Business Commons^™

Three Essays On Financial Economics, Jiangyuan Li

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Disagreement measures are known to predict cross-sectional stock returns but fail to predict market returns. This paper proposes a partial least squares disagreement index by aggregating information across individual disagreement measures and shows that this index significantly predicts market returns both in- and out-ofsample. Consistent with the theory in Atmaz and Basak (2018), the disagreement index asymmetrically predicts market returns with greater power in high sentiment periods, is positively associated with investor expectations of market returns, predicts market returns through a cash flow channel, and can explain the positive volume-volatility relationship.

Essays On Agricultural Commodity Processing, Bin Li

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This dissertation investigates two important issues in agricultural commodity processing: (i) biomass commercialization; that is, converting organic waste into a saleable product, from economic and environmental perspectives, and (ii) optimal procurement portfolio design using multiple suppliers and spot market, and the impact of by-product introduction on this optimal portfolio.

The first chapter examines the economic implications of biomass commercialization from the perspective of an agri-processor that uses a commodity input to produce both a commodity output and biomass. We characterize the value of biomass commercialization and perform sensitivity analysis to investigate how spot price uncertainty (input and output spot price …

An Analysis Of Dredge Efficiency For Surfclam And Ocean Quahog Commercial Dredges, Leanne Poussard

Master's Theses

Between 1997 and 2011, The National Marine Fisheries Service conducted 50 depletion experiments to estimate survey gear efficiency and stock density for Atlantic surfclam (Spisula solidissima) and ocean quahog (Arctica islandica) populations using commercial hydraulic dredges. The Patch Model was formulated to estimate gear efficiency and organism density from the data. The range of efficiencies estimated is substantial, leading to uncertainty in the application of these estimates in stock assessment. Analysis of depletion experiment simulations showed that uncertainty in the estimates of gear efficiency from depletion experiments was reduced by higher numbers of dredge tows per experiment, more tow overlap …

Examining Cultural Equity: Boston’S Arts & Culture Sector, Marian Taylor Brown

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

There is a cultural equity gap within the United States’ arts and culture landscape, constituting unequal representation of various identities in the arts, including, race, disability, gender, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic status. These inequities reproduce within arts management, academia, artist sales, and donor and foundation demographics and priorities. With the objective of working toward creative justice in Boston’s arts and culture sector, this multiphase study employs transdisciplinary research using inductive, mixed-methods to learn: 1) current influencers’ understanding of the cultural equity gap; 2) current influencers’ motivations to eradicate the cultural equity gap; 3) how arts leaders with various marginalized identities …

Painting The World Crimson: The Global Spread Of Graduate Management Education As Facilitated By Harvard Business School, Keshav Krishnamurty

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

The growth and spread of business education worldwide is a phenomenon of contemporary interest, because it has enabled the expansion of a global managerial class that operates as social and economic elites worldwide in a time of growing inequality. I take a historic approach to this contemporary phenomenon by examining the role that Harvard Business School (HBS) played in the 1950s and 1960s in the conceptualization and launch of the now very prominent Indian Institute of Management (IIM) in Ahmedabad. Using the archival materials at the Special Collections of the Baker Library at Harvard Business School, my research uncovers which …

Navigating The Glass Ladder: A Qualitative Exploration Of The Challenges Women Leaders Experience Throughout The Process Of Promotion In The Manufacturing Industry, Jamie Birdwell

Theses and Dissertations

As the presence of women in the workplace continues to increase and significant strides have been undertaken to ensure fair and equitable treatment of women in industry, a considerable gap remains in the representation of women in leadership roles in male-dominated industries (Saraçoğlu, Memiş, Voyvoda, & Kızılırmak, 2018). Gender discrimination brought on by stereotypical gender beliefs regarding “men’s work” versus “women’s work” is pervasive in the male-dominated industry of manufacturing (Levine, 2009; Massey, 2014; Sweida & Reichard, 2013). This study explored the experiences of women as they navigated promotion in the manufacturing sector. Through the lens of role congruity theory, …

Cases Concerning The Accounting Profession, Samuel Crews

Honors Theses

These case studies were conducted to investigate different matters in the accounting profession. They range from topics on comparisons of cities to the impact of political decisions on the economy to an investigation of a company's financial statements.

