Business Commons^™

Electronic Marketplaces And Their Roles In The Staffing Industry : An Explorative Analysis, Vishal Khubani

Theses

This thesis will explore and analyze the role of electronic marketplaces in the staffing industry from the viewpoint of hiring executives, human resources personnel, staffing organizations, and candidates. Using analyses of popular electronic job marketplaces, this paper will establish the efficiency and effectiveness of electronic marketplaces as compared to traditional staffing methods. It will also provide a detailed view of various electronic marketplaces, their financial structure and analysis of their performance. This information will also result in a return on investment estimate for the average hiring organization using electronic marketplaces.

Participatory Learning Environment : Requirements And Design Analysis, Vikas Manohar Achhpiliya

Theses

The primary purpose of this thesis is to develop the requirements and model preliminary database and class designs for the Participatory Learning Approach Environment (PLAE). The requirements and the designs will be presented for version 1.0 and 2.0 with version 2.0 supporting an enhanced requirements set.

Participatory Learning Approach Environment (PLAE) is an exercise management tool for the Participatory Learning Approach (PLA) - a pedagogy approach based on the theory of constructivism. The PLAE facilitates and enhances learning among students while easing the administrative burden of the instructor and cognitive overload of the students. The theory and concepts on which …

The More The Better? Consumer Preference On Multifunctional Cosmetics, Kit Ting, Candy Chan

Bachelor Degree - Marketing - Final Year Project

Multifunctional cosmetics have become more common in the market. They perform more than their basic features. As more features are added to the products, the question is that: Is the more the better? It does not always be. The purpose of this research is to locate the consumer preference on multifunctional cosmetics. It accesses consumers’ evaluation on cosmetics products in two different perspectives, brand value and confidence level. In terms of brand value, consumers prefer cosmetics with more existing features or those have new feature. In terms of confidence level, consumers prefer cosmetics with fewer existing feature with detailed information …

Bec Metering Department New System Proposal, Bradley Godwin

Honors Capstones

Capstone submitted as a graduation requirement for the BSU Honors Program.

Coming To Your Senses: The Use Of Sensory Appeals In Magazine Advertising, Emily Rae Mullranin

Honors Capstones

Capstone submitted as a graduation requirement for the BSU Honors Program.

Full Cost Pricing: An Approach To Internalize The Full-Cost Of A Gallon Of Unleaded Gasoline In The U.S And The Feasibility Of Markets Sustaining This Result, Joseph Mack

Honors Capstones

Capstone submitted as a graduation requirement for the BSU Honors Program.

A Comparative Study Of Selected Measures Of Performance Of Organizations Before And After Obtaining Iso 9000 Certification As Compared To The S&P 500 Index, Gregory K. Arbuckle

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

"One of the most significant changes in international business is the recent movement toward quality awareness. Although still embryonic, acceptance of the importance of quality and reliability is being recognized as a critical factor for the sale of many products and services in business operations and in performance worldwide" (Joubert, 1998, ,i 1 ). Over time, there have been many management systems developed to improve quality such as TQM, Malcolm Baldrige and Six Sigma; two of the largest and/or newest being ISO 9000 and QS 9000. The literature is unclear as to which systems actually work and which do not. …

Adaptation To Changing Marketplace Conditions By Psychologists In Independent Practice, Keith James Monroe

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Recent surveys have provided support to the frequently asserted opinion that managed care has negatively impacted psychologists in independent practice. Many recommendations have been made by professional organizations to address the negative impact and most have been directed at guiding practitioners to adapt to changes in health care delivery. However, there is little data on how private practitioners evaluate these recommendations or if they are using these strategies to adapt to the changing practice environment. The focus of this dissertation was to assess the extent that psychologists in independent practice have adopted the recommended strategies. By establishing a representative sample …

The Impact Of Web Site Design On Consumer Loyalty In Business-To-Consumer (B2c) Internet Commerce: A Rhetorical Approach, Tsai-Shin Fong

Graduate Student Dissertations, Theses, Capstones, and Portfolios

With an enormous multitude of potential consumers globally, the Internet offers an opportunity that merchants have never before seen. Corporate giants to small businesses considered investments of large amounts of time, money, resources, man-hours, and venture capital a wise decision when considering the potential return-on-investment (ROI) of the Internet boom of the early to mid 1990's. However, electronic commerce has experienced the meteoric rise and subsequent crash of any behemoth entity cast aloft without moorings or foundation. When millions of dollars were lost, experts emerged &om the ashes and attempted to develop new paradigms designed to explain the failure, redirect …

Cleaner Technologies As An Aspect Of Sustainable Tourism: Carribbean Case Studies, Fitzgerald J. Yaw Jr.

