Business Commons^™

The Impact Of International Baseball Players On Mlb Organizations: An Analysis Of Performance, Attendance, Revenue, And Valuation, 2012-2022, Aidan Booth

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis investigates the impact of international baseball players on MLB organizations. The paper uses the Sean Lahman Database focusing on team-wide statistics including performance metrics, winning percentage, and attendance. Using the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) Regression model, the paper examines the effect of share of foreign-born players on team success, attendance, revenue, and valuation. The dataset controls for a number of variables throughout these regressions including payroll, population, stadium capacity, number of all stars on each team, and the number of competing professional sports teams in the metropolitan area in order to isolate the effect of foreign-born players on …

Essays On Salesperson’S Motivation And Job Satisfaction-Performance, Claire H. Cha

Doctoral Dissertations

Salesforces are important to firms as they drive a significant part of the firm’s brand, financial, and relational performance. Salesforce performance, job satisfaction, and motivation have remained key topics of interest to practitioners as well as researchers (Hansen & Levin, 2016; Pullins, 2001; Williams & Plouffe, 2007). This dissertation includes three essays. Essay 1 aims to address a lingering question theoretically and managerially. What is the relationship between satisfaction and performance? That question is assessed with a unique longitudinal simultaneous design to test four leading hypotheses of the causal relationship between salespeople’s job satisfaction and performance. The study’s design addresses …

Performance Of Actively Managed Exchange Traded Funds, Xuan None Li

Olin Business School Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Investors who want access to active asset management can choose to invest in actively managed exchange traded funds (AMETFs), actively managed non-transparent ETFs (ANETFs) or mutual funds. Three major differences of AMETFs, ANETFs and mutual funds are the venues funds are traded on, tax liabilities, and disclosure requirements. This paper exploits the 2019 SEC rulings on ETFs to study empirically which fund structure for active asset management delivers the best return performance and explores what are the driving forces behind the superior performance. I find that for equity funds, AMETFs is associated with 0.158% lower monthly returns than mutual fund, …

Moving Forward By Looking Back: How Family Firms Create Competitive Advantage By Embracing Their History, Adam Goldman

Dissertations

Family businesses are the engine that drives the United States economy. While extensive implications have been made in the literature about the advantages or disadvantages of family-owned businesses compared to non-family-owned businesses, the focus of this study was to show how small to medium-sized family-owned firms (FF SMEs) based in the United States can use their unique history to create a competitive advantage. Drawing on imprint theory and the resource-based view (RBV), this history-informed study helped identify the impact that founder imprints, business traditions, and storytelling have on the business performance of FF SMEs. Using quantitative methods, the findings of …

Maximising Effectiveness Of Talent Pools Through Mindfulness: An Empirical Investigation In A Multinational Corporation, Tarmo Raudsepp

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Traditional human resource management is looking to identify and develop talent for maximising human capital in a competitive environment with limited resources and negative demographic trends. Attracting, deploying, motivating, developing and retaining talented employees is a corporate norm for meeting organisational goals. Proper human resource processes through rigorous mapping of employees according to the performance-potential matrix allow the grading of employees against peer groups to establish talent pools for development and internal succession planning.

Mindfulness originates from 2,500-year-old Buddhist spiritual practices and has a rare combination of spirituality and science. Eastern perspective originates from Asian traditions focusing on the self-regulation …

The Relationship Between Counterproductive Work Behavior And Emotional Intelligence Among Leaders In Corrections, John Fitzgerald Caraway

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The need for soft skills in corrections and law enforcement continues to be polarized in the media, and the courts, costing organizations billions in litigation and, in some cases, costing the lives for which the individuals have sworn to protect. The purpose of this quantitative correlational study aimed to examine the relationship between counterproductive work behavior (CWB) and emotional intelligence (EI). The research questions focused on the relationship between CWB and EI among leaders in corrections with age, gender, education, and veteran status as control variables. The relationship between a leader's CWB and their EI was not known. The theoretical …

The Impact Of The Covid-19 Pandemic On Employee Engagement And Performance In The Teleworking Context In The U.S. Public Sector: A Phenomenological Case Study, Elizabeth Nesuda

Human Resource Development Theses and Dissertations

The global shift to telework during the COVID-19 pandemic has redefined work environments and created challenges and opportunities for the public sector. This study addressed a significant gap in the existing literature by exploring the relationship between employee engagement and performance in the context of COVID-19. This study explores employee engagement and performance in teleworking environments within the federal public sector. This study adopted a phenomenological case study design focused on understanding the experiences of public sector employees who shifted to telework during the COVID-19 pandemic. Research and interview questions were developed to uncover employee engagement and performance experiences in …

Does Firm Payout Behavior Serve As A Signal For Future Profitability?, Michael Colangelo

