Business Commons^™

Organizational Values, Social Responsibility, And Corporate Citizenship: The Case Of Nevada State College, Grace S. Thomson

Dr. Grace S. Thomson

Organizational Values, Social Responsibility, and Corporate Citizenship Organizations contribute more than products and services to the society. The generation of jobs, creation of wealth and satisfaction of needs are only a portion of the influence that organizations have in a community. Likewise, organizations are increasingly engaging in social responsible initiatives to respond to the concerns of their various stakeholders (Aguilera, Rupp, Williams, & Ganapathi, 2007). Organizations with a genuine interest for social responsibility and citizenship possess value systems that articulate and integrate these social motives into their corporate strategy (Graber & Kilpatrick, 2008). Higher education institutions in the United States …

Green Buildings: An Asset Manager's Dream Or Nightmare?, Linda Too

Linda Too

The mounting evidence on climate change has thrust the sustainability issue to the forefront of many political agendas. Current research has provided many business cases for sustainable design and construction. While commercial green buildings have been the mainstay, the green phenomenon has also spread to educational facilities. This paper provides a case study of the new Mirvac School of Sustainable Development Building at Bond University, Gold Coast, Australia. With its extensive green features, it is applying to be the first six-star rated green educational building in Australia. To this end, the management of green buildings will be a challenge for …

Designing Short Term Trading Systems With Artificial Neural Networks, Bruce Vanstone, Gavin Finnie, Tobias Hahn

Tobias Hahn

There is a long established history of applying Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) to financial data sets. In this paper, the authors demonstrate the use of this methodology to develop a financially viable, short-term trading system. When developing short-term systems, the authors typically site the neural network within an already existing non-neural trading system. This paper briefly reviews an existing medium-term long-only trading system, and then works through the Vanstone and Finnie methodology to create a short-term focused ANN which will enhance this trading strategy. The initial trading strategy and the ANN enhanced trading strategy are comprehensively benchmarked both in-sample and …

Student Staff: A Village Philosophy, Lisa Caughron

Lisa Caughron

No abstract provided.

Color As A Source Of Brand Differentiation: Can It Be Defended?, Byron W. Keating, T. R. Coltman

Dr Byron W. Keating

Savvy marketers have long sought to exploit the psychological effects of color to differentiate their brands and create competitive advantage: IBM Blue, Coca- Cola Red, and BP Green. These are not new colors but well-known brand colors. While changes in international trademark law over the past decade paved the way for marketers to seek protection for a color associated with a brand, this case demonstrates some important challenges in defending such trademarks.

In Pursuit Of A Sustainable Supply Chain: Insights From Westpac Banking Corporation, Byron Keating, Ali Quazi, Anton Kriz, Tim Coltman

Dr Byron W. Keating

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to provide clues to industry and academia on how best to approach the challenge of developing a sustainable supply chain. Design/methodology/approach – A case study was undertaken of the Westpac Banking Corporation – one of the world's most socially responsible banks – to examine how they approached the challenge of managing corporate social responsibility (CSR) in their supply chain. Findings – This paper highlights some of the challenges and opportunities associated with extending corporate governance beyond the firm boundary. Specific attention is given to a discussion of assessment and governance tools. Research …

Outbound Tourism From China: Literature Review And Research Agenda, Byron W. Keating, A. Kriz

Dr Byron W. Keating

The rapid growth of China's outbound tourism market has attracted a great deal of attention in recent years. However, the academic literature is still sparse in this area. Using a theoretical framework that synthesises the key processes related to destination choice, the authors undertake a systematic review of the academic literature on outbound tourism from China. Stemming from this review, the article provides some direction for future empirical research on this important topic. The authors also suggest that a new model for travel planning could be developed, suggesting that traditional destination choice models may inadequately capture the nuances of destination …

Unpacking The Rfid Investment Decision, Byron W. Keating, Tim R. Coltman, Samuel Fosso Wamba, Valerie Baker

Dr Byron W. Keating

Mandates aside, there are many reasons why firms decide to move forward with or delay investment in RFID technology. In this paper we use a theoretically based, easy to implement methodology to empirically derive a relative importance scale of those factors that influence the decision to invest in RFID technology. More specifically, we compare the factors that matter most and least to a sample of firms that have adopted RFID technology with a sample of firms that have yet to embrace RFID technology. The theoretical and practical implications are that both RFID adopters and non adopters are driven by the …

Computational Thinking (Ct): On Weaving It In, Paul Curzon, Joan Peckham, Harriet G. Taylor, Amber Settle, Eric Roberts

Amber Settle

An Information System Design Theory For And Rfid University-Based Laboratory, S. F. Wamba, Katina Michael

Professor Katina Michael

RFID technology is defined as a wireless automatic identification and data capture (AIDC) technology and is considered as “the next big thing” in the management and “the next revolution in supply chain”. Recently, the topic has attracted the interest of the industrial community as well as the scientific community. Following this tendency, this paper applies an Information Systems Design Theory (ISDT) for an RFID-based University Laboratory. For practitioners, the paper provides some insights into the set-up and use of RFID laboratory in university settings, and at the same time, it offers a set of hypotheses that can be empirically tested.

