Business Commons^™

Career Development Of Air Force Officers In Contracting: An Examination Of Perception And Understanding, Martin P. Hamlin

Theses and Dissertations

This research considered five factors deemed necessary for supporting career development, including experience, professionalism, expectations, mentoring, and training. The author studied the perceptions of captains in the contracting career field as a means of better understanding the unique career development challenges faced by contracting officers. This study concluded that captains in contracting do not perceive one best career path, nor one best set of professional and technical skills. Career expectations remain high and mentoring activity low, despite recent institutional emphasis directed at both. The value of current required formal training, as rated by contracting officers, seems to be high.

Relationships Between Crda Elements And Benefits To The Government In Technology Transfer, Mark J. Davis

Theses and Dissertations

Technology transfer has become an increasingly important mission of federal laboratories over the past decade, with results that benefit the government, private companies, and the nation's economy. Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRDAs) are the most used mechanism to perform technology transfer from our nation's federal laboratories to the private sector. The main objective of this research is to determine important CRDA elements that are associated with higher benefits to the government. Recommendations are provided for technology transfer managers to improve CRDAs by identifying the CRDA elements that are associated with higher or lower benefits to the government. Key findings …

Applying Cross-Decking And Activity-Based Costing To Military Distribution Centers: A Proposed Framework, Jonathan P. Elliott, Dwight H. Hintz Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

Current events and fiscal constraints have focused DoD planners' attention on reducing logistics costs and improving efficiency while maintaining effective combat operations support. Military leaders are seeking private industry best practices that may help the DoD achieve these goals. Two commercially successful business practices that may help the DoD achieve its goals are cross-docking and Activity-Based Costing (ABC). Cross-docking is a commercially proven approach to material distribution through a distribution center that can help reduce inventories, speed material flows, and cut related logistics activity costs. However, the DoD is faced with the challenge of costing current and potential logistics processes …

Factors Affecting The Unit Cost Of Weapon Systems, Mark W. Glenn

Theses and Dissertations

This research identifies variables and specifies equations that can be used to estimate the unit production cost of a weapon system. It is concerned with both explanation and prediction. Three major variables identified are cumulative quantity, production rate, and change in regime. Cumulative quantity is used in learning curve theory. Production rate is found in the U-shaped short and long-run cost curves of economic theory. This study uses the term regime to refer to any major change in the production environment of a weapon system. This research attempts to integrate the use of these three variables. A change in regime …

A Study Of Historical Inflation Forecasts Used In The Department Of Defense Future Years Defense Program, Mark S. Sweitzer

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores historical inflation forecasts used in the Department of Defense (DoD) Future Years Defense Program. The study examines historical DoD forecasts against experienced inflation as measured by the Gross National Product and Gross Domestic Product implicit price deflator (GNP/GDP IPD) from 1979 to 1996. This study also compares the accuracy of DoD forecasts with those made by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and Data Resources, Incorporated (DRI). The results regarding the performance of historical DoD inflation forecasts are mixed. Upon examining budget through five year GNP/GDP IPD forecast spans, DoD short-term results do not indicate a downward bias …

Tracking Overhead Orta Costs In Technology Transfer Activities, Thomas S. Van Egeren

Theses and Dissertations

An ever shrinking Research and Development (R&D) budget, coupled with a widespread perception that the nation is not realizing an adequate return from its substantial investment in the federal laboratory system, has paved the way for an increase in the transfer of technology from the federal laboratories to the private sector. The objective of this research is to determine the indirect cost of performing technology transfer by identifying the resources consumed by several key Office of Research and Technology Applications (ORTA) organizations and the activities performed within these organizations. It was hypothesized that the ORTA organizations, which are considered indirect …

The Influence Of Foreign Culture On Air Force Contingency Contracting Operations, Christian M. Ruefer

Theses and Dissertations

Abstract Contingency Contracting Officers (CCOs) are increasingly finding themselves an integral part of overseas deployments, purchasing in theater whatever the combat forces cannot bring with them. As a result, CCOs must deal directly with businesses and the individuals who operate them in the deployed location. Cultural differences between the CCO and suppliers can become an issue not encountered in stateside operations. This thesis was designed to explore the possible impact of culture on the deployed CCO's ability to do their job. There were four objectives of this study. First, those tasks CCOs must accomplish in order to perform their job …

Meeting U.S. Defense Needs In Space: Effects Of A Shrinking Defense Industrial Base On The Satellite Industry, Ronald B. Cole

