Business Commons^™

When Money Moves In: The Consequences Of Housing Wealth, Darren Aiello, Jason Kotter, Gregor Schubert

Faculty Publications

We construct a novel dataset of millions of household moves over 25 years to examine how housing wealth affects purchase decisions. We find that a $1 exogenous increase in housing equity leads movers to pay a $0.06 premium on their next home, controlling for property characteristics and time-varying local prices. This behavior is driven by search frictions— wealthier households pay a premium rather than incur additional search costs. In aggregate, these decisions spill over to the broader housing market and cause upward regional price pressure. A 10% increase in equity gain among incoming movers increases local house price growth by …

How Negative Accounting News Events, Voluntary Esg Assurance, And Assurance Provider Influence Consumer Purchasing Intentions, Clark Hampton, Macy Knutson, Adi Masli, Chad Stefaniak

Faculty Publications

Consumers are increasingly conscientious of societal and environmental impacts of their purchases, prompting companies to make environmental, social, and governance (ESG) claims and engage in voluntary ESG assurance. However, prior literature lacks insight into whether consumers consider negative accounting news events (e.g., error/irregularity restatements) and their effects on purchasing intentions. Using real world consumers of sustainable goods, we investigate how varying levels of negative accounting news events (i.e., error or irregularity restatements), the presence of ESG product-quality assurance (e.g., cage free egg certification), and the type of assurance provider (e.g., an accounting firm that also audits the financial statements, an …

From Plate To Picture: The Role Of Gastronomic Offerings In Tourism Marketing, Patricia Picazo, Sergio Moreno-Gil, Robin B. Dipietro, Forest Ma

Faculty Publications

Gastronomic offerings are key components of travel and destinations. However, scant research has focused on how gastronomic offerings are projected to tourists. Using signaling theory as a framework, this study investigated the presence of gastronomic offerings in 25,231 promotional photos to assess how the pictures represented the food offerings at resorts in five countries. Data were gathered from the brochures published by two leading tour operators in the European market, “TUI” and “Thomas Cook.” The results of content analysis showed that gastronomic offerings were often secondary to cultural and natural assets in brochures. In addition, the number of photos with …

Esg Performance Evolution In Retail: A Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis, Jiyeon Kim Ph.D., Wooyoung Yang

Faculty Publications

Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices have transformed from peripheral corporate social responsibility initiatives into core strategic imperatives in retail. Despite growing interest, the literature remains fragmented across disciplines and geographic contexts, with no comprehensive sector-specific analysis examining the evolution of ESG performance in retail contexts. Following the PRISMA 2020 guidelines, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of 127 empirical studies published between 1988 and 2024 across major databases. Random-effects models assessed ESG-performance relationships, while stakeholder theory, the resource-based view, and Consumer Behavior frameworks explained the underlying mechanisms through temporal and subsectoral analysis. ESG practices demonstrate significant positive correlations …

Environmental, Social, And Governance (Esg) Research: A Systematic Review Of Recent Trends (2020–2024), Jiyeon Kim Ph.D., Wooyoung Yang

Faculty Publications

The 2020–2024 period marks a pivotal era in sustainable development, characterized by significant regulatory developments, including the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), the International Sustainability Standards Board standards, and the introduction of mandatory ESG reporting requirements worldwide. This review examines how recent policy changes have reshaped the linkages between ESG and sustainability. Following the PRISMA 2020 guidelines, we conducted a systematic review examining empirical studies of ESG–sustainability performance relationships published between 2020 and 2024. Studies examined the quantitative relationships between ESG sustainability performance and publicly traded corporations. Quality assessment employed the adapted Newcastle–Ottawa Scale with sustainability-specific criteria. From 2847 …

Who Gets Stitches? The Effects Of Rewarding Whistleblowers And Protecting Their Identity On Subsequent Willingness To Work With Others, Ryan D. Sommerfeldt

Faculty Publications

Companies are strongly encouraged to implement whistleblowing programs to help detect and deter misconduct in organizations, but whistleblowers often face ostracism as their coworkers are less willing to work with them (the whistleblower effect). Rewarding the whistleblower and protecting the whistleblower’s identity are two highly recommended features of whistleblowing programs that aim to encourage reporting. Across two experiments, I examine the spillover effects of these whistleblowing program features on how willing employees are to work with their coworkers after reporting occurs. I find that providing a reward to the whistleblower exacerbates the whistleblower effect, leading employees to work even less …