Ceo Pay-For-Performance Heterogeneity: Examples Using Quantile Regression, Kevin F. Hallock, Regina Madalozzo, Clayton G. Reck

Kevin F Hallock

We provide some examples of how quantile regression can be used to investigate heterogeneity in pay–firm size and pay-performance relationships for U.S. CEOs. For example, do conditionally (predicted) high-wage managers have a stronger relationship between pay and performance than conditionally low-wage managers? Our results using data over a decade show, for some standard specifications, there is considerable heterogeneity in the returns to firm performance across the conditional distribution of wages. Quantile regression adds substantially to our understanding of the pay-performance relationship. This heterogeneity is masked when using more standard empirical techniques.

Quantile Regression, Roger Koenker, Kevin F. Hallock

Kevin F Hallock

Quantile regression as introduced by Koenker and Bassett seeks to extend ideas of quantiles to the estimation of conditional quantile functions--models in which quantiles of the conditional distribution of the response variable are expressed as functions of observed covariates.

A Simulated Annealing Approach To Communication Network Design, Stephen J. Sugden, Marcus Randall, Graham Mcmahon

Stephen Sugden

This paper explores the use of the meta-heuristic search algorithm Simulated Annealing for solving a minimum cost network synthesis problem. This problem is a common one in the design of telecommunication networks. The formulation we use models a number of practical problems with hop-limit, degree and capacity constraints. Emphasis is placed on a new approach that uses a knapsack polytope to select amongst a number of pre-computed traffic routes in order to synthesise the network. The advantage of this approach is that a subset of the best routes can be used instead of the whole set, thereby making the process …

Ultra Lightweight Web Applications: A Single-Page Wiki Employing A Partial Ajax Solution, Michael J. Rees

Michael J Rees

The overloaded term Web 2.0 web site usually connotes an interactive web application that offers features normally associated with free-standing applications running directly under the control of an operating system. Such an interactive web applications, also known as a rich internet application (RIA), run within web browsers and must download XHTML and client-side scripts to control user interactivity. Via a variety of technologies the web server must provide a storage mechanism to support the RIA and the presentation of dynamic data in the browser interface. Such storage may be of large volume and bring concomitant bandwidth, response and server storage …

Sla Automated Negotiation Manager For Computing Services, Halina Kaminski, Mark Perry

Mark Perry

Success in today’s marketing arena can often depend on companies embracing effective new technologies and integrating them into their business model. In the computing service supply industry, Service Level Agreements (SLAs) are commonly prepared and signed agreements between the service provider and its customers. SLAs should match business needs of both sides of the agreement as closely as possible. This paper focuses on at the steps and activities that the service provider can take to facilitate agreement. It proposes an automated way for creating SLA’s from a set of Service Level Objectives (SLOs). The SLA should achieve business goals, including …

E-Business: Revolution, Evolution, Or Hype?, T. Coltman, T. M. Devinney, A. Latukefu, D. F. Midgley

Tim Coltman

As the Internet continues to grow in size and capability, many firms are implementing Web-based applications and Internet-derived economic change continues to occur. If this change is revolutionary, now or in the near future, then many managers will be required to rethink their firm strategies and managerial responses in a profound way. On the other hand, if the change is simply evolutionary, it will apply more to some firms than to others, and pre-Internet strategies and managerial responses will still be appropriate in many circumstances. While it is premature to categorize e-business as revolutionary, e-business is not a silver bullet, …

The Value Of Managerial Beliefs In Turbulent Environments: Managerial Orientation And E-Business Advantage, T. Coltman, T. M. Devinney, D. F. Midgley

Tim Coltman

There is a great divide between the degree to which academic research accounts for the role of managerial discretion in firm performance and the weight given by the popular press and financial community to the importance of the management of an organization. The purpose of this paper is to bridge this gap by quantifying the way managerial beliefs influence the quality of firm performance in a turbulent environment based on e-business. An e-business research setting is used that is associated with a situation of environmental turbulence to allow for sufficient variance in managerial beliefs to measure their effect on firm …

Local Spectral Analysis Via A Bayesian Mixture Of Smoothing Splines” Journal Of The American Statistical Association, Sally Wood, Ori Rosen, David Stoffer

Sally Wood

No abstract provided.

