Business Commons^™

Social Media Firestorms: How Does Observing Customer-To-Customer Incivility Affect Consumers’ Brand Evaluation And Behavioral Intentions?, Tyson Ang

Faculty Research Day

Project Description: Brands increasingly engage customers through social media platforms. However, just like human, brands too can make mistake when interacting with customers. The higher the engagement, the higher the chance of brands committing mistakes. These mistakes tend to be amplified in the context of social media, which may eventually lead to a firestorm against the brand. Social media firestorm refers to a sudden, rapid discharge of large quantities of intensely negative messages against a brand. Even more concerning is that these firestorms are usually accompanied by uncivil interactions between customers who have opposing views on the issue at …

Artificial Intelligence For Cybersecurity: A Review, Tung Cu

Faculty Research and Creative Activities Symposium

The next generation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) are increasingly incorporated in cybersecurity solutions. Experts predict that, over time, companies will incorporate AI into every cybersecurity product portfolio. While AI and ML increase the defenders’ capability to detect and prevent abnormal behavior patterns, attackers are also using AI and ML to learn about a target’s vulnerabilities and launch attacks. The purpose of this study is to conduct a literature review on a series of original research papers, both theoretical and empirical, to identify current challenges and issues of AI aid, misuse and threat in cybersecurity in different …

Impact Of Changes In State Merit-Aid Programs On College Attendance, Nabaneeta Biswas, Poulomi Dasgupta

Faculty Research Day

Between 1990 and 2010 a total of 25 states adopted merit aid programs. Merit-aid programs increase college enrollment. West Virginia's PROMISE had a statistically significant impact on college enrollment in the state.

Access To Finance And Innovation In Small And Medium Enterprises, Huong (Anne) Le

Faculty Research and Creative Activities Symposium

This paper examines the relation between a firm’s capacity to access external capital and its innovation among SMEs in Vietnam. We find that SMEs with high debt ratio tend to be more innovative. After controlling for several firm characteristics, long term debt remains significantly positively correlated with innovation. We further show that both bank loans and loans from family and friends help these firms innovate, especially in developing new products and/or technology. Overall, our paper suggests that external financing plays an important role in enhancing innovation in small and medium enterprises.

Telehealth In Critical Care: Quality And Cost Outcomes, Michael Robbie, Stephanie Cole, Bukola Abodunde, Alberto Coustasse

Faculty Research Day

The purpose of this study was to assess the potential for the implementation of telehealth in the ICU to determine its impact on quality of care and overall healthcare costs. The primary hypothesis of this study was that telehealth would be linked with lower ICU LOS and hospital mortality rates among critically ill patients.

Post-Implementation Analysis Of The Impact Of Intravenous Automation Systems On Health-System Pharmacy Operations, Craig Kimble, Ken Maxik, Chris Booth, Michael Rudolph, Kim Broedel-Zaugg

Faculty Research Day

We have all seen the reports on the news about issues related to IV rooms and IV room compounding. Many health-system pharmacies have implemented, or are considering some form of intravenous (IV) automation and/ or compounding system in their clean rooms to reduce pharmacy errors and improve accuracy, productivity, and workflow. Manufacturers tout that automated systems, used appropriately, aid in reducing errors from reaching patients. Additionally, IV admixture automation is one of the most recent areas where technology has been added to pharmacy workflow.

The Influence Of Time Horizon On The Hedge Fund Performance Persistence, Izabela Pruchnicka-Grabias

Faculty Research and Creative Activities Symposium

The author shows the main characteristics of hedge funds and analyzes persistence of rates of return generated by them. The aim of the paper is to check if there exists any persistence of rates of return and if so, if there are any differences in different periods of time. The paper proves that the existence of rates of return persistence decreases together with the extension of the time horizon. It suggests that long-term investing in hedge funds is linked to high risk levels. One reason is that their rates of return are not described by normal distribution features. The second …

Fdi Inflows And Educational Attainment: Evidence From China, Yi Duan, Lei Li

Faculty Research Day

This study investigates the impact of FDI on education attainment through labor market conditions in China using micro data. China has attracted a substantial amount of FDI in the past years and has made education advancement its priority. However, attracting FDI can have unintended consequences to depress educational attainment and human capital formation.

