Business Commons^™

Travel And Recreation: Outlooks And Trends, Norma P. Nickerson

Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research Publications

Outlooks and Trends in 2009, a Review of 2008.

Montana Travel Research: 2008, Norma P. Nickerson, Melissa Bruns-Dubois

Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research Publications

Outlook for 2008 and Review of 2007.

Trademarks, Consumer Psychology, And The Sophisticated Consumer, Glenn L. Christensen, Eric D. Derosia, Thomas R. Lee

Faculty Publications

Trademark law rests on an amorphous foundation. The scope of protection afforded to the trademark holder turns on the psychology and behavior of the "ordinary" consumer "under the normally prevalent conditions of the market and giving the attention such purchasers usually give in buying that class of goods." In trademark law, "everything hinges upon whether there is a likelihood of confusion in the mind of an appreciable number of 'reasonably prudent' buyers." Where the ordinary consumer is deemed sufficiently "sophisticated" to discern differences between two competing marks, the law forecloses protection for the senior trademark.

Employing Adaptive Structuring As A Cognitive Decision Aid In High Reliability Organizations, Karlene H. Roberts, Kuo Frank Yu, Vinit M. Desai, Peter Madsen

Faculty Publications

The article begins by discussing processes contributing to high and low reliability decision making. It then discusses three cases, covering similar processes used in the three situations and notes what managers can take from this. Finally, the article argues for research that does not concentrate on a single organization but examines interactions among geographically distributed units addressing the same problem.

How Are Preferences Revealed?, John Beshears, James J. Choi, David Laibson, Brigitte C. Madrian

Faculty Publications

Revealed preferences are tastes that rationalize an economic agent's observed actions. Normative preferences represent the agent's actual interests. It sometimes makes sense to assume that revealed preferences are identical to normative preferences. But there are many cases where this assumption is violated. We identify five factors that increase the likelihood of a disparity between revealed preferences and normative preferences: passive choice, complexity, limited personal experience, third-party marketing, and intertemporal choice. We then discuss six approaches that jointly contribute to the identification of normative preferences: structural estimation, active decisions, asymptotic choice, aggregated revealed preferences, reported preferences, and informed preferences. Each …

The Importance Of Default Options For Retirement Savings Outcomes: Evidence From The United States, John Beshears, James J. Choi, David Laibson, Brigitte C. Madrian

Faculty Publications

This paper summarizes the empirical evidence on how defaults impact retirement savings outcomes. After outlining the salient features of the various sources of retirement income in the U.S., the paper presents the empirical evidence on how defaults impact retirement savings outcomes at all stages of the savings lifecycle, including savings plan participation, savings rates, asset allocation, and post-retirement savings distributions. The paper then discusses why defaults have such a tremendous impact on savings outcomes. The paper concludes with a discussion of the role of public policy towards retirement saving when defaults matter.

Short-Sale Strategies And Return Predictability, Karl B. Diether, Kuan-Hui Lee, Ingrid M. Werner

Faculty Publications

We examine short selling in US stocks based on new SEC-mandated data for 2005. There is a tremendous amount of short selling in our sample: short sales represent 24% of NYSE and 31% of Nasdaq share volume. Short sellers increase their trading following positive returns and they correctly predict future negative abnormal returns. These patterns are robust to controlling for voluntary liquidity provision and for opportunistic risk-bearing by short sellers. The results are consistent with short sellers trading on short-term overreaction of stock prices. A trading strategy based on daily short-selling activity generates significant positive returns during the sample period.

Investability And Firm Value, Todd Mitton, Thomas O’Connor

Faculty Publications

We study how investability, or openness to foreign equity investors, affects firm value in a sample of over 1,400 firms from 26 emerging markets. We find that, on average, investability is associated with a 9% valuation premium (as measured by Tobin’s q). However, in firm-fixed effects regressions this valuation premium disappears, suggesting that investability does not have a causal effect on firm value. Analysis of the components of Tobin’s q shows that firms that become investable experience significant increases in both market values and physical investment. These effects are strongest for firms that face country-level or firm-level financial constraints prior …

Diversification To Mitigate Expropriation In The Tobacco Industry, Messod D. Beneish, Ivo Ph. Jansen, Melissa F. Lewis-Western, Nathan V. Stuart

Faculty Publications

While it is well established that diversifying acquisitions by large, cash-rich firms destroy shareholder wealth, we document positive abnormal returns to such acquisitions in the tobacco industry. We show that these abnormal returns are associated with proxies for lower expected expropriation costs. Specifically, we show that wealth creation increases in the degree of domestic geographic expansion afforded by the acquisition (increasing tobacco firms’ influence in more political districts) and in the liquidity of tobacco firms’ assets (converting cash to harder-to-expropriate operating assets). We also show that the threat of expropriation constrains payments to shareholders before expropriation becomes certain in 1998.

