Business Commons^™

Typology Of Tweets And User Engagement Generated By U.S. Companies Involved In Developing Covid-19 Vaccines, Priyanka Khandelwal, Leslie Ramos Salazar, Soni Khandelwal

Department of Marketing: Faculty Publications

This study analyzes 295 tweets by four U.S. companies engaged in discovering a vaccine for COVID-19. Tweets were analyzed to understand how their Twitter feeds balanced corporate and product branding (vaccine, medicines, etc.) and disseminated scientific information relating to COVID-19. The results suggest that these companies were actively embedding technical information about COVID-19 in their corporate and product branding. Tweets providing technical and scientific information about the progress made toward developing a COVID-19 vaccine garnered high levels of user engagement from their target audience. Findings from this study indicate the growing importance of technical communication in corporate settings during a …

Better To Be Loved By Some? Firm Flaunting As An Impression Management Strategy, A. Erin Bass, Michael D. Pfarrer, Ivana Milosevic, Varkey K. Titus Jr.

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

Firms can use a range of proactive impression management behaviors to reduce the impact of a negative event on firmoutcomes. When a negative event is unpredictable, we theorize that firms can engage in ostentatious behaviors that display the firm’s affluence and robust resource base. We term these behaviors “flaunting,” and we present a twopart model that investigates how flaunting can reduce the impact of an unpredictable negative event on firm outcomes and why it is effective at doing so. In part one, we theorize how flaunting can generate net positive stakeholder group evaluations by enhancing distinctiveness among stakeholder groups. In …

Gender-Based Impacts Of Covid-19 In Sub- Saharan Africa, Helen Onyeaka, Phemelo Tamasiga, Ifeanyi Michael Mazi, Hope Akegbe, John K. Osiri

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

The lasting educational and economic impacts of COVID-19 have disproportionally disadvantaged girls on the fringes of society, extending beyond the period of imposed lockdowns. This study delves deeper into the education, socio-economic, and gender-specific effects of the COVID-19 pandemic within the context of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The research illuminates how the pandemic has influenced economic activities and the roles of teachers, parents, and students in the educational process. Furthermore, the paper examines the efficacy of distance learning across diverse media in SSA. The findings suggest that children from rural settings might have limited resources to adapt and continue their education …

A New Framework For Taxing Cryptocurrencies, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah, Mohanad Salaimi

Articles

This Article explores the tax law challenges associated with the taxation of cryptocurrencies and offers proposals to address such challenges. The Article addresses the proper tax treatment of different cryptocurrency transactions and activities. It examines various aspects associated with the taxation of cryptocurrency through its life cycle, starting from earning cryptocurrency, through its disposal or exchange. The Article also examines the tax treatment of two special crypto events, hard forks and airdrops. Specifically, this Article describes a proposal to tax cryptocurrencies based on their unique features. It argues that various ways of earning or receiving crypto tokens (for example, mining …

Romeo And Juliet Word Cloud, Ml Tlachac

Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE)

PowerPoint presented at the Annual Spring Teaching Summit: Teaching and Learning Demos produced by the Center for Teaching Excellence.

Thinking Local With Original Data In Ai And Machine Learning Research, David G. Taylor, Robert Mccloud

WCBT Working Papers

Sacred Heart University spent significant funds to establish an AI lab. Initially there is no ongoing research and no real plan for a research agenda. This paper details how the Jack Welch College of Business and Technology created and implemented an active meaningful research plan. It involves two key elements: thinking local and using business connections to foster active, impactful research. Surrounding communities, business connections, area environment, and other Sacred Heart University departments all played a part. The research plan also identifies a specific issue in working with local and business contact sources: the AI researcher almost never gets data …

Perceived Employability Of Skilled Migrants: A Systematic Review And Future Research Agenda, Ali Farashah, Tomas Blomqusit, Akram Al Ariss, Chun (Grace) Guo

