Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Business Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

2009

Discipline
Institution
Keyword
Publication
Publication Type
File Type

Articles 91 - 120 of 2551

Full-Text Articles in Business

The Development Of Tourism Areas: A Comparative Case Study Of The Factors Underpinning Tourism Development In Killarney And Clifden In Ireland, Theresa Ryan Dec 2009

The Development Of Tourism Areas: A Comparative Case Study Of The Factors Underpinning Tourism Development In Killarney And Clifden In Ireland, Theresa Ryan

Doctoral

This research investigates the local, place-based factors that influence tourism development, and asks why some tourism areas develop more than others. It provides important insights into the dynamics that occur at the local level, and contributes to the existing literature on destination development by investigating the influence of local tourist influentials; the presence of a social and professional milieu and the propensity for co-operation. Taking an inter-disciplinary approach, the research draws from existing tourism literature on models of tourism development, as well as literatures on entrepreneurship and industrial district theory. Underpinned by a pragmatic philosophy, it adopts a mixed-methods approach …


End Of The Year Tax Planning, Anthony J. Cataldo Ii, Anthony P. Curatola Dec 2009

End Of The Year Tax Planning, Anthony J. Cataldo Ii, Anthony P. Curatola

Accounting Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.


The Impact Of Computerisation On Productivity: The Case Of Two State Utility Corporations In Botswana, Ayoku A. Ojedokun, Kgomotso H. Moahi Dec 2009

The Impact Of Computerisation On Productivity: The Case Of Two State Utility Corporations In Botswana, Ayoku A. Ojedokun, Kgomotso H. Moahi

The African Journal of Information Systems

The study investigated the impact of computer technology on productivity improvement as reflected in the billing process and total quality bills invoiced per month in the Gaborone headquarters of Botswana Power Corporation and Water Utilities Corporation. It examined the input-output relationship with computers as one of the inputs. The other input is labour represented by the Meter Reading Hours and the Supervisory Hours. The study drew on the economic production theory and time series approach to determine the contributions of the inputs to output. The study relied on unpublished information and interviews rather than the use of publicly or commercially …


Developing An Assessment Model For Evaluating Software Tools In Education, Vedant Jain, Hong Sheng, Richard H. Hall, Mike (Michael) Gene Hilgers Dec 2009

Developing An Assessment Model For Evaluating Software Tools In Education, Vedant Jain, Hong Sheng, Richard H. Hall, Mike (Michael) Gene Hilgers

Business and Information Technology Faculty Research & Creative Works

This Paper Presents a Research Model to Evaluate the Usability of Computer-Mediated Learning Technology, User Acceptance of the Technology, and the Effect of the Technology on Learning Outcomes. We Also Introduce the Use of Innovative Research Techniques for the Evaluation, Including Eye Tracking and Think-Aloud Protocol. Think-Aloud Protocol Allows Us to Understand a User's State of Mind While He/she is Interacting with the System. Eye Tracking Also Provides Additional Insights into a User's Cognitive State While using the System. Both Qualitative and Quantitative Data Can Be Collected Following the Research Model, Thus Providing More In-Depth Understanding on the Effect of …


Designing Motorcycles Via The Web: Improved Aesthetics And Consumer Preference, Michael Gene Hilgers, Hong Sheng, Richard H. Hall Dec 2009

Designing Motorcycles Via The Web: Improved Aesthetics And Consumer Preference, Michael Gene Hilgers, Hong Sheng, Richard H. Hall

Business and Information Technology Faculty Research & Creative Works

The Purpose of This Research Was to Examine How Manipulation of the Aesthetic Appeal of a Motorcycle's Image on a Web Page Might Elucidate Trends in Consumer Preference. to This End, Website Visitors Were Encouraged to Reconfigure a Blueprint of Motorcycle to Make It More Appealing. These Alterations to its Confirmation Were Analyzed to Identify Patterns of Preference that Were Then Compared to the Marketplace in General. It Was Observed that Aesthetic Preferences Recognized by the Design Method Were Similar to Trends within the Motorcycle Building/buying Public.


Ritual Characteristic Congruence Between Consumers’ Consumption And Production Practices, Shannon Cummins, Sanford Grossbart Dec 2009

Ritual Characteristic Congruence Between Consumers’ Consumption And Production Practices, Shannon Cummins, Sanford Grossbart

Marketing & Entrepreneurship Faculty Publications

This paper explores characteristic congruencies between ritual consumption and ritual production. While ritual consumption and coproduction are topics of study in marketing, ritual production has not been explored. This paper expands upon previous research on ritual consumption to develop a typology of ritual production including four metaphors: production-asexperience, production-as-classification, production-as-play, and production-as-integration. The typology is used to provide a framework for understanding the ritual tendencies of individuals who engage in ritual production and consumption in materialist and nonmaterialist ways.


