Business Commons^™

Long-Term U.S. Cross-Border Security Flows With Developed And Emerging Market Countries Surrounding The Global Financial Crisis, Caitlin Tongco

Honors College Theses

This paper analyzes the impact of the global financial crisis on cross-border long-term security flows from and towards the U.S. We are investigating monthly observations from 72 countries over the period from 2003 to 2013. The findings show that the global financial crisis impacted all cross-border capital flows in our analysis; yet, the timing, the significance, and the nature of the impact varies among the different securities, as well as between a sample of developed and emerging market countries. We find evidence for a flight-to-safety with the start of the global financial crisis, with a significant, but short lived interruption …

Buy American: An Introspective Look Into National Corporate Consciousness, Jenna S. Florence

Honors College Theses

My research is interested in examining product perceptions and the importance of national identity on the marketability on a variety of foreign and domestic consumer products. I am also interested in determining whether the process of globalization has weakened an individual’s sense of national identity and whether that changes their preference for purchasing a foreign and/or domestic product. Primarily, my research question asks whether nationalism influences a product’s marketability. My hypothesis suggests that individual perceptions are heavily influenced by a sense of nationalism and ultimately affects an individual’s decision whether or not to buy a foreign good. To test this …

The State Of Logistics Performance Measurement: A Comparison Of Literature And Practice, Thomas Hamilton

Honors College Theses

In the increasingly global and complex environment in which modern business operate, business leaders are being forced to squeeze competitive advantage from every facet of their operations. Research in the field of logistics performance measurement establishes the link between success in performance measurement and improved organizational performance. Through the lens of management fashion theory, this research effort assesses to what extent logistics academic discourse addresses the performance measurement requirements and practices of industry practitioners. This research effort represents the first such application of the management fashion theory within the logistics field. Consistencies between logistics performance measurement emphases within the investigated …

A Look At The Gender Wage Gap And Its Reach Into The Field Of Accounting, Emily Hall

Honors College Theses

This year’s Academy Awards was the background for a call to arms for equal pay for women. After years of legislative reform, women are still making less than their male coworkers; women have begun to fight furiously for a change. Recently, companies as big as Walmart and KPMG have had claims brought against them alleging wage discrimination based on gender. Analysts have proven that in the case of KPMG it is almost impossible for it to be anything other than discrimination. There are several studies behind how the wage gap is calculated as well as the many causes behind why …

The Formation Of A Student-Athlete Trust Fund: Compliance And Tax Implications, Stephanie Gratto

Honors College Theses

This study reviews the possible tax and compliance issues of a student athlete trust fund as proposed in the case O’Bannon v. NCAA. With the possibility of the creation of a trust fund comes a myriad of issues to consider. The following review of the literature will review pertinent literature on the topic. Interviews were conducted with athletic directors of three universities and with three tax partners in Atlanta tax firms in order to determine potential compliance and tax implications. These interviews outline possible issues and solutions that may rise from the formation of the trust.

Status Consumption And The Millennial Consumer: An Exploratory Study, Angelina Heugel

Honors College Theses

This paper focuses on millennial consumers’ perceptions about the motivation to purchase luxury and status items for the young working professional. It defines and addresses the relationship between status symbols and what drives the millennial generation’s purchases and desires to purchase. Research was conducted through a detailed literature review, qualitative pre-test and focus group. Through the pre-test, themes of luxury and status items were found. Common product categories to represent status items included: accessories, clothing, technology, travel, pet ownership, home ownership, expensive cars, and entertainment. The focus group was conducted in a classroom setting discussion with thirty students. Students participating …

An Examination Of Fit And The Use Of Mobile Devices For Performing Tasks, Carole L. Hollingsworth

Doctor of Business Administration Dissertations

This research seeks to better understand an individual’s use of mobile devices and the matching fit between type of mobile device and activity. As mobile devices swiftly progress and alter individuals’ ways of interacting with technology, a more comprehensive understanding of how tasks are impacted may help ensure appropriate device selection. The ability for more targeted device selection may increase use and help mobile device users and designers avoid the pitfalls of pre-existing, traditional technology.

