Business Commons^™

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.

Social Ties, Prior Experience, And Venture Creation By Transnational Entrepreneurs, Sarika Pruthi, Mike Wright

Faculty Publications

The interaction between resources, and host and home country contexts of transnational entrepreneurs (TEs), is important for understanding their strategies and hence performance of their ventures. Yet, how they deploy their unique experiences and social networks in the founding of ventures in multiple institutional contexts is less understood. Based on 15 in-depth interviews with TEs of Indian origin in the UK, and nine of their counterpart heads of transnational venture (TNV) operations, we explore the use of prior experience, and personal and industry ties in the founding of TNVs in their home country. Our findings show that the way TEs …

Brand Forgiveness, Marc Fetscherin, Alexandra Sampedro

Faculty Publications

Purpose: This paper explores and discusses the concept of brand forgiveness. It empirically assesses the relationships among three types of brand transgressions, brand forgiveness, and three consumer coping strategies.

Design/methodology/approach: A 3 × 2 research design is employed to evaluate the effects of three types of brand transgression (performance, image, and value) and two degrees of severity (high vs. low) for brand forgiveness. Then, this paper employs a 2 × 3 research design, evaluating two degrees of brand forgiveness (high vs. low) together with their effects on three different consumer coping strategies (switching, attacking, and purchasing again). Using a representative …

The Case Of The Unidentified Energy Companies, Matthew Crook, Mark Griffiths, Brian Walkup

Faculty Publications

This case provides detailed financial information for 14 firms in the energy sector across different fields. The student is put in the position of a potential job candidate tasked with identifying the field in which a firm’s major operations lie. The student’s objective is to use existing knowledge of the energy sector or financial statements to differentiate between the firms by examining the financial statements and common financial ratios for each of the firms.

How Does Perceived Destination Social Responsibility Impact Revisit Intentions: The Mediating Roles Of Destination Preference And Relationship Quality, Lujun Su, Yinghua Huang

Faculty Publications

This study applied the relationship quality theory to examine how destination social responsibility (DSR) impacts revisit intentions through the mediation of destination preference and relationship quality (i.e., tourist satisfaction and identification). An integrated model was proposed and tested by using survey data from an urban tourism attraction in China. The findings indicate that DSR positively impacts destination preference and tourist satisfaction, but it does not have a significant influence on tourist-destination identification. Destination preference directly affects tourist satisfaction and tourist-destination identification, which in turn positively influences revisit intentions. This study offered theoretical and practical contributions to the research of destination …

Making Herstory: Cherokee Women's Stickball, Natalie M. Welch, Jessica Siegele, Zachary T. Smith, Robin Hardin

Faculty Publications

Cherokee stickball amongst the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians is a sporting tradition that precedes written records. Historical and academic texts have focused on men’s participation in the sport. However, Cherokee women participated in their own stickball games as recent as a decade ago, and stories exist of women playing stickball in the late nineteenth century. Many in the community believe stickball should not be played by women and doubt evidence of women playing historically. Researchers sought to understand the intersectionality of gender and ethnic identity for female stickball players who took the field to play stickball at the turn …

Antecedents And Consequences Of Self-Congruity: Replication And Extension, Eugene Cheng-Xi Aw, Leisa Reinecke Flynn, Han Xi Chong

Faculty Publications

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to propose and empirically test a framework encompassing self-congruity with its antecedents and consequences. This study also aims to test the mediating role of perceived value and its dimensions.

Design/methodology/approach

A questionnaire-based survey was conducted using a purposive sampling technique. In total, 310 useable responses were collected and data were analyzed using partial least square structural equation modeling.