Out Of The Vacuum: The Effect Of Tax Liability Changes On Compliance In The Presence Of Withholding Position And Group Affiliation, Chelsea Rae Austin, Donna Bobek Schmitt, Spenser G. Seifert

Faculty Publications

Prior research has established that tax liability increases lead to decreased compliance. However, tax liability changes do not happen in a vacuum. Notably, prior research has also identified a withholding phenomenon: individuals in a tax due position are less compliant than those in a refund position. Additionally, tax law changes are often enacted in politically polarized environments. We examine how three factors—tax liability changes, withholding position, and group affiliation—combine to influence individuals' tax compliance decisions. Our experimental results show that a tax increase is universally experienced as a loss, even when coupled with a tax refund and enacted by an …

Direct And Indirect Associations Of Childhood Adversities With Functional Impairment And Life Stress Among Military Personnel, Laura Campbell-Sills, Emily R. Edwards, Sam D. Strizver, Karmel W. Choi, Jason D. Kautz, Santiago Papini, James A. Naifeh, Pablo A. Aliaga, Paul B. Lester, Ronald C. Kessler, Robert J. Ursano, Murray B. Stein, Paul D. Biese

Faculty Publications

Background

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are associated with physical and mental health difficulties in adulthood. This study examines the associations of ACEs with functional impairment and life stress among military personnel, a population disproportionately affected by ACEs. We also evaluate the extent to which the associations of ACEs with functional outcomes are mediated through internalizing and externalizing disorders.

Methods

The sample included 4,666 STARRS Longitudinal Study (STARRS-LS) participants who provided information about ACEs upon enlistment in the US Army (2011–2012). Mental disorders were assessed in wave 1 (LS1; 2016–2018), and functional impairment and life stress were evaluated in wave 2 …

From Disruption To Integration: Cryptocurrency Prices, Financial Fluctuations, And Macroeconomy, Zhengyang Chen

Faculty Publications

This paper examines cryptocurrency shock transmission to financial markets and the macroeconomy using a Bayesian structural VAR with Pandemic Priors from 2015 to 2024. By affecting overall risk appetite, cryptocurrency price shocks generate positive financial market spillovers, accounting for 18% of equity and 27% of commodity price fluctuations. Real economic effects are significant in driving investment but remain limited, contributing only 4% to unemployment and 6% to industrial production variance. However, cryptocurrency shocks explain 18% of price-level forecast error variance at long horizons. Narrative analysis reveals sentiment and technology as primary shock drivers. These findings demonstrate cryptocurrency's deep financial system …

A Survey Of Retail Trade Patterns In South Dakota: 2015-2024, Rand E. Wergin

Faculty Publications

This paper provides an analysis of retail sales and retail trade in the state of South Dakota for the ten years 2015 to 2024. This paper provides a detailed analysis of the fifteen largest communities in the state, with further analysis of each community reporting retail sales to the state Department of Revenue.

This analysis will provide information to community leaders in the cities and towns of South Dakota. Retail pull is an economic indicator that provides a measure of community’s economic health and its ability to attract shoppers, both shoppers from its own community and from other communities. A …

Tiktok As A Learning Tool In Higher Education: Validation Of A Scale, Pablo Gálvez-Ruiz, Samuel López-Carril, Nicholas M. Wantanabe, Alejandro Lara-Bocanegra

Faculty Publications

In our increasingly digitalized society, social media have emerged prominently within the educational landscape, fostering the creation of online and blended teaching-learning environments. Among these platforms, TikTok, renowned for its short dynamic videos featuring effects and music, stands out. Despite its growing popularity among youth and initial explorations of its pedagogical use by university educators, the educational benefits of TikTok remain largely unexplored. This gap is partly due to the absence of validated research tools to assess its potential educational impact. This study addresses this gap by adapting and validating a new scale, “TikTok-SportEdu”, with a sample of 250 Spanish …

The Risk Of Marginal Inclusion In The Fortune 500: A Quasi-Replication Of Lewis & Carlos (2023), W. Chad Carlos, Yasir Dewan, Ben W. Lewis, Brian P. Reschke, S. Isaac St. Clair

