Business Commons^™

Unlocking Innovation Through Social Media Usage: A Study In Uae, Maher Farid Shirah

Business Administration Dissertations

It has been suggested that the use of social media is advantageous for a firm, but few academic studies have examined this issue. The objective of our study is to investigate the impact of the use of social media on an employee’s creativity and propensity to innovate, in the context of a public-sector firm in the UAE. Specifically, we examine the impact of social media use on an employee’s creativity and propensity to innovate using the innovations that are internal to a firm: service, process, and organization. Surveys were used to collect data from the employees of the selected organization …

On Identifying Successful Financial Strategies For The Listed Companies In The United Arab Emirates: An Empirical Approach, Abdulla Mohammed Abdulghafoor

Business Administration Dissertations

Financial profile mirrors the performance of a company regarding its competitive market abilities, sustainability and capacity. Thus, it is a crucial matter for a firm to seek appropriate financial strategies to furnish a positive influence on boosting the target outcomes of its entire business performance. This study investigates how the adopted financial strategies are associated with short/mid/long-term performance of the UAE Public Joint Stock Companies (PJSCs) that work in ten different business and industrial sectors, The quarterly based ten-year (2006-2015) Panel Data Set of the 92 PJSCs has been used in measuring the performance of each PJSC. Consequently, the researcher …

Identifying The Determents Of Government E-Service Quality In The Uae, Mohamed Abdulrahman A. Alahmed

Dissertations

Globally, government entities are facilitating ever more over-the-internet transactional services. In the Middle Eastern context, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is at the forefront. Although the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of the UAE has adopted appropriate e-service quality (ESQ) assessment tools in-house, these tools are designed only for back-end developers, not for gauging end-user satisfaction levels. In light of this, we developed a conceptual framework for the holistic measuring of such citizen opinions. The study incorporated a survey instrument on a sample population (n = 2,197) for investigating the ESQ of the UAE Ministry of Interior transactional e-services. Key findings indicate …

The Impact Of Transformational And Transactional Leadership Styles On Organizational Learning In Health Care Context, Nadia Mutref Saeed Al Jaberi

Dissertations

The aim of this research is to examine the impact of leadership styles on organizational learning in health care context at Abu Dhabi Health Services Company (SEHA) in Al Ain region. The study uses a quantitative methodology to answer the research questions. The findings suggest that both transactional and transformational leadership styles are associated with organizational learning. The transformational leadership is linked with organizational learning through learning goal orientation and trust in leaders whereas transactional leadership style is linked with organizational learning through performance goal orientation. The research findings can help senior executives to put strategic plans for their organizational …

Ethics And Effectiveness Of Microloans For Women In Developing Countries, Elizabeth Erika Killion 18

Honor Scholar Theses

No abstract provided.

Identifying The Competencies Of Middle Managers Leading Successful Strategy Implementation, Zafar Abdulmajid Momin

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

How does one successfully implement strategy? Persistent and alarmingly high failure rates of strategy implementation still prevail due to the myriad variables and complexities associated with execution, the brunt of which typically falls to middle management. Unfortunately, most organizations do not exercise sufficient rigor in the process and criteria to select the right middle managers for executing strategy, despite middle managers having a substantial impact on outcomes. Business leaders lack the necessary tools and frameworks for competency assessment to support their decision-making. This research seeks to provide evidence that selection of the right middle managers is more likely to lead …

The Study Of Crowdsourcing In Knowledge Management: The Role Of Employees' Innovative Behavior On Job Performance, Vetrivadivel Vel

Masters Theses & Doctoral Dissertations

Employees are a main source of innovative ideas via their insights on companies’ products, processes, customers, and competitors. Enterprise crowdsourcing systems (ECSs) are used to collect, refine, and realize ideas. However, only a small percentage of employees submit ideas – about 7.7% at Pfizer, 2% at HCL Technologies, and 3% at Polaris Industries. Why is employee participation low? More specifically, what factors can lead employees to actively use ECS to submit and share their innovative ideas for improving their job performance? In this research, we used a multi-actor dyadic survey to survey 183 employees and their managers and conducted data …

An Examination Of Athletic Directors' Perceptions Of The Utilization Of Athletic Trainers In The Secondary School Setting, Stephanie H. Clines

Health Services Research Dissertations

Many secondary school athletes are lacking appropriate medical care during sport participation. Athletic trainers (ATs) are qualified healthcare professionals that can fill this need. Barriers to hiring ATs within this setting have been identified, however important information from administrators is lacking on why secondary schools choose to utilize ATs. Understanding this decision making process has the potential to guide future strategies to increase the number of secondary schools that employ ATs and improve retention of athletic training positions within the secondary school setting.

