Business Commons^™

Development Of A New Technology Venture Balanced Scorecard Derived From Critical Factors That Impact Product Quality, Zella Jackson Hannum

Dissertations

Can a department manager who launches technologically advanced products use a performance measurement tool to improve product quality? Business environments where technologically advanced products are launched to the market for the first time, known as new technology ventures (NTV’s), have lagged behind in adoption of measures that drive product quality. NTV’s have been slow to adopt such measures due to a lack of research that would substantiate the impact of any proposed performance management systems. Thus, the development of an effective and useful tool that measures and drives product quality performance in NTV environments, which has usable visual displays—would be …

Communicating Ethics: Analysis Of Annual Letters To Stakeholders, Christopher Bryan

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

This research examines how executives, leaders and managers communicate their sense of ethics. Literature from various disciplines is increasingly focusing on the strong ethical tone-at-the-top and strong ethical culture to prevent organizational wrongdoing. The literature suggests that leaders face unique challenges in communicating their ethics and that the communication of ethics is inhibited by a psychological bias and the work is grounded in the cultural communication theory of Geertz and Pacanowsky and the organizational culture work of Schein. The research focuses on CEO annual letters written to stakeholders. This form of communication is a high-profile channel of communication and written …

Effects Of Optical Brightening Agents On Color Reproduction In Digital Printing, Sandra Chaikovsky, Jaimie Garrison

Graphic Communication

In this study the effects of optical brightening agents (OBAs) on color reproduction in digital toner-based printing are explored. Through the comparison of two distinct substrates with different levels of OBAs, notable differences in the reflectance of blue light in the visible light spectrum are analyzed among light sources Illuminant A, D50, and D65. Fluorescence occurs in OBA paper under light with a UV component; between D65 and Illuminant A light sources there is a distinct difference in fluorescing effect of the sample substrates. Color discrepancy as a result of OBAs is analyzed between D50 and Illuminant A light sources, …

Typographic Trends In American Sports Brands, Alan Jacobson

Graphic Communication

No abstract provided.

Building Brand Loyalty Through Youth Consumers And The Use Of Grass Roots Consumer Marketing, Jennifer Sirchuk

Journalism

The following study explores the different approaches that a brand can take towards building brand loyalty. The study focuses on the differences of targeting youth consumers as opposed to adult consumers when building that loyalty and brand awareness. Briefly, Keller defined brand awareness as the ability to identify the brand under different conditions, and added that it consists of brand recognition and brand recall (as cited in Kwang-Ho, Minsung & Won-Moo, 2011). The basis for building brand loyalty is creating brand recognition in conjunction with building relationships with consumers. This study investigates the benefits of using grass roots marketing as …

San Luis Obispo Entrepreneur's Market: Translating The Successful Aspects Of Slo's Farmer's Market Into A Model For A Talent Marketplace, Emily Swift

Liberal Arts and Engineering Studies

Details design elements of a physical space created for the purpose of economic and community development, where the guiding principles of design enable self-organizing sustainable systems for developing commerce, enterprise, business, and talent to work streams. The primary assumption is that if individuals in the community know their talent and are able to connect that talent to work with passion, meaning, and purpose, the community will thrive.

An Exploration Of Engagement: A Customer Perspective, Laura M. Flynn

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

This study examines a proposed framework for measuring customer engagement with support from employee engagement literature. Archival data was utilized to evaluate these relationships which included 4.530 participants that were customers of a business-to-business (B2B) organization and utilized the business' website. A similar factor structure resulted for the measurement of customer engagement. Structural equation modeling showed partial support for the hypothesized predictors of engagement (i.e. commitment, brand image, preference and decision making) because the relationship between satisfaction and engagement was not significant. The hypothesized outcome variables of engagement were also partially supported with loyalty, sales, average order value, and website …

A Qualitative Examination Of Workplace Bullying Experiences Among Temporary-Laborers, April A. Gonzalez

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

A qualitative field study that utilized face-to-face interviews to examine workplace bullying experiences of temporary-laborers.

