Business Commons^™

Changing The Script: An Investigation Of How Gender Roles And Stereotypes Influence Women’S Career Choice In Marketing, Skylar Laine Read

Honors Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how the portrayal of gender roles and stereotypes have influenced young women growing up and how this representation has affected women’s career choices—specifically in sales. This thesis will explore the evolution of the Disney Princess, how the gender roles of these characters have influenced young girls’ perception of their role models, career choices, and perceptions of themselves in the workplace. This exploration is done through three different studies. The first is a case study of three Disney Princesses and the portrayal of women in their respective eras. The second study consists of …

Analyzing The Consumer’S Decision-Making Process To Visit Walt Disney World During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Corinne Kincade Williams

Honors Theses

During the Covid-19 pandemic, people have had differing opinions about traveling and visiting popular destinations. This study analyzes why people decide to visit or not visit Disney World during the pandemic. To understand motivational factors affecting customers’ visit intention, a Qualtrics survey was administered through GroupMe, Disney Facebook fan pages, and MTurk. Questions applied the theory of planned behavior and additional constructs of perceived severity and perceived vulnerability to understand the reasons behind participants’ decision-making process to visit or not visit Disney World.

From the 553 responses analyzed, it was found that the most influential factors on Disney World visit …

Case Study In Enterprise Risk Management: Happy Tails, Inc., Clay Chance

Honors Theses

Enterprise risk management is a necessity for businesses in today’s marketplace. Firms that are unaware of risks they are facing often find themselves in unexpected trouble. The field of enterprise risk management has been growing since the 1990s as an effort to minimize the costs that risk imposes on firms. In this case study, I identified risks for Happy Tails, Inc. and recommended various techniques to manage the risks. I found that not only does Happy Tails face many of the same major risks faced by most firms in the marketplace today, but it also faces some unique risks due …

A Discussion Of Special Topics In Accounting, Matthew Stersic

Honors Theses

In order to complete this study, I used a variety of websites, telling me information about the cities, as well as sites that could provide me with facts and figures as well. I was able to interview my roommate ,who is from Chicago, to get a good place to begin on a lot of the questions such as where I would want to live in the city. Through means of data collection, interviewing, and budgeting I was able to come up with an answer to where I would want to live.

The Effects Of Corporate Social Responsibility On Consumer Behavior And Buyer Attitudes, Bailey Dial

Marketing Undergraduate Honors Theses

With the size and scope of Corporate Social Responsibility’s (CSR’s) presence in corporate America and beyond, this thesis dives into the history, composition, and application of a CSR framework within an organization. This thesis also reports the results of a survey of students to apprehend the framework’s external impacts on consumers, including brand perceptions and purchase decisions. Most individuals have experienced some degree of exposure to CSR in their professional lives. Levels of awareness and liking towards both the CSR framework and its application demonstrate a direct impact on consumers’ buying processes and company judgements.

Agreement Success Plan, Miranda Holtz

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Monterey County Health Department’s Administration Bureau works with contracts and agreements for the Public Health Bureau, which detail what services programs will complete so that they can receive funding or maintain a partnership with the County. The problem was that a large portion of the management analyst’s time was dedicated towards technical support for agreements. The Agreement Success Pan is aimed to increase efficiency by aiding program staff with agreements through a Prezi, which is similar to a self-paced webinar. The project had three phases; interviews of program supervisors or managers, gathering supporting documents, and final launch. Afterward, a questionnaire …

Increasing The Importance Of Sleep Education In College Students, Mireya Ysena Cortez

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

What is sleep education? How can one take accountability in teaching college students the importance of sleep and the effects on their overall health and wellbeing? By implementing sleep knowledge in school curriculums, especially in emerging adults, will aid gaps within the educational system. In a culture of "pulling all nighters," university students risk detrimental health risks and psychological issues during college and throughout the rest of their life. The purpose of this project is to shed light on the issue of Increasing the importance of sleep education in college students. In an environment that entails a high degree of …

The Use Of Social Media For Marketing By Independent Musicians, Jessica E. Martinez

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Many musicians have social media presences, but not many know how to begin or how to market their music. Instead, artists find themselves searching for other forms to help them market their music. This leads them to overspend on expensive services in hopes that they can get their names more known. Musicians may feel discouraged when they don’t see the results they hope for, especially online and with other competitors. Because of this, musicians feel less confident in their success in the music industry. There is an imbalance between what the musician wants to achieve and what they need. …

