Business Commons^™

A Comparative Life Cycle Assessment Of Denim Jeans And A Cotton T-Shirt: The Production Of Fast Fashion Essential Items From Cradle To Gate, Tara Hackett

Theses and Dissertations--Retailing and Tourism Management

As a result of harmful textile production, sustainability has become the movement by which the apparel industry explores solutions to improve procedures in fashion design to maintain a healthy environment. However, the issue is consumers trust the sustainability claims and marketing materials of apparel products at face value without knowing its environmental impact. The overall purpose of this research was to compare the environmental implications of widely produced and owned apparel products through a life cycle assessment approach. This life cycle assessment study examines key environmental impact categories of the materials and production phase (cradle to gate) of a pair …

Technological Change And Employee Motivation In A Telecom Operations Team, Samuel Ogbonnaya Ude

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Some managers view innovative product development and convenient service delivery as necessary to business survival. However, unmotivated employees might negate any gains from the use of innovation. The purpose of this correlational study, grounded in diffusion of innovation theory, was to assess the relationship between creativity and support for innovation, resistance to change, and organizational commitment and employee motivation. A random sample of 81 information technology (IT) professionals from telecom service centers completed an online survey. Simultaneous multiple linear regression was the statistical technique used to analyze these data. The results indicated a poor model with low R2 to significantly …

Success Factors Of Small Business Owners Of Independent Financial Planning Firms, Joanne Snider

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Small Business Administration statistics indicate that 20% of small businesses fail within the first 2 years and 50% fail within 5 years. The purpose of this case study was to explore the success factors and strategies of 12 small business owners of independent financial planning firms who achieved profitability beyond 5 years. A gap exists in the literature concerning such business owners, and their experiences provide valuable information to others desiring to start or maintain a financial planning business. The conceptual framework was entrepreneurship theory and Porter's 5 forces model of competitive strategy. The data were gathered via semistructured interviews …

The Relationship Between Information Technology And Organizational Effectiveness As Perceived By Health Care Providers, Christian Chikwem Ukaga

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The U.S. Congress has made health information technology a central component of the national quest to improve health care delivery. The problem addressed in this study was the uncertainty among healthcare providers regarding the benefits of health care information technology adoption relative to healthcare delivery processes and outcomes. The purpose of the study was to understand the effectiveness of information technology as perceived by healthcare providers. The research questions were designed to investigate the relationship between health information technology and organizational effectiveness, exchange of information, organizational process, organizational productivity, and direct personal care. Sociotechnical systems theory and Donabedian's framework for …

Retail Distribution Within The New York City Organic Cacao Market, Omari Nekoro Williams

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore strategies small physical commodities firm owners need to establish a distribution channel within the commodities market to enhance profits. The general business problem was that importing physical commodities from emerging markets was not profitable. The specific business problem was some small physical wholesale commodities firm managers lacked strategies to establish distribution channels for imported commodities. The information presented in this study is important to suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, and retailers of organic cacao products to identify strategies to enhance their distribution channels. Disruptive innovation and the theory of constraints grounded the …

Autonomy In The California Disability Services System, Lisa Ann S. Carbone

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Legislation concerning California residents with intellectual and developmental disabilities (ID/DD) requires recipients of services to be treated as independent individuals while emphasizing self-determination. At the same time, under regulatory procedures, recipients are considered dependent on the delivered services and not self-determinant. Neither the California Department of Developmental Services nor the trade associations representing community service providers have established a unified, systematic practice to support self-determination. This phenomenological study explored the experience of adults with ID/DD working toward self-determination.

Specifically, it explored how medical and social models contribute to shaping and actualizing the independence of this population. Interviews with eight adults …

Employees' Perceptions Of Managerial Transformational Leadership Behaviors And Effectiveness Among Information Technology Managers, Olusesan Ogunsakin

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The selection of effective leaders is critical to improving organizations' performance in the current dynamic global business landscape; however, the inadequacy of leadership selection criteria in many organizations had led to an increase in the rate of chief executive officers' dismissals within the last 3 decades in the United States. The purpose of this correlational study was to examine the relationship between employees' assessments of their managers' transformational leadership behaviors and employees' perceptions of managerial leadership effectiveness for improved leadership selection. Bass' transformational leadership theory and Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory guided the study with data gathered, using an online survey, from …

The Relationship Of Managers' Power Motivations To Personality Pathology, Jewel Darlene Adams