Our objective was to explore athletic directors’ perceptions of the roles and services provided by ATs working …

Two Essays On Value Co-Creation, Hangjun Xu

Marketing Theses & Dissertations

In the past few decades, customer co-creation has received a significant amount of attention in both practice and academics. Prahalad and Ramaswamy (2000) advocated co-opting customer competence as a competitive strategy. The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate how to engage customers and employees into the value co-creation process. This dissertation is composed of two essays. Essay 1 focuses on customer co-creation behaviors and Essay 2 examines employee co-creation behaviors.

Motivating customers to participate in the value co-creation process can help the firm achieve their long-term financial successes. However, the psychological mechanism underlying customer co-creation behavior is still not …

Impact Of Motivation On Project Teams’ Performance In Information Technology, Ramu Karanam

Dissertations and Theses

Sufficient motivation is a critical ingredient for any organization to derive optimal performances from their workforce. Project teams are an integral part of the efficient conduction of an information and communication technology company’s core operations. This study is dictated towards the evaluation of the main factors that influence the level of motivation portrayed by team members of information technology project teams. Through a comprehensive literature review, the research was able to uncover insightful trends in motivation patterns among project team members that might be useful to project managers. The findings of this research conclude that a project team manager can …

Implementing Agile Lean In Telecom Industry, Swapnil Narvekar

Dissertations and Theses

With the introduction of new technologies, there has been a huge competition in the Telecom industry to maintain the customer base and stay at the top of the competition. In order to retain the customer base, the telecom companies are required to provide a high quality of service to its customers. Agile Lean practices have been implemented in the manufacturing industries for decades and are well known for eliminating waste, reducing the delivery time of the products and services and at the same time enhance the quality of services provided to its customers. This research paper aims to study the …

Examining Generational Differences In The Workplace: Employee Engagement Practices And Their Impact On Retention Of Different Generations Of Human Resources Employees In Higher Education, Lamija Basic

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this quantitative study was to identify the employee engagement practices that Baby Boomer, Generation X, and Millennial human resources (HR) employees in four-year private institutions of higher education (IHEs) in southern California perceive as most important to their retention. The secondary purpose of the study was to determine the similarities and differences between the engagement practices considered most important for retention by Millennial HR employees compared to Baby Boomer and Generation X employees in IHEs.

Methodology: A quantitative descriptive, nonexperimental research design was selected for this study. The population included three generations of HR professionals working …

Brand Loyalty To Disney Theme Parks In Mainland China, Megan E. Pepi

Honors Thesis

Since 2005, Disney has attempted but failed to establish brand loyalty among Chinese consumers in the theme park market. Disney is going to retry achieving this goal through Shanghai Disney Resort, which is a theme park that opened on June 16, 2016. Facing its past failures, the challenges of appealing to unique Chinese cultural preferences, and having to cooperate with a restrictive government system, will Disney be able to implement its authentic brand identity and establish brand loyalty among Chinese consumers through its new theme park? To answer this question, a qualitative analysis of the entertainment offered at Shanghai Disney …

Identifying The Influences Of Psychological Factors On Fashion Customization, Sukyung Seo

LSU Master's Theses

As environmental concerns have been increasing and fashion market condition has been fierce and competitive ever before due to consumers’ ever-changing fashion tastes, customization has received growing attention considering as a solution to overcome those challenges. Despite the numerous attention, research on customization has been limited to only issues from business viewpoints whereas studies from consumers’ standpoints are little.

The purpose of the study was to examine how consumers’ psychological properties (i.e., self- promotion, need for uniqueness, self-expression, social identity, self-monitoring, and other-directedness) affect buying intention of customized apparel products mediated by perceptions of customization and extended-self. To achieve the …

The Relationship Between Audit Quality And Competition At The Intersection Of The Large And Small Audit Firm Markets, Jeanne-Claire Alyse White

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This paper examines the relationship between audit quality and several measures of spatial competition. Spatial competition is measured as the smallest absolute difference in audit fee market shares from an audit firm and its closest competitor. In this paper, spatial competition measures are referred to as competitive distances, and they are calculated within the large audit market (Big 4 only), within the small audit market (non-Big 4 only), and between the large and small audit markets. Audit market competition and its effect on audit quality has been an ongoing debate. On one side of the argument, competition may negatively impact …

Audit Committee Oversight Of Internal Control Over Financial Reporting, Andrea B. Weickgenannt

Doctor of Business Administration Dissertations

This study investigates the processes audit committees employ to fulfill their obligation to oversee internal control over financial reporting (ICFR). Specifically, I explore audit committee processes within five fundamental internal control components: control environment, risk assessment, control activities, information and communication, and monitoring (COSO, 2013). I consider agency theory and institutional theory, investigating the degree of substantive versus ceremonial processes used by audit committees. Additionally, this study considers comfort theory as it reveals details about how audit committees get “comfortable” with ICFR.

