Business Commons^™

Changing The Business Narrative: A Guide To Successful Experience Offerings, J. Robert Rossman, Mat D. Duerden

Faculty Publications

Purpose

Design/methodology/approach

Experience Design In Leisure And Recreation Curriculum, Madie Neeley, Sydney Burgess, Mat D. Duerden, Neil Lundberg

Faculty Publications

Experience design is a term that has risen to the forefront in a variety of professional fields and has relevance for the field of park and recreation. Park and recreation professionals are primarily focused on providing experiences and thus could naturally consider themselves experienced designers. Surprisingly, experience design is not a topic often discussed within park and recreation publications or curriculum. This absence is at least in part attributable to the fact that experience design is an emerging field that has grown independently out of multiple disciplines. Consequently, the fields of park and recreation and experience design overlap in a …

Environmental Corporate Social Responsibility And Pro-Environmental Behavior: The Effect Of Green Shared Vision And Personal Ties, Badar Latif, Nuwan Gunarathne, James Gaskin, Tze San Ong, Mohsin Ali

Faculty Publications

Environmental corporate social responsibility (ECSR) has recently gained traction among academics, practitioners, and policymakers as a critical driver of sustainable development. However, the impact of ECSR on actual pro-environmental behavior remains unclear in the literature, particularly in the context of developing countries. Grounded in the social exchange and social network theories, this study examines the effect of ECSR on proenvironmental behavior via the mediation of a green shared vision and the moderation of two types of personal ties (business ties and political ties). Data was collected and analyzed from 375 manufacturing sector employees in Pakistan at two time periods. The …

What Makes Health Data Privacy Calculus Unique? Separating Probability From Impact, Mark Keith, Autumn Clark, Tamara Masters, Curtis Wigington

Faculty Publications

Patient health data is heavily regulated and sensitive. Patients will sometimes falsify data to avoid embarrassment resulting in misdiagnoses and even death. Existing research to explain this phenomenon is scarce with little more than attitudes and intents modeled. Similarly, health data disclosure research has only applied existing theories with additional constructs for the healthcare context. We argue that health data has a fundamentally different cost/benefit calculus than the non-health contexts of traditional privacy research. By separating the probability of disclosure risks and benefits from the impact of that disclosure, it is easier to understand and interpret health data disclosure. In …

Determinants Of Capital Structure: An Expanded Assessment, Toshinori Fukui, Todd Mitton, Robert Schonlau

Faculty Publications

Using a standardized methodology, we empirically evaluate 55 proposed determinants of capital structure in terms of statistical significance, economic significance, and identification. We find that robust and economically important determinants of debt ratios are relatively few in number. Nevertheless, because each determinant relates to one of five market imperfections—taxes, distress costs, information asymmetry, agency costs, or supply frictions—we draw conclusions from the evidence as a whole regarding the explanatory power of different capital structure theories. We find greater support for pecking order theory and supply-related theories, with less support for traditional tradeoff theory and agency theory.

Embracing Brain And Behaviour: Designing Programs Of Complementary Neurophysiological And Behavioural Studies, C. Brock Kirwan, Anthony Vance, Jeffrey L. Jenkins, Bonnie Brinton Anderson

Faculty Publications

NeuroIS—the methods and knowledge of neuroscience applied to the information systems (IS) domain—has become an established research field within the IS discipline. A key advantage of NeuroIS is its ability to provide insights into human cognition beyond those obtained using behavioural techniques alone. Nevertheless, in neuroscience, there is renewed interest in examining behaviour together with neurophysiological methods to better inform our understanding of neural processes. In this research opinion article, we argue that in the field of NeuroIS, there is an opportunity for hybrid programs of study that combine neurophysiological and behavioural methods in a complementary manner. We outline four …

Developing The Experience Impact Scale: A Qualitative Study Using A Study Abroad And International Internship Program, Neil Lundberg, Peter Ward, Grant Lundberg, Brian Hill, Jennifer Brown, Ramon Zabriskie, Mat Duerden, Heather Ashby

