Business Commons^™

The Use Of Complexity Theory And Strange Attractors To Understand And Explain Information System Development, Arthur P. Tomasino

2013

In spite of the best efforts of researchers and practitioners, Information Systems (IS) developers are having problems "getting it right". IS developments are challenged by the emergence of unanticipated IS characteristics undermining managers ability to predict and manage IS change. Because IS are complex, development formulas, best practices or development guides simply will not work. The difficulties in these system developments stem from the complexity of IS arising from the inter-relationship, interaction, and interconnectivity of the elements in the system and its environment. This research uses complexity concepts to help solve the problem with IS development and explain why so …

Practicing Technology Implementation: The Case Of An Enterprise System, Yukika Awazu

2013

Drawing on four theories of practice – Communities of Practice (CoP), Bourdieu's theory of practice, Pickering's mangle of practice, and Actor Network Theory (ANT), the study provides an in-depth understanding about technology implementation practice. Analysis of an Enterprise System implementation project in a software manufacturing company reveals five stories of practice that relate to the major challenges faced. The story of mentoring related to the challenge of developing skilled analysts, and is examined by focusing on episodes about newly hired staff members. The story reveals the inhibiting impact of past habits and the role of occupational status. The second challenge …

Patient To Agent: A Phenomenological Approach To Understanding Emergent Adult Women's Experiences Of Entering The Workforce, Kerry Akashian

Educational Studies Dissertations

Although women are increasingly present in higher education institutions and in the workforce, and businesses led by women are thriving in the current economy, research indicates an increase in emerging adults who report experiencing excessive levels of stress and emotional conflict. This stress and conflict can contribute to the development of depression and anxiety, especially in the absence of adequate support systems. Frequent use of healthcare services, worker absenteeism, and the replacement of employees are three financial costs of stress on corporate employers. Although research on emerging adulthood supports the links between stress, emotional conflict, and support systems, less is …

Keep Relationships Positive Or Do Things Right: Bridging Women Leaders’ Conflict Management Strategies In Non-Profit Organizations In Taiwan And The Us, Chin-Chung Chao, Dexin Tian

Communication Faculty Publications

Purpose – The present study aims at contributing to the knowledge of organizational communication and cross-cultural female leadership by examining the conflict management strategies between Taiwanese female presidents and their American counterparts in Rotary Clubs.

Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected through field observations and 25 in-depth interviews with 14 Taiwanese female presidents and 11 American female presidents in Rotary Clubs. Theme analysis of the interpretive method was used in this research.

Findings – This study revealed that the female presidents in both cultures applied obliging and integrating strategies to handle management conflicts. Yet, due to the interference of past presidents, …

Climatequal® And Thinklets: Using Climatequal® With Group Support Systems To Facilitate Discussion And Set Priorities For Organizational Change At Criss Library, Audrey Defrank, Nora Hillyer

Criss Library Faculty Publications

Objective – This article discusses a series of actions taken by the Criss Library at the University of Nebraska at Omaha to implement organizational change, using the ClimateQUAL® survey and facilitated discussions with ThinkTank™ group decision software. The library had experienced significant changes over a five-year period, with a renovation of the facility and three reorganizations resulting in a 50% staff turnover. Recognizing the strain that years of construction and personnel changes had placed on the organization, there was a desire to uncover the mood of the employees and reveal the issues behind low morale, uneasiness, and fear.

Methods – …

Positive Workplace Dynamics: A Qualitative Exploration Of Exceptional Performance In Community College Units, R. Michael Stapleton

Theses and Dissertations--Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation

In this companion dissertation findings are reported of applied case study research on four community college organizational units that consistently meet or exceed standard performance measures. Ample prior evidence confirmed that performance extended significantly beyond what might be explained by available tangible resources alone. The case study contexts are common in higher education in general: a) an external partnership, (b) an ad hoc team, (c) a traditional, cross-divisional service unit, and (d) a grant-funded student service unit.

