Business Commons^™

Optimizing An F-16 Squadron Weekly Pilot Schedule For The Turkish Air Force, Murat Yavuz

Theses and Dissertations

Fighter squadrons in the Turkish Air Force build flight schedules for weekly periods. This process requires a great deal of time and does not seek optimality. Schedules are built with feasibility concerns. The Turkish Air Force doesn’t have an automated tool for flight scheduling. Many constraints including crew rest, number of sorties flown in a month, and duty currencies affect the schedule. Providing an automated scheduling tool may help schedulers save time for other squadron tasks including mission preparation, briefing, and debriefing. In this research, a heuristic approach to the problem is developed. Greedy Randomized Adaptive Search Procedures (GRASP) is …

Downside Risk Optimization Of The Thrift Savings Plan Lifecycle Fund Portfolios, Matthew C. Beck

Theses and Dissertations

The Thrift Savings Plan (TSP), the defined benefit contribution plan for the US Government, introduced the asset allocation Lifecycle (L) Funds in August 2005. These funds seek to minimize risk and maximize expected portfolio return via mean-variance optimization (MVO). The purpose of this thesis is to investigate and examine the efficiency of the TSP L Funds and create alternative L Fund portfolios via downside risk optimization (DRO). Whereas MVO minimizes the portfolio variance (standard deviation), DRO seeks to minimize the risk below an investor’s minimal acceptable return in the market, defined as the Co-Lower Partial Moment (CLPM). The research team …

Evaluation Of Cost Improvement Models When Programs Experience Unplanned Production Decreases, Anthony R. George

Theses and Dissertations

As military and other governmental budgets decline and impacted project deadline changes require instantaneous responses, cost analysts' tasks become more and more formidable. Inaccurate estimates can lead to misappropriation of resources and can thus create delays in goods reaching warfighters. This thesis aims to avail cost estimators of more reliable projection tools and to challenge the status quo of cost estimating, the production rate cost improvement model, when programs face reductions in lot quantities. The findings reveal that the status quo proves efficient under many cost profiles, but clearly does not estimate as well when a program suffers lot quantity …

A Study Of Formal And Informal Mentoring In The United States Air Force, Russell H. Gheesling

Theses and Dissertations

Mentoring has been identified as a significant contributor to employee performance and development. Debate has come about as result of implementation of formal mentoring programs where mentors are assigned to protégés as opposed to informal relationship formed out of mutual respect and liking. Secondary data, including measures of leader member exchange, similarity, contact time, and others, were used from a 1998 survey of company grade officers (protégés) and their formal and informal mentors. Analysis of Variance compared mean values between formally and informally mentored protégés. Additionally, a logistic regression was used to understand the impact that different measures had on …

Understanding The Effectiveness Of Performance Management Practices, Ross T. Johnston

Theses and Dissertations

Effective employee management is an essential element for achieving and sustaining a competitive advantage. Through a variety of performance management practices organizations can translate competitive strategies into individual performance expectations and transform employee potential into desired organizational outcomes. Despite the promise of robust performance management practices, a significant research gap exists between the scientific research in Organizational Behavior (OB) and the performance management practices espoused by the “practitioners.” The purpose of this thesis research is to explore a set of performance management practices as an initial step toward providing direct, empirical support for the linkages between performance management practices, the …

2010-03-10 General Educaiton Council Meeting Minutes, Morehead State University. Faculty Senate., General Education Council.

Faculty Senate Records

General Education Council meeting minutes from March 10, 2010.

Vol. Ix, Tab 47 - Ex. 35 - Deposition Of Jason Calhoun (Rosetta Stone Enforcement Manager), Jason Calhoun

Rosetta Stone v. Google (Joint Appendix)

Exhibits from the un-sealed joint appendix for Rosetta Stone Ltd., v. Google Inc., No. 10-2007, on appeal to the 4th Circuit. Issue presented: Under the Lanham Act, does the use of trademarked terms in keyword advertising result in infringement when there is evidence of actual confusion?

