Business Commons^™

Design And Production Of A Carbon Fiber Longboard, John R. Beebe, Jacob Williams, Julia Stradinger, Vince Fitchtel, Jordan Cochran

Honors Theses

This thesis contains an overview of the design, prototyping, and manufacturing of a carbon fiber long board. The purpose of this capstone was to create a viable product for the real-world market and then determine how to manufacture it at scale with sustainable financial practices. In order to accomplish this task, engineering, accounting, and manufacturing challenges had to be overcome throughout all stages. The production process involved the carbon fiber layup, baking, water jet cutting, and assembly of the carbon fiber longboard. In order to optimize this process, continuous improvement and lean manufacturing problem solving techniques were applied. After a …

Problems And Risks Within The Agriculture Of Stann Creek, Ethan Bailey

Supply Chain Management Undergraduate Honors Theses

Agriculture is a significant part of the economy of Stann Creek, Belize and faces many challenges. This research presents data from farms in the areas surrounding Dangriga regarding the problems that they have been experiencing and potential risks they may face. The research covers family/individual farms, an agriculture cooperative, commercial farms, agritourism businesses, and Mennonite communities. This research was conducted as part of an internship with the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) of Belize alongside extension officers of the Stann Creek branch of the MOA.

The data from the internship found that agriculture in Stann Creek dealt with problems regarding availability …

Tourism Dependency: Prosperity Or Precarity, Samson Eby

Finance Undergraduate Honors Theses

Tourism Dependency: Prosperity or Precarity

Is being tourism dependent in a developing country a beneficial tool to use to grow economics

The Long Tail: Business Viability After The Crisis, Emma M. Woo-Ming

Economics Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis examines the barriers to business growth and youth development in Dangriga, Belize, within the broader context of post-crisis economic recovery. Despite Belize’s record-breaking tourism arrivals in 2024, Dangriga has not experienced parallel growth, hindered by limited government support, insufficient infrastructure, and gaps in workforce readiness. Through field research, stakeholder interviews, and the development of tailored business strategies, this project identified critical needs in risk assessment, collaboration, and youth engagement. The findings underscore the interconnectedness of politics, culture, and economics in shaping local business ecosystems, and highlight the importance of adaptable, context-specific solutions over the direct application of models …

Unearthing Potential: Impact Investors’ Perspectives On Egypt’S Social Enterprise Market, Yousef Hesham Shoukry

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines impact investing in Egypt from the vantage point of the impact investors, revealing that Egypt's constraint is not the availability of capital but its direction, as the absence of legal recognition, coordinated intermediaries, and a shared impact-measurement standard keeps capital out of a market otherwise rich in social enterprise potential. The study employed a constructivist grounded theory approach, drawing on eleven semi-structured interviews with impact fund managers, ecosystem enablers, and public-sector policy advisors operating in or considering Egypt's social enterprise market. Data revealed that practitioners converge on the founding principles of impact investment (combined financial and social …

Three Essays On Sustainable Finance And Market Microstructure, Hien Nguyen, Madhu Kalimipalli, Laleh Samarbaksh, Amanjot Singh, Si Li

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Paper 1: Employee Whistleblowing and Corporate Environmental Performance

Abstract: Does employee whistleblowing improve the future environmental performance of firms? We address this question by studying how firm level regulatory violations initiated due to employee led whistleblowing concerns are related to subsequent climate risks. We show that whistleblowing of workplace safety and health hazards leads to significant reduction in firm level carbon emissions. The results are robust to alternative climate risk measures and endogeneity tests, where we exploit two sources of exogenous variation in whistleblowing incentives: (a) state-level changes in unemployment insurance benefits, and (b) state pension fund holdings with False …

Working Mothers Of Children With Disabilities: Professional And Social Identity Negotiation, Christy D. Boyles

Dissertations

Women who have children with disabilities may struggle with both employment and childcare, and have barriers to re-entering the workforce. One struggle is the role identification and negotiation that occur when one transitions from one role to another. This research sought to answer the following questions: RQ 1. How does professional identity influence the “return to work” decisions for mothers who have children with disabilities? RQ 2. How do working mothers of children with disabilities negotiate their identities as caregivers and professionals? RQ 3. What other emerging factors affect women’s decisions to return to the workforce? A purposeful sample of …

