Business Commons^™

The Consumer-Based Brand Equity Development In The Australian Luxury And Upscale Hotel Sector, Sharon Shan

ECU Posters

A main strategy for a luxury or upscale hotel to succeed in a competitive market is to develop a strong brand which is recognised, trusted and preferred by the consumers. This strength of a brand is defined as the consumer-based brand equity. There is limited research identifying factors that drive consumer-based brand equity in the specific sectors of luxury and upscale hotels. This limits managers in this sector in being able to efficiently manage their brands. Therefore, the current research investigated antecedents and measurements of consumer-based brand equity, based on the specific hotel consumers’ expectations and perceptions of a strong …

The Effect Of Board Independence On Information Asymmetry, Beng Wee Goh, Jimmy Lee, Jeffrey Ng, Kevin Ow Yong

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Boards have an important role in ensuring that investors’ interests are protected. Our paper first examines whether the independence of a firm's board affects information asymmetry among investors. We provide evidence that greater board independence leads to lower information asymmetry. Next, we provide evidence that more voluntary disclosure and greater analyst coverage are two underlying mechanisms via which greater board independence reduces information asymmetry. Of the two mechanisms, we find that analyst coverage is more significant in influencing how board independence affects information asymmetry. Overall, our paper contributes to a better understanding of the effect of board independence on information …

Analyzing The Analysts: The Effect Of Technical And Social Skills On Analyst Career, Congcong Li, An-Ping Lin, Hai Lu

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

This paper investigates how technical and social skills of financial analysts affect theirperformance and career advancement. Using a sample of LinkedIn profiles of financial analysts,we document that analysts with good social skill, proxied by the number of social connections,generate more accurate earnings forecasts and produce more informative stock recommendations.These analysts are also more likely to be voted as All-Star analysts and to move to high-statusbrokers when changing jobs. However, the effect of technical skills, proxied by the quantitativeskills disclosed on LinkedIn, only affect earnings forecast accuracy. The analysts with technicalskills are indifferent in the likelihood of being voted as star …

The Role Of Journaling In Reflective Writing In Experiential Education: A Case Study Intervention, John Bennion, Mat Duerden, Anne Whitehouse

Faculty Publications

Research suggests that journaling will increase reflection and improve program outcomes (Bain, et al, 1999; Duerden, et al, 2012) This study involved a partnership with a non-profit, Global Explorers (GEx), which provides international immersion experiences for youth. Their programs are designed to teach youth participants principles of leadership, environmental awareness, service, and science. This study, which tested whether teaching journaling techniques to youth program facilitators would have a positive impact on participant outcomes, addressed the following hypotheses: 1) Greater training in reflective thinking among participants would be associated with higher outcome scores, and 2) Participants in the intervention group (facilitators …

Good Corporation, Bad Corporation: Corporate Social Responsibility In The Global Economy, Guillermo C. Jimenez, Elizabeth Pulos

Milne Open Textbooks

This textbook provides an innovative, internationally oriented approach to the teaching of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and business ethics. Drawing on case studies involving companies and countries around the world, the textbook explores the social, ethical, and business dynamics underlying CSR in such areas as global warming, genetically modified organisms (GMO) in food production, free trade and fair trade, anti-sweatshop and living-wage movements, organic foods and textiles, ethical marketing practices and codes, corporate speech and lobbying, and social enterprise. The book is designed to encourage students and instructors to challenge their own assumptions and prejudices by stimulating a class debate …

Using Unstructured And Qualitative Disclosures To Explain Accruals, Richard Frankel, Jared Jennings, Joshua A. Lee

Faculty Publications

We examine the usefulness of support vector regressions (SVRs) in assessing the content of unstructured, qualitative disclosures by relating MD&A-based SVR-accrual estimates (MD&Aaccruals) to actual accruals. We find that MD&A accruals explain a statistically and economically significant portion of firm-level accruals and identify more persistent accruals. We find that the explanatory power of MD&A accruals is higher for more readable 10Ks, thereby providing evidence for the construct validity of the readability measures. To highlight the flexibility of the SVR method, we apply it to other dependent variables and disclosures. We find that MD&A-based cash-flow forecasts produced by SVR predict next …

Ethical Considerations Facing The Regulation Of Self-Driving Cars In The United States, Richard Mancuso

CMC Senior Theses

Self-driving cars are here. Once an advanced technology that seemed futuristic, they are now closer than most believe. Many of the largest automobile manufacturers are working on autonomous vehicle technology of their own. Perhaps most well-known, though, are the cars being developed by Tesla and Google. Both companies have well-developed prototypes of fully autonomous vehicles, meaning they require no human input or supervision, and Tesla has promised widespread, consumer availability of this technology in the next one to two years.

