Business Commons^™

An Investigation Of Service Quality Within Irish Franchised Motor Dealerships, Clive Atkinson

Theses

This study investigates service quality within franchised motor dealerships from the perspective of thirty-eight persons working in the roles of Dealer Principal, After-Sales Manager or Service Manager in dealerships operating under the Volkswagen group of brands in Ireland (VW, Audi, SEAT and Skoda). With approximately 2.3 million cars on Irish roads, more than two thirds of the Irish adult population encounter car service experiences on a regular basis. Regardless of brand or dealership type, the quality of vehicle service experience is paramount for customer retention. Despite this, however, service quality within Irish motor dealerships remains an under-explored area. Qualitative analysis …

Sitting With Nellie; Mentoring Relationships In The Office Of The Revenue Commissioners, Kieran Healy

Theses

Mentoring is a powerful HRD tool that has been shown to have a positive impact on career development and play a significant role in the psychosocial support of employees in the workplace. There is no definitive definition of mentoring or a clear concise methodology of how it works but it does work and has been shown to do so time and time again in a multitude of settings and organisations.

Mentoring in Revenue is a mixture of the formal and informal and supports training courses and on the job training in equal measure. This dissertation will focus on mentoring in …

Transfer And Competency Exchange Of Wisetek Into The Data Centre Hubs Of Frankfurt And Amsterdam: An Empirical Study, Thomas G. O'Farrell

Theses

This research study is an examination of Wisetek; an organization that has expanded from their head office in Cork, Ireland into the North America, Asian and the MENA region. This study is particularly focused on analysing the data centre hubs of Frankfurt and Amsterdam, a market where Wisetek do not have a presence and are looking to explore the region further. The growing problem of E-waste defined in this research, and the benefits of the services that Wisetek offer of managing E-waste, is a solution for data centres. Wisetek was founded in 2007 by Sean Sheehan and is a provider …

A Corporate Ethical Compass Tool To Measure Public Relations Decision Making, Lian Qing Luo

Masters

Corporate Public Relations (PR) Ethics is always a top research topic in theory and practice as PR practitioners often have numerous ethical choices to make when addressing controversial issues. However, how to quantify or measure the ethical alternatives of PR decision making and help public relations practitioners make more ethically correct decisions is an open problem. To address this problem, this thesis proposes the PR "Ethical Compass" as a measuring tool or technique to help corporations justify and evaluate the consequences of their ethical public relations decision making. To investigate the advantages and disadvantages of the Ethical Compass technique, qualitative …

Entrepreneurship Inside And Out: Three Essays Exploring The Interplay Between Hybrid Entrepreneurs And Their Organizational Employee Roles, David Ross Marshall

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A growing body of research focuses on undertaking new venture creation while remaining employed in existing organizations. Known as hybrid/part-time entrepreneurship, scholars suggest most entrepreneurs engage in entrepreneurship in a part-time capacity. As such, there exists an interesting space for the study of a new form of interrole dynamics: employee and entrepreneurial role interactions. Through three essays, I conceptually and empirically explore the effects of engaging in hybrid entrepreneurship on outcomes associated with employee and entrepreneurial roles. In Essay One I present a theoretical model of role enrichment from entrepreneurial to employee roles. Specifically, I propose that individuals engaged in …

Effects Of Donor- And Supporter-Based Campaign Networks On Crowdfunding Campaign Success, Bin Wang, Babajide Osatuyi, Wanrong Hou

Information Systems Faculty Publications

Driven by the increasing popularity of crowdfunding, academic researchers have examined the impacts of internal social capital accumulated on crowdfunding platforms and external social capital formed through online and offline friend networks on campaign success. However, no research has examined the impacts of social networks from a structural perspective. In the current research, we investigate the extent to which donor- and supporter-based campaign network centralities affect the amount of capital a fundraising campaign is able to generate. Using a panel data set collected from a donation-based crowdfunding platform, Fundly, we reveal that campaign network centralities based on strong ties (shared …

