Business Commons^™

Fast Food Business Survivability Beyond 5 Years In Nigeria, Victor Ukorebi

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The lack of manager's effective business strategies contributes to the failure of fast food businesses in Nigeria. The size of the fast food industry in Nigeria grows at the rate of 4% annually with rapid rate of return on investment. The annual value of the fast food business in Nigeria was N250 billion in 2015, which is approximately US$700 million. However, approximately 80% of fast food restaurants launched in Nigeria in 2014 failed to persist for longer than 5 years because of lack of survival strategies. Using the human capital theory, the purpose of this multiple case study was to …

Small And Medium-Size Enterprise Owner Strategies For Invoice Factoring Financing, Winniefred Nabawanda

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) business owners influence the growth and development of sub-Saharan Africa and the welfare of its citizens. However, SME owners often lack the strategies to access and obtain invoice factoring financing to fund their businesses. Guided by the pecking order theory and the credit rationing theory, the purpose of this multiple case study was to explore strategies that 3 SME owners in Kenya used to access and obtain invoice factoring financing to fund their businesses. Data were collected from in-depth semistructured Skype interviews and organizational documents. Data were analyzed using the Krippendorff content analysis methodology. Member …

Social Media Strategy For With Purpose, Kelly Lauck

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The intent of my Honors Research Project is to prepare, execute, and analyze a social media strategy as part of an education campaign for the childhood cancer organization With Purpose. The social media campaign that I created was part of a greater public relations campaign for With Purpose. I worked on a four-person team to develop the campaign for the Public Relations Student Society of America’s 2018 Bateman Case Study Competition.

In order to properly prepare and execute the strategy, I conducted a situation analysis to learn more about With Purpose, set social media goals and objectives to provide direction …

Marginal Revenue Product Of Division I Swimmers, Olivia Adele Raxter

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

To date, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has undergone an excessive amount of reforms including topics such as student-athlete well-being, academics, enforcement, resource allocation, and so forth. However, despite the constant stream of policy reforms there has been a significant lack of effective reform initiatives with reference to the economic state of the NCAA. This void is partially due to the lack of sufficient empirical evidence surrounding the economic discussion of college athletics, specifically in regards to the discussion of the potential for performance based compensation for student-athletes. Past research for such compensation has focused primarily on large revenue …

Impact Of Experiential Learning In Cross Disciplinary Projects, Cassandra M. Cameron

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

In higher education, immersion in real-world experience is essential for students’ professional development. This paper seeks to examine the facets of importance within experiential learning while participating in cross disciplinary projects. First, an anecdotal experience of participating in a national financial competition as transcribed by the author is provided in Section I. This will provide personal reflection of the various benefits associated with the project. Section II follows with a review of relevant literature to connect the aforementioned benefits to experimental and empirical evidence. Section III provides the manuscript submitted to and chosen as a finalist of the Financial Service …

Cleaning The World One Smartlink At A Time, Ryan Zwahlen, Sarah Lucas, Sara Woika, Faith Goforth, Logan Hanreck, Rachel Schirripa

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This project sought to develop the best sales plan for GOJO's currently developing product called SMARTLINK, a technology that transforms any hand soap or hand sanitizer dispenser into a smart dispenser. It allows the user to track current levels of solution among other uses.

Zips Rifle Endowment Project, Christopher Catalano

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This Research project serves predominantly as a feasibility index for the permanent funding and endowment of the Zips rifle club at the University of Akron. Among the objectives covered was the description and assessment of the clubs financial needs, the calculation of capitalization, and best options for permanent funding.

Business Closure In The North American Theme Park Industry: An Analysis Of Causes, Kelly Kaak

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Prior to this study, no analysis had focused on the 31% failure rate recorded among theme parks opened in North American between the years 1955 and 2009. This study's purpose was to identify the causes of closures among the 23 failed theme parks and inform the industry of what can be learned from these business failures. Business failure analysis typically stresses the impact of financial ratios and the accuracy of certain negative numbers to predict impending failure, but such studies avoid examining the underlying causes that lead to poor financial performance in the first place. To focus on this question, …

Research Before Teaching And Service? Performances, Perceptions, And Experiences Of Faculty At Teaching-Intensive Institutions, Megan Elizabeth Throm

