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2012

Kennesaw State University

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Articles 1 - 30 of 36

Full-Text Articles in Business

Social Media And Negative Word Of Mouth: Strategies For Handing Unexpecting Comments, Jane B. Thomas, Cara O. Peters, Emelia G. Howell, Keith Robbins Nov 2012

Social Media And Negative Word Of Mouth: Strategies For Handing Unexpecting Comments, Jane B. Thomas, Cara O. Peters, Emelia G. Howell, Keith Robbins

Atlantic Marketing Journal

Increased usage of social media by consumers impacts businesses that find it necessary to participate to connect with customers. Because social media is conversational in nature, marketers have little control over the message, unlike more traditional forms of marketing communication. The purpose of this paper is to flesh out the tensions that exist as marketers deal with consumer-generated negative social media messages and present possible responses for marketers dealing with this form of negative word of mouth (WOM). Its contribution lies in unpacking options for companies dealing with such negative social media. Case studies and a conceptual model identifying possible …


Smokers’ Vs. Non-Smokers’ Attitudes Toward Tobacco Usage, Jeff W. Totten, Betty J. Cayton Nov 2012

Smokers’ Vs. Non-Smokers’ Attitudes Toward Tobacco Usage, Jeff W. Totten, Betty J. Cayton

Atlantic Marketing Journal

The purpose of the study was to collect attitudinal and behavioral data on a sample of college students from a Southern state university regarding tobacco usage. The sample was designed to include both smokers and non-smokers. A non-probability sample of 508 college students was collected by handing out surveys in classes and in campus buildings. The questionnaire was designed by the students and the authors and included half of Pechmann and Shih’s (1999) smoking perceptions scale items. Users made up 36.6% of the sample. The average length of time reported using tobacco products was five years, with 78.3% stating they …


Cleaning Up Dirty Politics: A Social Marketing Perspective On New Jersey's Clean Elections Program, Amy H. Handlin Nov 2012

Cleaning Up Dirty Politics: A Social Marketing Perspective On New Jersey's Clean Elections Program, Amy H. Handlin

Atlantic Marketing Journal

This paper reviews the outcome of a state electoral reform initiative in terms of the four-stage behavior change process used by social marketers to gauge the effectiveness of their techniques. While the Clean Elections initiative was moderately successful in its Action and Contemplation stages, the author argues that realization of its full potential could be significantly hastened by utilizing the social marketing tools of segmentation, communications research and pretesting.


Reflections On The Market-Oriented Theory In The Behaviour Of Real Organization, Michal Felcman Nov 2012

Reflections On The Market-Oriented Theory In The Behaviour Of Real Organization, Michal Felcman

Atlantic Marketing Journal

This paper presents market-oriented marketing concept which is reflected in the case study describing the behaviour of existing organization. An initial theoretical section of the paper introduces the reader to the market-oriented theory throughout the literature review, which provides different scholastic approaches to this theory. The practical section focuses on the qualitative assessment of the real organization and its behaviour. It starts with the description of the organization itself and it is subsequently expanded into the assessment of the organization´s behaviour in the light of the market-oriented theory. The goal of this assessment is to present benefits and challenges which …


An Empirical Analysis: Wine And The Consumer Price-Perceived Quality Heuristic, Freddy S Lee Nov 2012

An Empirical Analysis: Wine And The Consumer Price-Perceived Quality Heuristic, Freddy S Lee

Atlantic Marketing Journal

Does price have anything to do with Wine? The consumer price-perceived quality has always been used by consumers when they gauge the quality of a product or service. Three propositions are developed which show how the consumer uses the price-perceived quality in the wine industry. For all types of wines, there will be attributes like ratings, brand name and word of mouth that will affect the purchase. The goal in this paper is to empirically validate propositions pertaining to the factors that influence how consumers use the price-perceived quality heuristic to determine which wine is worth the money that they …


Second Life In The Classroom: Interacting With The Modern College Student, Stef Nicovich Nov 2012