Faculty Publications

Conventional wisdom suggests that being included in an exclusive ranking leads to positive external evaluations. However, Lewis and Carlos (2023) found that firms situated near the threshold for inclusion on the 100 Best Corporate Citizen ranking were devalued by investors. To assess the generalizability of this surprising finding, we quasi-replicate and extend this finding by applying the same regression discontinuity design to the Fortune 500 ranking. We find corroborating evidence: firms near the bottom of the Fortune 500 receive lower external evaluations, not only from investors but also from industry peers. Our findings therefore quasi-replicate and extend Lewis and Carlos’ …

Incorporating Media Coverage And The Impact Of Geopolitical Events For Stock Market Predictions With Machine Learning, Vinayaka Gude, Daniel Hsiao

Faculty Publications

This paper explores the impact of the Israel–Palestine conflict on the stock performance of U.S. companies and their public positions on the conflict. In an era where corporate positions on geopolitical issues are increasingly scrutinized, understanding the market implications of such statements is critical. This research aims to capture the complex, non-linear relationships between corporate actions, media coverage, and financial outcomes by integrating traditional statistical techniques with advanced machine learning models. To achieve this, we constructed a novel dataset combining public corporate announcements, media sentiment (including headline and article body tone), and philanthropic activities. Using both classification and regression models, …

A Brave New World Of Human Resources Research: Navigating Perils And Identifying Grand Challenges Of The Genai Revolution, Anthony Nyberg, Deidra J. Schleicher, Bradford S. Bell, Corine Boon, Peter Cappelli, David G. Collings, Joseph E. Dalle Molle, Stefan Feuerriegel, Berry Gerhart, Yoojin Jeong, M. Audrey Korsgaard, Dana Minbaeva, Robert E. Ployhart, Prasanna Tambe, Ingo Weller, Patrick M. Wright, Valery Yakubovich

Faculty Publications

This paper reviews the transformative role of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) in Human Resource (HR) management, from a practice perspective, highlighting both opportunities and challenges and laying out a use-inspired future research agenda. This scoping review is grounded in insights from a unique Summit held in Spring 2024, which brought together HR academic scholars with dozens of Fortune 500 Chief Human Resource Officers (CHROs) and their top technical leaders to discuss the workforce implications of GenAI. The paper identifies six key themes from the Summit practitioners: GenAI as disruptive and transformative, data as competitive advantage, adoption challenges, potential ethical abuses, …

Beyond Traditional Analytics: Ai's Transformative Role In Marketing Intelligence And Customer Experience Optimization, Anindita Sengupta, Prathima Shivakumar Pattada, Anasuya Sengupta

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Analyzing Stability Of Estimates At Completion For Long Duration Development Efforts, Bradley Vuu, Jonathan D. Ritschel, Brandon M. Lucas, Edward D. White

Faculty Publications

Defense program managers utilize Earned Value Management (EVM) methodologies to measure, report, and predict the cost and schedule performance of their programs. Previous research conducted by Christensen (1996) and Kim et al. (2019) has shown varied results in the stability of EVM Estimates at Completion (EACs). Stability is defined as a 10% or less deviation from the final EAC at a specified percent completion point of the program. The Christensen (1996) and Kim et al. (2019) studies also noted that program-specific factors, such as phase, can impact the accuracy of EVM metrics. This study builds upon those works by assessing …

Distribution Comparisons Of Eac Cost Growth For Aircraft Work Breakdown Structure Elements, Kyle P. Marquis, Edward D. White, Brandon M. Lucas, Robert D. Fass, Jonathan D. Ritschel, Shawn M. Valentine

Faculty Publications

This article analyzes and investigates the distribution of cost growth of the Estimate at Completion (EAC) for the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) elements of approximately 60 historical United States Acquisition Category I Research, Development, Test and Evaluation aircraft programs. Using the method of maximum likelihood in conjunction with the Akaike Information Criterion, the authors suggest that both the lognormal and Weibull distributions provide relatively good fit to EAC cost growth, with the lognormal slightly edging out the Weibull. As a summarized finding, the authors present their empirical results for the mean, coefficient of variation (CV), the 15th and 85th percentiles …