Wayne State University Dissertations

The privileging of research over teaching is well documented in scholarship regarding the teaching-research nexus. In this dissertation I analyze the experiences and identities related to research, teaching, and service of sixteen faculty members at teaching-intensive institutions through intensive interviews. The focus on teaching-intensive institutions is driven by two goals. The first goal was to gain a better understanding of how the privileging of research over teaching and service is experienced, understood, and reified by faculty members at teaching-intensive institutions. Second, by giving voice to the experiences of those at teaching-intensive institutions I hope to increase the value placed on …

The Impact Of Chinese Air Pollution On Match Attendance Of Chinese Super League, Wantong Fu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

To date, environmental issues have become one of the most complex social and economic issues across the globe. Specifically, in the context of sport, the literature has considered how sport organizations may use environmental concerns as a way to connect to consumers, such as through the use of environmentally practices to help build the image of sport organizations. However, despite this lineage of studies, research which has focused on how changing environmental conditions may influence sport consumers are virtually non-existent. Such research is especially important in the case of China, where due to the rapid growth of urban areas and …

Cork International Airport: A Fulcrum For Business And Tourism Sectors In The Southern Region?, Kieran Moynihan

Theses

This research finds that aviation delivers many economic and social benefits for a region. European airports have undergone a major business transformation over the last two decades - from facilitators of air travel to fully-fledged businesses, competing for business and traffic in a liberalised market. This study focuses on Cork International Airport, in a national and international context, to assess its infrastructural importance to the economic performance of the region. A post-positivistic approach was applied to research the topic, and interviews were conducted with relevant authorities on the subject matter. The researcher interviewed twelve contributors with a fixed list of …

Exploring Organisations’ Awareness Of The Costs Associated With Millennial Employee Turnover., Ray Cronin

Theses

There has been much commentary in recent years regarding younger people, particularly Millennials, and that discussion has focused on whether they change employment more than previous generations. Additionally there has been debate regarding whether the Millennial generation show less loyalty to employers today. Loyalty, for the purposes of this study, is considered not m terms of dedication, commitment or dependability, but rather in terms of medium to long term allegiance, tenure and faithfulness to the existing employer. The counter argument to this theory is that tenure has more to do with life stage and nothing to do with being Millennial …

What Is The Relationship Between Work-Life Integration And Job Satisfaction With Regard To Stress And Employee Well-Being?, Nicole King

Theses

The world of work is changing with the separation of work and personal life becoming an increasing challenge. Advances in technology have facilitated the mobility of work with over 6 billion people having access to a mobile phone which has led to greater demands on the modern worker which poses a question. What is the relationship between work-life integration and job satisfaction with regard to stress and employee well-being?

Due to the universal application of the chosen research topic, an industry focus was not chosen to allow for the collection of generalisable data. Questionnaires were the chosen research method and …

Design Thinking: A Case Study Of Implementation Within The It Software Industry., Jean-Baptiste Liberge

Theses

In the global economy, competition and market pressures push the majority of company managers to drive with more efficiency by improving processes, optimizing performance and reducing costs. Companies are increasing shareholder value by improving cash flow' and cutting costs. How many cost savings can finance departments reproduce and for how long? Is this enough to lead their markets to deliver better services to their customers? Is it enough to build customer loyalty? The 11 industry fails to escape these constraints, operating in an intensely competitive market. To compete in this environment, companies need to face frequent new product launches and …

Value Of Exemption From Professional Examinations: Opinion Of Third-Level Accounting Students And Graduates, Lorraine Cashman Rahilly

Masters

In Ireland (and the UK) becoming an accountant usually involves a dual qualification system: a third-level degree followed by training and professional examination. This is commonly conceptualised as learning through knowing followed by learning through doing (Wilson, 2011; Apostolou & Gammie, 2014). Much debate exists about where the responsibility for the development of knowledge and skills lies. Third-level accounting degrees have been criticised for focusing too much on gaining exemptions from professional examinations, with employers feeling that graduates are not work ready (Albrecht & Sack, 2000; Jackling & De Lange, 2008; Pan & Perera, 2012; Bayerlein & Timpson, 2017). However, …

The Impact Of Entrepreneurship Education On Graduate Employability: A Cross Country Comparison, Rebecca Victoria Robinson

Masters

This thesis identifies and addresses a major gap in Entrepreneurship Education (EE) research. Specifically, it focuses on the entrepreneurial skills and attitudes embedded in employability skills. It tests the widely accepted assertion that employers desire more well-rounded graduates who possess entrepreneurial skills. Pittaway and Cope (2007) highlight an absence of evidence in the literature establishing a link between EE and employability skills.

