Business Commons^™

Patent System Measurements: Review, Critique And Proposal, Deli Yang

School of Business Faculty Research

This paper reviews and critiques existing literature on means of patent system measurement across countries and accordingly proposes an integrated framework to advance this under-studied area by considering the impact of international organizations. The literature review reveals that studies have been conducted to measure patent systems across the world in diversely conceptual, empirical and methodological manners. The paper discusses all these differences and reveals their strengths and weaknesses. The proposed conceptual framework consists of three components: patent mechanism (e.g. patent laws), patent administration (e.g. patent filing and grant) and patent enforcement (e.g. judicial dispute resolution). The initial testing of this …

Montana Nonresident Traveler Expenditure Trends: 2000-2010, Kara Grau

Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research Publications

This report shows the nonresident traveler expenditure trends for visitors of Montana from 2000-2010. It also displays the total actual expenditures and the total inflation-adjusted expenditures.

Travel And Recreation: Stories Behind The Trends, Norma P. Nickerson

Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research Publications

Trends for 2011.

Gender Disparity In Professional City Management: Making The Case For Enhancing Leadership Curriculum, Leann Beaty, Trenton J. Davis

Public & Nonprofit Studies: Faculty Publications

Professionally trained administrators are critical to the operation and management of governmental agencies. That is particularly true with respect to local government, where city managers are situated at the top of the organizational hierarchy. However, these senior management positions remain largely the domain of males; female represent just 12% of the positions. This disparity, for reasons still unclear, comes to the fore at a time when the field of public administration faces a new set of global challenges, and many in the field have expressed concern about a looming leadership gap. As the world of public administration changes, so must …

Effectively Serving The Needs Of The Millennial Marketing Student: The Product Life Cycle Approach To Class Organization, Jacqueline K. Eastman, Maria E. Aviles, Mark D. Hanna

Marketing: Faculty Publications

We illustrate a class organization process utilizing the concept of the Product Life Cycle to meet the needs of today’s millennial student. In the Introduction stage of a business course, professors need to build structure to encourage commitment. In the Growth stage, professors need to promote the structure through multiple, brief activities that can keep the attention of business students. In the Mature stage, professors need to use the structure to stabilize engagement levels and learning rates but be willing to make adjustments to prevent apathy in the course. Finally, in the Decline stage, professors need to dismantle the structure …

Zero Tolerance Or Zero Rationality, John Leaptrott, J. Michael Mcdonald, Jerry W. Wilson

Management: Faculty Publications

The primary subject matter of this case concerns organizational culture and conflict management. Secondary issues examined include ethics, human resource management, organizational theory and strategy. The case has a difficulty level appropriate for upper division and graduate business students. The case is designed to be taught in one to two class hours and is expected to require two to four hours of outside preparation by students. Zero tolerance policies, while still on the rise in many institutions in this country (most prominently in U.S. school systems), are increasingly being challenged in courts at various levels. Two of the most common …

What Products Can Benefit From African American Advertising Appeals? The Moderating Role Of Product Involvement, Ivonne M. Torres, Cuauhtémoc Luna-Nevarez

WCBT Faculty Publications

With a significant spending power, the African American segment is one of the most lucrative, interesting, and complex targets for national and local advertisers. As this consumer segment continues to grow in importance, marketers need to focus on what types of products could benefit from African American-targeted advertising. Our research studies show African Americans respond to advertising targeted to them and their responses are moderated by ethnic identification and product involvement. Consistent with both theoretical frameworks, distinctiveness theory and ethnic identification theory, we found that identified African Americans prefer African American models especially when advertising low-involvement products.

The Sarbanes Oxley Act's Contribution To Curtailing Corporate Bribery, Karen Cascini, Alan Delfavero, Mario Mililli

WCBT Faculty Publications

In the wake of corporate scandals occurring in the early 2000s, a need for stricter regulation was deemed necessary by the investors of U.S. public companies. In 2002, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SoX) was created. Accordingly, under the rules of SoX, U.S. corporations were faced with increased oversight and also needed to substantially improve their internal controls. As companies began to scrutinize their internal affairs more closely, some businesses detected other forms of criminal activity occurring internally, such as bribery. Those companies and individuals found to have committed bribery have violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 (FCPA). Throughout this …

Diseño Y Validación De Un Modelo De Triple Hélice Para Impulsar La Innovación, El Desarrollo Tecnológico Y La Competitividad De La Micro Y Pequeña Empresa En Los Municipios De Torreón, Gómez Palacio Y Lerdo, Sylvia A. Robles Cárdenas

