Business Commons^™

Machine Learning For Predictive Energy And Emissions Modeling Of Vehicles And Power Grids In The United States, S M Tanvir Faysal Alam Chowdhoury

Dissertations

The environmental benefits of electric vehicle (EV) adoption depend on more than replacing internal combustion engine vehicles with electric powertrains. EV adoption reshapes electricity demand, interacts with regional generation mixes, and influences travel behavior and congestion, creating a coupled transportation-energy system in which vehicle and power-plant emissions must be evaluated together. This dissertation develops machine-learning frameworks for predicting energy consumption and emissions from vehicles and power grids under rising EV adoption. The first component forecasts grid emissions from EV charging. Using simulation data from NREL's Cambium database, a Prophet-based time-series framework predicts carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane emission rates …

Decision Making For Community Resilience: Applications In Flooded Transit Systems And Shared Housing, Mubarak Iddrisu

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Addressing climate-induced flooding and housing insecurity requires decisions that are technically sound, locally meaningful and feasible to implement. In public transit systems, flooding can damage infrastructure, increase travel time and reduce access to essential destinations, especially for older adults. Shared housing offers an alternative housing model where staff must balance affordability, compatibility, service exchange and participant choice when pairing home providers with housing seekers. In this dissertation, I examine how analytics and decision modeling can support community resilience across these two domains. I use spatial analysis, machine learning, optimization and matching theory to develop practical decision-support workflows. Chapter 2 proposes …

Marketing Strategies To Enhance Awareness And Attract International Patients In The Medical Tourism Industry Of Trinidad And Tobago, Natasha Rachel Rochford-Chance

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Disseminating inadequate service information can limit a business's market appeal and hinder its growth. Business leaders must include comprehensive service information in their marketing strategies, as inadequate service information can make a business seem unappealing to potential clients, undermine competitive position, reduce market share, and diminish profitability. The purpose of this qualitative pragmatic inquiry was to explore the marketing strategies used by medical tourism business leaders in Trinidad and Tobago to attract international patients and increase profitability. The participants were eight medical tourism business leaders with experience in implementing marketing strategies. McCarthy's marketing mix theory of product, price, place, and …

Who Bears The Burden: Tax Incidence And Water Governance In The Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District (Mrgcd) Within Bernalillo County, Michael W. Wilson

Economics ETDs

This study examines how property-value-based assessments within a large western irrigation and flood-control district distribute fiscal burdens across property owners. The empirical analysis is restricted to Bernalillo County within the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District (MRGCD), using parcel-level administrative data from fiscal year 2025 merged with 2021 irrigation service records and geospatial information. The analysis classifies 34,397 parcels by irrigation status, agricultural valuation enrollment, and primary use to evaluate whether non-irrigating residential and commercial parcels, including renter-occupied properties that lack direct irrigation access, bear a disproportionate share of financial responsibility for a district whose first listed priority under their primary …

Deviant By Design: How Institutional Forces And Analyst Scrutiny Shape Financial Policy Deviance And Convergence, Jonathan W. Hensley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores the institutional and economic forces shaping corporate financial policy, specifically examining why firms deviate from industry-typical leverage and cash holdings, whether they converge toward these norms, and the performance implications of such trajectories. I develop a framework, rooted in institutional theory and dynamic capital structure literature, that characterizes firms with extreme, multi-year financial policies as "deviant by design." While managers might maintain non-normative leverage or cash positions for firm-specific efficiency gains, these choices often clash with established industry templates, leading to legitimacy costs and institutional pressure for conformity.