WCBT Faculty Publications

This review examines the perceived employability of skilled migrants (SMs) through an analysis of 88 management and organisational research articles published over 2009-2019 period. We find the extant literature characterised by context-specific studies featuring considerable variety in terms of levels of analysis, theory, and content. Using the notion of perceived employability, key themes in the literature are identified and presented in an integrative framework. The framework encompasses individual, organisational, occupational, and institutional components of the perceived employability of SMs, different forms of work transition and associated mediators (broadening strategies) and moderators (transition conditions). Proposing adoption of process thinking for future …

Wirecard And Potential U.S. Audit Issues, Benoit Boyer, Danny A. Pannese, Paul N. Iannone

WCBT Faculty Publications

The German company Wirecard saga is yet to be fully written. Similar in scope to Enron and others in the early 2000’s, many lessons will be learned for company executives, regulators, and especially auditors worldwide. For U.S. companies and auditors, the PCAOB (Public Company Accounting Oversight Board) has promulgated comprehensive audit standards and procedures designed for public companies, but these standards also could have ancillary application to private companies for auditors when planning the audit engagement. The red flags and audit issues that manifested in the Wirecard events will provide the financial and academic communities with robust case studies as …

Audit Firm Executives Under Pressure: A Discursive Analysis Of Legitimisation And Resistance To Reform, Michael Harber, Warren Maroun, Alan Duboisee De Ricquebourg

Business Papers and Journal Articles

The UK audit profession is facing a crisis of public trust and legitimacy following a series of high-profile audit failures. This resulted in the executive leadership of UK audit firms being summoned before a House of Commons Select Committee as part of its inquiry into ‘the future of audit’. During this inquiry the audit executives walked a tightrope, to both defend the social contract from an existential threat and attempt to influence policy reforms in their favour. This paper draws on ‘neutralisation techniques’ from deviance theory and the ‘grammar of legitimation’ from legitimacy theory to inform a discursive analysis of …

The Negative Impacts Of Border Patrol On The Mental Health Of Migrants, Breyana M. Newton

Pell Scholars and Senior Theses

The research in this paper is a deep dive into the actions of Border Patrol on migrants and refugees and their effects on the individual. This includes impacts on mental health, child development, resettlement prevention, and racism and discrimination within border patrol itself. To understand all of this and how wide reaching all of this goes there needs to be a reflection on the history and policies of Border Patrol and the Government behind it.
The problem with patrolling our borders is that there are consequences on the U.S. as a nation and unintended consequences on those individuals migrating into …

Female Lawyers Don’T Need Pity; They Need A Paycheck, Meagan S. Bilodeau

Pell Scholars and Senior Theses

Whether it's pity or patronization female lawyers have often been criticized. They're visualized on the lower level of the patriarchal hierarchy system in the Hollywood courtroom. However, women that hold emotional intelligence don't need pity. Emotional intelligence encompasses how to set boundaries, stay motivated, hold healthy relationships inside and outside the courtroom, as well as maintain self-regulation. Through analysis of the biographical films Erin Brockovich, On the Basis of Sex, and The Mauritanian this study explores how extensively psychological resilience subfactors are depicted, proving whether or not female lawyers are emotionally prepared to succeed in their noteworthy cases.

A Precedent For Peace: The Role Of All Children Together In The Integration Of Northern Irish Schools, Sarah J. Kraus

Pell Scholars and Senior Theses

Established in County Down, Northern Ireland in the early 1970s, All Children Together was an organization comprised of both Protestant and Catholic parents who wished to see children from both denominations interact and be educated alongside one another. In 1981, the organization successfully established Lagan College, Northern Ireland’s very first school with a shared curriculum designed to accommodate children from both denominations. This work situates the organization within the greater context of the Troubles and examines the extent to which school integration played a role in Northern Irish community relations during a period of political and social upheaval.