Building on identified antecedents of success from the DeLone & McLean Information Systems Success Model and focusing on the measurement of hedonic and utilitarian tasks …

A Verification And Extension Of Students' Motivations, Financial Orientation, And Identity Salience As Predictors Of Likelihood To Withdraw From A University, Matthew I. Quinn

Undergraduate Distinction Papers

Broadly, this research examines a student’s likelihood to withdraw from a university based on the relationship between motivations, financial orientation, and identity salience. Specifically, this study empirically examines the relationship between extrinsic motivation, intrinsic motivation, and apathetic motivation, perceived opportunity loss and lifestyle activities related to financial orientation, and satisfaction and reciprocity related to identity salience, as predictors of a student’s likelihood of withdrawing from a university.

A questionnaire was designed by extending scale items related to the constructs of interest. First-year students at a private university located in the upper Midwest were sampled. A hypothesized model was tested using …

Acupuncturists As Entrepreneurs: Experiences Of New Professionals Founding Private Practices, Susan Sloan

Doctor of Management

The entrepreneurship aspects of private professional practice has been largely overlooked in both the literature and most graduate school professional programs, including acupuncture and oriental medicine (AOM). Because selfemployment in a private practice is the path for the majority of acupuncturists at the present time, they must exhibit entrepreneurial behaviors, and they receive little support from the profession. This research explored 12 new professionals’ experiences founding their private practices in depth using narrative methodology in order to gain insights to guide future research and interventions. Analysis focused on cognition/perception (C), social capital (S) and entrepreneurial learning (L) process aspects in …

Differing Effects Of Goals On Sales Control Systems And Multifaceted Job Satisfaction, Anne Gottfried

Doctor of Business Administration Dissertations

This research empirically explored the differing effects of both quantitative and qualitative goals on sales force motivation in the context of sales force control systems and the various facets of job satisfaction. An interactive sales controls–goal systems model was presented with the objective of more clearly understanding what is going on inside the black box. Relevant to this study was capturing all seven facets of the INDSALES scale. Given the limitations of global measures of job satisfaction, this investigation more fully explained the relationships among types of sales force control systems on multifaceted job satisfaction than what currently exists with …

Financial Services: A Taxonomy Of Consumer-Focused Selling Activities And Sales Positions, Linda Joie Hain

Doctor of Business Administration Dissertations

The financial services industry has come under close scrutiny in the past several years resulting in a much different and more highly regulated environment. These regulatory changes impact the way a salesperson interacts with customers in the banking industry. Currently, the financial services industry accounts for almost half of the country’s nonfarm, commercial profit. No prior sales taxonomy has been conducted for individuals in the financial services industry that are involved in selling. This study utilizes the NAICS subcodes 522, 523, and 524 to understand and classify the consumer-focused sales activities that characterize the financial services industry. Using an established …

The Effect Of Audit Committee Compensation On The Procurement Of Non-Audit Services, Caroline Hayek

Doctor of Business Administration Dissertations

Over the last decade, audit committee member compensation has shifted from a cash compensation structure toward a more equity-based compensation structure, with members on the audit committee holding substantially large equity positions. Although contrasting viewpoints exist as to whether more equity-based compensation aligns with shareholders’ interest, empirical evidence suggests that the form of compensation has an impact on financial reporting quality and audit committee members’ objectivity. Despite these results, to date there is no authoritative guideline on the appropriate compensation structure for audit committees. Non-audit services (NAS) have also been at the forefront of regulators’ attention in the last decade …

Financial Fraud Detection By Using Grammar-Based Multiobjective Genetic Programming With Ensemble Learning, Haibing Li

Lingnan Theses

Financial fraud is a criminal act, which violates the law, rules or policy to gain unauthorized financial benefit. As an increasingly serious problem, it has attracted a lot of concerns. The major consequences are loss of billions of dollars each year, investor confidence and corporate reputation. Therefore, a study area called Financial Fraud Detection (FFD) is obligatory, in order to prevent the destructive results caused by financial fraud. In general, traditional modeling approaches are applied and based on pre-defined hypothesis testing of causes and effects for FFD problems. In addition, the evaluation criteria are often based on variable significance level …

How Financial Literacy Affects Budgeting Behaviors, Haowen Yuan

Student Scholarship - College of Business

A survey was administered at a private, liberal arts university in the Pacific Northwest to discover how financial literacy can have an impact on students budgeting behaviors. Respondents were asked different kinds of financial literacy questions to assess how much they knew about financial knowledge, and respondents were asked financial behaviors questions to analyze the relationship between financial literacy and financial behaviors. Other questions included demographics, math ability, education, and personal discernment. I find that the only factor that affects students budgeting behaviors is their year in college. When students stay at the school for a long period of time, …