Optimizing Inventory Management, William Hawkins

Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness Undergraduate Honors Theses

Inventory management is extremely important for businesses to maximize their profitability. Many factors go into the decision-making process for how much inventory to hold and when to restock this inventory. Through the process of an internship, I determined that some of the most important factors were the amount of a part that needed to be ordered at a time and what order quantities would allow for high levels of customer satisfaction. In this research, I compared these factors between the different models I studied, and the data I received from Riggs CAT to determine whether or not maximum efficiency and …

When The Bridge Is Not At Sea : Investigating Transfer Of Learning From Full-Mission Bridge Simulator To Navigation Training Onboard, Thammawan Phanphichit

World Maritime University Ph.D. Dissertations

This dissertation explores, through a mixed-methods approach, how fullmission bridge simulators support transfer of learning to navigation training onboard, and under what conditions transfer can be trusted. Qualitative and quantitative components were integrated across the four articles. The first study explores how key onboard training stakeholders perceive its challenges, limitations, and the possibility of reducing required sea-time. Findings show broad agreement that OBT remains important, though openness to simulator use was conditional on credible evidence that simulator-developed competence can transfer onboard. The second and third studies examine this through transfer of learning theory. A systematic review identifies elements influencing transfer …

A Qualitative Interview On After-Hours Communication And Reactions To After-Hours Communication, Caleb Browns

Honors Projects

A qualitative study on after-hours communication and its impact on Rumination. The study studied 5 participants from a variety of different fields and organizations who worked more than 20 hours. Questions were asked in a semi-structured interview style. Four Demographic questions, four questions relating to interpretations, and two questions about types of after-work communication. Results were qualitatively coded and reported here.

Lived Experiences Of Transformational Leaders In Rural Agribusiness During Economic Uncertainty, Gina Hayes-Walton

College of Business

This qualitative hermeneutic phenomenological study explored how transformational leaders in rural agribusiness understood and interpreted their leadership role and which behaviors they identified as meaningful for sustaining their organizations during the economic uncertainty spanning March 2020 through December 2023. Rural agribusinesses in Alabama's Black Belt operate with limited capital, aging infrastructure, and constrained access to institutional resources, conditions that place unusual weight on internal leadership capacity. Twelve agribusiness leaders with decision-making authority in producer, distributor, and supplier operations across the 18-county Black Belt region completed individual semi-structured interviews. Leadership responsibility extended beyond the individual enterprise to land, workforce, and community, …

Impact Of Corporate Governance On Achieving Desired Corporate Hedging Outcomes, Shweta Chitalia

Harrisburg University Dissertations and Theses

Corporate derivative hedging is intended to manage financial exposures, stabilize cash flows, and support organizational risk-management objectives; however, limited public evidence exists regarding how governance structures influence hedge evaluation, approval, and timely execution. This qualitative descriptive study examined how corporate governance was publicly described in relation to derivative hedging among large U.S. nonfinancial corporations. The study analyzed one publicly available Form 10-K filing from each of 25 purposively selected S&P 500 nonfinancial firms reporting active derivative hedging programs. Data were collected from SEC filings and organized in an Excel-based audit trail containing a document log, excerpt-level coding records, codebook, firm …

Scalable Growth In High-Contact, On-Site Service Firms: Ambidextrous Competitive Logics And A Dual-Governance Mechanism Of Replication Quality, Wei Han

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This dissertation examines how high-contact, on-site service firms scale up. The central challenge is the stable reproduction of a recognizable service template across dispersed branches under customer heterogeneity, frontline discretion, relationship continuity, and local capacity pressure. Replication quality is defined as the branch-level stability of the service promise, execution rhythm, and exception-handling logic. It is measured directly through retention outcomes and service-failure outcomes, which capture continued acceptance of the service promise and visible breakdowns in service delivery.

