Business Commons^™

Take A Break! Benefits Of Sleep And Short Breaks For Daily Work Engagement, Jana Kuhnel, Hannes Zacher, Jessica De Bloom, Ronald Bledow

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The current study investigates the benefits of a good night’s sleep and short work breaks for employees’ daily work engagement. It is hypothesized that sleep and self-initiated short breaks help restore energetic and self-regulatory resources which, in turn, enable employees to experience high work engagement. A daily diary study was conducted with 107 employees who provided data twice a day (before lunch and at the end of the working day) over 5 workdays (453 days in total). Multilevel regression analyses showed that sleep quality and short breaks were beneficial for employees’ daily work engagement. After nights employees slept better, they …

Does Volatility Scaling Improve The Performance Of Momentum Strategies In The Pakistan Stock Exchange?, Mohsin Sadaqat, Hilal Anwar Butt

Business Review

Momentum profits are low among stocks listed on the Pakistan Stock Exchange. We explore whether this can be improved by exploiting the predicted negative relationship between returns and volatility of momentum strategies. This relationship suggests that momentum returns increase/decrease with decrease/increase in the volatility/variance of momentum returns during the previous six months. We find that scaled momentum strategies outperform the traditional strategy in terms of higher raw returns, risk-adjusted returns and Sharpe ratios. To show the superiority of scaled momentum strategies, we bootstrap the sample 100,000 times and generate the lognormal distribution of holding-period returns for all momentum strategies. We …

The Impact Of Manufacturing Activities In The Trading Partner On Imports Into Pakistan, Aadil Nakhoda, Farooq Pasha

Business Review

Econometric analysis performed for this paper suggests that Pakistan is likely to import more from trading partners that have a larger manufacturing sector relative to their GDP for the majority of product categories. The impact is stronger for processed products. This implies a higher risk of import dependency and associated competitive pressure from imports on manufacturing activities within Pakistan.

Capital Structure And Profitability Of Firms In The Corporate Sector Of Pakistan, Sana Tauseef, Heman Das Lohano

Business Review

We examine the impact of debt ratios on returns on equity based on panel data for 179 companies from the non-financial corporate sector of Pakistan for the years 2000 to 2015. The least squares fixed effects estimator reveals that the debt ratio has a significant positive effect on return on equity up to an optimal debt level of 40 percent beyond which it has a significant negative effect.

Assessing The Relative Importance Of Employer Branding Dimensions On Retention Of Employees: A Case Of Private Schools Of Karachi, Faiza Sharif, Saqib Sharif

Business Review

This study explores several dimensions of employer branding namely work environment, social aspect, compensation structure, development value and knowledge sharing in terms of their impact on the retention of employees with varying job tenures within the private schools of Karachi. The results of descriptive analysis, Pearson correlation, t-tests of independent populations and regression analysis reveal that Social Aspect and Development Values are the two most preferred dimensions of the employer brand, followed by Work Environment. The results of this research can be used by the education industry in developing human resource policies and practices that cultivate a learning and growth …

An Integrated Retail Supply Chain Risk Management Framework: A System Thinking Approach, John Crowe

Doctoral

It is often taken for granted that the right products will be available to buy in retail outlets seven days a week, 52 weeks a year. Consumer perception is that of a simple service requirement, but the reality is a complex, time sensitive system - the retail supply chain (RSC). Due to short product life-cycles with uncertain supply and demand behaviour, the RSC faces many challenges and is very vulnerable to disruptions. In addition, external risk events such as BREXIT, extreme weather, the financial crisis, and terror attacks mean there is a need for effective RSC risk management (RSCRM) processes …

Hybrid Simulation-Based Planning Framework For Agri-Fresh Produce Supply Chain, Mohammed Mesabbah

Doctoral

The ever-increasing demand for fresh and healthy products raises the economic importance of managing Agri-Fresh Produce Supply Chain (AFPSC) effectively. However, the literature review has indicated that many challenges undermine efficient planning for AFPSCs. Stringent regulations on production and logistics activities, production seasonality and high yield variations (quantity and quality), and products vulnerability to multiple natural stresses, alongside with their critical shelf life, impact the planning process. This calls for developing smart planning and decision-support tools which provides higher efficiency for such challenges. Modelling and simulation (M&S) approaches for AFPSC planning problems have a proven record in offering safe and …

Favorability Of Financial And Nonfinancial Performance Measures And Analysts' Recommendations, Thomas F. Lewis Jr

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates the extent to which sell-side analysts make full use of available financial and nonfinancial information signals in formulating stock recommendations. Prior research shows that investors rely strongly on sell-side analysts’ recommendations and that sell-side analysts pay considerable attention to nonfinancial measures in making their decisions. However, prior research has primarily focused on the mere presence of nonfinancial measures and not the extent to which the direction of such measures (i.e. favorability) is associated with firm value, or assessed the extent to which any interaction between financial measures and the direction of nonfinancial measures may influence analysts in …