A Bayesian Approach To Ordinal Outcomes For Neurosurgical Clinical Research., Sally Wood

Sally Wood

The objective of this study is to demonstrate a Bayesian approach for the statistical analysis of neurosurgical data where the investigators have used an ordinal scale for the outcome. A Bayesian approach that uses data augmentation and Gibbs sampling to perform ordinal probit regression is demonstrated in a neurosurgical context. The statistical approach is applied to a regression analysis to examine the relationship between female gender and the outcome of severe traumatic brain injury measured with the Glascow Outcome Scale. The approach is applied to a hierarchical meta-analysis to examine the relationship between age and the outcome from subarachnoid haemorrhage …

Trans-Dimensional Metropolis-Hastings Using Parallel Chains, Sally Wood, James Pullen, Robert Kohn, David Leslie

Sally Wood

A general Bayesian sampling method is developed that uses parallel chains to select between models and to average the predictive density over such models. The method applies to both non-nested models and to nested models, and is particularly useful for mixtures of complex component models, where a novel approach to overcome the label-switching problem is used. The method is illustrated with real and simulated data in model-averaging over alternative financial time series models, mixtures of normal distributions, and mixtures of smoothing spline models.

Mixture Of Random Effects For Individual Learning Curves, Sally Wood, Edward Cripps, Robert Wood

Sally Wood

In the pyschology literature individuals are often classified as entity theorists or incrementalists. In this paper we explore the different learning behaviours over time of these two groups. To assess learning an individual is assigned a task and their performance on the task is measured over a number of trials. Learning behaviour is modelled as a mixture of two random effects, where the random effects components of the mixture correspond to increased learning and spiralling behaviour. We find significant differences in the learning behaviours of the two groups. Specifically those individuals who are categorized as entity theorists are more likely …

Wine Purchase Decisions And Consumption Behaviors: Insights From A Probability Sample Drawn In Auckland, New Zealand, Peter Danaher

Peter Danaher

No abstract provided.

How Often Versus How Long: The Interplay Of Contact Frequency And Relationship Duration In Customer Perceptions Of Service Relationship Strength, Peter Danaher, Tracey Dagger, Brian Gibbs

Peter Danaher

This study investigates the effects of customer contact frequency and relationship duration on customer-reported relationship strength (CRRS). Although relationships are understood to develop through an incremental process of time and encounters, exactly how frequency and duration interactively influence CRRS is not known. We embed our analysis of these two relationship-quantity variables within a larger model that considers the effects of relationship-quality variables—commitment, trust and satisfaction—on CRRS. We additionally control for customer demographics and service type. Using a fully national sample of 591 service consumers, we find that both contact frequency and relationship duration have a positive effect on CRRS, and …

Priors For A Bayesian Analysis Of Extreme Values, Sally Wood, Julian Wang

Sally Wood

This article proposes a new prior specification for a Bayesian analysis of the k largest order statistics model. We show that using Jeffreys priors for the end-point and shape parameters of the k largest order statistics model leads to biased estimates of the shape parameter for small to medium sample sizes and to the posterior mode of the end-point being equal to the most extreme observed value. We propose a conjugate prior for the shape parameter and a prior for the end-point which removes the posterior mode at the most extreme observed value while remaining uninformative for values of the …

Designing Short Term Trading Systems With Artificial Neural Networks, Bruce Vanstone, Gavin Finnie, Tobias Hahn

Bruce Vanstone

There is a long established history of applying Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) to financial data sets. In this paper, the authors demonstrate the use of this methodology to develop a financially viable, short-term trading system. When developing short-term systems, the authors typically site the neural network within an already existing non-neural trading system. This paper briefly reviews an existing medium-term long-only trading system, and then works through the Vanstone and Finnie methodology to create a short-term focused ANN which will enhance this trading strategy. The initial trading strategy and the ANN enhanced trading strategy are comprehensively benchmarked both in-sample and …

Towards Self-Configurable Overlay Networks, Philadelphia University

Philadelphia University, Jordan

No abstract provided.

Homeland Security: Fostering Public-Private Partnerships, George H. Baker, Cheryl J. Elliott

George H Baker

Recent U.S. high consequence events have clarified the importance of government collaboration with industry. The benefit of such collaboration was one of the most important lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina. The resources owned and controlled by American industry dwarf those available to local, state and even the federal government departments. Better agreements and incentives to bring the full capabilities of industry squarely into the national response agenda will be indispensable in effectively responding to large-scale catastrophes. At our 2007 Symposium, General Russel Honoré, who led the National Guard response to Katrina stated, “We need the partnering between local, state, and …