The theoretical argument centers on two ambidextrous competitive logics. Local responsiveness requires branches to adapt service timing, provider matching, communication, and recovery work …

The Role Of Hardiness On Leadership In Big-Box Retail Managers, Cari Alvarez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Retail managers face constant customer demands, unpredictable staffing, and high-pressure performance expectations, yet little research has examined how these leaders sustain effectiveness under such conditions. This qualitative descriptive study explored how big-box retail managers in the United States described their development and use of hardiness across the constructs of control, commitment, and challenge to lead in a complex retail environment, an area not previously examined in the literature. Hardiness theory served as the theoretical framework for the study. Data were collected through 12 semistructured interviews with retail managers and an online questionnaire completed by 45 qualifying respondents. Interview data were …

Cultural Humility In The Workplace: A Causal-Comparative Study Of Foreign And Local Hire Employees In International Education, Natalie A. Ortiz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Cultural humility is recognized as a framework for fostering respectful relationships in culturally diverse workplaces. However, limited research has examined cultural humility within international education in regard to workplace dynamics and power imbalances that may exist between foreign and local hire educators. The purpose of this quantitative causal-comparative study was to examine differences in perceived cultural humility levels between foreign and local hire employees in PreK-12^th grade private international schools in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. The study also examined whether years of international educational experience and the number of international educational assignments influenced perceived cultural humility levels. Data …

Building Motivation Through A Christian-Based Vocational Sports Academy, Elasha E. Naylor-Cooper

Doctor of Strategic Leadership (DSL) Capstone Abstracts

Project Type: Business Proposal Capstone

Project Overview: CTA Academy - Christian Technology and Athletics Academy - is a proposed private Christian school designed to provide 6-12 grade students with an alternative educational pathway that integrates academic achievement, Christian formation, career preparation, athletics, wellness, and leadership development. The project responds to concerns surrounding student engagement, motivation, academic performance, limited access to affordable private education, and the separation of academic, vocational, spiritual, and athletic development within traditional educational models. CTA Academy proposes a diversified funding model, including scholarship-supported funds, college and business partnerships, donors, sponsors, and fundraisers. This model seeks to make …

S.T.A.B.L.E.R.: People Engagement Leadership Workshop: From Employee Voice To Visible Action., Tiffany R. White

Doctor of Strategic Leadership (DSL) Capstone Abstracts

Project Overview This doctoral capstone developed the S.T.A.B.L.E.R. People Engagement Leadership Framework, a structured leadership development workshop designed to address the gap between collecting employee feedback and translating that feedback into meaningful, measurable leadership action. The project was informed by professional observations in retail and service environments, where employee surveys, workplace conversations, and feedback mechanisms provided valuable insight but did not always result in visible leadership follow-through. Research on employee engagement, psychological safety, and employee voice informed the workshop’s design (Edmondson, 1999; Kahn, 1990; Morrison, 2023). The seven-step framework; Sustain, Translate, Align, Build, Listen, Empower, and Recognize was organized around …

Inspiring Beyond Expectation: Transformational Leadership And The Pursuit Of Sustainable Team Performance, Coy Carter

Doctor of Strategic Leadership (DSL) Capstone Abstracts

This half-day seminar was designed to ignite a fire within individuals as they build the needed skills required to become transformational leaders. It focused heavily on the Four I’s that characterize transformational leadership. Bernard Bass developed the Four I’s of transformational leadership: Idealized Influence, Inspirational Motivation, Individualized Consideration, and Intellectual Stimulation (Bass, 1985).  The seminar included breakout sessions, small groups, and a PowerPoint presentation. Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Suncoast hosted the seminar at its corporate office. The project theme focused on Transformational Leadership. Participants learned how to apply transformational leadership in the workplace, personal relationships, and mentorship. Through …

Mutual Respect And Reciprocal Trust On Proactive Engagement In Construction Team Relationships, Brent Greuter

