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2016

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Articles 4021 - 4050 of 5215

Full-Text Articles in Business

Strategies Affecting The Sustainability Of Small Businesses, Malissa A. Bush Jan 2016

Strategies Affecting The Sustainability Of Small Businesses, Malissa A. Bush

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Small business owners bolster the emergence and growth of local communities. However, many small businesses do not survive beyond 5 years. Based on systems theory, the purpose of this multiple case study was to explore the strategies used by small business owners to develop and maintain viable and long-lasting businesses. Using a multiple case study design, semistructured interviews were conducted with 6 retail business owners in DeKalb County, Georgia who were able to develop and maintain viable and long-lasting businesses. These small business owners provided detailed information on strategies used to sustain their businesses. Semistructured interviews allowed for in-depth conversations …

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Assessing Information Technology And Business Alignment In Local City Government, Leslie Milbourne D'Anjou Jan 2016

Assessing Information Technology And Business Alignment In Local City Government, Leslie Milbourne D'Anjou

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Top executives are interested in more transparent and formalized structures, applicable measurements, and clear justification of alignment. Limited or improper information technology governance (ITG) affects the business strategy that will ultimately influence the overall business alignment in local city government agencies (LCGAs). The problem addressed in this study was the lack of information regarding LCGAs IT/business strategic alignment maturity model (SAMM) level and the LCGAs' employment size. The purpose of this survey study was to evaluate 48 LCGA participants in the Southwestern part of the United States and compare their alignment perceptions with their cities' employment size. The theoretical framework …

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Exporting After Trade Missions: A Qualitative Analysis Of Small And Medium Enterprises, Tongila M. Manly Jan 2016

Exporting After Trade Missions: A Qualitative Analysis Of Small And Medium Enterprises, Tongila M. Manly

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Some U.S. small and medium enterprises (SMEs) participate in trade missions but return with no results. Accordingly, some researchers question the effectiveness of these export promotion programs. The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to explore the experiences of SME representatives who had attended a trade mission to South Africa. The research question explored the strategies that SME leaders required to successfully export their goods and services after a trade mission using the conceptual framework of resource-based theory. Snowball sampling was used to recruit and gather interview data from 22 SMEs. Thematic analysis of interview data and document sources, …

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Expatriate Retention: A Challenging Goal For Global Corporations, Lydia Eileen Nicks Jan 2016

Expatriate Retention: A Challenging Goal For Global Corporations, Lydia Eileen Nicks

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Towers Watson Media stated that multinational organizations will grow by 45% in 2014 increasing expatriate assignments; however, global organizations lose billions of dollars yearly financing expatriate assignments due to unsuccessful retention efforts during the repatriation process. Fifty percent of expatriates consider leaving the organization within the first year of returning to their home country. The aim of this single descriptive case study was to explore the retention strategies organizational leaders need to retain expatriates employees during repatriation. Two managers from the compensation benefits department of a multinational organization in Tennessee participated in the study. Career self-management theory framed the study. …

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Meaningfulness Of Work As Perceived By Women From Diverse Social Classes: A Grounded Theory Exploration, Jennifer L. Hutmire Jan 2016

Meaningfulness Of Work As Perceived By Women From Diverse Social Classes: A Grounded Theory Exploration, Jennifer L. Hutmire

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Despite research connecting the meaningfulness of work with positive organizational outcomes, such as increased employee well-being, job satisfaction, engagement, and retention, there remains a lack of adequate, inclusive research explaining differences in women's perceptions of the meaningfulness of work. The purpose of this qualitative grounded theory study was to address this gap in the literature by developing a theory about the formation of perceptions of the meaningfulness of work and about the impact of those perceptions. Research questions explored perceptions that women from diverse social classes have of the meaningfulness of work, what influenced those perceptions, the impact of those …

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Influence Of The Patient Protection And Affordable Care Act On Small Businesses, Sean Gallman Jan 2016

Influence Of The Patient Protection And Affordable Care Act On Small Businesses, Sean Gallman

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Business leaders lack strategies to implement the employer shared responsibility provision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). Small businesses pay approximately 18% more than larger companies for the same health coverage. Within a conceptual framework of management by objectives, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore the strategies small business leaders use to implement the employer shared responsibility provision of the ACA. Data were gathered from the review of company documents, observations, and semistructured interviews with 5 senior business leaders from small business organizations in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. Data …