The Role Of Knowledge Management In Achieving Outstanding University Performance (Applied Study In The Faculty Of Management And Economics / University Of Kufa), Saad Ali Al-Anzi, Ali Razzaq Chyad Al-Abedi, Faik Jawad Kadhim Dec 2009

The Role Of Knowledge Management In Achieving Outstanding University Performance (Applied Study In The Faculty Of Management And Economics / University Of Kufa), Saad Ali Al-Anzi, Ali Razzaq Chyad Al-Abedi, Faik Jawad Kadhim

Journal of Economics and Administrative Sciences

The research aims to determine the role of knowledge management to measure performance on a sample of faculties of Administration and Economics the University of Kufa, and to achieve this goal through a researcher from the theoretical literature and research and studies related to the construction of the scheme shows the hypothetical relationship between the variables, which was adopted by the independent variable knowledge management, distributed four variables are: (knowledge generation, knowledge storage, knowledge dissemination, the application of knowledge), as well as four variables representing the variables adopted for the performance of the university are: (to reduce costs and increase …


Formation Of Cull Cow Program For The Artificial Insemination Class, Brian O. Medeiros Dec 2009

Formation Of Cull Cow Program For The Artificial Insemination Class, Brian O. Medeiros

Dairy Science

Cal Poly’s “Learn by Doing” philosophy is one of the great traits that the University holds. However it is this philosophy that is also one of the most expensive and hardest to maintain. “Production agriculture majors use more dollars per unit than any other major in the entire college,” as Dr. Golden stated during his talks about herd cut backs. Never the less the College of Agriculture prides itself on supplying knowledgeable and experienced students to the industry that supports it so much. One of the amazing classes that are offered at the university is the Dairy Science Artificial Insemination …


Carbon Finance Ii: Investing In Forests For Climate Protection, Jamie Carlson, Bryan Garcia, Claire Jahns, Eric Roberts, Katie Schindall Dec 2009

Carbon Finance Ii: Investing In Forests For Climate Protection, Jamie Carlson, Bryan Garcia, Claire Jahns, Eric Roberts, Katie Schindall

Yale School of the Environment Publications Series

Carbon Finance II: Investing in Forests for Climate Protection is a collection of lectures given during the 2008-2009 Carbon Finance Speaker Series at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. The annual series is hosted by the Center for Business and the Environment at Yale and supported by the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation and the Henry P. Kendall Foundation. The 2008-2009 speaker series focused on forest carbon and the opportunities and obstacles to including forests in greenhouse gas emission reduction policies, carbon markets, and cap-and-trade systems.


Bridging The Operational Divide: An Information-Processing Model Of Internal Supply Chain Integration, Ana Rosado Feger Dec 2009

Bridging The Operational Divide: An Information-Processing Model Of Internal Supply Chain Integration, Ana Rosado Feger

All Dissertations

Supply Chain Management, the coordination of upstream and downstream flows of product, services, finances, and information from a source to a customer, has risen in prominence over the past fifteen years. The delivery of a product to the consumer is a complex process requiring action from several independent entities. An individual firm consists of multiple functional departments, each responsible for one aspect of customer service. In the traditional corporate structure of functional silos, there is little communication between Purchasing, Manufacturing, and Logistics, and yet these departments comprise three core supply chain processes of a firm. Ironically, managers report that it …


The Paradox Of Evidenced-Based Management In Higher Education, Alice J. Walker Dec 2009

The Paradox Of Evidenced-Based Management In Higher Education, Alice J. Walker

Student Scholarship

The potential role for evidence-based management approaches to transform systems of higher learning and meet the growing needs of our knowledge economy is widely proposed. Most of the empirical work on evidence-based practice and management has concentrated on dynamics directly related to the use of evidence. This study takes a broader view of the management process of inquiry in which evidence is collected, interpreted or ignored. Semi-structured interviews with 31 faculty, staff and administrative members of college quality improvement committees were conducted in a grounded approach to qualitative research. What emerged was an intriguing tale of passion, power, and paradox …


Creating Sustained Collaborations: Do Rule-Breaking, Rule-Making, And Appreciative Behaviors Foster Member Ownership?, Nonie Brennan Dec 2009

Creating Sustained Collaborations: Do Rule-Breaking, Rule-Making, And Appreciative Behaviors Foster Member Ownership?, Nonie Brennan