Financial Accounting Case Studies, Paul Andress

Honors Theses

This thesis is a combination of twelve different accounting case studies. These cases represent a culmination of two semesters’ worth of research on various topics that will help my career as an accountant. The cases range from company case studies to in-class activities including an excel certification course. The cases caused me to think critically about topics that affect the accounting profession which are not typically covered in my accounting course work. For example, the cases investigated Brexit, the financial crisis of 2008, and universal basic income. Also, the cases provided me with advice through interviews with experienced people in …

How Does The Buffett Indicator Work In China?, Ruixue Gao

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This study investigates whether the Buffett indicator can be used to make investment decisions in China. The investigation has two approaches. First, this study determines the scaling relationship between the Buffett Indicator and the GDP in China. Previous research and findings in this research regarding the scaling relationship can help international investors when comparing China with a different country as potential investment opportunities. Second, this study also examines whether the Buffett Indicator, the P/E ratio and composite models including the Buffett Indicator can be used as tools for international investors in predicting the Shanghai Index and making investment decisions for …

Employer Perceptions About Addiction Recovery And Hiring Decisions, Haley Henderson, Joseph Barnet, Valerie Hoots, Andrea Clements

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Drug and alcohol addiction is a nationwide epidemic with an increasing number of Americans being affected. Individuals who seek treatment for their addiction often face barriers, such as costs, waiting time, and available support, and those who are able to receive treatment are likely to experience or anticipate stigma from others. Existing literature has found that many employers have negative perceptions of individuals in addiction recovery. However, there is limited research that has analyzed whether these negative perceptions affect hiring decisions. We predicted that employers would have negative perceptions of those in recovery, would be less likely to hire individuals …

A Comprehensive Evaluation Of Accounting Methods And Applications Through Case Studies, Dorothy Meachum

Honors Theses

This following thesis is a compilation of the case studies assigned by Dr. Victoria Dickinson, in fulfillment of the requirements for the University of Mississippi, Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College, and the Professional Research and Development Thesis Program. Each of the twelve case studies pertains to a different topic or problem concerning the application of accounting standards, accounting principles, or financial statement preparation and analysis. In addition, these cases present the application of accounting studies to real world scenarios, incorporating various fields such as finance, investments, risk assessment, and economics. Each of the financial cases introduced a company using their …

An Empirical Analysis On Major League Soccer Player Earnings, Aaron Michael Anderson Iehl

Honors Program Theses

Application of economic and statistical techniques to the sports world has been on the rise for some time. The major sports in the United States (football, basketball, baseball, and hockey) have been thoroughly studied. However, professional soccer in the United States has emerged as a strong sports market in the last 20 years. This paper applies a statistical technique used by Lucifora and Simmons (2003) on an Italian professional soccer league to examine determinants of professional soccer player wages and assess the overall value added. The model is applied to Major League Soccer to determine how the different league structure …

Determinants Of Long-Term Care Insurance: Are Spouses Substitutes?, Jacob Harold-Matthew Haag

Honors Program Theses

As the U.S. population continues to age due to medical advancements and the aging of the largest generation in the history of the U.S. (baby boomers), the number of people in long-term care facilities has increased significantly; however, the percentage of people with long-term care insurance is small. Research conducted in the early 2000s focused on factors such as availability of children, risk aversion, health status, age, having Medicaid, and other variables that describe personal attributes to explain why the market is so small. This paper will use recent data from the Health and Retirement Study to determine whether or …

Frauds In K-12 School Districts, Cassandra Lorraine Zinnel

Honors Program Theses

When a child is dropped off at school, thinking a fraud could happen would be the farthest thing from one’s mind. This paper will be examining school frauds happening in five different states to see any trends within the data. The investigated trends included how the frauds were discovered, how the patterns of cases looked in the last 15 years, and which controls were defective that allowed the fraud to occur. The paper analyzes the state auditor reports from several states dealing with school frauds. This paper will demonstrate an understanding of why school frauds happen and why they happen …

Job Crafting: Who And Where?, Mia Myers

Honors Theses

Job crafting, a type of employee-initiated job design concerned with job tasks, relationships, and mindsets about the job, is a relatively new concept that workplaces should be looking into. Job crafting has implications for how work is conducted and in what fashion, but little research has examined what external and internal factors could influence an individual’s inclination to job craft. Using a qualitative and quantitative approach, this study examines the possible relationships among task crafting, relational crafting, organizational culture, affect, and emotional stability. This study finds that organizational culture, affect, and emotional stability do impact how much an employee feels …

Maximizing Returns For Investors Using Modern Portfolio Theory And The Efficient Frontier, Charity Smith Parkinson

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

There exists an efficient frontier upon which there is an optimal point of allocation of an investor’s assets among different types of investment vehicles. Identifying this point and allocating a portfolio accordingly allow an investor to capture the highest market return with the least amount of risk. This research study offers a model which can be used to find this optimal investment allocation and discusses the challenges and assumptions associated with using it. Using techniques discussed in Markowitz (1952), we obtain the optimal allocation of wealth for two portfolios of 13 and 12 assets, respectively. Such a model is not …