Interview No. 1477, Adam Nieto

Combined Interviews

From the age of 12 until he was 15 years old, Adam Nieto worked a paper route to earn extra money for his family. After high school, Adam left El Paso for Los Angeles for two years to work, however in 1965, the draft system caught up with Adam and at the age of 21, he was drafted by the United States Army into the Vietnam War. In 1967, after his time in the military, Adam enrolled at The University of Texas at El Paso and spent four years working on his B.A. in Education. Adam was able to use …

2010-03-05 General Education Council Meeting Minutes, Morehead State University. Faculty Senate., General Education Council.

Faculty Senate Records

General Education Council meeting minutes from March 5, 2010.

2010-03-04 Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes, Morehead State University. Faculty Senate.

Faculty Senate Records

Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes for March 4, 2010.

2010-03-03 General Education Council Meeting Minutes, Morehead State University. Faculty Senate.

Faculty Senate Records

General Education Council meeting minutes from March 3, 2010.

Hedge Fund Contagion, Melvyn Teo

Research Collection BNP Paribas Hedge Fund Centre

Why do correlations all go to one when economic conditions turn bad? We review the latest research on funding liquidity (the ease with which hedge funds obtain capital) and discuss its implications on the asset liquidity and valuations of securities held by funds, on subsequent fund performance, and on contagion across hedge fund investment styles.

Motivations For Camp Staff To Work At Camp, Jessica M. Cresci

Recreation, Parks, and Tourism Administration

Camp staff are the heart of summer camps and can affect how the summer runs. The purpose of this study was to identify the motivations for staff to work at residential summer camps with special regard to any differences in motivations between staff who attended camp as a camper and staff who never attended camp as well as between international and national staff. This study used cluster sampling measuring 21 possible motivations. A link to an online survey was sent to eight camps as identified on the American Camp Association website. The top six motivations for staff to work at …

Gerber Project For Lockheed Martin, Andrew Callahan, Sean Lawyer

Industrial Technology and Packaging

Lockheed Martin, the world’s premier aerial combat vehicle manufacturer was pressed to find an eco-friendly way to package their impregnated epoxy. In the current system, the epoxy would be cut on the Gerber table to a pre-determined length and then sandwiched inside of two corrugated fiberboard sheets for storage inside of a freezer. The current process was not only labor intensive, but the corrugated fiberboard had to be disregarded after one use. In conjunction with the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Packaging program and Melmat Incorporated, we were able to find a corrugated plastic substrate to replace the currently non-reusable …

Continuously Improving Cash-Gift Process, Alejandra Sanchez

Industrial Technology and Packaging

Cal Poly is in process of executing a strategic plan with the vision of becoming the “Premier Comprehensive Polytechnic University”. Working to optimize University Advancement Services’ (UA) donation processing and gift acceptance is critical for future success of the campaign. In order to accomplish UA’s vision, Industrial Technology professor Eric Olsen applied a lean process tool known as Kaizen to promote continuous improvement. The Kaizen event was focused on reducing delays in the cash-gift processing and ensuring donations are properly allocated while donors recognized in a timely manner.

The Kaizen event engaged key players from all levels of the process. …

Marketing Plan Focusing On The 4 P’S Of The Marketing Mix For A Wine Bar In The City Of San Luis Obispo, Kurtis Robert Wurster

Agribusiness

Wine is a large industry expanding into new markets and open to new ideas. A popular idea was to open wine bars, where individuals could come experience the world of wine without any prior knowledge. Wine bars have been growing and not all have managed to stay successful and meet the demands of consumers. To discover consumers’ preferences, primary research was conducted in the city of San Luis Obispo. The tool used was a survey of 168 respondents. The research was done to determine the feasibility of a wine bar in San Luis Obispo and if so, how to market …