Monetary Policy Transmission Channels And The Performance Of The Real Sectors In Selected Sub-Saharan African Countries: A System-Gmm Approach, Ifeoma Florence Onaga, Augustine C. Arize

Faculty Publications

This study investigated the impact of monetary policy channels on the real sector performance in selected subSaharan African countries. This study covers the period 1990 to 2020. The broad objective of the study was to examine the impact of monetary policy transmission channels on the real sectors of selected sub-Saharan African countries within the period, 1990–2020. Using the system generalized method of moments (sys-GMMs) amidst other preestimation and post-estimation tests, it was discovered that credit and exchange rate channels positively drove agricultural productivity, while interest rate channel exerted a negatively significant influence. Conversely, credit and exchange rate channels were found …

Exposing Endo: Labor Abuse And Exploitation On Contractual Workers In The Philippines, Olivia M. Fisher

Pell Scholars and Senior Theses

Article 281 states that workers must be put on a probationary period for 6 months of employment before receiving benefits. ENDO-contracting is the situation where corporations hire workers on 5 to 6-month contracts to avoid paying their workers benefits. This research will be conducted using qualitative data from past research publications, court cases, and interviewing anti-ENDO advocates. The historical summary will explain the origins of this law and how it has progressed into common labor practice. ENDO- contracting disproportionately affects the low-wage workforce and deprives them of regular employee benefits. The lack of these benefits has created poor working conditions …

How Has Entrepreneurship Opportunity Formation Amongst Immigrants Been Influenced By The Covid-19 Pandemic?, Osa-Godwin Osaghae, Thomas M. Cooney

Articles

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how entrepreneurship opportunity formation amongst immigrants has been influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, given that environmental changes and irregularity can contribute to entrepreneurship opportunity formation in the immigrant set-up.

Subsidiary Entrepreneurial Alertness: Antecedents And Outcomes, Jennifer Dann

Doctoral

This thesis brings together concepts from both international business and entrepreneurship to develop a framework of the facilitators of subsidiary innovation and performance. This study proposes that Subsidiary Entrepreneurial Alertness (SEA) facilitates the recognition of opportunities (the origin of subsidiary initiatives). First introduced by Kirzner (1979) in the context of the individual, entrepreneurial alertness (EA) is the ability to notice an opportunity without actively searching. Similarly, to entrepreneurial alertness at the individual level, this study argues that SEA enables the subsidiary to best select opportunities based on resources available. The research further develops our conceptualisation of SEA by drawing on …

The Pursuit Of Authenticity In Identity Management, Jade Kim

Doctoral

Living authentically is widely regarded as a fundamental aspect of the human experience. It is often associated with moral superiority, personal engagement, and well-being. However, the pursuit of authenticity and living as one’s true self within organisational contexts can present a challenge as organisations need to exert control on their employees to achieve their productivity and efficiency goals. As a result, authenticity tends to be misrepresented as conformity, which can be detrimental for individuals who hold devalued identities or who do not fit organisational prescribed selves. Thus, this doctoral research aims to reconceptualise authenticity by incorporating identity management into its …

Anchorage: Visual Analysis Of Satisfaction In Customer Service Videos Via Anchor Events, Kam Kwai Wong, Xingbo Wang, Yong Wang, Jianben He, Rong Zhang, Huamin Qu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Delivering customer services through video communications has brought new opportunities to analyze customer satisfaction for quality management. However, due to the lack of reliable self-reported responses, service providers are troubled by the inadequate estimation of customer services and the tedious investigation into multimodal video recordings. We introduce , a visual analytics system to evaluate customer satisfaction by summarizing multimodal behavioral features in customer service videos and revealing abnormal operations in the service process. We leverage the semantically meaningful operations to introduce structured event understanding into videos which help service providers quickly navigate to events of their interest. supports a comprehensive …

Human-Centred Artificial Intelligence In The Banking Sector, Krishnaraj Arul Obuchettiar, Alan @ Ali Madjelisi Megargel

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Changes in technology have shaped how corporate and retail businesses have evolved, alongside the customers’ preferences. The advent of smart digital devices and social media has shaped how consumers interact and transact with their financial institutions over the past two decades. With the rapid evolution of new technologies and customers' growing preference for digital engagement with financial institutions, organizations need to adopt and align with emerging technologies that support speed, accuracy, efficiency, and security in a user-friendly manner. Today, consumers want hyper-personalized interactions that are more frequent and proactive. Moreover, financial institutions have a growing need to cater to consumers' …

Age Diversity In The Hospitality Workplace, Cass Shum, Ankita Ghosh, Yunxuan (Carrie) Zhang, Yuang-Sheng (Ken) Chiu

Hospitality Faculty Research

Because of the large number of available positions with low-skill requirements and delay of retirement age, the current hospitality workforce is at the peak of age and generational diversity. The current hospitality industry employs employees from four generations, including Baby Boomers, Generation X, Generation Y, and Generation Z. After briefly explaining the difference between age and generation, we first describe generational values and characteristics in this chapter. Next, we critically evaluate the benefits and disadvantages of having age-diverse teams. Finally, we focus on the talent management and leadership needed to manage employees from different generations.