Dissertations

Tourists are becoming increasingly sophisticated in their selection of tourism destination. A major factor that has been gaining importance in their choice set is the environmental quality of their preferred destination. Tourism planners need to recognize that the sustainability of their destination and its various offerings necessitates the consideration of environmental protection and conservation-related issues. This dissertation undertakes the case study methodology to explore the link between implementing cleaner technologies, a major environmental issue, and sustainable tourism.

The Caribbean is a region in the world that is strongly dependent on tourism for its economic development. Thus the analysis of how …

Stock Returns And Noise Trading: Domestic And International Evidence, Rahul Verma

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

In recent years there has been a growing debate on the possible linkages between the behavioral aspects of investors and stock prices. The financial economics have become more receptive to imperfect rational explanations and in this regard, investor psychology has emerged as a major determinant of stock prices. Under this approach, the central task is to examine how stock prices are related not only to risks, but also to the noise (Hirshleifer, 2001). After decades of study, the sources of risk premium in purely rational dynamic models are well understood; while, dynamic psychology based asset pricing theories are still in …

Meanings Transferred Through The Consumption Of Jewelry In Romania, Meagan Call

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

In the past decade, there has been a vast expansion and globalization of markets. This "globalization demands that consumer researchers have experience and knowledge about individual countries and international conditions" (Arnould et al, 2002). The globalization of consumer research "demands that...researchers have experience and knowledge about individual countries and international conditions...meaningful synthesis and comparison demands not just proficiency in statistical methods and languages but insights into cultural differences" (Arnould et al, 2002). What is important for marketers to understand is the relationship between culture and product meanings. One important area of meanings involves personal meanings such as those high involvement …

Farmland Preservation In Cache Valley: Purchase Of Agricultural Conservation Easements, Jeffry Rulon Gittins

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

As farmland in Cache Valley continues to be overtaken by development each year, local farmers are looking for ways to protect their farmland from the encroaching urbanization. In recent years, funding has become available for purchase of agricultural conservation easements (PACE) programs. Although these programs are quite new to Cache Valley, they have the potential to be an effective tool in farmland preservation. This report looks at the implementation of PACE programs in Cache Valley and is divided into five main sections: a discussion of farmland loss in Cache Valley, an explanation of purchase of agricultural conservation easements programs, descriptions …

Your I.R.A. And You, Jacob Brent Hawkins

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

After thorough discussions with my senior academic advisor, Dr. Grange, and the Honors advising department, I decided to conduct my honors senior project on a topic that involved both my educational training and my professional activities. The project addresses the issue that most students outside the college of business do not understand investments. For the past 3 years I have been employed as an intern with Northwestern Mutual Financial Network. In this capacity I have had opportunities to meet with a wide variety of students looking for financial and investment advice. I observed that there was a general lack of …

A Survey Of Educational Systems Development Methodologies, Carly Walsh

Honors Capstones

Capstone submitted as a graduation requirement for the BSU Honors Program.

The New Economy And Its Implications To Investors, Elizabeth Misco

Honors Capstones

Capstone submitted as a graduation requirement for the BSU Honors Program.

Can Fundamental Value Predict Stock Returns? An Empirical Assessment Of The Feltham -Ohlson Model, Colin Anthony Pillay

Doctoral Dissertations

In valuation research, two modeling approaches that have become prominent are those based on the Residual Income Model (RIM) and those based on the G. Feltham-James A. Ohlson framework. Ohlson (1995) develops a valuation model which links a firm's fundamental value to the book value of equity, earnings and other relevant information. Feltham and Ohlson (1995) extend the Ohlson (1995) model to incorporate growth and conservative accounting.