Theses and Dissertations

U.S. defense industrial base (DIB) deterioration and increased DOD interest in space exploitation highlights the U.S. satellite industry as one DIB sector requiring analysis. Despite DIB problems, this industry must maintain the capability to produce advanced satellites for the DOD. Commercial Military Integration (CMI) will, according to experts, eliminate problems inherent with a separate DIB. This research focused on investigating satellite industry capability to meet DOD space requirements. Through literature review, case study analysis and interviews, effects of a shrinking DIB on the satellite industry were determined. A model for DIB strength was developed and analyzed through literature review. General …

A Qualitative Analysis Of The Elements Required For The Successful Implementation Of The 'Rolling Down-Select Strategy', Brent A. Kelly

Theses and Dissertations

This research explored the elements required for the successful implementation of the 'rolling down-select strategy' Inspired by Lightning Bolt 10, this study investigated five acquisitions which have or are in the process of implementing the 'rolling down-select strategy' The results suggest several elements which appear to contribute to the successful use of the 'rolling down- select strategy' These findings can be used by acquisition planners to aid in determining whether or not the 'rolling down-select strategy' is a viable strategy for their particular acquisition.

An Analysis Of Tactical Military Airlift, James H. Donoho

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines tactical military airlift operations conducted during three historical battles - Stalingrad, Dien Bien Phu, and Khe Sanh. Aspects of tactical military airlift operations are identified from these scenarios. The list of important issues that results can be considered when employing tactical military airlift in the future. Using inductive reasoning, tactical military airlift operations in each scenario, and their success or failure, are examined to develop a pattern for recognizing and describing similar situations in the future. Experiences at Stalingrad, Dien Bien Phu, and Khe Sanh indicated that there are nine elements that should be considered when employing …

Support Equipment Deployability: A Delphi Study To Determine The Transportability Characteristics Of Aerospace Ground Equipment (Age), Gavin B. Tovrea

Theses and Dissertations

The issue of mobility is vital to the Air Force as it faces the 2lst century. Operational units must be prepared to quickly deploy anywhere in the world. Aerospace Ground Equipment (AGE) is a large portion of any operational unit's mobility requirements. This thesis studies one portion of AGE mobility, the transportability characteristics of the Air Force's current powered AGE. Transportability is defined as the ability to quickly and efficiently prepare an item for transport, load the item on the transportation asset, remove the item from the transportation asset, and reconstitute the item for use. In order to determine AGE …

A Comparison Of Commercial Express And The Defense Transportation System In The Movement Of Reparable Assets Within Western Pacaf, Corey M. Vickers

Theses and Dissertations

This study was initiated by the assertion that it was taking a greater amount of time to transport assets from Support Center Pacific (SCP) to its Western Pacific Air Forces (WESTPAC) customers (Misawa AB Japan, Yokota AB Japan, Kunsan AB Korea, and Osan AB Korea) than it was taking to transport similar assets to the same locations from a CONUS repair facility. These delivery times include the total time it takes a reparable asset to be transferred from a repair facility (consignor) to the user (consignee). Pacific Air Forces (PACAF) has proposed using commercial express freight carriers to transport reparable …

A Cost-Benefit Analysis Of Earned Value Management System Criteria, John R. Cole Jr., Judson M. Fussell

Theses and Dissertations

In December 1996, the Cost/Schedule Control Systems Criteria (C/SCSC) was officially replaced by the Earned Value Management Systems (EVMS) criteria. The switch to EVMS, coupled with current acquisition reform changes, have left many wondering what the effects of these changes will be. This thesis defines the costs and benefits of the old C/SCSC, and then compares them. Additionally, this thesis discusses the changes accompanying the switch to EVMS and the effect on the costs and benefits. The marginal costs of C/SCSC are defined as the difference between the costs of a C/SCSC compliant system and a contractors normal management control …

Foreign Military Sales Supply Support: Is There A Better Way?, Eric G. Ellmyer, Won Joon Jang

Theses and Dissertations

In today's world of declining defense budgets, there is an increasing need for South Korea to ensure they obtain the best dollar value when procuring defense articles. With the increasing financial situation, the purpose of this thesis is to research a surrogate third party firm and determine to what degree South Korea and other foreign military sales customers obtain the best value for their money for follow-on support item procurements. South Korea has participated in the Parts and Repair Ordering System program since its inception. However, South Korea has received little, if any, feedback regarding lead time and cost performance …

