Business Commons^™

‘Concentration Camps For Lost And Stolen Pets’: Stan Wayman’S Life Photo Essay And The Animal Welfare Act, Bernard Unti

Laws and Legislation Collection

In the 1960s, LIFE was America's single most important general weekly magazine, its photo-essay formula catering to a middle class constituency of millions. By the halfway point of that tumultuous decade, readers were accustomed to seeing searing and unpleasant images of a changing nation, one racked by civil unrest and entangled in a bloody war in Southeast Asia. But when LIFE's February 4, 1966 issue landed on newsstands and in mailboxes across the United States, with the cover's warning "YOUR DOG IS IN CRUEL DANGER," tens of millions of readers became acquainted for the first time with another kind of …

Effect Of Stall Base Type On Herd Health, Costs, And Producer Satisfaction, W. K. Fulwider, T. Grandin, D. J. Garrick, T. E. Engle, W. D. Lamm, N. L. Dalsted, B. E. Rollin

Housing and Confinement of Farm Animals Collection

The objective of this field study was to compare effect of stall base on herd health, stall maintenance, bedding cost, and producer satisfaction. Ninety-one dairies visited during a 4-mo period starting October 14, 2005 included 33 rubber-filled mattress (RFM), 27 sand, and 31 waterbed (WB) dairies. In this study, percent culled was higher for RFM (P = 0.001) and sand (P = 0.06) than WB stall base dairies. Percent of cows in fourth lactation or greater was higher on WB than either RFM (P = 0.01) or sand (P = 0.02) dairies. There was no difference between base types for …

The Welfare Of Animals In The Meat, Egg, And Dairy Industries

Agribusiness Reports

Each year in the United States, approximately 11 billion animals are raised and killed for meat, eggs, and milk. These farm animals—sentient, complex, and capable of feeling pain and frustration, joy and excitement—are viewed by industrialized agriculture as commodities and suffer myriad assaults to their physical, mental, and emotional well-being, typically denied the ability to engage in their species-specific behavioral needs. Despite the routine abuses they endure, no federal law protects animals from cruelty on the farm, and the majority of states exempt customary agricultural practices—no matter how abusive—from the scope of their animal cruelty statutes. The treatment of farm …

Welfare Issues With Selective Breeding Of Egg-Laying Hens For Productivity

Agribusiness Reports

Today’s commercial laying hens have been selectively bred to produce more than 250 eggs per year. This unnaturally high level of productivity is metabolically taxing, often causing hens to suffer from “production diseases,” including osteoporosis and accompanying bone fractures, and can lead to reproductive disorders. Research suggests that the problem of osteoporosis may be worsening, possibly due to industry’s continuous push toward maximizing productivity. For decades, economic considerations have been valued and emphasized over the welfare of individual birds. An immediate change in priorities is needed to aggressively address welfare problems associated with selective breeding for egg production.

Australian Temperate Strawberry Breeding Program (Western Australia) Selection Of New And Advanced Short Day Breeding Lines And Cultivars In Western Australia - 2006/2007, Aileen Reid, Dennis Phillips, Hal

Horticulture research reports

Thirty-two ‘Stage 4’ numbered selections (2004 crosses) from the Australian Temperate Strawberry Breeding Program were evaluated in unreplicated plots on a commercial property in Wanneroo for their potential under WA conditions. Seven of these have been selected as worthy of further testing. The priority selection among these was 04- 021-263, and the other six included 04-021-467, 04-037-102, 04-021-241, 04-021-172, 04-021-475 and 04-029-211.

In addition, 21 advanced numbered selections (Stages 5, 6 and 7) were also evaluated on the same grower’s property. Three of those were substantially larger plots and a later planting date. Of the first group of 18 selections, …

Review Of Methods For Modelling Systems Evolution, Charles F. Nicholson

Agribusiness

Acceleration of economic, technological, social, and environmental change challenge decision-makers of various kinds to learn at increasing rates, and at the same time, the complexity of the dynamic systems in which we live is growing (Sterman 2000). In agriculture and international development contexts, there are often significant delays in the development and implementation of technologies and policies, and agriculture-based livelihood systems are in constant and sometimes rapid evolution. In order to make technologies and policies better match the future state of these systems, it is necessary to better understand the likely evolution of agricultural systems. The goal of these efforts …

Source Code Protection For Applications Written In Microsoft Excel And Google Spreadsheet, Thomas A. Grossman Jr.