Emerging positive organizational theory and research shows promise for revealing performance-influencing phenomena and behaviors that are not adequately represented in standard measures. Therefore, …

Social Networks, Individual Orientations, And Employee Innovation Outcomes: A Multi-Theoretical Perspective, Travis J. Grosser

Theses and Dissertations--Management

I examine individual innovation in organizations from a social network perspective. I employ two theoretical lenses to examine innovation outcomes in three separate empirical studies. First, I use a sociopolitical framework to examine how political skill and social network structure interact to predict successful innovation initiation and, ultimately, career success. I find that innovation initiation mediates the relationship between political skill and career success. Moreover, structural holes in employees’ social networks moderate the mediated relationship between political skill and career success such that the relationship is stronger for employees with many structural holes in their social network. Second, I use …

A Tale Of Two Envys: A Social Network Perspective On The Consequences Of Workplace Social Comparison, Christopher M. Sterling

Theses and Dissertations--Management

My dissertation examines how individuals respond to workplace social comparisons. I measure the explicit set of referent others that individuals compare themselves against in order to evaluate their own level of performance. I examine how the social context of these comparisons impact discretionary performance related behaviors by examining how an individual’s position within a social network and the structural characteristics of an individual’s reference group influences the experience of discrete emotions. Specifically, I examine how malicious envy and benign envy mediate the relationship between social comparison and workplace behavior in a field setting. Results indicate that social network structure plays …

Effects Of Restaurant Tax And Price Increases: Implications For Managers, Policy Makers, And Lobbyists, Junghee Han

Theses and Dissertations--Retailing and Tourism Management

Legislation has been proposed in Kentucky that would authorize city legislative bodies to levy a tax on restaurant meals of no more than 3%, regardless of the size of the city. The bill has garnered attention from Kentucky Travel Industry Association, the Kentucky Restaurant Association, and local tourism and restaurant organizations and associations that oppose the tax. The Kentucky League of Cities, an organization that represents the interests of city governments, supports the tax. The purpose of this research was to examine how a change in the tax rate on restaurant meals would affect restaurant demand. Effects of changes in …

Feasibility Study Of Solar Energy Utilized In An Agricultural Setting, Tyler J. Flavell

BioResource and Agricultural Engineering

This BRAE 462 senior project entails a mock feasibility and engineering report on implementing solar power to Cal Poly’s poultry unit. The report is to see whether or not solar power would excel and save electrical costs for one of Cal Poly’s agricultural centers. The report must include research into what type of solar system to be installed, economic costs, and engineering calculations to determine whether or not the system will be feasible. The system must be realistic and able to be built onto the poultry unit with accurate space requirements and up to building codes.

Faculty Usage Of Social Media And Mobile Devices: Analysis Of Advantages And Concerns, D. Roebuck, S. Siha, R. L. Bell

Faculty Articles

This study seeks to understand the perceptions of professors using social media (also called Web 2.0 tools) in the classroom, what kinds of mobile devices are used to access the social media used, and what drives individuals to use them. In addition, it seeks to identify the advantages and concerns faculty has with the use of social media for classroom instruction. Two-Way Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) procedure was used to ascertain whether differences existed between two dependent variables and (a) gender, (b) different academic ranks, and (c) gender *rank to determine if there are any interaction effects between genders …

The Challenge Of Intervention To Monetarily Support Or Not Support The National Airline Carriers: A Case Of The Airline Industry In Eastern Europe, Dawna L. Rhoades, Tamilla Curtis

Management, Marketing and Operations - Daytona Beach

The airline industry has been considered a special case in national and international business virtually since its beginning. Because of this status, national governments have repeatedly intervened to support national carriers in order to prevent bankruptcy and failure. The nations of Eastern Europe are no exception to this rule and are currently considering additional intervention to support their carriers. This paper explores the rationale for intervention, particularly the suggested economic impact, using traffic and financial information from the Flightglobal database. The conclusion is that the case for intervention is weak at best and that the results may not justify the …

Effects Of Global Competitiveness, Human Development, And Corruption On Inward Foreign Direct Investment, Tamilla Curtis, Dawna L. Rhoades, Tom Griffin

Management, Marketing and Operations - Daytona Beach

The purpose of this paper is to investigate which of Dunning's location-specific advantages of host countries, presented as composite indices for Global Competitiveness, Human Development and Corruption Perception, better predict the level of inward Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).

A stepwise multiple regression method was applied on a sample of 129 countries, which was further divided into two subgroups: OECD members and non-OECD members. The study provides evidence that global competitiveness and the level of corruption of the host country are important determinants for inward FDI. For non-OECD countries the Human Development index appears to be an additional FDI determinant. More …

Baseball Media Guide 2013, Indiana State University

Intercollegiate Athletics

No abstract provided.