Faculty Publications

Recent work has identified different experience types, including experience classifications of ordinary, memorable, meaningful, and transformative. This study further clarifies the experience typology through qualitative data analysis of each experience type. Data analysis identified that within each extraordinary experience type, additional subtypes were present. Experience types and subtypes were organized according to the experience typology continuum into a 10-item Experience Impact Scale (EIS), as no instrument to measure experience types or experience impact was available. An expert panel was used to determine the representativeness of the items in the EIS and to provide content-related evidence of validity. Discussion of the …

Digital Behavioral Biometrics And Privacy: Methods For Improving Business Processes Without Compromising Customer Privacy, Joseph S. Valacich, Jeffrey L. Jenkins, D. Čišić

Faculty Publications

To enable people to interact with online websites and systems, browsers capture a variety of events that occur on the page—such as how a person is moving the computer mouse, what a person clicks on, what a person types, and whether a person is scrolling. These events represent a user’s behavior on a page, referred to as the DOM or Document Object Model, and are recorded at a millisecond precision rate (e.g., the exact millisecond timestamp when a key goes down and when it comes back up). Research and practice alike have found that these behavioral events can provide powerful …

The Innovation And Reporting Consequences Of Financial Regulation For Young Life-Cycle Firms, Abigail Allen, Melissa F. Lewis-Western, Kristen Valentine

Faculty Publications

Firm life-cycle stage reflects a firm’s current strategic direction toward exploration independent of age or size. We provide evidence that young life-cycle firms are particularly vulnerable to negative innovation consequences from financial regulation but do not appear to experience any compensating financial reporting quality (FRQ) benefits. Using a generalized difference-indifferences design around Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX), we document a significant reduction in both research and development (R&D) spending and innovation outputs for young life-cycle stage firms after regulation. Declines in innovation manifest both from the diversion of scarce resources and from the imposition of an organizational culture mismatched …

Preparer Opposition And Strategic Implementation Of Governmental Accounting Standards: Evidence From Public Pension Accounting Reform, Abigail Allen, Reining C. Petacchi

Faculty Publications

Widely acknowledged as one of the most controversial standards in governmental accounting, GASB 67/68 radically altered both the recognition and measurement for defined benefit public pensions. The standards require the recognition of previously only disclosed unfunded pension liabilities and increase the magnitude of reported pension liabilities by requiring the partial incorporation of a market-based discount rate. While the recognition proposal was unaltered from its initial conception to the final standards, the discount rate proposal was significantly attenuated after the initial proposal met with unanimous preparer opposition. Accordingly, we examine what incentives drive preparer lobbying positions, whether such lobbying is aligned …

Do Auditors’ Incentives Affect Materiality Assessments Of Prior-Period Misstatements?*, Brant E. Christensen, Roy Schmardebeck, Timothy Seidel

Faculty Publications

We examine whether auditors' incentives affect materiality assessments of prior-period misstatements. Interviews with global network firm partners reveal consistency across firms in the process used to assess prior-period misstatements and highlight points in the process where judgments are most susceptible to auditors’ conscious or subconscious biases. In related empirical tests, we find that auditors assess misstatements as less material (i.e., misstatements are disclosed less prominently) when auditors face greater engagement risk (comprised of the risk of litigation and reputation loss) or have greater incentives to please important clients. These effects only occur when auditor incentives to avoid further litigation or …

Fairness And Luck: Contract Away Or Come What May?, H. Scott Asay, Jace Garrett, William B. Tayler

Faculty Publications

In practice, managers and employees often enter into risky, uncertain contracts. Prior works shows that managers use ex post discretion to reduce the effect of uncontrollable “bad luck” on employees’ performance-based compensation, but do not use ex post discretion to reduce the effect of uncontrollable “good luck,” due to fairness concerns. We investigate whether ex ante, objective compensation plans can help address the fairness concerns that lead to this asymmetric treatment of uncontrollable events. We provide evidence that compensation plans that account for uncontrollable factors can reduce differences between individuals’ fairness perceptions in good and bad luck settings. However, controlling …

The Effects Of A Second-Chance Exam Policy In A Large-Enrollment Introductory Accounting Course, Melissa Larson, William B. Tayler, Jared R. Stark

