Business Commons^™

The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year: Many Retail Stores May Concur, Manuel Reyes-Loya, Cecilia Cuellar

Hibbs Brief

In this issue of the Hibbs Brief, we discuss retail sales during the holiday season in the U.S., and we estimate its economic impact on the Tyler Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA).

Monitoring Institutional Ownership And Corporate Innovation, Steve Miller, Bin Qiu, Bin Wang, Tina Yang

Finance Faculty Research and Publications

We document a positive effect of monitoring institutional ownership on firm innovation after controlling for traditional measures of institutional ownership. We further find that monitoring institutions enhance firm innovation by: (1) incentivizing CEO risk-taking and reducing intense board monitoring, (2) alleviating agency problems, (3) attenuating managerial career concerns, and (4) mitigating corporate misvaluation. Overall, our findings highlight the importance of considering institutions’ monitoring incentives when examining the outcomes of their portfolio firms’ activities associated with high information asymmetry.

Harnessing The Power Within: The Consequences Of Salesperson Moral Identity And The Moderating Role Of Internal Competitive Climate, Omar S. Itani, Nawar N. Chaker

Marketing Faculty Publications

The purpose of this research is to examine the notion of salesperson moral identity as a prosocial individual trait and its associated effects on customer and coworker relationships. In addition, this study examines the underlying processes in which these effects occur as well as the moderating role of internal competitive climate. Our empirical investigation of business-to-business (B2B) sales professionals reveals that moral identity has both direct and indirect effects on a salesperson’s customer- and team-directed outcomes. Specifically, our results demonstrate that salesperson moral identity positively affects both salesperson-customer identification and organizational identification, which, in turn, impact customer service provision and …

Sustainability Across The Supply Chair: A Case Study In The Automotive Industry, Jane Siegler, Angelyn Bidlack, Sarah Harrison

Scholarship and Professional Work - Business

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals have been widely adopted and implemented by organizations worldwide. However, with 17 goals and 169 targets, the decision on what to focus on and invest in are not trivial tasks. This research focuses on a major Tier-1 automotive supplier, here identified as CMF. With annual sales of 16 billion euros (2021), one in every three vehicles in the world is equipped with some form of CMF technology. The objective of this research was to evaluate CMF’s value chain and understand the challenges and opportunities related to the United Nations 17 Sustainability Development Goals (SDGs). …

2022-December-01-Etsu Predicts Above-Normal Temperatures This Winter, University Marketing And Communication, East Tennessee State University

ETSU News

JOHNSON CITY – Like it or not, the official start to winter is only a few days away.

And for the third straight season, winter will be characterized by the La Niña pattern. That likely means higher-than-normal temperatures for much of the Appalachian Highlands and above average precipitation, according to East Tennessee State University.

“Seasonal forecasts can be pretty tricky and the federal government through the NOAA along with the Farmer’s Almanac and Punxsutawney Phil, don’t always get it right,” said Dr. Andrew Joyner and Wil Tollefson, both members of the Department of Geosciences.

Housed in Ross Hall on …

Launching An Online Boutique And Analyzing Digital Marketing Strategies Used, Kayla Weyers

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Digital marketing is becoming more relevant and widely used in the marketing industry. In order to use the marketing skills that I have learned through my marketing major in a real-world scenario, I launched an online women’s clothing store called Ash + Grae. This paper examines the start-up process and legal obstacles of opening a small business. It also analyzes the different marketing techniques by comparing digital marketing strategies such as social media, influencer, email, and SEO marketing.

Exploring Mortgage Loan Opportunities For Native 360, Donald Nam, Brooks Douglass, Michael Buehre Stackpole, Broderick Diez

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Native 360 is a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) that aims to provide affordable capital, credit, and assistance to develop strong and self-sufficient Native Americans. Native 360 currently accomplishes this by specializing in providing personal and business loans. However, Native 360 would like to expand into home mortgages as an additional offering. Native 360 has reached out to us to have us develop a strategy to raise capital for their ambitious new business line in an attempt to strengthen the Native American community through home ownership.