Effects Of Friendship In Transactions In An Emerging Market: Empirical Evidence From Brazil, Wesley Mendes-Da-Silva, Thaís Fernanda Salves De Brito, Rubens Famá, Jonathan T. Liljegren

Faculty Publications

This paper considers the inclusion of human behavioral aspects and implications of cognitive psychology and anthropology in decisions relating to the emerging field of behavioral finance. The formulated hypotheses were tested using 400 questionnaires, answered by students enrolled in MBA programs. The principal results suggest that individuals involved in transactions among friends or among strangers assume different behaviors—friends agree about the price attributed to an asset, while strangers show the propensity to bargain.

Using Wheelchair Sports To Complement Disability Awareness Curriculum Among College Students, Neil R. Lundberg, Ramon Zabriskie, Kevin M. Smith, Keith W. Barney

Faculty Publications

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a campus-wide intramural wheelchair sports program on attitudes toward people with disabilities. The sample consisted of 126 participants at a large, western university. A quasi-experimental pre-post design was used. Results indicated that there was a significant decrease in discomfort in interaction with people with disabilities after participation in the program. Additional findings indicated that recreation majors who were required to have some disability awareness training in their coursework had statistically lower pre- and post-test scores than other majors and demonstrated the greatest change in attitude toward people with disabilities. …

Nonresident Fathers’ Family Leisure Patterns During Parenting Time With Their Children, Alisha T. Swinton, Patti A. Freeman, Ramon B. Zabriskie, Paul J. Fields

Faculty Publications

The purpose of the study was to examine the leisure patterns of nonresident fathers while spending time with their child(ren), and to examine leisure constraints, leisure facilitators and nonresident fathers’ satisfaction with family leisure activities. Four instruments were used to collect the data. Family leisure involvement was measured using the Family Leisure Activity Profile (FLAP), leisure constraints were measured using the Nonresident Father Leisure Constraint Scale (NFLCS), leisure facilitators were measured using the Nonresident Fathers’ Leisure Facilitator Scale (NFLFS), and family leisure satisfaction was measured using the Family Leisure Satisfaction Scale (FLSS). The sample was nonresident fathers (N = 129) …

Momentum, Reversal, And Uninformed Traders In Laboratory Markets, Robert J. Bloomfield, William B. Tayler, Flora H. Zhou

Faculty Publications

We report the results of three experiments based on the model of Hong and Stein (1999). Consistent with the model, results show that when informed traders do not observe prices, uninformed traders generate long-term price reversals by engaging in momentum trade. However, when informed traders also observe prices, uninformed traders generate reversals by engaging in contrarian trading. Results suggest that a dominated information set is sufficient to account for the contrarian behavior observed among individual investors, and that uninformed traders may be responsible for long-term price reversals but play little role in driving short-term momentum.

Proposing The Hedonic Affect Model (Ham) To Explain How Stimuli And Performance Expectations Predict Affect In Individual And Group Hedonic Systems Use, Paul Benjamin Lowry, Jeffrey L. Jenkins, James Gaskin, Bryan Hammer, Nathan W. Twyman, Martin Hassell

Faculty Publications

Hedonic systems represent a multibillion-dollar industry and play an important role in how people recreate, socialize, and even conduct business. A key goal of hedonic system design is to promote positive affect—a variable known to influence cognitive beliefs, trust, disclosure, adoption, and purchase intentions. Yet, little research has identified or explained how stimuli from design features lead to positive affect in hedonic systems. This article introduces a new theoretical model, the Hedonic Affect Model (HAM), which is a comprehensive and generalizable model explaining the causes of positive and negative affect in a hedonic software context. HAM outlines three stages that …

Ict Perceptions And Meanings: Implications For Knowledge Transfer, Anne P. Massey, Taylor M. Wells

Faculty Publications

Driven by global competition and economic pressures, organizations are increasingly interested in transferring and leveraging local expertise at the global level. While many of the challenges of knowledge transfer (KT) have been discussed in the literature (e.g., incentives, cognitive limitations), the challenge of KT in distributed, or “virtual”, settings and the role of information and communication technologies (ICTs) have received limited attention. While any given ICT may be described in terms of one’s perceptual awareness of its capabilities (e.g., richness, interactivity), it may also be described relative to the meanings an individual attaches to it, i.e., the idea of it …

The Influence Of Distributive Justice On Lying For And Stealing From A Supervisor, Elizabeth E. Umpress, Lily Run Ren, John B. Bingham, Celile Itir Gogus