Faculty Publications

Using a quasi-experimental design, we compare two semesters of an introductory accounting course to evaluate the impact of a second-chance exam policy (SCEP) on student performance and anxiety, analyzing data from 1,986 students. The SCEP, allowing two additional attempts at exams capped at 80 percent credit, significantly improved academic outcomes and decreased perceived test anxiety. Specifically, students during the SCEP semester experienced an average increase of 4.46 percent in exam scores (p < 0.01), a 3.37 percent increase in course percentage points (p < 0.01), and a GPA increase of 0.21 (p < 0.01). Notably, women experienced greater improvements than men in measured academic outcomes. Our findings suggest that SCEPs can be an effective intervention to increase academic performance and reduce anxiety. We also examine an SCEP’s effect on preparation for exam first attempts and find that students perform better on a first attempt with an SCEP.

Updated Perceptions Of Accounting Academics On The Review And Publication Process, F. Greg Burton, William G. Heninger, Scott L. Summers, David A. Wood

Faculty Publications

We update the Wood (2016) survey that gathered perceptions of academics regarding the review and publication process at the top academic journals to measure changes in perceptions over the last five years. We find that accounting academics generally perceive the overall process has not improved at top journals or has become worse since 2015. More specifically, we find that respondents think acceptance rates in top journals should nearly double. Respondents believe that reviewers and editors underweight practice relevance. They also believe reviewers overweight the criteria of incremental contribution, method, and rigor. Respondents believe that their institutions focus too much on …

Accounting Academics Perceptions Of 12 Research Journals, F. Greg Burton, William G. Heninger, Scott L. Summers, David A. Wood

Faculty Publications

This paper reports perceptions of over 1,000 accounting faculty regarding 12 accounting journals (including the traditional Top 3/6), specifically in: (1) how open they are to diverse topic areas, (2) how open they are to diverse research methodologies, (3) how effectively they produce new and useful knowledge for academics, and (4) how effectively they produce new and useful knowledge for non-academic stakeholders. We find that the traditional Top 3/6 journals do not lead the academy along these four dimensions; in fact, some are viewed as the worst performers in these areas. Furthermore, we find that academics have a relatively poor …

Relevance Of Accounting Research (Roar): Ratings Of Abstracts By Accounting Professionals, F. Greg Burton, Scott L. Summers, T. Jeffrey Wilks, David A. Wood

Faculty Publications

The relevance of academic accounting research to practice has been frequently discussed in the accounting academy, yet very little data has been put forth in these discussions. We create relevance of accounting research (ROAR) scores by asking accounting professionals to read and evaluate the titles and abstracts of every article published in 12 leading accounting journals for the years 2016 to 2018, inclusive. These scores allow for an evidence-based evaluation and discussion of how academic accounting research is perceived by accounting professionals. The scores also allow us to identify the articles, authors, journals, and accounting topic areas that are perceived …

Perceptions Of Robotic Process Automation In Big 4 Public Accounting Firms: Do Firm Leaders And Lower-Level Employees Agree?, Lauren A. Cooper, D. Kip Holderness, Trevor L. Sorensen, David A. Wood

Faculty Publications

The use of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is a recent innovation in the public accounting industry, and the Big 4 firms are at the forefront of its implementation. This paper examines how the adoption and use of RPA is affecting the perceived work experience of firm leaders and lower-level employees at Big 4 accounting firms. We interview 14 RPA leaders, survey 139 lower-level employees, and compare and contrast their responses. We find that the two groups generally agree that RPA is having a positive influence on the profession. Both groups believe that RPA is positively changing the work employees perform …

The Influence Of Management’S Internal Audit Experience On Earnings Management, Matthew Ege, Timothy Seidel, Mikhail Sterin, David A. Wood

Faculty Publications

We examine whether firms with managers that have prior internal audit experience are less likely to manage earnings. This examination is important because the internal audit function is uniquely positioned to provide experiences that could influence future managerial behavior, including limiting the potential negative repercussions of earnings management. We find that firms with managers that have internal audit experience are associated with lower real earnings management but not accruals-based earnings management. Effects are strongest when managers with internal audit experience have greater power or currently hold financial roles, or when there are a greater number of managers with internal audit …