How The Level Of Job Complexity Impacts The Gender Wage Gap Across Occupations, Zytlaly Magaña Corona

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The present study focused on unpacking the social and structural aspects of job complexity to better understand its effects on the gender wage gap. Previous research on the job complexity-compensation dynamic has primarily focused on cognitive complexity. Job complexity across occupations were examined using work activity data from O*NET and merging it with the Current Population Survey data sponsored by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (N=67,003). Results revealed that higher complexity jobs in this study yielded greater wage disparities across different occupations as predicted. Furthermore, physical activities and gaining knowledge from the Generalized Work Activities were the two most …

A Study Of Penetration Testing Processes And Tools, Sushmitha Reddy Mamilla

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

With cybercrimes on the rise, cybersecurity has become very important today. Every company is eager to avoid cybercrimes like data breaches and hacking. To prepare for such incidents, every company has many protection systems in place. However, the best method to test the strength of these protective measures is penetration testing. Every pen tester must consider many factors like budget, time, and scope of the organization’s penetration testing to choose just the right tool for each phase of the process. This project analyzes the most efficient scanning tool by testing them in a Kali Linux environment.

Overcoming The Challenges Of Big Data Analytics Adoption For Small And Medium Sized Enterprises In The Manufacturing Industry, Jolon Koppmann

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Advanced manufacturing technologies that enable big data analytics can boost productivity, increase efficiency, and enhance innovation. However, small and medium sized factories face unique challenges when implementing that technology. Plant managers of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) are often unsure of how to overcome those challenges in order to reap the benefits of big data analytics. This project examined the opportunities that have arisen due to the Fourth Industrial Revolution, also known as Industry 4.0; how small and medium sized manufacturers in the United States can move from traditional methods of manufacturing to advanced manufacturing, and how the additional …

Reshaping Organizational Processes And Workflows Through Integration Of Blockchain Technology, Elijah E. Maggini

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Cybercrime is becoming increasingly sophisticated and devastating as time carries on while many processes and workflows that exist within organizations are stagnant. This project analyzed Blockchain Technology as a use-case for building upon simple processes and workflows that are often overlooked within organizations for the purpose of hardening security and strengthening non-repudiation. This project examined three main questions relating to; how Blockchain can enhance traditional cyber security practices, how Blockchain can be introduced to organizations as a ground-breaking and worthwhile solution to countering cyber-attacks, and the benefits and risks of implementing Blockchain within an organization. An investigation of traditional cyber …

The Impact Of Artificial Intelligence In The Customer Journey: A Case Study Of Bosch Usa And Defy South Africa, Tariro S. Munyengeterwa

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Artificial intelligence (AI) continues to gain traction and is increasingly reshaping the media and marketing communications field. While significant research has been conducted on the impact of AI in other fields, there is little empirical evidence on how AI is affecting the customer journey. The present study explored both organizations’ current use of AI tools and how customer perceptions about AI affect AI usage and adoption through the lens of diffusion of innovation theory. The research was conducted using mixed-method qualitative research. In-depth interviews and a case study content analysis were conducted to collect and analyze the data. The results …

Flexible Resource Allocation For Service And Production Systems, Peng Wang

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Resource flexibility hedges against uncertainty in service and production systems. However, flexibility also brings complexity and difficulty in allocating resources. The thesis mainly studies managing flexible resources in two scenarios. The first scenario is a type of coordination of workers in a production or assembly line – bucket brigade. Specifically, the study shows how to manage a stochastic bucket brigade with discrete work stations. The second scenario is a service system with flexible service resources. The study proposes a distributive decision rule for the allocation of resources under both supply and demand uncertainty.

Chapter 2 studies a J-station, I-worker bucket …

Essays On Management Of Scarce Resources, Qian Luo

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Efficient management of scarce resources is critical to the improvement of economic, social and/or environmental performances. In this dissertation, I focus on the management of two scarce resources: i) healthcare resources and ii) water, and investigate two important problems: i) the estimation of patients’ health transition to support healthcare resources control under the context of sequential medical treatments, and ii) the urban water system control with a specific focus on the wastewater recycling capacity investment in the presence of climate change and urban water scarcity. The first chapter studies how to estimate patients’ health transition considering the effects of treatment-effect-based …

The Many Faces Of Class Ceiling: Its Manifestations At Different Career Stages And Ways To Overcome It, Jia Hui Lim