International Business and Entrepreneurship Faculty Publications

Existe en México una gran desvinculación entre la universidad, empresa y gobierno para alinear sus objetivos, aprovechar la acumulación de conocimiento y promover la innovación. El objetivo de este trabajo es diseñar y validar un modelo de innovación, competitividad y productividad para impulsar la micro y pequeña empresa (MYPE) lagunera a través del enfoque de Triple Hélice (TH), basado en diferentes autores (FondazioneRosselli, 1995; Leydesdorff, Yetzkowitz, 2001;) El diseño metodológico involucró una muestra representativa de 80 empresas de la Comarca Lagunera, la participación de profesores y estudiantes de la universidad Iberoamericana y el apoyo financiero de los presidentes municipales de …

The Marketing Relevance Of Australian Cosmetic Brand Ambassadors, Jessica Boswarva

Theses : Honours

Brand ambassadors are often employed to perform important marketing roles such as influencing product adoption and creating brand awareness (Livesley, 2009; O’Leary, 2010; Voight, 2007; Wragg, 2004). Brand ambassadors provide personalised customer service, including educational, experiential and relational roles and as a result propagate trust, minimize perceived risk and create familiarity and involvement (Belch & Belch, 2007; Chiou & Droge, 2006; Elliot & Percy, 2007). Whilst studies highlight benefits to businesses in general, there is limited research to the role of brand ambassadors within the Australian cosmetic industry. Cosmetic brand ambassadors are a traditional feature of the cosmetic industry and …

Property Bubble : Test For Suitability And Reliability Indicators : A Comparative Assessment Of Western Australia And Provence-Alpes-Cote D'Azur, Romain A. Aureglia

Theses : Honours

Purpose: The main purpose of this thesis is to contribute to the speculative bubble literature and to provide a practical test upon Lind’s (2008) definition and set of indicators to identify a property bubble.

Methodology: The methodology for this thesis consists of a case study and a comparative analysis. The paper will connect Lind’s theoretical framework to a practical test to provide a concrete answer for the validity of his work.

Findings: Media and general perceptions have had a great influence over the housing market actors for both Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azur and Western Australia regions. House prices increases are often attributed …

Creating A Fog: Can Plain English Be Used To Mislead Investors?, Scott Collins

CGU Theses & Dissertations

A recent growth in textual analysis research in the accounting and finance literature relies heavily on context to draw conclusions about the readability or sentiment of the text under study. Yet the complexity of the text used in the financial disclosure is also relevant in evaluating readability and sentiment. Experimental results in this dissertation thesis show that a change in annual report complexity is associated with a change in the probability that a subject will comprehend the information being communicated in the disclosure. Specifically, increasing the complexity of an annual report disclosure dampens the probability that a subject will understand …

Venture Capital In Ireland In Comparative Perspective, Frank Barry, Clare O'Mahony, Beata Sax

Articles

This paper assembles the most comprehensive set of data available to offer a comparative perspective on venture capital in Ireland. The paper charts the emergence of the sector and the co-evolution of the demand and supply sides of the market. On the demand side, a flow of investment opportunities emerged – particularly from the indigenous software sector – for which venture capital represented an appropriate financing vehicle. Concurrently, on the supply side, publicly provided funding and other elements of public policy dramatically enhanced its availability. State support to the demand-side has been a multiple of state support to the supply …

A Qualitative Exploration Of Oral Communciations Apprehension, Marann Byrne, Barbara Flood, Dan Shanahan

Articles

Prior research has identified communication apprehension, or fear of communicating, as a major factor which inhibits an individual’s willingness to communicate and his/her capability to develop effective communication skills. While many prior studies have measured oral communication apprehension of students, there has been little qualitative exploration of the phenomenon. This study was conducted by interviewing first-year business and accounting students at a higher education institution in Ireland who were identified as encountering varying levels of oral communication apprehension. The experiences of the students in communicating in different contexts are analysed and the impact of factors such as fear of peer …

Exploring Inter-Organizational Relationships Between Park And Recreation Agencies With Wounded Warrior Programs And Community Service Organizations, Morgan Alexander Mccreary

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Public recreation departments are funded primarily by tax dollars and over the past thirty years the percentage of funding needed to operate quality recreation programs has steadily decreased and threatened the quantity and quality of programs offered. Presently, park and recreation agencies partner with community entities to offset funding reductions and to offer new and/or ancillary programs. Importantly, partnerships must provide mutual benefits to be successful and the antecedents and factors of inter-organizational relations (IOR) are important to discover. The purpose of this study was to determine factors that might predict IOR between park and recreation agencies with Wounded Warrior …

Ceos, Cfos, And Accounting Fraud, Douglas M. Boyle, Brian W. Carpenter, Dana Hermanson

Faculty Articles

The article focuses on fraudulent financial reporting, which has been a long-standing concern for the U.S. investors. It discusses the findings of a study that provides valuable insights into the role of chief executive officers (CEO) and chief financial officer (CFO) in the prevention of such situation. Also provided are key anti-fraud resources including a fraud risk management program, the assessment of fraud risk exposure and prevention techniques.