Second Life In The Classroom: Interacting With The Modern College Student, Stef Nicovich

Atlantic Marketing Journal

How do we engage our students to actively learn? That is a question that educators are asking more and more often. New techniques and philosophies are constantly being developed and tried in the classroom yet we still come back to the same observations. Students are generally unprepared for college level studies and often seem unwilling to put in the required effort needed to succeed. Perhaps one reason students seem disengaged is because they may not see the value of what they are learning. The connections between their studies and how they will benefit them later in life may not be …


Use Of Counterfactual Thinking For Understanding The Impact Of Personal Value Orientation On Blame Assignment And Customer Complaint Behavior, Nusser Raajpoot, Arun Sharma, Jean Lefebvre Nov 2012

Use Of Counterfactual Thinking For Understanding The Impact Of Personal Value Orientation On Blame Assignment And Customer Complaint Behavior, Nusser Raajpoot, Arun Sharma, Jean Lefebvre

Atlantic Marketing Journal

Counterfactual thought processes are being increasingly studied in the context of consumer experiences. For example, recent research demonstrated that have used counterfactual thought process to understand the composition of comparison standards and related feature mutability to identify the factors thought to be responsible for negative experiences (McGill 2000). We extend this of research by examining the impact of personal value system on blame assignment, and subsequent post-experience consumer behavior. Our study in the context of a service experience demonstrates that personal values affect counterfactual thinking. Specific marketing implications are discussed.


Graph Matching Based Decision Support Tools For Mitigating Spread Of Infectious Diseases Like H1n1, Jomon Aliyas Paul, Kedar Sambhoos Nov 2012

Graph Matching Based Decision Support Tools For Mitigating Spread Of Infectious Diseases Like H1n1, Jomon Aliyas Paul, Kedar Sambhoos

Faculty and Research Publications

Diseases like H1N1 can be prevented from becoming a wide spread epidemic through timely detection and containment measures. Similarity of H1N1 symptoms to any common flu and its alarming rate of spread through animals and humans complicate the deployment of such strategies. We use dynamic implementation of graph matching methods to overcome these challenges. Specifically, we formulate a mixed integer programming model (MIP) that analyzes patient symptom data available at hospitals to generate patient graph match scores. Successful matches are then used to update counters that generate alerts to the Public Health Department when the counters surpass the threshold values. …


Activity-Based Criteria On Internationalization, Kamal Fatehi, Mohsen Sharifi Nov 2012

Activity-Based Criteria On Internationalization, Kamal Fatehi, Mohsen Sharifi

Faculty and Research Publications

The world economy is moving ever faster toward a highly interdependent state in which international business is creating a global market. Often, in this environment, growth or even survival of a business hinges on its successful internationalization. Therefore, firms need to ask the vital question of how internationalized are their operations? To answer such question requires, among other things, measuring the extent of global involvement. This paper is an attempt toward constructing an internationalization measure by using financial performance and market engagement data outside firm’s home country.


Perception Of African Youth On Personal Computer Utilization: The Case Of Ethiopia And Rwanda, S. Negash Nov 2012

Perception Of African Youth On Personal Computer Utilization: The Case Of Ethiopia And Rwanda, S. Negash

Faculty and Research Publications

The tendency to pursue innovativeness and adopt new technologies has been found more likely with younger individuals and a strong relationship between attitude and personal computer (PC) utilization has been found. However, research in these areas is mainly focused on high-income countries. Do these findings hold for low-income countries? What are the perceptions of African youth on the factors that impact PC use? There is a dearth of micro-level studies that promote understanding about the behavior of individuals in low-income countries. This study looked at demographic data including age, gender, grade level, region, and prior experience among 228 youth from …


The Implementation Of G2b Inter-Organizational Information Systems: A Dialectical Design Perspective, Gamel O. Wiredu Oct 2012

The Implementation Of G2b Inter-Organizational Information Systems: A Dialectical Design Perspective, Gamel O. Wiredu