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Even with comparable education and level of competence, workers with lower socioeconomic status (SES) origins are disadvantaged in terms of earnings and occupational attainment. This class gap, or the “class ceiling,” is as large as the gender gap, but poorly understood. In my dissertation, I designed a series of related projects to explain and potentially mitigate the class ceiling problem. Across three projects, I mainly focused on where the problem starts—labor market and newcomer adjustment in organizations. I find that, beyond discrimination and bias that has been the focus of past work, many challenges stem from workers’ own psychology and …

Ceo Curiosity And Firm Innovation, Hui Yu

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

As an important personality trait, CEO curiosity is emphasized in practice but obtains little attention in theory. This dissertation aims to investigate the impact of CEO curiosity on firm innovation and the mediating role of external search. I argue that both diversive and specific curiosity of CEOs are positively correlated to firm innovation based on upper echelons theory (UET). Furthermore, search breadth mediates the positive connection between CEO diversive curiosity and firm innovation, while search depth mediates the positive connection between CEO specific curiosity and firm innovation. Besides, I explore the moderating effects of firm performance and market competition on …

Resilience As An Organisational Capability: A Study Of How Firms Survive And Outperform In Disruptive Times, Dietmar Kappel

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

An environment, in which volatility and deep uncertainty represent the leading paradigm, pressures firms to focus their attention on adapting to disruptive environmental conditions. Although scholarly attention in the firm-level resilience construct has increased over the years, a number of important issues remain underexplored. To advance progress in the field, research is needed on the dimensions of resilient response formulation and enactment, the dimensions of the disruptive environment and situational factors as well as resilience as a latent outcome variable. Based on an in-depth, systematic review of the received literature, this thesis aims to extend the firm-level resilience literature by …

Pressure To Be Creative: How Employees Respond To Organizational Creativity Pressure, Hye Jung Eun

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Creativity and innovation are vital for organizational growth and success, driving many organizations to increase pressure for employee creativity. Yet, researchers have neglected investigating how employees respond to creativity pressure at the workplace. This dissertation introduces and develops a new scale for the concept of organizational creativity pressure – the pressure on employees to continually develop novel and useful ideas and solutions. The scale is further validated through extensive assessment of content and construct validity, empirically differentiating the construct from similar others such as performance pressure and support for creativity.

Drawing on the transactional theory of stress (Lazarus & Folkman, …

Behavioural Incentivization In Healthcare Operations, Nicholas Teck Boon Yeo

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Common across current research in healthcare operations is the conclusion that there exist many inefficiencies in today’s healthcare systems. Governments and healthcare organisations have sought to address these inefficiencies through the introduction of new policies and operational procedures or by relying on incentives to encourage specific behaviour. However, despite these attempts to reduce inefficiencies in the healthcare systems, the problem persists and is further exacerbated by growing medical complexities coupled with a rapidly ageing population. Against this backdrop, this dissertation investigates two issues within healthcare operations: (i) colorectal cancer (CRC) screening adherence, and (ii) blood donor management. A distinguishing feature …

Examining The Real Costs Of Us Manufacturing Decoupling Strategies, Sze Chiang Jonathan Chee

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Decoupling strategies have been the main focus of supply chain and resource management studies. Increasingly, due to the shift in geopolitical dynamics, the term ‘decoupling’ is now used in finance, accounting, political, and strategic management fields to describe the effect from the fallout of tense international relations. Existing research on this topic includes modeling strategic retaliation theories and evaluating firm effects from an accounting and finance perspective. Yet, there still is little research published on meso-level analysis of the relationship between macro and micro factors that affect organizational decoupling strategies. This study hopes to add to this new body of …

A Podcast Designed To Discuss The Lives Of Students, Faculty, And Alumni In The San Luis Obispo Community, Sienna Addison

Journalism

This project was developed to describe the process of creating and launching a podcast for students, faculty and staff of California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo to educate and inspire endeavors in entrepreneurship. The research began with the growing use of podcasting in higher education, as well as the increase in popularity and accessibility of podcasts in the last 20 years. The project was first developed by David Kozuch, a student at California Polytechnic State University in the fall of the 2019 school year and has continued to grow in the years since. Polycast is the published resulting …

Personification In Advertising: A Rhetorical Analysis Of Digital Video Ads In The Insurance Industry, Dorm Kpedor