Faculty Publications

In a controlled laboratory experiment, we found evidence for our predictions that participants who received fair distributive treatment were more likely to lie to give a supervisor a good performance evaluation than those treated unfairly, and those who received unfair distributive treatment were more likely to steal money from a supervisor than those treated fairly. We further proposed that the presence of an ethical code of conduct would moderate these relationships such that when the code was present these relationships would be weaker than when the code was absent, but we failed to find support for these moderating effects. Our …

Sustainability In Mba Recruiting: Only A Marketing Piece?, Lisa Jones Christensen, Aram Kang, Sheri Willoughby

Faculty Publications

Recently, the business press has paid increasing attention to the issue of sustainable business practices. Such press lends increased support to the innovative practices by for-profit companies as well as the programbuilding work of faculty and administrators at leading business schools. Specifically, faculty at select schools have progressively been building courses, programs, and/or research support centers for ‘sustainability’ education in the MBA curricula, with the number of courses and the student interest in the courses having both increased significantly over the last five years (Christensen et al., 2007; and the article of J. Hitchman in this issue).

Online Leisure Hotel Selection Criteria And Booking Behavior Of Young Middle-Income Singaporeans, Kin Wai Lee

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The Internet has changed the face of purchasing and customer behaviour over the last decade or so. Traditional concepts of marketing must be reviewed and businesses must be ready to fully embrace the online marketplace. The hotel industry is no different and evidently, has much to gain from this new medium with online sales figures climbing annually (Carroll & Sileo, 2007; PhoCusWright, 2006).

Studies have shown that more and more consumers are moving towards the Internet to find their products and services and ultimately making the purchase online (Starkov & Price, 2003). Singaporeans make for interesting subjects in this area, …

The Relationship Between Attributional Style And Information Technology Project Perception, Eric Kordt

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The purpose of this research is to investigate the relationship between attributional style and Information Technology (IT) project perception at varying job responsibility levels. To achieve this thirty participants were recruited from a large government department in the three distinct job responsibility levels of support worker (i.e. individual who undertakes activities under general direction), line manager (i.e. individual who undertakes activities under limited direction and typically performs role of team leader) and executive manager (i.e. individual who undertakes activities that involve a high a level of management skill under broad direction) and interviewed using a modified Work Attributional Style Questionnaire …

The Hotel Guest Questionnaire: An Assessment Of Its Role As A Service Encounter Interface, Alfred W. Ogle

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This exploratory study on hotel stakeholder behaviour uses a 'service innovation' approach to investigate how the hotel guest questionnaire can function in a way not previously considered in the hospitality management literature. viz as a remote service encounter interface between the hotel management and guest. The paper-based guest questionnaire. also commonly known as comment card. is an old hotel tradition that is the most widely used method or guest feedback elicitation by hotels. Primarily a method of measuring guest satisfaction. studies show that its inherent limitations as a survey Instrument result in inaccurate and ungeneralisable data. The trend for e-based …

Corporate Social Disclosures By Indonesian Listed Companies, Juniati Gunawan

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The issue of corporate social disclosure (CSD) has been of growing concern among businesses and communities globally, including those in Indonesia. As one of the big developing countries which offers a large domestic market and workforce. lndonesia is exposed to this issue. This study examines the extent of CSD in Indonesian listed companies by applying the content analysis method to company annual reports for the years 2003 to 2006. Prior studies have focused on exploring the theoretical framework, seeking the motivation for disclosures and obtaining certain stakeholder's opinions regarding CSD. However, those studies were limited to developed countries and to …

The Application Of Social Marketing In Reducing Road Traffic Accidents Among Young Male Drivers - An Investigation Using Physical Fear Threat Appeals., Brian Harman

Theses

In 2004, the Irish government rolled out its new two year road safety strategy which aimed to reduce road deaths in the Republic of Ireland to no more than 300 road fatalities by 2006. The strategy failed to reach its target. There were 368 road fatalities on Irish roads in 2006. The effects of the penalty points system, which was introduced in 2003, is considered responsible for reducing Irish road fatality figures to their lowest level since 1964 (335 deaths). However the beneficial effects of the penalty points system have proved transitory and road deaths have risen in recent years. …

"Assessing The Attitudes Of Regional Business Toward Research And Development (R&D) And Networking Activities In The South West Of Ireland", Denis O'Flaherty

Theses

This project seeks to understand and measure the levels of Research and Development (R&D) and Networking Activity amongst regional business in the South West of Ireland. The South West region of Ireland is a unique and beautiful place, but presents challenges and obstacles in terms of running a business within the region.