Along with the availability of this technology to the public and transportation companies like Uber and Lyft, comes a need …

Music Festivals: A Secondary Market Analysis, Julian Perez

CMC Senior Theses

While the majority of the literature on secondary markets for tickets in the entertainment industry focuses on concerts and sporting events, this study aims to shed light specifically on the music festival resale market. Music festivals have risen in prominence in recent years, particularly among millennials, during the time that the internet has dramatically facilitated the resale of tickets through online marketplaces. With many of the top festivals selling out rapidly, a great deal of music fans turn to secondary markets for tickets. However, very little is known about the behavior of secondary markets for music festivals due to information …

Esports In Korea: A Study On League Of Legends Team Performances On The Share Price Of Owning Corporations, Filbert Goetomo

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis utilises event studies to measure the impact of League of Legends Esports s teams on the share prices of their main sponsors and parent company, namely, the CJ Corporation, Korean Air, the Kt Corporation, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and SK Telecom. Hypothetically, the success of a team, the acquisition of a major player or the beginning of a sponsorship would have a positive effect on the corporation reflected in an increase in the firm’s daily share price returns. Results showed that this was indeed true especially for a team’s success in large competitions such as the SBENU Summer …

Proximity To Children: A Geospatial Approach To Understanding The Relationship Between Fast Food And Schools, Andrew Atwong

CMC Senior Theses

In a time when Americans are waking up to the health consequences of consuming fast food, researchers have discovered that fast food restaurants seem to be located in greater concentrations near primary or secondary schools. While this phenomenon affects the food environments of some children and carries implications as to their short term and long term health (which has also been well researched), this paper focuses primarily on fast food restaurants that are within walking distance of schools. Using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to integrate geospatial, business, demographic, and food quality data, I use linear regressions to examine whether and …

Diversity And Innovation: The Effects Of Diverse Creator Teams On Video Game Characteristics And Sales, Jill C. Rosok

CMC Senior Theses

I analyze the effects of gender diversity on video game production teams. I hypothesize teams with greater gender diversity produce more games with uncommon characteristics than less diverse teams, and the games these teams develop generate higher revenue and unit sales compared to games developed by less diverse teams. I find teams with more women disproportionately develop games that are non-violent and have playable female leads. I examine whether there is an optimal ratio of women to hire for each game genre in order to maximize revenue by analyzing the relationship between the percentage of women on a team in …

Experts Vs. Public, Who Knows Better? Factors Affecting High Growth Entrepreneurship In Developed And Developing Countries, Su Min Ha

CMC Senior Theses

This paper uses the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor data of approximately 200,000 surveys conducted on industry experts and general population to examine factors that have a significant impact on high growth Total Early-Stage Entrepreneurial Activity (TEA), with a focus on developed countries with GDP per capita of USD 20,000 or above. The results suggest that expert opinion has a significant positive correlation with high growth TEA in developed countries, while only the public sentiment has a meaningful relationship with high growth TEA in developing countries. Among the specific categories of the survey, access to funding and government regulations and support had …

Player Performance And Team Revenues: Nba Player Salary Analysis, Tyler Stanek

CMC Senior Theses

The National Basketball Association (NBA) generated well over $4 billion in revenues during the 2014-15 season. I analyze the value of a win to a team in terms of revenue and examine the potential underpayment or overpayment of players and superstars throughout the league relative to their marginal revenue product (MRP). My findings suggest that players are overpaid, especially superstars. However, it is important to consider the fixed-revenue streams a team receives before assuming a player is simply overpaid compared to his MRP. In congruence with previous literature, I find that veterans are overpaid at the expense of younger players’ …

Who Will Be The First To Buy Autonomous Vehicles? An Application Of Everett Rogers’ Diffusion Of Innovations Theory, Reilly Jackson Umberger

CMC Senior Theses

Autonomous, otherwise known as self-driving, vehicles represent the future of transportation. Vehicles that drive themselves offer far reaching benefits from increased leisure and productivity for individuals to significant improvements in congestion and infrastructure for governments. The autonomous car will radically change the way we look at transportation, and they are right around the corner. However, the question remains: are we ready? Are we, as a society, ready to hand over the steering the wheel and trust autonomous vehicles with our safety? This paper predicts how the autonomous car will spread through society by analyzing and applying the product qualities and …

The Effect Of Increased Regulation On Option Use Within The Information Technology Industry, Ahmed H. Eltamami