The research questions in this study are examined through a cross-sectional survey of 167 public company audit committee …

Relationship Between Leadership Styles And Job Satisfaction In Luxury Retail Project, Cuiping Zhang

Dissertations and Theses

This is a study on the impact of leadership styles on the employee job satisfaction in the luxury retail project management industry. The purpose of conducting this research is to identify the impact of different types of leadership styles on the employee job satisfaction towards the organization. This research examines major leadership styles, which may be summarized as autocratic leadership, democratic leadership laissez-faire leadership, transactional leadership and transformative leadership styles. The proposed research solution for this study is a qualitative correlational study. In this study specially designed questionnaires will be used to collect the primary data from targeting population which …

Assessment Of Technology Adoption Potential Of Medical Devices: Case Of Wearable Sensor Products For Pervasive Care In Neurosurgery And Orthopedics, Liliya Stepanivna Hogaboam

Dissertations and Theses

Information and communication technologies hope to revolutionize the healthcare industry with innovative and affordable solutions with a focus on pervasive care. Wearable sensors products can provide monitoring in a natural environment with a constant stream of information, enriching healthcare practices and enabling better pervasive care.

Wearable sensor technologies could monitor patients' mobility, gait, tremor, daily activity and other health indicators in real time that could allow for simple, non-invasive, tracking of spine care that may lead to increased patient engagement, integration, feedback, post-surgery analysis, monitoring of patient's condition, patient's data extraction and analysis and possibly aiding in better diagnosis, intervention, …

Audit Committee Industry Specialization: An Examination Of Auditor Choice, Financial Reporting Quality Implications, And Market Perception, Danny Lynn Shaw

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

I investigate whether high-quality audit committees (ACs) prefer high-quality auditors. I then examine the benefits of high-quality ACs engaging high-quality auditors. The prediction is that high-quality ACs (i.e. those composed of members with industry expertise) will be more likely to choose high-quality auditors (i.e. Big 4/Mid-tier firms and industry specialist auditors) in order to preserve the reputational capital they have built as financial monitors. Further, improvement to financial reporting quality (FRQ) is expected to occur when an industry specialist AC engages a Big4/Mid-tier auditor (i.e. complementary relationship). On the other hand, it is expected that any incremental improvement to FRQ …

Improve Organizational Commitment By Leading Like A Therapist, Anna A. Gibson

Graduate School of Professional Psychology: Doctoral Papers and Masters Projects

The 21st-century workplace underemphasizes the importance of relational leadership, at the expense of the bottom line. Although there is a plethora of both popular and academic literature on the importance of good leadership in the workplace, relational leadership techniques have been misunderstood and underutilized. Dynamic psychology theories that emphasize the importance of relationships—such as self psychology—can be used to produce organizational results.

Shop Around: An Experiment On Air Force Vehicle Parts Procurement, Melvin K. Boothe

Theses and Dissertations

Current procurement processes for vehicle parts vary substantially across the Air Force. Many of these parts are "commercial off-the-shelf" items that are procured through local vendors via a government purchase card. Understanding what guidance dictates various purchasing processes and how that guidance affects the behavior of purchasers is unknown. A mixed method approach of semi-structured interviews of purchasers at multiple bases and an experimental survey testing different sets of guidance are used to understand the effects of guidance, as well as produce recommendations for action and future research for leaders at the local and headquarters levels.

Parametric Survival Analysis Of Us Air Force Rated Officer Retention, Jacob R. Lindell

Theses and Dissertations

Personnel retention is a very important topic in both the private and public sectors. Not only do companies need to make sure they have the right people, they need to have the right amount of people. Within the public sector, specifically the US Air Force, maintaining appropriate manning comes in two phases; bringing in the right amount of people each year, and retaining enough people from year to year. These two aspects go hand in hand; if the Air Force knows how many people they will lose in a given year, they can bring in the exact number of people …

Not All Tons Are Created Equal; Analyzing Aerial Port Capability To Define The Working Ton, Casey L. Owens

Theses and Dissertations

United States Transportation Command (TRANSCOM) along with Air Mobility Command (AMC) provide airlift assets that accomplish thousands of missions around the world every week for cargo distribution. The current unit of measure is a short ton, which is the primary metric used in decision making. However, the short ton measurement does not adequately predict the amount of work necessary to properly prepare different cargo types for airlift. Utilizing the short ton metric leads to inadequate forecasting times for cargo preparation and aircraft loading, which leads to delayed missions. The root of the problem is that the metric used does not …

