Business Commons^™

Transformative Tourism Experience: Openness To Thriving, Solbi Lee

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Over the last two decades, there has been growing academic rhetoric regarding the concept of transformation. Furthermore, the discussion of transformative experiences extends to the tourism industry and literature, reflecting the changing tourists' profiles and demands that challenge Destination Management Organizations (DMOs) to deliver tourist experiences that incorporate self-reflection and personal transformation. Transformative tourism experiences (TTE) (Soulard et al., 2021) refer to extraordinary encounters and episodes that prompt high emotional reactions that bring an opportunity to explore the self and significant inner personal changes. Despite the emerging academic and practical attention on TTE, research empirically testing the antecedents and outcomes …

Evaluating The Returns Of Emerging Market Mutual Funds, Constantinos (Dean) Athanailos

Business/Business Administration

In this paper, the returns of mutual funds invested in emerging markets and the returns of emerging market ETFs are measured. The rates of returns of 133 emerging market mutual funds are taken from the PSN network and the return, risk, and diversification are evaluated for the emerging market mutual funds. The findings are that Southeast Asian countries dominate the proportion of investments for emerging markets. Of the countries invested in, China is the primary country invested in by a large margin. The highest rate of returns was for funds who had invested in India primarily followed by Taiwan and …

Social Media Impact On Small Brick And Mortar Businesses, David N. Bowles

University Honors Theses

This thesis examines the implementation of various strategies and goals for small to medium brick-and-mortar enterprises regarding their use of social media. Drawing from primary data collection with small brick-and-mortar businesses within the greater metro area of Portland, Oregon, the value of social media is the ability of an organization to create a sense of value for their consumers while promoting positive relations and enhancing the consumer's ability to interact with an organization on a more personal level. Focusing on the implementation of various strategies and promotional efforts to increase the success of these small businesses and align their organizational …

An Exploration Of Different Motivations Between Stakeholders And Visitors Of The Potomac Heritage National Scenic Trail, Colin Mccormack

Human Movement Studies & Special Education Theses & Dissertations

Visitors have different motivations associated with parks and protected areas, and the people who run those areas are also different from visitors due to their unique positions. This is especially true for the Potomac Heritage National Scenic Trail (POHE), where stakeholders – ranging from park managers and Department of Transportation planners to volunteers of nonprofits and historical societies collaborate to manage sections along the 822-mile extent of the trail. Building on previous work itemizing the diversity of motivations for visitation to parks and protected areas, this study investigates similarities and differences in stakeholder and manager Recreation Experience Preferences by clustering …

Rebranding My Cosmetics Business, Liaonn Martin

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

The project is focused on rebranding my business by changing the name, creating a working website, as well as creating and selling different products I am passionate about. As part of the project I worked on making my Instagram page more appealing to bring in customers from all over the world, and using Instagram to promote my products. I also researched different ways to utilize platforms such as Tik Tok and Facebook to help my business become more popular. I created extra gifts such as thank you notes, complimentary lip scrubs, and a thank you note for all of my …

A Welfare Comparison Of Historical Cost And Fair Value Accounting Regimes, Palmer Edholm

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

With ongoing controversy concerning fair value and historical cost accounting, existing accounting theory is focused on intra-firm decision making and is thus deficient in addressing the issue of maximizing social welfare. I propose models of historical cost and fair value accounting regimes which are embedded in models of monopoly and oligopoly. This allows for social welfare implications. I find that historical cost results in greater expected profits for both monopolists and oligopolists. However, if the market is elastic enough, a fair value regimes is welfare enhancing. Whereas, if the market is inelastic enough, historical cost is welfare enhancing.

Examining The Relationship Between Different Retail Mediums And Consumer Spending Habits, Melinda Vigh

University Honors Program Senior Projects

Understanding customer behavior and preferences is the first step towards developing optimal strategies for businesses and driving the highest revenues possible. Consumer behavior spending habits are everchanging due to the evolving nature of customers’ needs and preferences. This thesis fills the gap of a quantitative analysis between the in-person and online retail medium reflected onto levels of customer spending. This research provides further information about shoppers’ decision-making processes accounting for correlative relationships between demographic (age, gender, education level, income, etc.) and environmental variables (physical store atmospheres, online retail websites, social media advertisement). The research was based on primary data collected …

Marketing And The Church, Parker Panetti

Marketing Undergraduate Honors Theses

This paper attempts to take an in-depth look at the current state of the Church in America and how marketing has and will continue to play a key role in its position in society.

