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Full-Text Articles in Business
Effective Manufacturers' Strategies For Service Innovations, Zebulon Fox
Effective Manufacturers' Strategies For Service Innovations, Zebulon Fox
Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies
In the United States, more than 50% of managers offering services in the manufacturing industry report failed service initiatives. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore strategies that manufacturing managers used to sustain their business for longer than 5 years. The population consisted of 3 manufacturing organization managers offering business services to support petroleum and coal companies who have sustained their business operations in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States for longer than 5 years. Data were collected from semistructured interviews and organization documents were analyzed through the perspective of the strategic service innovation theory conceptual …
Strategies For Small Business Sustainability, Victor K. Adoukonou
Strategies For Small Business Sustainability, Victor K. Adoukonou
Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies
Small businesses represent more than 99% of all employers in the United States, but more than 50% of small businesses have failed before 5 years. Climate change, digitization, and social media contribute to a paradigm shift in consumers' habits, as more consumers have become environmentally and social justice conscious. Business leaders who are unable to follow the consumers' trends and changes of habit may not succeed in sustaining their businesses. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore strategies owners of small businesses in the District of Columbia use to sustain their businesses for longer than 5 years …
Scenario Planning For Organizational Adaptability: The Lived Experiences Of Executives, Robert John Gaskill-Clemons
Scenario Planning For Organizational Adaptability: The Lived Experiences Of Executives, Robert John Gaskill-Clemons
Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies
Organizational adaptability is critical to organizational survival, and executive leadership's inability to adapt to extreme disruptive complex events threatens survival. Scenario planning is one means of adapting to extreme disruptive complex events. In this qualitative interpretive phenomenological study, 20 executives who had lived experience with extreme disruptive complex events and applied scenario planning to help adapt participated in phenomenological interviews to share their experiences related to the application of scenario planning as a means adaptation to extreme disruptive complex events. Participants were from a single large organization with executives distributed throughout the United States and executives from 10 state agencies …
Strategies To Reduce Maquiladora Employee Absenteeism In Mexico, Antonio Jose Cachazo
Strategies To Reduce Maquiladora Employee Absenteeism In Mexico, Antonio Jose Cachazo
Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies
Employee absenteeism is a costly problem, affecting organizations' ability to deliver products and services. Finding strategies managers use to help reduce employee absenteeism is critical to sustain operational capacity, control labor costs, and to achieve organizational success. Drawing from the Herzberg 2-factors theory, the purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore strategies implemented by six business organizations to reduce employee absenteeism in the maquiladora industry in Mexico. Through semistructured interviews, 11 management participants shared strategies implemented to reduce absenteeism. In addition, other data sources, such as organizational policies, management graphs, and meeting minutes were used. Data were coded …
Cash-Flow Management Strategies In Small And Medium-Sized Occupational Health Enterprises, Sibongiseni Selby Myeni
Cash-Flow Management Strategies In Small And Medium-Sized Occupational Health Enterprises, Sibongiseni Selby Myeni
Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies
Small businesses are critical to the success of a country's economy. The leaders of the South African government focus on the role of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to boost the economy and eradicate inequality, poverty, and unemployment. However, the sustainability track record of South African SMEs remains one of the worst records in the world. Therefore, it is essential that stakeholders improve the sustainability of SMEs. Using the resource-based view conceptual framework, the aim of this multiple case study was to explore the strategies that occupational health SME leaders use to manage cash flow to achieve sustainability for longer …
Strategies For Motivating A Multigenerational Workforce, Avon Donnell Cornelius
Strategies For Motivating A Multigenerational Workforce, Avon Donnell Cornelius
Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies
The multigenerational workforce creates leadership challenges for business managers, and the members of each generational group have different factors that motivate them. Failure to motivate a multigenerational workforce can lead to decreased productivity, increased absenteeism, high turnover rates, and reduced profits. The purpose of this single case study was to explore the strategies that marketing managers in a Maryland-based marketing firm use to motivate a multigenerational workforce using Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory. The study comprised 7 marketing managers who have experience motivating a multigenerational workforce. The data collection process for this study consisted of semistructured interviews, observation, and member …
Strategies To Improve Business Performance With Information From Social Media, Taylor Chan
Strategies To Improve Business Performance With Information From Social Media, Taylor Chan
Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies
In the past 3 decades, China has experienced rapid economic growth. The China retail market reached renminbi (RMB) 29,651 billion in 2016, up by 10.4% from 2015. Using traditional ways that developed before the Internet era to acquire information regarding customers' changing preferences for products and services in a fast-moving business world is insufficient to support management in the retail industry to make informed strategic decisions. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore successful customer-centric strategies that business leaders used to improve business performance with marketing information acquired from social media. The population comprised business leaders from …
Aluminum Production Costs: A Comparative Case Study Of Production Strategy, Joseph Nloga Ndjebayi
Aluminum Production Costs: A Comparative Case Study Of Production Strategy, Joseph Nloga Ndjebayi
Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies
Slumping world aluminum prices have energized some aluminum producers to institute strategies to reduce product costs. This multiple comparative case study explored the strategies used by 4 aluminum producers in Western Europe: 2 companies that have successfully reduced production costs and 2 companies that have not. Wicksteed's economic theory of production and production costs was the conceptual framework for this research. Data from the companies' strategic and industry reports and from interviews with 32 senior managers were analyzed using pattern finding and clustering, a recursive approach to data gathering and analysis established by Miles, Huberman, and Saldana. Six themes emerged: …
Effective Strategies Of Military Veteran Small Business Owners, John F. Groves
Effective Strategies Of Military Veteran Small Business Owners, John F. Groves
Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies
Small businesses owned by military veterans represent a source of new jobs, yet more than half of these businesses fail to survive beyond 5 years. These failures could lead to efforts to identify strategies that owners can use to avoid failure. The conceptual framework applied in this case study was the triple-loop learning theory. The purposive sampling included 7 military veterans who were small business owners who had sustained their small businesses more than 5 years. Data were collected using semistructured interviews and organization documents. Yin's 5-step process for data analysis compiling, disassembling, reassembling, interpreting, and concluding resulted in 4 …
Effects Of Management Control Systems And Strategy On Performance Of Minority-Owned Businesses, Raymond Onyema Obinozie
Effects Of Management Control Systems And Strategy On Performance Of Minority-Owned Businesses, Raymond Onyema Obinozie
Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies
This study addressed the perceived relationships among management control systems, business strategy, and organizational performance in U.S. minority-owned manufacturing businesses. Hofer's contingency theory provided a framework for the study, which included a quantitative, survey-based correlational design. Research questions focused on the relationship between financial- and nonfinancial-based management control systems as well as low-cost leadership and differentiation strategies, and how these practices impacted organizational performance. A random sample of 1,000 participants was selected from a population of 2,583 minority-owned manufacturing businesses in the United States. Results of the principal component analysis, Pearson's zero order correlation coefficient, and multiple regression analysis indicated …
Strategy And Profitability: Managing Profits In Inflation Economy, Mohamed Jaffar Mohamed Sharaaz
Strategy And Profitability: Managing Profits In Inflation Economy, Mohamed Jaffar Mohamed Sharaaz
Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies
The inflation rate in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) rose to 5-year highs in 2014 and higher by 28% in the first half of 2015. This situation has challenged business managers to sustain business goals. Guided by Kaplan and Norton's balanced scorecard framework. the purpose of this multiple case study was to explore strategies business managers use to maintain profitability with rising operating costs. Two organizations in Dubai, United Arab Emirates were purposefully sampled for this multiple case study. Data were collected through multiple semistructured interviews of a single senior manager from each organization, then triangulated with company e-mails and …
Exploring Strategies To Gain Frontline Employee Buy-In During Change Initiatives In Manufacturing, Charles James Iv
Exploring Strategies To Gain Frontline Employee Buy-In During Change Initiatives In Manufacturing, Charles James Iv
Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies
The high failure rates of change initiatives threaten the sustainability of commercial printing operations. The focus of this qualitative multicase study was to research the strategies commercial printing managers use to succeed in gaining frontline employee buy-in during change initiatives to improve productivity and profitability in a manufacturing environment. The participants included four commercial printing managers from the Midwestern United States. Each manager had implemented successful change initiatives in the past 2 years and maintained profitability of the business for 12 months before the study. McGregor's (1960) Theory Y served as the basis for the conceptual framework. Data collection included …
Profitability And The Financial Strategies Of Women-Owned Small Businesses, Kellie J. Emrich
Profitability And The Financial Strategies Of Women-Owned Small Businesses, Kellie J. Emrich
Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies
The fastest growing segment of business development in the United States comes from small business start-ups, with 42% of these businesses being women owned. Women-owned businesses are annually 25% less profitable when compared to the average small business in the United States. Based on the theory of planned behavior, the purpose of this single exploratory case study was to investigate how women small business owners and their employees use financial strategies to increase the profitability of their businesses. Data came from semistructured interviews with 1 woman business owner and 5 business consultants who work for the women-owned small business. The …