PhD in Organizational Leadership

The coordination of complex work among diverse project stakeholders in multifamily construction depends on interpersonal relationships. This quantitative, nonexperimental study examined whether mutual respect and reciprocal trust influence proactive engagement in the relationships among personnel working in the U.S. multifamily construction industry. Leader–member exchange theory provided the primary theoretical framework. Data from 144 participants were analyzed using descriptive statistics, reliability analysis, exploratory factor analysis, Pearson correlations, and multiple linear regression. Workplace respect was represented by coworker respectful workplace climate, perceived workplace respect, and experienced workplace mistreatment; reciprocal trust comprised integrity, competency, benevolence, and commitment; and proactive engagement comprised vigor, dedication, …

More Than A Crown: A Pageant Director’S Guide, Kenyonn Demps

Doctor of Strategic Leadership (DSL) Capstone Abstracts

Project Overview

More Than a Crown is a practical leadership and operational workbook designed to guide current and aspiring pageant directors through the process of developing, organizing, and executing a meaningful and successful pageant program. The workbook provides structured guidance for establishing the pageant’s purpose and identity, developing timelines and budgets, recruiting and communicating with contestants, coordinating volunteers and stakeholders, securing sponsorships, planning production elements, managing judging processes, and creating an intentional participant experience. More than an event-planning resource, the workbook encourages directors to approach pageantry as a leadership platform capable of creating confidence, connection, personal development, and lasting impact. …

Consulting 101: Evaluating A Strategic Leadership Intervention To Strengthen Early-Career Engagement And Affective Commitmentabstract, Raymond A. Lloyd

Doctor of Strategic Leadership (DSL) Capstone Abstracts

Project Type Applied Leadership Development Intervention and Program Evaluation Project Overview This capstone project designed, implemented, and evaluated Consulting 101 for Early Career Professionals, a leadership development workshop addressing factors associated with affective organizational commitment. Conducted within a multidisciplinary engineering consulting firm, the intervention focused on career growth visibility, strengths awareness, role clarity, self-efficacy, and perceived organizational support. Eleven early-career professionals participated in a one-day workshop in September 2026. A descriptive program evaluation incorporated pre-workshop assessments, immediate post-workshop surveys, facilitator observations, and a three-week follow-up assessment. Post-workshop ratings were favorable across all five developmental constructs, with perceived organizational support receiving …

Ai-Driven Project Management In Real Estate Private Equity: Impacts On Workflow Efficiency And Standardization, Alexander D. Van Den Bosch

Harrisburg University Dissertations and Theses

Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly used in project management, yet limited research has examined its relationship with workflow efficiency and process standardization in real estate private equity (REPE) acquisitions. This quantitative correlational study examined these relationships and identified which AI-supported functionalities respondents perceived as contributing most to project management performance. The study drew on project management principles and the Technology Acceptance Model. Data were collected through a cross-sectional QuestionPro survey of professionals involved in REPE and related acquisition workflows, resulting in 146 completed surveys. The study used descriptive statistics, Pearson correlations, and regression analysis to evaluate the data. AI implementation …

Teacher Mentoring As A National Imperative: A Multi-Paper Dissertation, Ramiro Pesina

Human Resource Development Theses and Dissertations

This multi-paper dissertation investigates teacher mentoring as a critical intervention in human resource development designed to address the complex challenges facing the teaching profession, including high attrition rates and the need for sustained professional support. The study is organized into three connected studies: an integrative literature review on technology enhanced mentoring, a longitudinal qualitative study that devises a comprehensive mentoring model covering cognitive, emotional, and behavioral aspects, and a phenomenological case study in which a formally structured mentoring program in a North Texas school district is analyzed in terms of execution and outcome. Critically important findings indicate that well-crafted mentoring …

Offline And Thriving: Understanding The Professional And Personal Lives Of Non-Social Media Users In A Digitally Dominant Era, Bhargava Mantena

Dissertations

Existing research has treated voluntary social media abstinence as the absence of users rather than as a condition worth study. This mixed-methods study examined its psychological and occupational correlates. Adults aged 21 to 65 reporting abstinence from all major platforms for six months or more completed three validated instruments measuring mental well-being, work engagement, and perceived social isolation; a purposive subsample of 12 took part in semi-structured interviews. The analysis set comprised 120 participants, below the 128 indicated by the a priori power analysis. Research Question 1 could not be tested as approved, because no active-user comparison group was recruited; …