The word marketing comes from the concept of the merchant buying and selling a product - in the market. From a Christian perspective, marketing tells the story of the redemptive work of Jesus Christ - who bought and redeemed mankind for a price, saved from sin, and set apart for service to the Lord. Churches have this story, the greatest story to tell, but people are …

A Business Plan For Construction Companies Entering Into Real Estate Development, Dylan Michael Barrett

Construction Management

The construction industry is one that has been lucrative yet difficult to navigate at times. Companies must continually adapt to potential changes in the market and shifting consumer demands while ensuring that their core business ideologies are not abandoned. For these reasons, many construction companies have found that being flexible in the work they do proves to give consistent results for their businesses. One way to change business models is to pursue real estate development. Its lucrative rewards prove a great additional revenue stream. This project aims to provide insight, via a business plan, as to how a construction company …

Site Development Feasibility Study, Andy A. Tenekjian

Construction Management

A feasibility study in the world of construction is deemed as a preliminary due diligence process in which key components of a project are addressed to determine if the project is viable or not. These components are related to time and money, and the end goal of a feasibility study is to determine if the initial investment of time and money is worth the amount of future financial return. What deems a project successful in the preliminary stage is up for interpretation. Each developer and investor have their own return on investment threshold in a multi-family project like the one …

Great Recession And Corporate Recovery: Empirical Evidence Of The Impact Of Firms' Internal Control System, Gbolahan Oladayo

Theses and Dissertations

In Previous studies, we are made to understand that recession has a detrimental effect on corporate valves. Hence, I investigate substantial evidence that firms with a good internal control system, even during the financial crisis of 2008, were able to minimize redundancies that could have negatively affected the recovery of their company’s post-recession. Thus, firms with effective internal control systems are able to recover from negative events significantly faster (as measured by the firm’s values) than those without such systems.

Analysis Of Twitter User Covid-19 Vaccine Hesitancy: Cause And Solutions, Runze Song

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Reducing vaccine hesitancy is an essential public health & safety challenge worldwide, especially during the COVID - 19 pandemic. Governments and health safety agencies have noticed that social media can significantly influence people's sentiments and opinions about vaccinations. There is a lack of studies on the impact of social norms, herding effects, and social media influencers on people's sentiments and opinions about vaccinations. This culminating experience project extracted and analyzed Twitter data (2021 to 2022) using Twitter API and the RStudio AcdemicTwitterR package to study the impact of social norms, herding effects, and social media influencers on people's sentiments, emotions, …

Empirical Study Of Cashback Affiliate Strategy: Evidence From A Cashback Website, Liu Xinyong

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

With the rapid development of internet technology, e-commerce has become increasingly prosperous with online shopping increasingly penetrating into the daily life of consumers. Online channel has become an indispensable channel for merchants to reach their customers. To improve sales performance and address competition from rivals, online merchants have developed various promotion methods. Cashback promotion has gradually become one of the popular promotion methods, and attracted attention from scholars. This paper aims to investigate the relationship between cashbacks and consumer behaviors using data on Taobao merchants on a large cashback website in China. Two studies with a large number of transaction …

Employees’ Job Positions, Psychological Ownership, And Commitment To Change, Bo Zhang

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Organisational change is crucial to the development of enterprises. However, when enterprises are implementing major changes, there are great differences in the attitudes and behaviours of employees in different job positions toward changes. Research in this area is insufficient. Therefore, this dissertation investigates the problem of employee commitment amid enterprises’ organisational changes. This dissertation is committed to determining why employees at different levels and with different roles have different degrees of commitment to change and confirming the role of job positions in affecting employees’ psychological ownership of the change process. According to the findings, the impact of employees’ job rank …

Knowledge Integration, Complex Adaptive Systems, And The Choice Of Foreign Entry Mode: Internationalization From A Knowledge-Based Perspective, Thomas Michael Santomauro Iii

Theses and Dissertations

Knowledge is the most critical strategic asset that a firm possesses, and the ability to integrate knowledge is among the most essential determinants of competitive advantage. However, the multiple characteristics of knowledge result in inconsistent definitions, leading to a wide range of constructs and studies that yield conflicting results, reducing generalizability. Limited empirical evidence supports the proposition that knowledge integration is a function of the changing knowledge structures of firms. In this study, complex adaptive systems theory was leveraged to develop an empirical examination of the influence of knowledge complexity on foreign entry mode (FEM) choices and the subsequent ability …

Reducing The Cost Of Agency: Looking Beyond Top Management Teams, Stephen C. Giles