Business Analytics and Information Systems

Spreadsheets are used to develop application software that is distributed to users. Unfortunately, the users often have the ability to change the programming statements (“source code”) of the spreadsheet application. This causes a host of problems. By critically examining the suitability of spreadsheet computer programming languages for application development, six “application development features” are identified, with source code protection being the most important. We investigate the status of these features and discuss how they might be implemented in the dominant Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and in the new Google Spreadsheet. Although Google Spreadsheet currently provides no source code control, its web-centric …

Internet Recruiting In The Cruise Industry, Michelle Millar

Hospitality Management

The cruise line industry is expanding rapidly. Recruitment within the industry will be an endless task and the cruise lines will need to explore every avenue possible to recruit new employees for each new contracted ship. The purpose of this study, therefore, is to examine the website of each major cruise line to determine if they are utilizing their website to recruit employees. In total, 33 attributes relating to e-recruiting method, function, content, and job search tools, were analyzed. The results of the content analysis revealed that, although the cruise lines are using e-recruiting methods, they are not using the …

The Use Of Adventure Travel In The Meeting Planning Industry, Michelle Millar

Hospitality Management

This study investigates the types of adventure travel activities, ecotourism, soft-adventure, or hard-adventure activities, that meeting planners have used, and if the type of activity used varies by meeting planner type. Surveys were completed by one hundred and eighteen purposefully selected meeting planners. The sample included corporate, association, independent, incentive and other meeting planners from the United States and Canada. Overall, independent planners utilized the most activities across all three adventure travel categories, followed by incentive travel planners. Corporate, association, and other meeting planners did not seem interested in using adventurous activities at meetings.

Sustainability Reporting Practices In Portugal: Greenwashing Or Triple Bottom Line?, Diane H. Roberts, John Koeplin

Accounting

This paper examines the status of sustainability reporting in Portugal. The Global Reporting Initiative's (GRI) guidelines for sustainability reporting is an initiative that attempts to create a paradigm of triple bottom line reporting that encompasses the economic, environmental, and social performance of business. Measurement and reporting of environmental and social aspects are in their infancy compared to financial/economic reporting. The objective of the GRI's framework is to elevate environmental and social reporting to the level of financial reporting by developing reporting principles and information qualities similar to those used in corporate financial reporting. In the post-Enron corporate reporting environment, such …

It-Related Material Weaknesses In Internal Control: Initial Evidence From Sox Section 404 Reports, Dana Hermanson, Daniel M. Ivancevich, Susan H. Ivancevich

Faculty Articles

Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) requires auditors and managers to assess public companies internal control over financial reporting. Since some of the material weaknesses in internal control noted by auditors and management relate to IT issues, Section 404 reports offer a new opportunity to examine the types of IT-related control issues that public companies are struggling to address. This study presents a summary of the most commonly cited IT-related material weaknesses in internal control described in recent Section 404 internal control reports and describes the characteristics of companies with IT-related weaknesses. We also provide insights into companies remedial …

Cpa Expert 2006 Fall, American Institute Of Certified Public Accountants

Newsletters

No abstract provided.

Cpa Expert 2007 Fall, American Institute Of Certified Public Accountants

Newsletters

No abstract provided.

Focus, Vol. 3 No. 5, September/October 2007, American Institute Of Certified Public Accountants. Business Valuation And Forensic & Litigation Services Section

Newsletters

No abstract provided.

Focus, Vol. 3, No. 4, July/August 2007, American Institute Of Certified Public Accountants. Business Valuation And Forensic & Litigation Services Section

Newsletters

No abstract provided.

Focus, Vol. 3 No. 3, May/June 2007, American Institute Of Certified Public Accountants. Business Valuation And Forensic & Litigation Services Section

Newsletters

No abstract provided.