Materiality In The Csr-Investor Reaction Relationship: A Replication And Extension Of Flammer (2013), Steven D. Kofford, Myles Melancon, Ben W. Lewis

Faculty Publications

We replicate and extend Flammer’s (2013) event study of investor reaction to environmental corporate social responsibility (CSR). Flammer found that investors reacted positively to eco-friendly events and negatively to eco-harmful events from 1980-2009 and that reaction to positive events decreased while reaction to negative events increased over time. We find similar results for Flamer’s original sample and an expanded sample including the same type of firms (U.S.-listed public firms) from 1980-2019. We then extend Flammer’s results by examining how materiality affects investor reaction over time. We find that investors only react to material events and that positive reaction to material …

Gotta Take My Avatar Shopping: Impacts Of Interactive Virtual Shopping In Esport, Yongjin Hwang, Keshav Gupta

Faculty Publications

Purpose

Esports game developers are incorporating interactive virtual shopping (IVS) experiences into their products to facilitate consumer–brand interactions. Despite the potential influence of IVS, existing research lacks an understanding of its impact on consumers’ overall affect– particularly game enjoyment, a critical factor in sustaining engagement with esports products – and on attitudinal change toward brands in the real world.

Design/methodology/approach

An experiment was designed to examine the impact of shopping in the virtually interactive esports marketplace on game enjoyment. Mediating effects of positive change in brand attitude, perceived realism and character attachment and the moderating effect of self-avatar gender congruity …

Reimagining Compliance: Explainable Ai Models For Financial Regulatory Audits, Hrishikesh Desai

Faculty Publications

This chapter develops an analytical model for Explainable AI (XAI) designed to support major types of banking regulatory compliance audits. Financial institutions increasingly rely on AI for efficiency in compliance tasks, but the opacity of complex models creates challenges in meeting regulatory transparency requirements. The proposed mathematical framework incorporates explainability as a quantifiable constraint in the optimization of AI models across five critical audit categories: CAMELS examinations, BSA/AML compliance, Consumer Compliance, IT Audits, and Internal Audits. By quantifying explainability through information- theoretic measures and Shapley values, the model balances predictive performance with regulatory requirements. The methodology is validated through a …

Indirect Earnings Management, Scott B. Jackson, Jason T. Rasso, Aaron F. Zimbleman

Faculty Publications

We hypothesize that managers use their hierarchical role as reviewers of accounting judgments and estimates to manage earnings, which we call indirect earnings management (IEM). Across a series of experiments using highly experienced financial executives as participants, we provide evidence that IEM (1) is likely used by managers to achieve current and future earnings targets, (2) reduces both cognitive dissonance associated with managing earnings and the extent to which managers think that their behaviors constitute earnings management, and (3) is more likely to be used when corporate governance is strong than when corporate governance is weak. The results of this …

Intensive Longitudinal Models, Robert E. Ployhart, Paul D. Bliese, Sam D. Strizver

Faculty Publications

Intensive longitudinal models (ILMs) allow researchers to analyze nested data collected through frequent measurements—typically 20 or more repeated occasions—over densely spaced durations. Rather than being a single statistical approach, ILMs encompass various models unified by their capability to handle densely collected longitudinal data. We briefly summarize the nature of intensive longitudinal designs and why such designs require the use of ILMs. We then provide a classification typology to help readers understand the features of an ILM they should adopt. This classification typology provides the structure for a narrative review of existing ILM research. We conclude with specific recommendations for using …

The Development Of A Rag-Based Artificial Intelligence Research Assistant (Aira), Hamid Vakilzadeh, David A. Wood

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Information Content Of Private Information Acquisition: Evidence From Foia Requests To The Sec, Dichu Bao, Janja Brendel, Michael S. Drake, Lixin (Nancy) Su

Faculty Publications

We analyze Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), focusing on the value-relevance hypothesis and the directtrading hypothesis. Our empirical analysis reveals nuanced value relevance associated with different types of requests: Requests related to ongoing investigations and submitted by anonymous requesters are negatively correlated with future returns, while requests from investment firms and intellectual property firms predict positive future returns. Our findings also provide some support to the direct-trading hypothesis, showing that investment firms increase holdings of stocks for which they have filed FOIA requests, and short sellers exhibit heightened activity following requests …