A Sensitivity Analysis For Relative Importance Weights In The Meta-Analytic Context: A Step Towards Narrowing The Theory-Empiricism Gap In Turnover, James G. Field

Theses and Dissertations

Turnover is one of the most important phenomena for management scholars and practitioners. Yet, researchers and practitioners are often frustrated by their inability to accurately predict why individuals leave their jobs. This should be worrisome given that total replacement costs can exceed 100% of an employee’s salary (Cascio, 2006) and can represent up to 40% of a firm’s pre-tax income (Allen, 2008). Motivated by these concerns, the purpose of this study was to assess the predictive validity of commonly-investigated correlates and, by extension, conceptualizations of employee turnover using a large-scale database of scientific findings. Results indicate that job satisfaction, organizational …

Review Of Whistleblowing Studies In Accounting Research Examining Corporate Internal Whistleblowing Policy, Lei Gao

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation consists of three studies. The first study provides a review and synthesis of past accounting research regarding factors that influence whistleblowing. The second study is a content analysis to examine the variation of organizations’ internal whistleblowing policy, including both the content characteristics of the policy and the linguistic characteristics of the policy. In terms of the content characteristics of the whistleblowing policy, this study focuses on who is covered in the policy, where to report, employees’ responsibility, corporate investigation procedures, disciplinary action against the wrongdoer, and anti-retaliation policy. In terms of the linguistic characteristics of the internal whistleblowing …

2017 Msu Benefits Guide, Morehead State University. Office Of Human Resources.

Staff Congress Records

2017 Morehead State University Benefits Guide.

Strategic Planning For A Community Focused Non-Profit Organization, Erik W. Williams

Liberal Studies (MA) Final Essays

This paper explores the process used to create the Engage 2020 Strategic Plan for Family Service of Roanoke Valley, a 116 year non-profit in Roanoke, Va. Utilizing a community based process that focused on the strengths, opportunities, aspirations, and results; the strategic plan focused on improving the people and culture, programming and impact, and the vitality of the agency over a three-year period. Discussed in this paper are the history of the agency, its previous strategic plan, the planning, the process, and the end product strategic plan.

Innovation Among Different Classes Of Software Development Organizations, James Gaskin, Nicholas Berente, Kalle Lyytinen, Gregory Rose

Faculty Publications

Software development organizations (SDOs) innovate in diverse ways. In this paper, based on an extensive review of innovation typologies, we develop a theory‐driven typology of SDO innovator classes. We theorize about the driving forces behind these classes, with specific attention given to knowledge‐based dispositions that relate to the SDO's knowledge‐based competencies in technology appropriation, technology generation, and network intensity within ecological niches. Through a survey of 136 SDOs, which adopted Internet technologies during 1995‐2006, we empirically verify that these classes also determine different ways that SDOs innovate around software services they provide to their clients. Our findings suggest that the …

Betting On The Big: State-Brokered Land Transfers, Large-Scale Agricultural Producers, And Rural Policy Implementation, Weigang Gong, Qian Forrest Zhang

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

As rural governments have become hollowed out and detached from rural society, can they still effectively implement policies that lack popular support? This article examines a county in Hunan Province, where local governments had strong incentives to implement a national policy of increasing double cropping in rice farming. Small farmers rejected double cropping as unprofitable. Local governments’ limited capacity prevented them from either reshaping small farmers’ economic calculus or coercing compliance. They strategically selected a policy tool acceptable to most small farmers (paid land transfers) and gave new private large-scale producers incentives to double crop by providing subsidies and access …

Practical Intelligence, Emotional Intelligence, And Social Intelligence, Filip Lievens, David Chan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Over the years, practical intelligence, social intelligence, and especially emotional intelligence have received substantial attention in both the academic and practitioner literatures. However, at the same time, these individual dierence “constructs” have also fueled controversies and criticisms, including their applications to employee selection. It is without doubt that their definition, dimensionality, and operationalization (measurement) have been much more questioned as compared to the more traditional or established constructs (i.e., cognitive ability, personality) in this section of the Handbook.

