Business Commons^™

An Experimental Investigation Of Reciprocity And Formal Controls With Labor Market Competition, Michael John Majerczyk

Theses and Dissertations

DISS_abstract> Most experimental research related to agency settings, such as participative budgeting, has examined how formal controls, such as audits and reviews, influence the behavior of managers. Alternatively, a growing literature in managerial accounting examines the effects of using informal social controls. Some of these studies have examined the ability of the gift-exchange model from economics, founded on reciprocity, to function as a suitable control. Within the social context of an experimental labor market, I examine the relationship between the type of control employers implement (i.e., reviews, a formal control versus reciprocity, an informal control) and the amount of budget …

Understanding Destination Choice From A Cultural Distance Perspective, Hongbo Liu

Theses and Dissertations

National cultural distance is an important factor of tourists' destination choice, yet the specific role it plays in destination decision process is not well understood. This paper attempts to fill this gap. Taking potential Chinese outbound tourists as a case, this study tries to explore the impact of perceived cultural distance on tourists' international destination choice through a conditional logit model. Familiarity, geographical distance, past international travel experience and novelty-seeking tendency were examined as moderators of the relationship between perceived cultural distance and destination choice. Results show that tourist are more likely to choose culturally similar countries as destinations; geographical …

Smart Phone Purchasing Habits Among The University Of New Hampshire Students, Alexa Lomonaco

Honors Theses and Capstones

College students are more connected to technology now than ever, especially because a smart phone that has all of the capabilities of a computer is right in their pockets. This study delves into why students at the University of New Hampshire purchase their smart phones, how they use their smart phones, and how to better market toward profitable segments. The two segments found were the technology buffs, who are smart phone experts and are constantly on their devices, and the practical users who mainly use their smart phones for texting and calling. The results from the study showed that students …

A Study Of The Effects Of Foreign Direct Investment On The Economy Of The State Of New Hampshire Since 1973, Eric J. Allain

Honors Theses and Capstones

The purpose of the thesis is to determine the impact that foreign direct investment has had on New Hampshire. New Hampshire as a state was impacted far less severely than much of the rest of the country, which could be considered surprising given the relatively high cost of housing in the state. I believe that part of what made New Hampshire more recession resistant is having the right foreign companies providing employment. To do this, I will be looking at FDI as a percentage of GDP over the previous 40 years and looking for a correlation between a higher percentage …

Us Real Estate Investment Performance: 1983-2012, John F. Kerrigan

Honors Theses and Capstones

This study provides an overview of real estate investment performance over a 1983-2012 time period. The results show that although equity REITs outperformed all other assets on average annual return, on a risk-adjusted basis both private retail and apartment real estate outperformed all other assets. The study also found a recent trend in increased correlation between common stocks and REITs.

Proposed Audit Reporting Changes: Considerations Of Stakeholders' Perspectives, Daniel J. Gravina

Honors Theses and Capstones

No abstract provided.

Unequal Pay: The Role Of Gender, Kathleen M. Gillespie

Honors Theses and Capstones

No abstract provided.

Money Market Funds: Analyzing Reform, Paige M. Brooks

Honors Theses and Capstones

This thesis analyzes money market funds since inception in 1983 through the financial crisis in 2008 to current day. Specifically, it discusses the newly implemented reform and if this reform will be an effective way to minimize money market fund systemic risk.

Executive Compensation In The Banking Industry And Systemic Risk, Seungho Choi

Theses and Dissertations

In this paper, I investigate empirically whether executive compensation structure contributes to the entire systemic risk among 92 firms that highly contribute to systemic risk from 2000 to 2012. Based on Brownlees and Engle (2011) and Acharya, Pedersen, Philippon, and Richardson (2010), I use SRISK and MES as systemic risk measures. Firstly, I find that the ratio of stock options has a positively significant influence on systemic risk. Also, I find weak evidence that the ratio of cash bonus in compensation structure positively related to systemic risk. However, I find no significant evidence that the ratio of stock grants has …

Making Lemonade: Nonprofit Survival During The Great Recession, Latitia Mccree

Wayne State University Theses

ABSTRACT

MAKING LEMONADE: NONPROFIT SURVIVAL DURING THE GREAT RECESSION

by

LATITIA MCCREE

May 2014

Advisor: Dr. Dapne Ntiri, Ph.D.

Major: Interdisciplinary Studies, Nonprofit Sector Studies

Degree: Master of Arts

The Great Recession that officially began in December 2007 and ended in June 2009 significantly impacted the quality of life for many US families. Jobs were permanently lost, homes were foreclosed, and personal savings were depleted. This caused many families to seek aid from nonprofit organizations. As the demand for nonprofit services rose, many nonprofit organization's revenues and resources declined.

