Business Commons^™

Taxpayers Willingness To Use Ai Conversational Tools, Nessrine Mesto-Assaad

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

With the rapid emergence of Artificial Intelligence Conversational Tools (AICTs), such as ChatGPT and Google Gemini, and their widespread use, the need to understand users’ acceptance of this emerging technology has increased. Prior research has investigated users’ acceptance of AICTs in hospitality, tourism, e-commerce, and retail industries. However, users’ acceptance of the use of AICTs for tax information remains relatively underexplored in the tax context. Therefore, this study investigates taxpayers’ willingness to accept and use AICTs for tax-related questions when e-filing their tax returns. Drawing on the Artificial Intelligence Device Use and Acceptance (AIDUA) model as a research framework, this …

Feasibility Of Corn Stover For Biogas Production In Northwestern Illinois: A Case Study Of Jo Daviess And Carroll Counties, Anthony Amotoe-Bondzie

Masters Theses

The growing demand for renewable energy and sustainable waste management has intensified interest in agricultural residues such as bioenergy feedstocks. This study evaluated the feasibility of converting corn stover into biogas through anaerobic digestion (AD) in Jo Daviess and Carroll Counties, Illinois, with consideration of the Savanna Industrial Park as a potential centralized processing hub. Although corn stover represents one of the largest biomass resources in the United States, this research identifies a critical gap between theoretical availability and practically recoverable feedstock. Using a mixed-methods framework, the study integrates biomass quantification, methane yield modeling, economic analysis, and policy assessment. Results …

Empowering Equity: Latinas In Leadership – Navigating Work-Life Balance In The Post-Pandemic Era, Teresa Excinia

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explored the lived experiences of Latina leaders as they navigated how cultural expectations influenced work–life balance in the post-pandemic era. The COVID-19 pandemic reshaped workplace dynamics, blurring boundaries between professional responsibilities and personal life. For Latinas, these challenges were compounded by cultural expectations that shaped their roles both at home and in the workplace. The purpose of this study was to understand how Latina leaders managed the dual pressures of balancing career demands with cultural and familial obligations. Using Testimonio as the methodological framework, this study captured the voices and narratives of Latina leaders across industries, offering an …

Accessibility Vs Exclusivity: Examining The Barriers To Entry For Early Career Professionals Entering The Commercial Art Market, Cameron Arthur

MA in Art Business Dissertations

This dissertation examines the barriers to entry for early-career professionals seeking to enter the commercial art market, focusing on how structural exclusivity limits access to art business careers. The research addresses a noticeable gap in art market scholarship by focusing on the professional ecosystem behind galleries, auction houses, and advisory firms, which remain underexplored. The study employs a qualitative methodology, supported by selective quantitative data, combining a critical review of existing literature, analysis of industry employment reports, and interviews with art market insiders. This mixed-method approach provides a multidimensional view of the sector’s systemic barriers. Key findings reveal the three …

The Marketability Of The Muse: Understanding The Valuation Of Muse-Artists On The Contemporary Market, Mairi Alice Dun

MA in Art Business Dissertations

The label ‘muse,’ and the attention that comes with it, has kept female artists' names in the minds and institutions of the art world for the past 25 years. The word itself carries enough intrigue to make the women behind great male artists’s works interesting. However, in the past five or ten years, while other, formerly invisible, female artists have received a massive reevaluation in the market, and collectors have trended towards adding women to their collections, the art of female muses still trails that of their male counterparts by a large margin. The gendered value gap is not just …

How Have Emil Nolde’S Political Biographies Impacted His Market, From ‘Weimar Degenerate’ And ‘Dissident’, To ‘Complicit Antisemite’?, Samuel Goodwin-Hudson

MA in Art Business Dissertations

Emil Nolde is regarded as one of the most accomplished and innovative modernists. Celebrated for his varied iconographies expressed with thick, erratic brushstrokes, displaying highly saturated, non-naturalistic tonal contrasts, and pronounced, distorted forms. He often draws comparisons to Paul Gauguin and Vincent van Gogh. He died a national hero in Northern Germany, 1956, at 88 years of age. His oeuvre has inspired numerous artists, such as Georg Baselitz, Daniel Richter and Anselm Kiefer. Accordingly, his art has been exalted by institutions and converted by learned collectors, subsequently demanding huge sums.