Silver Economy: A Selected Issues From European Perspective, Anna Szelagowska

Faculty Research and Creative Activities Symposium

An ageing society is inseparable element of the health economy. In 2018, nearly one fifth (19.7%) of the EU population and 9.0% of world population was aged 65 and more. As a result, the proportion of people of working age in the EU-28 is shrinking while the relative number of those retired is expanding. The share of the population aged 65 years and over is increasing in every EU Member State. According to the United Nations by 2050, one in four persons living in Europe and Northern America could be aged 65 or over. Having in mind the rapidly aging …

Patient Communication With Their General Practice Physicians: Does Age Matter?, William K. Willis, Marcy Butler, Ashish Chandra

Faculty Research Day

We examine the difference in outcomes between various age groups and their communication with their General Practitioner.

Product Designs That Enchant, Transform, And Endure, Garo Agopian

Faculty Research and Creative Activities Symposium

For many reasons – sustainability, product aesthetics, market demand for authenticity – there appears to be growing interest in classic products, products that are owned for a long time and stay on the market a long time. This is a conceptual paper which investigates these questions: What is classic art? What are classic product designs? What learning can be applied from classic art and classic product designs to new product designs? Art historians argue that classic art endures because its meanings constantly evolve. This paper reviews the semantic evolution of a classic novel, and the evolution of a classic product, …

Risk Factors For Cancer As A Foundation For The New Model Of Financing Cancer Treatment In Poland, Izabela Pruchnicka-Grabias

Faculty Research and Creative Activities Symposium

The aim of the paper is to determine the costs of cancer sicknesses to the Polish economy in 2007 – 2018, their tendencies, as well as to propose the new revolutionary model of financing them. Costs of cancer comprise not only costs of treatment covered by the National Health Fund of Poland (abbreviated to NFZ), but also costs of sickness absences covered by the Polish Social Insurance Institution (abbreviated to ZUS) and employers. The analytical research is based on data gathered from the mentioned institutions. The following hypothesis is put forward: during the last 10 years costs of cancer treatment …

Does Global Vs. Local Scope Matter? Contingencies Of Cause-Related Marketing In A Developed Market, Monica Wei

Faculty Research Day

Project Description: Cause-related marketing refers to a company’s social initiative in which the company donates a specified amount to a chosen cause in response to every purchase the consumers made. Many multinational corporations (MNCs) have used cause-related marketing as a strategy to improve their brand image and positioning in the global market. However, what makes cause-related marketing effective in the international market is not well understood. Drawing on social impact theory, this project uncovers the factors that affect the effectiveness of cause-related marketing strategy in the global market context. Specifically, across two studies, this research has found that the …

Addressing The Challenges Of Uncertainty Affecting Last-Mile Distribution In Disaster Relief, Robert A. Cook, Emmett Lodree

Faculty Research and Creative Activities Symposium

The study of Disaster Relief has received increasing attention for the better part of 20 years, and particularly in the wake of high-visibility storms like Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, there is little need to provide justification for the field as an area of interest. This presentation will summarize an ongoing effort to study one particular aspect of Disaster Relief, namely last-mile distribution in the face of uncertain supply. This body of work forms the bulk of my dissertation which I completed last year along with my co-author and mentor Dr. Emmett Lodree, a full Professor at the University of Alabama.

Tax Law And 100 Years Of New York Giants Season Tickets: A Multifaceted Analysis Of One Fan’S Fortune, Casey W. Baker

Faculty Research Day

Sports and tax Law? The confluence of money and unique factual situations create issues that the regulatory structure may not contemplate.

A Review On Cyberloafing, Sungdoo Kim

Faculty Research and Creative Activities Symposium

As technology permeates every aspect of our lives, employees are increasingly using technology for personal purposes during office hours. The largest proportion of non-work-related activities at work is spent using technologies on activities such as responding to emails on a personal email account, checking friends’ Facebook updates, reading sports or news, and paying bills online. While practitioners have been wrestling with cyberloafing prevalent in the workplace, research on the matter has grown exponentially over the last decade. Despite the growing empirical evidence, lacking is an integrated understanding of the phenomenon. In order for this area of inquiry to develop into …

Going From Side Hustle To Ceo Through Incorporation, Lemon Williams

Black Issues Conference

Many young brothers launch their side business as sole proprietorships in which they and their businesses are essentially one and the same. This can present limitations that can be avoided big taking the step to incorporate sooner than later.