Findings

A majority of hypotheses were supported. Avoidance of similarity and status consumption positively influenced self-congruity, replicating an earlier study. Self-congruity positively influenced overall perceived value and its dimensions, as well as revisit intention. Overall …

Understanding Unauthorized Access Using Fine-Grained Human-Computer Interaction Data, Michael D. Byrd, Jeffrey L. Jenkins, David Kim, Manasvi Kumar, Andrew W. Schwartz, Joseph S. Valacich, Parker A. Williams, Ryan T. Wright

Faculty Publications

Unauthorized Data Access (UDA) by an internal employee is a major threat to an organization. Regardless of whether the individuals engaged in UDA with malicious intent or not, real-time identification of UDA events and anomalous behaviors is extremely difficult. For example, various artificial intelligence methods for detecting insider threat UDA have become readily available; while useful, such methods rely on post hoc analysis of the past (e.g., unsupervised learning algorithms on access logs). This research-in-progress note reports on if the analysis of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) behaviors, which have been empirically validated in various studies to reveal hidden cognitive state, can …

Developing Scale Of Tourists' Attitude Toward Culture Souvenirs, Wei Wang, Gallayanee Yaoyuneyong, Pauline Sullivan, Brigitte Burgess

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Latest Research On Brand Relationships: An Introduction To The Special Issue, Marc Fetscherin, Francisco Guzman, Cleopatra Veloutsou, Ricardo Roseira Cayolla

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Information Flows Among Rivals And Corporate Investment*, Darren Bernard, Terrence Blackburne, Jacob Thornock

Faculty Publications

Using a novel pairwise measure of firms’ acquisition of rivals’ disclosures, we show that investment opportunities drive interfirm information flows. We find that these flows predict subsequent mergers and acquisitions as well as how and how much firms invest, relative to rivals. Moreover, firms’ use of rivals’ information often hinges on the similarities of their products. Our results suggest that rivals’ public information, far from being unusable, helps facilitate investment and product decisions, including acquisitions and product differentiation strategies. The findings also support a learning mechanism that could partly underlie the emerging literature on peer investment effects.

The Liquidity Cost Of Private Equity Investments: Evidence From Secondary Market Transactions, Taylor Nadauld, Berk A. Sensoy, Keith Vorkink, Michael S. Weisbach

Faculty Publications

This paper uses proprietary data from a leading intermediary to explain the magnitude and determinants of transaction costs in the secondary market for private equity stakes. Most transactions occur at a discount to net asset value. Buyers average an annualized public market equivalent of 1.023 compared with 0.976 for sellers, implying that buyers outper- form sellers by a market-adjusted 5 percentage points annually. Both the cross-sectional pattern of transaction costs and the identity of sellers and buyers suggest that the market is one in which relatively flexible buyers earn returns by supplying liquidity to investors wishing to exit.

Student Retention In Information Systems Majors: The Role Of Creative Self-Efficacy, Peter Garrow, Greg Anderson, Mark J. Keith, Alexandra N. Spruill

Faculty Publications

At times the Information Systems (IS) major has suffered from declining enrollment. Also, STEM fields such as IS are known to suffer from a lack of gender diversity. This research focuses on why students drop out from IS programs and how to provide actionable feedback to improve student retention, particularly among female students. We use creative self-efficacy (CreaSE) as a theoretical lens to explain student retainment. In particular, as students have more confidence in their ability to solve business problems with IS solutions, they are more likely remain in IS courses. Students who sought help from their instructor and StackOverflow.com …

Disclosure Overload? A Professional User Perspective On The Usefulness Of General Purpose Financial Statements*, Michael S. Drake, Jeffrey Hales, Lynn Rees

Faculty Publications

We survey a broad group of professionals who use financial statements as part of their job to assess the extent to which they believe financial reports suffer from disclosure overload. Consistent with the claims made by regulators, auditors, and preparers, we find that a significant portion of professional financial statement users believe disclosure overload is a problem. However, this group is in the minority, with about twice as many professional users believing that overload is not a problem and that more information should be disclosed in financial statements. This dichotomy presents a difficult challenge to standard setters aiming to improve …