CMC Senior Theses

In this paper I explore the potential signaling capability that payout behavior, in the forms of dividends and share repurchases, has on the profitability of a firm. To do so, I analyze the relationship that dividends paid, share repurchases, and total payout have with asset turnover, return on assets, and EBITDA margin across different time structures. Next, I aim to understand if there is a significant differential impact of negative payout growth compared to positive payout growth, on the growth of the same performance measures above. I found that an increase in share repurchases and total payout both lead to …

Entrepreneurial Leadership Strategies For Catalyzing Innovation Performance, Jason D'Souza

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Inadequate innovation performance has the potential for adverse business outcomes. Business leaders are concerned with inadequate innovation performance, as innovation is a significant driver of business growth. Grounded in entrepreneurial leadership, the purpose of this qualitative multi-case study was to explore entrepreneurial leadership strategies that some healthcare business leaders used to catalyze innovation performance. The participants were six business leaders within three healthcare sectors who contributed to strategic healthcare innovation decisions using entrepreneurial leadership strategies within the last 5 years. Data were collected using semistructured interviews and a review of organizational strategy documents and websites. Through thematic analysis, six themes …

Manufacturing Business Managers' Strategies To Increase Employee Engagement, Jennifer Morgan-Petgrave

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractEmployee engagement is critical for manufacturing businesses to achieve higher productivity, competitive advantage, and sustainability. Manufacturing business managers who implement effective strategies can potentially enhance employee job satisfaction to increase employee engagement. Grounded in Kahn’s personal engagement theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple-case study was to explore strategies manufacturing business managers use to increase employee engagement. The participants were four manufacturing business managers from two manufacturing businesses in the southeastern region of Jamaica who successfully implemented strategies to increase employee engagement. Data were collected from semistructured interviews and company documents. Yin’s five-phase process was used to analyze data. Three …

Manufacturing Business Managers' Strategies To Increase Employee Engagement, Jennifer Morgan-Petgrave

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractEmployee engagement is critical for manufacturing businesses to achieve higher productivity, competitive advantage, and sustainability. Manufacturing business managers who implement effective strategies can potentially enhance employee job satisfaction to increase employee engagement. Grounded in Kahn’s personal engagement theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple-case study was to explore strategies manufacturing business managers use to increase employee engagement. The participants were four manufacturing business managers from two manufacturing businesses in the southeastern region of Jamaica who successfully implemented strategies to increase employee engagement. Data were collected from semistructured interviews and company documents. Yin’s five-phase process was used to analyze data. Three …

Entrepreneurial Leadership Strategies For Catalyzing Innovation Performance, Jason D'Souza

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Inadequate innovation performance has the potential for adverse business outcomes. Business leaders are concerned with inadequate innovation performance, as innovation is a significant driver of business growth. Grounded in entrepreneurial leadership, the purpose of this qualitative multi-case study was to explore entrepreneurial leadership strategies that some healthcare business leaders used to catalyze innovation performance. The participants were six business leaders within three healthcare sectors who contributed to strategic healthcare innovation decisions using entrepreneurial leadership strategies within the last 5 years. Data were collected using semistructured interviews and a review of organizational strategy documents and websites. Through thematic analysis, six themes …

Franchising: A Microfoundational View Of Personality Relationships Towards Franchisee Financial Performance, Christopher Heath Rehkop

Theses and Dissertations

The franchisor-franchisee relationship is unique; it provides a blend of entrepreneurial spirit with the structure of an established corporation. Franchisees operate with a degree of independence, taking certain risks and managing the details of day-to-day business, yet are also obligated to follow prescribed systems and processes of the franchisor. Both parties have a vested interest in the success of this relationship. While many macro-level factors (economy, technology, and demographics) come into play for a franchise’s success, one micro-level variable that may be identified early during recruitment is the personality characteristic of the franchisee candidate. A micro-level or “microfoundations” approach addresses …

Performance Of Actively Managed Exchange Traded Funds, Xuan None Li

Olin Business School Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Investors who want access to active asset management can choose to invest in actively managed exchange traded funds (AMETFs), actively managed non-transparent ETFs (ANETFs) or mutual funds. Three major differences of AMETFs, ANETFs and mutual funds are the venues funds are traded on, tax liabilities, and disclosure requirements. This paper exploits the 2019 SEC rulings on ETFs to study empirically which fund structure for active asset management delivers the best return performance and explores what are the driving forces behind the superior performance. I find that for equity funds, AMETFs is associated with 0.158% lower monthly returns than mutual fund, …

Exploring The Impact Of Stock Market Performance On The Real Estate Market, Jake Taylor

Finance Undergraduate Honors Theses

This paper goes on to analyze the impact of stock market performance on the real estate market. This is done through the analysis of the recent performance of the stock market, real estate market, and key indicators of both markets. The goal of this paper is to inform the reader of potential trends in the real estate market based on key indicators that play a large role in the stock market’s performance in order to make more knowledgeable investments.