Using a longitudinal panel of U.S. public firms from …

Firms In The Flood: Is Fema Failing Small Businesses?, Lauryn Charles

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

When faced with a natural disaster, small businesses remain largely outside the direct reach of federal assistance. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) estimates that up to 65% of small businesses close within two years of direct impact by a hazard event. Despite this vulnerability, existing research has focused primarily on infrastructure and household recovery, leaving the small business sector underexamined. This study is the first to link county-level IRS income data, FEMA mitigation grants, and SBA disaster records to empirically evaluate whether federal pre-disaster mitigation spending and community social resilience moderate the relationship between disasters and small business recovery …

Auditor Trust In Artificial Intelligence, Michael L. Decker

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Accounting firms are investing in, and advocating for, the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in audit procedures. This dissertation attempts to determine what factors may lead to auditors trusting an AI system. Established models of trust show that traits of the individual user, the system, and the situation all have effects on trust. Prior accounting research also indicates that professional skepticism is an important trait in auditors. This dissertation adds professional skepticism into an established trust model and uses Structural Equation Modeling to investigate auditor trust in audit evidence prepared by an AI system. My results indicate that the most …

Marketing Strategies To Increase Student Enrollment To Generate Revenue, Jermaine R. Mccain

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Declining student enrollment can reduce district revenue and limit a public school’s ability to sustain educational programs, staffing, and overall organizational effectiveness. Public school business leaders who lack effective marketing strategies to increase student enrollment may experience financial instability, limiting their organization’s capacity to maintain long-term operational sustainability. Grounded in consumer choice theory, the purpose of this qualitative pragmatic inquiry was to identify and explore effective marketing strategies public school business leaders use to increase student enrollment to generate district revenue. Participants were six public school business leaders in the southeastern United States. Data were collected through semistructured interviews and …

Board Independence And Nonprofit Performance: A Contingency Approach, Ayokunle Abe Amoo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Board independence is central to the governance of nonprofit organizations and is widely recommended by regulators and governing bodies to strengthen accountability and performance. However, little is known about its impact on nonprofit organizations and particularly their operational efficiency, an important facet of performance reflected in fundraising and administrative cost ratios, key metrics that donors and other stakeholders rely on to assess whether a nonprofit is a responsible steward of contributed resources. Drawing on agency and institutional theories, this study examines the link between board independence and performance and the extent to which organizations’ broader socioeconomic context moderates this link. …

Strategic Artificial Intelligence Use And Microbusiness Performance: Evidence From U.S. Minority-Owned Business, Doreen Nkenyeh Ayafor

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Minority-owned microenterprises play a critical role in economic development in underserved communities in the United States, yet persistent disparities in business performance remain. Prior research suggests that Black- and Hispanic-owned microenterprises face lower profitability and revenue relative to their White-owned counterparts, reflecting structural constraints such as limited access to capital, professional networks, and digital resources. As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes increasingly embedded in entrepreneurial decision-making, an important question is whether strategic AI use mitigates or reinforces these disparities. Drawing on the resource-based view (RBV) and critical race theory (CRT), this study examines whether strategic AI use moderates the relationship between …

Cognitive Load In Law Enforcement Decision Support Systems: A Human-Centered Evaluation Of Traditional And Ai-Enhanced Mdts, Benjamin Burchfield

Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the cognitive and usability associations of mobile data terminal (MDT) systems used by law enforcement officers during routine operational tasks. Grounded in Cognitive Load Theory (CLT), Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), and the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), the research examines how MDT interface design and interaction methods including AI-enhanced and speech-enabled interfaces are associated with perceived cognitive workload, technology acceptance, and operational performance during simulated traffic stop scenarios. Using a framed field experiment with active law enforcement officers, the study evaluates relationships among user experience, perceived cognitive load, task performance, and officers’ willingness to adopt MDT technologies.

