Business Commons^™

A Foundation's Theory Of Philanthropy: What It Is, What It Provides, How To Do It, Michael Quinn Patton, Nathaniel Foote, James Radner

The Foundation Review

This article argues that philanthropic endeavors should be undergirded by a theory of philanthropy. Articulating a theory of philanthropy is a way for a foundation to make explicit what is often only implicit, thereby enabling internal and external actors to pose and resolve significant questions, understand and play important roles more fully and effectively, and improve performance by enhancing alignment across complex systems.

A theory of philanthropy articulates how and why a foundation will use its resources to achieve its mission and vision. The theory-of-philanthropy approach is designed to help foundations align their strategies, governance, operating and accountability procedures, and …

The Theory Of Philanthropy Of The Alberta Family Wellness Initiative, James Radner, Nathaniel Foote, Michael Quinn Patton

The Foundation Review

This article presents the theory of philanthropy of the Palix Foundation, which seeks to improve health and wellness outcomes for children and families in Alberta, Canada, by mobilizing and applying knowledge about brain and early childhood development and the link to lifelong mental health and addiction outcomes.

Through years of intuitive exploration and adaptation, the foundation evolved its role to include brokering access to the latest scientific knowledge, convening key players in multiple forums to explore applying that knowledge, and serving as a learning partner to public systems and communities in Alberta.

Following evaluation of a major phase of the …

Creating Choices Before Making Choices: One Family Foundation’S Journey To Finding A Strategic Focus, Kelly C. Medinger, Angela R. Logan

The Foundation Review

Rooted in business principles, philanthropic study, and reflective practice, this article examines the journey of the Marion I. & Henry J. Knott Foundation, a small family foundation established in 1977, toward a strategic grantmaking focus.

This article examines a foundation’s first step toward building a grantmaking strategy – finding an issue or problem to address – alongside a three-part model for creating choices that reflect donor intent, organizational talents and resources, and broader community needs.

The study adds to the body of knowledge about the value, process, and challenges of finding a strategic grantmaking focus, whether that focus is for …

The Blandin Foundation: The Journey To A Theory Of Philanthropy, Kathy Annette, Wade Fauth, Allison Ahcan

The Foundation Review

The Blandin Foundation, located in Grand Rapids, Minn., is one of the few foundations focused on rural communities.

The foundation’s trustees commissioned the senior leadership team in 2007 to undertake serious, sustained, and annual assessments of the foundation’s work and impact. The first assessments focused on the ways in which they were delivering on the strategic plan, observations about impact, and potential adjustments.

After focusing on strategies, foundation leadership asked themselves what their theory of change was. This question led to a deeper process of exploring why and how they do their work, eventually leading them to a theory of …

Conflicting Voices And Strategic Choices: Capital Structure Heterogeneity And Strategic Actions, Chetan Chawla

Doctoral Dissertations

The mix of debt and equity in a firm’s capital structure has been associated with varied strategic actions, such as diversification and innovation. Different forms of debt and equity have been associated with particular types of strategic actions. Although there are clear differences between debt and equity, I argue there are also similarities across the two forms of capital. I develop a theoretical framework to categorize both debt and equity along the dimensions of time horizon and risk tolerance, so as to categorize the providers of capital as Transient Equity, Dedicated Equity, Transactional Debt, and Relational Debt. I then empirically …

Strategic Management, Robin Snipes, Kirk Heriot, Laurence Marsh, Mark Flynn, Amy Thornton

Business Administration, Management, and Economics Grants Collections

This Grants Collection for Strategic Management was created under a Round Two ALG Textbook Transformation Grant.

Affordable Learning Georgia Grants Collections are intended to provide faculty with the frameworks to quickly implement or revise the same materials as a Textbook Transformation Grants team, along with the aims and lessons learned from project teams during the implementation process.

Documents are in .pdf format, with a separate .docx (Word) version available for download. Each collection contains the following materials:

• Linked Syllabus
• Initial Proposal
• Final Report

Strategies For Adopting Consumer-Generated Media In Small-Sized To Medium-Sized Tourism Enterprises, Stephen Burgess, Carmine Sellitto, Carmen Cox, Jeremy Buultjens

Carmen Cox

Consumer-generated media (CGM) are created when consumers submit, review or respond to online content. The bulk of research into CGM has focussed upon its use by consumers, with less research examining the use of CGM by small businesses. This article discusses small business sector use of online technologies such as CGM, concentrating on tourism small businesses as a key industry sector affected by CGM activities. A CGM ‘strategy’ framework, developed from an existing small business strategy framework, is proposed. This serves as a practical tool for developing CGM strategies and as a theoretical foundation for conducting research into the use …

The Balanced Scorecard: The Key To Effective Strategic Management, Josiah D. Grimm

Senior Honors Theses

The intent of this paper is to define the importance of the balanced scorecard in the strategic management process. The need for the balanced scorecard will be established by explaining the roles of demand shifters, traditional management accounting, Senge’s concept of a learning organization, and the strategic management process. This will involve detailing the stages of the strategic management process and connecting them to the various aspects of creating a balanced scorecard. Ultimately, the goal of the balanced scorecard is to translate the overarching strategy into specific actions that can be implemented throughout the organization. Lastly, other strategic applications of …