An Examination Of Corporate Agribusiness Financial Performance: How Agribusinesses Perform Over Time And Under Various Conditions, Sierra J. Enlow

Theses and Dissertations--Agricultural Economics

While several studies examine the managerial structure of privately owned agribusinesses, few studies take a comprehensive look at publically traded agribusiness firms. Our study examines the historical position of agribusiness compared to the market, and then studies the impact of the global economic and financial crisis. The objective of this study is to pinpoint effects of corporate financial management strategies, commonly researched in financial literature on agribusiness firms’ performance. Through utilizing a quantile regression we find that agribusiness position in times of financial crisis is directly related to firm performance. As we examine internal factors, several interesting impacts of managerial …

The Relationship Between Perceived Personal Fairness, Social Fairness, Hotel Cancellation Policies And Consumer Patronage, Scott J. Smith

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The objective of the study was to examine the relationships between the concepts of personal fairness and social fairness and hotel cancellation policies. These relationships will be explored using the framework of Prospect Theory in terms of consumer patronage (willingnessto-purchase and word-of-mouth). This study begins with a brief history of the development of the lodging industry in the United States from inns and taverns to the modern hotel industry that is a critical sector of the hospitality and tourism economy. Current statistics are provided regarding the U.S. and Central Florida hotel industry in order to provide both a national and …

The Effects Of Corporate Social Responsibility On Service Recovery Evaluations In Casual Dining Restaurants., Heidi Albus

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the effects of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) on service recovery in terms of customer satisfaction, repeat patronage, word of mouth, and consumer trust in casual dining restaurants. More specifically, this study proposed that CSR will have a halo effect on negative service recovery incidents and mitigate the adverse effects of the poor recovery. An experimental study consisting of a 3x2 between subjects factorial design was used. Three CSR conditions (positive, negative, and no CSR) were matched with two service recovery conditions (positive or negative). Four hundred and eighteen subjects were recruited by a reputed marketing research firm. …

The Influence Of An Annual Meeting On The Sense Of Community Of Association Members, Their Satisfaction, And Future Intentions, Jee Yeon Hahm

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Over the past decade, many studies have provided some understanding on what influences association members‟ decision to attend a meeting; however, more systematic and theoretical research is necessary. The decision making process of attendees is a complicated human behavior practice. The major contribution of this study is adopting the sense of community (SOC) model from psychology to gain a better understanding of the attendee behavior. By doing so, this study will add a theoretical foundation to the existing research in the meeting industry. Also, this study will contribute to the SOC research in psychology by applying the concept to a …

Semantic Inference On Heterogeneous E-Marketplace Activities, Jingzhi Guo, Lida Xu, Zhiguo Gong, Chin-Pang Che, Sohail S. Chaudry

Information Technology & Decision Sciences Faculty Publications

An electronic marketplace (e-marketplace) is a common business information space populated with many entities of different system types. Each of them has its own context of how to process activities. This leads to heterogeneous e-marketplace activities, which are difficult to make interoperable and inferred from one entity to another. This study solves this problem by proposing a concept of separation strategy and implementing it through providing a semantic inference engine with a novel inference algorithm. The solution, called the RuleXPM approach, enables one to semantically infer a next e-marketplace activity across multiple contexts/domains. Experiments show that the cross-context/cross-domain semantic inference …

More Than A One-Trick Pony: Exploring The Contours Of A Multi-Sector Covener, Madeleine W. Mcnamara, John C. Morris

School of Public Service Faculty Publications

Today's managers must find ways to identify and sustain productive relationships within multi-sector collaborative arrangements. This paper explores empirically the activities of a convener based on tasks identified by Agranoff and McGuire (2001) and applies this framework to the case of Virginia's Coastal Zone Management Program (VCZMP). We find that the convener displays characteristics described by Agranoff and McGuire, as well as characteristics of traditional hierarchical managers. This research suggests that both sets of skills are necessary for effective multi-sector collaborative governance.