A Method For Key Performance Indicator Assessment In Manufacturing Organizations, Patrick Hester, Barry Ezell, Andrew Collins, John Horst, Kaleen Lawsure

VMASC Publications

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are an essential element of an organization’s ability to monitor its strategic health, helping to ensure the strategic goals of the organization are achieved. However, KPI assessment and improvement is often an ad hoc and consultant-driven process rather than one undertaken using scientific principles. This paper outlines the development and subsequent deployment of a method for KPI assessment founded in scholarly literature and balancing practitioner concerns for ease of use. The proposed method draws heavily on organizational stakeholder involvement at varying levels throughout the KPI assessment process, improving current methods by introducing a mathematical foundation based …

Social Health Insurance Coverage And Financial Protection Among Rural-To-Urban Internal Migrants In China: Evidence From A Nationally Representative Cross-Sectional Study, Wen Chen, Qi Zhang, Andre M. N. Renzaho, Fangjing Zhou, Hui Zhang, Li Ling

Community & Environmental Health Faculty Publications

INTRODUCTION: Migrants are a vulnerable population and could experience various challenges and barriers to accessing health insurance. Health insurance coverage protects migrants from financial loss related to illness and death. We assessed social health insurance (SHI) coverage and its financial protection effect among rural-to-urban internal migrants (IMs) in China.

METHODS: Data from the '2014 National Internal Migrant Dynamic Monitoring Survey' were used. We categorised 170 904 rural-to-urban IMs according to their SHI status, namely uninsured by SHI, insured by the rural SHI scheme (new rural cooperative medical scheme (NCMS)) or the urban SHI schemes (urban employee-based basic medical insurance (UEBMI)/urban …

Testing A Theory Of Sense Of Community And Community Responsibility In Organizations: An Empirical Assessment Of Predictive Capacity On Employee Well-Being And Organizational Citizenship., Neil Boyd, Branda Nowell

Faculty Journal Articles

This paper attempts to advance our understanding of the experience of community in organizational settings by empirically testing a theory of sense of community responsibility (SOC-R) in relation to traditional measures of sense of community [SOC] on outcomes of employee well-being and organizational citizenship. Findings support the notion that SOC is a better predictor of employee well-being while SOC-R more strongly predicts organizational citizenship behavior. The findings add new knowledge to the literature on the experience of community in organizations, and represent an important contribution to our understanding of the factors that drive employee action and well-being at work.

Assessing The Character Of Place To Guide Geotourism In Montana: A Case Study Of Whitefish And White Sulphur Springs, Montana, Michael E. Tipton

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In 2007 the governor’s Montana Tourism Advisory Council adopted the Montana Tourism and Recreation Charter. Its guiding principle of geotourism pledged to sustain and enhance the character of the places that the people of Montana call home. How can the state’s efforts to keep this pledge be assessed when “character of place” has never been clearly defined or understood in detail? To keep this pledge, and chart the future of geotourism in the state, it was important to clarify what is meant by character of place and identify the full range of present and potential problems that threaten the integrity …

Poison In Pink, Sydney V. Cook

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Humans slather, spray, mist, and cleanse their bodies with personal care products like lotion, hairspray, cologne, and shampoo every day. Our cupboards are stocked full of them, but few of us understand what is in those jars and bottles. We trust that if it’s on the shelf at the store, it’s safe. However, this is not always the case, and many personal care products contain chemicals that are harmful to human and environmental health.

