Business Commons^™

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 …

An Investigation Of Web Atmospherics In Online Luxury Branding, Emilie E. Jones

Honors College Theses

Having an online presence for a retail store has transitioned from serving as simply a new avenue through which a profit can be made, to a tool that can be harnessed to express a brand’s personality. So how do luxury brands manage to maintain a high-end, exclusive status on the highly available landscape of the internet? The intention of this research is to identify whether luxury brands are currently taking advantage of differential web atmospherics cues, in a way that significantly sets them apart from non-luxury brand websites. To do this, we measured elements including screen space, reduction of elements, …

Equifax: Anatomy Of A Security Breach, Ashton Glenn

Honors College Theses

The infamous 2017 Equifax breach not only compromised millions of citizens’ data, but the breach also left Equifax vulnerable to lawsuits that claim the company acted negligently. This thesis analyzes the events and facts behind the incident to determine the probable outcome of the main case against Equifax. A claim of a breach can come from either Equifax’s data protection or breach response. This thesis concludes the results of the case depends on the final court to determine if Equifax acted negligently with its data protection. If the case ends in the Eleventh District Court of Appeals, the court will …

What Personality Factors Influence Performance In A Multi-Line Insurance Agency?, Timothy R. Greer

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The focus of this dissertation is exploring personality factors that impact performance within a small insurance agency. The primary research question is, what is (or are) the best personality factor(s), sub-facets, or constructs, that contribute to increased performance within an insurance agency. Three of the Five-Factor Model dimensions, extroversion, conscientiousness, and openness to experience along with grit and hardiness were examined, as well as their sub-facets. Grit and hardiness were not found to add additional explanation of the variance while five of the sub-facets were found to better explain the variance over the composite dimensions.

Cryptocurrency Fraud: A Look Into The Frontier Of Fraud, Stafford C. Baum

Honors College Theses

This research project was conducted to look into what sort of frauds can be committed to steal unsuspecting investors’ cryptocurrencies. The inspiration for this research came in the form of the fact that millions of dollars are lost to cryptocurrency fraud each day, and many of these frauds are successful due to the public’s naivete towards the dangers of investing in cryptocurrencies. After researching many different cryptocurrency fraud cases, the frauds could be categorized into four major categories. These categories include Ponzi schemes, fake initial coin offering schemes, pump and dump schemes as well as cryptocurrency theft.

Predicting Thrill Seeking Behavior, Matthew I. Keane

Honors College Theses

Extreme sports, sports characterized as involving speed, height and danger, have become an increasingly popular pastime around the world and have grown into a $250 billion industry. As a result of the inherent risks of taking part in these extreme sports, the most common participants are thrill seeking, risk taking, and often reckless. Known as the type-T personality type, these extreme sensation seeking individual’s constantly seek out new experiences that will stimulate their mind and frequently find their thrill by participating in extreme sports. The goal of this study is to determine various factors that will influence an individual’s thrill …

The Effects Of Pair Budget Goal Difficulty And Pair Identity On Decision-Making And Performance, Chaoping Li

Doctoral Dissertations

Mixed incentive compensation structures have been widely studied in the accounting literature (e.g., Tian et al. 2017; Dekker et al. 2012, Rothenberg 2011; Hwang et al. 2009). However, the findings in the literature as to the effectiveness of mixed incentives are not consistent. The inconsistency in the mixed incentives literature may be due to the various levels of social dilemma embedded in the research setting of the studies. Therefore, I experimentally investigated two factors that may reduce the embedded social dilemma issue and improve the effectiveness of mixed incentive compensation. In this study, student participants were assigned to pairs to …

Organizational Innovations That Stick: Best Practices In Sustainable Organizational Change, Abdoulie Jammeh

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Organizational change is an essential ingredient of organizational growth/life and can be difficult to accomplish. Many researchers and practitioners have studied the challenges and opportunities surrounding effectuating change and innovation in organizations. However, there has been little practical analysis of the theoretical relationships among the key apparatuses that make change stick, institutionalizing innovation in big bureaucratic organizations. In order to develop practical insights that can inform best practices, this paper aims to provide a collection of successful organizational innovation examples based on responses to a critical incident analysis survey of 12 participants from a 2018 World Bank – USC Annenberg …

Price Transparency In The United States Healthcare System, Gurlivleen (Minnie) Ahuja

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The study explores price transparency in the healthcare system. With the increase in healthcare spending resulting in the advent of high deductible plans, consumers have been exposed to high healthcare cost. Despite being burdened with outrageous and extravagant bills, studies have shown that the consumers are not using price transparency tools to their benefit.