The African Journal of Information Systems

Although the interactions between information technology and the context of government-to-business relations challenge the implementation of information systems, the challenges are currently under-researched. Therefore, this paper analyzes the mutual shaping between technology integration and the context. Based on an empirical study of the deployment of electronic cash registers for value-added tax administration, the analysis explains how government-business dialectics inform the design of relations between institutional, technological and organizational factors. The explanations lead to the argument for a dialectical design perspective on implementation that facilitates a systematic comprehension of (1) the inducements of design; (2) the relationships between the factors as …


A Model For Designing M-Agriculture Applications For Dairy Farming, Amos Gichamba, Ismail A. Lukandu Oct 2012

A Model For Designing M-Agriculture Applications For Dairy Farming, Amos Gichamba, Ismail A. Lukandu

The African Journal of Information Systems

In the recent past, developing countries have experienced major technological advancements including high mobile phone penetration. With the implementation of innovative technological solutions (e.g. mobile-based systems in key economic activities such as agriculture), there is need to develop models that software developers and researchers can use to design solutions. This paper aims to study the implementation of mobile systems in agriculture and presents a model for designing such applications. This study shows that models exist for general mobile applications design and development, although none specifically suits mobile agriculture applications. A model for designing and implementing M-Agriculture applications is presented. The …


Wikis: The Perfect Platform For Library Policies And Procedures, Melanie J. Dunn Oct 2012

Wikis: The Perfect Platform For Library Policies And Procedures, Melanie J. Dunn

The Southeastern Librarian

The term wiki, derived from the Hawaiian adjective “wiki wiki” meaning quick or fast, was coined by Ward Cunningham who created the original WikiWikiWeb for the Portland Pattern Repository (Leuf, 2001, 15). Touted by Cunningham as “the simplest online database that could possibly work” (Cunningham, 2002, June 27) “ wiki” is alternately used to refer to both a wiki website and the software used to create and maintain it and was designed to allow multiple users to collaborate in its development (Klobas 2006, 3). Wikipedia is perhaps one of the best examples, as well as the most recognized, of wikis. …


Basketball Market Efficiency And The Big Dog Bias, Ladd Kochman, Randy Goodwin Oct 2012

Basketball Market Efficiency And The Big Dog Bias, Ladd Kochman, Randy Goodwin

Faculty and Research Publications

A betting rule is devised to profit from an alleged unwillingness of strong favorites in the National Basketball Association to cover large point spreads. Imaginary wagers placed on NBA underdogs awarded 10+ points by Las Vegas oddsmakers produced a significantly nonrandom wins-to-bets ratio of 53.4 percent during the five consecutive seasons ending in 2007. The failure to generate a W/B ratio of at least 55.4 percent over the 758 games meeting our point spread constraint precludes any claim of profitability.


Exploring The Roles Of People, Governance And Technology In Organizational Readiness For Emerging Technologies, Abiodun A. Ogunyemi, Kevin A. Johnston Jul 2012

Exploring The Roles Of People, Governance And Technology In Organizational Readiness For Emerging Technologies, Abiodun A. Ogunyemi, Kevin A. Johnston

The African Journal of Information Systems

The rapid development and release of emerging technologies have made their adoption challenging. Most often there are failing issues in organizational adoption of emerging technologies. It is yet unclear which component(s) of organization play the prominent role(s) in organizational readiness to adopt emerging technologies. Using a mixed method, this study conducted an online survey of 83 South African organizations for server virtualization adoption. Server virtualization is an emerging technology being widely adopted in most organizations in developed countries. IT executives rated server virtualization as the second-most important technology to help achieve cost reductions and optimize productivity in recent surveys. Very …


Customer Dissatisfaction And Complaining Responses Towards Mobile Telephony Services, Simon Gyasi Nimako Mr Jul 2012

Customer Dissatisfaction And Complaining Responses Towards Mobile Telephony Services, Simon Gyasi Nimako Mr

