Business Commons^™

Finding My Future: Defining The Landscape, Discovering The Path, Samantha Frankhouse

Honors Projects

One of the most pivotal moments in a young adult's life is transitioning from high school to pose-secondary opportunity; whether this is to university, trade school, or right into the workforce, each student has a unique experience. Finding My Future, a local startup in Grand Rapids, Michigan, wants to give these students "the tools they need to define a future they'll love." However, as a startup that is also on a quest to be educated and informed on their decisions, FMF is in need of marker research and customer discovery to better understand and appropriately design for their audiences.

The Use Of Smart Devices For The Detection Of Aflatoxin In Ground Corn Feeds, James Salveo L. Olarve, Gil Nonato C. Santos, Karen Doniza, Mary Gillian Santos

Angelo King Institute for Economic and Business Studies (AKI)

Aflatoxin contaminates agricultural commodities, plants or animal-derived food, in warm and humid conditions primarily in tropical countries such as the Philippines. Although the type and degree of contamination are dependent on its concentration, its effect becomes critical when biomagnified. In this study, a rapid, simple, and portable detection was developed. A smart-device sensor was used to measure the pH of the samples with aflatoxin and compared it with the pH of pure samples. Concentrations in parts per billion (ppb) were calculated for each of the samples from the obtained pH readings; Cyclic voltammetry was also conducted to further study the …

Addressing Infrastructure Gap Via Public-Private Partnership In Nigeria, Chiedu Ndubisi

Bullion

This paper is arranged in nine Sections. It commenced by examining the issue of the nature of infrastructure and the implication for financing. It also looked at the catalytic role of infrastructure on economic growth and development, including the debilitating implication of its negligence by policy makers. next, the paper attempted at establishing the nexus between infrastructure and economic growth and development.

Central Bank Public Communication Campaign And Monetary Policy, Williams D. Kareem

Bullion

This paper examines the relevance of public communication campaign in a central bank's quest to adequately convey monetary policy decisions to its stakeholders. The meaning, design and evaluation of public communication campaign are discussed to highlight campaign usefulness in monetary policy communication. Its limitations are also noted with regards to the discussion of technical or complex issues in monetary policy.

Imperative Of Fiscal Discipline In Sustaining Economic Growth, Uche Uwaleke

Bullion

The Nigerian economy technically exited a recession since the second half of 2017 but the growth in GDP has remained weak and fragile. The concept of fiscal discipline can be viewed from three perspectives. The first is by public finance theorist, Richard Musgrave, Another view by John Mikesell (cited in Musgrave and Musgrave, 1989), The third usage by Axelrod extends the coverage of fiscal discipline to legislators. This paper examines why fiscal discipline is essential for Nigeria, experiences of peer countries and imperatives of fiscal discipline for sustaining economic growth

Labor Law And Innovation Revisited, Bill B. Francis, Incheol Kim, Bin Wang, Zhengyi Zhang

Finance Faculty Research and Publications

This paper examines the impact of changes in job security on corporate innovation in 20 non-U.S. OECD countries. Using a difference-in-differences approach, we provide firm-level evidence that the enhancement of labor protection has a negative impact on innovation. We then discuss possible channels and find that employee-friendly labor reforms induce inventor shirking and a distortion in labor flow. Further investigation reveals that the negative relation is more pronounced in (1) firms that heavily rely on external financing, (2) firms that have high R&D intensity, (3) manufacturing industries, and (4) civil-law countries. Our micro-level evidence indicates that enhanced employment protection impedes …

Guanxi, It Systems, And Innovation Capability: The Moderating Role Of Proactiveness, Man Zhang, Janet L. Hartley

Management Faculty Publications

In Chinese exporting, small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) need to be innovative to develop a competitive advantage. This research explored how these organizations can use two resources: 1) guanxi with customers, distributors, suppliers, and government officials; and 2) IT systems to enhance their innovation capabilities and new product performance. The moderating role of an organization’s proactiveness with respect to new product development is also examined. The resource-based view provides the theoretical support for the research. A conceptual model is developed and tested using survey data gathered from 210 Chinese SMEs in manufacturing industries that were analyzed using SmartPLS 2.0. Results …

Labor Law And Innovation Revisited, Bill B. Francis, Incheol Kim, Bin Wang, Zhengyi Zhang

