Business Commons^™

A Cost Of Doing Business: Defense Contracting Fraud, Shane M. English

Capstones

The federal government relies heavily on outside contractors to provide essential research and services. Following World War II, the Department of Defense and the military began to rely on approved government contractors to develop, test and improve weapons and tools used to keep soldiers and the nation safe.

Defense contracting is a massive business that commands billions of dollars a year. Despite the magnitude of the United States' contracting system, detecting fraud and preventing bad actors from continuing to profit off of the government has proven difficult. The systems at hand: civil and criminal charges, suspension and debarment have consistently …

Incorporating Experiential Theory Into Virtual Strategic Planning Processes, Chris Perkins

Capstone Collection

Experiential learning theories, such as David Kolb’s Experiential Learning Cycle (2015) contribute to more than just learning environments. In this Training Course Linked Capstone I facilitated a six-week strategic planning workshop for the Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Group (DIAG) of AFS-USA, an intercultural youth exchange organization. Kolb’s cycle acted as framework for the workshop. The DIAG operates as a virtual team, with members across the United States, therefore I designed the workshop for implementation via the internet and telephone conversation. I consulted research on virtual team structure and participatory practices in strategic planning in order to design a program which …

Retirement Reboot: A Website Redesign, Christina Gillen

Honors Projects

A website could be created with the latest technology, but after a few years it will still need to be updated. This is what happened to Swanton Health Care and Retirement Center’s website. This project is designed to remedy the problem by creating an entirely new website with updated content, images, and interactive features to bring Swanton Health Care’s online presence back to life.

Using Relationship Theory To Improve Stem Outreach To Corporations: A Case Study For Starbase Los Alamitos, Mark Gibson

Journalism

The goal of this study was to improve corporate outreach efforts for an educational program called Starbase Los Alamitos. This Starbase program is part of a larger effort by the Department of Defense to improve STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education in the United States.

This study was guided by the following research question: How can STEM programs use relationship management theory to improve corporate outreach? A review of the literature was performed and this study used relationship theory to design eight questions for a four person focus group. Control and treatment websites were identified. Participants were shown the …

The Transition Experiences Of International Graduate Students In Clark University School Of Professional Studies, Xuesong Huang, Mingyang Lian, Dang Trung, Jay Sheth, Yuwei Yang, Irina Klimenko

School of Professional Studies

In the last decade, the School of Professional Studies at Clark University has witnessed a sharp increase in international students. More and more international students in the millennial generation have entered the School of Professional Studies pursuing one of the two-year graduate programs: Master of Science in Professional Studies, Master of Science in Public Administration, and Master of Science in Information Technology. In the past, working adult student dominant the program. These students already had a career outside the classrooms before them came to study. The millennial international students have generated new adjustment problems. Some of the transition issues of …

Facebook And User Experience: Evaluating Brand Equity Of Purdue University Residences, Jackelyn Perkins

Open Access Theses

This study investigated how brand equity was perceived on the Purdue University Residences’ Facebook page by applying a user experience method. From a review of previous literature, Website Experience Analysis was identified and performed to evaluate brand equity. This study addressed and explored various themes throughout the data. The results showed how page content and user interactions within a Facebook page influence participants’ perceptions of brand equity.

Improved Sprint Results With Offshore Indian Teams, Fnu Abdul Hasheem

Dissertations and Theses

Due to the cultural and linguistic differences, different time zones, and complexities of knowledge transfer involved in IT offshoring, offshore-outsourced projects are more prone to failure than in-house and domestically outsourced projects. These inherent risks exacerbate the communication, coordination and collaboration between vendors and clients and thus affect various stages of the offshore outsourced software development (OSD).

Communication is a major factor of success or failure for any software project. In offshore software development OSD, communication is more critical than collocated software development. Frequent communication is not always possible due to challenges like time zone differences, holiday customs etc. where …

To Overcome Communication Challenges In Distributed/Virtual Scrum Teams, Priyamvada Walimbe

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this research is to give an overview of a scrum in distributed teams and to suggest ways overcome communication challenges in such projects. In this research proposal, the latest available research on a scrum in distributed teams will be thoroughly analyzed and evaluated to know the possible solutions for communication problems in distributed teams. A review of the literature suggested scrum is widely accepted agile methodology in software projects and also it works best within collocated teams. However, the literature review also proposes that lack of proper communication is one of the main challenge faced by distributed …