The Game Within: An Anthropological Approach To Games And Play, Nehal Maged Mohamed

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is based on an eighteen-month ethnography of El Ghawasa, an Egyptian play-based organization that designs educational games, tools, and services. Claiming that El Ghawasa, with its ethos of play, seeks to create an alternative to the capitalist corporate structure. Through tracking how this organization navigates ruptures, negotiates constraints, and experiments with different practices and internal restructuring, I explore the possibilities and limitations of El Ghawasa, while attempting to resist absorption by the very system it opposes. I ask: when the rules keep changing (while the logic of the capitalist corporate structure remains the same), and the boundaries of …

Moralized Indulgence In The Age Of Inflation: How “Better-For-You” Dessert Brands Reframe Pleasure As Self-Care, Dariya Savrukova

Honors College Theses

In the modern U.S. food landscape, the line between indulgence and wellness has nearly disappeared. The booming “better-for-you” dessert industry, owned primarily by multinational giants such as Mondelēz International, PepsiCo, and Mars Inc., reframes high-sugar, high-calorie treats as acts of self-discipline or self-care. This phenomenon is often referred to as “healthwashing” (Tufts Health & Nutrition Letter, 2022), when through verbal and visual language, these companies transform indulgence into moral consumption, inviting consumers to feel virtuous through consumption. Many consumers crave stability and health, but navigate an environment saturated with manipulative design and ambiguous claims. “Better-for-you” branding exploits this gap by …

Spiraling Up, Spiraling Down: A Multi-Level Study Of Social Value Creation And Community Capitals In A Mexican Social Enterprise, Karla M. Corres Luna

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation examines how a social enterprise creates social value and, through the same intervention, erodes it in the communities it serves. Research on social entrepreneurship has theorized value largely from the organizational viewpoint, measured it at a single point in time, and rested on an unexamined aggregation assumption: that gains delivered to individual households sum into well-being at the level of the community. This study holds that assumption up to community-level, participant-centered evidence. Through three qualitative studies of a participatory housing model implemented by a social enterprise in two informal settlements in Querétaro, México, it analyzes social value creation …

The Anti-Racist Organization? Power, Embodiment, And The Politics Of Becoming, Patricia Tiimah Naya

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Why do organizational justice commitments so rarely produce structural transformation, and what happens to the people who take them seriously? This dissertation addresses that question through a longitudinal qualitative study of Aequitas University, a large public urban research institution in the northeastern United States, during a multi-year attempt to become “anti-racist.” Drawing on 129 semi-structured interviews with 115 organizational members, 7 focus group discussions, four years of field observation, and an archival corpus spanning more than a decade of institutional history, the dissertation examines how justice commitments move through organizations over time. Justice commitments do not simply succeed or fail. …

The Freedom Myth: How Ski Culture's Hidden Conformity Reveals The Unconscious Power Of Brand Belonging, Isabel R. Phillips

University Honors Theses

Purpose: Ski culture sells freedom and enforces conformity. This review asks what unconscious behavioral patterns hold that contradiction in place, and how brands capitalize on it to manufacture belonging.

Design/Methodology/Approach: A narrative literature review across consumer psychology, behavioral neuroscience, sociology, and ski industry research. No primary data were collected. Four accounts of consistency-seeking are synthesized into one framework, then applied to three ski industry cases at ascending scales and tested against a comparative case from Spanish football.

Findings: Belonging is a conditioned response, and conditioning requires a stable stimulus. Consistency is therefore the precondition of belonging rather than a constraint …

A Philosophy Of Communication Response To Bullying In Corporate America, Chris A. Phillips Dr.

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This philosophy of communication response to bullying in corporate America follows the structure of posing research questions, synthesizing relevant literature, and offering advice to practitioners. It invites the reader to have hope in continuing the conversation through a constructive hermeneutic approach to the problem. By building on literature in oppression, silencing, bullying, incivility, and communication ethics, this dissertation reveals how (rhetoric) and why (philosophy) the problem occurs in corporate America today. This dissertation offers a new angle to an old problem, or, a rhetoric and philosophy of bullying. It responds to the following questions:

RQ 1: As a destructive communication …