Business Commons^™

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 2020 - Present

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 …

Impostor Syndrome In The Ranks: Understanding Self-Doubt To Improve Leader Performance, Joel Kotanko

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Impostor syndrome (IS) — the persistent pattern of self-doubt in which capable individuals fear being exposed as frauds despite objective evidence of competence — has been studied extensively in academic, healthcare, and corporate populations, where it is generally treated as detrimental to professional performance. Little empirical work has examined IS in U.S. military officers, a population operating under structural conditions the literature identifies as primary amplifiers of fraudulence perceptions: high-stakes permanent evaluations, up-or-out promotion systems, cultural pressure against outward expressions of doubt, and recurring role transitions under compressed timelines. This dissertation provides the first quantitative investigation of the relationship between …

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

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

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 …

Penerimaan Dan Penggunaan Telefon Pintar Dalam Proses Pengurusan Strategik Sekolah: Niat Tingkah Laku Sebagai Mediator Dan Faktor Demografi Sebagai Moderator, Prasad Rao Lingaiah

Student Works (2020-2029)

This study aims to examine the acceptance and use of smartphones in the strategic management process of schools: behavioral intention as a mediator and demographic factors as moderators. The factors investigated include performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions, hedonic motivation, price value, and habit. A total of 300 primary and secondary school administrators in the Segamat district of Johor participated in the study, involving 24 secondary schools and 85 primary schools. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 26 and Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). Findings show that the levels of smartphone acceptance and usage among administrators …

Auditor Trust In Artificial Intelligence, Michael L. Decker

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

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 …

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

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

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 …

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

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

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. …

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.

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.

Online Sports Betting Legalization And The Reallocation Of Retail Investor Information Search Toward Lottery-Type Stocks, Jared Richard Stark

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

I examine whether the legalization of online sports betting is associated with a reallocation of retail investors' information search across stocks around firm earnings announcements (EAs). Prior work links legalization to a reallocation of household capital, but its association with information search has not been examined. Exploiting the staggered timing of legalization following Murphy v. NCAA, I use four treated and four matched control states over 2017-2024 and measure search using state-level Google Trends data for firm tickers. Treated and control states are already on different trajectories before any legalization, which confounds the average-level comparison. The association I can document …

Human-Ai Collaboration For Operations And Supply Chain Management Decision Making, Finnegan Mckinley

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Artificial Intelligence (AI) adoption continues to advance across supply chain management processes. A Gartner 2025 report shows that 84% of surveyed firms reported AI and machine learning investments for core supply chain tasks. However, both industry and academic literature highlight the importance of integrating AI and human judgment in decision making processes rather than fully automating with AI. The success of this integration depends heavily on the humans who use these AI tools. Therefore, this dissertation presents three essays that conceptually and empirical examine behavioral interactions between humans and AI in supply chain management decision making processes, primarily in the …

The Gravity Of The Ukraine War: Measuring Conflict Impacts On European Grain Trade, Stefan Bonchis

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates the heterogeneous structural disruptions caused by the war in Ukraine on the European Union’s agricultural trade architecture, focusing on three critical commodities: wheat, maize, and sunflower seeds. Employing a structural gravity model framework across all 27 EU Member States, the study evaluates two conflict episodes, the 2014 Crimea annexation and the 2022 full-scale invasion, to identify the net beneficiaries and heavily impacted nations within the EU agricultural trade network. The empirical strategy utilizes a dual-test design to capture the full scope of the disruption. Test A (Ukraine towards the EU trade) reveals a distinct geographic logic in …

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 …

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 Role Of Speculators In The Agricultural Futures Market And Their Impact On Prices, Clement Asamoah

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The study evaluates the impact of speculative activity on agricultural commodity returns, specifically in the corn, soybeans, rice, and oats markets. The study also analyzed the influence commodity returns have on speculative positions. Weekly data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission were used as a proxy for speculative activity, and futures data were also retrieved from Barchart. Vector Autoregressive models and the Granger Causality tests were estimated to identify the relationships between returns and speculation. The paper found that speculative positions do not Granger-cause returns over the course of a week except for rice Tuesday results, which recorded a statistically …

How Cultural Homogeneity Couples With Organizational Climate In Public School Environments, Steven R. Peterson