A Different Approach To Project Management: The Use Of Soft Skills, Hannah Adams

Dissertations and Theses

The term soft skills is traditionally used to describe interpersonal and subjective skills such as leadership, communication, and emotional intelligence. This paper addresses a further explanation of soft skills, their relation to project management, project management education, and the highlighted differences between a transactional leader and a transformational leader. Project management has often been defined as the making of schedules/tasks; but more importantly providing the inspiration, motivation, and facilitator of great minds to produce innovative ideas. Because of the sheer necessity for human interaction within the project management profession, soft skills are of crucial concern. Although mastering soft skills is …

Erp Critical Success Factors: Importance Of Erp Consultants In Erp Implementation, Adekunle S. Balogun

Dissertations and Theses

Enterprise Resource Planning, ERP is one of the most popular and successful information technology solution used in many organizations to share information within different business units to enhance and maximize productivity. The system is expensive, time-consuming, and complicated to implement and manage. The difficulties of ERP implementation have resulted in high rates of unsuccessful ERP implementation according to the stories of many organizations that have implemented the solution. The failure of ERP implementation has then led to several studies to investigate the Critical Success Factors (CSFs) that could influence the ERP implementation during and after implementation phases. Some of the …

The Impact Of Emojis And Emoticons On Online Consumer Reviews, Perceived Company Response Quality, Brand Relationship, And Purchase Intent., Jayme Hill Hill

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Several studies have examined the use of emoji and emoticons in computer mediated communication among peers and colleges but there is yet academic research on the impact of businesses using these paralinguistic cues when responding to online consumer reviews. This research is examining the influence these paralinguistic cues have on the consumers perception of the companies quality of the response to an online consumer review, brand relationship, purchase intent.

Using an online survey, participants are asked to answer general questions about the brand, the quality of the response, brand relationship, and purchase intent after seeing a random condition of both …

Sport, Twitter Hashtags And The Public Sphere, Brendan O'Hallarn

Human Movement Sciences Theses & Dissertations

Sport and social media researchers have been challenged to go beyond simply analyzing the content of public social media posts, and to incorporate different critical frameworks to seek more meaningful findings about these relatively new online phenomena. This three-paper format dissertation attempts to frame interactions through sport-themed Twitter hashtags sociologically by incorporating a critical theory rarely deployed in the study of sport—the public sphere. In paper one, the study introduces a theoretical model which suggests sport consumption patterns and the unique architecture of Twitter can promote public sphere-like discourse in hashtags connected to sport. The model suggests amplifiers and barriers …

Impact Of Communication Appeals On Recycling Behaviors Among Undergraduate Students, Ning Zhu

Open Access Theses

The present thesis aims to understand factors influencing student recycling behaviors, and to investigate effective communication approaches to increase such behaviors. An online survey was conducted to examine the relationships between student recycling frequency in different contexts, students’ attitudes toward the environment, barriers to their recycling, students’ perceptions of communication messages, and communication media they think to be effective. Descriptive statistics, ANOVAs, t-test, simple linear regressions, categorical multinomial logistic regression, and a chi-square test were conducted, and the data was collected from a large land-grant university in the Midwestern United States. A total of 537 questionnaires were answered.

The …

Why We Follow: Exploring How Culture Shapes Users’ Motivation For Following Sport Organizations On Twitter And Weibo, Bo Li

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation was to explore how culture shapes Social media users’ usage as they follow sport organizations on two similar microblogging services - Twitter and Weibo. In particular, the study attempted to measure whether Social media users exhibited different usage pattern, points of attachment, and usage motivations within two different cultural environments known as individualism and collectivism.

The Los Angeles Lakers’ Social media followers were selected and invited to participant in this study. There were 839 the Lakers’ Weibo followers and 334 Twitter followers who completed an online survey facilitated on Qualtrics. The results of Multivariate analysis …

A Social Marketing Plan For The Lester C. Howick Animal Shelter, Joseph Michael Spiegelhoff

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Lester C. Howick Animal Shelter (Howick) is a non-profit organization serving Washington County, Arkansas and the Northwest Arkansas community. This thesis offers Howick a comprehensive Social marketing plan. The goal of the animal shelter is to increase the total number of cats and dogs adopted, increase the total amount of donations, and increase the number of volunteers helping at the facility and various events. In order to accomplish these goals for 2016, a Social marketing plan was developed through research on other non-profit organizations, other animal shelters, communication with the shelter employees, crafting a public service announcement (PSA), and …

Leveling The Playing Field? A Content Analysis Of Espn.Com And Espnw.Com’S Online Coverage, Rachael Caldwell

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this exploratory study was to compare sports coverage provided by the male-centric website ESPN.com and its affiliated female-centric website ESPNW.com. The amount and type of coverage provided for female athletes was the primary focus of this study. Results suggest that ESPNW.com provides an outlet for increased coverage of women’s sports, but the type of coverage provided to female athletes is not equivalent to that of their male counterparts. These results supported findings in previous studies on mass media coverage of women’s sports, specifically coverage on the emerging field of Internet coverage.