Understanding Sentiment Through Context, Richard M.Crowley, M.H. Franco Wong

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

We examine whether empirical results using text-based sentiment of U.S. annual reports depend on the underlying context, within documents, from which sentiment is measured. We construct a clause-level measure of context, showing that sentiment is driven by many different contexts and that positive and negative sentiment are driven by different contexts. We then construct context-level sentiment measures and examine whether sentiment works as expected at the context-level across four prediction problems. Our results demonstrate that document-level sentiment exhibits significant noise in prediction and suggest that document-level aggregation of sentiment leads to missed empirical nuances. The contexts driving sentiment results vary …

Essays On Human Resource Management (Hrm), Isory Santana

Publications and Research

Human Resource Management to demonstrate that the department of human resources adds value to the business. Considering the three main components of Human Resource Planning (HRP), the importance of and connections between environmental scanning, cultural audits, strategic planning, job enrichment, the idea of the dynamic process of organizations, and diversity management strategies, and how they relate to creating a competitive organization and how they assist Human Resources (HR) in dealing with its challenges.

2022-12-01 Agenda Book, Morehead State University. Board Of Regents.

Morehead State Board of Regents Agenda Books and Meeting Minutes

Agenda booklet for the Board of Regents meeting of December 1, 2022 which includes the meeting minutes of the meeting held on August 4, 2022.

Who They Are Versus What They Want: How Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, And Compliance Profiles Can Aid In Developing Employability, Bonnie S. O'Neill, Jason Fertig, Pamela Wells, Carelle B. Bassil

Management Faculty Research and Publications

This paper draws attention to a behavior-based assessment instrument that is frequently utilized in industry settings but less utilized in the academic classroom. The authors argue that this instrument, the dominance, influence, steadiness, and compliance (DISC) profile, can be useful in training and developing soft skills desired by employers. They also examine the effects of gender and work experience on the various DISC patterns to better understand how this instrument may be useful for coaching and mentoring in those academic and organizational contexts. In this study, DISC pattern data were gathered from 1547 undergraduate and graduate students across multiple universities …

2022-December-01-Etsu Professor Named Vice President Of Pca, University Marketing And Communication, East Tennessee State University

ETSU News

JOHNSON CITY – East Tennessee State University’s Dr. Elwood Watson, professor of history, Black American Studies and Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies whose writings and presentations have reached a wide audience, has been selected as the new vice president for Diversity, Outreach and Inclusion with The Popular Culture Association (PCA). 

Dr. Sue Matheson, president of the association and a professor at University College of the North, said: “We are pleased that Dr. Watson has accepted our request to serve in this most important position. The Governing Board is confident that Dr. Watson’s long record of service to the PCA, …

2022-December-01-Wets-Fm Launching Year-End Campaign, University Marketing And Communication, East Tennessee State University

ETSU News

JOHNSON CITY – WETS-FM, a public radio station housed on the main campus of East Tennessee State University, is launching a year-end campaign that runs Dec. 10-16.

“Public radio is vital here in the Appalachian Highlands, as well as across the nation,” said Chad Barrett, station director. “We hope our listeners will be generous as we close out 2022.” 

Donations directly support NPR programming, and help the station replace aging equipment.

“We so often hear from our wonderful listeners how much they love WETS-FM,” Barrett said. “We are asking for support to ensure this excellent programming stays on the air.” …

Examining Users’ Information Disclosure And Audience Support Response Dynamics In Online Health Communities: An Empirical Study, Joseph A. Manga, Francis Andoh-Baidoo, Emmanuel Wusuhon Yanibo Ayaburi, Diego Escobari

Information Systems Faculty Publications

Online healthcare communities (OHCs) facilitate two-way interaction. Examining users’ information disclosure-audience support response dynamics can reveal insights for fostering a supportive environment, community engagement, bond formation, knowledge sharing, and sustained participation in OHCs. We propose a structural vector autoregression (SVAR) model of user disclosure and response dynamics in OHCs. Based on the health disclosure decision-making model and daily time series data, we examine the two-way interaction of two dimensions of disclosure efficacy with audience support response acceptance. Findings of the impulse response functions reveal that user information density leads to positive support response acceptance, whereas support response acceptance reduces the …

Forecasting Variance Swap Payoffs, Jonathan Dark, Xin Gao, Thijs Van Der Heijden, Federico Nardari

WCBT Faculty Publications

We investigate the predictability of payoffs from selling variance swaps on the S&P500, US 10-year treasuries, gold, and crude oil. In-sample analysis shows that structural breaks are an important feature when modeling payoffs, and hence the ex post variance risk premium. Out-of-sample tests, on the other hand, reveal that structural break models do not improve forecast performance relative to simpler linear (or state invariant) models. We show that a host of variables that had previously been shown to forecast excess returns for the four asset classes, contain predictive power for ex post realizations of the respective variance risk premia as …

Pickup And Multi-Delivery Problem With Time Windows, Pham Tuan Anh, Aldy Gunawan, Vincent F. Yu, Tuan C. Chau