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Research has shown that managerial leaders have a higher motivational need for power than those in other positions. A leader's personality traits have been shown to affect organizational performance. Leaders who score high in dark traits (undesirable personality attributes shown to predict career derailment across organizations, levels, and positions) could also be more likely to use company resources for personal gain. There is a paucity of research examining the correlation between managerial dark traits and the need for power. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between managers' dark trait scores as measured by the Hogan Development …

Relationships Between Job Design, Job Crafting, Idiosyncratic Deals, And Psychological Empowerment, Marsha Miller

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Although much is known about employee empowerment and work designs, numerous companies and management practitioners struggle to implement empowerment initiatives effectively because it is not known which approach best facilitates individual levels of psychological empowerment. Traditional job design theory focuses on the role of managers and portrays employees as passive grantees of empowerment. Employees may influence their own empowerment by taking an active role in work design. The primary purpose of this correlational study was to examine whether job crafting or idiosyncratic deals are more or less empowering than job design and how work locus of control influences these relationships. …

Tribal Gaming Leader Strategies Toward A Sustainable Future, Janie Ann Hall

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

One aspect of leadership strategy is the need to account for the core values of the organization. The purpose of this case study was to explore the perceptions of tribal gaming leader strategies toward sustainability, an action that leads to tribal economic development and stability. The conceptual framework of situational leadership theory was used to guide the scope and analysis of this study. Six tribal gaming leaders from Oklahoma participated in a focus group session; 7 additional tribal gaming leaders from the same gaming organization participated in individual interview sessions. Member checking was used to strengthen the credibility and trustworthiness …

Depth Of A Salesman: Exploring Personality As A Predictor Of Sales Performance In A Multi-Level Marketing Sample, Colleen Rose Miller

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Despite its growing prevalence in the realm of sales occupations, multi-level marketing (MLM) and its primary participants are not very well understood. In particular, there is a dearth of understanding in terms of the differentiating characteristics of individual sellers who are financially successful in comparison to those who perform poorly. This study sought to fill in some of these research gaps by exploring the antecedents of sales success by examining the validity of personality as a predictor of sales performance in the context of MLM. While significant relationships were indeed observed between certain facets of personality (specifically components of conscientiousness, …

Examining Community Attitudes Toward Manufactured Housing, Lisa Tyler

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Despite the need for affordable housing, consumers have failed to recognize manufactured housing as a viable alternative to site-built housing. The decline in market share for manufactured housing and subsequent decrease in sales has threatened the sustainability of manufacturers, retailers, suppliers, and support organizations. The purpose of this correlational study was to determine the extent that respondents' demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, perceptions of manufactured home characteristics, and perceptions of manufactured home occupants and neighborhood characteristics predicted the acceptance of manufactured homes. The model of acceptance of manufactured homes provided the theoretical framework for the study. Data were collected from 2 …

A Growing Sin-Dustry: The History And Effects Of Cigarette Excise Taxation And Regulation In The United States, Devin A. Rheaume

Honors Theses and Capstones

Originating with the gabelle taxes of France during the close of the Albigensian Crusades, excise taxes and regulations on consumer products have historically been used by local and federal governments to generate revenue during periods of war. Following the enactment of the Internal Revenue Act on June 30, 1864, the United States extended their definition of consumer products to include cigarettes and other tobacco products. The United States Federal government justifies cigarette taxes as a method not only to discourage the habit of smoking but also to recover the costs of the negative externalities associated with the “sinful” behavior. Through …

Perspectives On Why The Glass Ceiling Still Exists For Women In Advertising And Media And Tools To Help Shatter It, Olivia Hottle Mossman

Honors Program Theses

This ethnographic study provides current insights into the barriers women experience as they seek executive positions in the media and advertising industries—careers largely held by men. Interviews with women who currently or have previously held management roles in media and advertising companies are analyzed and presented. The knowledge gained from these interviews raises awareness of the lack of women’s voices on the media channels that influence a society’s perception of what is socially and culturally acceptable. This research also counteracts an absence of recent research regarding this topic. As the study evolved, it looked more at the relationships between women …

The Impact Of Relevant Work Experience On Third Level Accounting Students' View Of Learning, Terese Deehan

Theses

The benefits of work experience in accounting education have been examined extensively in the academic literature. Extant literature cites skills development, putting knowledge into action, improved academic results, increased focus on study and career path and enhanced employability as the main benefits to students. Other than research on the impact on academic results, there is a dearth of research on the impact of work experience on students’ view of learning. In research conducted in Ireland, Byrne and Flood (2004) concluded that the majority of third-level accounting students only have a surface-level view of learning and that this will not be …

Data Privacy Preservation In Collaborative Filtering Based Recommender Systems, Xiwei Wang

Theses and Dissertations--Computer Science

This dissertation studies data privacy preservation in collaborative filtering based recommender systems and proposes several collaborative filtering models that aim at preserving user privacy from different perspectives.

