Business Commons^™

From The Editors, Laurence Weinstein, Joshua Shuart, Christopher Sheehan, Joseph E. Levangie

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

No abstract provided.

Juliska: Filling A Niche With Imports, Laurence Weinstein, David Gooding

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

David and Capucine Gooding are completing their third year in business, directing the growing activities of their import business located in Stamford, Connecticut. Their niche is marketing handblown glass which is historically accurate and inspired by such disparate designs as 14th-century French, 16th-century Dutch, and 19th-century Venetian glassware. We interviewed David on a “quiet” day when the phones didn’t seem to be ringing constantly.

Omitted Variable Bias In The Link Between Planning And Performance, Kirk C. Heriot, Noel D. Campbell, R. Zachary Finney

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

This article argues that existing research poorly specifies the link between planning and performance because of omitted variable bias. Researchers agree planning is a critical part of creating any new venture. Many researchers assess planning by whether a small firm has a written business plan. Unfortunately, efforts empirically to validate this relationship have been inconclusive. This article proposes that researchers should assess business plans both on the quality of the plan (and the planning process that produced it), and on the quality of the underlying business opportunity. Failure to account for both aspects of a business plan amounts to omitted …

Doing Well And Happy About It? Explaining Variance In Entrepreneurs’ Stated Satisfaction With Performance, Gregory B. Murphy, Stephen K. Callaway

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

The importance of performance measurement is largely undisputed. There is debate, however, regarding the equivalency of objective and subjective performance measures. This debate has not considered a frequently used subjective measure, satisfaction with performance, to be an important measure independent of its equivalency with objective measures. Using a sample of 368 manufacturing firms, this study found that objective measures explained only a modest amount of variance in satisfaction with performance and that other variables added significantly to the explained variance.These factors included perceived environmental hostility, vulnerability, perceived competitive advantage, and commitment.

Organizing In The Garment Industry In Mexico: Implications For New Social Movement Theory, Victoria Carty

Sociology Faculty Articles and Research

This paper examines attempts to improve workers' rights in the Maquila Industry in Mexico by using two case studies. It analyzes the struggles that recently occurred at the Kukdong and Duro plants. The underlying question of the research is how to balance the co-existence of market economies with effective means to ensure adequate conditions for workers, and most importantly, ensuring their right to freedom of association. Under recent forms of global economic restructuring, the state is often unwilling or unable to uphold workers' rights. To combat the present form of corporate-driven global capitalism, workers in the South, in solidarity with …

Tampa Bay Economy 04/02 (Winter 2004), University Of South Florida. Center For Economic Development Research

College of Business Publications

High-Tech Jobs in Florida -- From the Editor -- Household Income Distribution in Tampa Bay, 1989-1999 -- Economic Contributions of the Finance and Insurance Sector in Florida's High Tech Corridor and the Rest of Florida -- USF's Basic Economic Development Course -- Market Analysis of Hillsborough County's Community Development Block Grant Areas -- Update on CEDR's Data Center.

Community Economic And Demographic Research : : Cdbg Benchmark Area : Excel Tables / : Prepared For Hillsborough County Economic Development Department By The Center For Economic Development Research, College Of Business Administration, University Of South Florida.], University Of South Florida. Center For Economic Development Research, Hillsborough County. Economic Development Department

College of Business Publications

Statistical tables in Excel format that accompany the text: Community economic and demographic research : CDBG benchmark area.

2004 January, Office Of Communications & Marketing, Morehead State University.

Morehead State Press Release Archive, 1961 to the Present

Morehead State University press releases for January of 2004.

At A Distance: Learning About Cross-Cultural Virtual Teams In An International Management Course, Mikael Søndergaard, Marta Calás, Paul Donnelly

Books/Book Chapters

This chapter narrates our experiences designing and teaching an international management course which was technologically enhanced to include cross-cultural interactions between the US and Denmark. Our rationale, that issues regarding globalization have accelerated the need to bring together through virtual means people from different cultures to engage in collaborative performance at a distance, was addressed in the context of theoretical concerns regarding cultural differences. We discuss the theoretical premises on which we based the course, illustrate the three core distance activities that we designed for these purposes, evaluate the general outcome in light of our objectives, and assess their value …

From Relations To Rules: A Theoretical Explanation And Empirical Evidence, Shaomin Li, Daniel A. Bell (Ed.), Hahm Chiahark (Ed.)