Economics and Finance Faculty Publications

This paper examines the impact of changes in job security on corporate innovation in 20 non-U.S. OECD countries. Using a difference-in-differences approach, we provide firm-level evidence that the enhancement of labor protection has a negative impact on innovation. We then discuss possible channels and find that employee-friendly labor reforms induce inventor shirking and a distortion in labor flow. Further investigation reveals that the negative relation is more pronounced in 1) firms that heavily rely on external financing, 2) firms that have high R&D intensity, 3) manufacturing industries, and 4) civil-law countries. Our micro-level evidence indicates that enhanced employment protection impedes …

Gross National Happiness (Gnh): Linkages To And Implications For Macromarketing, Gene R. Laczniak, Nicholas J. C. Santos

Marketing Faculty Research and Publications

This theoretical commentary explores the concept of Gross National Happiness (GNH) and connects it with several central macromarketing concepts such as QoL, ethics, the common good, the purpose of market activity as well as the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. The paper portrays GNH as a normative concept that captures collective well-being; it categorizes GNH, at least from the standpoint of Western moral philosophy, as most closely aligned with classical utilitarianism, and it distinguishes GNH from QoL on the basis of its predominantly aspirational and subjective orientation. It asserts that GNH can be seen as one manifestation of the common …

Price Fairness, Guest Emotions, Satisfaction, And Behavioral Intentions In Peer To Peer Accommodation Sector, Laiba Ali, Wong F. Yee, Ng S. Imm, Muhammad S. Akhtar

Journal of Global Business Insights

The aim of this study is to examine the impact of price fairness on guest emotions, satisfaction and behavioral intentions in Malaysian P2P accommodation sector. The higher level of tourist arrivals towards P2P accommodations sector has drawn the attention of scholars and government. Therefore, this conceptual paper on P2P accommodation proposes an opportunity to examine the influence of external and internal stimuli on guest’s behavioral intentions during their stay in P2P accommodation at Malaysia. The conceptual framework of this study is built on the basis of Stimulus Organism Response (S-O-R) theory. A complete study followed by a conceptual framework will …

The Design, Test And Evaluation Of A Sensing System For Process Analytical Technology (Pat), Trevor Murphy

Theses

Increased globalisation and competitiveness has given rise to a more dynamic and diverse global market that has begun to place incredible strain on manufacturing supply chains. Conventional manufacturing methods such as the batch manufacturing methods employed largely by the materials processing industries i.e. pharmaceuticals, polymers and magnesium processing plants are ill-suited to cope with the demands of today. As products evolve with technological advancements they become more complex to produce and require alternative approaches to manufacturing to ensure product quality while reducing costs and increasing manufacturing efficiencies.

A potential solution to the growing demands on today’s supply chain is process …

What Do We Know About Sports Sponsorships?, John B. Ford

Marketing Faculty Publications

(First paragraph) There is little doubt that a tie-in between a brand and a special event can be quite lucrative. Although past research often has shown that advertising typicality (how well an advertisement is seen to be representative of a particular product category) creates positive advertising effects, there are no known studies that have examined the level of typicality with respect to sporting events in particular.

Asian Relevance, Global Impact: Asian Management Research Entering A New Era, Daphne W. Yiu, Long W. Lam, Ajai Gaur, Seung-Hyun Lee, Chi-Sum Wong

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

In 1998, the Asia Pacific Journal of Management (APJM) was formally affiliated with Asia Academy of Management (AAOM), the official affiliate of the Academy of Management, with the mission to “encourage contextualized management research with Asian relevance towards contribution to global scholarship” (Lau, 2007: 401). According to Peng (2007), APJM has become a highly reputable and the most prestigious journal in Asian management research. To date, APJM has published over 1,000 articles with a five-year average journal Impact Factor of 2.647 (as of 2018).

Innovation, Firm Size Distribution, And Gains From Trade, Yi-Fan Chen, Wen-Tai Hsu, Shin-Kun Peng

Research Collection School Of Economics

We study a trade model with monopolistic competition a la Melitz (2003) that is standard except that firm heterogeneity is endogenously determined by firms innovating to enhance their productivities. We show that the equilibrium productivity and firm-size distributions exhibit power-law tails under rather general conditions on demand and technology. In particular, the emergence of the power laws is essentially independent of the underlying primitive heterogeneity among firms. We investigate the model’s welfare implications, and conduct a quantitative analysis of welfare gains from trade. We find that, conditional on the same trade elasticity and values of the common parameters, our model …

Icis 2017 Panel Report: Break Your Shackles! Emancipating Information Systems From The Tyranny Of Peer Review, Cecil Eng Huang Chua, Jason Bennett Thatcher, Fred Niederman, Yolande E. Chan, Elizabeth J. Davidson