Comparison Of Alumni Donors And Alumni Nondonors On Selected Demographic, Educational And Involvement Factors, Arlette Barbara Rodriguez Rodrigue

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study compared College of Agriculture (COA) alumni of a research university (RU/VH) in the Southern U.S. on selected demographic characteristics and contact information by whether or not the alumni are donors to the university. The target population was COA graduates from 1862 Land Grant Universities located in the Southern portion of the United States. The accessible population was Louisiana State University (LSU) COA alumni graduates. The sample was alumni who completed their degree program from the years 1950 through 2000. The instrument used was the Tiger Advancement Information Lookup System (TAILS) database. Universities have become burdened by financial instability …

Online Reviews And Consumers' Willingness To Pay: The Role Of Uncertainty, Yinglu Wu

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Empirical studies of online reviews have found that valence (average rating) has a consistently positive impact on consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP), but volume does not. Although two studies tried to explain this phenomenon using different perspectives (Wu and Ayala, 2012; Sun, 2012), neither study can fully accommodate the consumer behaviors observed by the other. This dissertation adopts a theoretical framework that can explain the consumer behaviors observed in both studies as well as the varying influence of review volume at the individual level. Specifically, several studies were conducted to investigate the relationship between bidirectional online seller reviews (e.g., the …

Identification And Implementation Of Patterns Towards A Model Of Environmental Sustainability, S. Jimmy Gandhi, Santiago Perez, Danial Rushton, Robert Cloutier, Ipek Bozkurt, C. Ariel Pinto

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

Much like the Quality Revolution did in the 1980's, corporate sustainability has the potential to drive significant changes in the processes and structure of various organizations in the coming decade. With a rapidly growing global population and an ever increasing global demand for resources (Population-Resource-Center, 2012). Sustainability has emerged as one of the primary challenges that organizations will have to deal with in the 21st century. An increasing realization among business executives that profitability by itself is not enough as a measure of success is also driving the increased adoption of sustainable practices in the corporate world (Lowitt and Grimsley, …

Agile Knowledge Management: A Review, Reconceptualization, And Extension To Military Applications, Dogan Ozturk, Rafael E. Landaeta, Resit Unal, Cesar Ariel Pinto, Gokay Sursal

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

This study contributes to the literature by integrating agility in knowledge management (KM) operations, especially in military environments via major findings of (a) introducing a new approach to KM with integration of 'agility'; (b) articulating the application of an enhanced process of Agile Knowledge Management (AKM) across the military. The purpose of the study is to explore the conceptual background of agility in KM, re-conceptualize it and extend it to military applications with a special focus on counterinsurgency (COIN). An initial qualitative exploration of agility in KM was performed. Three different concepts and their interrelationships were analyzed: (a) KM, (b) …

The Role Of Technology In Enabling Sales Support, Aaron D. Arndt, Jason Harkins

Marketing Faculty Publications

The purpose of this research is to develop a framework explaining how technology can enable sales support. Sales support technology is often used to assist salespeople with a variety of transaction activities, such as prospecting, communicating, scheduling appointments, and processing orders. Sales support technology can be categorized as automation and facilitative technology. Our framework explains when a technology is appropriate for a particular sales activity based on workload and customization. It also proposes who should use a technology based on orientation towards sales revenue or cost control goals. Then, we develop managerial recommendations and propose directions for future research.

What Tattoos Tell Customers About Salespeople: The Role Of Gender Norms, Aaron D. Arndt, Myron Glassman

Marketing Faculty Publications

This study looks at how the meaning of visible tattoos impacts customer ratings of salespeople. Given the prevalence of tattoos, sales managers can no longer have a "no tattoo" policy. As such, they must understand how customers view different types of tattoos on salespeople. To this end, we examine the meaning and appropriateness of highly masculine and highly feminine tattoos on salespeople in two industries, real estate and automobile sales. Overall, people with tattoos trust and are more willing to work with tattooed salespeople than people who do not have tattoos. Furthermore, salespeople with masculine tattoos are considered more masculine …

How Effective Is The International Fuel Tax Agreement As A Multistate Tax Administration Model? A View From The States, Juita-Elena Yusuf, Lenahan O'Connell

School of Public Service Faculty Publications

The International Fuel Tax Agreement (IFTA) was established to reduce the complexities of reporting, allocating, and collecting diesel fuel taxes from interstate commercial carriers operating in multiple jurisdictions. This paper examines IFTA's effectiveness as a multistate tax administration model from the perspective of the states. We identify three criteria of effectiveness and use a survey of IFTA officials in the member states and provinces as well as additional data provided by IFTA, Inc to assess IFTA's effectiveness. We conclude that (1) IFTA promotes inter-jurisdictional cooperation and revenue transfers; (2) carriers do not locate disproportionately in low tax jurisdictions; and (3) …

Effective Popular Financial Reports: The Citizen Perspective, Juita-Elena (Wie) Yusuf, Meagan M. Jordan

School of Public Service Faculty Publications

The article presents a study that investigates the views of citizens on the efficiency of financial reports in the U.S. Researchers did a survey to discern the perspectives of respondents about the effectiveness of the said reports in informing other individuals about government finances. Moreover, results reveal that 80% of respondents believed that the reports are effective. [Associates Programs Source, EbscoHost database]