Technology And Data As Lawyers’ Allies: From Data To Insights, Zi Qian Chang, Edmund Koh, Jerrold Soh, Bu Fan

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

A lawyer’s tools of the trade were his law books. In those days, a firm’s library was very manageable. There were few commentaries and the text of the law – cases and legislation – were self-contained. Local case law that was reported took up only a volume each year in the Malayan Law Journal. Older firms may have had the early Kyshe’s law reports. Statutes were contained in four volumes – DK Walters, who had written the definitive commentary on Municipal Ordinances, was published in one volume. Roland Braddell’s ‘The Law of the Straits Settlements’ was another volume. For a …

Corporate Social Responsibility Performance And Outsourcing: The Case Of The Bangladesh Tragedy, Daniel Gyung Paik, Brandon B. Lee, Kip R. Krumwiede

Accounting Faculty Publications

Multinational firms frequently outsource the manufacturing of their products to factories in less- developed countries to take advantage of much lower labor costs. A tragic disaster occurred in Bangladesh in April 2013 when a clothing factory building collapsed, killing more than a thousand workers. Subsequently, textile companies in the U.S. and in Europe who outsource their manufacturing in Bangladesh had to decide whether to commit to better working conditions by signing one of two worker safety agreements (WSAs) born in the after-math of the tragedy. Although many firms signed one of these agreements, many more did not. This study explores …

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Short And Long Run Uncertainty, Jose Maria Barrero, Nicholas Bloom, Ian Wright

Faculty Publications

Uncertainty appears to have both a short-run and a long-run component, which we measure using firm and macro implied volatility data from options of 30 days to 10 years duration. We ask what may be driving uncertainty over these different time horizons, finding that oil price volatility is particularly important for short-run uncertainty, policy uncertainty is particularly important for long-run uncertainty, while currency volatility and CEO turnover appear to equally impact shortand long-run uncertainty. Examining a panel of over 4,000 firms from 1996 to 2013 we find that R&D is relatively more sensitive to long-run uncertainty than investment, and in …

Pricing Kernel Monotonicity And Conditional Information, Matthew Linn, Sophie Shive, Tyler Shumway

Faculty Publications

A large literature finds evidence that pricing kernels nonparametrically estimated from option prices and historical returns are not monotonically decreasing in market index returns. We argue that existing estimation methods are inconsistent and propose a new nonparametric estimator of the pricing kernel that reflects the information available to investors who set asset prices. In simulations, the estimator outperforms existing techniques. Our empirical estimates using S&P 500 index option data from 1996 to 2014 and FTSE 100 index option data from 2002 to 2014 suggest that the "pricing kernel puzzle'' is due to flaws in existing estimators rather than a behavioral …

Psychological Resilience Can Help Combat The Effect Of Stress On Problematic Social Networking Site Usage, Xiang-Ling Hou, Hai-Zhen Wang, Cheng Guo, James Gaskin, Detlef H. Rost, Jin-Liang Wang

Faculty Publications

This study was aimed to test the association between perceived stress and problematic social networking site (SNS) usage, and to figure outwhether psychological resiliencemoderated this relationship. The Perceived Stress Scale, Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, and Facebook Intrusion Questionnaire were administered to 499 Chinese college students. The results showed that (1) perceived stress was positively associated with problematic SNS usage; (2) psychological resiliencewas negatively relatedwith problematic SNS usage; and (3) psychological resilience moderated the relationship between perceived stress and problematic SNS usage. Specifically, the relationship between perceived stress and problematic SNS usage was statistically significant for students with a lower level of …

The Association Between Family Leisure And Family Quality Of Life: A Meta-Analysis Of Data From Parents And Adolescents, Camilla Hodge, Mat D. Duerden, Eric K. Layland, Andrew Lacanienta, Michael C. Goates, Xiaoyue Maggie Niu

Faculty Publications

The body of family leisure research has grown over the past 25 years; however, efforts to quantitatively synthesize that body of literature have not been made. Therefore, we conducted a meta-analysis of published and unpublished literature reporting on parent and adolescent child data regarding shared leisure experiences and family quality-of-life indicators across k=23 articles identified from a broad, systematic search of literature. Using random effects, we measured the associations of (a) family leisure participation with family quality of life and (b) family leisure satisfaction with family quality of life. Results indicated significant associations of small to moderate effect sizes in …

Response Pattern Analysis: Assuring Data Integrity In Extreme Research Settings, Lisa Jones Christensen, Enno Siemsen, Oana Branzei, Madhu Viswanathan

Faculty Publications

Research summary: Strategy scholars increasingly conduct research in nontraditional contexts. Such efforts often require the assistance of third-party intermediaries who understand local culture, norms, and language. This reliance on intermediation in primary or secondary data collection can elicit agency breakdowns that call into question the reliability, analyzability, and interpretability of responses. Herein, we investigate the causes and consequences of intermediary bias in the form of faked data and we offer Response Pattern Analysis as a statistical solution for identifying and removing such problematic data. By explicating the effect, illustrating how we detected it, and performing a controlled field experiment in …

The Role Of Context In It Assimilation: A Multi-Method Study Of A Saas Platform In The Us Nonprofit Sector, Ryan T. Wright, Nicholas Roberts, David W. Wilson