The African Journal of Information Systems

The paper examines customer satisfaction and complaint responses towards Mobile telephony services. The study was a cross-sectional survey involving customers from two mobile telephony companies. Data were collected using a self-administered structured questionnaire and analyzed using SPSS (version 16.0). The study found that customer satisfaction rating differed according to the mobile networks, and previous dissatisfaction significantly influences complaining response. Again, dissatisfied customers tend to complain more than satisfied ones. Moreover, dissatisfaction may not necessarily induce complaining and some satisfied customers may still complain. Furthermore, previous dissatisfaction may not always negatively affect overall satisfaction if it is effectively managed. Finally, the …


Technology In The Aid Of Delivering Economic Content To Teachers: Virtual Economics V. 3, John R. Swinton, Benjamin Scafidi Jun 2012

Technology In The Aid Of Delivering Economic Content To Teachers: Virtual Economics V. 3, John R. Swinton, Benjamin Scafidi

Faculty and Research Publications

We examine the impact on student achievement of a face-to-face teacher workshop that also provides economics instructors with access to an electronic library of instructional and reference material for their economics classroom—Virtual Economics v. 3 (VE3), offered by the Council for Economic Education. Based on evidence using student and teacher-level administrative data from the Georgia Department of Education and controlling for students’ prior achievement in mathematics, we find evidence that the VE3 workshop experience increases student achievement in high school economics. Our difference-in-differences estimates suggest that teacher participation in the VE3 workshop increases student achievement by 0.061 standard deviations on …


Does Online Cross-Border Shopping Affect State Use Tax Liabilities?, Mikhail I. Melnik, James Alms Jun 2012

Does Online Cross-Border Shopping Affect State Use Tax Liabilities?, Mikhail I. Melnik, James Alms

Faculty and Research Publications

How does online cross-border shopping affect state use tax liabilities? We collect our own data on actual online cross-border shopping transactions from eBay.com, focusing upon a “representative” commodity classification and a “typical” day. These data allow us to examine the extent of actual online crossborder shopping by buyers, and the subsequent potential impact on state use tax liabilities of buyers. Our results indicate that online cross-border shopping is highly prevalent on eBay, with out-of-state purchases accounting for on average 94 percent of the volume of a state’s online purchase transactions. Even so, given the limited volume of eBay-based transactions relative …


Towards The Deployment And Adoption Of Location-Based Services For Optimal Mobile Communication Operations In Africa, Folasade Dahunsi May 2012

Towards The Deployment And Adoption Of Location-Based Services For Optimal Mobile Communication Operations In Africa, Folasade Dahunsi

The African Journal of Information Systems

Africa is the world’s second largest and second most populous continent with about one billion people. Mobile phones are a major source of communication and means of taking information and technology to rural and remote areas of the continent. With low-cost and readily available mobile phones, underprivileged, low-income earners and rural dwellers can also participate in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) revolution. Services are introduced by mobile operators and vendors to enhance and optimize this mobile evolution. One of such service is location-based services (LBS); LBS make available personalized services based on the geographical location of the subscriber’s phone. …


The Story Of Taste: Using Eegs And Self-Reports To Understand Consumer Choice, Charnetta Brown, Adriane B. Randolph, Janée N. Burkhalter May 2012

The Story Of Taste: Using Eegs And Self-Reports To Understand Consumer Choice, Charnetta Brown, Adriane B. Randolph, Janée N. Burkhalter

The Kennesaw Journal of Undergraduate Research

The authors investigate consumers’ willingness to switch from a preferred manufacturer brand to an unfamiliar private-label brand if taste is perceived as identical. Consumer decisions are examined through recordings of electrical brain activity in the form of electroencephalograms (EEGs) and self-reported data captured in surveys. Results reveal a willingness of consumers to switch to a less-expensive brand when the quality is perceived to be the same as the more expensive counterpart. Cost saving options for consumers and advertising considerations for managers are discussed.