Graduate Theses and Dissertations (2019 - present)

The year 2020 demonstrates that powerful forces exist in the external environment, which may threaten a firm’s survival, but agency problems, within the organization, persist even in years where there are minimal external pressures on the firm. Agency costs can present meaningful challenges to the firm beyond the chief executive and top management team, and the concept of agency is applicable to all employees, not just management. An organizational learning culture is proposed to both aid firms in reducing the cost associated with agency, as well as to enable firms to adapt to rapid changes in the external environment. In …

Internet Of Things Solutions (Iots) Adoption For Capital Goods In The Business To-Business (B2b) Market, Amit Bakshi

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

The excitement created by the introduction of Internet of things solutions (IoTS) is yet to be converted to an all-pervasive adoption and implementation across industries for capital goods in the B2B market. Proof of concepts (POC) and pilot projects are implemented but getting to the next phase of adoption and implementation across the B2B market for capital goods, has been lacking.

An exploratory mixed method is used for this research. Qualitative analysis of the semi-structured interviews with subject matter experts from users, OEMs, and service providers helped identify asset criticality, analytic intelligence, and interoperability as three core significant factors and …

Analyzing Business-Focused Social Networks In Hiring: The Influence Of A Job Candidate's Network On A Recruiter's Hiring Recommendation, Hannah V. Kibby

Graduate Theses and Dissertations (2019 - present)

Social media has altered the ways in which people interact. Business-focused social media profiles, such as those on LinkedIn, can act as a proxy for a traditional resume. However, these websites differ from a traditional resume in that information presented is sometimes informal, personal, and irrelevant to the member’s career. Furthermore, HR employees are able to view a job candidate’s social network. This research investigates the influence of a recruiter’s knowledge of an applicant’s professional network on the recruiter’s perception of the applicant’s trustworthiness and hence their willingness to take risk in the hiring relationship. A review of the literature …

Impact Of Dynamic Capabilities On Small And Medium-Sized Enterprises (Smes) Performance In Oman, Naema M. Albimani

Graduate Theses and Dissertations (2019 - present)

Drawing on dynamic capabilities’ theory, this study examines the impact of entrepreneurial knowledge (EK) on firm performance in Oman, a member nation of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). In addition, two aspects of dynamic capabilities: (1) opportunities recognition and (2) opportunities exploitation, were explored as potential mediators of the indirect relationship between entrepreneurial knowledge and firm performance. Using a cross-sectional survey design (N=102), the study found entrepreneurial knowledge has a direct, positive, statistically significant relationship on firm performance, as measured by customer satisfaction and market effectiveness. At the same time, the sequential mediation of opportunity recognition and opportunity exploitation was …

Analysis For An Efficient Operation Of Solar Power Plants In India Using Different Variables/Parameters, Sonal Bansi Shinde

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Vast renewable energy facilities rely heavily on accurate predictions of future solar power output.  This study investigated the various factors causing poor, inefficient operation of Solar Plants and different methods to identify underperforming equipment. The main questions are: Q1: How can we predict electricity generation over the next several days so that the plant can run at peak efficiency? Q2: How can we figure out the exact maintenance needs of any power plant?  Q3: How do we identify faulty equipment to improve its efficiency to improve overall performance? and Q4: What are the different factors that are causing an inefficient …

A Study Of Heart Disease Diagnosis Using Machine Learning And Data Mining, Intisar Ahmed

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Heart disease is the leading cause of death for people around the world today. Diagnosis for various forms of heart disease can be detected with numerous medical tests, however, predicting heart disease without such tests is very difficult. Machine learning can help process medical big data and provide hidden knowledge which otherwise would not be possible with the naked eye. The aim of this project is to explore how machine learning algorithms can be used in predicting heart disease by building an optimized model. The research questions are; 1) What Machine learning algorithms are used in the diagnosis of heart …

Analysis Of Automated Vehicle Accidents Across The U.S., Anissa Rocio Quintero

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Car Accidents are a significant public safety hazard to everyone all over the world. Recently, car manufacturers have tried to implement Automated Driving Systems into their vehicles to help drivers and decrease the accident rate. This culminating project analyzed whether Automated Driving Systems have decreased or increased the accident rate in the United States using automated vehicle data collected by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The analysis platform was built using RStudio and Excel. The research questions were: Q1: What amount of autonomous vehicle accidents occurred in each state between 2021 and 2022? Q2: What manufacturer and maker have …