This study provides an evaluation of the Feltham-Ohlson (1995) model assuming market inefficiency. Analyst forecast data are obtained from the international I/B/E/S files. Financial information and share prices are obtained from the Compustat …

The Application Development Outsourcing Contract Decision: The Effect Of Service Quality, Relationship Quality, Satisfaction, And Switching Costs On Continuation And Discontinuation Decisions, G. Dwayne Whitten

Doctoral Dissertations

Although the popularity of IT outsourcing has grown over the last two decades, approximately one third of outsourcing contracts are discontinued. This discontinuation of contracts has resulted in renegotiations with the original outsourcing vendor, switching to another vendor, and backsourcing, or the return of previously outsourced functions in-house.

IT outsourcing is expected to grow to a $160 billion industry in the United States alone by 2005. Given the conclusion by some researchers that so many outsourcing arrangements end in vendor switches or backsourcing, it is apparent that a large amount of money is being needlessly wasted. By better understanding the …

Increasing The Awareness Of Human Resource Development Activities In Small Firms, Hanacho Michael Nmom

Dissertations

Much of what is known today concerning organizational human resource development efforts (those being employee training, education, and development activities) has steadily and favorably come from large firms. Conversely, very little is known about the extent of HRD activities in small firms, especially those with fewer than 300 employees. To correct this imbalance of awareness the primary aim of this study is to delineate the learning activities of four successfulsmall service-oriented firms in Kalamazoo (Michigan) county.

The study sample consists of seven "purposeful informants". A mixed-method case study, employing the quantitative and qualitative fact-finding strategies ofa simple survey questionnaire and …

The Effect Of Mergers And Acquisitions On The Wealth, Risk, And Efficiency Of Latin American Banks, Felice Policastro-Caccavale

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Over the last few years, mergers and acquisitions within Latin America's banking sector have significantly increased. From 1995 to 2003, Latin American countries experienced more than one thousand bank merger and acquisition deals. The majority of these mergers and acquisitions have occurred between domestic and foreign banks and, as a result, foreign banks now control more than fifty percent of the banking assets of Latin America's largest economies. In addition to the increased presence of foreign banks in Latin America, the process of mergers and acquisitions has reduced the number of banks in most Latin American countries and this has …

The Effect Of Conflict Management Strategies On Manifest Conflict And Relationship Quality In A Buyer /Seller Environment, Lisa Toms

Doctoral Dissertations

In the free market theory established by Adam Smith in his Wealth of Nations, humans were assumed to automatically seek their own best economic interest. This assumption placed every buyer and seller in conflict with each other. Given the ever-increasing competitiveness of the business environment, it is imperative that salespeople seek to improve relationships with their customers. The purpose of this study is to propose and test a model of conflict management strategies, manifest conflict, relationship quality, and their associations during a particular conflict incident. The first objective is to determine if there is an association between the conflict …

What Makes A Winner?, Linda Riddell

Muskie School Capstones and Dissertations

Health insurance costs are one of the unremitting pressures on corporate profits, but the pressure is not suffered evenly throughout the market. What are the differences between Company A & Company B?

An Empirical Examination Of The Moderators Of The Service Recovery Paradox, Vincent P. Magnini

Theses and Dissertations in Business Administration

Some researchers (Abrams and Paese, 1993; Bitner, Booms, and Tetreault, 1990; Etzel and Silverman. 1981; Feinberg et al., 1990; Folkes and Kotsos, 1986; Gilly and Gelb, 1982; Hart, Heskett, and Sasser, 1990; Hocutt, Chakraborty, and Mowen, 1997; Kelley and Davis, 1994; Kelley, Hoffman and Davis, 1993; McCollough and Bharadwaj, 1992; Michel, 2001; Chrage, 2001; Smith and Bolton, 1998; Spreng, Harrell, and Mackoy, 1995; Tax, Brown, and Chandrashekaran, 1998) support the notion of a ‘recovery paradox’ which states that the occurrence of a failure may, if the recovery is effective, offer an opportunity to acquire higher satisfaction ratings from customers than …

Three Essays On Real Estate Investment Trusts, Yan Lin

Theses and Dissertations in Business Administration

This dissertation includes three essays that study on Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs). The first essay examines the shape of market demand curve by employing REIT equity fund flows as a proxy for REIT aggregate demand. An empirical framework is introduced to disentangle the price-pressure effect and the information effect. We do not find evidence for the price-pressure effect, which states that REIT equity fund flows directly affect REIT market prices. Instead, we find that the performance of REIT market prices does influence REIT equity fund flows. The results indicate that investors adjust their demand for REITs by investigating and …