Speculative Futures On Chatgpt And Generative Artificial Intelligence (Ai): A Collective Reflection From The Educational Landscape, Aras Bozkurt, Junhong Xiao, Sarah Lambert, Angelica Pazurek, Helen Crompton, Suzan Koseoglu, Robert Farrow, Melissa Bond, Chrissi Nerantzi, Sarah Honeychurch, Maha Bali, Jon Dron, Kamran Mir, Bonnie Stewart, Eamon Costello, Jon Mason, Christian M. Stracke, Enilda Romero-Hall, Apostolos Koutropoulos, Cathy Mae Toquero, Lenandlar Singh, Ahmed Tlili, Kyungmee Lee, Mark Nichols, Ebba Ossiannilsson, Mark Brown, Valerie Irvine, Juliana Elisa Raffaghelli, Gema Santos-Hermosa, Orna Farrell, Taskeen Adam, Ying Li Thong, Sunagul Sani-Bozkurt, Ramesh C. Sharma, Stefan Hrastinski, Petar Jandrić

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

While ChatGPT has recently become very popular, AI has a long history and philosophy. This paper intends to explore the promises and pitfalls of the Generative Pre-trained Transformer (GPT) AI and potentially future technologies by adopting a speculative methodology. Speculative future narratives with a specific focus on educational contexts are provided in an attempt to identify emerging themes and discuss their implications for education in the 21st century. Affordances of (using) AI in Education (AIEd) and possible adverse effects are identified and discussed which emerge from the narratives. It is argued that now is the best of times to define …

The Effects Of Cryptocurrency Wealth On Household Consumption And Investment, Darren Aiello, Scott R. Baker, Tetyana Balyuk, Marco Di Maggio, Mark Johnson, Jason Kotter, Emily Williams

Faculty Publications

Key Results:

• Retail crypto investors hold crypto as one part of a broader portfolio
• Inflation expectations drive crypto investment
• Marginal propensity to consume (MPC) out of crypto wealth is big!
• Households use crypto wealth to purchase housing
• As a result, crypto wealth shocks spill over into local house prices

Human Or Ai? Using Digital Behavior To Verify Essay Authorship, David W. Wilson, Parker Burnett, Joseph S. Valacich, Jeffrey L. Jenkins

Faculty Publications

Large language models (LLMs) such as OpenAI's GPT-4 have transformed natural language processing with their ability to understand context and generate human-like text. This has led to considerable debate, especially in the education sector, where LLMs can enhance learning but also pose challenges to academic integrity. Detecting AIgenerated content (AIGC) is difficult, as existing methods struggle to keep pace with advancements in generation technology. This research proposes a novel approach to AIGC detection in short essays, using digital behavior capture and follow-up questioning to verify text authorship. We executed a controlled experiment as an initial evaluation to test the prototype …

The Gatekeeper’S Dilemma: 'When Should I Transfer This Customer?', Brett A. Hathaway, Evgeny Kagan, Maqbool Dada

Faculty Publications

In many service encounters, front-line workers (often referred to as gatekeepers) have the discretion to attempt to resolve a customer request or to transfer the customer to an expert service provider. Motivated by an incentive redesign at a call center of a mid-size US-based bank, we formulate and solve an analytical model of the gatekeeper's transfer response to different incentive schemes and to different congestion levels. We then test several model predictions experimentally. Our experiments show that human behavior matches the predictions qualitatively, but not always in magnitude. Specifically, transfer rates are disproportionately low in the presence of monetary penalties …