It is the intersection of EE and graduate employability that provides the context for this study. This study examines the knowledge, skills and attitudes resulting from education and, in particular, from EE and ascertains the extent to which …

Examining The Potential Of Design Thinking For Marketing Students In The Context Of Workplace Learning And Performance Challenges, Christina Pinkaow

Masters

Design thinking, which initially emerged in the 1980s, has notably been recently receiving increased attention, particularly in business communities, as a process that enables rapid, innovative, and user-centric problem solving (Lockwood, 2010). As the forthcoming generations of marketing graduates enter this ‘Consumer Age’, they will be forced to think innovatively and empathetically in order to adjust to constant and rapid changes in our environment (Hanttu, 2013). Design thinking equips modern marketers with the opportunity to become consumercentric and effectively generate innovative solutions on a constant basis to complex challenges that exists (Mohr, 2015).

While the concept is gaining increasing hold …

Exploring The Leading Factors Associated With Absenteeism And Presenteeism In A Call Centre, Keith O'Mahony

Masters

High absenteeism levels, which have become synonymous with the call centre industry, have a detrimental impact on the delivery of contractual requirements, as well as the quality of service provided to customers. Conversely, presenteeism has less of an established association with call centres, primarily due to it being a relatively recent phenomenon. It is recognised, however, that both constructs have a negative effect on productivity and cost. Furthermore, presenteeism presents an incredible opportunity to reveal the unknowns that exist between absenteeism, no productivity, and maximum work engagement. This thesis focuses on identifying the leading factors correlated with absenteeism and presenteeism …

Perspectives Of Female Athletic Trainers Working In Male Professional Sports, Taylor Mae Temnick

Online Theses and Dissertations

"In athletic training, males have dominated the profession for the initial 30 years of its existence, opening the doors for women only as recently as the 1970s" (Dieringer, 2007, p. 106). There has been a limited amount of research and data regarding female athletic trainers working with and at the level of professional sports, particularly with male teams. Within the last decade there has been an increase in interest of female athletic trainers and their professional pursuits; especially since 2007, there have been more females in the field of athletic training than males. The following literature and results provide various …

The Relationship Between Job Satisfaction And Job Persistence Of Female Faculty In Higher Education, Ellen Hutcheson Mcmahan

Online Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this quantitative study was to understand facets of job satisfaction and levels of burnout and to determine the relationship between job satisfaction and organizational commitment of female faculty across various career stages at a regional Kentucky university. Due to increasing workload and expectations for performance, greater understanding is warranted of the need for balance between work duties and personal responsibilities, in order to avoid burnout. Regardless of the growth in the field of Organizational Psychology, female faculty continue to leave academia. This study helps to clarify for organizational leaders facets of job satisfaction which lead to commitment …

The Relationship Between Teacher Attitudes Regarding Performance-Related Pay And Teacher Working Conditions, Audrey Nichols

Online Theses and Dissertations

This quantitative study examined the relationship between teacher working conditions and teacher attitudes toward performance pay in two turnaround schools. In the context of this study, teacher working conditions are defined as professional development, school leadership, and teacher collaboration. Teacher survey results are used as a means of data collection in this study to determine if any relationship exists between the defined teacher working conditions and teacher attitudes toward performance pay.

Barnes & Noble: Business Analysis, Wendy Gregory

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

This thesis identifies how to conduct a Business Analysis. The publicly traded company for this project is Barnes & Noble.