Student Scholarship

Non profit collaboration has long been identified as an effective approach to meeting community needs. It is particularly recognized as a solution to the challenges encountered by non profits during periods of economic duress. This study examines the relationship between the sense of ownership felt by non profit collaborative partners and their intent to sustain collaboration. We posit that three particular behaviors: rule breaking, rule making, and appreciative behavior encourage participants to develop a sense of ownership leading to collaborative sustainability. Our findings indicate that rule breaking and rule making behavior reinforces a sense of collaboration ownership which contributes to …


Driving Reform And Innovation Diffusion In Government: It Takes Guerilla Tactics To Slay A Gorilla, George K. Makiya Dec 2009

Driving Reform And Innovation Diffusion In Government: It Takes Guerilla Tactics To Slay A Gorilla, George K. Makiya

Student Scholarship

Key IT and business executives at all twenty six US Federal government departments and agencies were interviewed to assess constraints to Enterprise Architecture Programs congressionally mandated in 1996 to transform bureaucratic political institutions into efficient business enterprises. Results demonstrate the vital role of the individual in reform and innovation diffusion. Past empirical and longitudinal studies in reform and innovation diffusion have been conducted separately. This study synthesizes the twin diffusion phenomena. Our data show that "guerilla" tactics can overcome the "gorilla" forces of dominant culture and rigid institutional frameworks.


Enterprise Information Systems And Organizational Agility: Erp As A Dynamic Source Of Change, Complexity, And Risk, Amol Kharabe Dec 2009

Enterprise Information Systems And Organizational Agility: Erp As A Dynamic Source Of Change, Complexity, And Risk, Amol Kharabe

Student Scholarship

The literature is silent about how organizations that have implemented Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions reconcile the use of these rigid platforms in turbulent competitive environments. We studied three diverse organizations- a $9 billion US retailer, a $3 billion consumer products firm and a $2 billion logistics company- all with ERP solutions in the sustainment phase, to shed light on the impact of changing business needs on overall ERP performance. Semi structured interviews with 24 business and technical professionals revealed that in addition to economic and competitive forces for change to the ERP system, the system itself is paradoxically a …


Factors Influencing Collaboration Of Western Business Practitioners And Ngos Who Assist Small To Medium Sized Enterprises In Developing Countries: A Qualitative Analysis, William J. Oliver Dec 2009

Factors Influencing Collaboration Of Western Business Practitioners And Ngos Who Assist Small To Medium Sized Enterprises In Developing Countries: A Qualitative Analysis, William J. Oliver

Student Scholarship

We examined how Western Business Practitioners (WBPs) and Non- Governmental Organizations (NGOs) interact to assist Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) in developing countries. Interviews with North American WBPs, and NGOs in ten developing countries provided the data for the study. Findings suggest that partnership form (on a continuum from transactional to collaborative) has a direct and positive relationship with the extent of complementarity achieved by the actors. Complementarity, recommended as best ensured by management intervention, overcomes partners' geographical, cultural and socio/political differences, reduces power differentials, mitigates distrust and promotes communication. Three elements of complementarity--learning, communication and process--are discussed.


Feeling Comfortable With Pluralistic Diversity: Using Common Organizational Strategies To Get Uncommon Results In Higher Education Voluntary Service Organizations, Ruth Sessler Bernstein Dec 2009

Feeling Comfortable With Pluralistic Diversity: Using Common Organizational Strategies To Get Uncommon Results In Higher Education Voluntary Service Organizations, Ruth Sessler Bernstein

Student Scholarship

Diversity is a goal of the majority of America's institutions of higher learning. These colleges and universities have made great strides in achieving representational diversity through aggressive recruiting and retention efforts. However, on campus, students infrequently engage in pluralistic diversity. This paper examines a national voluntary service organization at two pluralistically diverse universities. Semi-structured interviews with members and alumni of the association provided insight into the characteristics of the interactions they have had with those who are different from them. These insights enabled us to examine the specific organizational strategies this nonprofit adopted that promoted enriching intercultural interactions.


Government Leadership-Business Voice: An Interaction And Mediation Analysis Of Business Environment Reform In Indonesia, Jaime Chua Dec 2009

Government Leadership-Business Voice: An Interaction And Mediation Analysis Of Business Environment Reform In Indonesia, Jaime Chua

Student Scholarship

Moving beyond the competing theories on public leadership and citizen voice, the study investigates whether local public executives' influence on reform depends on business voice; and whether leadership or voice is mediated by public-private sector dialogue before either can influence reform. Extending Hirschman's Exit-Voice-Loyalty theory, the conditional effects of leadership and voice are tested to assess if quasi-exit (collusion), association membership, or dissatisfaction with government services moderate reform. Multi-group invariance tests are conducted for each moderating condition to assess if key findings are robust across business firms. Based on structural equation analysis of survey data from over 12,000 small, medium-sized, …