The empirical study on multiple classical recommendation algorithms presents the basic idea of the models and explores their performance on real world datasets. The algorithms that are investigated in this study include a popularity based model, an item similarity based model, a singular value decomposition based model, and a bipartite graph model. Top-N recommendations are evaluated to examine the prediction accuracy.

It is apparent that with more customers' preference data, recommender systems …

Using Academic And Demographic Characteristics To Determine Whether Or Not Admitted Transfer Students Will Enroll In A Four-Year Research-Extensive University In The Southeastern Region Of The United States, Barrett Palmer Linam

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Abstract The primary purpose of this study was to determine whether or not selected demographic, academic, and institutional characteristics influence the decision of admitted transfer students to enroll in a research-extensive university in the southeastern region of the United States. The transfer student population is an untapped student population that could help benefit many universities. If these students are targeted like potential freshmen, then universities can increase their enrollment. Being able to identify the correct characteristics for potential transfer students would help conserve resources and maximize the incoming transfer student population. This study used the standards of a research-extensive university …

On Getting Better And Working Hard: Using Improvement As A Heuristic For Judging Effort, Monica El Gamal

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

There is a strong conceptual association between improvement and effort. Therefore, we propose that people tend to use improvement as a heuristic for judging effort in others. Hence, they would perceive greater effort in improved performance records than in non-improved records with superior overall performance. To examine whether people use improvement as a heuristic for effort, we compared judgments of effort investments and trait effort in improved and consistently-strong performance profiles with equivalent recent performance. Across six empirical studies, participants thought that those with improved profiles exerted more effort and were more hardworking than those with consistently-strong profiles, and this …

Growing The Mission: Nonprofit Organizations Conducting Food-Growing Activities In The Twin Cities Of Minnesota, Marcos Stoltzfus

School of Business Student Theses and Dissertations

Growing food has become an increasingly common activity for nonprofit organizations, and doing so offers many opportunities to confer benefits to individuals and communities. Through a qualitative methodology, this research project uses a grounded theory approach to explore the challenges, opportunities, and issues faced by nonprofits in the Twin Cities that conduct food-growing activities as part of their mission. The study found three main categories of themes relevant to this sub-sector: Food Philosophy and mission prioritization, business model and economic concerns, and integrated program design characteristics. These factors are discussed from a nonprofit management lens, and implications for leaders are …

Union Effect On Employment Engagement In The Public Sector: A Study Of Head Start Employees, Deborah F. Moses

School of Business Student Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

While unions have made up a significant proportion of the government workforce in all areas of employment; there has been minimal research of any kind on how unions affect government service. This lack of research is disturbing during a time when states are taking critical stands on union existence and authority. After years of shrinking unions in the private sector and growing membership in the public sector these government decisions are reversing that trend. Without research these decisions are being made without sound facts which have left constituents with limited knowledge in which to agree or disagree with those …

Study On The Use Of Serious Games In Business Education, Joo Baek Kim

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

With rapid advance of information technology (IT), computer-based gaming has flourished for decades. Gaming becomes a part of modern culture, especially among emerging digital generations. In addition to the entertaining purpose, attempts are made to use games for serious purpose, such as education and training. With the genuine characteristics that bring enjoyment, engagement, and context, games are considered good tools for business education and training that support or even may substitute the traditional learning methods. However, there is a dearth of research with regards to the comprehensive view of how people can learn business topics through serious games and transfer …

The Devil At Work: Understanding The Dark Side Of Personality And Its Impact On Performance, Benjamin David Mclarty

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Personality and its impact on work-related behaviors is an area of research that lacks an explanation of causal mechanisms. In this study, the influence of darker forms of personality (e.g., Machiavellianism, narcissism and psychopathy) on workplace behaviors are examined to determine if these behaviors in turn influence job performance outcomes (e.g., task performance, organizational citizenship behaviors). Using socioanalytic theory, getting along and getting ahead behaviors are proposed as mediators for the transmission of dark personality’s impact on task performance. The theory is also used to examine the relationship between dark personality and targeted citizenship. Another important issue that is addressed …