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This paper addresses a new variant of Pickup and Delivery Problem with Time Windows (PDPTW) for enhancing customer satisfaction. In particular, a huge number of requests is served in the system, where each request includes a pickup node and several delivery nodes instead of a pair of pickup and delivery nodes. It is named Pickup and Multi-Delivery Problem with Time Windows (PMDPTW). A mixed-integer programming model is formulated with the objective of minimizing total travel costs. Computational experiments are conducted to test the correctness of the model with a newly generated benchmark based on the PDPTW benchmark instances. Results show …

What Should Streamers Communicate In Livestream E-Commerce? The Effects Of Social Interactions On Live Streaming Performance, Danyang Song, Xi Chen, Zhiling Guo, Xiao Liu Liu, Ruijin. Jin

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Compared with traditional e-commerce, livestreaming e-commerce is characterized by direct and intimate communication between streamers and consumers that stimulates instant social interactions. This study focuses on streamers’ three types of information exchange (i.e., product information, social conversation, and social solicitation) and examines their roles in driving both short-term and long-term livestreaming performance (i.e., sales and customer base growth). We find that the informational role of product information (nonpromotional and promotional) is beneficial not only to sales performance, but also to the growth of the customer base. We also find that social conversation has a relationship-building effect that positively impacts both …

Arts Marketing, David Ocon

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Although there are hundreds of resources on traditional and commercial marketing, the materials available specifically for arts marketing are scarce, posing additional challenges for Gillian. Furthermore, while some focus on arts management, few of them address marketing from the perspective of a small-to-medium (often financially struggling) arts organization. An organization like Gillian’s often has limited resources, both financial and human, and can only approach marketing informally. However, it experiences the same pressures to perform well as larger arts institutions. Often, survival depends on how well it implements the marketing strategies that marketing staff create on their own. This chapter is …

Is Nevada A Reproductive Resource Desert?, Tsion Mekonnen

Research Publications

Nevada's reproductive health issues is specified in a list of statistical data. The data ranges from issues concerning women living in poverty, the uninsured population of men and women in Nevada, and the amount of women enrolled/eligible for benefits.

Economic Uncertainty And Bank Risk: The Moderating Role Of Risk Governance, Xing Zhang, Fengchao Li, Yingying Xu, Jaime Ortiz

International Business and Entrepreneurship Faculty Publications

Uncertainty is an economically important risk factor in the banking sector. Using a sample of Chinese listed commercial banks over the period 2005 − 2018, this research conducted pooled OLS and found evidence that economic uncertainty significantly increases bank risk and lowers profitability. Furthermore, we constructed a partial equilibrium model to explain how risk governance alters the risk-increasing effect and profit-decreasing effect of economic uncertainty on bank risk and profitability. Consistent with theory, empirical results suggested the effects of economic uncertainty on bank risk and performance tend to be considerably weaker when there exists a strong risk governance mechanism. These …

Shaping Ott Movie Consumption Through Immersive Cinema: A Qualitative Investigation Of Consumer Perspectives, Avirupa Basu, Pratap C. Mandal, Ashutosh. B. Murti, Tamas Makany, Tamas Makany

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the entertainment sector saw a worldwide disruption with restrictions on outdoor activities. Consequently, consumers turned towards video and music streaming services for their entertainment consumption. Several film studios have taken the digital release route on over-the-top (OTT) sites to avoid revenue losses and indefinite delays. However, these non-theatrical OTT film releases need to experiment with different strategies to bring the experiences to par with theatrical ones. This exploratory study aims to provide insights on whether Immersive Cinema can be used to imitate the physical world through digital simulation on OTT platforms to gain credibility in …

Governance And Design Of Digital Platforms: A Review And Future Research Directions On A Meta-Organization, Liang Chen, Tony W. Tong, Shaoqin Tang, Nianchen Han

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The burgeoning digital-platforms literature across multiple business disciplines has primarily characterized the platform as a market or network. Although the organizing role of platform owners is well recognized, the literature lacks a coherent approach to understanding organizational governance in the platform context. Drawing on classic organizational governance theories, this paper views digital platforms as a distinct organizational form where the mechanisms of incentive and control routinely take center stage. We systematically review research on digital platforms, categorize specific governance mechanisms related to incentive and control, and map a multitude of idiosyncratic design features studied in prior research onto these mechanisms. …

2022-12-00 Newsletter, Morehead State University. Staff Congress.

Staff Congress Records

Staff Congress newsletter from December of 2022.