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Relationship Between Working Capital Management, Policies, And Profitability Of Small Manufacturing Firms, Zelealem Tadesse Temtime Jan 2016

Relationship Between Working Capital Management, Policies, And Profitability Of Small Manufacturing Firms, Zelealem Tadesse Temtime

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Working capital optimization, as an act of balancing liquidity and profitability, presents significant challenges when small businesses lack managerial expertise and access to affordable capital and credit facilities. To remain successful through efficient utilization of working capital, small business leaders need to understand the association between working capital management (WCM), working capital policy (WCP), and business profitability (PFT). Anchored in the cash conversion cycle theory, the purpose of this correlational study was to examine the relationship between WCM, WCP, and PFT. The study employed a retrospective secondary analysis of financial data from 2004 to 2013 from a random sample of …

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Relationships Among Administrative Computerization, Hospital Size, And Administrative Expenses, Pamela J. Gallagher Jan 2016

Relationships Among Administrative Computerization, Hospital Size, And Administrative Expenses, Pamela J. Gallagher

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The healthcare industry is computerizing administrative functions in an attempt to reduce expenses and remain competitive. This correlational study of 3,088 Medicare-certified, short-term, acute-care hospitals in the United States was based on a general systems theory framework; it sought to examine the relationships among the independent variables of hospital size and administrative computerization and the dependent variable of administrative expenses. Secondary data from Health Information Management Systems Society's surveys and cost reports from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services were used. Correlation analyses with an alpha of .05 were used to test 3 of the 4 hypotheses; regression analysis …

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Valuing Commercial Finance Companies, David Earle Coit Jan 2016

Valuing Commercial Finance Companies, David Earle Coit

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Stakeholders are increasingly insistent that companies increase firm value. The problem is that stakeholders of financial services firms are unable to accurately determine firm value. The purpose of this correlational study was to examine the accuracy of 4 valuation models in predicting the market value of equity of commercial finance companies. Study participating companies were 8 listed U.S. or Canadian commercial finance companies. The theoretical constructs of the study included the accuracy of valuation models, modern portfolio theory, and the correlation of book value of equity to market value of equity. Financial information on participating companies obtained from public filings …

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The Connection Between Wellness Programs And Employee Job Satisfaction In Higher Education, Donel J. Richemond Jan 2016

The Connection Between Wellness Programs And Employee Job Satisfaction In Higher Education, Donel J. Richemond

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Job dissatisfaction is becoming a fundamental concern for employers. Employee engagement makes an organization more productive and can reduce absenteeism. The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the relationship between employer-sponsored wellness-program participation and job satisfaction among for-profit college and university leaders. Data collection involved an online survey of 400 faculty members' from for-profit universities in the United States contacted using the Job Satisfaction Survey; 103 participants completed the survey. The theoretical framework was the need-satisfaction theory, which includes the factors that promote job satisfaction and job dissatisfaction. The results came from a multiple regression analysis that indicated …

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How Grant Recipients Can Satisfy Compliance Requirements For U.S. Federal Awards, Thomas Edward Drabczyk Jan 2016

How Grant Recipients Can Satisfy Compliance Requirements For U.S. Federal Awards, Thomas Edward Drabczyk

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Improper grants payments stemming from weaknesses in business processes have been a focus of the U.S. president, Congress, and federal and state governments since 2009. Researchers have demonstrated that the internal control weakness at the federal, state, and local government level has contributed to the problem of compliance. The Office of Management and Budget issued federal rules effective in December 2014 to address the problem of federal award compliance. Despite these measures, there is a gap in the literature on strategies for recipients of federal grants to meet compliance requirements. The purpose of the qualitative descriptive study was to explore …

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African American Entrepreneurial Sustainability, Edward Turner Jan 2016

African American Entrepreneurial Sustainability, Edward Turner

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

African Americans are among the fastest growing entrepreneurial minority group in the United States, but they continue to struggle with sustaining these new business ventures. Evidence suggests that African American business entrepreneurs experience an increased failure rate with a 4-year business survival rate of 39%. Reducing the failure rate would significantly add to the U.S. economy (an estimated $2.5 trillion) and create nearly 12 million more jobs. The purpose of this single case study was to explore the strategies and behaviors of an award-winning African American entrepreneur in Miami Dade County who has remained in business over 20 years. The …

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Financing For Small Southern Style Restaurants, Kenneth D. Brown Jan 2016