Evidence On Internal Audit Quality From Transitioning To Remote Audits Because Of Covid-19, Marc Eulerich, Martin Wagener, David A. Wood

Faculty Publications

As in-person audits were banned by governments and by company policies due to the COVID-19 pandemic, internal auditors had to transition to remote audits to perform their work. Based on survey responses of internal auditors who have conducted both remote and in-person audits, we find that internal auditors perceive no difference in the efficiency and effectiveness of and stakeholders’ reliance on results from remote and in-person audits when considering all responses. However, we also find that perceived efficiency and effectiveness increase the more experience internal auditors have with remote audits. Supplemental analyses show that support from the auditee, but not …

The Status Of Robotic Process Automation, Steven A. Harrast, David A. Wood

Faculty Publications

Modern information technology (IT) has greatly expanded the capability of companies to coordinate activities and process large numbers of transactions. Unfortunately, large companies often support thousands of individual applications, and the data necessary for financial reporting is scattered across these applications. As applications and data proliferate, companies must link together the applications and systems, often using spreadsheets and expending significant amounts of time in manual data entry and manipulation. This manual work is slow, expensive, and error prone and lacks useful business insights. Also, the employees who must perform these tasks are often overwhelmed and unsatisfied with the mundane work. …

Publication Benchmarking Data Based On Faculty Promoted At The Top 200 Worldwide Accounting Research Institutions, Jared S. Moon, Scott L. Summers, Nathan J. Waddoups, David A. Wood

Faculty Publications

The primary purpose of this paper is to update and extend past promotion benchmarking studies. We update prior benchmarking studies by providing publication benchmarking data for faculty promoted between 2013 and 2019, inclusive. We extend prior benchmarking studies by evaluating a larger number of institutions (the top 200 worldwide accounting institutions), using a more global journal list, and providing sensitivity analyses between journal lists. We group institutions based on rankings and report a possible minimum publication hurdle for each group in each journal category. In addition, we provide data on the mix, or percentage, of publications in each journal category …

Internal Auditors’ Role In Organizational Innovation: A Social Network Perspective, Margaret H. Christ, Anna Eulerich, Marc Eulerich, David A. Wood

Faculty Publications

Organizations use innovations to adapt, grow their business, and differentiate themselves from their competitors. However, innovations can introduce new risks to the organization that the internal audit function (IAF) should address. We interview and survey internal auditors about how they respond to innovations, such as the use of emerging technologies, adopted by their organizations. We find that social network theory provides a useful lens through which to interpret our interview results and to guide our survey development and analysis. In particular, we find that the embeddedness of the internal auditors with management, but not with the audit committee, is a …

Sortie-Based Aircraft Component Demand Rate To Predict Requirements, Thomas R. O'Neal, John M. Dickens, Lance Champaign, Aaron V. Glassburner, Jason R. Anderson, Timothy W. Breitbach

Faculty Publications

Purpose — Forecasting techniques improve supply chain resilience by ensuring that the correct parts are available when required. In addition, accurate forecasts conserve precious resources and money by avoiding new start contracts to produce unforeseen part requests, reducing labor intensive cannibalization actions and ensuring consistent transportation modality streams where changes incur cost. This study explores the effectiveness of the United States Air Force’s current flying hour-based demand forecast by comparing it with a sortie-based demand forecast to predict future spare part needs. Design/methodology/approach — This study employs a correlation analysis to show that demand for reparable parts on certain aircraft …

Developing A Resilient, Robust And Efficient Supply Network In Africa, Jade F. Preston, Bruce A. Cox, Paul P. Rebeiz, Timothy W. Breitbach

Faculty Publications

Purpose — Supply chains need to balance competing objectives; in addition to efficiency, supply chains need to be resilient to adversarial and environmental interference and robust to uncertainties in long-term demand. Significant research has been conducted designing efficient supply chains and recent research has focused on resilient supply chain design. However, the integration of resilient and robust supply chain design is less well studied. The purpose of the paper is to include resilience and robustness into supply chain design. Design/methodology/approach — The paper develops a method to include resilience and robustness into supply chain design. Using the region of West …