The exhibition 'Emil Nolde. A German Legend. The Artist during …

Laws, Looting, And Legitimate Trade: The Effectiveness Of The Icc At Prosecuting Cultural Heritage Crimes From An Art Market Perspective, Kassidy Houlihan

MA in Art Business Dissertations

This dissertation is a legal analysis of cultural heritage crime prosecution at the International Criminal Court aimed for art market practitioners. It seeks to evaluate whether the ICC could be an effective means of prosecuting cultural heritage crime in a way that positively effects the art market. It closely reads the Rome Statute to determine how the cultural heritage crimes of looting and intentional destruction of cultural property could be charged at the ICC. It then uses the case studies of Prosecutor v. Al Mahdi and Prosecutor v. Al Hassan, the only two cultural heritage cases at the ICC to …

Artwork Or It-Bag? How Arts-Luxury Collaborations Impact Artist Cultural Visibility, Edwina Keary

MA in Art Business Dissertations

Since Marc Jacobs’ introduction to Louis Vuitton in 1997 and experimentation with artist collaboration, art and luxury collaboration has boomed. Over the years, customer demands have shifted in the wake of postmodern consumer culture, and brands must keep up with them to maintain their competitive advantage. The nature of collaborations has therefore shifted their focus to include experiences as well as products. Different collaboration types have a unique impact on both the brand and the artists involved. This research explores the impact of product versus experience-based collaboration on the cultural visibility of the artists involved through press coverage analysis. This …

Institutional Legitimation And Artistic Value In Portuguese Contemporary Art, Constança Maria Lobo De Castro Afonso

MA in Art Business Dissertations

This dissertation examines the mechanisms of institutional legitimation in the Portuguese art market, with main emphasis on museums, curatorial practices, media mediation and the ever-changing role of public participation. Drawing field theory (Bourdieu), art world sociology (Becker) and recent studies of media and symbolic capital, it positions Portugal as a ‘semi-peripheral’ market in which institutional framing and international infrastructures play a critical role in establishing value and reputation. The literature review shows that legitimacy is collectively produced by a constellation of actors, narratives and conventions, rather than solely by the intrinsic properties of artworks or straightforward market demand.

Through a …

Where The Muses Dwell Vs. Where The Muses Sell: How The Experiences Of Art World Professionals Reflect The Increasingly Blurred Boundaries Between Museums And Auction Houses From 1940-2008, Sara Marcus

MA in Art Business Dissertations

This dissertation aims to explore how the experiences of personnel who have crossed over from museums to auction houses reflect the increasingly porous boundaries between these traditionally separate cultural and commercial institutions. Utilizing a strong historical and theoretical foundation built upon a historicization of museums and auction houses as well as analyses of key philosophical and sociological concepts and discourse, this paper presents a critical examination of the role of art world professionals as case studies. Through qualitative analysis of interviews with three prolific and generalizable professionals from 1940-2008, fundamental themes emerge from the research that expose how the growing …

Imitation In Eastern Art Auction Markets: A Comparative Study Of Digital Strategies Under Institutional Isomorphism, Yutong Wu

MA in Art Business Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Power Of A Picture: Building Visual Depictions Of The Eppm Bolstering Sunscreen Application Motivation, Ansley M. George

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

This study investigates visual depictions of efficacy skin cancer health risk messages. Using Witte's Extended Parallel Processing Model (EPPM) and existing literature on fear appeals and visual persuasion as a theoretical framework, the study aims to explore how self and response efficacy imagery impacts individuals' perceptions of health risk messages in the context of skin cancer prevention when emphasizing specific principles of design. Formative research was employed via qualitative photo sorts and participants were exposed to an assortment of images depicting efficacy in the context of skin cancer prevention where they discussed why they felt they were or were not …

Data Utilization In Facilities’ Performance Management Decision- Making At U.S. Four-Year Public Institutions: A Cross-Sectional Exploratory Study, Tanaporn Supanichrattana

Theses and Dissertations

The growing complexity of higher education finance, aging infrastructure, and rising accountability expectations has intensified demands on facilities organizations to manage institutional assets strategically. As colleges and universities face sustained fiscal constraints and expanding operational pressures, the ability of facilities leaders to use data to inform performance management has become increasingly critical. Despite this importance, limited empirical research has examined how facilities leaders integrate data into decision-making within public higher education contexts.