Changing the format of a small business to a corporation or a Limited Liability Company (LLC) can offer a range of advantages for entrepreneurs. Most notable is that a corporation or LLC protects entrepreneurs' personal assets in case debts or legal judgments are claimed against the business.

But there are many other practical reasons why the corporation proves to be an …

Combating Intersection-Related Imposter Phenomenon In The Workplace Through Career Readiness, Simone Stewart

Black Issues Conference

Research has determined that Impostor Phenomenon (IP) most likely occurs in members of minority groups, students, first generation professionals and persons for whom success came quickly. Other studies have shown that many professional women are One of the ways to combat IP is through the development of competencies needed in your career. Attend this workshop to learn how to develop strategies to approach career competency while on campus and throughout your career to keep you on top of your game!

Is Your Library Ready For The Reality Of Virtual Reality? What You Need To Know And Why It Belongs In Your Library, Carl R. Grant, Stephen Rhind-Tutt

Charleston Library Conference

VR is no longer just gaming. It’s increasingly being deployed across academic campuses and is becoming indispensable in fields ranging from the humanities to engineering to anthropology. A recent survey indicated that 100% of ARL campuses were using VR, with 40% of libraries actively supporting it. This paper discusses practical examples of how libraries are helping their institutions build out virtual reality, utilizing 3D objects and explains why the library is the best place to do so. It provides a basic grounding in VR and related areas, showing what it is and why it's important to libraries. Specific attention is …

Two, Four, Six, Eight, How Many Ingredients Do You Appreciate? An Exploration Of Cocktail Ingredients, Hannah Daab

Scholars Week

Two studies examine the effect of cocktail menu description on consumer order intention. Findings show that consumers are more likely to order a cocktail with a greater number of ingredients and the effect is driven by perceptions of beverage complexity and premiumness.

Alternative Energy Generation And Its Economic Impact On Developing Countries: A Case Study Of Albania, Kosovo, Montenegro, And Northern Macedonia, Ruzhdi Matoshi, Isa Mulaj

UBT International Conference

Energy as a comprehensive source of economic development has undergone transformation and is evolving into alternatives. Due to the concerns about pollution, energy generation is constantly seeking an alternative that is friendly to the environment, or at least with substantial lower harmful effects. This effort involves costs of investment, especially in developing countries. Investment in alternative, cost efficient and friendly environment energy is no longer the sole isolated objective of a country, thus it may involve several countries, especially neighboring ones to coordinate their efforts. This paper looks into the state and prospects of alternative energy in four small developing …

Consumer Protection And Care In Kosovo, Hamëz Rama

UBT International Conference

Based on the principle, a state is made up of social communities, respectively society in general, while the consumption structure is made up of the individual, the family, the social communities, companies and institutions, but in a word they are all consumers. Kosovo after the war has accepted the market economy system, ie the law of value, competition, the supply and demand.

In economic systems dominated by a market economy, but also in Kosovo, consumer protection refers to infrastructure and legal provisions sponsored by the Government of the Republic of Kosovo and approved by the Assembly of the Republic of …

Globalization Of Banking Business And Risk Management, Arbiana Govori, Qemajl Sejdija

UBT International Conference

Risk management is a vital component of internal control and refers to the process of identifying and analyzing risks in achieving the organization's objectives and in defining a suitable risk mitigation response. This means:

✓Identification of the risk

✓Risk Assessment and Classification

✓ Assessing the organization's appetite for risk

✓ Prepare a Risk Response

Also, risk management should be reviewed and reported in order to monitor whether a risk profile is changing or not, to obtain guarantees that risk management is effective and to identify further action that is needed.