How Could Venture Capitalists Improve Their Performance At Fund Management Level Via Better Allocating Their Financial And Human Capitals - A Cross-Fund Approach, Fei Han

Dissertations

Venture capitalists’ performance has been studied at the levels of portfolio company and fund. But no similar study at the fund management entity level has been documented. This study fills in the gap to examine the drivers of the venture capitalists’ performance at the fund management entity level. This study uses the capital allocation theory to develop five hypotheses on its performance. Each of them embodies an aspect of the feature of capital allocation in the venture capital investment process. With an expanded concept of capital for capital allocation, this study examines the allocation of both the financial capital and …

Trust Building Within And Across Cultures: A Study Of Guinea, Xiushun Sun

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

With the development of African economy and the increasing Chinese MNCs operating in Africa, there is a need to have a better understanding of the trust relationships between Chinese expatriates and African HCNs in the organizational environment. We adopt both qualitative and quantitative approaches to understand the trust relationships between Chinese supervisors, Guinea supervisors and Guinea subordinates in a Chinese MNC’s subsidiary in Guinea, compare the difference within culture and across culture, and examine how the interpersonal trust and the trust in the organization affect employees’ job performance. In study 1, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 19 Chinese supervisors, 20 …

Consumer Measures Of Local Food System Performance And Shopping Behavior Across Covid, Azita Varziri

Theses and Dissertations--Agricultural Economics

This dissertation consists of three essays: In the first essay, we utilize a Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to measure the residents’ perceptions of the local food system performance. Local food system (LFS) components are classified into related measures that may help explain the overall performance scores provided. LFS performance measures are explored across 15 different communities in the U.S. South. The second essay explores the awareness and performance differences toward farmers markets, including the markets themselves and the corresponding local food product quality, product diversity, and markets infrastructure across different age-range groups and community sizes in Southern states. Finally, in …

Optimization Of Financial Performance In E-Commerce, Ishmael Fleming

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Financial performance is a challenge for business managers in the e-commerce industry that lack the knowledge to meet their operational objectives consistently. Business managers are concerned with poor financial performance due to the adverse impact on business sustainability. Grounded in total quality management theory, the purpose of this quantitative correlational study was to examine the relationship between working capital management (WCM), operating expense ratio (OER), and e-commerce financial performance. Archival data were collected from 107 small- to medium-sized publicly traded e-commerce businesses headquartered in the United States from 2019 to 2021. The results of the multiple linear regression were significant …

Strategies For Adoption Of Innovative Information Technology For Business Performance Improvement, James Melvin Smith

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Business leaders do not often consider investing in informational technology (IT) to increase performance. These business leaders lack knowledge of innovative IT adoption strategies to expand their revenue and reduce costs to sustain a competitive advantage. Grounded in the technology-organization-environment (TOE) theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore IT innovation adoption strategies business leaders use to increase performance. The participants were four successful business leaders selected from finalists for international entrepreneurial awards presented annually in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. The data were collected using semistructured telephone interviews, media releases, and online publications. …

Lean Application: An Assessment Of 5s On Employee Attitudes And Productivity, Nickolaos Dimitrios Karvounis

STEMPS Theses & Dissertations

This study examines the effect of the implementation of 5S on employee attitudes and productivity in an Asian based facility of a global manufacturing company. Utilizing an assessment of the 5S implementation in various areas of the facility and organizational performance data for each of those areas, a non-experimental, causal comparative approach is used to analyze the impact. The study concluded that statistically significant improvements from the implementation of 5S were found both in quality and product cost for this facility; however, the study also found statistical significance where the implementation of 5S led to a decrease in performance and …

Being An Employee And An Entrepreneur Simultaneously : Two Essays On Hybrid Entrepreneurs’ Wage Work And Entrepreneurial Work Outcomes, Eric Adom Asante

Lingnan Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, I examine the effects of venturing activities on hybrid entrepreneurs’ wage work and venture work outcomes through the development of two inter-related empirical essays. In Essay 1, I examine how different levels and congruence of hybrid entrepreneurs’ wage work and entrepreneurial identities influence their effort and subsequent performance in both wage work and entrepreneurial work roles. Specifically, I examine how wage work and entrepreneurial work effort are affected when one identity is higher than the other as well as how they are affected when both wage work and entrepreneurial identities are high versus when they are low. …

The Dominance Of Masculinity: How The Expectation Of Stereotypical Gender Role Performance Undermines The Productivity Of Gay Men Working In Public Accounting Firms, Joshua Leinheiser

Senior Theses

Discrimination against LGBTQ employees in business settings has been shown to be a problem and negatively affects these employees’ productivity and well-being. In particular, discrimination against gay and other queer men often stems from the view that homosexuality is emasculating and conflicts with traditional expectations of male gender performance. This is seen as undesirable in business since traditional masculinity is seen as useful due to its association with competitiveness and control.