A case study of the YMCA of Metropolitan Detroit was conducted …

The Impact Of Salesperson Listening: A Multi-Faceted Research Approach, Emily A. Goad

Marketing Dissertations - Archive

Relationships are based on communication between parties; an important aspect of communication that is necessary for building long-term relationships is listening (Ingram et al. 1992). In sales, researchers have posited that salespeople's relationships with their customers are strengthened when salespeople consistently have effective listening skills (Ramsey and Sohi 1997; Marshall et al. 2003). Given the importance of listening in relationship building and the sales context, this dissertation examines salesperson listening from varying research approaches in three essays. First, a meta-analysis was conducted to synthesize existing empirical research on listening to empirically assess the research stream of salesperson listening. This meta-analysis …

Status Of And Future Recommendations For Country-Of-Origin Research, Katie Post

Honors Projects

This research investigates whether country-of-origin (COO) cues have an effect on consumer purchase intentions, based on a review of prior literature published in the EBSCO and Summon databases. The findings of these articles show that COO cues do not, on their own, have an effect on consumer purchase intentions; but do have some effect on consumer attitudes/feelings toward the product. Future research has much to offer in terms of identifying whether COO cues have an effect on consumers’ purchase intentions for specific products, or specific types of products.

Ecotourism Enterprises: The Case For Indigenous Community-Owned Tourism In Ecuador, Simone A. Berkovitz

CMC Senior Theses

With the rapid growth of the global ecotourism industry, the sector has had difficulty attaining its intended goals of environmental responsibility and local development. In recent years, there has been a recognized need for greater incorporation of local communities into tourism operations. This thesis explores the challenges facing ecotourism, while arguing for the potential found in ecotourism enterprises owned and operated by indigenous communities in Ecuador. An analysis of two distinct Ecuadorian cases demonstrates the potential for multi-faceted environmental and social impact in diverse contexts. Finally, by understanding the processes that build impact embedded in the business models, this study …

An Analysis Of Bitcoin Market Efficiency Through Measures Of Short-Horizon Return Predictability And Market Liquidity, William L. Brown

CMC Senior Theses

Bitcoins have the potential to fundamentally change the way value is transferred globally. Their rapid adoption over the past four years has led many to consider the possible results of such a technology. To be a viable currency, however, it is imperative that the market for trading Bitcoins is efficient. By examining the changes in availability of predictable outsized returns and market liquidity over time, this paper examines historical Bitcoin market efficiency and establishes correlations between market liquidity, price predictability, and return data. The results provide insight into the turbulent nature of Bitcoin market efficiency over the past years, but …

A Look Into The Industry Of Video Games Past, Present, And Yet To Come, Chad Hadzinsky

CMC Senior Theses

Since its inception, the video game industry has been both a new medium for art and innovation as well as a major driving force in the advancements of many technologies. The often overlooked video game industry has turned from a hobby to a multi-billion dollar industry in its short, forty year life. People of all ages and genders across the world are playing video games at a higher clip than ever before. With so many new gamers and emerging technologies, it is an exciting time for the industry. The landscape is constantly changing and successful business models of the past …

Corporate Social Responsibility And Financial Performance In The Consumer And Nonconsumer Sectors, Lauren Allen

CMC Senior Theses

With corporate social responsibility (CSR) becoming more important to stakeholders and thus firms, understanding the relationship between CSR and corporate financial performance (CFP) is becoming more and more important. Although there is much research examining the general CSR-CFP relationship, there is very little, if any, research that investigates the CSR-CFP association across industries. With a sample of 429 firms from the S&P 500, my study looks to see if this association differs between the consumer and nonconsumer sectors. Time-series regression analyses reveal that while the CSR-sales relationship is negative for both consumer and nonconsumer companies, the CSR-gross profit association is …

Mergers & Abenomics: The Determinants Of M&A In Japan's New Economy, Ethan S. Hallberg

CMC Senior Theses

This paper investigates the influence of various macroeconomic variables on Japan’s merger and acquisition (M&A) activity, both in terms of total deal value and total number of deals. Looking at monthly data from June 1997 to December 2013, I use econometric time-series analysis to find that: First, total deal value per month is not well explained by our macroeconomic variables, but about half of the variation in number of deals per month can be explained by our dataset. Second, the most important determinant in the total number of deals per month during our period is the level of national debt, …

Say Goodbye To Hollywood: The Performance Discrepancy Of Franchise Films Between The Domestic And Foreign Box Office, James H. Havlicek

CMC Senior Theses

The increasing globalization of entertainment appears to be having a major impact on the dynamics of the American film industry. The U.S. box office is no longer predominant, meaning that in order to most effectively capitalize on the state of the theatrical market, domestic studios must now more heavily incorporate foreign preferences into production strategy. This study explores the financial nuances of the global box office in relation to sequel-driven film franchises, which have seemingly come to dominate commercial filmmaking as a result of their risk-minimized profitability. We focus on discrepancies between foreign and domestic performance in order to analyze …