Signaling Innovation: The Nontax Benefits Of Claiming R&D Tax Credits, Bradford F. Hepfer, Hannah W. Judd, Sarah C. Rice

Faculty Publications

Using the IPO setting, we test whether firms signal the quality of their investments in innovation activities by claiming R&D tax credits. We find the presence and amount of the R&D credit are each associated with lower information asymmetry and with higher investor demand at IPO. Conservatively, we estimate that sample firms realize additional IPO proceeds of 32–45 percent of their creditable R&D expenditures, indicating economically significant non-tax benefits associated with the R&D credit. We verify the R&D credit signal by showing its positive association with firms’ future patenting activity, patent citations, and post-IPO stock returns. Results from these tests …

The Space Rescue Professional: Operationalizing Guardians For The Future, Benjamin Johnis, Robert Bettinger, James Dean

Faculty Publications

The escalating competition in space exploration demands a dedicated space rescue capability. This article argues for the establishment of a space rescue professional (SRP) career field within the Department of Defense and the US Space Force. By harnessing existing US Air Force combat rescue expertise and partnering with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Space Force can rapidly develop a robust SRP program with the warrant officer corps as its backbone. This article addresses a critical gap in national space policy to outline a cost-effective dual-service training pipeline and SRP operational roles. Such an investment safeguards astronauts, bolsters US …

The Marginal Value Of Public Pension Wealth: Evidence From Border House Prices, Darren Aiello, Asaf Bernstein, Mahyar Kargar, Ryan Lewis, Michael Schwert

Faculty Publications

We study how state pension windfalls affect property prices near state borders, where theory suggests real estate reflects the value of additional public resources. Windfalls, representing a source of state revenue about half the size of total taxes, provide economically significant and plausibly exogenous variation in fiscal conditions. We find that each dollar of pension asset returns increases border house prices by approximately two dollars, suggesting that governments allocate additional funds towards high-value projects or tax abatement rather than wasting incremental resources. Evidence of larger effects in financially constrained municipalities highlights how fiscal resources amplify welfare effects of economic shocks.

The Future Performance Implications Of Non-Gaap Motivated Investment, Minkwan Ahn, Theodore E. Christensen, Ryan G. Johnson, Melissa F. Lewis-Western

Faculty Publications

We investigate whether consistent non-GAAP reporting is associated with investment efficiency. Prior research finds a positive association between non-GAAP reporting and investment levels, concluding that it represents overinvestment. We corroborate this positive association, but additional tests are not consistent with the conclusion of inefficient overinvestment. Specifically, we explore the relation between investment and future cash flows as a proxy for the realization of investments in positive net present value projects. We find that the investments of firms that consistently report non-GAAP metrics are associated with similar or higher future cash flows than the investments of firms reporting only GAAP earnings, …

Price Transparency And Patient Engagement: Social Messaging Matters, Jace B. Garrett, Keaton C. Helquist, Steven D. Smith, William B. Tayler

Faculty Publications

OBJECTIVES: To examine the effects of price transparency and prosocial messaging on price-protected consumers’ health care choices as a potential cost-saving strategy to manage rising US health care expenditures.

STUDY DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. Participants were recruited to complete a basic questionnaire via Amazon’s Mechanical Turk program. Participants’ selections were subsequently collected and analyzed.

METHODS: Participants (N = 567) selected a sleep study provider from 5 options, with manipulations including financial responsibility, provision of price information, and a prosocial message encouraging high-value options.

RESULTS: Price transparency increased the selection of lower-cost options among participants who were solely responsible for paying for …

The Signaling Value Of Input Information: Performance Effects Of Task Difficulty And Effort Sensitivity, Steven D. Smith, William B. Tayler, Tyler F. Thomas, Todd A. Thornock

Faculty Publications

We investigate how the reporting of input information to managers affects employee performance, and how the signaling value of inputs for impression management moderates this effect. We develop theory to predict that the information content of input information (incremental to output measures), and thus its potential for impression management, will depend separately on both the difficulty of the task and the sensitivity of performance to effort. Across three experiments, we predict and find the reporting of input information significantly increases employee effort and performance in difficult relative to easy tasks and in low relative to high effort sensitivity tasks. Our …