Business Commons^™

The Impact Of Camaderie On Customer Satisfaction And Loyalty In The Hotel Industry, Huiping Josephine Tan

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

In the hotel industry, the relationship between customer satisfaction and loyalty has always been ambiguous, as a satisfied hotel guest may not necessarily be loyal. Loyalty is of greater interest to the hotel industry as it translates to more business opportunities. The primary purpose of this study is to investigate how camaraderie and emotional customer satisfaction can predict potential service loyalty. Empirical tests of the relationship between camaraderie, emotional satisfaction and loyalty had never been conducted before in the hotel industry. The findings of this research suggest that camaraderie has a direct and significant relationship to the four phases of …

An Exploratory Study Of How To Navigate Brand Management And Improve Sales Performance Through Control Policies, Pavuth Sriaranyakul

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

The aim of this study was to examine the effects of alcohol and tobacco control policies on sales performance when two central elements of marketing, communication and promotion programs, are significantly restricted. The study took place in Thailand, which has some of the strongest tobacco control regulations in the world, along with moderately strong alcohol control regulations. Under these regulations, tobacco firms operate in a dark market, with near-total regulatory prohibition on advertising, promotion, and even the display of their products. Alcohol firms operate in a less restrictive or “grey” market, as they face restrictions on advertising and promotion content, …

The Free Cash Flow And Corporate Returns, Sen Na

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Mcpherson (2018) and Jose, Lancaster, Stevens (1996) have written papers to examine the relationship between liquidity management and firm profitability. The literature establishes that the cash conversion cycle has an implication for the profitability and liquidity of a firm. We extend the time period and analyze the free cash flow instead of cash conversion cycle. We provide evidence that firms with higher free cash flows have higher risk adjusted stock returns.

Meeting “The One” At Midnight Is Your Destiny: The Role Of Yuan In Use Of The Taiwanese Social Network, Dcard, Wen-Yueh Shu

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This study examines how Taiwanese college students understand the traditional, culturally Chinese concept of Yuan and its role in their use of a new and distinctive Taiwanese social networking site—Dcard. Particular attention is paid to the Dcard’s unique friending mechanism, which provides users the opportunity to connect (or not) with one, seemingly random new friend each day at midnight. Through thematic analysis of 15 semi-structured long interviews, the study finds that Dcard users understand Yuan as a multi-faceted concept pertaining primarily to interpersonal relationships (relationalism). Users perceive Yuan to influence relationships in a predetermined, causal fashion (fatalism), but they still …

Coca-Cola’S Future Growth Strategy: Diversification?, Arshia Alahi, Erin Bass

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

This case study is based on Coca-Cola Co.’s growth strategy. It provides the audience with the company background of various acquisitions, the Carbonated Soft Drink(CSD) industry analysis in which Coca-Cola belongs in, the competitive landscape, threats and opportunities facing the CSD industry, along with internal company analysis of Coca-Cola Co. Which includes, the current state of the company, its current growth strategy and the future of Coca-Cola Co. With the information provided, the audience (students) will be able to recommend various strategies that can help Coca-Cola Co. grow in the future.

Business Innovation: The Online Cookbook, Gregory Watson

Supply Chain Management Undergraduate Honors Theses

There is a common trend across most of the world we live in today of innovation and adaptation. Recently a lot of this change had come from the technological front, and this is no different for the largest brick and mortar retailer in the United States, Walmart. Walmart has put a substantial amount of focus on keeping up with the ever changing digital commerce business environment. Walmart projects that out of the 324 million people that live across the country 140 million of them visit their store either in person or through their website each week. This traffic brings in …

Three Empirical Studies On Digital Innovation Management: New Organizing Logic Of Antecedents And Consequences Of Innovation, Kailing Deng

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the last decade, innovation has undergone considerable changes in most industries. Digital innovation may represent the use of digital technology in the innovation process or to the end outcome of innovation. Over the years, innovation has become open, global, and collaborative in nature and involves diverse stakeholders and distributed innovation processes (Nambisan 2013; Nambisan et al. 2017). The importance of innovation will continue to grow in the future, as the business environment becomes increasingly uncertain and competitive. With the rapid development of digitized technologies, in addition to innovation outcomes such as new products, platforms, and services, IS researchers have …

The Impact Of Coaches' Character On Youth Basketball Players, Natasha Hill

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

If utilized effectively, recreation and sports can serve as major tools for developing youth, improving the educational environment, and increasing the number of productive adults that are healthier physically and mentally to positively impact society. Most research targeting recreation and sports developing youth has the perspective primarily of parents and youth. Evaluating the character strengths of coaches and youth athletes who actively participate in team basketball is vital.