Post-Decision Surprise: How Bankers Manage The Unexpected, Ronald W. Eastburn Dec 2009

Post-Decision Surprise: How Bankers Manage The Unexpected, Ronald W. Eastburn

Student Scholarship

The literature is silent about the occurrence and impact of unexpected results of managerial decisions in the financial services industry – a sector whose executives’ decisions have nonetheless “surprised” us unrelentingly in recent years. Building on prior work on High Reliability Organizations and the collective mindfulness that guides them, we sought to generate a grounded theory about why surprise outcomes of bankers’ decisions occur and how executives make sense of them. Semi-structured interviews with 23 high ranking U.S. banking executives yielding over 50 narrative accounts of decisions gone awry revealed that bankers are not skilled in detecting and managing the …


Smaller College Endowments: Exploring The Links Between Personality Characteristics, Risk Perceptions, And Investment Performance, Mimi Lord Dec 2009

Smaller College Endowments: Exploring The Links Between Personality Characteristics, Risk Perceptions, And Investment Performance, Mimi Lord

Student Scholarship

Research on college and university endowments frequently refers to the inability of smaller endowments to achieve the strong investment results of much larger endowments. Reasons cited are their lack of a professional investment staff and their lack of access to superior money managers. Yet there are many smaller endowments with long-term performance records that rival those of much larger endowments. This qualitative study explores factors that differentiate top-quartile and bottom-quartile endowments in the $100 million to $200 million size over a 10-year period. Findings reveal a number of personality and risk-related factors that distinguish top and bottom performers. They suggest …


Stakeholder Influence Strategies: Mobilizing For Collaboration, David Graham Hyatt Dec 2009

Stakeholder Influence Strategies: Mobilizing For Collaboration, David Graham Hyatt

Student Scholarship

Environmental nongovernmental organizations (ENGOs) increasingly use cross- sector collaborative relationships to influence the behavior of business organizations in support of their mission and interests. Whereas existing stakeholder literature tends to portray ENGO–business relationships as adversarial, with an emphasis on the extent to which an ENGO can influence a firm through power relations or behavioral characteristics, these parties actually rely on collaboration to achieve their mutual goals. From a stakeholder perspective, how do ENGOs that seek collaborative engagement achieve legitimacy with their potential firm partners? Qualitative research involving 14 ENGOs reveals at least three mechanisms: creating corporate engagement units, networks, or …


Beyond Financial Structures And Operational Standards: Measuring Negotiated Accountability, Michael N. Wolfe Dec 2009

Beyond Financial Structures And Operational Standards: Measuring Negotiated Accountability, Michael N. Wolfe

Student Scholarship

Historically, accountability research has focused on operational methodologies and financial structures and disclosures designed to advantageously position, legitimate and heighten the esteem in which the nonprofit organization is held by various stakeholders. Society, however, has become increasingly interested in transparency beyond structural and financial boundaries and is more concerned with emergent forms of accountability. Grounded in recent qualitative research, the present study develops and tests a measurable form of negotiated accountability and the role this type of accountability plays in linking organizational commitment and performance in a nonprofit context. A new second-order negotiated accountability construct consisting of six dimensions is …


An Organizational Impression Management Perspective On The Formation Of Corporate Reputations, Scott Highhouse, Margaret E. Brooks, Gary J. Gregarus Dec 2009

An Organizational Impression Management Perspective On The Formation Of Corporate Reputations, Scott Highhouse, Margaret E. Brooks, Gary J. Gregarus

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Researchers have only recently turned their attention to the study of corporate reputation.As is characteristic of many early areas of management inquiry, the field is decidedly multidisciplinary and disconnected. This article selectively reviews reputation research conducted mainly during the past decade. A framework is proposed that views reputation from the perspective of organizational impression management. Corporations are viewed as social actors, intent on enhancing their respectability and impressiveness in the eyes of constituents.


Bibliography Of Donald J. Kirk, Anonymous Dec 2009

Bibliography Of Donald J. Kirk, Anonymous

Accounting Hall of Fame Brochures

No abstract provided.