Management Faculty Publications

(First Paragraph) There is a general perception that people in the East rely more on guanxi (relations, or informal social networks) to govern economic transactions and manage business activities than people in the West. A large quantity of literature on the difference has been produced. One of the dominant views argues that the difference is due to culture, which is treated as an exogenous variable.1 These studies on culture as the determinant of different management and governance style have helped us gain insight on how businesses are conducted in different regions of the world and on how cultures differ through-out …

A Toolkit For Xml-Based And Process-Oriented Application Integration, Volker Münch

Theses

Systems integration is hard work; different architectures with different interfaces and an innumerable amount of Legacy applications with non-standard interfaces exist. However the needs to meet changing business requirements and to implement faster and optimised procedures within an enterprise and in cooperation with other external enterprises mean that there is a continuing demand for such integration strategies and products. Integration was often an activity separate from system development and could not be accomplished without re-involving system designers and developers. Such a process is therefore inefficient and costly. This thesis proposes a process-oriented integration strategy that combines the tasks of integration …

An Examination Of The Role Of Local Authorities In Local Sport Provision And The Implications For Their Role In The Local Sports Partnership Initiative, Dara Sugrue

Theses

The broad aim of this study is to analyse the current role of Irish local authorities in relation to the provision of local sport. Particular emphasis is placed on the potential contribution of Irish local authorities to the Local Sports Partnership initiative. The research considers how the local authorities need to evolve if their role within such a partnership arrangement is to be optimised.

A variety of methods were employed to analyse the prevailing and future role of the local authorities in relation to local sports development. These included a questionnaire, semi-structured interviews, analysis of certain local authority documentation and …

Positioning Store Brands Against National Brands: Get Close Or Keep A Distance?, Raj Sethuraman

Historical Working Papers

No abstract provided.

Discovery: The Student Journal Of Dale Bumpers College Of Agricultural, Food And Life Sciences - Volume 5 2004, Several Authors

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

No abstract provided.

Letter From The Dean, Gregory J. Weidemann

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

No abstract provided.

Fee -Based Online Services : Exploring Consumers’ Willingness To Pay, L. Richard Ye, Yue Zhang, Dat-Dao Nguyen, James Chiu

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

Many online service businesses are beginning to charge fees for services that they used to provide for free. It is unclear whether consumers are ready to embrace this practice. This study explores consumer attitudes toward fee-based online services. The results of the study indicate that consumers’ willingness to pay for online services is likely to be influenced by their perceived value of convenience these services provide, and by the extent to which they utilize these services. While consumers appear more willing to pay for services that are qualitatively better than free services, there is also indication that the belief remains …

Information Systems Service Quality Measurement: The Evolution Of The Servqual Instrument, Dwayne Whitten

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

Due to the increasing service component of information technology, service quality measurement has become increasingly important as IS practitioners attempt to increase service quality to customers. The measurement of service quality in IS evolved from the research done in the marketing literature. The SERVQUAL instrument has evolved to become the most commonly used measurement instrument in both IS and marketing. Although commonly used, the SERVQUAL instrument is not without criticism. This paper describes the SERVQUAL instrument, its criticisms and support, and finally the SERVPERF instrument, a variation of the SERVQUAL instrument which is an attempt at improving upon the SERVQUAL …

Empirical Evidence Of Diminishing Payoff From Successive Generations Of Information Systems, Gerald E. Evans, Neil Morton

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

Previous research has focused on a number of important variables that can influence the observed payoffs from information systems investments. In the current investigation conducted in the spring of 2002, personal, on-site interviews were conducted in 138 small and medium sized businesses. Vendor involvement in systems development was less related to systems cost than previously. Unfortunately, vendor involvement was unrelated to any of the four measures of systems success in the entire sample. Further analysis revealed a strong relationship between information system generation and payoffs. Specifically, there appeared to be a point of diminishing return with subsequent generations of information …

Online Reverse Auctions: An Overview, Ching-Chung Kuo, Pamela Rogers, Richard E. White