Financing For Small Southern Style Restaurants, Kenneth D. Brown

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The focus of this case study was to explore the strategies small restaurant business owners used to acquire capital funding to sustain their business through the first 5 years of business. The participants for this study included 4 purposefully selected small restaurateurs in New York State who have been in business for a minimum of 5 years. The conceptual framework for this study was based on the organizational life cycle theory supported by working capital management theory and the liability of newness. Data were collected through semistructured interviews with each restaurant owner, and archived data. The data were analyzed using …

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A Social Capital Perspective On Projects: Measuring The Unobservable Using Structural Equation Modeling, Sandra Sjoberg Jan 2016

A Social Capital Perspective On Projects: Measuring The Unobservable Using Structural Equation Modeling, Sandra Sjoberg

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Project leadership requires a diverse blend of technical and behavioral skills. Researchers have focused on the technical aspects of project management, leaving a void in understanding the behavioral skills of project leadership. The purpose of this correlational study was to gain insights into the behavioral aspects of projects by understanding the social capital and knowledge integration abilities of project leaders. Nahapiet and Ghoshal's social capital definition and its structural, relational, and cognitive attributes form the basis for the social capital theory constructs used in this study. The focus of the research questions was on the relationship of social capital to …

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Environmental Leadership: Exploring Environmental Dissonance Involving Natural Resource Consumption And Ecosystem Degradation, Thomas L. Tochterman Jan 2016

Environmental Leadership: Exploring Environmental Dissonance Involving Natural Resource Consumption And Ecosystem Degradation, Thomas L. Tochterman

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

As the corporate world, communities, and individuals become more globalized and demands on natural resources increase, a new emphasis on environmental leadership including a new pragmatic environmental ethos is needed to meet certain basic human needs of future generations. The research problem addressed in this study was the lack of knowledge concerning how environmental cognitive dissonance influences consumption practices related to inefficient resource utilization and ecosystem degradation. The purpose of this study was to provide an understanding of the breadth and depth of environmental cognitive dissonance among visitors to the Kruger National Park in South Africa. The research questions addressed …

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Strategies Among Health Care Business Professionals To Increase Productivity And Revenue, Anthony Cal Cal Jan 2016

Strategies Among Health Care Business Professionals To Increase Productivity And Revenue, Anthony Cal Cal

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Health care business professionals have been slow to implement electronic medical records (EMRs), although this is a federal requirement tied to reimbursement from Medicare and Medicaid. Guided by the conceptual framework of the technology acceptance model (TAM), the purpose of this single-case study was to explore EMR strategies that health care business professionals use to increase productivity and revenue. The target population was comprised of health care business professionals with EMR strategies in Orange County, New York. Methodological triangulation included analysis of semistructured interviews with 7 health care business professionals and review of organizational documents consisting of emails, meeting minutes, …

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Developing Sustainable Leadership Strategies To Increase Corporate Revenue, Linda Goulet Crosby Jan 2016

Developing Sustainable Leadership Strategies To Increase Corporate Revenue, Linda Goulet Crosby

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The business environment is in constant flux where stakeholders encourage organizational leaders to consider sustainable business tactics alongside corporate profits. While most business leaders recognize the importance of including sustainability into corporate goals, evidence suggested that only 10% have sustainable action plans in place. Using the honeybee leadership model as the conceptual framework, the purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the sustainable leadership strategies that business leaders from small- and medium- sized companies integrated to increase corporate revenue. These companies were B Corp certified which ensures a third party endorsement of sustainable practices. The data were collected …

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Baby Boomers Retiring: Strategies For Small Businesses Retaining Explicit And Tacit Knowledge, Anethra Adeline Facione Jan 2016

Baby Boomers Retiring: Strategies For Small Businesses Retaining Explicit And Tacit Knowledge, Anethra Adeline Facione

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

More than 35% of the U.S. workforce is composed of Baby Boomers who are eligible to retire within the next 5 years. Despite the potential loss of critical expertise, a gap in knowledge retention exists in small consulting businesses. The purpose of this case study was to explore effective strategies for retaining the tacit and explicit knowledge of retiring employees, to avoid operational knowledge drain. Exploration ensued through semistructured interviews at 2 small consulting businesses in the Washington, DC metropolitan area that are adept at innovatively retaining requisite knowledge. The conceptual frameworks of Bass' transformational leadership and Nonaka's knowledge creation …