Effects Of Information Importance And Distribution On Information Exchange In Team Decision Making, Babajide James Osatuyi

Dissertations

Teams in organizations are strategically built with members from domains and experiences so that a wider range of information and options can be pooled. This strategic team structure is based on the assumption that when team members share the information they have, the team as a whole can access a larger pool of information than any one member acting alone, potentially enabling them to make better decisions. However, studies have shown that teams, unlike individuals, sometimes do not effectively share and use the unique information available to them, leading to poorer decisions. Research on information sharing in team decision making …

Essays On Mental Accounting And Consumers' Decision Making, Ali Besharat

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is structured in the form of two empirical essays, each investigating one type of irrational decision caused by mental accounting. The first essay, titled "Managing the Cost of Multiple Debt Accounts: A Behavioral Perspective", explores why many people pay off credit cards' with the lowest rate first when rationally speaking they should repay the debt with the highest rate most quickly. This essay suggests that irrationality emerges when people seek to close `mental accounts' associated with their credit cards and reduce the total number of outstanding loans rather than decrease the amount of total debt among all credit …

On The Efficiency Of Us Equity Markets, Mikael Carl Erik Bergbrant

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Most papers in empirical finance implicitly or explicitly assume the same price of risk, for each priced systematic risk factor, across all risky assets within a given domestic market. In doing so, they rely on the assumption that markets are domestically integrated and, as such, that the price of risk is determined independently of individual investors attitude towards risk. This is true in frictionless markets where investors have complete information, homogenous beliefs, and hold the mean-variance efficient combination of the market portfolio and a risk-free asset. However, investors might not hold the market portfolio because of exogenous reasons. In fact, …

Planning And Designing A Sustainable Volunteer Based Organization: The Putney Food Shelf, Annik Yvette Paul

Capstone Collection

There are many reasons why issues of food insecurity and hunger exist. Individuals, families, and households have various barriers to food security, often facing more than one at a time. Barriers include limited fixed incomes, minimum wage not equaling a livable wage, unemployment and underemployment, poverty, lack of personal transportation and/or access to public transportation, limited access to shopping areas (food deserts), and health and medical issues.

Considering the current statistics listed below, combined with the ever-increasing cost of food, more households will be struggling to meet their basic nutritional needs. Food insecurity and hunger is a problem faced by …

Financial And Management Records For Wmu Softball, Lindsey M. Truitt

Honors Theses

The major purpose of this thesis is to create new documents, charts, and forms to better organize the financial, recruiting, and travel information for the Western Michigan University (WMU) softball team. The three forms created include a hotel log, recruiting log, and budget form. Each form is essential for recording events and should enhance the efficiency and ease of recordkeeping. The forms will also help with organizing different files and information. The creation of a hotel log will help plan softball trips and provide a history of well-liked hotels with reasonable prices in locations convenient to the playing fields. The …

Employee Work Motivation In Japanese Fitness Clubs, Yuko Mizuuchi

Student Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to identify factors that motivate fitness club employees, as well as, to investigate the relationship between 10 job-related motivational factors in Japanese fitness club employees. Participants for this study were 179 employees working in one of three fitness clubs in Japan, located in Tokyo, Osaka, or Yamaguchi. The questionnaire used was adapted from the ten job-related motivational factors developed by Kovach (1980). The results showed that "Sympathetic Help with Personal Problems" was the most important motivator, while "Good Wages" was the least important motivator. Additionally, there were statistically significant differences between the 10 job-related …

Fear Of Asking: Factors That Inhibit Latinos In Seeking And Obtaining Credit For Small Business, Brenda Hernandez

College of Management Honors Theses

Latino owned businesses and any minority business in general are important for the economy of the United States. They generate money that helps the economy grow and work. In the fiscal year of 2010, the Minority Business Development Agency of the United States Department of Commerce created 6,397 new jobs and helped minority owned businesses obtained almost 4 billion in contracts and capital. The numbers are record highs for the MBDA and it shows that minority businesses are growing now more than they were ever before. While the number is growing, the number of minority owned businesses is still small …

A Comparison Of Profiles And Expenditures Between Volunteer And Leisure Tourists For The New Orleans Metropolitan Statistical Area, Ksenia Kirillova