My multi-disciplinary Environmental Studies thesis project combines evidenced-based research, interviews, nonfiction narrative, and science communication to create part of a book manuscript intended to educate general …

The State Of The Region: Hampton Roads 2017, James V. Koch, Robert Mcnab, Vinod Agarwal, Barbara Blake-Gonzalez, Kelly Brown, Chris Colburn, Vicky Curtis, Steve Daniel, Chip Filer, Elizabeth Janik, Timothy M. Komarek, Lead Hampton Roads Class Of 2017, Feng Lian, Sharon Lomax, Janet Molinaro, Ziniya Zahedi

Economics Faculty Books

This is Old Dominion University's 18th annual State of the Region report. While it represents the work of many people connected in various ways to the university, the report does not constitute an official viewpoint of Old Dominion, or its president, John R. Broderick. The report maintains the goal of stimulating thought and discussion that ultimately will make Hampton Roads an even better place to live. We are proud of our regions many successes, but realize that it is possible to improve our performance. In order to do so, we must have accurate information about "where we are" and a …

Intertemporal Elasticity Of Substitution With Leisure Margin, Juan Du, Takeshi Yagihashi

Economics Faculty Publications

This paper investigates whether leisure time definitions matter in the estimation of the intertemporal elasticity of substitution of consumption (IES) by using a utility specification that allows interaction between consumption and leisure time. We find that the IES estimated using a narrowly defined leisure measure that excludes quasi-leisure activities is larger than that estimated using nonmarket time. The discrepancy is largely driven by the substitution of consumption and several leisure components over the lifecycle. This finding is robust in alternative specifications and holds well for subsamples of higher socioeconomic status. Our results demonstrate the inseperable nature of consumption and time …

Product Safety Failure And Restoring Reputation Across Markets: Fonterra's Management Of The 2013 Bacterial Contamination Crisis, Augustine Pang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Modern distribution systems often stretch beyond national borders such that a highly-visible product failure in a single country may negatively influence the reputation and market share of all identifiable supply chain members-even those that are blameless-in multiple countries, especially when the product is related to food safety. This study considers how Fonterra's response to its 2013 bacterial contamination crisis influenced its own reputation and that of the New Zealand dairy milk industry. It first traces how the crisis started in March 2013 and how it ended in August when investigations showed that the bacteria found did not cause botulism, a …

Analytics, Innovation, And Organizational Adaptation, Gerard George, Yimin Lin

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

With the advent of big data, organizations are integrating powerful computing tools into their organizational processes to drive efficiencies and improve service delivery. Yet, at the heart of this conversation lies the role of analytics and big data in innovation within and across organizations. In this article, we provide a stylistic model of the role of analytics in innovation and call for further research on the underlying processes, contingencies, and outcomes.

Two Essays On Investors' Attention To Economically Linked Firms, Mahsa Khoshnoud

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

My first essay examines the degree to which the market prices of publicly traded firms reflect and respond to new information regarding the economic viability and vitality of organizations to which they are strategically linked. More specifically, I exploit the uniquely transparent nature of the lessor-lessee relationship across commercial real estate markets to evaluate whether future returns to real estate investment trusts (REITs) are systematically affected by the financial return performance and/or operational opacity of the tenants who lease their investment properties. Using a hand collected data set identifying the principal tenants of 96 publicly traded REITs, I find those …

Community Sport Service Provision, Resident Satisfaction, And Participation, Liangjun Zhou, Xiaoying Chen, Beth A. Cianfrone, Jerred Junqi Wang, Nathan David Pifer, James J. Zhang

AMTP Proceedings 2017

Advocating for the “gold medal strategy”, China has made great advancements in elite sports; however, the significant achievement in elite sports has not translated into the development of mass sport participations. To form a stronger foundation of a sport pyramid, more attention should be directed to community sports and promoting healthy lifestyles. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of community sport service provisions on participants’ satisfaction and in turn on their sport participation behavior. In the current study, the public sport service in community includes sport facilities, sport organizations, sport programs, fitness test, and volunteer services …

Ginning Up Economic Growth? Evaluating The Effects Of County-Level Alcohol Sales, Nathan Smith

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

The academic literature on the topic of legal alcohol sales is vast; from the effects on crime to population health outcomes. The economic development impact of alcohol sales, however, remains relatively unexplored. This research examines county-level data from the State of Arkansas between the years 2009 and 2014 in a cross-sectional time-series regression analysis to determine whether economic development benefits exist that can be attributed either directly or indirectly to legal alcohol sales. Ultimately, this study finds that alcohol sales are positively and significantly related with food service and accommodation employment as well as higher per capita personal income.