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Major companies in the insurance industry—notably Allstate, Progressive, and Farmers—often employ personification as a creative rhetorical tool in digital video advertisements. By leveraging brand characters in various ways, these companies seek to establish trust and engender emotional impact in customers. Allstate ascribes destructive characteristics that are associated with house cats to its Mayhem character; in doing so they evoke the desired emotional responses of humor and fear. Progressive creates and deploys the Motaur character, a visual personification and play on the Centaur; in this case, the company’s rhetorical strategy is to evoke humor and nostalgia that resonate with motorcycle owners. …

Honors Accounting Thesis, Joseph Harris

Honors Theses

During the fall and spring of the 2019-2020 school year, I was a part of the Honors 420 accounting thesis class. This class was led by Dr. Vicki Dickinson as a series of case studies featuring several notable speakers throughout the year. Dr. Dickinson was a fantastic instructor. She greatly helped me in my recruiting process by giving me real-world tips that directly translated into navigating both accounting socials and interviews. Even throughout the COVID period of the spring semester, Dr. Dickinson was constantly giving me advice on how to navigate interviewing and networking opportunities. Each separate case presented in …

A Comprehensive Analysis Of Accounting Principles Through Case Studies, Meredith Mcdonald

Honors Theses

The following thesis consists of eleven accounting case studies that were presented as the curriculum followed in the Accounting 420 class. Each case covers a different topic that in some way demonstrates the purpose and place of accounting theory in the current industry. This thesis exercised deep analysis of each accounting principle and therefore demonstrates a well-rounded understanding of topics covered. Each case study was completed under the direction of Dr. Victoria Dickinson in fulfillment of the requirements for The University of Mississippi, Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College, and the Patterson School of Accountancy ACCY 420 course in the 2019-2020 …

A Survey Of Financial Accounting Principles As Illustrated By Comprehensive Case Studies, Shelby D'Amico

Honors Theses

This document is a compilation of a year of work under the direction of Dr. Victoria Dickinson as a part of the Accounting Practicum Program in accordance with the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College. The eleven case studies that are completed and shown in this thesis are representative of numerous accounting principles and topics that are applicable in the real-world setting. The topics discussed cover a wide range of information such as Regulation Fair Disclosure and the presidential debates, all of which allow students to see how various accounting topics will present themselves in the professional world. Some cases were …

A Collection Of Case Studies Representing Financial Accounting, John Quaka

Honors Theses

This thesis focuses on different case studies that have to do with the field of accounting. All of the cases that are represented here relate to the field of financial accounting. Several of these cases were having to analyze either a company’s 401k or receiving an audit or tax accounting situation and having to answer questions about it. For others, we had to watch a video or an interview and write down what we thought about it. A couple of other case studies were had to interview either an accountant from our hometown and an accountant student older than us. …

Analyzing Case Studies And The Different Uses Of Accounting Knowledge, Meghan Foley

Honors Theses

The purpose of this thesis was to further my accounting knowledge outside of traditional classroom learning. Throughout my time at Ole Miss, I had not used my accounting class work outside of the classroom. I was able to apply the knowledge to practical real life issues.

I participated in 11 case studies that each targeted a different topic of the accounting profession. The early cases related to my choice of specialty and city, whereas the final cases delved deeper into economic implications of accounting and finance.

I learned a great deal about real world accounting while writing this thesis. I …

Complete Analysis Of Netflix, Inc., Anna Gregory

Honors Theses

This thesis focuses on the company, Netflix, INC and the projected value of this company. This study provides valuable information regarding the projected value of Netflix, INC and future stock price predictions. I derived my findings through several procedures. The most important procedure in analyzing the future value of Netflix was the use of a Discounted Cash Flow Analysis. This analysis provided me with a projected value and share price for Netflix, INC in five years and again in ten years. The second method used to evaluate Netflix was the multiples valuation. This method provided information on whether or not …

Fundamental Principles Of Accounting: A Series Of Case Analyses, Bridget Mcmillan

Honors Theses

Over the past four years at the University of Mississippi, I acquired knowledge about the accounting profession and the application of accounting principles that have arisen throughout the evolution of modern professional accounting. For the thesis requirement in accordance with the standards set by the Patterson School of Accountancy and the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College, I completed a series of case studies covering a variety of topics related to the study of accounting. Under the direction of Victoria Dickinson, I completed these cases over the 2019-2020 academic year. Each case introduces a unique topic and presents findings about various …