Determinants Of Public Funding For Professional Athletic Venues, John K. Holland

CMC Senior Theses

This paper examines the financing of professional athletic venues and why certain franchises are able to obtain high percentages of overall stadium funding from the public. Existing literature shows the negligible effect of new athletic venues on the local economy and per capita income, and therefore the benefits from such a project are largely intangible. I use an ordinary least squares regression and show that the more successful a team is the less public funding they tend to receive. I also find that broad city statistics do not represent the specific areas that policy makers consider when making decisions about …

The Impact Of Fitness Technology On Health Outcomes, Megan C. Kelley

CMC Senior Theses

Using 2014 data compiled from a sample of Claremont McKenna undergraduate students, I examine the effect that fitness technology (i.e., mobile and wearable technology) has on users' health outcomes. Specifically, I find no effect of mobile or wearable use on self-reported health. However, I do find some evidence of mobile use on weight but not wearable. Applying a basic OLS regression analysis, I show that mobile users tend to be heavier than non-mobile users irrespective of gender. Furthermore, I find that contemporaneous health on prior mobile use show higher weight levels compared to non- mobile prior users. Such findings provide …

The Rise Of Private Equity In China: A Case Study Of Successful And Failed Foreign Private Equity Investments, June Kim

CMC Senior Theses

China's transition from a planned economy to a market economy has brought about remarkably rapid economic growth. Year after year, China boasted of double-digit growth rates since the early 1990s. Attracted by China's so-called "economic miracle," foreign investors began entering the Chinese market hoping to benefit from the country's vast array of financial opportunities. Private equity, particularly a leveraged buyout, was an unfamiliar concept in China until late 1990s. Now China has become the most attractive destination among emerging markets for private equity investment. Global private equity firms are currently raising billions of dollars for funds focusing on China because …

The Deadweight Loss Of Equity-Based Compensation, Jessica Pence

CMC Senior Theses

In order to maximize shareholder value, firms attempt to align the incentives of the executives with those of the shareholders by giving them equity as a portion of their compensation package. The terms associated with this equity compensation forces the executives to hold undiversified portfolios, resulting in a sizeable deadweight loss. This paper uses the formula developed by Meulbroek (2001)1 to calculate the dollar value of this deadweight loss, in order to quantify the costs associated with equity-based compensation. We find that the 56 executives in our data set have a combined deadweight loss of $70 billion, and that on …

The Determinants Of Firm Profitability: The Effect Of Social Media, Nicholas Schmidt

CMC Senior Theses

This study seeks to explore whether social media plays an important role in determining a firm’s profits. Using data from 392 Large American firms from the period 2005-2013, obtained primarily from the database, COMPUSTAT, I find that a firm’s adoption of Social Media plays a minor role in determining profits, while higher Lagged Profits, Lagged Productivity, Firm Sizes, and Advertising Expenses lead to higher profits.

Farm Business Management: A Localized Analysis Of Financial Tools Utilized In Agribusiness, Abby L. Lamothe

Honors Theses and Capstones

No abstract provided.

It's Not The Serve, But The Return, Marnee J. Dupont

Honors Theses and Capstones

No abstract provided.

The Examination Of Organizational Respect In Relation To Organizational Culture, Amanda N. Walker

Honors Theses and Capstones

This paper is an in-depth examination of the connection between organizational respect and the strong roots of organizational culture. Throughout this thesis, we will examine the importance of management recognizing and implementing respect, how respect affects behaviors and characteristics of employees, and ways in which employees tend to feel the most respected. Additionally, we will closely examine the importance of establishing feelings of support, caring, and collaboration within an organization in efforts to create an environment filled with respect. Another concept that will be examined is the idea of person-culture fit, and how the alignment of values between employees and …

การประยุกต์ใช้กระบวนการลำดับชั้นเชิงวิเคราะห์ในการเลือกทำเลที่ตั้งศูนย์กระจายสินค้า : กรณีศึกษาศูนย์กระจายสินค้าธุรกิจร้านสะดวกซื้อ, วราภรณ์ โลหิตปุระ