A Comparative Analysis Of The Organizational Effectiveness Of Three Korea Land And Housing Corporation Construction Field Groups, Jachoon Koo

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

The purpose of this study is to propose a performance evaluation method (organizational effectiveness value) that is most suitable for LH field organizations and to suggest an improvement plan by comparing and analyzing the results from organizational perspective.

I compared and contrasted three LH construction fields. The following is my research findings: First, the main factors which determine successful or unsuccessful field are organizational cohesion and inter-organizational communication. Mutual communication of field groups affects the quality more, if the field conditions are difficult. Second, if field groups fail to cohere and communicate, it is likely to lead to low performance …

The Advertisement Value Of Transformational & Informational Appeal On Company Facebook Pages, Fabienne T. Cadet, Priscilla G. Aaltonen, Vahwere Kavota

Marketing Faculty Publications

The advertisement value of Facebook is an under-developed area of social media research. Transformational and informational advertising appeal has yet to be studied as it relates to social media. This paper utilizes established classification and measurement scales from marketing literature to classify companies and their Facebook posts and measures the advertisement value of these posts. The study uses a sample of 100 companies from the 2015 Fortune 500 list. Results indicate that posts with transformational appeal are more engaging to the consumer than informational appeal; however, posts with informational appeal have greater advertisement value for the company. The results also …

Brand Hate And Brand Forgiveness - A Dynamic Analysis, Alexandra Sampedro

Honors Program Theses

Purpose – Despite the vast research regarding customer brand relationships, and the positive feelings towards brand, there is little research on negative feelings towards brand. Despite the importance of brand hate and brand forgiveness, no research assesses how brand hate evolve over time and how this relates to brand forgiveness. The purpose of this thesis is to address this gap. Design/Methodology/Approach – We used a multi-method approach. First, we conducted a series of 30 in-depths interviews to explore these concepts and develop our research model. Second, we conducted a survey by using MTurk to obtain U.S. representative sample of 506 …

Education's Loss Of The Public: An Archival Exploration Of American Public Schools' Diminishing Social Returns And The Emerging Utility Of Social Entrepreneurship, Tia Ha-Quyen Ho

Scripps Senior Theses

The literature presented in the following pages explores the shortcomings of the American public education system in the context of creating long-term, sustainable social change. Using financial illiteracy and its relationship to low quality of life as an entry point, the first section exposes public schools’ shortcomings as agents of social change by delving into the hardships endured by the original public school promoters of the 19^th century, the pitfalls of President George W. Bush’s 2001 enactment of No Child Left Behind, and the shortcomings of the financial literacy programming that found traction in urban schools following the subprime …

Technological Disruption In Entertainment: Navigating The Film Industry's Dynamic Relationship To The Consumer, Samantha Mea Simon

Scripps Senior Theses

The following thesis acts as a critical cultural progression report surrounding the current technological disruption in the entertainment industry and its impact on consumers. This begins with a study of the history starting in 1910 and covers the urbanization of America during the Industrial Revolution, the developing fan experience, a history of consumer demands in relation to oligopolistic principles and the blockbuster method, the invention and influence of the television, and the current effect of technological advancement in the entertainment industry. Following this historical overview, four chapters will study different methods of analysis covering the intricacies of the current technological …

Small Business Strategies For Sustainability Beyond 10 Years, Gabriel E. Warren, Lynn Szostek