Essays On Share Repurchases, David Moore

Theses and Dissertations--Finance and Quantitative Methods

In my first chapter, we document and study the use of Rule 10b5 1 preset repurchase plans. We exploit this new and widespread form of payout to examine an issue at the core of payout decisions—the tradeoff between commitment and financial flexibility. Relative to open market repurchases, preset plans provide an expanded repurchase window and increased legal cover, albeit at the cost of reducing repurchase flexibility and the option to time repurchases. These costs and benefits are significantly associated with Rule 10b5-1 adoption. Consistent with preset plans signaling commitment, Rule 10b5-1 repurchase announcements are associated with greater and faster completion …

Essays On Hedge Fund Trading And Performance, Qiping Huang

Theses and Dissertations--Finance and Quantitative Methods

In the first essay, I create a hedge fund informed trading measure (ITM) that separates information related trades from liquidity driven trades. The results indicate that ITM predicts future stock returns at the trade level, thus is associated with information. By aggregating the most informed trades at the stock level, I find that stocks heavily purchased by informed hedge funds earn a significant alpha. The results indicate that the ITM performs better than some previously documented measures and is robust to two different versions of the measure. The second essay exploits the expiring nature of hedge fund lockups to create …

An Analysis Of The Factors Which Effectively Attract College Graduates, Mandy Kaur, Kaleb Oney, Joseph Chadbourne, Kayli Bookman, Benjamin Beckman

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Team Smucker Love was assigned the task of understanding recent graduates’ work environment priorities by the J. M. Smucker company. Through primary and secondary research, the team collaborated and discovered a variety of factors that are important to recent college graduates, as well as other millennials. This research seeks to define a few elements that can sway a recent college graduate whether to ultimately accept a position offered to them. Identified were five key areas of improvement at the target client, the J.M. Smucker Company, including technology in the workplace, work-life balance, workplace layout, work place culture, and amenities offered …

Ua Feature Twirler For A Day, Amy Mellinger

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This analysis includes a description of the first UA Twirler for a Day Event, the preliminary research done on the best practices for planning events such as this, and the process that took place to plan the event. It then goes into an analysis of the planning process, communication, registration, and execution of the event, as well as suggestions for planning similar events.

Three Essays On Financial Collaboration In The Government And Nonprofit Sectors, Saerim Kim

Theses and Dissertations--Public Policy and Administration

The primary objective of this dissertation is to study the management of public and nonprofit resources and financial risk. Governments will be able to use its findings to continue to provide public services in collaboration with other sectors, including the nonprofit sector. Nonprofit financial self-sufficiency and sub-award grant mechanisms between the government and nonprofit sectors are two primary areas to be examined. This dissertation consists of three essays. The first investigates how the diversification of nonprofit revenue portfolios influences extreme revenue risks; the results show that the chance of extreme revenue loss increases when revenue sources are highly correlated to …

Exploring Critical Success Factors Of Community Development Projects, Kevin Wanjama Muchiri

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The utilization of Community Development Projects in developing nations continues to increase in significance. In the wake of the latest Sustainable Development Goals, developing nations are working towards eliminating poverty, promoting sustainable cities and communities, gender equality, and health and well-being. Although Community Development Projects have become prevalent, the challenge has been that some are successful, while others fail. This dissertation investigates what makes Community Development Projects successful.

This dissertation implemented a comprehensive quantitative analysis using data collected from over one hundred community development projects obtained from The World Bank database. These projects took place in developing nations around the …

Human-Intelligence And Machine-Intelligence Decision Governance Formal Ontology, Faisal Mahmud

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Since the beginning of the human race, decision making and rational thinking played a pivotal role for mankind to either exist and succeed or fail and become extinct. Self-awareness, cognitive thinking, creativity, and emotional magnitude allowed us to advance civilization and to take further steps toward achieving previously unreachable goals. From the invention of wheels to rockets and telegraph to satellite, all technological ventures went through many upgrades and updates. Recently, increasing computer CPU power and memory capacity contributed to smarter and faster computing appliances that, in turn, have accelerated the integration into and use of artificial intelligence (AI) in …

Three Essays On Ceo Risk Preferences, And Ability, Corporate Hedging Decisions, And Investor Sentiment, Sonik Mandal

Finance Theses & Dissertations

The derivative hedging research has looked at why firms and how firms hedge and if it increases value for their shareholders. In this dissertation we investigate the relation between CEO risk preferences and ability and whether if affects their hedging decisions and firm value.

In our first essay, we challenge the theory and previous empirical evidence that showed CEO risk preferences affects hedging. Using a sample of Fortune 500 firms and 5 years of panel data, and using inside debt (i.e., CEO pension and deferred compensation) and the CEO Vega and CEO Delta, as proxies of CEO risk preferences, we …