Beverage Bottle Capacity, Packaging Efficiency, And The Potential For Plastic Waste Reduction, Rafael Becerril-Arreola, R. E. Bucklin

Faculty Publications

Plastic pollution is a pressing issue because authorities struggle to contain and process the enormous amount of waste produced. We study the potential for reducing plastic waste by examining the efficiency with which different polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles deliver beverages. We find that 80% of the variation in bottle weight is explained by bottle capacity, 16% by product category, and 1% by brand. Bottle weight is quadratic and convex function of capacity, which implies that medium capacity bottles are most efficient at delivering consumable product. Local data on PET bottle sales and municipal waste recovery validate the findings. A 20% …

Economic Significance In Corporate Finance, Todd Mitton

Faculty Publications

Reporting the economic significance of findings in corporate finance has become increasingly common, but a review of the literature reveals shortcomings in typical reporting practices. Researchers can more effectively communicate the practical importance of findings by using standard measures of economic significance that are scaled by the standard deviation of the dependent variable, by providing all statistics necessary to calculate economic significance, and by providing benchmarks by which to evaluate the magnitude of economic significance. To support these objectives, I show why measures scaled by the standard deviation are preferable, and I provide benchmarks based on hundreds of established findings …

Moving Beyond Traditional Sponsorships: Understanding The Structure And Dynamics Of Minority Equity Sponsorship Agreements, Furkan Amil Gur, Adrien Bouchet, Brian Walkup, Jonathan A. Jesen

Faculty Publications

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to understand the structure and dynamics of minority equity sponsorship agreements and the motivations for organizations to go beyond traditional sponsorships by acquiring minority equity in the sponsored organization.

Design/methodology approach - This paper adopts a qualitative methodology and presents interview data from key actors involved in minority equity sponsorship agreements. Findings - The findings of the paper include major characteristics of minority equity sponsorship agreements including the motivations, dynamics, and resources exchanged by sponsoring firms and clubs in these relationships, based on the experiences of key actors from firms, clubs, and …

Leading Through Paradox In A Covid-19 World: Human Resources Comes Of Age, David G. Collings, Anthony J. Nyberg, Patrick M. Wright, John Mcmackin

Faculty Publications

The impact of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic is unprecedented. At an organisational level, the crisis has been hugely disruptive, complex and fraught with ambiguity for leaders. The crisis is fundamentally a human one, making human resource (HR) leaders central in enabling organisations to manage through and ultimately exit the crisis successfully. We apply a paradox lens to understand the HR leadership challenges posed by the COVID-19 crisis. We argue that how the HR function responds to the challenges of the crisis and its role in mapping the exit route from the crisis are likely to shape the trajectory of …

Exploring Performance In Air Force Science And Technology Programs, Eric A. Plack, Jonathan D. Ritschel, Edward D. White, Clay M. Koschnick

Faculty Publications

Science and technology (S&T) programs serve an important function in the defense acquisition process as the initial phase leading to discovery and development of warfighting technology. The results of these programs impact the larger major defense acquisition programs, which integrate the technologies in subsequent phases of the life cycle. Despite this important role, little prior research has examined the performance of S&T programs. In this study, the authors investigate the impact of technological maturation as a critical success factor in Air Force S&T programs. The results suggest that S&T programs with mature technologies are more likely to experience above average …

Shifting Satellite Control Paradigms: Operational Cybersecurity In The Age Of Megaconstellations, Carl A. Poole, Robert A. Bettinger, Mark Reith

Faculty Publications

The introduction of automated satellite control systems into a space-mission environment historically dominated by human-in-the-loop operations will require a more focused understanding of cybersecurity measures to ensure space system safety and security. On the ground-segment side of satellite control, the debut of privately owned communication antennas for rent and a move to cloud-based operations or mission centers will bring new requirements for cyber protection for both Department of Defense and commercial satellite operations alike. It is no longer a matter of whether automation will be introduced to satellite operations, but how quickly satellite operators can adapt to the onset of …