Business Commons^™

Sorry Not Sorry: Microaggression Perpetrator Learning Readiness Factors, Kathryn Elaine Kelly Watson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Microaggressions are commonplace slights perpetuated against out-group members that reinforce negative stereotypes, often inadvertently and unconsciously. Workplace mitigation efforts have traditionally been focused on raising awareness with the belief that perpetrators are simply unaware of their actions. While these efforts have done much to raise awareness—especially for victims of microaggressions, who may be more sensitive than ever of their occurrence—some perpetrators consciously persist through awareness, often with even more negative implications to the victim such as minimization, dismissal, and further stereotype reinforcement. For perpetrators to change their behavior, in addition to classic behavioral change models that require capability, opportunity, and …

The Grateful Leader: Using Gratitude Mindset To See Victory, Serve In Love And Lead In Peace, Lexus Potts

Doctor of Strategic Leadership (DSL) Capstone Abstracts

The Grateful Leader is a book manuscript. Every leader experiences a particular adversity that tests them to their limits, and it is in that place that they learn who they are and who they want to become. A leader's mindset can help or hinder them as they face adversity. We don't have a choice in what challenges or hardships come to us in life, but we do have a choice in how we respond to them. Gratitude is a tool that can increase resilience to empower leaders to overcome challenges with grace, hope, and confidence.

In The Grateful Leader, I …

The Representation Of Nontraditional Family Structures In Advertising, Connor Teague

Honors Program Theses

Marketing research has examined consumer attitudes towards homosexuals in advertising since the late 1990s, however results have been mixed and continues to evolve as societal perceptions towards the LGBTQ+ community constantly change. Furthermore, there is a distinct lack of research towards these groups when placed in the context of a family. This research examines the representation of nontraditional family structures in advertising and their effects on consumer behavior, specifically focusing on attitudes towards the advertisement, attitudes towards the brand, purchase intention, and net promoter score. 880 responses were compared across 12 conditions, in which we examine the effects of a …

The Impact Of Attribution Theory On Information Technology Professionals’ Perceptions Of Glass Ceilings, Shanda Phillips

Doctor of Business Administration Dissertations

As of 2021, women comprised almost half of the United States workforce, nearly 47%. Despite this, women represent only 24% of top earning officers and only 6% of chief executive officer positions. Glass ceilings are a phenomenon that represent an invisible barrier that prevents professional advancement for minority populations, including women, in business. Glass ceilings can impact several minority groups, but mostly appear to be a distinctive gender phenomenon. The challenges for women are well documented, but less understood are the attributional causes of glass ceilings as perceived by information technology (IT) professionals. The framework for this dissertation is the …

Breaking Down Barriers: The Impact Of Segregation On Social Capital And Economic Outcomes, Donyetta A. Bennett

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Breaking Down Barriers. Does social capital indirectly affect black/white economic outcomes via entrepreneurial activities? Does the relationship between social capital, entrepreneurship, and black/white economic outcomes change when social capital interacts with segregation? Drawing from Bourdieu's (1986) and Coleman’s (1990) social capital theory and prior scholars' regressive view theories of segregation, I propose that 1) social capital improves entrepreneurial activities and black/white economic outcomes, and 2) segregation’s interaction with social capital has an adverse effect on entrepreneurial activities and black/white economic outcomes. To perform the analysis, data were collected at the county- level from multiple sources and aggregated into one file …

How Practices Drive Persistence: The Transformational Consumption Journey Of Native Americans In Higher Education, Gwen Locklear Almodovar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In an academic environment where many higher education institutions tout their diversity and inclusion statistics, there is a decline in the enrollment of Native American students and a decrease in Native American scholars. The President of the United States, in an October 2021 briefing and with the issuance of an executive order named The White House Initiative on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity for Native Americans and Strengthening Tribal Colleges and Universities, saw the immediate urgency to understand the systematic causes and implement evidence-based strategies that will improve and increase student enrollment and academic advancement. This research takes …

The Strategic Choice Of Sovereign Wealth Funds: The Impact Of Fund Level Heterogeneity On Investment Decisions And Governance, Malak Abdulaziz A Malibari

Management Dissertations - Archive

Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs) have emerged as a new form of state-owned multinational companies (SOMNCs), structured to manage the wealth of countries and promote their economic development. They mainly function as institutional investors, but what drives those investment decisions has yet to be fully understood due to the limited prior research in this area. However, it is increasingly recognized that SWFs are not a homogeneous class of investors. This study draws on multiple theoretical perspectives and argues that the heterogeneity across SWFs leads to different investment and governance choices. Specifically, I examine the impact of the variation in the source …