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This quantitative study examines how cultural homogeneity influences teachers’ perceptions of school climate in Indiana public schools. Grounded in systems thinking and organizational theory, the study analyzes how shared values and norms shape teachers’ responses to leadership practices and stakeholder demands. Data were collected from educators using the School Culture Survey and a custom scenario-based climate instrument capturing reactions to organizational challenges. Statistical analyses explored relationships between cultural homogeneity and teachers’ perceptions of stability, workload, and adaptive capacity. Results indicate that alignment in key cultural dimensions—particularly Collaborative Leadership—significantly shapes climate experiences, while overall homogeneity alone does not predict workload pressures. …

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 …

Beyond The Statement: Ceo Activism Intensity, Csr Divergence, And The Dynamics Of Shareholder Response, Mahshad Ghazali

Theses and Dissertations

CEO activism, defined as publicly attributed executive communication on contested sociopolitical issues outside core operations, has attracted growing scholarly attention, yet investor interpretation of these acts remains theoretically underdeveloped. This dissertation develops a receiver-side screening framework grounded in screening theory and information asymmetry. Shareholders acting as screeners are posited to evaluate activism along two observable dimensions: activism intensity, comprising outward visibility, inward organizational embedding, and upward institutional engagement; and CSR divergence, the perceived distance between a stance and the firm’s established CSR record. Using event study methodology and OLS regression on a sample of 297 CEO activism events from S&P …

Two Essays On Corporate Finance: Corruption And Investment Efficiency And Measuring Of Corporate Cultural Washing, Md Rezwan Hossain Ratul

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation consists of two essays on how informational distortions originating from public corruption and from executives’ strategic use of corporate narratives affect firm-level investment and financing outcomes. In both cases, corporate governance operates as a central mechanism shaping these effects. In the first essay, using US public corruption conviction data, I find that corruption has a significant adverse impact on firms’ investment efficiency. This result is robust to different model specifications, alternative measures of corruption and investment inefficiency, and survives several tests using quasi-natural experiment, propensity score matching, and instrumental variables, to ease endogeneity concerns. I show that the …

Looking Back Or Pushing Forward? The Effectiveness Of Temporal Framing For Global And Local Brands, Mustafa Ayobami Raji

Theses and Dissertations

Marketers frequently rely on temporal framing, anchoring brand narratives in the past or future, to create meaning and shape consumer evaluations. However, little is known about when past- versus future-oriented frames are most effective. This dissertation advances the premise that the persuasive impact of temporal framing depends on a brand’s perceived globalness or localness. Specifically, I argue that past-oriented frames are more effective for local brands, while future-oriented frames resonate more with global brands.

Across four studies, I tested this framework using experimental, field, and implicit designs. Study 1 shows that temporal framing interacts with perceived brand globalness/localness to influence …

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 …

The Determinants Of Internal Audit Quality: The Mediating Effect Of Internal Auditors’ Competency, Liu Yanyan

Student Works (2020-2029)

In the context of China’s evolving corporate governance landscape, internal audit (IA) functions are increasingly expected to enhance organizational accountability and risk control. However, many listed firms continue to face challenges in achieving consistently high-quality audit outcomes. This study investigates how four determinants-management support, support and acceptance by auditees, interdepartmental coordination, and external audit cooperation-influence internal audit quality (IAQ), with the internal auditors’ competency acting as a mediating mechanism, rather than conflating competence with audit effectiveness. Using a cross-sectional and quantitative research design, data were collected from 200 internal audit and audit-related professionals from Chinese A-share listed companies, including internal …

Strategic Dimensions Of Artificial Intelligence: Development Globalization, Investment Dynamics, And Firm Performance, Alysson Silveira

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is quickly changing the competitive landscape of most industries, and understanding how to incorporate this technology into products, services, and processes is becoming crucial for firms. This dissertation presents three studies that address different strategic challenges that arose with the unfolding of AI. First, I study how multinational enterprises globalize the development of AI. I argue that concentrating AI development or globalizing it has different implications for supply chain responsiveness and operations complexity. I use a combination of a rare dataset on software presence across 45 countries and financial data to show that AI development globalization has …

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 …

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). …

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 …

A System Dynamics Perspective Of User Adaptation: The Case Of Exoskeleton Technology, Enzo Novi Migliano

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Technology implementation is a common occurrence in organizations to which workers must adapt. Although research on workers' technology acceptance is widely spread, research on the workers' technology adaptation process is less represented in the literature. The discrepancy in the literature permeates research on new technologies currently being implemented in organizations, such as occupational exoskeletons. As in other technologies, the variance research perspective dominates the literature on exoskeleton implementations. The current thesis aims to foster process research by formalizing the coping model of user adaptation (Beaudry & Pinsonneault, 2005) and exploring research questions regarding workers' adaptation to general technology and exoskeletons. …

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 …