Customer Relationship Marketing And Effects Of Demographics And Technology On Customer Satisfaction And Loyalty In Financial Services, Priscilla Gaudet Aaltonen

Theses and Dissertations in Business Administration

In today's market, financial institutions are adopting Customer Relationship Marketing (CRM) as a strategy aimed at collecting and using data to deliver increased customer value (Payne, Holt, Frow 2000) and, in turn, to increase customer satisfaction and, ultimately, customer loyalty. However, as more studies are being done on the outcome of CRM strategies over time, it is becoming evident that the costs often outweigh the expected benefits and CRM projects have consistently over-promised and under-delivered (Norman and Zafar 2001). Often, customer satisfaction is increased slightly but loyalty rates do not increase at all.

To date, much of what has been …

Empowering Marine Corps System Administrators: Taxonomy Of Training, Brian K. Hamilton

Theses and Dissertations

Organizations cannot protect the integrity, confidentiality, and availability of information in today's highly networked systems environment without ensuring that System Administrators are properly trained and meet a minimum standard that is enforced enterprise-wide. Only with this ubiquitous benchmark training, will the System Administrators roles and responsibilities become synchronous to achieving Defense in Depth in the IT realm. The goal of this research is to analyze Marine Corps training methods to identify viable solutions that will produce consistent skill sets and meet requirements set forth in mandates from DoD.

A Comparative Analysis Of The Cost Of Oversight Of Major Defense Acquisition Programs Strictly Under The Direction Of The Department Of Defense 5000 Series Of Instructions, Gary P. Rousseau

Theses and Dissertations

The United States Department of Defense has been caught in a continual cycle of acquisition reform since its inception over two hundred years ago. The goal of acquisition reform has always been to find the perfect balance between the amount of program oversight and the amount of flexibility in which program managers are allowed to manage their programs. The only truth learned throughout this process is that defense acquisition does need oversight and that there is no cookie cutter pattern for oversight that will fit all types of acquisition programs equally well. That being said, the focus of this thesis …

A Performance Evaluation Of A Lean Reparable Pipeline In Various Demand Environments, Melvin E. Maxwell Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

Lean production and logistics processes were developed in the commercial sector to reduce total system costs of production while simultaneously providing high levels of customer service, increased productivity, and increased worker utilization, In 1993, the Air Force instituted the Lean Logistics program, which successfully implemented some commercial lean principles, enabling a reduction in the total reparable asset material requirement for the Air Force reparable asset pipeline. The Air Force is attempting to further implement lean production principles into depot repair in hopes of further enhancing reparable asset pipeline cost and customer service performance. However, the failure of reparable assets, which …

Determination Of The Trainability Of Deception Detection Cues, Christopher L. Ford

Theses and Dissertations

The Air Force and the rest of the Department of Defense rely on valid information to make National Security decisions. The veracity of the information used to make those decisions can dramatically affect which course of action our military will take. Therefore, it is important that our leaders be able to recognize if they are being deceived. This study examines the results of training five categories of deception cues to 190 Air Force Officers. The officers were tested to determine their baseline deception detection abilities, then trained on the deception cues, Arousal, Emotion, Cognitive Effort, Communicator Tactics, and Memory Processes, …

Analysis And Forecasting Of U.S. Navy Operating And Support (O&S) Costs For Rotary Aircraft, Christopher J. Wilkes

Theses and Dissertations

This research explores forecasting techniques to estimate the Cost per Flying Hour (CPFH) for Navy rotary aircraft. Three separate forecasting techniques were evaluated to better predict the CPFH for better estimating and budgeting by the U.S. Navy. The process begins by empirically analyzing Operating & Support cost categories for each helicopter. Trends were examined in CPFH. For forecasting purposes, actual CPFH figures were compiled from 1997 to 2003 for the CH-46D, the CH-53D, the MH-53E, the SH-60F, the UH-1N, and the UH-3H helicopters. The forecasting techniques explored were the 3-year moving average, the single exponential smoothing method, and Holt's linear …