Business Commons^™

Encouraging Entrepreneurship: Resources Supporting Small Business Startup And Growth, Karen A. Eagle

STEMPS Theses & Dissertations

Small business success drives the health of a local economy. The problem of this three phase mixed methods study was to encourage entrepreneurship by identifying the resources that support business startup and growth. In the first qualitative phase, the city business resource webpage was observed and 10 entrepreneurs were interviewed to identify which business resources were used for their recent startups. Using the data from the interviews, a survey instrument was developed for the Small Business Subcommittee (SBS) that was used in the second quantitative phase which included 351 business owners; 35% were women and 65% were men. The sample …

Crowdfunding: Is It A Viable Financial Model For Nonprofits?, Colleen M. Kenost

All Capstone Projects

Background: As traditional funding models become exhausted in response to fiscal constraints, successful leaders are forced to use innovative and non-traditional social entrepreneurial tools in order to bring their goals to life. One of these new tools is crowdfunding.

Purpose: This paper analyzes the relationship between social entrepreneurship, leadership and crowdfunding, as a growing number of nonprofits are deploying crowdfunding as a revenue stream for fundraising.

Methods: Analyzing nonprofit data from Kickstarter, this study utilizes descriptive statistics as well as two-sample t-test and logistic regression models to identify success metrics for crowdfunding being a viable financial model for the nonprofit …

Examining The Feasibility Of Implementing A Deconstruction Nonprofit In East St. Louis, Il, David M. Hoag Jr.

All Capstone Projects

Background: According to an environmental justice case study by Kozol (2005), East St. Louis is considered the country's most distressed city. It has suffered from environmental and economic misfortunes for several decades. Many residents of the city have left due to the economic conditions of the city, which resulted in a loss of tax base. According to Hou (2010), the loss of tax base has had a severe impact on the community; the city that once had flourishing parks, streets, and businesses has now become blighted with condemned, abandoned, and foreclosed structures. Poor maintenance and neglect has led to decay …

Ambidexterity: The Interplay Of Supply Chain Management Competencies And Enterprise Resource Planning Systems On Organizational Performance, Serdar Turedi

Information Technology & Decision Sciences Theses & Dissertations

Understanding the business value of information systems (IS) is one of the key issues among practitioners. Specifically, the role of IS in supply chain management (SCM) is one of the main areas that practitioners focus, as the largest portion of production costs are traceable back to supply chain costs. Hence, inter-organizational systems (IOS) gain importance as a result of the increased competition between supply chain networks. Particularly, implementation of enterprise resource planning (ERP), which is a type of IOS, becomes the new trend among organizations.

Although organizations use similar ERP, some gained significant benefits by using them, while others struggled …

An Examination Of Control Fraud In Non-Banking Industries, Kaylie Takahashi

Honors Theses

William Black’s (2005) control fraud theory suggests accounting fraud initiated by CEOs is more damaging than accounting fraud that is not. However, this theory has only been applied anecdotally to financial institutions. I test Black’s theory using a sample of manufacturing, merchandising, and service firms that engaged in accounting fraud from 2007-2014. I hypothesize that firms which commit CEO-led fraud will exhibit greater growth, leverage, and have higher CEO compensation. My findings do not show that there is any evidence that control frauds are more damaging than other accounting frauds that do not involve the CEO.

Understanding Millennial, Generation X, And Baby Boomer Preferred Leadership Characteristics: Informing Today’S Leaders And Followers, Lee-Volker Cox

Dissertations

Purpose. This quantitative study’s purpose was to describe and determine the degree of difference and importance of leadership characteristics as perceived by Baby Boom, Generation X, and Millennial generational cohort followers in STEM-related U.S.-based or headquartered aerospace and computer organizations as measured by the Multigenerational Leadership Characteristics Questionnaire (MLCQ).

Methodology. This was a cross-sectional, nonexperimental, comparative and correlational quantitative, ex post facto study. A web-based MLCQ was developed after conducting an academic literature review. Participants used a 6-point Likert scale identifying the importance of 30 characteristics with 2 aggregation questions identifying the most and least important characteristics; 408 members of …

The Effects Of Mission Statement Design On Behavioral Intention, Jonathan David West

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine whether the length and readability of a mission statement contribute to stakeholder behavior regarding the mission statement. The majority of studies in the mission statement literature have not attempted to find an empirical link between mission statement design and employee behavior. This study employed a 2 (length: long v. short) x 2 (readability: low v high) post-test only factorial design to test the relationship between message design and beliefs about the mission statement. Students at a large southeastern university (n=212) were shown the one of four treatments and asked to …