Soft Skills In Stem, Mariana Sorroza Aguilar

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Those working in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields are delivering world-changing solutions to the problems we face and are saving lives every day. Some of them do surgeries, some design airplanes and cars, others study the wildlife around us, and others create processes to facilitate the manufacturing of devices we use often. In order to do this, the engineers, scientists, doctors, and other professionals in STEM disciplines need to possess hard skills. Hard skills are often called technical skills and are measurable abilities and skills that are needed to perform tasks effectively. The tasks done share something in …

Training Future Hybrid Nonprofit Social Enterprise Leaders: A Research-Based Instructional Needs Analysis, Robert Woodrow Adams

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Nonprofit social enterprises (NSEs) seek to address societal problems through for-profit ventures. Because they pursue social and commercial goals, these organizations have great potential to solve social and environmental issues more efficiently and effectively. Given their unique purpose and challenges, NSEs require a different type of leadership than traditional nonprofit organizations, a distinctive competency model with specialized social work and business management training. Research has shown, however, that finding leaders with this necessary mix for effective management poses a challenge for such organizations. This exploratory study aimed to examine the extent to which MPA (i.e., master’s degree in public administration) …

Emotion-Related Transactive Memory Systems: Theory And Nomological Network, Jigyashu Shukla

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Transactive memory systems are emergent states in teams that represent the shared knowledge about skills and expertise of the team members which is encoded and stored in the collective memories and is retrieved when required. Traditionally, transactive memory systems literature has focused on encoding, storing, and retrieving only task-related information in teams. Unfortunately, this emphasis on the task-related aspect of transactive memory systems has ignored the potential for transactive memory systems involving emotional knowledge, skills, and expertise in the team. My dissertation explores the emotional side of transactive memory systems and introduces a novel construct: emotion-related transactive memory systems (ETMS). …

Navigating With Sharks: How The Marketing Practices Help To Create Successful Phishing Emails, Erica Castilho

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

A phishing email is a crime where a scammer sends an email to get sensitive data. Everyday phishing email attacks impact billions of people worldwide. Preparing users to better identify phishing and avoid risky engagement with it is essential to combat this threat. We consider that as phishing emails and email marketing aim to target email clicks, scammers can use marketing practices in phishing emails to achieve their goals. However, the security research community doesn't explore deeply the similarities between phishing and email marketing. This study presents a distinctive framework known as the Phishing Engagement Marketing Optimization (PEMO). The primary …

Understanding The Interactions Between Conservation Agencies And Rangers: A Mixed-Methods Approach, Christina M. Burton

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

Research describing conservation agencies has generally been exploratory and limited in the use of theory. Similarly, organizational theories can provide an understanding for how organizations change and adapt to their given environments, but they have not been applied to conservation agencies with unique challenges and strains from other public bureaucracies or private corporations. In expanding this body of literature, not only were these theories applied conservation agencies, but they were also explored in what Powell and Colyvas (2008, p. 276) called "microfoundations" of organizations, which focuses on the interplay between individuals and organizations. To explore this, a convergent mixed-methods design …

Erasing The Past For Marketability: The Effects Of Selling National Myth In Ybor City's Public Historical Narrative, Janine A. Galindo

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

Ybor City is a historical neighborhood in Tampa, Florida, and a tourist attraction known for its immigrant roots and once-thriving cigar industry. This thesis places Ybor City into the context of the burgeoning heritage tourism market, examining how cities financially reliant on tourism often sanitize their public historical narrative. I identify the main actors involved in Ybor City's marketing and preservation by investigating contemporary newspaper articles and multiple National Park Service documents, thereby uncovering the motivations and decisions that led to Ybor's cultural image of a bustling, relatively peaceful early 20th-century "Latin" community. To correlate Ybor's aestheticized public image with …

Research On The Factors Influencing New Tobacco Consumption Behavior, Yuqing Wen

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

In the global environment of tobacco control, along with the increasing concern for health, electronic companies around the world have focused on the research and production of "non-combustible alternatives to cigarettes" to meet the psychology of consumers to quit smoking and the pursuit of fashion, and the most popular products are "Electronic Cigarette” (E-cig) and its similar products. In recent years, domestic E-cig-related products have gradually known by the public, with increasing exposure in the news media and rapid growth in sales. Among them, HnB E-cig has smoking taste closer to the characteristics of traditional cigarettes and therefore is gradually …

Strategies For Mitigating U.S. Banks’ Risks From Exposure To Derivatives And The Underlying Assets, Othman Abdelmoumen

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Many banks’ executives lacked strategies to mitigate the risk of default on subprime mortgages and their linked derivatives to prevent bank insolvency. This led to severe financial losses and insolvency of many banks in 2008-2009. Grounded in the corporate governance agency problem and stewardship theories, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore (CG) strategies some bank executives implemented to mitigate the risk of default of subprime mortgages and their linked derivatives to prevent bank insolvency. The participants were four bank executives who worked for federally insured banks in Colorado. Data were collected from semi-structured interviews and …