The literature review reveals that the major stakeholders in the healthcare industry have never been studied together to understand the research question on ‘Why is there lack of price transparency in the healthcare system?’ moreover, there is no theory to explains this phenomenon.

This study undertakes …

The Impact Of Digital Marketing Decisions On Market Outcomes In Residential Real Estate, Denise Hunter Gravatt

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the competitive and fast-paced industry of residential real estate, digital marketing strategies must effectively meet the information needs and demands of the industry’s three key stakeholders: buyers, sellers, and agents. Digital house hunting is the predominant search strategy for prospective homebuyers who scour the Internet looking for homes to purchase. Property sellers and real estate professionals, whose shared end-goal is to transact a successful sale, must discern which digital marketing choices are optimal for marketing for-sale properties online in the digital channels where buyers are searching.

A 2008 settlement agreement between the Department of Justice and the National Association …

The Relationship Between Ambient Lighting Color And Hotel Bar Customer Purchase Behavior And Satisfaction, Kunal Shah

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Increasingly competitive markets lead brand managers to search for new methods to improve customer satisfaction, increase revenue, and promote customer loyalty. Sensory marketing has the potential to meet those objectives. Sensory marketing programs are designed to engage consumers’ senses and affect perceptions, judgments, and behaviors. Ambient light color is an environmental variable with the potential to influence the customer experience in lodging industry sensory marketing programs. Contrast theory and disconfirmation of expectations served as the theoretical framework for this study. The purpose of this quantitative comparative study was to examine the relationships between ambient light color, consumer spending, and perceptions …

Examining Work-Life Balance Of Female Faculty In Chair Roles At Medical Academic Institutions: A Phenomenological Study, Stephanie N. Dunn

Human Resource Development Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research study was to explore the work-life balance of women in Chair positions within medical academic institutions and to research their ability to balance roles at work and home. The study wanted to investigate the impact of a prestigious leadership position on their lives. The study explored the reason for their success in such a male-dominated position and how they obtained such a position. The women who participated in this study gave accounts for their triumphs and disappointments during the data collection phase of the study.

This research was a phenomenological study based on three theoretical …

An Examination Of The Progressive And Regressive Factors That Business Owners Consider When Choosing Whether Or Not To Implement An Exit Strategy, David C. Pickard

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This purpose of this dissertation is to examine the progressive and regressive factors that affect a small business owner’s decision to implement an exit strategy. An exit strategy can be defined as an entrepreneur's strategic plan to sell his or her investment in a company he or she has controlling interest in. An exit strategy gives a business owner a way to reduce or eliminate his or her stake in the business and, if the business is successful, make a substantial profit. Exiting a business is a complicated process which includes among other things, the evaluation, preparation, marketing, and ultimate …

Moffitt Cancer Center: Leadership, Culture And Transformation, W. James Wilson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Purpose – The purpose of this project was to extrapolate knowledge of successful leadership practices, determine what led to and nurtured what became an integrated organizational culture and identify any decisions and/or transformational events that re-defined Moffitt Cancer Center’s (MCC) course or helped propel it to levels far beyond what was originally imagined. The aims of this study were discovery of the foundational factors and events that significantly impacted the creation, growth and evolution of the center, making MCC an institution of transformational change that had achieved state and national prominence.

Design – This was an exploratory study guided by …

The Conceptualization Of Justice Perceptions In Appraising Performance Of Knowledge Work, Christina (Minuth) Norton

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Organizational justice theory suggests employees are more likely to accept appraisal outcomes if they believe the process to be fair. As an increasing percentage of the workforce is made up of knowledge workers with job characteristics that are less structured and more autonomous, the shift in appraisal research from measurement accuracy to perceptions on fairness is fitting. This research investigates the relationships between justice perceptions and performance appraisal satisfaction by knowledge workers. The study extends previous research with the creation of composite measures to examine whether perceptions of fairness vary according to the characteristics of work performed.

The research was …

Essential Leadership Skills For Frontline Managers In A Multicultural Organization, Janelle Ward

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This exploratory research examined the leadership skills essential for frontline managers to be effective in a multicultural organization. The purpose was to inform company management of vital skills to include in a new leadership development program (LDP) initiative. The literature review revealed that a list of commonly accepted leadership skills does not exist. This research gap is even greater for multicultural environments. In addition to developing a list of skills, I assessed the impact of situational factors, including the scenario and demographics of the people involved, on perceived critical leadership skills.