Determining The Optimal Work Breakdown Structure For Government Acquisition Contracts, Brian J. Fitzpatrick

Theses and Dissertations

The optimal level of Government Contract Work Breakdown Structure (G-CWBS) reporting for the purposes of Earned Value Management was inspected. The G-Score Metric was proposed, which can quantitatively grade a G-CWBS, based on a new method of calculating an Estimate At Completion (EAC) cost for each reported element. A random program generator created in R replicated the characteristics of DOD program artifacts retrieved from the Cost Analysis Data Enterprise (CADE) system. The generated artifacts were validated as a population, however validation at the demographic combination level using an artificial neural network was inconclusive. Comparative WBS forms were created for a …

Predicting Schedule Duration For Defense Acquisition Programs: Program Initiation To Initial Operational Capability, Christopher A. Jimenez

Theses and Dissertations

Accurately predicting the most realistic schedule for a defense acquisitions program is an extremely difficult task considering the inherent risk and uncertainties present in the early stages of a program. We use a multiple regression analysis to predict schedule duration in a defense acquisition program. The prediction scope of our research is limited to predicting schedule duration from program initiation to initial operation capability (IOC).We use the data from 56 programs across all services, which was acquired from a SAR database created by RAND. We were able to achieve an R2 of 0.429 and an Adjusted R2 of 0.384 in …

Predicting Cost Growth Using Programs Reviews And Milestones For Dod Aircraft, Scott J. Kozlak

Theses and Dissertations

Past research shows predicting cost growth is an important topic with DoD systems. Researchers have attempted to predict total program cost growth as well as identify predictors of program cost growth. Our research addresses this through examining cost growth at reviews and milestones along an aircrafts schedule. We assess cost growth factors at four major reviews, Critical Design Review, First Flight, Development Test and Evaluation End, and Initial Operating Capability. The first portion of the analysis focuses on identifying cost growth factors and percent of total cost growth at the four program reviews. The second portion identifies predictors of cost …

Simulation Modeling And Analysis Of Air Force Depot Engine Repair During Normal And Increased Operational Tempos, Changsung Kim

Theses and Dissertations

Maintaining an adequate level of aircraft availability through Agile Combat Support (ACS) is crucial for the Air Force to perform its mission. During normal day to day operations, demands for depot repair including spare parts and maintenance man-hours typically fall within a range supportable with current assets and capabilities. However, with increased flying operations during a conflict, demand at the depot level may likely exceed current capacity for timely support, resulting in backorders for spares and increased turnaround times. This thesis develops a discrete event simulation of the F-16 engine repair network to investigate the impact on engine availability (a …

An Evaluation Of Forecasting Methods That Could Be Used In The Brazilian Air Force Uniform Distribution Process, Leandro Valviesse De Oliveira

Theses and Dissertations

Every year the Brazilian Air Force (BAF) spends the equivalent of approximately 15 million dollars for uniforms. These purchases come from a tight budget, are executed through public procurement processes, and are tied to Brazilian acquisition regulations, which are often very strict. For this reason, lead times are unpredictable. It can take anywhere from one month to a year to replenish an item. The purpose of this research is to analyze the forecasting process performed at a BAF military organization named Sub-directorate of Supply (SDS) with the intent of building an algorithm comprised of a selection of forecasting models in …

Consolidating Supply Chain Management Education Through Professional Certification, Christopher L. Clawson

Theses and Dissertations

The Air Force and Department of Defense can benefit from professional certification in supply chain management. Research addressed the benefits and impact certification can have on individuals and an organization. Without a defined and concise education plan for supply chain management, certification remains a viable option. Interviews with defense industry partners highlighted key aspects of successful SCM development and education programs.

Determining The Degree Of The Routinization Of Additive Manufacturing In The Air Logistics Complexes, Candis A. Woods

Theses and Dissertations

Fiscal constraints have affected the USAF’s spending and sustainment of weapons systems that are being utilized beyond their programmed life cycle; therefore, it is imperative that processes be given the critical eye for improvement, innovative approaches, and/or best practice implementation. The AFSC, part of the AFMC, has embarked on a groundbreaking effort to transform operations and leverage industry best practices, while maintaining focus on warfighter support to create “The AFSC Way.” The AFSC Way is based on a shared leadership model that emphasizes speed, safety, and quality, which gives way to innovative ideas and new technologies in order to achieve …

Application Of Non-Rated Line Officer Attrition Levels And Career Field Stability, Christine L. Zens