Pharmacy Manager System Implementation Strategies To Mitigate The Cost Of Prescription Errors, Tunde Abiodun Cardozo

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractOne of the most frequent medical errors in contemporary medicine is incorrect prescriptions, and the profits from retail pharmacy operations are adversely impacted by the costs associated with prescription errors. Independent pharmacy managers are interested in finding workable strategies to mitigate the cost of prescription errors and increase profit. Using the resource-based theory of competitive advantage (RBTCA), the purpose of this qualitative multiple-case study was to explore strategies some independent pharmacy managers in Texas use to mitigate the cost of pharmacy employee prescription errors and increase profitability. The participants were five independent pharmacy managers who implemented strategies to mitigate the …

Managerial Strategies To Improve Warehouse Safety Culture, Rasheen J. Chatmon

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

An unsuccessful safety program can negatively affect warehouse efficiency, profitability, and reputation. To provide a safe work environment, warehouse leaders need guidance on establishing policies and training to ensure that all employees are adequately trained and understand the safety expectations of the organization. Grounded in high-reliability organization theory, the purpose of this qualitative single-case study was to explore managerial strategies to improve the warehouse safety culture. The participants were five warehouse managers who demonstrated the ability to successfully improve their organization's safety culture. Data were collected through virtual semistructured interviews and reviews of organizational documentation. The data were analyzed using …

Relationship Between Employee Human Capital, Relational Capital, And Work Engagement, Royelle David Comer Sr.

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Work engagement is a challenge for information technology leaders in the digital industry because employees with engagement concerns may exhibit decreased commitment and increased workplace incivility towards the organization, thereby impacting business profits. Grounded in the job demands-resource theory, the purpose of this quantitative correlational study was to examine the relationship between human capital, relational capital, and work engagement initiatives in technology companies in the United States. The participants were 125 supervisors and full-time personnel from the metropolitan region of Atlanta, Georgia, who completed an online-based survey. The results of the multiple linear regression were significant, F (18, 106) = …

Entrepreneurial Leadership Strategies For Catalyzing Innovation Performance, Jason D'Souza

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Inadequate innovation performance has the potential for adverse business outcomes. Business leaders are concerned with inadequate innovation performance, as innovation is a significant driver of business growth. Grounded in entrepreneurial leadership, the purpose of this qualitative multi-case study was to explore entrepreneurial leadership strategies that some healthcare business leaders used to catalyze innovation performance. The participants were six business leaders within three healthcare sectors who contributed to strategic healthcare innovation decisions using entrepreneurial leadership strategies within the last 5 years. Data were collected using semistructured interviews and a review of organizational strategy documents and websites. Through thematic analysis, six themes …

Small Retail Business Strategies Used To Prevent Employee Fraud In North Carolina, Jourdan Mariah Gayden

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Fraud could result in adverse business outcomes for small business owners. Small business owners are concerned with preventing fraud to increase the financial stability of small businesses. Grounded in the fraud triangle theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple-case study was to explore strategies small business owners use to prevent and detect fraud in their businesses. Participants included five small business owners in North Carolina who successfully implemented strategies to prevent and detect fraud. Data were collected using semistructured interviews and a review of company documents. The data were analyzed using thematic analysis, which yielded four themes: monitoring, contractual agreements, …

The Experiences Of Women Executive Leaders In A Leadership Development Program, Angela Ivy Gustus

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The host organization is a nonprofit that has a mission of supporting the work of 19 other separate organizations, 47% of which are run by women. The problem addressed in this research is the host organization’s lack of knowledge related to how to create a leadership development program that will maintain or increase the current gender diversity. The purpose of this research was to gather information about the current leaders to inform the creation of a leadership development program for the host organization based on research conducted at Harvard University. The aim was to understand the experiences of the women …

Strategies To Increase Emergency Department Patient Flow, Judith Faith Jones

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractOvercrowding in emergency departments (EDs) is a systemic issue, resulting in inefficiencies affecting patient care quality. Hospital leaders struggle with reducing bottlenecks in EDs and providing a better patient care experience. Grounded in the general systems theory, the purpose of this qualitative single case study was to explore strategies used to reduce inefficiencies in EDs. The participants included five directors, administrators, and clinical managers from a hospital ED in Idaho Falls, Idaho, who successfully used strategies to reduce inefficiencies in EDs. Data were analyzed from semistructured interviews and a review of organization documents and artifacts following Yin’s five-step data analysis …

Effective Strategies For Small Business Sustainability, Kathleen A. Watson-Wilkin