The Evolution Of American Microtargeting: An Examination Of Modern Political Messaging, Luke Bunting

Butler Journal of Undergraduate Research

The usage of targeted messaging by political campaigns has seen a drastic evolution in the past fifty years. Through advancement in campaign technology and an increasingly large amount of personal information for sale to organizations willing to pay for it, campaigns have continually narrowed their scope from targeting large demographic groups to targeting voters individually through a process called microtargeting. This paper examines the history of microtargeting in American presidential campaigns, which has resulted in a smaller, more polarized electorate.

Strategic Risk Management In Agriculture, Steven Slezak

Steven Slezak

A presentation on the risk management issues that impact strategy in agribusiness and agriculture operations.

Strategic Information Technology Alignment: Conceptualization, Measurement, And Performance Implications, Magno Queiroz

Magno Queiroz

Explaining the effect of information technology (IT) on organizational performance is a primary concern for strategic IT alignment research. The central hypothesis is that performance is a function of the alignment between IT and the organization’s business strategy. Preceding theories explain the performance implications of IT alignment within a single line of business. However, they do not explain the need for IT to be aligned with distinct strategies developed at the corporate and strategic business unit (SBU) levels in a multi-business organization. This thesis begins the task of unpacking the concept of IT alignment to explain the performance implications of …

Gestión Tecnológica Como Estrategia Empresarial, Laura Stphanie Jiménez López, Melany Fonseca Pedroza

Administración de Empresas

El presente artículo tiene como objetivo proporcionar una reflexión sobre la gestión tecnológica, su implementación y el manejo adecuado de la información en las estructuras organizacionales, lo cual genera una estrategia empresarial determinante con el fin de obtener ventajas competitivas. El creciente interés de la gerencia por desarrollar estrategias tecnológicas para la obtención de la información en tiempo real, ha hecho que el mundo empresarial ponga mayor atención a los diversos procesos de I+D; en palabras dichas por (Matthews, 1990) “Las decisiones sobre tecnología son más decisivas que nunca para el éxito y la supervivencia, una industria puede quedar obsoleta …

Factores De Riesgo Y Cambios Organizacionales, Un Estado Del Arte Sobre Investigaciones Realizadas En Cinco Universidades De Bogotá, Diana Milena Vallejo Obando

Administración de Empresas

El presente artículo busca mostrar los resultados obtenidos como parte de la realización de un estado del arte sobre las formas en que se han tratado, como tema de investigación, los cambios organizacionales y los factores de riesgo en el ámbito académico de la ciudad de Bogotá. En este sentido se considera como un paso inicial en el camino hacia la generación de conocimiento basado en la descripción, sistematización e interpretación de aquellos resultados que expone la producción intelectual presentada por grupos de investigación de cinco universidades de la ciudad de Bogotá que, durante el periodo 2004-2014, fueron registrados en …

Organizational Engagement With Supply Chain Integration: Achieving A Tangible Strategy, Anand Jeyaraj, Kevin P. Duffy, Berkwood M. Farmer, Vikram Sethi

ISSCM Faculty Publications

Although supply chain management and supply chain integration have become topics found within today’s organization as well as topics for researchers from various disciplines, little research has been completed concerning the linkage between business strategy, supply chain strategy, and the resulting decision which an organization makes to enter into an integration initiative. This paper discusses the experience of one organization in formulating a supply chain strategy consistent with its business strategy. The paper concludes with key elements driving the supply chain which emerge from this linkage, a framework for determining the importance of the supply chain to the organization, and …

Salespeople's Learning By Doing And Pricing Strategy, Qiang Lu, Ranjit Voola, Shahriar Akter

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Understanding the salespeople’s dynamic learning process is critical in effective sales force management. Particularly, the ability to understand the customer intimately is critical in facilitating sales people develop capabilities that allow them set prices that best meet the needs of the customer and the company objectives. To the best of our knowledge, there are no studies structurally modelling salespeople’s learning by doing. We develop a Bayesian learning framework to capture salespeople’s learning by doing. In doing so, we argue that for sales organizations who delegate pricing authority to sales people, it is imperative that they understanding how their sales people …

Profitability And The Financial Strategies Of Women-Owned Small Businesses, Kellie J. Emrich

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The fastest growing segment of business development in the United States comes from small business start-ups, with 42% of these businesses being women owned. Women-owned businesses are annually 25% less profitable when compared to the average small business in the United States. Based on the theory of planned behavior, the purpose of this single exploratory case study was to investigate how women small business owners and their employees use financial strategies to increase the profitability of their businesses. Data came from semistructured interviews with 1 woman business owner and 5 business consultants who work for the women-owned small business. The …

Business Governance Best Practices Of Virtual Project Teams, William James Hamersly