A Hero A Minute: The Manufacture Of Aura And Rarity In The World Of Sports Memorabilia And Rapid Commemoration, Roger C. Draeger

Theses and Dissertations

This is a study of the contemporary sports memorabilia industry and its surrounding culture through the analysis of a pair of its biggest providers. The following research explores the business model of Steiner Sports and examines its methods concerning pieces of game-used memorabilia and personal artifacts. The workings of Fanatics Authentic are also evaluated through the analysis of its specific line of In-Focus photographs and its sports memorabilia show held in the spring of 2016. The examination of both companies reveals techniques of manufacturing both rarity and aura that exist in the sports memorabilia industry. Steiner’s focus on providing intimate …

Growing Food Equity: A Participant Observation Exploring The Role Of Communication In A Nonprofit Organization’S Work To Improve Food Access In Urban Areas, Samantha Jane Kaufman

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the concept of food equity and a nonprofit organization in Milwaukee, Victory Garden Initiative, that is working towards food equity by increasing food access in the city. The work explores issues of inadequate food access, urban development, and other nonprofit organizations working towards food equity. Through participant observation and interviews with VGI, the researcher found that a small nonprofit organization like Victory Garden Initiative is still bound by time, financial, and staffing constraints. In order for nonprofit organizations to market and run effective programming, they need to be efficient with limited resources, take advantage of any research …

It's All About Me: How Self-Brand Connection And Social Media Interactivity Influence Purchase Intent, Shannon Taylor Mccarthy

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Social media is ubiquitous and allows consumers to display identity by through possessions through posts, images, and interactions. The self is all the individual calls their own and is expressed outwardly through everything visible, including possessions, relationships, and interactions. They tell their story through the display of envy-inducing artifacts, and create a perfect, photoshopped life. Consumers seek a connection to positively viewed brands they feel are self-representative through interaction. This dissertation seeks to better understand consumer rationale for and gratification from online brand engagement and how that, in turn, impacts the brand. Three studies examined the effects of self-brand connection, …

Hybrid Agile Approach: Efficiently Blending Traditional And Agile Methodologies, Rashmi Wankhede

Dissertations and Theses

Agile development, in its simplest form, offers a lightweight framework for helping teams, given a constantly evolving functional and technical landscape, maintain a focus on the rapid delivery of business value. Traditional project management focuses more on distinct and predefined sequential phases. It assumes that once requirements are fixed there won’t be any changes or additions in future. In today’s world however this is not true and development teams have to incorporate changes at later stages to be competitive. This is where agile methodologies have an edge over traditional methods. Agile can handle more complex and highly adaptable projects. However, …

“Race Talk” In Organizational Discourse: A Comparative Study Of Two Texas Chambers Of Commerce, Natasha Shrikant

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation takes an interpretive, discursive approach to understanding how organizational members create meanings about race, and other identities, through their everyday communication practices in the workplace. This dissertation also explores how these everyday discourses about race might reproduce, negotiate, or challenge ideologies that maintain the dominant position of Whiteness in United States racial hierarchies. I draw from data collected during eight months of ethnographic fieldwork (from Jan-Aug 2014) with two chambers of commerce in a large Texas city: an Asian American Chamber of Commerce (AACC) and what I call the “North City” Chamber of Commerce (NCC). The AACC explicitly …

The Communication Constitution Of Law Enforcement In North Carolina’S Efforts Against Human Trafficking, Elizabeth Hampton Jeter

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Over the past 20 years, human trafficking has gained international attention and resulted in the creation of anti-trafficking laws in the United States. Politicians, scholars, and organizations have called for more professional efforts against human trafficking and advocated for better education and awareness to identify victims and prosecute traffickers. Local law enforcement is recognized for its ideal position in communities to combat this crime. In 2011, North Carolina implemented a statewide human trafficking training program for law enforcement. This research study examines the communication constitution of law enforcement and the use of power through this training program and as officers …