A Marketing Plan For An Artisan Bread Bakery, Audrey Campana

Agribusiness

This study was undertaken to determine whether there is market potential for Word-of-Mouth Bakery to expand its current operation in food retailing in Modesto and the surrounding areas. A Case Study was conducted on Panera Bread Company to use as a competitive analysis to compare Word-of-Mouth Bakery with an established nationally known artisan bread company. An expert opinion poll was also conducted to assess the market potential in supermarkets from the observations of in-store bakery managers in Modesto and the surrounding areas. A SWOT analysis was used to determine the internal strengths and weaknesses, and external opportunities and threats that …

The Political And Economic Justifications Of Rice Trade Distortions In The United States And Japan, Ryan Thomas Wilson

Agribusiness

Rice is one of the most distorted commodities in the world. The United States and Japan both hold rice sector policies that significantly protect their industries and distort trade. This study identifies major rice sector policies in the U.S. and Japan, and demonstrates their probable economic consequences in terms of social welfare. U.S. producers are major beneficiaries and Japanese consumers are at a major welfare loss. This study demonstrates the use of economic analysis as a tool in policy formulation. Change to these policies is not likely, unless drastic social/economic changes were to happen.

A Study Of The Economic Effects Of Imposing Fair Trade Coffee Consumption In San Francisco, Alexander Preston Magginetti

Agribusiness

Noting the rising sales of eco-friendly and fairly traded goods in the United States, this study examines the effects of implementing a policy that would limit the supply of non-fair-trade coffee in San Francisco. The goal of this policy would be to increase the sales of the fair-trade coffee market in the United States, and benefit fair-trade coffee growers by mandating the sale of fair-trade coffee in San Francisco. This study focuses on the economic effects of the policy on consumers and producers of fair-trade coffee, regular coffee, tea, and soda.

“Fair trade” began at the end of World War …

Correlation Of Art And Design Characteristics Used In Wine Labels And Prices, Jordan Waltman

Agribusiness

A study determining if there is a correlation between art and design characteristics incorporated in the label and the wine's price.

A Target Profile And Positioning For An Informational Lettuce Website, Julee Dyann Evangelo

Agribusiness

This project was conducted to determine what type of content a consumer would like to see on a lettuce informational website and what will drive consumers to re-visit this informational website. A survey was used to collect the data for this project. The survey was self-administered online offered through Survey Monkey. The survey link was posted on a number of food forums, Facebook fan pages related to food, and Tanimura & Antle’s website.

The data described lettuce purchasing behavior, internet usage related to food and social networking, and demographics of potential lettuce informational website visitors. Statistical tests were used to …

The Relationship Of Wine Prices And The Qualitative Aesthetics Of Wine Labels, Danielle Drews

Agribusiness

This study was undertaken to determine the relationship between price and various wine label design elements. These variables included golden mean, uniform font, proportion of yellow and orange, direction, realistic, abstract, winery/grape image, winery emblem, font type changes, font size changes, horizontal label, vertical label, Sonoma, and Napa. The researcher wanted to determine whether specific combinations of color and images on wine labels reflect greater aesthetic content and relate to their recommended price. Fifty wine labels were randomly selected from a given sample and several researchers evaluated each label looking specifically at the design elements listed above. A regression analysis …

Labor Cost Effects On Apple Price, Victor Cancel

Agribusiness

Agriculture is an essential part of life in the United States due to the fact that everyone needs to eat. And, being that many commodities within agriculture, such as apples, are very labor intensive, the people that work in the industry are also very important. But while these laborers, many of who are legal or illegal immigrants from Mexico, are important to supplying Americans with food, many are compensated at a wage at or around the amount required by federal law. Since the apple industry is so labor intensive, discussions have been raised about how much the cost of labor …

Intercollegiate Athletics And Institutional Fundraising: A Meta-Analysis, J. Michael Martinez, Jeffrey L. Stinson, Minsoo Kang, Colby B. Jubenville