Framework For Building A Social Media Marketing Strategy For Micro-Small Businesses, Joanna Byrne

Theses

Existing social media marketing literature consistently fails micro-small businesses with five or fewer staff. These sources default to models built for brands with dedicated marketing teams and large budgets. This project addresses that gap using a mixed-methods, practitioner-based action research design. It combines quantitative platform analytics with qualitative process documentation. The research covers four businesses at distinct stages of digital development: Torched Motorsport Supply, a new automotive parts retailer built from zero digital infrastructure; Byrne Diesel Performance, an established diesel shop with an unoptimized presence; Texas Best Compost, a startup developing its brand identity and digital launch disrupted by supply …

Cdt-1d Cnn Integration With Simpson-Sobolev Regularization For High-Frequency Options Trading: With Fem-Based Heston Option Pricing, Daniel M. Margolis, Johannes Tausch, Arthur K. Selender

Mathematics Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation presents a computational framework for high-frequency options trading that combines Cross-Data-Type 1-D Convolutional Neural Networks (CDT-1D CNN) with Simpson-Sobolev regularization for directional prediction, and finite element methods (FEM) for realistic option pricing during backtesting. The core innovation lies in developing a mathematically rigorous regularization approach that maintains the adaptability of modern deep learning while enabling accurate evaluation through stochastic volatility models. The primary contribution is the Simpson-Sobolev regularization scheme, which extends traditional Sobolev regularization by incorporating Simpson’s rule for numerical integration. This approach achieves higher-order accuracy in approximating the Sobolev norms that control function smoothness. Simpson’s rule attains …

The Study Of How Sensory Marketing Techniques Used By Beauty Brands Influence Engagement And Consumer Perception On Social Media Platforms, Particularly By Evoking Specific Consumer Emotions, Eeshani Juthani

Digital Marketing Theses

This study describes how a consumers' attitude towards beauty products on social media is affected by sensory marketing techniques and cues. This study also examines how sensory marketing tactics and elements such as sight, sound, smell, touch, and taste affects the way a consumer engages with content on social media platforms like Tiktok and Instagram.

Adaptive Leadership: The Pathway To Increase Child Welfare Retention Through Perceived Organizational Support Of The Supervisor’S Voice, Shawna Higgins

PhD in Organizational Leadership

Child welfare organizations continue to experience high rates of case manager turnover, disrupting continuity of care and negatively affecting outcomes for children and families. Although previous research has established that supportive supervision influences case manager retention, little was known about child welfare supervisors’ perceptions of the organizational support they receive or how adaptive leadership behaviors demonstrated by organizational leaders influence those perceptions. This qualitative phenomenological study explored the lived experiences of 13 supervisors employed in Florida nonprofit child welfare organizations. Guided by Adaptive Leadership Theory and Perceived Organizational Support Theory, the study examined supervisors’ perceptions of organizational support, organizational silence, …

The Unintended Consequences Of Deregulating Confidential Treatments, Jiahui Han

Dissertations - ALL

This paper examines how the SEC’s deregulation of confidential treatment under the FAST Act affected firms’ material contract redaction behavior and the broader economic consequences associated with disclosure opacity. Using a large sample of SEC filings, I document that confidential treatment is positively associated with both product market competition and lower 10-K readability, suggesting that redaction reflects both proprietary protection incentives and broader disclosure opacity. Further analyses using abnormal file size show that discretionary disclosure complexity remains significantly associated with redaction behavior after controlling for firms’ underlying economic complexity and reporting environment. I further find that the association between redaction …

Influences Of Transformational Leadership Mixed With Contemporary Practices Among High School Coaches: A Qualitative Exploratory Study, Kylene M. Brewton

Student Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study examined factors influencing transformational leadership (TL) among high school coaches. Although previous research shows that TL improves athlete performance, emotional development, and team cohesion, little attention has been paid to how TL skills develop in secondary school sports, specifically to be used by coaching staff. Using Bass and Avolio’s four “I’s” framework—idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration—the study explored the impact of gender, coaching experience, sport coached, and mentorship on TL practices. Ten high school coaches from the mid-southern United States participated in three rounds of interviews using the Differentiated Transformational Leadership Inventory (DTLI). …

Impact Of Ncaa Football Bowl Subdivision Reclassification On Universities, Kyle Shaffer