Business and Information Technology Faculty Research & Creative Works

The paper presents the report of a panel that debated the review process in the information systems (IS) discipline at ICIS 2017 in Seoul, Korea. The panel asked the fundamental question of whether we need to rethink the way we review papers in the discipline. The panelists partnered with the audience to explore some reviewing limitations in IS today and the ways that reviewing in the discipline might change to address some of its difficulties. We first report key concerns with modern reviewing. We then present arguments for and against three proposals (i.e., paying for reviews, mandatory reviews, and open …

Challenges In Learning Unified Modeling Language: From The Perspective Of Diagrammatic Representation And Reasoning, Zixing Shen, Songxin Tan, Keng Siau

Business and Information Technology Faculty Research & Creative Works

Unified modeling language (UML) is widely taught in the information systems (IS) curriculum. To understand UML in IS education, this paper reports on an empirical study that taps into students' learning of UML. The study uses a concept-mapping technique to identify the challenges in learning UML notational elements. It reveals that some technical properties of UML diagrammatic representation, coupled with students' cognitive attributes, hinder both perceptual and conceptual processes involved in searching, recognizing, and inferring visual information, which creates learning barriers. This paper also discusses how to facilitate perceptual and conceptual processes in instruction to overcome learning challenges. The study …

Leveling The Playing Field Between Large And Small Institutions: Evidence From The Sec’S Xbrl Mandate, Nilabhra Bhattacharya, Young Jun Cho, Jae B. Kim

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

We investigate how XBRL adoption affects smaller institutions’ access to financial statement information relative to their larger counterparts. We examine three aspects of trading responsiveness: abnormal trading volume, response speed to 10-K information, and decision to trade immediately following the 10-K filing. With regard to all three aspects of trading responsiveness, we find that small institutions’ responsiveness to 10-K news increases significantly more relative to the change experienced by large institutions from the pre- to post-XBRL periods. We further document that small institutions’ stock picking skills in the 10-K filing period increase more compared to those of large institutions following …

The Dark Side Of Charismatic Leadership: A Social Exchange Perspective, Bin Ma

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation focuses on a possible dark side of charismatic leadership and its behavioral consequences from a social exchange perspective. By revealing the positive correlations between charismatic leadership and the Dark Triad personality traits of narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy, this study provides empirical evidence for the possibility of charismatic leaders with negative personality traits generating harm. Based on a sample of 99 leader-follower dyads recruited from a Chinese work organization, the findings suggest that more charismatic leaders are more likely to behave in autocratic ways and the followers of such leaders will more likely enact pro-leader unethical behaviors. These findings …

Three Essays On Capital Structure And Cross-Listing, Saeed Ghasseminejad

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation includes three chapters. Chapter one examines the effect of economic sanctions on firms and financial markets. Chapter two studies the effect of culture on cross-listing and CEO turnover. Chapter three looks at how geography influences capital structure.

Chapter 1 This paper is the first comprehensive analysis of economic sanctions and measures the effect of imposing and lifting sanctions on the target country's exchange-listed, publicly traded firms and examines how the impact of sanctions on deep state-owned firms differs from their impact on other firms. The paper uses the case of Iran because of its developed financial markets, the …

Innovation Under Stress, Zhaojun Huang

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The aim of the dissertation is to explore firms’ innovation strategies during certain stressful periods. This dissertation consists of 3 chapters. . .

Chapter 1: Innovation Diversification Under Policy Uncertainty

Using detailed data on patent grants and applications, I explore the effect of policy uncertainty on firms’ innovation strategies. I show that firms that invest in R&D tend to pursue more diversified strategies and are more likely to explore unfamiliar fields during periods of policy uncertainty. These findings hold after adjusting for possible sample-selection bias using variation from patent examiners’ historical approval rates, and after adjusting for potential endogeneity using …

Gaming, September 1, 2018: Audit And Accounting Guide, American Institute Of Certified Public Accountants (Aicpa)

Industry Guides (AAGs), Risk Alerts, and Checklists

No abstract provided.

Brokers And Dealers In Securities, September 1, 2018; Accounting Guide, American Institute Of Certified Public Accountants (Aicpa)

Industry Guides (AAGs), Risk Alerts, and Checklists

No abstract provided.

Property And Liability Insurance Entities, September 1, 2018; Audit And Accounting Guide, American Institute Of Certified Public Accountants (Aicpa)

Industry Guides (AAGs), Risk Alerts, and Checklists

No abstract provided.