Implementing Option Pricing Model, Zhao Ming

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

In this paper I replicate Clewlow and Strickland's control variates methods based on Greek letters method to test if it can improve the simulation efficiency. First, I use Black Scholes Merton formula for option pricing as a benchmark, to compare with the European call option price from Monte Carlo methods. Then I use Greek letters as control variates to reduce sample standard deviation and improve the efficiency of the Monte Carlo simulation. The whole process is programming in C++. C++ is a compiled language which can generate machine code from source code and provide a shorter running time. This paper …

Markets And Supply Chains: An Investigation Of The Institutions Influencing The Farm-Supply Chain Interface, Jessica L. Darby

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Farm-level operations have lasting and amplified impacts that promulgate the entire supply chain, and the farm is increasingly in the forefront of today’s headlines on topics such as social responsibility, environmental sustainability, traceability, and food safety. Despite its significance, however, the farm remains a ‘black box’ and has traditionally operated independently with little information-sharing, trust, or collaboration with buyers downstream. This dissertation begins to unpack this ‘black box’ by employing different methodologies to identify the factors influencing exchange in the farm-supply chain interface. In Essay 1, I examine why the farm continues to be a challenge for ‘traditional’ collaborative approaches …

The Minuses Of Plus Loans; Trends, Issues, And Opportunities For Parents Who Borrow For College, Ross A. Riskin

Doctoral Dissertations (DBA)

As college costs rise, students aren’t the only ones facing the financial burden of education-related debt. In this paper, parent borrowing through the PLUS loan system, which is a federal program that provides parents and graduate students with access to funding for higher education costs, is examined. The systemic issues present in the PLUS loan system along with the rise in overall borrowing suggest the need for improved policies to help increase borrower awareness and improve loan outcomes. This paper is unique in that it addresses parent PLUS loan borrowing at the school level in order to identify factors that …

How Consumers Assess Multiple Cues: The Role Of Dual Processing System On Hotel Booking Decisions, Eun Joo Kim

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

An online travel agency (OTA) is an important channel for hotels to generate new reservations. To make booking decisions, people collect and evaluate available information. Hotels try to provide effective information to persuade customers to book their hotel deals; however, not all information is manageable by the hotels. This research evaluates the effects of information on OTA websites with an approach based on the origins of the information. Depending on the origin, multiple cues can be categorized by two types, controllable and uncontrollable cues. A controllable cue is information that hotels can maintain, whereas an uncontrollable cue is not manageable …

The Effect Of Competition In The Sports Market On The Popularity Of Baseball, Noah Winslow

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

This paper will discuss why Major League Baseball (MLB) has declined in popularity in the United States since the 1998. Issues regarding the increased competition with the development of different sports leagues along with antitrust in payroll drew the most interest. Various forms of marketing, including media and competitive marketing, will be covered along with different variations of economics in the sports world. The research will follow the development of Major League Baseball through the second half of the 20th century, along with an analysis between the MLB, National Basketball Association (NBA) and National Football League (NFL) in the 21st …

Organizational Symbolism And Employee Immersion, A Mixed Methods Investigation Of Organizational Socialization Efficacy In The Hotel Industry, Jeffrey Michael Yedlin

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study delves into the theory of organizational socialization through a mixed methods exploratory explanatory design examining organizational symbolism and social capital to identify strategies to reduce new hire turnover in hospitality. Constructs within the study include role clarity, training, organizational and coworker support as well as future prospects. New literature was studied for developing theory. Seminal work on socialization by Van Maanen and Schein (1979), Feldman and March (1981), Jones (1986), and Taormina (1997), perceived organizational support from Eisenberger et al., (1986), self-efficacy from Bandura (1977), and organizational symbolism by Dandridge & Mitroff (1980) and Van Buskirk (1991) were …

The Bidirectional Relationship Between Art And Business, Hannah Brletich

Information Systems Undergraduate Honors Theses

There has long been an established relationship between art and business, finding its roots in the Industrial Revolution when the effects of arts on the economy were first explored. Since then, creative economies have been influenced by adaptation of businesses through urban development and revitalization and by continuous growth in artistic and cultural spaces. Capturing the relationship between arts and urban design, cultural districts establish strong economic communities within vastly creative, business- and culture-centered spaces. Current research provides insight to the economic, social, and cultural outcomes of creative economies.