Human Connection: A Crucial Ingredient In Vacation Experience, Ondrej Mitas, Moji Shahvali, Peter Ward, Mat Duerden, Marcel Bastiaansen

Faculty Publications

The past decade (2012–2022) has seen a blossoming of research on tourists’ quality of life. Frameworks such as subjective well-being (Diener & Seligman, 2002), the PERMA wellbeing theory (Seligman, 2012) and eudaimonia (Filep & Deery, 2010) have been used to document the numerous positive psychological effects of tourist experiences. One of the most robust findings from this literature is that engaging in tourism triggers emotions. Ranging from the excitement of hobby-focused competitions and tours (Mitas et al., 2012a) to the relaxation of a spa (Strauss-Blasche et al., 2004a), dozens of studies have now documented salubrious emotional profiles over the course …

Category Versus Labeled Magnitude Scale Measures Of Immediate Conscious Leisure Experiences: Engagement, Immersion, And Absorption, Gary D. Ellis, Patti A. Freeman, Brian J. Hill, Jingxian Jiang

Faculty Publications

We developed and validated single-item category (CAT) and labeled magnitude (LM) scales of three recalled immediate conscious leisure experiences: engagement, immersion, and absorption. These minimally invasive scales are suitable for use in experiments, surveys, and evaluations in the travel and leisure industries. The CAT scales followed a familiar Likert-type format, while the LM scales involved calibration by 169 judges using two modalities (drawing lines of differing lengths and providing numeric magnitude judgments) to establish empirically determined ratio-scaled distances among seven modifiers (not at all, slightly, somewhat, quite, very, greatly, and extremely). We collected 3,821 experience observations from 621 visitors to …

Land Prices And The Development Process, Henry J. Munneke, C. F. Sirmans, Barrett Slade

Faculty Publications

As lot area increases, it is commonly believed that land prices will increase at a nonconstant rate. In the case where the land price-area curve increases at a decreasing rate with respect to parcel area, it is believed the cost of subdividing land is the driving factor behind the concavity. This paper uses a unique data set to explore how the area elasticity of price changes over the development cycle as land moves from raw land to finished lots. The results show the area elasticity of price increases as parcels of land move through the phases of development. The results …

Empirically Testing The Experience Type Framework, Mat Duerden, Camilla Hodge, Karen Melton, Peter Ward, Madison Bagley, Lexi Anderson, Tessa Meredith, Aubrey Rushton, Dennis Eggett, Andrew Lacanienta, Mark A. Widmer

Faculty Publications

In 2018, Duerden et al. proposed an experience type framework (ETF) which articulated key characteristics of ordinary and extraordinary experiences. While conceptually helpful, the framework has yet to be empirically tested. Thus, the purpose of this study was to empirically test the proposed hierarchical structure of the ETF. To achieve this purpose, we first developed, refined, and validated an operationalized ETF measurement tool, the experience type scale (ETS), to test the ETF. Data from three separate studies involving samples drawn from an online panel, participants in an executive Master of Business field study experience, and undergraduate students (n¼405) are analyzed …

Beyond Competing For Talent: An Integrative Framework For Coopetition In Talent Management In Smes, Stefan Jooss, Julia Lenz, Ralf Burbach

Articles

This paper aims to unpack how small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can operationalise coopetition in talent management, addressing ongoing talent shortages in the hospitality industry which were intensified during the Covid-19 pandemic

Examining Incivility Through A Moral Lens: Coworker Morality Appraisals, Other-Condemning Emotions, And Instigated Incivility, Gerardo A. Miranda, Jennifer L. Welbourne

Management Faculty Publications

While much is known about the prevalence and impact of incivility in the workplace, relatively less is known about those who instigate workplace incivility. This research aims to investigate incivility instigation through a moral lens by examining the roles of other-condemning moral emotions (contempt, disgust, and anger) and appraisals of coworkers’ morality as predictors of this behavior at work. In Study 1, we used structural equation modeling to analyze two waves of self-report data collected from a sample of 447 full-time United States (U.S.) working adults. Findings from this study indicate that appraising coworkers as low in morality elicited feelings …