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The steady increase in project failure rates is leaving businesses searching for better integration techniques to virtualize their project environments. Through virtualization, organizations may have positive impacts on communities across geographical boundaries and resource constraints. The focus of this phenomenological study was to explore, via the experiences of successful project management practitioners, best practice strategies for integrating virtual project teams through data analysis. The conceptual framework included von Bertalanffy's general systems theory, decomposition model of business process and project management frameworks, and the recomposition approach. Twenty-two senior project managers with more than 5 years of experience managing virtual project environments …

Preparing Senior Executives To Address Organizational Culture During An Organizational Merger, Kenneth T. Hannigan

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Executives planning for an organizational merger often neglect or overlook the importance of creating a positive organizational culture. Researchers have demonstrated that organizational culture is important to the success of mergers. Workers' compensation industry executives who managed mergers successfully often includ organizational culture in their merger strategy. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the strategies that business executives used to unify organizational cultures during an organizational merger. The population for the study consisted of 3 CEOs with operations in northern Florida, who successfully merged companies within the workers' compensation managed care industry. For each of these …

Strategies To Sustain Public Private Partnership: A Lebanese Agency Case Study, Nada Dimachkieh Sweidan

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Four public private partnerships have been created in Lebanon to fulfill the promises of better public value and accelerated economic development for sustainable business development. The problem is some business owners embark on public private partnership projects without following known documented strategies that ensure business sustainability. The purpose of the single case study was to explore the strategies business owners used to sustain public private partnership businesses in Lebanon. The conceptual framework included the theory of X-efficiency and the new public management model. The Northern Lebanon public private partnership was chosen for the study. All 7 business owners participated through …

European Airport Concessions: Retail Strategies To Improve Commercial Revenue From Leisure Travelers, René W. B. Puls

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Aeronautical revenue from landing and handling charges to carriers is falling significantly below 60% of total revenue and will not persist as the main source of income for airports. Airports in Europe cannot continue to rely on profits from airlines; operating companies need to improve the competitiveness through commercial income from different traveler types. The purpose of this multiple case study was to understand the elements of successful sales strategies by concessionaires (retailers) at the metropolitan airport system of Zurich and Basel in hopes of improving the nonaeronautical revenue from leisure travelers, a price-sensitive customer segment. The conceptual framework was …

Governmental Procurement Restrictions, Deficit Reductions, And The Sustainability Of Alaska Native Corporations, Paul O. Fondren

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Alaska Native Corporations (ANCs) came under political scrutiny in the United States in 2009 during a climate of economic recession and governmental spending reductions. Since then, ANCs have faced increased governmental regulations that immediately changed the ways that their leaders previously achieved growth and success. The purpose of this explanatory case study was to identify elements of ANC strategic plans that lead to success and growth when operationally implemented. The central research questions investigated what executable strategic plans ANC leaders need to ensure sustainable business growth and what practices have led to success and failures. Data were collected from interviews …

Evaluating A Strategic Initiative's Efficiency To Enhance Community College Financial Sustainability, Anne S. Williams

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

During the first decade of the 21st Century, U.S. college enrollment rates increased, public funding fell by 30%, oversight structures changed, and funding algorithms switched to outcome-based metrics such as retention, progression, and graduation rates. Drawing from Vroom's expectancy theory, the purpose of this correlational study was to provide decision makers with information about the factors associated with an implemented strategic initiative at a Connecticut community college. The research question addressed the correlation between the strategic initiative, retention, and organizational financial sustainability using hierarchical, binary regression analysis of archival data for 2,558 first-time full-time students at a Connecticut community college. …

Small Ethnic Restaurant Business Owner Strategies To Remain Operable Beyond 7 Years, Nam Phuong Le

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The failure rate among small businesses is high. More than half of all small businesses fail within the first 7 years of operation. The purpose of this multi-case study was to explore the strategies that successful small ethnic restaurant owners employed to remain operable beyond 7 years. Three successful ethnic restaurant owners who have been operating their restaurant for at least 7 years in Greater Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada were selected. Data were gathered from participant interviews and from an examination of available physical artifacts such as the locations, premises, websites, and social media pages. The resource-based view by Edith …

Leaders' Risk Propensity And Delegation Of Critical Decision-Making Authority, Reginald Carlton Doctor

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

A leader's unwillingness to delegate critical decision-making authority to subordinate managers and employees negatively impacts the performance of a firm. There is a lack of research that measures a leader's willingness to delegate critical decision-making authority to subordinate managers and employees based on their individual risk propensities. The purpose of this study was to provide empirical evidence of the influence risk propensity has on a leader's willingness to delegate critical decision-making authority. Specifically, this study examined the extent that risk propensity of leaders affect delegating critical decision making authority to subordinate managers and employees. The research design was a quantitative …

Big Data Decision Making, Mark Mallinger, Matt Stefl

Marketing & Business Law Faculty Works

The process we use to gather information in making decisions can be as important as the decisions themselves. Do you rely more on sophisticated analytics or intuition? Using a self-report exercise, this article assists the reader in recognizing their decision-making style and offers a framework to enhance the process.