Student Theses and Dissertations

Increasingly universities are leaving the lower Football Championship Series (FCS) for the potentially greener pastures of the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), but are they really greener? Is bigger always better? Since 2008, there have been 17 universities that have reclassified to the NCAA FBS subdivision. The purpose of this study was to study NCAA FCS to FBS reclassification from 2008 to 2023 to research the athletics and non-athletics related impacts that occurred and what factors most influenced the universities in the sample to choose to pursue reclassification. The study used a quantitative approach to more holistically research the impact of …

Hiring Trends In The Hotel Industry Post-Covid-19: Human Resource Professionals’ Perspectives, Anthony Liu

JWU Dissertations & Theses

The U.S. hotel industry experienced severe workforce disruption following the COVID-19 pandemic, including layoffs, employee exits, persistent labor shortages, and shifting employee expectations (Baum et al., 2020; Ghani et al., 2022; Kwok, 2022; Liu-Lastres et al., 2023). Although hotels increased wages, expanded scheduling flexibility, and improved benefits, many hotels continued to experience staffing shortages that affected recruitment, retention, operational efficiency, and service delivery (AHLA, 2024b; Aksoy et al., 2022; Ghani et al., 2022). Existing research has examined employee outcomes and organizational responses; however, limited empirical attention has been given to hotel HR professionals’ experiences and perspectives on post-pandemic hiring …

Surviving And Thriving: The Indigenous Migrant, Danna Guzman-Rodriguez

Honors Theses

This literature and cultural study highlights the generation of children of indigenous immigrants and the relationship with their indigenous identity and culture. This unique experience is complex and encapsulates issues such as indigenous cultural survival, homogeneity, globalization, and lack of cultural identity. Exploring the Totonac community in La Chaca, Veracruz in Mexico, allows for a deeper explanation of this experience. Speakers of Totonac and other indigenous languages often migrate to countries such as the United States and carry such cultural ties with them. What happens to these ties after moving to a Western-dominated country where globalization favors English and Western …

Balancing Our Capacity To Serve: A Phenomenological Exploration Of Black Women Navigating Personal, Professional, And Community Leadership Roles, Shemeka K. Brathwaite

Student Theses

This phenomenological study explores the lived experiences of Black women community leaders as they navigate a balance between their professional, personal, and community leadership roles. The research design uses the theoretical frameworks of Black Feminist Intersectionality and Role Theory, specifically addressing the cultural burdens imposed by the Strong Black Woman archetype, which adds additional role strain. The study began with a questionnaire completed by 54 Black women community leaders, followed by 20 in-depth, semi-structured interviews selected from this pool. The study’s key findings are illustrated in a Black Women’s Sustainable Community Leadership Framework. Black women community leaders exude high self-efficacy, …

Mobilizing Social Capital In Social Entrepreneurship: Strategies, Networks, And Growth In The Egyptian Context, Doaa Alaa

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines how social entrepreneurs in Egypt strategically mobilise social capital to access resources, legitimacy, and opportunities within a fragmented and institutionally ambiguous ecosystem. Drawing on qualitative case studies of eight legally registered, mission-driven for-profit enterprises, the study analyses how founders build and leverage offline and online networks through practices such as emotional bonding, community formation, knowledge sharing, symbolic positioning, ecosystem engagement, and digital presence. Through thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews and secondary data, the research identifies a set of relational strategies that function as core mechanisms for entrepreneurial growth in contexts where formal support structures and legal definitions …

Jalzap: An Agile Hybrid For Ai-Accelerated Software Development, Pouya Nouri

University Honors Theses

The rapid adoption of generative AI tools allows software teams to quickly code applications, but it comes at a cost: high scope volatility, technical debt, and unrealistic expectations, which break traditional Agile frameworks. This thesis introduces JALZAP, a lightweight, hybrid Agile framework designed to serve small, high-agility teams facing compressed timelines and unpredictable schedules. This framework was evaluated over 16 weeks through a Portland State University Capstone project working for a pre-seed startup sponsor, where a six-person team built Flowmind: an AI-powered iOS task management app meant to serve users with neurodevelopmental disorders like ADD/ADHD. JALZAP implements structural boundaries, including …