As a contribution to that narrative, I will use this analysis …

The Dynamics And Effects Of Supply Network Structure, Marat Davletshin

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The rising interest in network theory among supply chain scholars reflects an emerging shift in perspective. To deliver global speed, efficiency, and responsiveness, modern firms’ supply chains are becoming increasingly complex. The patterns of interactions and interdependencies among hundreds of firms interconnected by these complex supply chains cannot be adequately explored from the dyadic perspective, which has dominated supply chain research for decades. Many supply chain scholars agree that the language of networks can provide a syntax and structure to describe and explore this complex reality. The actual application of network theory in supply chain research, however, has been limited. …

Golf Director Competencies, Human Resource Management Practices And Customer Retention Within The Malaysian Golf Clubs, Partanian Samira

Student Works (2020-2029)

Golf is a popular sport worldwide. Many studies have described management competencies in several sport contexts and have revealed that human resource is the most common denominator for successful sports club practice. However, little work has been done to identify and explain contemporary Human Resource Management (HRM) practices of staff, including directors of golf clubs related to member retention. The purpose of this study was to examine the current level and the participants' quality perceptions in the relationship among competencies of directors, HRM practices of staff, and member retention within the Malaysian Golf Clubs to advance the causal relationships among …

Motivational Factors And Job Performance Of Banking Industry Employees In Klang Valley, Zaini Muhammad Ariff

Student Works (2020-2029)

Employees’ job performance has been found decreasing and variation changes from time to time. The main objective of this research is to study the relationship between the working conditions, employees’ satisfaction, salaries and benefits, and achievement/recognition towards the job performance of banking industry employees in Klang Valley. In this research study, a total of two hundred (200) bank employees who work in bank around Klang Valley has been selected as respondents. Descriptive analysis (frequency, mean, and standard deviation) and inferential analysis (Pearson correlation coefficient) were used. Pearson correlation analysis’s result shows a significant relationship between the independent variables (working conditions, …

Satisfaction Of High-Level Athlete Management In Universities In Sichuan Province, China, Yudong Tang

Student Works (2020-2029)

With ongoing development in the construction of high-level sports teams in Chinese universities, the Chinese Ministry of Education is paying more and more attention to the running quality of high-level sports teams in universities. Evaluation of the construction quality of high-level sports teams in universities has received extensive attention from universities and society. However, for various reasons, the main body of high-level sports team evaluation comprises government agencies and universities, and, there is a lack of research on management systems of high-level athletes from the perspective of high-level athletes themselves. Therefore, it is of great theoretical and practical significance to …

Firm Characteristics, Capabilities And Productivities: A Study Of Malaysian Food Manufacturing Sector, Tien Hong Lim

Student Works (2020-2029)

This research establishes and examines a set of firm productivity measures for the Malaysian food manufacturing industry. The research further examines the differences in productivity based on the firm’s characteristics and consequently examines the empirical relationship between firm capabilities namely marketing, ICT, R&D and human capital on labour productivity. The research uses cross sectional data comprising 1020 firms. Various methods were used in the research. Non-parametric analysis was undertaken to compare the productivity levels across firm characteristics while in examining the impact of capabilities on labour productivity the research uses quantile regression analysis. The finding shows that productivity differs based …

Prospects Of Incubation In Supporting Agrobased Industry: Evidence From Malaysian Agricultural Research And Development Institute, Subramaniam Sarpaneswaran

Student Works (2020-2029)

Agricultural incubation system plays an essential role in fostering the national agriculture systems. This study is mainly based on a single public agricultural research institution in Malaysia, which is, Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institution (MARDI). The main objective of this study is to examine the relevance of incubator support system in fostering capabilities development of incubatees. In this regards, the selected four MARDI’s agro-based incubatees have been studied qualitatively via indepth interviews. The emphasis is on assessing the different supports system at different incubation stages since there is lacking comprehensive studies on monitoring the agrobased incubatee business performance during …

The Role Of Brand Credibility And Brand Experience In Post-Consumption Outcomes Of Hotel Choice Among Malaysian Muslim Consumers, Rosli Nadzirah

Student Works (2020-2029)

This research investigates the importance of hotel attributes in examining Malaysian Muslim tourists' hotel choice. Based on the mean-end chain theory, it explores the relationship among nine constructs; hotel attributes, brand credibility, brand experience, brand attachment and post-consumption outcomes which consisted of satisfaction, revisit intention and word-of-mouth, as well as travel motivation and Islamic religiosity. A total of 474 valid and usable self-administered questionnaires were collected through purposive sampling technique. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) approach was deployed to validate the research model and the research hypotheses. The result indicates that brand experience fully mediates the relationship between …