The Relationship Of Communication Styles Of Millennial Employees With The Communication Satisfaction And Perceptions Of Communicator Competence Of Their Supervisors, Edward R. De La Torre

Dissertations

Each generation in the workplace shares characteristics that distinguish them from the generations before them. These differences in personality, behavior, and attitudes can result in intergenerational conflict, and these dynamics were identified by researchers when describing the interaction between young Millennial workers and their supervisors of the older generations. However, research did not explicitly test if these differences extend to the different communication styles that people exhibited in their verbal interactions. One such communication style paradigm, the Mok’s Communication Styles Survey (MCSS), describes the actual communication style of an individual, and was used to see if Millennials communicated differently than …

Ngo Collaboration In Natural Disaster Response Efforts- A Comparative Case Study Of Earthquakes In Asia, Richelle S. Grogg

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

This paper examines the response of NGOs to natural disasters, specifically in regards to collaboration efforts. The study utilizes a comparative case study methodology of most-similar design to look at three specific disasters- The Kashmir Earthquake, The Sichuan Earthquake, and The Japan Earthquake. Within each of these earthquakes the organizations Doctors Without Borders, the International Red Cross, and Oxfam International’s specific responses will be highlighted. The collaboration efforts will be examined utilizing general questions focusing on willingness to collaborate, commitment, and compatibility of objectives. Ultimately, this study found that all three components seem to be hypotheses worthy of further study.

Is Big Press Tougher On "She"-Eos?, Kenan G. Smith

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Information Technology Proposal For The Town Of Spencer, Vijay Basava, Corey Kenyon, Mahdi Soltani

School of Professional Studies

The Town of Spencer came to us looking for a plan to build and maintain their own personal fiber network for connection between departments and to improve data security for important information. After assessing the existing landscape and determining the various paths forward, we created network diagrams and plans for the movement forward of this project.

After assessing a variety of plans, we found that a full single-mode fiber network would be the best system for the implementation in Spencer. While it was the highest cost, it also scored the highest in our assessment.

Charlton Fire Department Resident Expectations: Survey And Analysis, Natalie Omary, Jingxin Wen, Junchen Chen, Denis Kornev

School of Professional Studies

The Town of Charlton is located in the heart of the Massachusetts with a resident population of just under 14,000 people. The Charlton Fire Department serves the town for needs related to fire fighting, fire prevention, burning permits and inspection services along with emergency medical services. The Department has requested the assistance of the Clark University COPACE Capstone students in creating and conducting survey in order to get a sense of what the resident of the town know about the fire department and to better gauge their expectations about what the department can provide for them. The survey was formulated …

Cybersecurity Awareness Shrewsbury Public Schools, Brittany Crompton, David Thompson, Manuel Reyes, Xueyan Zhao, Xueke Zou

School of Professional Studies

In the 21st Century, technology reaches every aspect of our lives. As “digital citizens” we must be aware of the dangers both to our technological equipment and our personal information stored, transmitted, and processed on this equipment. The Cybersecurity Awareness curriculum developed for the Shrewsbury Public School district is designed to meet this need, as well as foster an interest in technology and ethical computer use.

Analysis Of The Point Of Sales System At Tower Hill Botanical Garden And Suggested Courses Of Action, Brian Dunn, Keerthi Bandi, Chantal Kopwa Epse Kassa, F.N.U Shelly

School of Professional Studies

As Tower Hill Botanic Garden continues to improve on its operations and enhance the experience of its visitors and members, they are on a quest for a new Point-Of-Sale (POS) system that not only works with its existing hardware and interface with Raiser’s Edge, a smartcloud fundraising and relationship management software central to the garden’s operations but also, have a restaurant module and the capability of operating both in a wireless and hard-wired environment.

Alternatives Unlimited Inc. Property Service Application, Jalpa Dave, Pennie Nataliya, Neelakshi Bali

School of Professional Studies

The purpose of this project is to propose Property service application to be enforced for documenting and managing the work orders raised throughout the residencies. The company is looking into an application that would facilitate to track and monitor the maintenance request received in a systematic order and ensuring priority work request is resolved within the set time frame. The project is to enhance the property service's work more efficiently as this will provide a high level of charge for the occupants by providing quicker response to their requests. The Objectives set to achieve for this project are realistic and …