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractSmall businesses in the United States experience a higher failure rate than medium-sized and large corporations. Small business owners without successful strategies to sustain their businesses may fail. Grounded in the McKinsey 7S model, the purpose of this multiple case study was to explore strategies small general construction contractor business owners use to sustain their businesses beyond 5 years. The participants were three small general construction contractor business owners within Miami, Florida, who sustained businesses for 5 years. Data were collected using semistructured and audio-recorded face-to-face interviews. Through thematic analysis, four themes emerged: (a) creating strategies for a solid customer …

Cultural Humility As A Predictor Of Intention To Leave Moderated By Authentic Leadership, Dennis Whitfield

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The problem addressed in this research was the inappropriate treatment of multicultural individuals by their immediate supervisors and the need for a thorough examination of cultural humility in organizational settings. This quantitative study used linear regression and moderation analyses to examine the relationship between cultural humility and intention to leave moderated by authentic leadership to determine how the participants’ perception of cultural humility in their immediate supervisor predicted their intention to leave. Another purpose was to examine whether authentic leadership moderated the relationship with intention to leave. The theoretical framework for this study included cultural humility, authentic leadership, and intention …

Strategies For Clinical Managers To Reduce Nosocomial Infections, Samisha Lynn Davis

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Increasing nosocomial infection rates threaten patient safety when approximately 100 million patients annually acquire at least one nosocomial infection during their hospital stay. Some clinical managers lack strategies to reduce the incidence and costs of nosocomial infections. Clinical managers need training in proactive infection control guidelines that may reduce infection rates and increase profitability. Grounded in adaptive leadership theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore successful strategies that clinical managers used to reduce incidence and costs associated with nosocomial infections. The participants were four clinical managers employed by health care organizations in the Southeast Texas …

Nonprofit Business And Management Challenges Encountered When Delivering Services And Fulfilling Organizational Missions, Becky A. Hammer

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Failure of nonprofit organizations (NPOs) causes negative impacts to community service users and the NPO workforce. Although the impact of NPO failure has been researched, a comprehensive understanding of business and organizational challenges from the NPO leaders’ perspective was not well documented. Learning more about these challenges may assist with understanding how to best support and solve them. The purpose of this qualitative single case study was to explore the business and management-related barriers and challenges NPO leaders encounter when delivering services and fulfilling organizational missions in the Greater Austin Metropolitan Statistical Area in Texas. The conceptual model included the …

Organizational Engagement Strategies Used By Midlevel Managers In The Energy Industry, Joni Hoxsey

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Company employees often see an organizational engagement breakdown when managers do not combine processes and knowledge transfer strategies to achieve goals. Some midlevel managers lose communication and collaboration among business departments as well as with their subordinates, leading to a breakdown in organizational performance. The purpose of this qualitative single case study was to explore organizational engagement strategies midlevel managers use to encourage organizational performance. The theory of organizational learning provided the conceptual framework for the study. Six midlevel managers from various departments in an energy company in the midwestern and southern regions of the United States independently participated in …

Strategies To Mitigate Foreign Trade Costs And Regulations That Reduce Revenues, Allan Dithan Mugisa

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Foreign trade costs and regulations can lead to unfavorable business outcomes. Business leaders in firms engaged in global trade express concerns about the potential negative impact of foreign trade costs and regulations on revenues. Grounded in the resource-based theory of firms, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore strategies some small medical devices and supplies business leaders use to mitigate foreign trade costs and regulations that reduce revenues. Participants were four business leaders of medical device and supply firms who reversed declining revenues. Data were collected using in-person semi-structured interviews. Through thematic analysis, four themes were …

Strategies To Increase Membership In A Canadian Nonprofit Protecting Rights And Benefits Of Retired Military Personnel, Bruce Requa

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Nonprofit organization leaders with an advocacy mission are increasingly challenged to identify, convert, and maintain their membership base to sustain the effectiveness of their advocacy reach and effectiveness. Grounded in stakeholder theory, the purpose of this qualitative single case study was to explore strategies some nonprofit leaders used to increase membership in a Canadian nonprofit protecting the rights and benefits of retired military personnel. The participants included four leaders of a small nonprofit organization in Ontario, Canada, who have directly or indirectly implemented membership strategies. Data were collected through semistructured interviews, client organizational documents, the organization’s website, an assessment of …

Strategies To Increase Competitive Advantage In The Automotive Manufacturing Supply Chain, Amber Willis

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Some automotive manufacturing supply chain leaders lack strategies that are needed to implement information technology (IT) systems. Business leaders are concerned with implementing IT systems to achieve and maintain a competitive advantage. Grounded in the resource-based view theory (RBV), the purpose of this qualitative single case study was to explore information system strategies used by leaders in the automotive manufacturing supply chain to achieve competitive advantage. Participants were five leaders of an automotive manufacturing supply chain organization who implemented IT systems. Data were collected through semistructured interviews and a review of organization project documents. Through thematic analysis, five themes were …