The Dynamics Of Beta Mean Reversion, Dimitry Afanasenko

Finance: Undergraduate Distinction Theses

This thesis examines whether firm-specific characteristics help explain cross-sectional variation in the speed of beta mean reversion among large-cap U.S. equities. Using WRDS market-model betas based on trailing weekly returns, the study constructs non-overlapping annual June beta observations for a stable sample of 190 firms that remained continuous constituents of the S&P 500 from 2000 through 2024. The analysis proceeds in three stages. First, pooled and fixed-effects panel regressions test whether beta mean reversion exists in the sample overall. Second, a firm-specific persistence parameter, gamma, is estimated from rolling ten-year windows of annual betas in order to measure differences in …

Daniels Distinction Portfolio By Adrian Minde Hunshammer, Adrian Minde Hunshammer

Finance: Undergraduate Distinction Portfolios

A Daniels Distinction Portfolio of experiential education by Adrian Hunshammer.

Daniels Distinction Portfolio By Ally Weix, Ally Weix

International Business: Undergraduate Distinction Portfolios

A Daniels Distinction Portfolio of experiential education by Ally Weix.

The Palm Farm Next-Door: Land Concessions, Livelihoods, And Nutrition In Plantation-Adjacent Communities, Julia Entwistle

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Large-scale land concessions have reshaped agrarian landscapes globally, yet their implications for community land tenure, livelihoods, and nutrition remain unevenly understood. This dissertation examines how plantation agriculture and foreign investment have transformed land access, labor relations, and food systems in Liberia, a country with one of the highest proportions of land under concession globally. Guided by a political ecology framework, the study employs a mixed-methods design integrating policy analysis, in-depth interviews, and household surveys across two palm oil concession sites. The findings show that ambiguous land policies historically facilitated dispossession, while recent legal reforms have enabled communities to strategically mobilize …

Driving Development: Coalitions, Policies, And Upgrading Brazilian Automotive Technology (1988–2025), Henrique Estides Delgado

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Among industrial activities in Brazil, the automotive sector generates some of the most significant and multifaceted multiplier effects on the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). The sector integrates activities ranging from raw materials to high-tech services, incorporating advanced technologies that influence innovation and positioning in global value chains (GVCs). Remarkably, this industry has been structured over time by public policies that have decisively shaped incentives for its participants. The world’s largest automotive multinationals have been attracted to operate in the country through varied institutional arrangements involving domestic capital and incentives across federative units. This dissertation analyzes how variations in institutional …

She Believed She Could, So She Did: A Lifecycle Approach To Understanding Leadership And Self-Efficacy Development In Women Astronauts, Savanah Faith Sellars Bray

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines how women leaders develop and sustain self-efficacy, and develop as leaders, throughout their lives. Although decades of research document the barriers women face navigating leadership journeys, including the challenges described in the Women’s Leadership Labyrinth of prejudice, discrimination, and childcare issues, existing literature offers limited insight into how women actively build belief in their capacity to lead and accomplish their goals. Further, research consistently shows that women report lower leadership self-efficacy than men, even with comparable experience, yet the developmental processes that shape this gap, beginning in childhood, remain underexplored. Guided by self-efficacy research and its four …

Becoming The Phoenix: Black Women’S Experiences And Leadership Growth Through Humanized Black Feminist Action Learning, Jovan Keith

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the workplace learning experiences of Black women professionals in corporate leadership contexts. Leadership development programs often rely on standardized models that overlook the lived realities shaping Black women’s professional experiences. In response, this study introduced Humanized Black Feminist Action Learning, a leadership development intervention that integrates Black feminist scholarship, humanizing pedagogy, and critical action learning.

Using a qualitative case study design, the research examined a cohort of midcareer Black women professionals who participated in four facilitated learning sessions structured around workplace dilemmas. During these sessions, participants engaged in reflection, dialogue, and action as they examined workplace dynamics …