Building The Case Against Human Trafficking: Developing And Evaluating A Training Module For Law Enforcement Officials, Katie Sanders

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

Since the passage of federal legislation to address human trafficking in the United States, efforts to measure and combat the crime have continued to grow (Victims of Trafficking and Violence Prevention Act of 2000). Measuring human trafficking has continued to be a difficult task for researchers, law enforcement, and victim services providers. The combined efforts of these groups has lead to the recognition that without more widespread identification of victims and perpetrators of human trafficking—a crime referred to as modern-day slavery—estimates will continue to be inaccurate. In order to improve the identification process, this specific proposal focuses on law enforcement …

The Effect Of Executive Style On Risk Management: A Healthcare Supply Chain Context, Stephen R. Spulick

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation attempts to determine the effect of managerial Executive on healthcare supply chain risk management maturity. The healthcare industry is faced with constant risk to its supply chain and operates under the expectation that healthcare will continue to be delivered even under the most severe and disruptive of conditions. The effect of a manager, who operationalizes firm strategy, may impact the maturity level of a hospital’s risk management efforts. Through multi-method research, this study seeks to understand the effects of management on healthcare risk management maturity. Survey and interview methods were used to understand the relationship between healthcare supply …

The Landwarnet School, The Army Learning Model, And Appreciative Inquiry: How Is A Centralized Training Organization Improved By Introducing Decentralization?, Lisa Jayne Stamper

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

This exploratory, qualitative case study describes how a centralized training organization (LandWarNet School) was improved by introducing decentralization (Army Learning Model) toward “the best competitive position” or "sweet spot," defined by Brafman and Beckstrom (2006) as “enough decentralization for creativity, but sufficient structure and controls to ensure consistency” (pp. 189, 191). Any presence of the six chaordic elements of a decentralized organization, as described by Hock (1999), was also considered.

LandWarNet School (LWNS) trains approximately 6000 US Army Soldiers annually and is centrally organized. The new Army Learning Model (ALM) is a vision for a more decentralized training approach where …

The Effect Of Ceo Gender, Age, And Salary On Firm Value, Brandon H. D'Ewart

CMC Senior Theses

This paper investigates the academic conclusions on how CEO gender and salary affect firm value, while at the same time adding data on how CEO age affects firm value. Via an event study of S&P 500 CEO changes from 2000 to 2006 I confirm the current academic findings and discover that CEOs promoted during their 40s negatively influence firm value, while CEOs in older age brackets show a positive abnormal return on firm value. With this validation and addition to the existing data, firms and investors can more effectively assess proper candidates for the position of CEO and allocate resources …

The Influence Of Movie Reviews On Consumers, Jacob R. Pentheny

Honors Theses and Capstones

No abstract provided.

The Eco-Sustainable Initiative: A Case Study In And Evaluation Of Eco-Labeling, Chiara Dorigo

Pomona Senior Theses

This paper reviews the significance of eco-labeling as a green consumption practice, and more broadly as a form of everyday environmentalism. It uses a random sample of 50 eco-labelers from an online database to analyze the current eco-labeling landscape and evaluate the business model of an emerging eco-labeling startup called the Eco-Sustainable Initiative (ESI). Conclusions include recommendations for ESI before its launch, and implications of ESI’s merits and shortcomings for the eco-labeling landscape at large.

Boss Lady: How Female Chinese Managers Succeed In China's Guanxi System, Charles Palmer Withers

Honors Theses

This project examines how female Chinese managers within China's traditionally male-dominated, guanxi-related private sector are coming into their own as leaders of the new Chinese economy. In this project, guanxi (关系) is defined as interpersonal relations and connections and research hinges around investigating how female Chinese managers use, or do not use, guanxi in their careers and personal lives. After establishing a background of preexisting scholarship, this project implements a Case Study Analysis chapter on three self made female entrepreneurs followed by an Interview Analysis chapter conducted with four female managers that took place in May, 2014. The goal of …

Occupational Fraud: A Survey, Elizabeth Carroll

Honors Theses

This paper examines the issue of occupation fraud in today's corporations. It provides an overview of the types of occupational fraud and how they usually occur. This paper also explains the attributes of the typical fraudster and describes warning signs that management should look out for in their company. It analyzes the regulations and polices put into place to combat the growing issue of fraud. It also provides a look at cyber-fraud, which is an increasing problem due to society's reliance on technology. It explains why fraud prevention is so important in corporations, whether small or large, and emphasizes the …