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

งานวิจัยนี้เป็นการประยุกต์ใช้กระบวนการลำดับชั้นเชิงวิเคราะห์ (Analytic Hierarchy Process) ในการกำหนดทำเลที่ตั้งศูนย์กระจายสินค้าแห่งใหม่เพื่อรองรับปริมาณสินค้าที่เพิ่มขึ้นในอีก 3 ปีข้างหน้า โดยมีกรณีศึกษาของงานวิจัย เป็นศูนย์กระจายสินค้าที่ดำเนินธุรกิจด้านการกระจายสินค้าให้กับร้านสะดวกซื้อของบริษัท และนอกจากนี้ยังมีวัตถุประสงค์เพื่อศึกษา และวิเคราะห์ปัจจัยเชิงปริมาณ และปัจจัยเชิงคุณภาพที่มีผลต่อการเลือกทำเลที่ตั้งศูนย์กระจายสินค้าของธุรกิจร้านสะดวกซื้อ กระบวนการลำดับชั้นเชิงวิเคราะห์เป็นกระบวนการสนับสนุนการตัดสินใจที่มีเหตุผลสามารถใช้ในการตัดสินใจ ที่เกี่ยวข้องกับปัจจัยทั้งเชิงปริมาณ และเชิงคุณภาพ อีกทั้งยังสามารถวัดความสอดคล้องของการตัดสินใจในแต่ละปัจจัย และนอกจากนี้งานวิจัยยังได้มีการวิเคราะห์ต้นทุนค่าขนส่งของทางเลือกของที่ตั้งที่พิจารณาประกอบการตัดสินใจร่วมด้วย งานวิจัยได้พิจารณาทางเลือกของที่ตั้งศูนย์กระจายสินค้าจำนวน 3 จังหวัด ได้แก่ จังหวัดนครสวรรค์ จังหวัดปทุมธานี และจังหวัดสุพรรณบุรี โดยพิจารณาปัจจัยต่างๆดังนี้ ต้นทุนค่าขนส่ง ต้นทุนการลงทุน แรงงาน ความเสี่ยงน้ำท่วม การเข้าถึงถนน การเข้าถึงลูกค้า และทัศนคติของชุมชน การวิจัยได้นำปัจจัยและทางเลือกของทำเลที่ตั้งศูนย์กระจายสินค้า มาพัฒนาเป็นโครงสร้างแผนภูมิลำดับชั้นตามกระบวนการลำดับชั้นเชิงวิเคราะห์ ผลการวิจัยพบว่า ผู้ตัดสินใจให้ความสำคัญกับปัจจัยตามลำดับความสำคัญ ดังนี้ ต้นทุนค่าขนส่ง การเข้าถึงลูกค้า ความเสี่ยงน้ำท่วม แรงงาน ต้นทุนการลงทุน ทัศนคติของชุมชน และการเข้าถึงถนน และผู้ตัดสินใจให้ความสำคัญของทางเลือกภายใต้ปัจจัยต่างๆ ตามลำดับความสำคัญ ดังนี้ จังหวัดนครสวรรค์ จังหวัดปทุมธานี และจังหวัดสุพรรณบุรี เมื่อพิจารณาร่วมกับผลการวิเคราะห์ต้นทุนค่าขนส่งพบว่า ทางเลือกที่เหมาะสมที่สุดคือจังหวัดนครสวรรค์ซึ่งมีต้นทุนค่าขนส่งต่ำที่สุด

Innovative Wind Energy Micro-Generation System: A Case Study For Rooftop Turbine Ventilator, Ponnson Kaewtip

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

Wind micro-generation has become an approach for new age wind energy. Whereas, the conventional and centralized wind farms only work well with wind speed beyond 8 m/s, these are only capable when locating within the remote wind zones. To develop wind-power generation that can generate electricity right at point of uses, will reduce transmission and distribution losses and minimize investment costs. This study uses innovative approach to develop Vertical Axis Wind Turbine (VAWT), through redesign and modification an internal frame of standard rooftop ventilators, transforming into Rooftop Turbine Ventilator (RTV) micro-generation system, based on VAWT. In order to cope with …

Organizational Development Consulting: A Study Of Expert Consultants' Key Strategies, Mona Vosoughi

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The present study was conducted to capture the collective voice of expert organizational development consultants. Until now, very few studies have been conducted that take into account the collective voices of organizational development consultants. More specifically, the purpose of the present study is to explore and gain a deeper understanding of the approaches expert organizational development consultants use throughout their engagement with their clients in an attempt to add value to and enhance organizational capacity. To understand the process used by this distinct group of leaders, phenomenological qualitative inquiry was the methodology used to conduct this study. Data were collected …

The Influence Of The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People During A Merger Of A Fire Department And Emergency Medical Services In A Midwestern State : A Single Case Study From 2007 To 2013, Lisa Barnes Greco

Dissertations

Problem. Organizational mergers are difficult and often chaotic at best, fraught with unknowns that can derail the best of plans. In this study, two cultures, fire suppression and emergency medical services, were brought together in order to create a stronger fire department by consolidating resources and knowledge and to appease an ever-tightening municipal budget. How to save the best practices from each side and create a new culture was the conundrum the leadership team faced.

The purpose of this study was to understand how Stephen Covey's The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People influenced the change dynamics experienced during the …