Investigating Capability Development Management For The Air Force Strategic Development Planning And Experimentation (Spde) Office, Sarah M. Pak

Theses and Dissertations

The Air Force provides unique capabilities for the defense of our nation. Capabilities do not come to fruition instantly; they must go through a development process. Managing the development of a capability is a difficult but necessary task. In 2016, a report from the Air Force Studies Board prompted the Air Force to focus on the Capability Development Process and its improvement. In response to the report, the Strategic Development Planning & Experimentation (SDPE) Office was formed. The SDPE Office is tasked to support Enterprise Capability Collaboration Teams (ECCTs), which are, in turn, tasked to research and solve prominent issues …

Evaluating The Air Force Inspection System, Luis D. Rosado-Medina

Theses and Dissertations

SAF/IG implemented the Air Force Inspection System (AFIS) in 2013 following a USAFE pilot study into its potential for implementation across the Air Force. Using responsive constructive evaluation and content analysis of interviews as a methodology, AFIS was evaluated against the objectives laid out in AFPAD13-01. 18 interviews were conducted on 4 stakeholder groups across the inspection enterprise, which resulted in 4 overarching themes: Culture Shifts, Self-Assessment, Higher Headquarters Relationships, and PAD Objectives. This research allows SAF/IG to implement changes to future versions of AFIS that incorporates views from the field.

Managing Supply Discrepancies: The Effect Of Performance Measurement And Feedback On Order Fulfillment Quality, Michael J. Weber

Theses and Dissertations

Extensive research on the impact of shipping and packaging errors in the private sector finds numerous negative outcomes, including reduced customer satisfaction, reduced customer loyalty, and lower profitability. However, little research has been done examining the impact of order fulfillment errors on military operations. The purpose of this research is to quantify the impact of supply discrepancy reports (SDRs) on military aircraft readiness metrics, including cannibalizations, not mission capable supply (NMCS) hours, aircraft availability and MICAP hours. Results show SDRs significantly impact aircraft readiness metrics in seven of the fifteen analyses conducted. Additionally, a quasi-experimental study is implemented at DLA …

Analysis Of Influences Of Separation Decisions In The Financial Management Career Field, Shauna Young

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to analyze influences on separation decisions of active duty Air Force financial management officers. Researchers tested nine variables to determine their separation implications. The tested variables were major command, age, prior enlisted service, spouse, commissioning source, AFIT cost analysis master’s degrees, engagement, crystallization of job alternatives, and exhaustion. Results proved that age, prior enlisted service, having a spouse, and being an Air Force Academy or AFIT graduate correlates to whether a financial management officer will separate from the Air Force. In addition, the engagement level or having a defined list of job alternatives readily …

How A Conducive Environment And Susceptible Followers Influence Toxic Leadership Behaviors In The Air Force: An Examination Of The Toxic Triangle Theory, Rachel S. Beightel

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis was to determine what characteristics of the Air Force’s environment and Airmen perpetuate toxic leadership behaviors. This survey study was designed, using the toxic triangle theory, to evaluate the toxic leadership behaviors, susceptible follower traits, and conducive environment characteristics participants have experienced in the Air Force. The study applied ordinary least squares path analysis to determine the influence susceptible followers and characteristics of a conducive environment have on toxic leadership behaviors in the Air Force. Results revealed that collusive followers have a direct influence on toxic leadership. While only two characteristics of a conducive environment …

Resilient Aircraft Maintenance Constructs: Enhancing Repair Network Designs To Effectively Manage Risks And Supply Chain Interruptions, Thomas S. Bihansky

Theses and Dissertations

This research aims to extend the understanding of supply chain resiliency by utilizing a simulation model of a U.S. Air Force aircraft engine repair network to evaluate the degree of resiliency built into the system. The study compares the recovery time of the disrupted current system to that of a fully-integrated repair network; the objective being the quantification of resiliency in the current networks design and gauging the effectiveness of various strategies in reducing recovery time. This contributes to current literature by bridging the explicit gap on how to quantify, measure, and compare resilient supply chain strategies and also provides …

Flightline Heroics And The Façade Of A Healthy Common Support Equipment Fleet, Benjamin D. Bobic

Theses and Dissertations

Access to serviceable support equipment enables aircraft maintenance crews the ability to efficiently keep assigned aircraft safe and mission capable. Current Air Force policy does not require formal management and enterprise fleet health reporting of serialized support equipment. As such, articulating funding requirements to replace equipment has been a challenge for equipment managers. To better articulate support equipment requirements, equipment managers need quantifiable support equipment data. A previous study examined the relationship between aircraft availability and support equipment availability. While finding no significant correlation, the author identifies the practices of "Frankensteining" and "Beg-Borrow-Steal" as possible reasons for the absence of …