Theses and Dissertations

The Air Force monitors the strength of its active duty officer force and attempts to achieve the difficult challenge of employing a diversity of talent among career specialties and experience levels. This study completes two objectives, predicting future manning levels for 23 career fields, and providing a statistical framework to assess the stability of these fields. The first part of the study applies regression and survival analysis to subpopulations within the active duty Air Force officer corps, and then aggregates them by year to forecast future personnel levels. Four career fields are considered, including Acquisitions (ACQ), Logistics (LOG), Support (SPT), …

Factors Influencing Skill Retention In Multi-Skilled Air Force Aircraft Maintainers, Jessica A. Salgado

Theses and Dissertations

The 2013 National Defense Authorization Act allows the Air Force Air Logistics Complexes (ALCs) to promote workers proficient in more than one trade by one pay grade. Multi-skilling is the term used to describe workers trained in more than one job. The United States Air Force wants to utilize multi-skilling at these ALCS, but the effects of implementation are still unknown. This research focuses on the identification of skill retention influences to better understand this multi-skilling through the use of a human subjects experiment at two Air Force bases. We examine the retention of aircraft mechanics’ skill to evaluate the …

Civil Engineer Company Grade Officer Training Needs Analysis For Contingency Operations, Brian S. Greszler

Theses and Dissertations

In terms of active duty personnel, the USAF is the smallest it has ever been since its creation in 1947. With fewer personnel to accomplish essential tasks, the training of Airmen is more important than ever. Outdated and irrelevant training can lead to gaps in the knowledge of trainees. The purpose of this research was to analyze the training needs of Civil Engineer (CE) Company Grade Officers (CGOs) in the contingency environment. This was done by first conducting a Job Analysis (JA). The JA resulted in a list of 36 critical tasks and 58 important Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSAs). …

United States Air Force Officer Manpower Planning Problem Via Approximate Dynamic Programming, Amelia E. Bradshaw

Theses and Dissertations

The United States Air Force (USAF) is concerned with managing its officer corps to ensure sufficient personnel for mission readiness. Manpower planning for the USAF is a complex process which requires making decisions about accessions. Uncertainty about officer retention complicates such decisions. We formulate a Markov decision process model of the Air Force officer manpower planning problem (AFO-MPP) and utilize a least squares approximate policy iteration algorithm as an approximate dynamic programming (ADP) technique to attain solutions. Computational experiments are conducted on two AFO-MPP instances to compare the performance of the policy determined with the ADP algorithm to a benchmark …

A Comparative Study Of Learning Curve Models And Factors In Defense Cost Estimating Based On Program Integration, Assembly, And Checkout, Brandon J. Johnson

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to investigate the flattening effect at tail end of learning curves by identifying a more accurate learning curve model. The learning curve models accepted by DOD are Wright’s original learning curve theory and Crawford’s Unit Theory. The models were formulated in 1936 and 1944 respectively. This analysis compares the conventional models to contemporary learning curve models in order to determine if the current DOD methodology is outdated. The results are inconclusive as to if there is a more accurate model. The contemporary models are the DeJong and S-Curve and they both include an incompressibility …

Earned Value Reporting On Agile Software Development Programs Within The Department Of Defense, Elizabeth G. Hodson

Theses and Dissertations

The correct measurement of earned value on agile software development programs has recently been identified as a concern by software developers implementing agile development methods. This research attempts to address the difficulties in reporting earned value on agile development programs, and the differences between the measures of completion in agile development versus earned value reporting. The major difference was identified to be in translating between the work originally planned and the work that was “recently” planned as part of the agile development process. This difference, if not transparent, leads to different measurements of earned value and inconsistent reports of a …

Cost Analysis Reform: Where Do We Go From Here? A Delphi Study Of Views Of Leading Experts, Thomas W. Lamb

Theses and Dissertations

The Department of Defense (DOD) has faced many fiscal challenges in recent years, and these challenges have driven cost saving initiatives across all services and career fields. Many improvement initiatives or new policies aimed at better estimating, controlling, and reducing costs have been initiated to meet fiscal challenges. The senior leaders within the cost analysis workforce are faced with the challenge of managing change within their organizations to improve cost analysis processes and practices, while continuing to provide key decision support in the form of ongoing quality cost estimates.

