty Publications

Tax compliance is an important issue for governments and the public alike. To meet public needs and fund public mandates, firms around the world are expected to comply with tax laws. Factors that are related to organizational (firm) tax compliance have not been sufficiently examined in the literature. Due to the increasing global influence of transition economies, factors associated with firm tax compliance in transition economies are particularly of interest. Based on a sample of over 5,000 firms from 22 former Soviet Bloc transition economies, we find that higher levels of corruption and higher levels of particularized trust (reliance on …

The Globalization Of Chinese Enterprises, Christoph Lattemann, Ilan Alon, Marc Fetscherin, John Mcintyre, Julian Chang

Faculty Publications

The question of how and why Chinese firms globalize is one of the most pressing issues for businesses today. China's globalization process is nothing less than remarkable. The twenty-first century will feature a developing country as the leader of the global economy by 2020, when, by most estimates, China's purchasing power parity (PPP) gross domestic product (GDP) surpasses America's. With China's new role on the world's stage, global economic and political institutions are likely to change. China's foray into Latin America, for example, has changed the traditional role that America has played in its “backyard.” While the Chinese government was …

The Role And Importance Of The Chinese Government For Chinese Outward Foreign Direct Investments, Marc Fetscherin, Philippe Gugler

Faculty Publications

Chinese outward direct investments show a strong positive trend over recent years and have attracted considerable attention from academia and the business press. Many observers and commentators express interest in the role the Chinese government plays in the activities and decision-making of Chinese multinational enterprises (MNEs) in connection with their foreign direct investments (FDI). This article makes a contribution by investigating the relationship between the Chinese government and MNEs in connection with their outward foreign direct investment (OFDI). We present a 2x2 matrix where one dimension includes the interest (high/low) of the Chinese government and the other the interest of …

More Than Fun And Games: Reconsidering The Virtues Of Strategic Management Simulations, Ken E. Zantow, Dave S. Knowlton, David C. Sharp

Faculty Publications

We look at the relationship between business simulations and the educational theory of generative learning using the framework developed by Wittrock (1974, 1990, 1992). Our findings reveal opportunities for generative learning that occur at all phases of the simulation process. Awareness of these opportunities prepares faculty to get the most from the strategic decision-making simulations. and may assist them in defining the contribution associated with their use. We suggest areas for additional research.

The Unique Benefits Of Treating Personal Goodwill As Property In Corporate Acquisitions, Darian M. Ibrahim

Faculty Publications

Corporate acquisition talks may not get far if buyer and seller disagree over transaction structure, which can have significant after-tax effects. But the parties may have overlooked an item that, due to its potential tax treatment, could be the key to facilitating the acquisition. That item is the selling shareholder's "personal goodwill."

Personal goodwill exists when the shareholder's reputation, expertise, or contacts gives the corporation its intrinsic value. It is most likely to be found in closely held businesses, especially those that are technical, specialized, orprofessional in nature or have few customers and suppliers. If personal goodwill is treated as …

The Flexible Firm: Capability Management In Network Organizations, C. Annique Un

Faculty Publications

The article reviews the book "The Flexible Firm: Capability Management in Network Organizations," edited by Julian Birkinshaw and Peter Hagström.

Aggregate Vote Functions For The Us. Presidency, Senate, And House, Henry W. Chappell, Motoshi Suzuki

Faculty Publications

Estimates vote functions for presidential, House and Senate elections following the premise that vote functions are likely to be related. Use of a seemingly unrelated regressions technique adapted to the case of unequal numbers of observations across equations; On-year versus mid-term congressional elections parameters; Influence of economic variables on election outcomes; Incumbency effects.