Methods For Retaining And Monetizing Local Audiences Of An Online-Only News Organization, Lauren Rabaino Dec 2009

Methods For Retaining And Monetizing Local Audiences Of An Online-Only News Organization, Lauren Rabaino

Journalism

Newspapers are at a crossroads in their existence. Traditionally, the printed giants were able to hold monopolies in their respective municipalities because the barrier to entry for printing was high and the operating costs were expensive. A study published in 1978 – a decade before the Internet came to fruition – reported that local newspaper monopolies existed in more than 97 percent of U.S. cities . But with the Web, that dynamic has vastly shifted. Widely accessible and affordable Web platforms eliminate both the barrier to entry and operating costs required to publish to a mass audience. As a result, …


Differences In Computer Mediated Versus Face To Face Negotiation, Melissa Oates Dec 2009

Differences In Computer Mediated Versus Face To Face Negotiation, Melissa Oates

Psychology and Child Development

Ninety Cal Poly students participated in a study to test the hypothesis that e-negotiators would be more likely than face-to-face (FTF) negotiators to employ unethical or competitive negotiation styles in a subsequent negotiation after being lied to in a previous negotiation. Sixty-four Cal Poly students were randomly assigned to partake in a computer mediated or FTF negotiation over the sale of a car. After the initial negotiation was completed, buyers in each condition were led to believe they had been lied to about the accident history of the car. Participants then completed The Incidents in Negotiation Questionnaire by Robinson, Lewicki, …


The Malawi Project: From Conventional To Holistic Decision Making, Grace Wetmore Dec 2009

The Malawi Project: From Conventional To Holistic Decision Making, Grace Wetmore

Animal Science

How the Cal Poly Malawi Appropriate Technologies Team, and other development groups, can use Holistic Management to aid developing countries in an effort towards a sustainable future.


An Economic Development Paradox: The Impact Of Linkages And Synergies Among Local Agents In The Development Of An Emergent Bioscience Cluster And Associated Entrepreneurial Ecosystems, Francisco Montalvo Dec 2009

An Economic Development Paradox: The Impact Of Linkages And Synergies Among Local Agents In The Development Of An Emergent Bioscience Cluster And Associated Entrepreneurial Ecosystems, Francisco Montalvo

Student Scholarship

Although bioscience industrial clusters have been widely researched in the last decade, the role of knowledge creation, management, and transfer as driving forces for industrial cluster competitiveness remains unclear. A better appreciation of knowledge creation and retention as determinants of industrial cluster success, and the role of foreign direct investment may be of value to industry decision makers, policy makers, and researchers worldwide. Our research revealed a paradox regarding the intensity of foreign direct investment (FDI) by multinational companies (MNCs) and the limited development of a local entrepreneurial ecosystem in an emergent bioscience cluster. While cluster development seems a logical …


Managing The Mission Through Times Of Adversity: What Leads To Reliable Nonprofit Performance?, Kathleen Roche Dec 2009

Managing The Mission Through Times Of Adversity: What Leads To Reliable Nonprofit Performance?, Kathleen Roche

Student Scholarship

During times of severe economic adversity, nonprofit organizations must carry out their charitable missions to ever-growing and needier constituencies despite endowment erosion, dwindling contributions, reduced staff, and severe funding cuts. The literature tells us little about what nonprofit organizations and managers actually do to survive economic crises. In depth interviews with leaders of a wide range of U.S. nonprofit organizations compared and contrasted crisis management experiences, revealing that, regardless of size and operation tenure, those best situated to emerge from severe and sudden revenue loss had energized, outwardly focused leaders and actively engaged boards, many volunteers, greatly extended hours of …


Why They Stay: The Ideal Selves Of Persistent Women Engineers, Kathleen R. Buse Dec 2009

Why They Stay: The Ideal Selves Of Persistent Women Engineers, Kathleen R. Buse

Student Scholarship

Women remain dramatically underrepresented in the engineering profession – and far fewer women than men persist in the field. In the first study of women who stay (vs. stray) from corporate engineering careers, we interviewed 21 long tenured female engineers and a control group of ten women who opted out of the profession after an average decade of employment to generate a grounded theory about their personal and professional “lived lives.” Women constitute only 11% of the U.S. corporate engineering workforce and remain as engineers for shorter periods of time than men. Several studies have described why women leave engineering …


From Esteem To Stigma: The Effect Of The Financial Crisis On Banker Engagement, Glen Weaver Dec 2009

From Esteem To Stigma: The Effect Of The Financial Crisis On Banker Engagement, Glen Weaver

Student Scholarship

Absent from a quickly accumulating literature on job engagement is a focus on professionals in the financial industry. There is, in particular, little research on the organization or industry identity of bankers as a discrete group. Nor has the literature explored the relationship of these identities with job engagement or environmental duress. We seized an opportunity to study the effects of the 2007-2009 financial crisis on bankers' identities and passion for their jobs. Semi-structured interviews with 28 mid-level bankers at five prominent US banks that accepted Toxic Asset Relief Program funding (TARP) captured insights about "normal state" (pre-crisis) versus mid-crisis …