Big Data For Comprehensive Analysis Of Real Estate Market, Yonglin Xiao

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This Culminating Experience Project explored the application of big data in the real estate industry in order to address the problem of analyzing the accurate property estimates value. The research questions were: (Q1): What are the benefits and advantages of utilizing big data in the real estate market? (Q2): What are the trends in the application of big data in the real estate market? (Q3): What are the challenges in applying big data in the real estate market? (Q4): What are the methods and processes of applying big data in appraisal of assets in the real estate market? To answer …

Novel Technologies And Their Effect On The Customer Journey: Customers' Sentiment With Tesla App, Andrew Jaymes

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This culminating experience project explores how novel technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), and virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR), impact customer experience. The customer journey framework was used to analyze customers' responses to interactions with novel Technologies integrated into Tesla electric vehicles. After gathering customer response data from the Tesla Motors subreddit page, we were able to score customer experiences with the Tesla app, over-the-air software updates, and full self-driving features, using the NRC sentiment lexicon. Our results showed customers tended to express more positive sentiments than negative sentiments when describing their experiences with these …

Methods For Teaching Mindfulness Within The Workplace, Gerrel March

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Over the past few years, the world has been shaken by the COVID-19 pandemic and technological advancements that have contributed towards work-life imbalances. Now more than ever, organizations are focusing on improving mental health and well-being. This understanding holds value towards the hospitality industry as employee wellbeing has a direct link towards consumer experience. Considering the nature of the business, employees endure distress resulting from emotional labor, long work hours, etc, understanding how organizations can improve well-being is critical. This paper attempts to make significant contribution towards understanding both individual and organizational outcomes of mindfulness, best practices, and potential limitations …

Alleviating Labor Crunch In Singapore's Hospitality Industry, Chuah Peini

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The acute shortage of manpower in hospitality workforce has been a persistent problem in Singapore throughout these years which adversely affects both the managerial and lower-skilled occupational groups of employees. The pandemic has further accelerated human resource issues across the country in 2020. It particularly hits the hospitality industry hard since hotel businesses are highly human-centric and the unprecedented world event has adversely resulted in severe manpower leakages and a dilution of talent pool. This paper will analyze the reasons, severity and impact of the manpower shortage within the hospitality industry in Singapore, focusing on service quality. Lastly, the author …

The Value Of A Policies And Procedures Manual In Nonprofit Organizations, Teresa Holman

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Nonprofit Connection is a new 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization, serving as a volunteer hub, linking nonprofit ideas, organizations, and resources, located in Santa Cruz County. Nonprofit Connection supports collaboration, organizational success, and aims to assist as a liaison in the process of delivering services to people in need. The problem with a newly established non-profit organization is the nonexistence of structure. This project addresses the problem by providing written volunteer procedures regarding the required duties of each volunteer position, yearly evaluation forms to determine the quality of work, and NPC policies on ethics, professional conduct, and legal guidelines that require …

Branding For Hope Services, Roberta Garcia

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Hope Services is a 501(C)(3) nonprofit organization located in Seaside, California. Hope Services was in need of a new marketing and branding plan in order to reach more people throughout the various communities that are being served. The first contributing factor is limited outreach throughout the community, the consequence to that is low client rates which brings less staff. The second contributing factor is limited caseworkers, the consequence is low levels of applications being accepted or seen. The last contributing factor is limited access to technology, the consequence is low levels of knowledge of resources for possible clients. The capstone …

Empowering Older Adults With Their Information Privacy Management, Reza Ghaiumy Anaraky

All Dissertations

Literature depicts a deficit-based narrative around older adults and their technology use, suggesting that older adults are not able to keep up with their younger counterparts in adopting new technologies. In this dissertation, I argue that this view is not necessarily accurate or productive. Instead, I argue that the deficit is in the technology design, which is not inclusive and often caters to the needs of younger adults.

I study older and younger adults' privacy decision-making as a showcase. To study the privacy decision-making process with more granularity, I used a dual-route approach (decision heuristics and privacy calculus) to disentangle …

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The Impact Of The Covid-19 Pandemic On Online Food Delivery Apps, Lauren Morell

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The restaurant industry continues to change as Online Food Delivery apps (OFD) continue to gain more popularity because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The food delivery market has grown over 52% since the start of the pandemic. Online food delivery app platforms like DoorDash, UberEats, and Postmates began to offer delivery over the past decade, rapidly growing with the help of ghost kitchens. Consumer behavior factors and intention to use OFDs have changed as more advanced app technology becomes available, and as the restaurant industry navigates the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. Many consumers favor mobile delivery apps overall convenience and perceived usefulness. …