Generational Differences In Use Of Social Media In Today’S Workplace, Michael Diercksen, Matthew Diplacido, Diane M. Harvey, Susan M. Bosco

Business Faculty Publications

This study examined the use of social media at work. Undergraduate students and professors were surveyed to try to find a generational relationship between the younger generation’s view of using sites such as Facebook while working and how some participants from an older generation perceived it. We also examined the effects of Facebook outside of work and whether or not postings made there could jeopardize a position at work. The results from our survey and research conclude that social media is an increasing problem because it serves as a distraction and predict that with increasing individual use of social media …

When The Human Factor Is At The Core Of The Safety Barrier, Maria Chiara Leva, Catalina Bermudez Angel, Emmanuel Plot, Marco Gattuso

Articles

There are situation in the industry where the human actions are the main safety barriers to abnormal or accidental conditions. In order to maximize the reliability of good human and organizational barriers we need to ensure that the action-plans generated are based on a valid risk assessment of the situation to be addressed and informed by a relevant human factor analysis. This implies that the process needs to be participatory in nature, thus involving end user all the way through. In this paper we present a study in which a critical scenario of vessel overpressure was analyzed using a bowtie. …

Consistency Between Earnings Forecasts And Stock Recommendations : The Effect Of Political Connections, Elio Alfonso

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Financial analysts’ earnings forecasts are more consistent with stock recommendations when their earnings forecasts are more accurate (Loh and Mian 2006, Ertimur et al. 2007). This suggests that analysts use other information in their private valuation models in addition to earnings forecasts especially when earnings have greater uncertainty. Recent studies show that political connections are important for firm valuation and are associated with future positive returns and future positive operating performance (Faccio 2006, Cooper et al. 2010). In this study, I examine how a firm’s political connections affect stock recommendation informativeness as well as the efficiency with which analysts translate …

Essays On Institutional Trading Behavior With Conflicts Of Interest And Information Sharing, Hyoseok Hwang

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation explores a controversial issue of institutional trading behavior with conflicts of interest and information sharing. Using firms sued for alleged financial misreporting, the first essay examines whether analyst-affiliated institutions reduce the portfolio weights of sued firms prior to their analysts releasing the information through downgrade revisions – trading huddles. Empirical evidence is consistent with this behavior, particularly among the institutions with investment banking operations but without underwriting relationships with sued firms. Institutions with underwriting relationships only reduce portfolio weights significantly when their analysts are the first to provide downgrades during the class period, which is a proxy for …

The Effect On Earnings Persistence And The Market's Reaction To The Alignment Of Employee And Customer Relations With Competitive Strategy, Robert Stephen Hogan

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Prior literature suggests that a focus on employee and customer relations alone improves financial performance. However, I find that a focus on employee and customer relations alone is not related to higher earnings persistence, but rather I hypothesize and find that the alignment of employee and customer relations with competitive strategy is related to higher earnings persistence. I further explore this relation by examining the contextual environment in which the firm operates. I consider the moderating variables of firm size, leverage, growth, and corporate governance and find that alignment impacts the persistence of earnings for leverage and governance but not …

Factors Affecting Teaching Efficacy Of Beginning Secondary Agricultural Education Teachers, Marshall Swafford

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Teacher efficacy studies in agricultural education have primarily focused on documenting the perceived teaching efficacy of agriculture teachers. A limited number of studies have focused upon the factors that may help shape those efficacy beliefs. Therefore, the primary purpose of this study was to investigate the factors that may contribute to the teaching efficacy beliefs of beginning agriculture education teachers. These factors included perceived collective efficacy, perceived principal support, and perceived teacher preparation program quality. The population for this study included all agriculture teachers in Missouri and Kansas (N=213) who had not completed more than five years teaching agricultural education …

Will "Smarter" Marketing End Social Discrimination? A Critical Review, Frances Grodzinsky, Andra Gumbus, Stephen J. Lilley

School of Computer Science & Engineering Faculty Publications

Purpose - There are two claims made by the web marketing/advertising industry. 1) By collecting, managing, and mining data, companies serve consumer’s best interests and 2) by adopting sophisticated analytics web marketers avoid discriminations that disserve individuals. Although we share an interest in ending social discrimination, we are more circumspect about pronounced individualism and technological fixes. Despite its appeal, or perhaps because of it, we should not accept the claim at face value. In this paper we argue that social discrimination may not disappear under smarter marketing; more overt forms may wane only to be replaced by more subtle forms. …

The Impact Of Country-Of-Origin On The Liability-Of-Foreignness In The Acceptance Of Products In The Global Marketplace, Natascha Loebnitz, Michael Harvey

AMTP Proceedings 2013

Upon entering a foreign market, multinational corporations (MNCs) encounter business environments that are far more diverse and complex that what they are attuned to experiencing in their home market. MNCs face inherent encumbrances due to spatial distance, unfamiliarity with the local environment, differential treatment by the host country, and costs imposed by the homecountry environment, pertaining to the construct liability of foreignness (LOF). While prior research empirically demonstrated LOF’s existence at firm level of analysis with respect to various costs (e.g. survival, revenue, labor lawsuits, profitability), surprisingly little empirical work has been conducted on marketing derived costs, particularly at the …