Development Of The Base Support Plan Process Model For Evaluation Of Proposed Process Improvement Initiatives, Daniel T. Kalosky, Patrick G. Walker

Theses and Dissertations

The primary role of the United States Air Force (USAF) logistics planner is to plan for war. For the wing level logistics planner, an important war planning product they are responsible for is the base support plan (BSP). The BSP is the installation level plan to support unified and specified command wartime operations plans, as well as MAJCOM supporting plans. Two Armstrong Laboratory sponsored initiatives exist to automate and enhance some of the BSP processes: the Survey Tool for Employment Planning (STEP) and Beddown Capability and Assessment Tool (BCAT). This research explored the BSP process and improvement initiatives by (1) …

A Test Of A Rapid Developer Model: Workplace Factors Associated With Learning And Development, James A. Alexander

Dissertations

The speed at which individuals and organizations learn and develop is a vital contributor to organizational change and organizational effectiveness. This study postulated the notion of "rapid developers”, those persons who learn and acquire job competence more quickly than their peers. The purpose of this study was to identify, define, and differentiate the factors associated with "rapid development."

The author constructed a rapid developer model based upon the review of the disciplines of training, performance technology, total quality, organization learning, and organization culture. The model identified and defined the contextual factors that could be expected, based on an understanding of …

The Differential Effects Of Residential Placement And Exercise Activity Of Aging Persons With Mental Retardation, Sandra K. Wise

Theses

No abstract provided.

Registration Of Apprenticeship Programs And The Turnover Of Skilled Trade Employees, Dennis J. Bona

Dissertations

The primary purpose of the study is to provide empirical evidence that refutes arguments made by employers who resist registering an apprenticeship program because they believe it will increase turnover of their skilled trade employees. To do this, data were collected to test the hypothesis that companies that have a registered apprenticeship program experience less turnover of their skilled trade employees compared to companies that do not. Secondary hypotheses were also developed to compare turnover ratios with union orientation, size, and wage structure of employers to help validate the results and demonstrate alternative explanations for turnover of skilled trade employees. …

The Impact Of The Louisiana Lottery On Salaries In Education, Melissa Vicknair Melancon

Doctoral Dissertations

The study was undertaken to decide whether lottery revenues impacted teachers' salaries in Louisiana. Economic recession brought on by the collapse of the oil and gas industry, disgruntled taxpayers, and the lure of easy money prompted Louisiana legislators to pass a bill adopting a state lottery. Initially, all funds were earmarked for education. Subsequently, lottery revenues were deposited into the general fund. Yet many thought the lottery would be a significant source of money for education and teachers' salaries.

Logged annual salaries were used in models for university teachers and for elementary and secondary school teachers. Variables were incorporated to …

Expectation-Performance Gap: Professional Liability Associated With Certain Auditor Behaviors, Sidney Paul Glandon

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation is threefold: (i) to establish hypotheses relating financial liability to certain auditor behaviors discussed in the independence literature, (ii) to empirically validate that the presence of these behaviors will increase auditor financial liability over the normal audit situation, and (iii) attempt to explain the differences in subjects' perceptions for each of the behavioral scenarios studied.

A survey instrument was developed and administered to three groups of subjects: an impaneled jury, bankers, and CPAs. The instrument contained a vignette describing an annual audit situation where the company filed for bankruptcy subsequent to the issuance of the …

The Impact Of Director Interlocks On Interorganizational Imitation In Germany, Elke Reuning-Elliot

Theses and Dissertations in Business Administration

In the 1980s, Germany saw a significant increase in the number of corporate acquisitions. This study deals with the role that director interlocks play in gathering and disseminating information about corporate acquisitions. Specifically, it explores the possibility that acquisitions may result from interorganizational imitation. Hypotheses that relate a German firm's acquisition activity with its own acquisitions and the acquisition history of interlocking firms are tested on 1982-1989 acquisition data for a sample of 193 German firms. The results from the negative binomial and logistic regression analyses indicate that there is no significant evidence for interorganizational imitation. Instead, the number of …

An Examination Of Defense Acquisition Management In The Republic Of China: Comparison With The United States, Ching-Tsung Jen