Towards Self-Emancipation In Ict For Development Research: Narratives About Respect, Traditional Leadership And Building Networks Of Friendships In Rural South Africa, Kirstin Krauss May 2012

Towards Self-Emancipation In Ict For Development Research: Narratives About Respect, Traditional Leadership And Building Networks Of Friendships In Rural South Africa, Kirstin Krauss

The African Journal of Information Systems

In this paper, the author contends that if the outsider-researcher involved in Information and Communication Technology for Development really wants to make a difference and honestly address the emancipatory interests of the developing community, social transformation will have to occur on both sides of the “development divide.” This statement implies both an understanding of the researcher’s own ethnocentrism, prejudice, assumptions and inabilities as well as local concerns, needs, expectations and realities. Using critical social theory as a position of inquiry and learning from the enculturation phases of critical ethnographic fieldwork in a deep rural part of South Africa, the paper …


2012 - The Seventeenth Annual Symposium Of Student Scholars Apr 2012

2012 - The Seventeenth Annual Symposium Of Student Scholars

Symposium of Student Scholars Program Books

The full program book from the Seventeenth Annual Symposium of Student Scholars, held on April 10, 2012. Includes abstracts from the presentations and posters.


The Impact Of Ict Investments On Development Using The Capability Approach: The Case Of The Nigerian Pre-Paid Electricity Billing System, Salihu Ibrahim-Dasuki, Pamela Abbott, Armin Kashefi Feb 2012

The Impact Of Ict Investments On Development Using The Capability Approach: The Case Of The Nigerian Pre-Paid Electricity Billing System, Salihu Ibrahim-Dasuki, Pamela Abbott, Armin Kashefi

The African Journal of Information Systems

Most existing ICT for development (ICT4D) literature tends to focus mainly on design, transfer and implementation issues. There is limited focus on the impact of ICT projects on development and little concrete analysis of these initiatives in terms of their long-term developmental impact. In this paper, we use Sen’s notion of capabilities as an evaluative space for ICT project assessment. We employed the freedom concepts of the capability approach to focus on the developmental impact of such projects. We based our evaluation on the Pre-paid Electricity Billing system in Nigeria. Our analysis shows that the pre-paid system failed to fully …


A Lesson Plan For Communicating The Sustainability Of An Enterprise, Clare L. Comm, Dennis F. X. Mathaisel Feb 2012

A Lesson Plan For Communicating The Sustainability Of An Enterprise, Clare L. Comm, Dennis F. X. Mathaisel

Atlantic Marketing Journal

Sustainability is the ability to endure. For any organization or any enterprise, sustainability is the ability to remain productive long term while minimizing waste and creating value. An organization can achieve sustainability if it aligns itself with the product and service needs of its customers and wants and interests of its multiple stakeholders. The enterprise, whether it is an ecological, environmental, human, or service enterprise, must possess five “abilities” to be sustainable: availability; dependability; capability; affordability; and marketability. This paper presents a lesson plan or strategy for how an enterprise should communicate/promote sustainability to its stakeholders based on these five …


Delivering Preventive Health Care Information To More Versus Less Health-Oriented Consumers: A Comparative Demographic Analysis, Joseph D. Cangelosi, Edward Ranelli, David Kim Feb 2012

Delivering Preventive Health Care Information To More Versus Less Health-Oriented Consumers: A Comparative Demographic Analysis, Joseph D. Cangelosi, Edward Ranelli, David Kim

Atlantic Marketing Journal

Preventive health care (PHC) is the awareness and efforts a person undertakes to enhance and preserve physical, mental, and emotional health for today and future. Although PHC information is widely available, people are not utilizing the information to improve their health. We examine PHC information sources utilized by persons who are more health-oriented vs. less health-oriented. The less health-oriented individuals were identified as: low educational attainment, low income, men, younger age, unmarried, and non-White. A factor analysis produced three primary sources of PHC information sources: print, institutional, and electronic and audio-visual delivery systems. An ANOVA compared how more health-oriented individuals …