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This research compared the expenditure patterns, profiles, and trip characteristics of volunteer and leisure tourists in New Orleans. Survey research methods were used to obtain a sample of voluntourists that was compared to a leisure tourist sample obtained from secondary data. Visitors’ expenditures across six types of spending, demographics, and travel information were collected. Data analysis included eight t-tests that revealed that voluntourists’ spending was lower in five out of six categories, total daily expenditures, and total trip spending. Voluntourists spent more on local transportation but preferred cheaper accommodations and dining, seldom gambled, shopped little at the destination, and rarely …

Two Essays: “Does Corporate Governance Affect The Adjustment Speed Towards Target Capital Structure?” And “Do Option Traders On Reits And Non-Reits React Differently To New Information?”, Li-Kai Liao

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The first chapter investigates how corporate governance influences firms’ capital structure behavior. Based on the premise that costs associated with deviations from the target capital structure are positively correlated to the extent of deviation, we hypothesize that the initial deviation from the target will be shorter for a firm with good corporate governance than for a firm with poor corporate governance. We also hypothesize that the former group will employ a higher speed of adjustment towards target than the latter group due primarily to the following reasons. First, a firm with well-placed governance system will adjust at a faster rate …

Two Essays In Islamic Finance And Investment, Hesham J. Merdad

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The main purpose of this dissertation is to lessen the gap in the Islamic finance and investment literature by providing new answers to the most vital question raised in that literature: Is the adherence to the Shariah law associated with at any cost?

The first chapter provides a primer on Islamic finance. It discusses several restrictions and necessary adaptations that must be made to have a Shariah-compliant product. The takeaway is that Shariah law mandates is related to fundamentals and, thus has a direct effect on the risk-return profile of all sorts of different products. This is referred to as …

Momentum, Nonlinear Price Discovery And Asymmetric Spillover: Sovereign Credit Risk And Equity Markets Of Emerging Countries And, Geoffrey M. Ngene

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

In Chapter 1, I hypothesize that there is a differential response by agents to changes in sovereign credit or default risk in both quiet (low default risk) and turbulent markets (high default risk). These market conditions create two different states of the market (world) or regimes. Investors and policy makers respond differently in the two regimes but the response in the turbulent market condition is amplified as policy makers attempt to smoothen the fluctuations and uncertainty while investors rebalance their portfolios in an attempt to hedge against downside risk of wealth loss. In the two regimes, the short run and …

Risk Aversion And Former Collegiate Athletes As Financial Investors, Tyler Buccetti

College of Management Honors Theses

Risk aversion is a concept that tries to understand an individual’s choice, when two options are presented with different levels of risk and reward. This concept can be applied to finance when looking at investors decisions to invest in options with different levels of risk and returns. This study examines if having played a collegiate sport will impact the level of risk aversion an investor has. In order to determine this, an experiment was given to Graduate students working on a Master’s degree in business. The experiment consisted of six different stock options representing different levels of risk. From this …

Application Of Intelligent-Objects Simulation To Manufacturing Process Efficiency Analysis: A Case Study, Justin Hamilton

Morehead State Theses and Dissertations

A thesis presented to the faculty of the College of Science and Technology at Morehead State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science by Justin Hamilton on May 12, 2012.

Online Music Piracy In College-Age Students, Jasmine D. Allen

Honors Theses

The purpose of this study is to assess the demographic profile of online music pirates and to assess how the magnitudes of various existing constructs differ according to gender. To reach conclusions as to which kinds of college students engage in online music piracy and their reasons for doing so, a campus-wide online survey that assessed the demographic information and piracy motivations of participants was offered to college students at a university. There is a need for this study because it will further contribute to a growing knowledge base that offers explanations as to why individuals partake in acts of …

Aligning Security And Usability Objectives For Computer Based Information Systems, Santa Ram Susarapu

Theses and Dissertations

With extensive use of information systems in day-to-day business operations, many organizations are facing challenges to develop robust computer-based information systems that are secure and widely used by the user community. In order to develop information systems that are secure and useful, understanding what stakeholders consider important and value about the security and usability is critical. Security refers to confidentiality, integrity and availability and usability refers to efficiency, effectiveness and user satisfaction. Using Value Focused Thinking approach, this research first proposes the usability objectives based on the values of system developers and users. Using the security objectives proposed by Dhillon …

Design, Development, And Evaluation Of An Easily Customized Staff Scheduling System, Lakmal Molligoda

Morehead State Theses and Dissertations

A thesis presented to the faculty of the College of Science and Technology at Morehead State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science by Lakmal Molligoda on May 10, 2012.