Strategic Alignment In The Virtual Organisation, Peter Gall, Janice Burn

Business Papers and Journal Articles

This paper reviews the literature in relation to virtual E-business models and strategies. From this the authors develop a framework to test two new strategic alignment instruments designed to measure the espoused readiness of an organisation to collaborate virtually and the actual preparedness to operate virtually. These instruments will assist organisations in recognising and exploiting their degree of virtuality and can assist organisations in developing new organisational forms that fully leverage the value of their ICT assets.

Helping Small Business Succeed, Minnesota State University, Mankato

Business/Economics

Bibliography and photographs of a display of government documents from Minnesota State University, Mankato.

Learning To Co-Create The Solutions We Seek: The Art Of Hosting A Nonprofit Organization, Jeannel E. King

Regis University Student Publications (comprehensive collection)

The Art of Hosting is an emergent leadership model that compliments rapidly changing business needs and environments. This paper presents grounded theory on Art of Hosting components, including the Four Fold Invitation, Hobbit Tools, Five Diamonds of Participation, and Harvesting. An in-depth case study describes the use of Hosting architecture as the design for a nonprofit organization. While the Art of Hosting is effective for involving the community in discussions to co-create solutions to difficult problems, the practice does not easily facilitate a transition from discussion to action. As a framework for operating a nonprofit organization, further research is necessary …

An Investigation Into Outsourcing Practice In Ireland: A New Direction In Logistics And Supply Chain Management, Aoife O'Riordan, Edward Sweeney

Articles

Companies are increasingly focusing on the development of core competencies as an integral part of their overall strategy development and implementation. The corollary of this is that functions regarded as being non-core are being outsourced. This paper investigates the case for and against outsourcing and in addition what is happening in Ireland regards outsourcing. Furthermore to analysis of current literature in
the field, an Irish-wide postal and e-mail survey, as well as three case studies revealed many interesting facts. The key findings of the work are manufacturing outsourcing is now the most popular function to be outsourced for both small …

Predicting Crime Reporting With Decision Trees And The National Crime Victimization Survey, Gondy Leroy, Juliette Gutierrez '13

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

Crime reports are used by law enforcement to find criminals, prevent further violations, identify problems causing crimes and allocate government resources. Unfortunately, many crimes go unreported. This may lead to an incorrect crime picture and suboptimal responses to the existing situation. Our goal is to use a data mining approach to increase understanding of when crime is reported or not. An increased understanding could lead to new, more effective programs to fight crime or changes to existing programs. We use the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) which comprises data collected from 45,000 households about incidents, victims, suspects and if the …

Industry Specialization And Auditor Quality In Us Markets, Brian Cadman, Michael T. Stein

Accounting Faculty Publications

This study investigates the relation between audit quality, auditor industry market share, and audit fees. Prior literature has asserted that audit providers with high market shares can be designated as industry specialists and that the fee premiums that sometimes attach to these auditors is evidence of a quality differentiated audit product. Using data from the U.S. audit market for the fiscal year 2003 we extend this literature by investigating the relationships among audit fee premiums, auditor market shares, and two dimensions of audit quality: external reporting and economies of scope in providing joint audit and non-audit services. We find little …

Boosted Classification Trees And Class Probability/Quantile Estimation, David Mease, A. Wyner, A. Buja

Faculty Publications

The standard by which binary classifiers are usually judged, misclassification error, assumes equal costs of misclassifying the two classes or, equivalently, classifying at the 1/2 quantile of the conditional class probability function P[y = 1jx]. Boosted classification trees are known to perform quite well for such problems. In this article we consider the use of standard, off-the-shelf boosting for two more general problems: 1) classification with unequal costs or, equivalently, classification at quantiles other than 1/2, and 2) estimation of the conditional class probability function P[y = 1jx]. We first examine whether the latter problem, estimation of P[y = 1jx], …

From The Classroom To The Boardroom: How Understanding 'The Rules' Of Dating Can Help Undergraduate Business Students Practice 'The Rules' Of Effective Career Communication, Marilyn K. Easter, T Clark, M Clark