Marketing Mavens’ Fusion With Social Media, Deborah Lester, R. Keith Tudor, Dolly D. Loyd, Tyra Mitchell Feb 2012

Marketing Mavens’ Fusion With Social Media, Deborah Lester, R. Keith Tudor, Dolly D. Loyd, Tyra Mitchell

Atlantic Marketing Journal

Maven behavior and its fusion with social media was a natural progression from an auspicious beginning. The acknowledgement of market influencers and their impact on consumer behavior emerged in the discipline literature during the 70’s with a study by Sheth (1971) who recognized the marketing opportunity of information disseminators. The potential publicizing influence of these brokers was investigated by Kotler and Zaltman (1976) whose findings advocated for their inclusion within a communication stratagem. Further examination produced precise demographic variables and personality traits along with the more accurate terminology of market mavens (Feick and Price, 1987) to delineate their unique dispositions. …


A Comparison Of State And Local Welcome Center Visitors: Issues Regarding Sampling Frame Generalizability, James E. Stoddard, Stephen W. Clopton Feb 2012

A Comparison Of State And Local Welcome Center Visitors: Issues Regarding Sampling Frame Generalizability, James E. Stoddard, Stephen W. Clopton

Atlantic Marketing Journal

Tourism is an important industry in the United States and for more regional economies, motivating research exploring characteristics of tourist consumers and their travel behavior. This paper deals with the issue of sampling frame generalizability for tourism research. Visitors to state and local welcome centers were compared in terms of their area awareness, respondent and travel party demographics, and expenditures. Significant differences were found between the groups, questioning the generalizability of data collected at state welcome centers.


Exploring The Strategic Use Of Platform-Based Planning, Ellen Thomas Feb 2012

Exploring The Strategic Use Of Platform-Based Planning, Ellen Thomas

Atlantic Marketing Journal

Platform planning is a strategy that can be effectively used to manage today’s rapidly changing environment. It is the process by which core elements are identified and used as a foundation for future growth. Although platform planning is most often associated with product design, its value is now being acknowledged along other dimensions of marketing strategy such as brands, target markets, geographical markets, and business processes. This paper summarizes literature introducing different dimensions of marketing strategy that platform planning can be applied to. Next it introduces findings from engineering literature regarding the benefits and risks associated with this type of …


Shopping Cart Abandonment In Online Shopping, Laura S. Egeln, Julie A. Joseph Feb 2012

Shopping Cart Abandonment In Online Shopping, Laura S. Egeln, Julie A. Joseph

Atlantic Marketing Journal

Shopping cart abandonment in online shopping is a growing concern for retailers because it represents lost sales. This study looks at perceived risk and perceived ownership in relation to shopping cart abandonment. It is hypothesized that perceived risk in intended behavior will affect actual purchase behavior and perceived ownership in intended behavior will positively affect perceived ownership in actual behavior. It is believed that decreasing risk will also decrease cart abandonment and increasing ownership will increase transaction completion therefore decreasing cart abandonment. A survey was administered and results showed that the most common perceived risk in abandoning the cart was …


An Exploratory Model Of The Antecedent Factors Contributing To Fan Support/Attendance At Hbcu Basketball Games, George W. Stone, Kathryn T. Cort, Japhet Nkonge Feb 2012

An Exploratory Model Of The Antecedent Factors Contributing To Fan Support/Attendance At Hbcu Basketball Games, George W. Stone, Kathryn T. Cort, Japhet Nkonge

Atlantic Marketing Journal

The factors that impact attendance at sporting events in general and at small college sporting events in particular have been widely examined by sports marketing academicians. Among the various factors emerging over two decades has been attendance based on identity with individual teams and players, to idiosyncratic factors such as the environment and the entertainment value of the sporting event itself. Less is known, however, about what creates and promotes the desire to attend sporting events associated with historically black colleges and universities (HBCU’s). HBCU’s, like their other small college athletic departments, are now facing financial difficulties because of dwindling …