Video Advertisement Mining For Predicting Revenue Using Random Forest, Yuan Hsin Huang

Open Access Theses

Shaken by the threat of financial crisis in 2008, industries began to work on the topic of predictive analytics to efficiently control inventory levels and minimize revenue risks. In this third-generation age of web-connected data, organizations emphasized the importance of data science and leveraged the data mining techniques for gaining a competitive edge. Consider the features of Web 3.0, where semantic-oriented interaction between humans and computers can offer a tailored service or product to meet consumers' needs by means of learning their preferences. In this study, we concentrate on the area of marketing science to demonstrate the correlation between TV …

Anchoring Bias, Idiosyncratic Volatility And The Cross-Section Of Stock Returns, Cedric Tresor Luma Mbanga

Doctoral Dissertations

Ang, Hodrick, Xing and Zhang (2006) document an anomaly in the cross-section of stock returns. They show that high idiosyncratic volatility (IVOL) firms earn lower returns in the following month. Specifically, they find after sorting stocks in quintile portfolios based on the previous month's IVOL that a zero-investment portfolio long the most volatile quintile of stocks and short the least yields about -1% during the subsequent month. The evidence reported in Ang, Hodrick, Xing and Zhang (2006) is primarily puzzling because traditional asset pricing theories suggest that (i) only systematic risk should be priced, (ii) to the extent that markets …

Consumer Inferences Of Corporate Social Responsibility (Csr) Claims On Packaged Foods, Gaeul Kim

Open Access Theses

With the growing public demands in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) of the food industry, CSR claims have begun to appear on food packages, as companies started communicating their CSR initiatives to consumers. Although food packages emerged as an important CSR communication tool, consumers' processing of CSR claims and the effects of these claims on product evaluations still remain unknown. In this regard, the present study carries two important research questions. First, do non-health/nutrition-related CSR claims influence consumers' product evaluations, such as perceived health benefits or tastes? If so, how does the effect of CSR claims differ by type of CSR …

The Supply And Demand Of Wine-On-Tap In The United States: An Examination Of Perceptions And Experiences, Michaela Andrea Nuebling

Open Access Dissertations

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the perceptions and early experiences associated with a recent trend in the United States' foodservice and wine industry: wine-on-tap. Three study populations were investigated: wine consumers, restaurant and winery professionals. Contrary to expectations driven by literature and the diffusion of other wine product innovations, American wine consumers showed interest in trying wine-on-tap, stating that the main reason for non-adoption was limited availability. Early adopters, across the three study populations, reported positive experiences and acknowledged several benefits of wine-on-tap such as improved freshness, better value, improved eco-friendliness, and premium wine quality. However, …

Gender Through The Generations: Changes In The Representation Of Women In Spanish Advertising, Andrea Muransky

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

This project examines the portrayal of women in Spanish television commercials. The objective of the investigation is to determine if there are significant increases in the representation of women in commercials from three separate years (1990, 2000, and 2010) in order to observe the level of responsiveness of advertising to a more gender-equalized Spanish society. Throughout Spain’s history, women’s roles in the country’s society have changed, with a stronger female presence in the work force as well as in the media. Upon completing this study, it will be determined whether television advertisements in Spain follow these societal trends by increasing …

“Build A School, Rebuild A City” An Economic Examination Of The Re-Structured Education System In New Orleans, 10 Years After Hurricane Katrina, Brianna Lazarchik

Senior Honors Projects

The city could have died. But it didn’t. Though the damage to the city of New Orleans in 2005 was devastating in ways that shocked the nation ten years ago, its culture and people are alive and thriving today. The depth of passion in New Orleans motivated and inspired individuals to move back to the city quickly and restore its glory. However, such rapid restoration is not without vast socioeconomic challenges. Education is a vital component of any thriving social system, and the education system in New Orleans has rebuilt itself in a unique way: largely through charter schools. This …

True Value Of A College Education, Lindsey Beran

Senior Honors Projects

No abstract provided.