The purpose of this study is to determine whether this paradigm extends to the workplaces of public accounting firms. A survey containing questions about gender, sexuality, gender expression, experiences …

Factors That Influence Nonprofit Sector Employees’ Motivation: A Case Study From Egypt, Nada Shaaban Miry

Theses and Dissertations

The issue of employee motivation received much attention in the last few decades. That attention came from its significant practical and theoretical role in the field of management. To understand how motivation influences employees’ behavior, we have to know that every employee is motivated differently based on their preferences and characteristics. Therefore, it is essential to discover individual motivation factors for each employee. This study examines the factors that stimulate employees’ motivation and explain how to use those motivational factors to improve employees’ performance and engagement. It focuses on three non-profit organizations in Egypt and provides empirical evidence of the …

Implementation Of Motivational Strategies In The Manufacturing Industry, Lucretia Antoinette Starnes

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Some leaders in the manufacturing industry face challenges in engaging employees to increase productivity. Manufacturing leaders who effectively engage employees can build meaningful communication and achieve organizational goals that can motivate employees to increase productivity. Grounded in Herzberg’s two-factor theory, the purpose of this qualitative single case study was to explore motivational strategies manufacturing industry leaders use to engage employees to increase productivity. Participants included five managers at one manufacturing company located in northern Kentucky. Data were collected from semistructured interviews and company documents. Data were analyzed using Yin’s five-phase cycle. Three themes emerged: building a culture of meaningful communication, …

Hotel Managers’ Motivational Strategies For Enhancing Employees’ Performance, Nickea Katherine Harris

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

More than 87% of United States hotel employees are not engaged. Hotel general managers who struggle to engage employees are at risk of damaging organizational effectiveness. Grounded in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore the strategies general managers of full-service hotels used for enhancing employees’ performance. The participants consisted of general managers from 3 full-service hotels in Hawaii who have successfully developed and deployed strategies to enhance employees’ performance. Data were collected from semistructured interviews, company websites, advertisements, and observations. Yin’s 5-stage analysis was used to analyze the data, and 3 …

Relationship Between Working Capital Management, Strategies, And Performance Of Nigerian Manufacturing Firms, Ayebainasuoton Francis Alagoa

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Many Nigerian manufacturing firms have faced working capital management anomalies due to concerns of balancing profitability and liquidity that led to most business failures. To remain competitive corporate managers and business leaders of manufacturing firms need to operate optimally in working capital by understanding the association between working capital management (WCM), working capital strategy (WCS), and performance. Using the cash conversion cycle theory as the linchpin, the purpose of this quantitative correlational study was to examine the relationship between WCM, WCS, and performance. The study utilized secondary financial data spanning 2014 to 2018 from a random sample of 54 publicly …

A Contemporary Study On The Impact Of Regulations On Business Performance, Brian C. Mulligan

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines Nobel Prize Laureate Hayek's ominous warning that economic liberty in the U.S. is at risk, due to regulations, of becoming an unplanned administrative state. The research seeks to understand the effects of regulations on business performance and how to right-size them for a healthy business environment. These objectives are accomplished with two papers: (1) a macro cross-discipline literature review and call for research on the impact of regulations on business performance, and (2) a qualitative grounded theory study from interviews from elite business executives on their perspectives on the impact of regulations on business performance. The findings …

Aligning Performance Management Systems For Lasting Outcomes In Humanitarian Operations, Kalyn M. Howard

Theses and Dissertations

Logistics is dynamic, expansive, and critical to organizational success. While it is generally believed that effective logistics management is associated with positive performance outcomes, the links between organizational practice and performance are understudied. This dissertation leverages resource-based theory and organizational learning theory to examine organizational practice and performance in non-traditional logistics settings, with particular focus on military organizations and humanitarian operational settings. First, a meta-analytical study establishes generalizable associations between various operations management practices and performance outcomes. Then, this is applied to dynamic humanitarian logistics settings, exploring how practitioners perceive practice and performance, and how this is reported and documented …

Hustle Culture And The Implications For Our Workforce, Arianna Balkeran

Student Theses and Dissertations

This study defines hustle culture as an unspoken agreement between supervisors and employees concerning a designated workplace commitment compliance, which determines the minimum expectation of an employee's productivity capability. As such, this research paper aims to explore hustle culture within the workforce and how employee engagement, or lack of, affects the quality of professional relationships within the workplace. By doing so, we can begin a broader discourse on employee and managerial accountability in the relational aspect of supervisor-employee relationships and work dyads. With current changes to employment opportunities, such as the sudden influx of remote corporate workers resulting from COVID-19, …