An exploration of the value of basketball and character strengths of (n = 64) youth athletes, between the ages of 12 to 16 years, and the impact of their involvement with coaches …

Financial Outcomes From Selection Of Insurance Intervals, Shana Anderson Stewart

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the potential value of enrolling in rainfall-index for pasture, rangeland, and forage insurance for Utah producers. A stochastic optimization model is used to identify the optimal selection of insurance intervals that will provide the maximum indemnity payments less premiums. Four Utah counties were selected for analysis. Results indicate that positive returns will occur greater than 60% of the time in all counties with the selected insurance intervals. The optimal months to insure varied in each county.

Assessing Rice Consumers’ Preferences And Willingness To Pay In Haiti, Cleeford Pavilus

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the last 30 years, rice has become the number one food staple in Haiti, and rice imports have outpaced domestic production to supply the country’s increasing rice demand. Policy makers support the claim that increasing local rice supply will not only reduce the dependency on imported rice but also upheave the national economy. However, there is a lack of information on Haitian consumers’ preferences for rice to aid the development of the local rice supply chain. This research aims to bridge that gap by assessing Haitian consumer preferences and willingness to pay for selected rice quality characteristics. The results …

The Impact Of Enterprise Information Management Capability On Sustainable Competitive Advantage, Hayfa Mohamed Ali Mohamed Bu Hazzaa

Business Administration Dissertations

In today’s economic environment, intense competition in the corporate world has prompted organizations to focus on creating and maintaining a sustainable competitive advantage (SCA). The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of enterprise information management capability (EIMC) on SCA. This study focuses on EIMC as

An essential organizational dynamic capability and empirically examines the relationship between EIMC and SCA, both directly and indirectly, via two mediators: knowledge management (KM) and total quality management (TQM).

This study used the theory of dynamic capability (DC) as the theoretical framework. Four constructs (EIMC, KM, TQM, and SCA) were developed and …

Voting And Commenting Mechanisms In Ongoing Crowdsourcing Platforms: A Case Study Of Lego Ideas Platform, Khalid Murzig M. Alharbi

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Although crowdsourcing, an innovative online call to help solve problems or generate new ideas, has gained much traction in the business word, not much research has been done on the commenting and voting mechanisms. Most of the research has focussed on the why and how businesses crowdsource. To fill the gap, this research focusses on the commenting and voting mechanisms and aims to analyse the effectiveness of the commenting and voting mechanism in an ongoing crowdsourcing platform, Lego Idea. Using Python software, 8663 comments were extracted from the Lego Ideas platform. These comments were then manually categorised into 10 variables …

An Exploratory Comparative Study Of Experts And Generalists As Change Management Leaders In Non-Core Areas Of Organizations, Steven Glenn Burton

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Large-scale organizational change is a necessary undertaking critical to the ongoing success of most firms. Despite the necessity of such change, it is also an undertaking that fails at approximately twice the rate that it succeeds. Prior work on change leadership primarily looks at characteristics of the individual leader and does not differentiate on areas of the organization where change will be occurring. The work conducted in this research compares categories of change leaders and looks at change within a specific area of a firm, its non-core business area.

This exploratory research compared core-area technical experts to generalists as change …

Essays On The Information Role Of Credit Default Swaps, Hao Cheng

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Chapter 1: Credit Default Swaps Pricing Errors and Related Stock Returns

This article investigates the impacts of Credit Default Swaps (CDS) pricing errors on related stock returns. Using a parsimonious CDS valuation model, which produces an above average adjusted R2 of 90%, I find that its pricing errors significantly predict cross-section stock returns. Further investigation reveals that the cross-market return predictability channels via Merton (1974)'s structural prediction and primary dealers' capital risk. This paper provides a novel view of the complex interactions of capital markets and offers insights on the relative market efficiencies.