Business Governance Best Practices Of Virtual Project Teams, William James Hamersly
Business Governance Best Practices Of Virtual Project Teams, William James Hamersly
Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies
The steady increase in project failure rates is leaving businesses searching for better integration techniques to virtualize their project environments. Through virtualization, organizations may have positive impacts on communities across geographical boundaries and resource constraints. The focus of this phenomenological study was to explore, via the experiences of successful project management practitioners, best practice strategies for integrating virtual project teams through data analysis. The conceptual framework included von Bertalanffy's general systems theory, decomposition model of business process and project management frameworks, and the recomposition approach. Twenty-two senior project managers with more than 5 years of experience managing virtual project environments …
Preparing Senior Executives To Address Organizational Culture During An Organizational Merger, Kenneth T. Hannigan
Preparing Senior Executives To Address Organizational Culture During An Organizational Merger, Kenneth T. Hannigan
Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies
Executives planning for an organizational merger often neglect or overlook the importance of creating a positive organizational culture. Researchers have demonstrated that organizational culture is important to the success of mergers. Workers' compensation industry executives who managed mergers successfully often includ organizational culture in their merger strategy. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the strategies that business executives used to unify organizational cultures during an organizational merger. The population for the study consisted of 3 CEOs with operations in northern Florida, who successfully merged companies within the workers' compensation managed care industry. For each of these …
Governmental Procurement Restrictions, Deficit Reductions, And The Sustainability Of Alaska Native Corporations, Paul O. Fondren
Governmental Procurement Restrictions, Deficit Reductions, And The Sustainability Of Alaska Native Corporations, Paul O. Fondren
Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies
Alaska Native Corporations (ANCs) came under political scrutiny in the United States in 2009 during a climate of economic recession and governmental spending reductions. Since then, ANCs have faced increased governmental regulations that immediately changed the ways that their leaders previously achieved growth and success. The purpose of this explanatory case study was to identify elements of ANC strategic plans that lead to success and growth when operationally implemented. The central research questions investigated what executable strategic plans ANC leaders need to ensure sustainable business growth and what practices have led to success and failures. Data were collected from interviews …
Evaluating A Strategic Initiative's Efficiency To Enhance Community College Financial Sustainability, Anne S. Williams
Evaluating A Strategic Initiative's Efficiency To Enhance Community College Financial Sustainability, Anne S. Williams
Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies
During the first decade of the 21st Century, U.S. college enrollment rates increased, public funding fell by 30%, oversight structures changed, and funding algorithms switched to outcome-based metrics such as retention, progression, and graduation rates. Drawing from Vroom's expectancy theory, the purpose of this correlational study was to provide decision makers with information about the factors associated with an implemented strategic initiative at a Connecticut community college. The research question addressed the correlation between the strategic initiative, retention, and organizational financial sustainability using hierarchical, binary regression analysis of archival data for 2,558 first-time full-time students at a Connecticut community college. …
Small Ethnic Restaurant Business Owner Strategies To Remain Operable Beyond 7 Years, Nam Phuong Le
Small Ethnic Restaurant Business Owner Strategies To Remain Operable Beyond 7 Years, Nam Phuong Le
Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies
The failure rate among small businesses is high. More than half of all small businesses fail within the first 7 years of operation. The purpose of this multi-case study was to explore the strategies that successful small ethnic restaurant owners employed to remain operable beyond 7 years. Three successful ethnic restaurant owners who have been operating their restaurant for at least 7 years in Greater Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada were selected. Data were gathered from participant interviews and from an examination of available physical artifacts such as the locations, premises, websites, and social media pages. The resource-based view by Edith …
Leaders' Risk Propensity And Delegation Of Critical Decision-Making Authority, Reginald Carlton Doctor
Leaders' Risk Propensity And Delegation Of Critical Decision-Making Authority, Reginald Carlton Doctor
Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies
A leader's unwillingness to delegate critical decision-making authority to subordinate managers and employees negatively impacts the performance of a firm. There is a lack of research that measures a leader's willingness to delegate critical decision-making authority to subordinate managers and employees based on their individual risk propensities. The purpose of this study was to provide empirical evidence of the influence risk propensity has on a leader's willingness to delegate critical decision-making authority. Specifically, this study examined the extent that risk propensity of leaders affect delegating critical decision making authority to subordinate managers and employees. The research design was a quantitative …