Learn What The Luxury Suite Customer Wants!, Peter Titlebaum, Jim Blair, Matthew Brown, Ronald Dick

AMTP Proceedings 2013

In the current difficult economy and global marketplace, there is more competition than ever for businesses to earn and retain sales from customers in each of their respective industries. That is no different in the sports and entertainment industry, particularly in luxury suite sales for stadiums, arenas, and ballparks. In many instances, companies are asking customers about their preferences in regards to current product offerings and about innovations within their company and industry. By listening to the voice of the customer, companies can increase sales, improve client relationships, add to current product offerings, create new and innovative products, and earn …

Tension And Energy: Components Of Arousal And Their Effect On Intention To Give, Robert E. Pitts, Julia E. Blose, Rhonda W. Mack

AMTP Proceedings 2013

In the current study we explore a multidimensional conceptualization of arousal to better understand the effect of donation appeals incorporating negative messages on intention to give. More specifically, an experiment is conducted to determine whether varying the level of message negativity has an impact on donor intentions to give where the mechanism by which intentions increase is examined. Using structural equation modeling, the relationship between message negativity, two dimensions of arousal (tension and energy) and intention to donate is estimated. We collected data using the background of an on-campus fund raising program for abused Afghani women held at a mid-size, …

Soccer Marketing In The United States, Brian Crow, Dennis Phillips, Dallas Branch, Greg Hutton

AMTP Proceedings 2013

Soccer is continuing to grow in popularity in the United States. According to the U.S. Soccer Federation, there are more than 4 million players in the US, more than double the number in 1990 (Belson, 2010). The Sports and Fitness Industry Association (formerly SGMA) has found that total participation in soccer had increased nearly 3% annually in 2011 (Physical Activity Council, 2011). According to another SFIA study, however, a shortage of facilities and emphasis on tournament and showcase events may result in potential future downturn in participation (Athletic Business, 2012). There is also a shifting emphasis from tournament and showcase …

The Potential Costs To The Dod Of Not Preparing For The Nextgen Nas Overhaul: Lessons Learned From Rvsm, Casey Richardson

Graduate Student Works

In order to facilitate a significant overhaul of the civilian National Airspace System (NAS), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has partnered with many federal agencies, such as the departments of Transportation (DOT), Defense (DoD), Homeland Security (DHS), and Commerce (DOC) and the National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA) through a consolidated Joint Planning and Development Office (JPDO) that was established by Congress in 2003 in the VISION 100 – Century of Aviation Reauthorization Act (JPDO, 2012). The JPDO has proposed replacing the old NAS structure of primarily ground-based navigation with robust satellite-enabled air traffic procedures and to supplement ground-based air …

Mexico Consensus Economic Forecast, Volume 16, Number 1, Thomas M. Fullerton Jr., Adam G. Walke

Departmental Papers (E & F)

No abstract provided.

Shareholder Primacy In The Classroom After The Financial Crisis, David Millon

Journal of Business & Technology Law

No abstract provided.

Evaluating The Intentionality Of Identified Misstatements: How Perspective Can Help Auditors In Distinguishing Errors From Fraud, Erin L. Hamilton

Theses and Dissertations

According to Auditing Standard No. 14, fraud is an intentional act. Thus, when a misstatement is identified during the audit, auditors should consider whether the misstatement might have been caused intentionally (PCAOB 2010a). The objective of the present study is to investigate whether considering the perspective of the manager responsible for a misstatement's occurrence impacts auditors' beliefs concerning the misstatement's intentionality. Using an experiment with 82 audit manager and senior manager participants, I find that auditors who actively consider the perspective of the manager who caused a misstatement assess the likelihood that the misstatement is intentional higher when the circumstances …

The Contribution Of Social Simulation In The Advancement Of Marketing Issues And Challenges, Mario V. González Fuentes

School of Business Faculty Research

For some years now, marketers have been praising for a more holistic approach of a company’s marketing efforts across all areas. However, traditional models show serious limitations to address the complexities of managing all of a company’s touch points with a customer. Agent-based modeling (ABM) has opened the door to explore the unfolding behaviors and outputs of an increasingly connected and interactive marketplace. The contribution of this paper is twofold. On the one hand, it provides researchers with a state-of-the-art repository for this strand of research. This facilitates the identification of relevant gaps in the literature and future research avenues. …