Faculty Publications

Nonprofit organizations (NPOs) operate in environments characterized by growing competition for resources and greater stakeholder demands for accountability, which makes deploying and maintaining information systems a struggle. In this competitive, resource-constrained environment, enterprise Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platforms offer NPOs a cost-effective way access reliable, low-maintenance information technology services. Thus, the extent to which NPOs assimilate SaaS is an important area of inquiry. Yet despite the wealth of research on organizational IT assimilation, we know little regarding whether, when, and how NPOs assimilate IT innovations. We further our understanding of NPO assimilation of SaaS by conducting a context-based study. To do so, …

Bankruptcy Spillovers, Shai Bernstein, Emanuele Colonnelli, Xavier Giroud, Benjamin Iverson

Faculty Publications

How do different bankruptcy approaches affect the local economy? Using U.S. Census microdata at the establishment level, we explore the spillover effects of reorganization and liquidation on geographically proximate firms. We exploit the random assignment of bankruptcy judges as a source of exogenous variation in the probability of liquidation. We find that within a five-year period, employment declines substantially in the immediate neighborhood of the liquidated establishments, relative to reorganized establishments. Most of the decline is due to lower growth of existing establishments and, to a lesser extent, reduced entry into the area. The spillover effects are highly localized and …

Behaviorally Informed Policies For Household Financial Decisionmaking, Brigitte C. Madrian, Hal E. Hershfield, Abigail B. Sussman, Saurabh Bhargava, Jeremy Burke, Scott A. Huettel, Julian Jamison, Eric J. Johnson, John G. Lynch, Stephan Meier, Scott Rick, Suzanne B. Shu

Faculty Publications

Low incomes, limited financial literacy, fraud, and deception are just a few of the many intractable economic and social factors that contribute to the financial difficulties that households face today. Addressing these issues directly is difficult and costly. But poor financial outcomes also result from systematic psychological tendencies, including imperfect optimization, biased judgments and preferences, and susceptibility to influence by the actions and opinions of others. Some of these psychological tendencies and the problems they cause may be countered by policies and interventions that are both low cost and scalable. We detail the ways that these behavioral factors contribute to …

Equity Issuance Of Health Care Firms After The 2007 Market Crash And The 2010 Affordable Ca1·E Act, James C. Brau, J. Troy Carpenter

Faculty Publications

We provide an empirical analysis of 195 initial public offerings (IPOs) and 547 seasoned equity offerings (SEOs) of health care firms that issued between 2008 and October 2016. This period represents eight years after the US financial crisis of late 2007 and also includes all equity issuances since the passage of the Affordable Care Act of late 2010. We compare and contrast our results with those of Brau and Holloway (2009) who study health care equity issuances from 1970-2008. We find that global health care issues in both the IPO and SEO markets are significantly over-represented in both the post-crash …

Final Demand For Structured Finance Securities, Craig B. Merrill, Taylor Nadauld, Philip E. Strahan

Faculty Publications

Structured finance boomed during the run-up to the 2008 financial crisis. Highly rated, structured securities offered higher yield than other similarly rated bonds because of their concentration of systematic risk, but regulatory capital requirements did not account for this risk. As a result, regulated entities facing capital constraints had an incentive to invest in them. We show that life insurance companies exposed to unrealized losses from low interest rates in the early 2000s increased their holdings of highly rated securitized assets, consistent with regulatory arbitrage distorting the demand to hold these assets.

The Mediating Roles Of Upward Social Comparison And Self-Esteem And The Moderating Role Of Social Comparison Orientation In The Association Between Social Networking Site Usage And Subjective Well-Being, Jin-Liang Wang, Hai-Zhen Wang, James Gaskin, Skyler Hawk

Faculty Publications

The increased pervasiveness of social media use has raised questions about potential effects on users’ subjective well-being, with studies reaching contrasting conclusions. To reconcile these discrepancies and shed new light on this phenomenon, the current study examined: (1) whether upward social comparison and self-esteem mediate the association between social networking site (SNS) usage and users’ subjective well-being, and (2) whether the association between SNS usage and upward social comparison is moderated by users’ social comparison orientation. Data from 696 participants were collected. Structural equation modeling revealed that upward social comparison and self-esteem mediated the relationship between SNS usage and users’ …

Conceptual Modeling In Accelerating Information Ingest Into Family Tree, David W. Embley, Stephen W. Liddle, Tanner S. Eastmond, Deryle W. Lonsdale, Joseph P. Price, Scott N. Woodfield

Faculty Publications

Family Tree is a wiki-like shared repository of interconnected family genealogies. Because information ingested into the tree requires human authorization as verified in source documents, ingest is tedious and time-consuming. To significantly increase ingest efficiency while maintaining human oversight, we propose a pipeline of tools and techniques to transform source document genealogical assertions into verified information in the Family Tree data repository. The automation pipeline transforms pages of printed, scanned and OCRed family history books into a GEDCOM X conceptualization that can be ingested into Family Tree. All steps of the pipeline are fundamentally grounded in ontological conceptualizations. We report …