Don't Interfere With My Rights! Employee Rights Violation And The Cost Of Bank Loans, Amirhossein Fard, Ibrahim Siraj, Bin Wang

Finance Faculty Research and Publications

We study the relationship between the cost of bank loans and the charges filed to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) due to managerial interference in employee rights. Loans issued after the filing of the allegations are associated with significantly higher loan spreads than loans initiated before the filing of allegations. Strong allegations that result in withdrawal with adjustments or compliance tend to positively affect the loan pricing. Further, interfering firms tend to experience higher default risks in the years following the filing of charges. Our paper is the first in the literature to show the impact of violation of …

Code Of Ethics Quality And Audit Fees, Hong Kim Duong, Giorgio Gotti, Michael T. Stein, Anthony Chen

School of Accountancy Faculty Publications

Using a sample of U.S. firms from 2003 to 2018, we examine the effect of an audit client’s code of ethics quality on audit fees. We find that clients with a lower code of ethics quality pay significantly higher audit fees, suggesting that auditors perceive such clients as riskier and charge greater risk premiums. We also find that such clients have higher litigation risk and auditors spend greater effort when auditing such clients. Our study is among the first to demonstrate the role of a client’s code of ethics quality in audit pricing. Overall, our findings are consistent with …

Optimal Channel Strategy Of Luxury Brands In The Presence Of Online Marketplace And Copycats, Sarah Yini Gao, Wei Shi Lim, Ziqiu Ye

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The strategic interaction between authentic luxury brands and their copycats has evolved since the proliferation of online marketplaces. Using a game-theoretic framework, we examine how an authentic luxury brand, observing the strategic behavior of its competing copycats, should make its optimal entry decision to a third-party online marketplace. Our findings reveal that the authentic luxury brand does not sell on the online marketplace when either the quality or the physical resemblance of the copycat to the authentic luxury brand is high. This contributes to the related literature by offering an explanation for the increasing quality of copycats amid the e-commerce …

Charting New Courses To Enter Foreign Markets: Conceptualization, Theoretical Framework, And Research Directions On Non-Traditional Entry Modes, Keith D. Brouthers, Liang Chen, Sali Li, Noman Shaheer

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Recent advances in digitalization and increasing integration of international markets are paving the way for a new generation of firms to use non-traditional entry modes that are largely marginalized in previous entry mode studies. While extant research revolves around the level of resource commitment and control in foreign activities, non-traditional modes are encapsulated by the extent of embeddedness required for exploring new and/or exploiting existing resources. In particular, we draw attention to four such categories of non-traditional entry modes the literature has touched on, i.e., capital access, innovation outposts, virtual presence, and the managed ecosystem. We explore the key attributes, …

The Impact Of Subscription Programs On Customer Purchases, Raghu Iyengar, Young-Hoon Park, Qi Yu

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Subscription programs have become increasingly popular among a wide variety of retailers and marketplace platforms. Subscription programs give members access to a set of exclusive benefits for a fixed fee upfront. In this paper, we examine the causal effect of a subscription program on customer behavior. To account for self-selection and identify the individual-level treatment effects, we combine a difference-in-differences approach with a generalized random forests procedure that matches each member of the subscription program with comparable non-members. We find subscription leads to a large increase in customer purchases. The effect of subscription is economically significant, persistent over time, and …

The Value Of Fiduciary Duties: Evidence From En Bloc Sales In Singapore, Jianfeng Hu, Kelvin F. K. Low, Wei Zhang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This paper examines the impact of fiduciary duties on collective asset sales in the case of owners acting as delegates for other owners, thereby potentially inducing conflicts of interests. Our identification strategy exploits a unique legal shock in Singapore, which established fiduciary duties in those transactions in the real estate market known colloquially as en bloc sales. The imposition of fiduciary duties caused the price premium of units sold via en bloc sales to increase over units ineligible for en bloc sale, as well as over units that, although eligible for en bloc sale, are sold individually. In addition, this …

Learning From Manipulable Signals, Mehmet Ekmekci, Leandrro Gorno, Lucas Maestri, Jian Sun, Dong Wei

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We study a dynamic stopping game between a principal and an agent. The agent is privately informed about his type. The principal learns about the agent’s type from a noisy performance measure, which can be manipulated by the agent via a costly and hidden action. We fully characterize the unique Markov equilibrium of this game. We find that terminations/ market crashes are often preceded by a spike in (expected) performance. Our model also predicts that, due to endogenous signal manipulation, too much transparency can inhibit learning. As the players get arbitrarily patient, the principal elicits no useful information from the …