The Value Relevance Of Taxes: International Evidence On The Proxy For Profitability Role Of Tax Surprise, Jon Kerr

Faculty Publications

Despite evidence that tax surprise is incrementally value relevant, the literature has done little to broaden the investigation beyond the United States or examine circumstances that affect informativeness. After extending to the international setting, I examine the impact of tax enforcement. I report strong results of greater value relevance when tax enforcement is high and that the value relevance of tax surprise is mostly contained within its interaction with tax enforcement. These findings highlight the importance of tax enforcement in determining the information content of tax surprise and suggest that extant and future discussions should be broadened to include it.

The School-Based Family: Teachers As Parental Figures For Orphans And Vulnerable Children In Ugandan Schools, Stacy Taniguchi, Angela Warren, Steve Hite, Mark Widmer, Ramon B. Zabriskie, Yusef Nsubuga, Christopher Mugimu

Faculty Publications

The purpose of this study was to examine the possible formation of surrogate families within Ugandan schools, especially among orphans who lack positive development opportunities typically provided by parents. This qualitative study sample of 66 Ugandan secondary school students were selected from eight schools in the Mukono district of Uganda. Findings suggest a potentially widespread family formation pattern between students and their teachers. More than 75% of students interviewed self-identified their teacher as family. Some teachers were able to offer orphans and vulnerable children positive developmental assets and were, therefore, identified as family.

Theory Of Experiential Career Exploration Technology (Tecet): Increasing Cybersecurity Career Interest Through Playable Case Studies, Justin Scott Giboney, Derek L. Hansen, Tanner Johnson, Desiree Winters, Jason K. Mcdonald, Jonathan Balzotti, Elizabeth Bonsignore

Faculty Publications

There is a large demand to fill cybersecurity jobs. To alleviate this need, it is important to generate interest in cybersecurity as a career. One way to do this is through job shadowing and internships. Using design science principles, we have built and tested a playable case study (PCS) where participants can act out a virtual internship and learn relevant cybersecurity skills. We ran a study with students in introductory university courses where they played through a simulated internship at a penetration testing company called CyberMatics. In the study we showed that a PCS format helps students 1) better understand …

Evaluating Theory Of Structured Experience Propositions: Effects Of Service Quality And Experience Industry Techniques On Quality Of Immediate Leisure Experiences, Gary D. Ellis, Andrew Lacanienta, Patti A. Freeman, Brian J. Hill

Faculty Publications

We tested two propositions of the Theory of Structured Experience: first, strategies used to structure experiences in the leisure industries elevate experience quality only when a threshold of service performance is met or exceeded; and second, positive relations exist among indicators of experience quality. Two teams of higher education tourists visited 23 attractions on three Hawaiian Islands. Immediately after each visit, team one (n = 4) judged the attractions based on service quality and experience structuring performance. Members of team two (n = 14) also reported the quality of their individual experiences after each visit by measuring the prevalence of …

Asset Allocation In Bankruptcy, Shai Bernstein, Emanuele Colonnelli, Benjamin Iverson

Faculty Publications

This paper investigates the consequences of liquidation and reorganization on the allocation and subsequent utilization of assets in bankruptcy. Using the random assignment of judges to bankruptcy cases as a natural experiment that forces some firms into liquidation, we find that the long-run utilization of assets of liquidated firms is lower relative to assets of reorganized firms. These effects are concentrated in thin markets with few potential users and in areas with low access to finance. These findings suggest that when search frictions are large, liquidation can lead to inefficient allocation of assets in bankruptcy.