Chapter 2: CDS Markets Informativeness and Related …

Performance Of The Vidya Indicator Using Bootstrap, Lucas Priskos

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This paper analyses the performance of the Volatility Index Dynamic Average Indicator (VIDYA) as a method for technical trading. The question was whether or not the buy and sell signals generated by VIDYA could allow a trader to outperform the benchmark rate of return. The strategy is implemented in a similar way to a standard moving average crossover where two lines are charted: a short period VIDYA and a long period VIDYA. The four combinations of VIDYA were used were as follows: 6 with 21 periods, 9 with 21 periods, 12 with 21 periods, and 21 with 50 periods. When …

Lobbying Legislation And Cumulative Abnormal Returns, Brenan Stewart

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007 (Pub.L. 110-81, 121 Stat. 735, enacted September 14, 2007) was passed by the U.S. Congress in order “to strengthen public disclosure requirements concerning lobbying activity and funding. It placed more restrictions on gifts for members of Congress and their staff, and provides for mandatory disclosure of earmarks in expenditure bills.” Treating this event as a natural experiment, we examine how this legislation affected the Cumulative Abnormal Returns (CARs) of firms that lobbied in the year(s) leading up to the passing of the legislation. We find that companies that lobbied in the …

Essays On Market Linkages In Nafta And Latin American Countries: Studies Of Cointegration And Contagion, John K. Tarwater

Theses and Dissertations

The globalization of securities in recent years has led to an increase in market linkages. These linkages are strong among countries that have entered into bilateral and multilateral trade agreements. I investigate the linkages of stock markets in NAFTA countries by exploring their cointegrating relationship, and I explore market linkages in Latin America by showing evidence of financial contagion between Brazil and her Latin American neighbors.

In the first essay, I employ a vector error correction model to examine the linkages between price stock indexes of NAFTA countries that have been segregated into tiers based on market capitalization. In each …

How Gender Norms Impact Women's Access To Financial Inclusion, Caitlyn Goodman

Economics Undergraduate Honors Theses

The purpose of this paper is to determine if there is a relationship between gender norms and women's access to financial resources. Using data from the World Bank and the World Values Survey, I use a linear regression model to assess how attitudes toward education, jobs, and over-all equal rights impact women's account ownership.

Understanding The Relationship Between Corporate Social Responsibility, Team Identification, And Behavioral Intention With The Mediating Effect Of Satisfaction In Korean Professional Baseball League, Jaeman Son

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation was to provide a better understanding of how sport fans’ perceptions of a sport team’s CSR activities influence the behavioral intention of sport consumers. More specifically, the aim of this study was to propose and test a theoretical model that explore the relationship among perceived CSR and team identification and satisfaction, along with the behavioral intention. This study was to investigate the mediating role of customer satisfaction in the relationship between perceived CSR and behavioral intention. Finally, the study attempts to examine whether the relationship between team identification and behavioral intention is mediated by customer …

Philosophia Soteria: How Occupational Safety And Health Professionals Influence Decision Makers, Daniel Jay Snyder

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to identify ideas about how occupational safety and health (OSH) professionals influence decision-makers on matters impacting occupational health and safety management systems. A modified nominal group technique was used that involved 67 participants in ten nominal groups and identified the most important ideas about how OSH professionals can influence workplace safety and health decision making. The research produced themes of communication, scientific, professionalism, leadership, adaptability, and business acumen that resulted in six domains of occupational safety and health professional influence.

Exploring Person-Organization Fit And Gender Bias In The Hiring Process Of Engineering Firms: Is Selection Impacted?, Vicky W. Knerly

Theses and Dissertations

This study sought to discover whether intentionally considering person-organization (P-O) fit during the selection process of workforce planning is impacted by gender bias on the part of the hiring manager. Utilizing a comparative case study of hiring managers and employees of small, for-profit engineering firms, the study attempted to discover whether firms that specifically screen applicants for fit with the organization also exhibit gender bias in their selection decisions and whether this differs from firms that do not necessarily hire or rigorously screen for fit with the organization. The theoretical framework for the study follows the Attraction-Selection-Attrition (ASA) framework first …

Understanding Department Of Defense Employee Perceptions Of Performance Appraisals: Making A Connection Between Performance Appraisals And Motivation, Kenneth Dewayne Welch

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine employee perceptions of performance appraisals in the Department of Defense (DoD) and to examine potential connections between the performance appraisal process, employee motivation and ultimately turnover intent. There is a paucity of qualitative, interview-based research focused on DoD employee perceptions of DoD performance appraisal processes and potential impacts on their motivation and turnover intent. The research study findings revealed a potential gap between the DoD performance appraisal process as outlined in DoD regulatory guidance and the lived experiences of the performance appraisal process by DoD employees. The study did not find significant …

The Role Of Human Capital And Innovative Entrepreneurship In Developing Countries, José Rolando Torrech Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