CMC Senior Theses

Exorbitant executive compensation packages have drawn large criticism from the public eye and with the recent financial crisis and the previous tech bubble opinion on executive incentives has forced government institutions to respond. Over the past two decades the SEC and FASB have aimed to respond to the public and with three large regulation changes in the 2000s, pay for performance compensation has gone through many changes. In this study I build on previous work in an attempt to answer whether or not executives within the Information Technology industry have seen a larger decline in option compensation when compared to …

The Price Is Book-Built: The Decision To Use Book-Building Pricing Mechanisms For Ipos In The Philippines, Gabriel A. Ayala

CMC Senior Theses

In 1998, the Philippines introduced book-building pricing mechanisms for Initial Public Offerings. Almost all capital raised through IPOs in the Philippines is done using a book-building pricing method, however a significant number of IPOs still occur using non-book-building methods. Understanding why book-building has become the dominant pricing mechanism but yet non-book-building methods still survive is the aim of this paper. I find that unlike other countries where the introduction of book-building leads to higher total issue costs for individual issuers and unlike theory which suggests the increased effort of book-building should come with increased costs, IPOs that use book-built pricing …

Transformational Leadership In The World Of Sales, Dalton R. Barnes

CMC Senior Theses

It takes a very specific type of person to be successful in sales; this makes recruiting and retaining effective employees a difficult task for companies in this field. Because finding and training these people is such a challenging task, it is in the best interest of companies to invest in training and developing their employees to be successful and avoid burning out. Bass and Riggio (2006) would note that in a field with such a high burnout rate, a transformational sales leader is important because they are generally able to build stronger follower loyalty, commitment, and satisfaction than their non-transformational …

Obscure U: Complexity And Complicity In For-Profit University Financial Statements, Caroline R. Counts

CMC Senior Theses

The prominence and size of For Profit Universities (FPUs) today has led to increased regulation and oversight. One important regulation is the 90/10 rule which states that FPUs cannot receive more than 90% of their revenue from government Title IV funds. The regulations require publicly traded For Profit Universities to not only comply with the 90/10 rule but also to disclose their score on their financial statements. There however, is little research studying the quality of these disclosures. My paper studies the readability and complexity of the 90/10 score disclosure in relation to the 90/10 score. My findings suggest that …

Crime In The Nfl: Does An Arrest History Lead To Better Performance?, Austin D. Crist

CMC Senior Theses

Teams in the National Football League will do whatever it takes to win football games, even if that means having players with a criminal arrest history on their roster. However, does being arrested result in improved performance? Do NFL players with an arrest history perform better than those without one? I examine the effect a criminal arrest record has on player performance in the NFL from 2000-2014, using the top 30 ranked players within each position group. The position I chose to analyze were: Quarterbacks, Running Backs, Wide Receivers, Defensive Linemen, Linebackers, and Defensive Backs. My findings show that having …

The Benefits Of Having A Comprehensive Financial Plan For The Average Consumer, And The Necessary Components Comprised To Make An Effective And Efficient Plan, Nicholas M. Lund

CMC Senior Theses

Socioeconomic changes in American society over the past few decades, as well as an overwhelming amount of uncertainty and misconceptions, have resulted in a majority of Americans to fall short of their financial goals in the short-term, the mid-term, and the long-term. Without proper preparation and financial planning, it is likely that these Americans, and many more, will be unable to reach these goals as well as retire comfortably. Many Americans are overwhelmed with the immense amount of financial information, tools and resources, and as a consequence are unable to plan their finances efficiently and effectively. Americans need a better …

The Role Of Disruptive Innovation, Personality Characteristics, And Business Models On Entrepreneurial Success, Will Shannon

CMC Senior Theses

Disruptive Innovation, according to the term’s founder Clayton Christensen, is defined as a specific type of innovation that is able to capture the lower-end of the market through quality, feature, or cost differences and leverage this position to achieve higher market share. Entrepreneurs who utilize disruptive innovation strategies have been historically able to create products and services that achieve massive financial and cultural success. Theories of personality characteristics have been previously applied to entrepreneurial activities, but not used to bridge the gap between developmental experiences and market success. Cross-industry analysis of ten top entrepreneurial business leaders from retail, food services, …

More Than Meets The Eye: How Oculometric Behaviors Evolve Over The Course Of Automated Deception Detection Interactions, Jeffrey G. Proudfoot, Jeffrey L. Jenkins, Judee K. Burgoon, Jay F. Nunamaker