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of Business

After nearly 30 years of research, the disparate findings of studies examining the influence of intercollegiate athletics on private, individual giving to higher education institutions have failed to generate generalizable knowledge. The current study examined all available empirical studies conducted between 1976 and 2008 on this topic. Meta-analysis results indicate that intercollegiate athletics does have a small, but statistically significant, effect on giving. Follow-up analysis revealed four significant moderators on the strength of the intercollegiate athletic-private giving relationship: the gift target (i.e., athletic vs. academic programs), the alumni status of the donor, the level of NCAA membership, and whether or …

March 2010, Inland Empire Business Journal

Inland Empire Business Journal

A “Fixed” Fight: A Peek Inside One Construction Expert’s Campaign to Make Fixed-Price Contracts and Cost Containment the Industry’s New Normal Construction cost overruns have run rampant for decades. It is an industry that has seen per-worker productivity fall by nearly 25 percent over the past 40 years

Leadership & Little White Lies: How Those Seemingly Harmless Fibs and Half-Truths Can Hurt Your Business Author Dave Anderson says that white lies can do serious damage to your reputation and can lead to much bigger issues down the road. Read to see why cleaning up your act can help save your …

2010 March-December, Morehead State University. Office Of Athletics.

Morehead State Athletics Press Release Archives

Morehead State Athletics press releases from March to December of 2010.

Measuring College Students’ Technology Selfefficacy, Debbie D. Dufrene, Timothy W. Clipson, S. Ann Wilson

Faculty Publications

The pervasiveness of computer technology and continuing developments in software, multimedia, and Internet resources have led to the implementation of new teaching and learning methods. Educators committed to the integration of technology into the learning process believe it will expand learning and better prepare students to participate effectively in today’s workplace. Employers demand workers who can not only use technology to complete a variety of work tasks and processes but who can leverage technology to advance the firm’s strategic operations.

While many students perceive themselves to be computer competent, research indicates that their preparation is not always complete or adequate. …

Validation Of The Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument: An Application Of The Korean Version, Yun Seok Choi, Minhee Seo, David Scott, Jeffrey J. Martin

Kinesiology, Health and Sport Studies

The purpose of this study was to examine the psychometric properties of the Korean version of the Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI) based on the Competing Values Framework (CVF). More specially, cultural equivalence between the Korean version and the original English version of the OCAI was evaluated using 39 bilingual Koreans. Next, a field test was conducted to examine scale reliability and construct validity of the Korean version of the OCAI using 133 organizational members from the Korean Professional Baseball League (KPBL). The findings indicate that the Korean version was successfully translated, items maintained the same meaning of the original …

Out Of The Black Hole: Regulatory Reform Of The Over-The-Counter Derivatives Market, Michael Greenberger

Faculty Scholarship

Unregulated OTC derivatives have been at the heart of recent systemic or near systemic collapses. After each financial crisis, governments worldwide proclaim that the OTC market has to be regulated for transparency, capital adequacy, regulation of intermediaries, self regulation, and strong enforcement of fraud and manipulation. But, aided by the passage of time, Wall Street always deflates those aspirations with aggressive lobbying. The present financial reform regulatory effort may be the only chance to get this issue right before the country devolves into a further financial quagmire with more bankruptcies and more job losses. This paper is a chapter of …

What Do Egyptian Tomb Raiders And Martial-Arts-Loving Entrepreneurs Have In Common?, Knowledge@Smu

Knowledge@SMU

Some ancient Egyptians make stuffed animals to accompany their dead in their after-life, others raid the tombs for these animals to sell for a profit. For Chatri Trisiripisal, a 38-year-old self made millionaire, besides making his money running hedge funds and property investments, he also does so holding martial arts classes. According to Trisiripisal, chasing such entrepreneurial dreams requires one to be “crazy” sometimes. What are the other attributes that a bidding entrepreneur should have?