Optimizing Software Team Performance With Cultural Differences, Greg S. Anderson, Mark J. Keith, Conan C. Albrecht, Alex N. Spruill, Clayton Pettit

Faculty Publications

Software development is primarily a team task that requires a high degree of coordination among team members [1]. Prior research has indicated that the composition of team member traits such as personality and culture can influence the performance of software teams [2]. However, this line of research does not give practical guidance on how to build teams with personnel constraints. Some research has built teams by starting with personality [2]. However, cultural traits—which are also known to influence team performance—have not been examined in the same manner. This research, therefore, builds upon this stream by: 1) examining the effects of …

Characterizing Conceptual Modeling Research, Lois M. L. Delcambre, Stephen W. Liddle, Oscar Pastor, Veda C. Storey

Faculty Publications

The field of conceptual modeling continues to evolve and be applied to important modeling problems in many domains. With a goal of articulating the breadth and depth of the field, our initial work focused on the many implicit and explicit definitions of conceptual modeling, resulting in the Characterizing Conceptual Modeling (CCM) framework. In this paper, we focus on conceptual modeling research, presenting a Characterizing Conceptual Model Research (CCMR) framework and a series of evaluations to assess the coverage and usability of CCMR, the utility and independence of the individual fields in the framework, and likelihood of consistent use.

Reporting Quantitative Methods And Findings: Best Practices Fidelity In The Leisure Science Literature, Mat D. Duerden, Eric Keith Layland, Andrew Lacanienta, Camilla Hodge, Michael Goates, Michael B. Edwards

Faculty Publications

This article identified best practices for quantitative methods and results reporting and then evaluated leisure science articles’ adherence to them. A two-stage stratified sampling method identified 112 articles. A codebook was developed, and 26 universal codes addressing abstract, methods, and results were applied to each article to generate best practices scores (BPS). BPS ranged from 6 to 21 (M¼14.89, SD¼2.95). Articles were more likely to use best practices for abstract, sample selection, recruitment, statistics, and data analysis, and less likely for participant characteristics, instrumentation, and data collection procedures. Comparisons of BPS across journals identified significant differences.

Over-Design Versus Redesign As A Response To Future Requirements, Jeffrey D. Allen, Phillip D. Stevenson, Christopher A. Mattson, Nile W. Hatch

Faculty Publications

Though little research has been done in the field of over-design as a product development strategy, an over-design approach can help products avoid the issue of premature obsolescence. This paper compares over-design to redesign as approaches to address the emergence of future requirements. Net present value (NPV) analyses of several real world applications are examined from the perspective of manufacturers (i.e., defense contractors, automobile, pharmaceutical, and microprocessor manufactures) and customers (i.e., purchases of vehicles, televisions, cell phones, washing machines, and buildings). This analysis is used to determine the conditions under which an over-design approach provides a greater benefit than a …

Threading Competencies In Writing Courses For More Effective Transfer, Amy D. Williams, Jonathan Balzotti

Faculty Publications

This article contributes to current conversations about transfer, specifically how WAC courses can encourage vertical transfer (Melzer). The authors draw on research in learner development that demonstrates how a threaded curriculum approach helps students learn concepts and skills and apply that knowledge in multiple contexts. Additionally, a threaded curriculum can incorporate pedagogical elements that have been linked to effective transfer, such as abstract conceptualization and metacognition. The authors present an instructional model for sequenced writing courses that leverages this research and moves away from disconnected writing courses. The threaded curriculum explored here promotes vertical transfer between an introductory professional writing …

Designing Authentic Cybersecurity Learning Experiences: Lessons From The Cybermatics Playable Case Study, Jason K. Mcdonald, Derek L. Hansen, Jonathan Balzotti, Tanner Johnson, Desiree Winters, Justin Giboney, Elizabeth Bonsignore

Faculty Publications

This paper reports our work on an educational simulation that we call the Playable Case Study (PCS). A PCS is characterized by a fictitious narrative integrated with real-world learning activities, helping students learn skills, knowledge, and dispositions relevant to a professional career. We describe a recent pilot test of a PCS focused on the discipline of cybersecurity, emphasizing the kinds of tensions and difficulties that can arise during the development of immersive, experiential learning experiences: a) challenges accompanying the work of interdisciplinary PCS teams, particularly maintaining technical accuracy while still developing an authentic and engaging narrative; b) reconciling the opportunities …