International Journal of Applied Management and Technology

Small businesses are vital to the health of the U.S. economy, as they account for approximately 50% of all jobs and 99% of all firms. Historically, there has been a problem with small businesses being able to sustain their operations beyond 10 years. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, when averaged across all industries, approximately 75% of new businesses failed within the first 5 years. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore the business strategies some small business owners use to sustain their company beyond 10 years of operation. Data were gathered through semistructured interviews and …

Rise Of Born Globals And Their Association With High Technology Intensity Or Services Sector - Myths Or Reality?, Suresh Singh

Management and Marketing Faculty Publications

Literature suggests that the proportion of born globals - firms entering foreign countries soon after birth - has increased significantly over time and such firms are associated with high technology intensity or services sector. However, there is little empirical support for these claims. To address this gap, this paper presents an empirical analysis of age at first global entry of US manufacturing and service multinationals that entered foreign countries in the last century. Only manufacturing showed a significant rise in the number of born globals. Being born global was not correlated with either having high technology intensity or being a …

Impact Of Sequence Of International Entries On Country Exits, Suresh Singh

Management and Marketing Faculty Publications

A classic model of international entries - the Uppsala model - postulated that firms enter foreign countries in increasing order of psychic distance between the home and the host country to minimize the risk of failure. A question that was left unanswered was whether this sequence of entry results in any performance benefits. Literature on the impact of psychic distance, or its components like culture distance, on the performance of foreign operations abounds but the order of entry that is critical to the Uppsala model remains conspicuously absent. This paper presents an analysis of foreign country entries and exits by …

Essays On The Role Of Product Characteristics In Information Source Importance, Saeed Tajdini Tajdini

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The goal of this Dissertation is to contribute to our understanding of relative importance of different information sources that consumers use to guide their purchasing behavior. Specifically, this work aims to model the product characteristics affecting the importance of each information source to consumers as they seek to purchase a given product. Although the extant literature has examined this topic, the efforts have not been cohesive and a comprehensive model of the phenomenon has yet to be developed, limiting our understanding of the topic. Gaining insight into the effects of product characteristics on the importance of different sources of information …

New Product Development Team Creativity And Innovation: The Role Of Cultural Diversity, Communication, Proximity And Foreign Culture Representativeness, Felix A. Flores

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This Dissertation explores new product development team creativity and innovation. Section 1 discusses the definition, measurement and relevance of new product development team creativity. It highlights some of the discrepancies in the literature with regards to the definition and operationalization of creativity, and adopts a definition and scale, that will serve as the foundation for section 2 and 3 studies.

Section 2 examines the influence of several dimensions of cultural diversity on new product development creativity and innovation, during differing stages of new product development, and in both co-located and domestic environments.

Section 3 extends section 2 by examining the …

Asset Management Support Tools To Assist Agencies In The Development Of Guardrail Preservation Programs, Sandra N. Gutierrez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this Thesis is to develop a Guardrail Asset Management Framework and a Condition-Based Model to assist agencies in the development of guardrail preservation programs. Both of the guardrail asset management tools can be incorporated into an existing asset management program to assist agencies in utilizing guardrail inventory to forecast key asset management parameters such as the guardrail condition, funds necessary for maintenance and repair, backlogged funding, guardrail system value, and the guardrail sustainability ratio. Each of these parameters is described and determined for a case study involving six scenarios modeling funding and maintenance constraints that can arise …

An Organizational Attachment Model: Lmx-Social Comparison, Job Embeddedness And Psychological Ownership, Saul R. Valdiviezo

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This study investigates the relationship between employees' comparisons of relationship quality with their leader (LMXSC) and attitudinal workplace outcomes. Building on the theoretical principle of LMXSC, I postulate that job embeddedness mediates the relationship between perceived relationship quality and psychological ownership. Additionally, I examine the effects of overall organizational justice to understand how environmental variables impact our attachment model. Our results indicate that LMXSC is an important determinant of psychological ownership and job satisfaction and that job embeddedness mediates these relationships. I examine the proposed model with 471 employees from 37 organizations. The results show partial support for the proposed …