Corruption And Economic Growth In China: An Emirical Analysis, Nicholas D'Amico

Senior Honors Projects

This paper will begin with a review of the relevant literature on corruption and its effect on economic growth, both in general and in China specifically. The following sections will discuss the state of corruption in China and outline China’s historic economic growth since it opened up to the global economy. Next, the methodologies of the empirical study of this paper and a model for measuring the effects of corruption on economic growth will be presented. Finally, the results of this study will be analyzed, followed by a discussion of policy implications as China moves forward in the 21^{st …}

Suitability Of Commercial Certification Assessments For Film And Video Editing Courses, Bobby L Chastain

Open Access Dissertations

A study on the microstructure development of as-cast Cu-Mn alloys based around the congruent minimum at 34.6 wt % Mn and 873 °C was performed. Initially, this was to evaluate the alloy as an alternative to wide freezing range Pb and Sn bronzes that are plagued with porosity. The shallow minimum and associated narrow freezing ranges around the congruent point result in a completely cellular (non-dendritic) solidification morphology for a composition range ~3 wt % Mn about the congruent composition (C _c). The degree of cellular solidification was found to depend on the mold material. Increased mold conductivity lead …

Impacts Of Cigarette Smoking On Consumer Health, Calli Hudock

Senior Honors Projects

In this paper, I will analyze the effects taxes impose on smoking behavior given the relative inelastic demand cigarettes have had over time.

The Effects Of Tarp On Fair Value Accounting, Christopher N. Mitschow

Senior Honors Projects

In the aftermath of the financial crisis of 2008, fair value accounting in banks has come under a great deal of criticism by some who believed bank managers were intentionally reclassifying assets to prevent write-downs, or who believed that banks were taking risks with fair value assets and liabilities that caused their distressed states. We analyzed banks’ use of fair value accounting by using the SEC’s EDGAR database to read and analyze the financial statements of public banks which received Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds and have since repaid them. We looked to see if banks classified more assets …

An Impact Analysis Of Increased Hydrokinetic Electricity Generation In The United States, Joseph Mchugh

Senior Honors Projects

The United States relies mainly on fossil fuels to meet its energy demand, but it is beginning to look into renewable energy alternatives. One such alternative is hydrokinetic technology, which captures the kinetic energy found in waves, tides and currents. Although initially hampered by regulatory uncertainty and low government backing, hydrokinetic technology is now gaining traction within the United States. Improved regulations and government laws are promoting research and development in the field, which will lead to more projects. This paper performs an impact analysis of an increased number of hydrokinetic energy projects as a result of reduced regulatory uncertainty …

Job Analysis: Measuring Accuracy And Capturing Multiple Perspectives, Deann H. Arnold

Doctoral Dissertations

Organizations rely on job analysis to provide information about the work performed and requirements needed for a position. The use of inaccurate information may have negative outcomes, such as the misallocation of human resources or inefficient training programs. Many job analysis techniques rely on averaging responses, which may oversimplify the results. Preserving idiosyncratic variance, which reflects differences in the ways in which respondents experience and evaluate the job, may increase job analysis accuracy. To assess overall accuracy, the job analysis data in the present study was examined utilizing a practical model of accuracy (Prien, Prien, & Wooten, 2003). To detect …

Learning Gains At Cccu-Member Schools: A Comparison Of Cccu Students’ Performance On The Cpa Exam To Performance At Aacsb-Member And Non-Aacsb-Member Schools – A Replication Of A Study By Hahn, Fairchild, And Childs Presented At The Christian Business Faculty Association In October 2014, Rachel M. Galbreath

Selected Honors Theses

This study is a replication of a study by Hahn, Fairchild, and Childs that examines differences in Uniform Certified Public Accountant Exam (UCPAE) pass rates between test-takers who graduated from schools that are members of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU) and those who graduated from institutions that are not members of the CCCU. CCCU- member schools were found to have pass rates similar to institutions accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) even though AACSB schools have an advantage in incoming student aptitude as measured by students’ SAT scores. These results indicate that …

The Scarlet Market: The Economic Framework Of Sex Trafficking And Microfinance As A Proactive Solution, Hannah M. Demarest

Selected Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Building A Better Pedestrian Flow Model For The Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Charles Edward Anklam

Open Access Dissertations

Undeniable shifts in how public events are conducted with regard to security have occurred since the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001. Increased security requirements are a product of the paradigm shift in security for Mega-Event locations. This study examined the Indianapolis Motor Speedway during Mega-Event status events, with specific focus on the 2013, Indianapolis 500 automobile race. The objective was to study the phenomenon of pedestrian flow as it related to entry gate procedures and resulting impacts. This data was then used to compile modeling scenarios employing AnyLogic computer software that allowed for free-agent, variable …