Institutionalization Of Information Security: Case Of The Indonesian Banking Sector, Muhamad Faisal Fariduddin Attar Nasution

Theses and Dissertations

This study focuses on the institutionalization of information security in the banking sector. This study is important to pursue since it explicates the internalization of information security governance and practices and how such internalization develops an organizational resistance towards security breach. The study argues that information security governance and practices become institutionalized through social integration of routines and system integration of relevant technologies. The objective is to develop an understanding of how information security governance and practices in the Indonesian banking sector become institutionalized. Such objective is built on an argument that information security governance and practices become institutionalized through …

Multisource Feedback Leadership Ratings: Analyzing For Measurement Invariance And Comparing Rater Group Implicit Leadership Theories, Kim Gower

Theses and Dissertations

This research outlines a conceptual framework and data analysis process to examine multisource feedback (MSF) rater group differences from a leadership assessment survey, after testing the measures for equivalence. MSF gathers and compares ratings from supervisors, peer, followers and self and is the predominant leadership assessment tool in the United States. The results of MSF determine significant professional outcomes such as leadership development opportunities, promotions and compensation. An underlying belief behind the extensive use of MSF is that each rater group has a different set of implicit leadership theories (ILTs) they use when assessing the leader, and therefore each group …

Two Essays On The Sell-Side Financial Analysts, Xi Liu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the first essay titled "The Information Role of Analysts' Contrarian Revisions," I study a special group of revisions: contrarian revisions, defined as recommendation changes that are inconsistent with sizable stock price movements during the past week. I find that contrarian revisions are relatively more informative than trending revisions. In particular, contrarian revisions are associated with a both statistically and economically larger post-announcement drift. I also find contrarian downgrades are less likely to be issued by all-star analysts and analysts with more experience. After implementation of Regulation RD, the market reaction to contrarian revisions issued by all-stars significantly decreases, indicating …

Java Applet Awareness Impacting User Web Browsing Behavior, Norilyz Figueroa

College of Management Honors Theses

The purpose of this study is to investigate the web browsing behaviors of computer users and how awareness about threats impacts their behaviors. This research focused on how users behave towards web browser alerts which prompt users to install Java Applets. Applets have become common tools for enhancing user experience. However, installing these features overrides security mechanisms inherent in browsers and provides complete access to users’ computing resources. A survey was administered to two separate groups of students from the University of Massachusetts Boston to collect data. The first group took the survey after being given a few details about …

Determinants And Implications Of Audit Reporting Lags In China, Wei Luo

Lingnan Theses

Timeliness is an essential attribute of corporate financial reporting as it affects the usefulness of information made available to external investors. The recognition that the length of audit is the single most important determinant influencing the timeliness of earnings announcements has motivated investigations on audit reporting lags in different countries. Nevertheless, there is a lack of research on this issue in China where the institutional environment for accounting and auditing practices is different from that of other countries. The growing interest in the Chinese stock market from domestic and international investors further increases the importance of this research. In this …

Perceived Firm Transparency: Scale And Model Development, Jennifer Dapko

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the last few years alone, calls for transparency by consumers have grown louder. No longer are consumers willing to sit back and allow firms to make `closed door' decisions that benefit the company (and its executives) at the expense of consumers and society. This dissertation begins to answer the call for a greater understanding of transparency from both practitioner and academic perspectives. In particular, this dissertation focuses on systematically developing a succinct definition of perceived firm transparency, developing a valid measure of transparency, and empirically testing antecedents and consequences of transparency.

Two studies were conducted to develop the transparency …