It is now generally accepted by policy-makers that Ireland is going to become increasingly dependent upon its indigenous businesses, most of which can be classified as Small-to- Medium Enterprises (SMEs). The question of R&D and networking was framed within the context of location, given the physical characteristics of …

' An Investigation Into The Impediments Of Rfid Adoption In Ireland, Emer O'Connor

Theses

Radio frequency identification (RFID) technology increases the ability of organisations to acquire a vast array of data about the location and properties of any entity that can be physically tagged, and wirelessly scanned within certain technical limitations. Many companies can benefit from its adoption, companies such as Manufacturing, Logistics, FMCG/Retail, Libraries and Pharmaceutical. This Research investigates the impediments to RFID adoption in Ireland. Internationally the lack of standards, cost of the technology along with other factors are cited as major constraints to the adoption of RFID. In an Irish context these factors hold true. Following an extensive research process, this …

Service Dimensions Of Service Quality Impacting Customer Satisfaction Of Fine Dining Restaurants In Singapore, Ko King Lily Harr

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This paper is an exploratory study of customer satisfaction of fine dining restaurants in Singapore. Since there is a causal relationship between customer satisfaction and service quality and services literature and studies have shown that service quality is an antecedent of customer satisfaction, this paper seeks to find out the service dimensions of service quality, which lead to higher levels of customer satisfaction. This study suggested that the service dimensions of assurance, empathy and tangibles are the most important to customers’ evaluation of service quality, and thus, may have a positive influence customer satisfaction. The service aspects of each of …

Commercialization Of Science: A Longitudinal Study Of Knowledge Distance, Firm Capabilities, And The Structure Of Licensing Contracts, Reddi Kotha, Gerard George

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Though the popularity of research on technology transfer offices (TTOs) has vastly increased, there is little empirical evidence of how the potential value for a technology is estimated and negotiated in a license. Limited qualitative work and empirical work (e.g., Owen-Smith, 2005) tap into the underlying decisions before a technology can be licensed. Consequently, we know very little on how a particular technology is valued and its impact on contract design. In this study, we analyze the content, design, and performance of 847 licensing contracts between university technology transfer offices and firms.

Situational Judgment Tests: A Review Of Recent Research, Filip Lievens, Helga Peeters, Eveline Schollaert

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to give an empirically-based review of the strengths and weaknesses of situational judgment tests (SJTs).Design/methodology/approach - The features, history, and development of SJTs are discussed. Next, a computerized search (from 1990-2007) is conducted to retrieve empirical studies related to SJTs. The effectiveness of SJTs is discussed in terms of reliability, criterion-related validity, incremental validity, construct-related validity, utility, adverse impact, applicant perceptions, fakability, and susceptibility to practice and coaching effects.Findings - Strengths of SJTs are that they show criterion-related validity and incremental validity above cognitive ability and personality tests. SJTs have also less …

Values, Ideologies, And Frames Of Reference In Employment Relations, John W. Budd, Devasheesh P. Bhave

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Employment relations—which form most of the 20th century was called industrial relations, and what some now call human resources and industrial relations—is a multidisciplinary field studying all aspects of work and the employment relationship (Ackers and Wilkinson, 2003; Budd, 2004; Kaufm an, 2004). A multidisciplinary approach means that competing values and assumptions underlie the analyses, policies, and practices of employment relations scholars, practitioners, and policymakers. Unfortunately, these underlying beliefs are often implicit rather than explicit, or, with the longstanding focus on how industrial relations processes work, sometimes ignored altogether. But understanding the employment relationship, corporate human resource management practices, labor …

Technological Change Management Strategies In Asian Small-Scale Businesses: Trends In Singapore, Thomas Menkhoff, Yue Wah Chay

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Based on survey data on the change management behavior of Chinese small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in Singapore, the paper explores how small entrepreneurs are coping with the city-state's turbulent business environment, processes of technological advancement and accelerated change. Differences between so-called opportunistic entrepreneurs and small business ventures are examined. Conceptually, the paper is informed by theories of change management, strategic choice, entrepreneurship and Chinese business. Special emphasis is put on the identification of demographic characteristics of "technological change masters" in Singapore's small business sector so as to gain an understanding of both the dynamism and relative passivity of …

A Critical Assessment Of Professional Skills And Knowledge In Supplier Diversity: A Delphi Study, Mia Cole

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Today, many US corporations have made great strides to embrace supplier diversity as a social consideration, and most importantly, as a strategic business enabler. From the earlier years of mandating minority inclusion to the realization that diversifying the supply chain creates value by capitalizing on the diverse background and experiences of minority businesses, supplier diversity has emerged as a major business initiative. It is one of the initiatives that contribute to the welfare of the country by building minority communities and strengthening our society. By developing business coalitions and partnerships with minority suppliers there is tremendous opportunity to impact the …