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Postmerger Strategies Healthcare Business Leaders Use To Influence Employee Engagement And Satisfaction, Angie Kovarik Jan 2016

Postmerger Strategies Healthcare Business Leaders Use To Influence Employee Engagement And Satisfaction, Angie Kovarik

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are a growing phenomenon in the business world as companies are expanding their market share to compete globally. At some point, 1 out of 3 workers will be involved in an M&A. Guided by the social exchange theory, the purpose of this descriptive case study was to explore the satisfaction and engagement strategies of 8 health care leaders who had successfully implemented an M&A. The study population consisted of 4 leader and 4 nonleader employees employed at a healthcare facility in the North Central United States. All employees had been employed at the facility prior to …

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Effects Of An Integrated Electronic Health Record On An Academic Medical Center, Kenneth E. Koppenhaver Ii Jan 2016

Effects Of An Integrated Electronic Health Record On An Academic Medical Center, Kenneth E. Koppenhaver Ii

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The debate about healthcare reform revolves around a triple aim of improving the health of populations, improving the patient experience, and reducing the cost of care. A major tool discussed in this debate has been the adoption of electronic health record (EHR) systems to record and guide care delivery. Due to low adoption rates and limited examples of success, the problem was a lack of understanding by healthcare organizations of how the EHR fundamentally changes an organization through the interactions of people, processes, and technology over time. The purpose of this case study was to explore the people, processes, and …

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The Effect Of Regulations On The Bottom-Line Of Traditional And Shadow Banks, Tsatsu Emmanuel Nyamadi Jan 2016

The Effect Of Regulations On The Bottom-Line Of Traditional And Shadow Banks, Tsatsu Emmanuel Nyamadi

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Return on equity is often associated with prudent risk-taking and the attraction of new clients in advanced economies like the United States, where shadow banks are not regulated. Researchers have contended that freedom from regulation encourages risk-taking and earning of higher profits, but there is a lack of empirical evidence addressing this relationship. The purpose of this quantitative study was to investigate whether lack of regulations result in increased return on equity. The theoretical framework was regulatory arbitrage by Ricks M, Gennaioli N, Shleifer A, and Vishny R. The research question addressed the relationship between regulation, profit margin, leverage, asset …

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Strategies Software Company Sales Managers Implemented To Reduce Voluntary Employee Turnover, Pete Taylor Jan 2016

Strategies Software Company Sales Managers Implemented To Reduce Voluntary Employee Turnover, Pete Taylor

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The high rates of voluntary employee turnover in software sales organizations have forced business leaders to search for strategies that reduce voluntary employee turnover. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore the strategies of a small group of sales managers who had demonstrated reduced voluntary employee turnover in their software manufacturing companies. Ten managers from 5 software manufacturing companies who had a minimum of 5 years of management experience were recruited and participated in semistructured, face-to-face interviews. The conceptual framework included Herzberg's 2-factor theory for exploring the relationship between job satisfaction and voluntary employee turnover. Open and …

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Exploring Millennial Retention Strategies And Methods In The Workplace, Alphonso Simmons Jan 2016

Exploring Millennial Retention Strategies And Methods In The Workplace, Alphonso Simmons

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Many U.S. organizations fail to retain Millennials for longer than 3 years. The purpose of this case study was to explore the strategies and methods leaders have used to retain Millennial employees within a small business in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area. The leaders of this small business have retained their Millennial employees for the last 3 years. The conceptual frameworks for the study were Bass's transformational leadership theory and von Bertalanffy's general systems theory. Data were collected from semistructured interviews with 4 participant leaders with a successful record of retaining Millennials. In addition, company documents including policies, training records, …

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The Relationship Between Corporate Social Performance And Financial Performance, Dawn P. Miller Jan 2016

The Relationship Between Corporate Social Performance And Financial Performance, Dawn P. Miller

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Business leaders lack consistent information to make and support strategic budgetary decisions while supporting corporate social responsibility initiatives. Grounded in stakeholder and contract theory, this correlation study examined the relationship between Fortune reputation scores and return on asset, return on equity, and earnings per share, while controlling for total assets. Archival data were collected from 25 corporate websites of U.S. banks included in Fortune Most Admired Companies listing from 2011 to 2013. For 2011 there was a moderate positive partial correlation between Fortune reputation index (FRI) and return on equity (ROE) while controlling for total assets, r = .47, p …