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

An Empirical Test Of Stewardship Theory, James Davis, Steven Frankforter, David Vollrath, Vanessa Hill

Journal of Business & Leadership: Research, Practice, and Teaching (2005-2012)

This study tests the model of Davis, Schoorman, and Donaldson (1997) that proposed determinants of a company’s governance structure. In particular, we focus on the stewardship theory aspects of the model and its ability to predict the presence of a stewardship-orientation CEO at publicly listed U.S. companies. Using survey based data obtained from CEOs and directors of 100 companies in a match-pair design, we identified three variables that predicted the occurrence of stewardship-oriented behaviors by the company’s CEO. These results lend support for the model’s ability to predict the conditions under which stewardship-oriented individuals become CEOs.

Cost- Benefit Model For Substance Abuse Treatment Programs, Carl Parker, Thomas Johansen Ph.D.

Journal of Business & Leadership: Research, Practice, and Teaching (2005-2012)

This paper presents a literature review and a specification for a Cost-Benefit model applied to substance abuse treatment programs. It is important in adapting a model that is not only theoretically and methodologically sound, but also seeks to utilize the best existing cost benefit analysis techniques. Ideas, concepts, and procedures found in other studies are used to support the model developed. Model specification involves the determination of the appropriate variables and statistical techniques, keeping in mind the data most readily available from the programs intended for analysis. Cost-benefit analysis is commonly used to provide guidance to policy makers when considering …

Getting The Job Done: Moderating Conflict In Culturally Diverse Teams, Dennis Rittle

Journal of Business & Leadership: Research, Practice, and Teaching (2005-2012)

Conflict literature reveals that team diversity influences team member satisfaction mediated through affective conflict. This research proposal argues that the team diversity and affective conflict reduction (TDACR) model can moderate the negative influence of affective conflict by introducing a moderating variable, team ontology, which measures team functionality and member role comprehension. This proposal recommends collecting data from a culturally diverse airplane manufacturing plant, which utilizing teams that perform routine and non—routine tasks to test the hypotheses. The leadership implications of the TDACR model suggest increasing team ontology or decreasing team diversity to maintain positive levels of team member satisfaction.

The Role Of Cio's In Strategic Decision Making And It Usage: An Empirical Examination, Jennifer Leonard, Robert Dooley

Journal of Business & Leadership: Research, Practice, and Teaching (2005-2012)

In this study, we examine the relationship between CIO involvement in strategy formulation and how IT is perceived within the organization. We use the top management team literature to theorize that the higher the level of CIO strategic involvement the more likely the firm is to view IT as strategically important and we support these results with a sample of Fortune 500 firms. These findings have significant implications as many see the CIO’s role in the organization by many as a key factor in the ability of a firm to benefit strategically from IT.

Real Deposit Insurance Coverage At U.S. Commercial Banks, Marieta Velikova, Kevin Rogers

Journal of Business & Leadership: Research, Practice, and Teaching (2005-2012)

Deposit insurance legislation currently being considered by the U.S. Congress proposes to increase the nominal level of insurance coverage for the first time since the passage of DIDMCA in 1980. Since that time, the fixed nominal amount of coverage has resulted in an erosion of the real amount of coverage due to continued inflation. This paper examines the relationship between real coverage and bank risk at individual banks over the last 10 years. The findings suggest that the change in real coverage over time has not been associated with a change in risk at commercial banks. This results implies that …

Revisiting Measuring Performance In Not-For-Profit Organizations, Michael Brown

Journal of Business & Leadership: Research, Practice, and Teaching (2005-2012)

Measuring performance is important both in the private sector and in the not-for-profit sector. Private sector performance has been measured by the changes in variables such as earnings per share, stock price, or income tax liability. Performance in the not-for-profit sector is more difficult to measure. A model that combines data envelopment analysis and regression analysis will be used to measure management performance. Data envelopment analysis will measure the organization’s efficiency, the dependent variable, and regression analysis will determine the predictability of not-for-profit financial ratios. In this paper, the Texas arts community is sampled and data is taken from the …