Human capital, innovation and entrepreneurship have long been associated with economic development in different contexts. However, in the recent past, several research studies carried out show that the complexity and technical nature of the everchanging business environment necessitated by technology have superseded the current human capital required to address innovative strategies in developing countries. Several scholars assert that although inadequate skills are a great challenge for entrepreneurs, more research needs to be done to break down the varying units affecting the impact of human capital on entrepreneurial development and economic growth. The purpose of the study was to investigate the …

Barriers To Mentoring Women Of Color For Corporate Leadership: Implications For Organizations, Donna Marie Smith

Theses and Dissertations

Mentoring as a human capital development initiative is critical to leadership development for organizational sustainment. Previous research has identified that barriers to mentoring relationships for women of color in organizations exist, confirmed by the finding that a factor in barriers to corporate promotion for women is a lack of mentoring. This dissertation explores the implications that barriers to workplace mentoring relationships may have for organizations from the perspective of women of color. Findings suggest that barriers to mentoring relationships experienced and perceived by women of color have evolved in presentation or diminished since those found by previous research. This research …

U.S. Government Acquisition Reform And Its Influence On Defense Contracting, Innovation, Diversification, And Collaboration, Edgar Quiñones Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

Acquisition reform has been active within the Defense Industry for over two centuries and continues to this day for the Federal Government. Recently, due to sequestration, high national debt, and political pressures, the Weapon System Acquisition Reform Act (WSARA) and Better Buying Power (BBP) was put into action, in 2009 and 2010 respectively, as a way to further streamline the Defense Industry. This study examined the Defense Industry’s attitudes and coping strategies (focused on ‘countervailing power’) deal with the actions and the influence of a monopsonist (sole) buyer on the contracting process and how that ultimately affects costs, industry strategy, …

How Do Entrepreneurs React To Investor Rejection, Try Harder Or Move On?, Yuhan Hua

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Rejected by the investor is a common challenge that entrepreneurs face in the startup process. This study investigates how entrepreneurs respond to investor rejection. The results indicate the rejection can motivate entrepreneurs to learn from the rejection and improve venture image. Meanwhile, investor rejection can also increase entrepreneurs’ tendency of withdrawal from the investor and exit intention. Rejected by investor also increase entrepreneurs’ doubts about the investors’ competency. This study finds both the alternative funding source and the fairness of the rejection can impact entrepreneurs’ rejection responses. Also, the individual difference influences how entrepreneurs deal with investors’ rejection. The empirical …

A Study On Fiscal Policy And Economic Growth From An Institutional Perspective, Thúy Ái Hồ

Lingnan Theses (MPhil & PhD)

This dissertation studies the interrelationship between fiscal policy and institutions (property right protection and economic freedom, in particular) in affecting economic growth. The vast literature on economic growth examines institutions and fiscal policy as separate determinants of economic growth, and has not established a theoretical basis or empirical link on the interaction between them. This dissertation takes a unique approach to the growth literature by studying a channel that institutions affect growth – the fiscal policy channel.

Among the first ones who incorporate economic institutions into a growth model with fiscal policy, I construct a theoretical framework in Chapter 2 …

A Multi-Skilled Approach To Property Maintenance Considering Temporal, Spatial And Resource Constraints, Anthony G. Vatterott

Dissertations

With the continued increase in age of the United States housing and building stock, as well as the continued need to maintain properties across the U.S., the need for timely, cost-optimal maintenance is ever more critical. This paper proposes the application of a mathematical model to aid in the scheduling and assignment of construction and maintenance tasks, considering the multi-skilled workforce. The benefit of this approach is to take advantage of the economies of scale that can be developed using cross-functional skilled workers with varying levels of competence and efficiency. This approach schedules and assigns tasks using data from maintenance …

Media Guide And Strategic Plan, Ella Greer

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

An MAPW candidate composes a strategic plan and media guide for a local government office.

Testing The Measurement Invariance And Latent Mean Differences Of Data From The Employee Perceptions Of Supervisor/Line Manager Coaching Behavior Measure Between Virtual And Traditional Employees From Generation X And Y, Bryn Hammack-Brown

Human Resource Development Theses and Dissertations

Currently, the workforce is comprised of multiple generations, of which Generation X and Y are the largest, working in a variety of arrangements. These include working from home, satellite centers, on the road, collaboration offices, and brick and mortar locations. As information and communication technology advances, more opportunities for individuals to supplement or change their working environments are available. Along with these different modes of work comes occasions and challenges for managers to demonstrate coaching behaviors toward employees who work alongside them on an on-going basis, and simultaneously to those who are removed from the face-to-face interactions and instead rely …