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Strategies For Organizational Sustainability In Higher Education, Angela D. Reese Jan 2016

Strategies For Organizational Sustainability In Higher Education, Angela D. Reese

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The defunding of higher education at the state and national level following the 2008 recession created the need for administrators of public higher education institutions to develop and implement funding strategies to maintain organizational sustainability. State government administrators reduced spending approximately 26% per student across the nation, leaving higher education administrators challenged with adjusting organizational budgets to compensate for the reduction in state monetary support. A multiple case study design was used to explore funding strategies that community college business leaders used to support budget decisions that maintain organizational sustainability. Four leaders from 3 community colleges in Central Texas participated …

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Law Enforcement Employees' Experiences Of Skillful Recognition By Leaders, Dimitra Patterson Cornelius Jan 2016

Law Enforcement Employees' Experiences Of Skillful Recognition By Leaders, Dimitra Patterson Cornelius

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The performance of public agency employees and their management teams have long been subject to critical comments and public doubt. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the experiences of police leaders and staff with regard to skillful recognition of excellent performance within the profession. Twenty law enforcement employees, including leaders, sworn officers, and nonuniformed civilian employees in southwestern North Carolina, consented to in-depth, semistructured interviews concerning their lived experiences. Leader-member exchange (LMX) theory was the conceptual framework for this study. A modified van Kaam analysis resulted in the identification of 5 significant, but broad, themes. The themes …

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Community-Based Tourism: An Exploratory Study Of Barbados, Bertram O'Brian Jones Jan 2016

Community-Based Tourism: An Exploratory Study Of Barbados, Bertram O'Brian Jones

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Tourism, Barbados's primary industry, declined substantially from the outset of the 2008 global recession, triggering an economic slump in the local economy. The purpose of this exploratory study was to explore the views of 20 Barbadian tourism executives regarding the ability of community-based tourism (CBT) to resuscitate Barbados's tourism industry. The participants included 10 from the government and 10 from the business sector; all possessed knowledge of CBT and worked with tourism for at least 10 years. Arnstein's ladder of citizen participation constituted the conceptual framework of this study. Participants were recruited by snowball and purposive sampling. Data were collected …

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Globalization, Mobile Technology, And Social Media's Influence On Leadership Communication Involving Millennials, Rasheedah Dunston Jan 2016

Globalization, Mobile Technology, And Social Media's Influence On Leadership Communication Involving Millennials, Rasheedah Dunston

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Current research identifies effective leadership communication, which includes frequent direct conversational communication from company leaders, influences worker performance during organizational change. Social media, mobile technology, and the Millennial workforce have shifted leader communication style from purely top-down, town hall style communication to incorporate more collaborative and engaging forums. The case study addressed how globalization, social media, and mobile technology affects leadership communication and then subsequently effects worker performance as Millennials join the workforce. Qualitative data were collected from observations and interviews from a purposeful selection of 9 Millennial employees, including 2 Millennial leaders, and 8 non-Millennial leaders of a Fortune …

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Performance Factors That Influence Marketing Measurement In Successful Small Businesses, Tareion M. Fluker Jan 2016

Performance Factors That Influence Marketing Measurement In Successful Small Businesses, Tareion M. Fluker

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

During the 2009 economic recession, United States business leaders cut marketing expenditures between 33% and 50% more than they did for any other business expenditure to mitigate financial loss because business leaders often regard marketing as an expense and not an investment. Since there is not a widely applied marketing measurement standard, this multiple-case study focused on finding key performance indicators that healthcare and sales small business leaders in eastern United States with less than 500 employees, and marketing evaluation practices in place, used to evaluate the effectiveness of their marketing. Institutional theory was used as the conceptual framework to …

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Sustaining Dental Practices Longer Than 5 Years, David Gagner Jan 2016

Sustaining Dental Practices Longer Than 5 Years, David Gagner

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Dentists graduate dental school ready to practice dentistry, but 85% do not feel prepared by the dental school to open and manage the operations of a general dental practice. General systems theory grounded this multisite case study. The research provides information on 3 solo practitioner dental practices that sustained beyond 5 years in the Washington, DC suburbs. At each operating practice, the dentist who owned the practice and 1 employee that also worked at the practice during the first 5 years were interviewed. The dentist provided marketing documents used during the first 5 years of the practice operations. Data triangulation …

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