I conducted a survey within the company of interest …

The Unmanned Aerial Systems (Uass) Industry And The Business Impacts Of The Evolution Of The Federal Regulatory Environment, Darren W. Spencer

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Despite the explosion of popularity of UASs, and the recognition that such systems must find a way to safely operate alongside manned aviation, a literature review by this author as well as interviews with three commercial aerial photography companies in Tampa Bay, Florida, indicate that regulatory restrictions are still the greatest obstacle to law abiding commercial UAS operators. It can take six to eight months with a backlog of 12,000 waiver applications to get either a Part 333 or Part 107 exemption, which grants FAA permission for a commercial operator to fly a UAS inside controlled airspace (Gardner, 2018). A …

Enhancing The Design Of A Cybersecurity Risk Management Solution For Communities Of Trust, James E. Fulford Jr.

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Research into cybersecurity risks and various methods of evaluating those threats has become an increasingly important area of academic and practitioner investigations. Of particular interest in this field is enhancing the designs and informing capabilities of cybersecurity risk management solutions for users who desire to understand how organizations are impacted when such risks are exploited. Many of the cybersecurity risk management solutions are extremely technical and require their users to have a commensurate level of technical acumen. In the situation evaluated during this research project, the founders of the company being researched had created a highly technical risk management solution …

The Impact Of Prior-Prior Year On Federal Student Aid Eligibility, Valerie A. Mockus

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Each year, millions of Americans complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) in hopes of securing federal, state, and institutional funding to support their educational goals. The FAFSA recently changed the age of tax data used to determine eligibility for aid, including the Federal Pell Grant—eligibility for which is often used as a proxy for students with the highest need. This study includes a comprehensive review of the extant literature on the subject of prior-prior year. It is also the first look into the actual impact of the recent shift from Prior Year (PY) tax information to Prior-Prior …

The Evolution Of A Collaborative Network: Understanding Partnerships In A Policy Mandated Collaboration Through Social Network Analysis, Pallavi Singh

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Federal funding agencies that administer financial support in the form of program grants to non-profit organizations (NPOs) that provide child and family services increasingly require NPOs to formalize inter-organizational partnerships in order to receive this vital source of funding. That is, by mandate NPOs must participate in inter-organizational collaboration networks to receive these essential federal funds. Therefore, there is a need to understand the collaboration behavior of NPOs in a policy-mandated environment. This study considers collaboration behavior as information sharing and advice-seeking between the organizations who are part of a collaboration network as a result of a policy mandate.

Drawing …

Testing An Adapted And Integrated Model Of Motivation To Lead And Intention To Apply, Mandolen Mull

Human Resource Development Theses and Dissertations

Leader development is a growing field of study within the leadership and human resource development (HRD) fields. As such, various studies have evaluated the traits, skills, and situational influences that contribute to an individual’s likelihood of becoming a leader. However, often researchers fail to examine an individual’s intention to apply for a leadership position within their examination of an individual’s leadership potential. Although prior research has examined the motivation to lead (MTL), very little research has examined the relationship between an individual’s MTL and their intention to apply for a leadership position. Furthermore, no research to date has evaluated the …

Integrate Use Of Drones And Qr Codes As Complementary Components For Monitoring, Control And Surveillance Systems For Artisanal Fishing Vessels In Peru, Eduardo Israel Zamora Chung

World Maritime University Dissertations

This dissertation aims to design a new monitoring, control and surveillance (MCS) component that may be suitable for Peruvian artisanal fishing. When it refers to suitable, it means that it should be low-cost and compatible with other MCS systems to improve the fight against Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing. In this regard, through the triangulation among methods including the content analysis as well as interviews and questionnaires to the primary stakeholders of the Peruvian artisanal fishing, it was found that there is a direct connection between a suitable MCS and the fulfilment of the target 14.b of the Sustainable …

Thailand Vts : An Analysis Of Its Capabilities To Enhance The Safety And Efficiency Of Navigation, Theeratch Amphanthongpaphakul

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Critical Analysis Of The Attraction And Retention Of Seafarers : A Case Study Of South Africa, Lettah Mapule Mathebekase

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Assessing The Impact Of National Single Window On The Competitiveness Of Ghana's Maritme Sector, Rhodalyn Djanitey

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Electronic Certificates For Ships : A Lofty (Legal, Operations, Fraud, Trust) Analysis, Bridget Cosgrave

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of Autonomous Ships On The Containerised Shipping Interface Of Global Supply Chains- And Networks : A Literature Examination Of Selected Stakeholder Perspectives, Dirk Johannes Janse Van Rensburg

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

An Analysis Of The Need For A Pilot Civil Liability Restriction System In South Korea For Marine Safety, Jae Kun Lim

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Cyber-Security And Marine Insurance, Davit Dadiani

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Enhancing Safety Of Navigation By Incorporation Of Additional Data By Automatic Identification System, Rishi Mondal

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.