Faculty Publications

Eye-tracking technology has exhibited promise for identifying deception in automated screening systems. Prior deception research using eye trackers has focused on the detection and interpretation of brief oculometric variations in response to stimuli (e.g., specific images or interview questions). However, more research is needed to understand how variations in oculometric behaviors evolve over the course of an interaction with a deception detection system. Using latent growth curve modeling, we tested hypotheses explaining how two oculometric behaviors—pupil dilation and eye-gaze fixation patterns—evolve over the course of a system interaction for three groups of participants: deceivers who see relevant stimuli (i.e., stimuli …

The Moderating Effect Shift Work Has On Support, Engagement, Satisfaction, Turnover, And Service Delivery: An Empirical Analysis Of Us Hotel Front Desk Personnel, William Ingram

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Several industries require operations and services to be provided at all hours of the day. Many organizations have implemented a shift work system for scheduling purposes to meet the demand of their industry. While some research has been conducted on the effects of shift work on employees, overall, there is still much to be learned, especially in the hotel industry. Most hotel front desks in the United States operate 24 hours a day and therefore, have to staff employees for the morning, afternoon, and overnight shifts. Previous literature states that each shift starts and ends at different times of the …

Developing An Attitudinal Model Of Collaborative Consumption: Moderating Effects Of Consumer Traits And Situational Factors, Alyssa Dana Adomaitis, Caroline Kobia, Diana Saiki

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

The Dodd-Frank Act's Impact On Systemically Important Financial Institutions, Andrew Wilkes

Honors Theses

Following the financial crisis of 2008, President Barrack Obama signed into effect the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act on July 21, 2010. The Act contains stated goals of eliminating too big to fail and promote financial stability. In this paper, I analyze the impacts of new regulations on systemically important financial institutions. In Chapter one, I briefly review U.S. financial regulation and the financial crisis of 2008. In Chapter two, I identify how increasing capital requirements affects banks. This thesis then examines how the Order of Liquidation Authority and its Single Point of Entry Strategy has unintended …

Delta Air Lines: A Financial Analysis And Corresponding Recommendations For Delta Air Lines, Inc., Emily Bush

Honors Theses

This alternative thesis project is a financial analysis of Delta Air Lines, Inc. Utilizing the 10-K Financial Statements from 2009 to 2013, along with some correlating outside resources, a full business and financial analysis was completed. Starting with the business background and operations, and then working into analysis of the Financial Statements, corresponding recommendations were created for tax, audit and advisory planning strategies.. The bulk of the analysis utilized the 10-K data provided by the SEC, only using minimal other resources for background research. The research found that since filing Chapter 11 bankruptcy Delta Air Lines has improved substantially. Delta's …

A Multi-Dimensional Evaluation And Strategic Exploration Of Institutional Investing With Focus On State Street Corporation, Jack Badger

Honors Theses

This report examines State Street Corporation in a way similar to that of a professional in an advisory role. Included in this analysis is a brief history of the firm, financial ratio analysis and implications, audit and tax recommendations, and tools to help improve State Street's strategic outlook and outlast its competitors.  

Food With Integrity: A Financial Analysis Of Chipotle Mexican Grill, Kaylie M. Rowell

Honors Theses

For the accounting alternative thesis, we were to pick a publicly traded company domiciled in the U.S that we were interested in and research their financials, business, and industry. I chose Chipotle Mexican Grill due to their unique restaurant brand. Chipotle's Food with Integrity campaign makes up their main brand, but brings the issue of finding enough suppliers to meet their needs. If Chipotle has to use processed food to fulfill the lack of the natural, organic food then they will eventually lose their customer's trust. Chipotle has also expanded globally so there are always issues that appear when dealing …

Statistical Power With Respect To True Sample And True Population Paths: A Pls-Based Sem Illustration, Ned Kock, Murad Moqbel

Information Systems Faculty Publications

Monte Carlo experiments aimed at assessing the statistical power of structural equation modelling (SEM) techniques typically focus on true population path coefficients, ignoring true sample path coefficients. We demonstrate the limitations stemming from such practice in statistical power assessments. This is done in the context of SEM techniques employing the partial least squares (PLS) method, where power claims have led to much recent debate. We show that the sample sizes at which power is greater than .8 differ significantly when we consider true population and true sample paths, and that the difference increases with decreases in the magnitudes of the …

Tales From The Pit: Casino Table Games Managers In Their Own Words, David Schwartz

UNLV Gaming Press Books

Dealing in a casino presents challenges and rewards not seen in many workplaces. With hundreds of thousands of dollars at stake every minute, casinos are high-stress workplaces. Managing a casino workforce brings stresses of its own.