A Model For Perceived Destination Value And Tourists' Souvenir Intentions, Wei Wang, Gallayanee Yaoyuneyong, Pauline Sullivan, Brigitte W. Burgess

Journal of Applied Marketing Theory

This research explores the influence of value perception on tourists’ souvenir purchase decisions. A convenience sample of 380 respondents from a Southeastern U.S. university completed survey instruments regarding their destination, shopping venue, and souvenirs purchased. Results revealed significant positive influences between five value perceptions (functional, emotional, novelty, value for money, and social) and tourists’ souvenir purchase intentions. These results provide valuable marketing and strategic planning insights to destination retailers.

Health Care Entities, September 1, 2018; Audit & Accounting Guide, American Institute Of Certified Public Accountants (Aicpa)

Industry Guides (AAGs), Risk Alerts, and Checklists

No abstract provided.

Motivations To Engage In Word Of Mouth From Non-Market Participants: A Study Using Automotive Business As The Field Of Investigation, Yao Han Kwan

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Word of mouth (WOM) can have significant impacts on businesses. Positive WOM can go a long way in helping to grow a brand while negative WOM may cause considerable damages. Managers have constantly attempted to actively manage WOM but often find it difficult to control. Extensive academic research has also been conducted in this field, with a significant amount of literature built up over the last few decades. The advent of the Internet, social media and consequently electronic WOM (eWOM) further intensified practice and research interest in this area.

Despite decades of research and managerial precepts about WOM, the full …

Leading Mindfully In Dynamic Times: Can A Mindfulness-Based Leadership Training And Coaching Program Increase Leadership Effectiveness?, Nina Tan

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This research examined the influence of a Mindfulness-based Leadership Training and Coaching Program (MBP), in garnering three aspects of leadership effectiveness; extra employee effort, productive performance and followers’ satisfaction with leadership.

We hypothesized that mindfulness-based leadership training and coaching program can influence leaders’ frequency in adopting authentic, transformational and transactional leadership behaviors to enhance leadership effectiveness.

We tested these predictions separately on two control and intervention groups. Results suggested that the combined training and coaching mindfulness-based intervention program had predictive effects between the practice of mindful attunement of leaders’ behaviors and enhancement in leadership effectiveness, even in a short span …

Director Tenure Diversity And Board Monitoring Effectiveness, Na Li, Aida Sijamic Wahid

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

This study examines the impact of director tenure diversity on board effectiveness. We find that tenure-diverse boards exhibit significantly higher CEO performance-turnover sensitivity and that firms with tenure-diverse audit committees are less likely to experience accounting restatements. Furthermore, we document that tenure-diverse compensation committees also award less excess compensation and are less likely to overcompensate. Even though tenure-diverse boards seem to exhibit superior monitoring performance, there is limited evidence that their firms exhibit superior financial performance. The findings suggest that recent calls for board renewal, to the extent that it would increase tenure diversity rather than just decrease average board …

Breaking Down The Barriers To Operator Workload Estimation: Advancing Algorithmic Handling Of Temporal Non-Stationarity And Cross-Participant Differences For Eeg Analysis Using Deep Learning, Ryan G. Hefron

Theses and Dissertations

This research focuses on two barriers to using EEG data for workload assessment: day-to-day variability, and cross- participant applicability. Several signal processing techniques and deep learning approaches are evaluated in multi-task environments. These methods account for temporal, spatial, and frequential data dependencies. Variance of frequency- domain power distributions for cross-day workload classification is statistically significant. Skewness and kurtosis are not significant in an environment absent workload transitions, but are salient with transitions present. LSTMs improve day- to-day feature stationarity, decreasing error by 59% compared to previous best results. A multi-path convolutional recurrent model using bi-directional, residual recurrent layers significantly increases …

Switching To Green Lifestyles: Behavior Change Of Ant Forest Users, Zhaojun Yang, Xiangchun Kong, Jun Sun, Yali Zhang

Information Systems Faculty Publications

Ant Forest is an emerging mobile application platform that engages people in environment-friendly behavior with fragmented time and helps them cultivate ecological awareness and habit. Users grow virtual trees on the platform with the energy saved from daily low-carbon activities, and Ant Forest plants real saplings in desertified areas when the “trees” become big enough. Facilitating the public’s participation in such green welfare, Ant Forest is a new-generation persuasive system with functions like social media and gamification. In addition to perceived persuasiveness in the existing literature, this study includes sense of achievement and perceived entertainment as extrinsic and intrinsic motivations, …