The quantitative study employed a cross-sectional, exploratory survey design to investigate data utilization practices among facilities leaders at U.S. public four-year institutions. Guided by the Data–Information–Knowledge–Wisdom hierarchy and …

The Tech-Nuclear Renaissance: A New Critical Juncture For American Nuclear Energy Policy, Henry P. Otte

CMC Senior Theses

Nuclear energy has re-emerged as a central priority in American energy policy. This thesis examines the Trump administration’s efforts to support nuclear energy development and plant restarts, and asks whether today’s nuclear renaissance represents a critical juncture for nuclear energy policy. By analyzing American, French, and Swedish nuclear energy history, this thesis applies a three-variable analytical framework, state autonomy and administrative structure, political permeability, and crisis influence, to identify the institutional conditions necessary for durable policy change and evaluate the structural characteristics of this new environment. The central finding is that today’s push is distinct from prior attempts at expansion, …

The Investor Perspective Of Materiality, Sam Lessinger

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Often auditors are asked to adopt the reasonable investor perspective in their materiality evaluations however, there is no consensus regarding what investors deem to be material. This can lead to confusion in the markets. In fact, past studies have shown how taking an investor perspective can backfire and may result in more leniency and fewer misstatements being deemed material by auditors. This leniency can, potentially, result in financial statements that mislead investors. The aim of this paper is to address the reasonable investor perspective to achieve a more complete understanding of an investor’s viewpoint. This study also incorporates the effect …

Exploring Management Strategies To Reduce Workplace Violence: Perceptions Of Illinois Healthcare Professionals, Mary Mack

All Student Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study examined how managers of nonprofit healthcare facilities in the Chicago metropolitan area implement strategies to reduce workplace violence, what these strategies are and how they are carried out, and what organizational factors facilitate or impede their implementation. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven healthcare professionals in management or safety-oriented roles across seven facilities, purposefully sampled through the researcher's professional network. Findings revealed four recurring patterns across the sample. Prevention infrastructure was installed reactively, following specific triggering incidents rather than anticipating documented risk. Facilities consistently favored lower-cost mitigation measures over more resource-intensive prevention strategies. Reliance on short-tenure contract …

Transformational Leadership And Employees’ Organizational Citizenship Behavior: Examining The Role Of Perspective-Taking, Job Satisfaction, And Organizational Trust, Marie A. Smith

Dissertations

The study surveyed employees in the service and helping professions (for example retail, healthcare related, hospitality), to examine the impact of transformational leadership on employee organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Specifically, it tested job satisfaction and organizational trust as possible mediators to the transformational leader to employee OCB relationship and evidence of perspective-taking as a possible moderator to either of these mediated relationships. The study employed PLS-SEM as the method of analysis and examined the influence of transformational leadership, and employee job satisfaction and trust, on employee OCB. The social exchange theory’s reciprocal nature and the leader-member exchange (LMX) theory, based …

Bargaining Inefficiency Due To Mispricing Under Incomplete Information : Evidence From The Bilateral Oligopolistic Containership Time Charter Market, Jaeung Cha

World Maritime University Ph.D. Dissertations

A well-established body of bargaining studies theoretically demonstrates that inherent limitations in observing the counterplayer’s private information give rise to an incomplete information setting in bargaining, leading to efficiency losses associated with mispricing, costly delays, and even bargaining failures. As the shipping market, a business-to-business market in which products are generally heterogeneous and the number of both sellers and buyers is limited by high entry/exit barriers, relies on a bargaining mechanism to determine tailored transaction prices, market pricing is prone to inefficiencies associated with incomplete information. However, the relevant empirical evidence remains underexplored in both the shipping finance and bargaining …