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

Electronic commerce (e-commerce) is the fastest growing area in the U.S. economy with electronic procurement (e-procurement) being a major component, and online reverse auctions (ORAs) have emerged as a key e-procurement tool. Since the mid-1990s, ORAs have been gaining in popularity because of their potentially significant positive impact on the profitability of both the buyers and the sellers. Much has been written about the new purchasing paradigm and numerous stories have been reported recently. This paper is aimed at providing a critical review of ORAs by examining their historical developments, different forms, advantages, and disadvantages. In addition, 10 important factors …

Development Of A Predictive Model For Student-Athlete Retention And Graduation At Louisiana State University, Mary Allyn Boudreaux

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The National Collegiate Athletic Association through its member institutions has implemented academic standards governing initial athletic eligibility and has led reform initiatives tying the ability to compete athletically to student-athlete retention and graduation. Louisiana State University (LSU), like many Division I institutions, admitted its scholarship athletes using these initial eligibility standards as a minimum qualification for admission. However, as NCAA requirements have become less stringent, the admissions requirements at LSU have increased. Concerns about the retention and graduation of student-athletes and an increasing gap between the academic credentials of the student body and student-athletes led administrators to question the wisdom …

A Theory Of Effective Computer-Based Instruction For Adults, Janis Sue Lowe

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Computer-based instruction (CBI) was considered the technological phenomenon to revolutionize education and training. Today, the Internet and computer technology are reported to have significantly altered the education landscape (Johnson & Aragon, 2002). The rapid advances in technology, the need for lifelong learning, and the growth of non-traditional students have encouraged the use of the computer as a method of instructional delivery. Evaluating the effectiveness of CBI as a whole technology is very difficult. The inability to measure effectiveness is attributable in part to the fact that CBI is not just one component, but a complex range of services and activities …

Examining The Effects Of Strategic Marketing Initiative And First-Mover Efforts On Market Share Performance, Richard A. Heiens, Larry P. Pleshko, Robert T. Leach

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Changes Needed In Sarbanes-Oxley, Jeffrey Alan Halstead Ii.

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is a requirement for completion of the Honors Program at Columbus State University . It is to be completed in the final year of the student ' s undergraduate course work at the institution . Its contents must address a controversial topic related to the graduate' s chosen field of study or major. Each student must present his or her argument to a hearing board, which consists of three professors from the related department and the chair of the Honors Program . In order to achieve successful completion of the thesis, the committee must deem that the student …

Trends In Employment Discrimination Cases Based On Race, Sex And Age, Kamilah Holder

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

Employer/ employee relations are a substantial part of all or lives. Historically employment discrimination has been a major issue for employers and employees alike. Similar to the past, today’s society also faces the problem of employment discrimination. There are many federal and state laws aimed at preventing employment discrimination.

This project will examine current federal and state employment laws and assess how they are interpreted in current case law (specifically relating to race, gender and age discrimination in employment). It will also analyze this case to determine if there are any trends or patterns by the courts deciding these employment …

Absorptive Capacity And Entrepreneurship, Shaker A. Zahra, Gerard George

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

No abstract provided.

Goals Of A World Class Supply Management Organization, Peter O'Reilly

Publications

The presentation Goals of a World Class Supply Management Organization discusses the following problems/hurdles:

• Lack of Resources
• No Direction (Vision or Plan)
• Too much transactional work to overcome or “I do not have time to think, much less plan”
• Corporate Culture or History
• Organizational Structure

Supply Of Accounting Graduates And The Demand For Public Accounting Recruits, 2004, For Academic Year 2002-2003, Beatrice Sanders, Leticia B. Romeo

AICPA Annual Reports

No abstract provided.

Men's Basketball Media Guide 2004-2005, Indiana State University

Intercollegiate Athletics

No abstract provided.

Women's Basketball Media Guide 2004-2005, Indiana State University

Intercollegiate Athletics

No abstract provided.

Employee Investment Decisions About Company Stock, James J. Choi, David Laibson, Brigitte C. Madrian, Andrew Metrick

Faculty Publications

Recent high-profile cases have illustrated the dangers of employee investment in company stock. These debacles are unlikely to be the last ones, or even the most severe. Companies with more than 50 percent of retirement assets in company stock are common, and fractions over 80 percent continue to prevail at such large companies as Procter & Gamble, Anheuser- Busch, and Pfizer.¹

The concentration of retirement wealth in company stock is a clear violation of diversification principles. Recently, several studies have quantified the economic costs of this concentration. Muelbroek (2002) uses a Sharperatio approach and finds that the average diversification …