Typical problems related to risk management that are encountered are: …

Modeling The Estimated Fundamental Value Of The Kosovo Commercial Banks, Florin Aliu, Fisnik Aliu, Arton Nuhiu, Lenka Dokoupilova

UBT International Conference

Valuation is an important component of the bank appraisal since it determines the financial position of the common stocks. The work identifies the deviation of the intrinsic value from the shareholders book value, not the market price of the Kosovo commercial banks. The study use accounting items composed from the audited financial statements of the 10 selected banks operating in the Kosovo banking industry. The methodology stands on the discounted cash flow model adjusted for the bank specific characteristics. The absence of the Kosovo Stock Market generated certain limitations during the valuation process where the cost of equity and beta …

Control Activity And Monitoring As Coso Framework Elements And Their Impact On The Performance Of Entity: Case Study Republic Of Kosovo, Gresa Mjaku

UBT International Conference

This paper aims to investigate the impact of two elements of the COSO framework such as Control activity and Monitoring on the performance of Institutions of the Republic of Kosovo. Therefore, public institutions and audit agencies in our country need to work more than ever before to promote law enforcement, fight against corruption, honesty, the efficient use of public funds and the increase of government competencies and responsibilities in order to increase the performance of the entity. We employ primary data due to lack of data by secondary data from other relevant institutions. The data set includes a sample of …

Hadamard's Coding Matrix And Some Decoding Methods, Hizer Leka, Azir Jusufi, Faton Kabashi

UBT International Conference

In this paper, we will show a way to form Hadamard's code order n=2^p (where p is a positive integer) with the help of Rademacher functions, through which matrix elements are generated whose binary numbers {0,1} , while its columns are Hadamard's encodings and are called Hadamard's coding matrix. Two illustrative examples will be taken to illustrate this way of forming the coding matrix. Then, in a graphical manner and by means of Hadamard's form codes, the message sequence encoding as the order coding matrix will be shown. It will also give Hadamard two methods of decoding messages, which are …

Understanding Impact Of Professional Training On Work Performance, Besnik Skenderi, Diamanta Skenderi

UBT International Conference

Because of fast changes in technology, work processes and legislation there is a need for faster preparation of work labor, however formal education is failing to prepare people within required time and skills that are required by labor market. This paper is analyzing training needs for businesses and available training that are offered by public and private institutions. For this paper, case of TAK, Kosovo Telecom and UBT was analyzed and findings are compared with training's that vendors are offering within UK and USA. In addition also findings from national Accreditation Agency where discussed, regarding professional schools.

Effect Of Leadership Evaluation By Employees In An Enterprise, Bardha Mulhaxha

UBT International Conference

CEOs are those who have the task of leading the company, building good relationships with others and achieving the objectives. All of this is achieved through human resources, the most basic resource of the company, which by working in their fields, make it able to meet the company's objectives and why not maximize profit. To date, in various companies, we have often encountered CEOs or managers who evaluate employees' performance from time to time, but rarely or at least we did not encounter employees who in their view evaluated the performance of their chiefs. This is because employees did not …

Vat Reduction In 8% And Impact On Household Budget, Mustafe Hasani, Vahide Hasani

UBT International Conference

Increased care, implementation, and greater importance in creating fiscal policies that impact in the economy and family consumption began after the declaration of Independence in 2008, when the first tax reforms were made. But the fiscal reforms called the "Fiscal Package 1" which started its enforcement by the end of 2015, especially the VAT reduced rate for household consumption from 16% to 8% had the main effect on the consumer basket and the family budget, which is also the main approach of this paper. Based on the analysis of many indicators, statistical data and questionnaire we have verified how much …

Cost Analysis On Cost Of Consumers In Terms Of Small Markets. (Case Study, Vlora), Elmira Kushta, Fatmir Memaj

UBT International Conference

This article deals with the observed changes in consumer spending in a region of Albania following the fall in market sales prices. The paper focuses on the statistical study of a local consumer system. In the meantime, we are striving for greater recognition. Respectively in a more generalized and mathematical perspective, the generalized customer or consumer is the user and consumer as the behavioral agent. The purpose of the paper is to identify the best or most appropriate model for the behavioral profile according to the profile determined by the inductive analysis of the variables themselves. For this reason, part …