Timing, Targets, And Teaching: How Employee Help-Seeking Influences Downward Knowledge Sharing, Nicholle E. Kovach

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Knowledge sharing between managers and employees is critical for employee development and organizational performance. However, managers differ in whether they share knowledge, and in the type of knowledge shared. While solution-oriented knowledge offers immediate answers to improve short-term performance, process-oriented knowledge promotes long-term learning and employee development. The purpose of my dissertation is to investigate factors that influence managers’ knowledge-sharing decisions.

I conduct two studies to investigate my predictions. In Study 1, I examine how the timing of employee help-seeking requests, the source of performance targets and employee historical performance influence the type and quality of managers’ knowledge-sharing responses. Drawing …

Getting Ready Right: The Impact And Influence Of The University Appointed Supervisor, Madlen Griffiths

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Initial Teacher Education professional experience is a valued component of teacher education courses, where preservice teachers can practise applying what they have learned at university in classroom settings. Key to these experiences are supervisors, who are employed by the university and support these aspiring teachers during their professional experiences. This supervisory role is complex, underrated, under-theorised and under researched. Consequently, this research sought to address this shortfall through an investigation into the perspectives of two of the major stakeholders in these experiences: the preservice teachers and the supervisors.

Adopting a social constructivist methodology, this research examined the stakeholders’ perceptions of …

Three Essays On Corporate Bond Short Selling, Climate And Credit Risks, Manisha Thapa

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This dissertation comprises three essays investigating topics on Corporate Bond Short Selling, Climate and Credit Risks.

The first essay addresses the question: Does climate risk influence bond short selling? We address this question by studying how climate risk influences the relationship between corporate bond short selling and subsequent credit default swap (CDS) spreads. We find that future CDS spreads are strongly related to bond short selling for the high climate risk firms. In particular, our fixed effects triple difference-in-differences (DiD) regressions show that sensitivity of subsequent CDS spreads to lagged bond short selling is significantly higher for firms with high …

Entropic Foundation Of Finance And Physics: Securities Price Dynamics And Quantum Theory, Mohammad Abedi

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

In many scientific and financial contexts, we must reason and make predictions under conditions of incomplete information. This dissertation develops Entropic Dynamics (ED) as a unified framework for deriving dynamical laws directly from principles of inference. Within this approach, probability distributions represent states of knowledge, and their evolution is determined through entropy maximization subject to relevant constraints. This leads to a novel concept of entropic time and a formulation of dynamics as an inferential process. In this talk, I will present how ED provides a common foundation across multiple domains. In physics, quantum dynamics for particles and scalar fields in …

Exploring The Role Of Cognitive Load In Applicant Faking And Prevention Methods, Sabah Rasheed

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Personnel selection is critical to organizational success, and personality assessment is widely used to identify the best job candidates. However, applicant faking threatens the validity of personality assessments in high-stakes contexts. Faking is widely assumed to be more cognitively demanding than honest responding, and several faking-prevention methods rest on this premise. This dissertation examines that assumption across three studies using the dual-task paradigm to impose cognitive demands during personality assessments. Study 1 used a verbal digit-span task with a student sample and limited faking on the three job-relevant personality composites. Study 2 used a visual dual-task with a student sample …

Did They Think I Was Rude? The Emotional And Relational Consequences Of (In)Congruence Between Perpetrators’ Self- And Meta-Perceptions Of Workplace Rudeness, Nicholas C. Andriese

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

Workplace rudeness negatively impacts employees and costs organizations millions of dollars each year. Although much is known about the consequences of workplace rudeness, little is known about how perpetrators make sense of and respond to their (potentially) rude behavior. In this dissertation, I propose that perpetrators consider not only their self-perceptions of rudeness, or how rude they believe their actions were, but also their meta-perceptions of rudeness, or their beliefs about how rude another person perceived them to be. Because rudeness is subjective and people vary in their perceptual accuracy, self- and meta-perceptions of rudeness are unlikely to consistently …