This purpose of this research is to generate applicable research thrust …

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (Uav) Operators’ Workload Reduction: The Effect Of 3d Audio On Operators’ Workload And Performance During Multi-Aircraft Control, Sungbin Kim

Theses and Dissertations

The importance and number of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) operations are rapidly growing in both military and civilian applications. This growth has produced significant manpower issues, producing a desire that multiple aircraft are controlled by a single operator as opposed to the current model where one aircraft may require multiple operators. A potential issue is the need for an operator to monitor radio traffic for the call signs of multi-aircraft. An investigation of the use of 3D sound was undertaken to investigate whether an automatic parser, which preselected the spatial location of relevant versus irrelevant call signs, could aid UAV …

Analysis Of Inpatient Hospital Staff Mental Workload By Means Of Discrete-Event Simulation, Erich W. Maxheimer

Theses and Dissertations

Many process improvement tools have been applied to the healthcare industry to improve safety and efficiency. However, nearly all of these tools have neglected to explicitly quantify mental workload of healthcare providers despite the consensus that it is related to human performance. This research uses the Improved Performance Research Integration Tool (IMPRINT), a discrete-event simulation (DES), to quantify mental workload. Specifically, this research examines staff members in an inpatient unit at the Wright-Patterson Medical Center to detect workload differences between staff, identify trends which lead to high workload demands, evaluate the influence of patient load on mental workload, and test …

Sustainability And Business Performance, Cedric L. Char

Honors Thesis

With climate change becoming more and more of an ominous reality, the concept of sustainability is gaining more and more traction, throughout both consumers and businesses. Companies that have implemented “green” initiatives have found that there are various potential benefits that can be derived from these sustainable practices. This study aims to quantify those benefits and examine how sustainable businesses perform in comparison to their non-sustainable counterparts. Using Newsweek’s Green Rankings, and several statistical tests, it was found that there are no statistically significant differences between sustainable firms and non-sustainable firms, showing that while sustainability may not yield any short-term …

From Inclusion For Some To Inclusion For All: A Case Study Of The Inclusion Program At One Catholic Elementary School, Emily Marie Paz

LMU Theses and Dissertations

Catholic schools in the United States have grappled with how to serve students with disabilities without the funding sources available to public schools. This mixed methods case study examines the driving forces, restraining forces, and social justice issues that influenced the development of an inclusion program at one Catholic elementary school.

The case analyzed is the inclusion program at “St. Ignatius” Elementary School. Fourteen interviews with individuals heavily involved in the program were triangulated with qualitative analyses of the content of artifacts from the inclusion program and quantitative data from a rating scale on ideal inclusive practices completed by ten …

Analyzing Twitter Usage Differences Between Student Season Ticket Buyers And Non-Buyers, Matthew Aloysius Kinney

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates the importance of social media to college students as it relates to purchasing game tickets. More specifically, the thesis examines the role that Twitter and marketing play in purchase intentions of students that actually purchase tickets. The results demonstrate that those who have purchased a ticket membership package are more likely to follow said organization on Twitter. Results also found that no significant difference exists in Twitter Intensity based on whether or not a student has purchased a ticket membership package.

Understanding The Impact Of Information Quality On Customer Relationship Management, Dana Eckerle Harrison

Doctor of Business Administration Dissertations

Information represents a valuable firm resource. The quality of this resource can benefit or adversely impact social and/or economic outcomes within the organization. Previous studies predominately establish that a global measure of information quality has a positive relationship with the success of technology adoption. But there is limited understanding of the impact of information quality on outcomes other than technology adoption.

This study investigates the multi-dimensional aspect of information quality and advances the proposition that it acts as a strategic success factor to customer relationship performance. Specifically, this study explores information as a resource for the firm and suggests that …

Farming: From The Ground Up, Brock Becker, Max Burt, Michael Gardner

Case Studies in Agribusiness

With half of all current farmers expected to retire within 10 years and entry-level farmers decreasing 30% since 1987, it appears we need to encourage new, entry-level farmers. This case study tracks how a young farmer started his business and the decisions and issues he dealt with along the way. Decisions discussed include whether to rent or lease land, and possible crop-share arrangements, offering custom operations as a way generate revenue and obtain equipment, crop selection and using labor contractors versus in-house labor.

Beach Hut Deli Case Study, Chris Mangiola, Seth Sobottka, Lauren Yien, Megan Fox

Case Studies in Agribusiness

Beach Hut Deli Case Study describes the origin, development and growth of a quick service restaurant in Granite Bay, CA, which has now expanded to 35 locations in California, Reno, and Las Vegas with plans to expand into the Pacific Northwest. The case discusses in-house and external marketing, menu development and franchising options and issues.

Just Desserts, Daniel Dentoni, Eric Griffen, Jimmy Pallios, Zane Westmoreland

Case Studies in Agribusiness

Just Desserts started at a San Francisco café in 1974 with a premium line of hand-crafted desserts. It moved to Oakland in 2001 to increase its production, only to bankrupt in 2003. It was saved by a group of investors who hired professional, experienced manage, with Michael Mendez becoming CEO in 2012. Mendez moved into organics, revamped packaging, and has grown the company.