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis has explored the current issues of defense acquisition management in the Republic of China (ROC). The purpose of this research was to examine the managerial functions in defense acquisition systems and provide recommendations for further acquisition reform in the ROC. Using the exploratory case study approach, this research took a broad look at the ROC defense acquisition system by comparing it with the U.S. acquisition system. To analyze the difference, five functional indicators were selected. These five indicators which represent the managerial functions during the acquisition process include Policy and Statutes, Acquisition Process, Acquisition Organization, Acquisition Workforce Training …

Training Management Information System Of The Defense Institute Of Security Assistance Management: User Satisfaction As A Measure Of Its Effectiveness, Paulo R. De Oliveira Ruy

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the Training Management System (TMS) installed in the Security Assistance Organizations around the world. User satisfaction was measured as an indicator of the system's effectiveness. In order to provide an objective measurement of the system effectiveness, the following research questions were addressed: (1) What is the system effectiveness regarding the level of product quality provided by TMS? (2) What is the level of involvement and knowledge of TMS user related to the information services function? (3) What is the level of user perceived satisfaction with the staff and services …

Unit Labor Cost And Trade Patterns: Prospects And Concerns, Nadia Hani El Nokrachi

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Multi-Wavelength Infrared Imaging Computer Systems And Applications, Jun Li

Dissertations

This dissertation presents the development of three computer systems for multi-wavelength thermal imaging.

Two computer systems were developed for the multi-wavelength imaging pyrometers (M-WIPs) that yield non-contact temperature measurements by remotely sensing the surface of objects with unknown wavelength-dependent emissivity. These M-WIP computer systems represent the state-of-art development in remote temperature measurement system based on the multi-wavelength approach. The dissertation research includes M-WIP computer system integration, software development, performance evaluation, and also applications in monitoring and control of temperature distribution of silicon wafers in a rapid thermal process system.

The two M-WIPs are capable of data acquisition, signal processing, system …

High Speed Protocols For Dual Bus And Dual Ring Network Architectures, Yaling Zhou

Dissertations

In this dissertation, two channel access mechanisms providing fair and bandwidth efficient transmission on dual bus and dual ring networks with high bandwidth-latency product are proposed. In addition, two effective priority mechanisms are introduced to meet the throughput and delay requirements of the diverse arrays of applications that future high speed networks must support.

For dual bus architectures, the Buffer Insertion Bandwidth Balancing (BI_BWB) mechanism and the Preemptive priority Bandwidth Balancing (P_BI_BWB) mechanism are proposed. BI_BWB can significantly improve the delay performance of remote stations. It achieves that by providing each station with a shift register into which the station …

Evaluation Of Sale Forecasting Methods : A Case Study, Susan J. Canavan

Theses

This study investigated forecasting accuracy for sales. Three quantitative and one qualitative forecasting techniques were tested and two combinational models were generated and evaluated.

Three data sets, obtained from a market leader were used to forecast sales. The series represented monthly sales for three years. Three accuracy levels were employed in this study, these are: Mean Absolute Error (MAE), Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE), and Root Mean Square Error (RMSE). Results indicated that the quantitative method outperformed the qualitative method; that combining two or more quantitative methods provide better forecasts than the individual methods; and that combining quantitative and qualitative …

Japanese Manufacturing Monopolies - What U.S. Enterprises Must Do To Maintain Global Competitiveness, Gary Grayson

Graduate Student Dissertations, Theses, Capstones, and Portfolios

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A Comparison Of Print Advertisements To Corresponding Web Sites: Are Marketers On Target, Sarah Jo Sautter

Honors Theses

Technological advances constantly make lives easier and information more accessible. Marketers seek the best ways to communicate with their prospects. This means keeping pace with technology, and being a pioneer in the industry. The Internet is one communication medium growing in popularity among marketers. As a new advertising medium, companies rush to beat their competitors, and many others follow. As a result, Web addresses are found in traditional media like television, radio and especially print.

Impact Of The Adoption Of New Technology (Facnet) On A Minority-Owned Small Business In Colorado, Tamara L. James

McCabe Thesis Collection

FACNET is a computer network that moves Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) from the Department of Defense (DoD) and federal buying sites to and from the certified Value Added Network (VAN).

This study is conducted to answer the following questions about the use FACNET by XYZ Communications:

1) Has FACNET helped reduce the cost of paper used in the business?

2) Has FACNET helped reduce the cost of long distance calls (telephone and fax) in the business?

3) Has FACNET helped reduce the cost of traveling expenses (hotel and transportation) in the business?

4)Has FACNET helped the business to conduct in …