The Fog Of Warnings: How Non-Essential Notifications Blur With Security Warnings, Anthony Vance, David Eargle, Jeffrey Jenkins, C. Brock Kirwan, Bonnie Brinton Anderson

Faculty Publications

Adherence to security warnings continues to be an important problem in information security. Although users may fail to heed a security warning for a variety of reasons, a major contributor is habituation, which is decreased response to repeated stimulation. However, the scope of this problem may actually be much broader than previously thought because of the neurobiological phenomenon of generalization. Whereas habituation describes a diminished response with repetitions of the same stimulus, generalization occurs when habituation to one stimulus carries over to other novel stimuli that are similar in appearance.

Generalization has important implications for the domains of usable security …

Visual Storytelling For Improving The Comprehension And Utility In Disseminating Information Systems Research: Evidence From A Quasi-Experiment, Kristijan Mirkovski, James Gaskin, David Hull, Paul Benjamin Lowry

Faculty Publications

Since the start of human civilisation, storytelling has served as an effective medium for disseminating important knowledge within families, communities and organisations. We make a case for the use of visual storytelling, namely video stories, to supplement traditional scholarly articles in the Information Systems (IS) discipline, thereby exploring its potential to improve actual and perceived comprehension, perceived utility, satisfaction as well as intentions to cite, share and accept research. Drawing on cognitive learning theory, the cognitive theory of multimedia learning and the literature on deep processing, we develop our research model, which is based on the model by Jiang & …

Framework Of Affordances For Virtual Reality And Augmented Reality, Jacob H. Steffen, James E. Gaskin, Thomas O. Meservy, Jeffrey L. Jenkins, Iopa Wolman

Faculty Publications

Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technologies continue to grow and present possibilities to change the ways we learn, accomplish tasks, and interact with the world. However, widespread adoption has continually languished below purported potential. We suggest that a more complete understanding of the underlying motives driving users to take advantage of VR and AR would aid researchers by consolidating fragmented knowledge across domains and by identifying paths for additional inquiry. Additionally, practitioners could identify areas of unmet motives for using VR and AR. To examine the motives for virtualization, we draw upon Gibson’s seminal work on affordances to …

Cognitive Checkpoint: Emerging Technologies For Biometric-Enabled Watchlist Screening, Svetlana N. Yanushkevich, Kelly W. Sundberg, Nathan W. Twyman, Richard M. Guest, Vlad P. Shmerko

Faculty Publications

This paper revisits the problem of individual risk assessment in the layered security model. It contributes to the concept of balancing security and privacy via cognitive-centric machine called an ‘e-interviewer’. Cognitive checkpoint is a cyber-physical security frontier in masstransit hubs that provides an automated screening using all types of identity (attributed, biometric, and biographical) from both physical and virtual worlds. We investigate how the development of the next generation of watchlist for rapid screening impacts a sensitive balancing mechanism between security and privacy. We identify directions of such an impact, trends in watchlist technologies, and propose ways to mitigate the …

Research Opinion: A Storyteller’S Guide To Problem-Based Learning For Information Systems Management Education, David Michael Hull, Paul Benjamin Lowry, James Eric Gaskin, Kristijan Mirkovski

Faculty Publications

More than a decade ago, Lowry & Turner (2005) provided evidence-based recommendations regarding what students of information systems (IS) management education should learn and how should they learn it. Although their recommendations for how IS management should be taught remain valid, these recommendations need to be updated to account for recent advances in technologies that enable multimedia learning. Promoters of such technologies promise enhanced cognitive and behavioural outcomes, but this promise remains unreached, reflecting the underdeveloped literature of multimedia-enabled learning. To help attain this promise and rejuvenate the multimedia-learning literature, we offer a roadmap for new areas of research that …