Sensory And Emotional Impacts On Modern Consumer Experiences, Winter E. Bland

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

This dissertation comprises two essays examining how environmental and psychological stimuli shape consumer experience, attitudes, and cognition. The first essay investigates the joint influence of scent temperature (warm versus cool) and scent arousal (stimulating versus relaxing) on experiential attitudes and cognitive performance in digitally mediated consumption environments. Across multiple lab experiments with biometric validation, findings reveal that these two scent dimensions interact to shape downstream outcomes. Warm, low-arousal scents (e.g., vanilla) enhance consumers' experiential evaluations of digital interactions but do not improve task performance, whereas cool, high-arousal scents (e.g., peppermint) boost cognitive efficiency and accuracy but do not elevate experiential …

Developing A System Dynamics Framework For Sustained Digital Transformation, Quintal Battle

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

Despite significant organizational investments, more than 70% (Ellmer et al., 2025) of digital transformation initiatives fail. The existing literature evaluates transformation mechanisms as separate factors rather than as interacting, evolving feedback systems. This dissertation addresses this gap by developing and validating a system dynamics framework for sustained digital transformation. Guided by three research questions, the study examined the mechanisms that enable or constrain transformation, identified mechanisms distinctive to digital transformation contexts, and evaluated how existing change management frameworks guide transformation efforts. The study followed a six-phase methodology that combined a systematic literature review of peer-reviewed studies, empirical cases, causal loop …

Cultivating Workplace Happiness In Technology Workers, Cherie A. Herrin

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

Technology workers are central to the innovation and performance of modern organizations and retaining them is a persistent challenge for modern organizations. One important aspect of retention in many contexts is Workplace Happiness, which has been argued to improve worker performance and reduce turnover; however, there is little empirical evidence of the effectiveness of these interventions for technology workers. This dissertation develops a model in which two affective states, Workplace Happiness and Workplace Distress, mediate the relationships between six socio-technical work conditions and two behavioral outcomes: Turnover Intent and Work Execution (i.e., self-rated work performance and quality). A systematic literature …

Well, If You Put It That Way Three Studies On Contract Framing In Incomplete Contract Environments, Garrison L. Nuttall

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

This dissertation contains three studies examining contract framing, with implications for how organizations structure and frame performance-based compensation systems. Across all studies, I compare penalty contracts to bonus contracts with gain framing and bonus contracts with loss framing. My first study examines how managers prefer to frame performance-based compensation systems on average and identifies how the traits trust propensity, empathy, personal norm of reciprocity, loss aversion, Machiavellianism, and critical thinking disposition are associated with certain preferences. I find that mangers prefer bonus contracts to penalty contracts on average and that empathy is positively associated with this preference. My second study …

Overcoming The Glass Wall: Self-Employment As A Career Strategy For Immigrant Professionals, Barbara Silva

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

Skilled immigrant professionals frequently experience barriers that limit their ability to secure employment opportunities aligned with their qualifications in host-country labor markets. Although prior research has documented some of the challenges these professionals face, such as credential devaluation and discrimination, less is known about why recruiters perceive immigrant candidates with similar qualifications differently and why some immigrants navigate the labor market more successfully than others. Drawing on Status Characteristics Theory, this dissertation examines how the location and type of immigrant professionals’ prior work experience shape hiring-related outcomes by influencing recruiters’ perceptions of competence and acculturation. First, I review the literature …

Two Essays On Out-Of-Town Home Buyers, Kamrul H. Talukdar

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

This dissertation analyzes the price premia paid by Out-of-Town (or non-local) home buyers. The first essay investigates the role of social connectedness in the price premia paid by non-local buyers in the residential housing market. Using over 74,000 residential transactions from Orange and Seminole counties, Florida between 2016 and 2019 and exploiting the Social Connectedness Index (SCI) constructed based on Facebook friendship links, I show that non-local buyers who come from regions which are more socially connected to the purchase location pay about 1.8% to 2.1% lower premia compared to those coming from less connected regions. This effect is attributed …