Business Commons^™

2021-December-01-Entrepreneurship-In-Residence Program Announced At Etsu, University Marketing And Communication, East Tennessee State University

ETSU News

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. – In a first-of-its-kind initiative in the region, the College of Business and Technology at East Tennessee State University has announced the start of its Entrepreneurship-In-Residence (EIR) program, exposing student candidates to startup investment decisions.  

The program is a collaborative effort between The Angel Roundtable (ART) of the Appalachian Highlands and the Entrepreneurship Program at ETSU’s College of Business and Technology. The Angel Roundtable is a network of successful entrepreneurs, investors, and community business leaders from Northeast Tennessee, Southwest Virginia and Western North Carolina who provide investment capital and strategic advice to late-seed and early-stage companies to …

2021-December-01-Etsu Commencement, University Marketing And Communication, East Tennessee State University

ETSU News

JOHNSON CITY – East Tennessee State University will confer more than 1,300 degrees during Commencement Exercises on Saturday, Dec. 11, at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. in the Ballad Health Athletic Center. Gayle Conelly Manchin, who is federal co-chair of the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC), will deliver the keynote address at 10 a.m. ETSU faculty member Dr. Sean Fox, who won the Distinguished Faculty Award for Teaching, will address graduates during the 2 p.m. ceremony.

Manchin works directly with the ARC’s 13 member governors, their state alternates and program managers, and a network of local development districts to continue to …

2021-December-01-Etsu Professor Writes About Plantation Sites Remembering Slavery, University Marketing And Communication, East Tennessee State University

ETSU News

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (December 2021) – Plantation sites have the ability to better tell the histories of former slaves in the United States. 

That point drives the new book, “Remembering Enslavement: Reassembling the Southern Plantation Museum.” East Tennessee State University’s Dr. Candace Forbes Bright is one of the book’s authors. 

Examining multiple plantation sites across the American South, these scholars consider the experiences of tourists, museum managers and tour guides.  

As the public and scholars alike debate how to best understand and remember slavery in the U.S., this work is designed to help professionals reassemble the narratives and landscapes of …

2021-December-01-Etsu Releases Annual Holiday Video, University Marketing And Communication, East Tennessee State University

ETSU News

Need a nudge to get in the holiday spirit? 

East Tennessee State University has released its annual holiday video, a parody of “Santa Baby” with the lyrics rewritten to “Santa Bucky.”

Making a festive appearance in the 2021 edition is Greyscale, one of ETSU’s best known a cappella ensembles. They perform a broad mix of music, including jazz and pop, and are well-known on campus and throughout the region.

ETSU President Dr. Brian Noland and First Lady Donna Noland are also part of the video, as is the university’s mascot, Bucky.

Parts of the video are shot at University Commons, …

2021-December-01-Etsu Scholars Publishing On Politics, University Marketing And Communication, East Tennessee State University

ETSU News

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (Dec. 1, 2021) – Professors in the Department of Political Science, International Affairs & Public Administration at East Tennessee State University are producing important research.

Two faculty members published books this year. 

“These fine contributions to the discipline reinforce that our department is home to first-rate scholars doing important research,” said Dr. Colin Glennon, associate professor and chair of the department. “Our faculty model the essential role of the teacher-scholar, one who is deeply engaged with students in the classroom and salient research outside of it.”

 Dr. Frederick Gordon’s book, “The Damming of the Presidency: How Environmental …

2021-December-01-Tri-Cities Proclaims Friday 'Blue And Gold Day', University Marketing And Communication, East Tennessee State University

ETSU News

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. —  The Tri-Cities may be lit up in a rainbow of colors for the holiday season, but, this Friday, the region is going all in on blue and gold. Leaders in Bristol, Jonesborough, Johnson City and Kingsport are all declaring Friday, Dec. 3, “Blue and Gold Day” in celebration of the East Tennessee State University football team’s run for the national championship. Mayors Mahlon Luttrell, Chuck Vest, Joe Wise, and Pat Shull are encouraging area residents to decorate homes, schools and businesses in blue and gold and wear the ETSU colors on Friday. 

“East Tennessee State University …

2021-December-01-Paleontologists Discover Extinct Relative Of Tennessee State Wildflower, University Marketing And Communication, East Tennessee State University

ETSU News

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (December 2021) – For Tennesseans, passion flowers are a point of regional pride, officially designated as a Tennessee state flower back in 1919. Now, a century later, paleontologists have found fossil evidence of an extinct Appalachian passion flower species, Passiflora appalachiana, previously unknown to science. 

This ancient species is unique to the fossil record of Tennessee, museum officials said, and it is proof that these flowers have adorned the local landscape for millions of years.

The fossils were found at the Gray Fossil Site, overseen by the Don Sundquist Center of Excellence in Paleontology at East …

2021-December-Uh Alumni Homecoming Newsletter December 2021, University School, East Tennessee State University, University Marketing And Communication, East Tennessee State University

ETSU News

Link to University School Alumni Homecoming Newsletter, December 2021

Greetings to our University, Training and Model School Alumni, we hope this message finds each of you doing well!  As we wrap up the semester and final school week for 2021, I would like to take a moment to thank you all for your continued support of University School. The tradition of excellence which has been established at University School is one that we value tremendously and take great pride in continuing!  We believe this is a direct impact of the commitment of our alumni, staff (both past and present) …

Enhancement Of The Command-Line Environment For Use In The Introductory Statistics Course And Beyond, David W. Gerbing

Business Faculty Publications and Presentations

R and Python are commonly used software languages for data analytics. Using these languages as the course software for the introductory course gives students practical skills for applying statistical concepts to data analysis. However, the reliance upon the command line is perceived by the typical nontechnical introductory student as sufficiently esoteric that its use detracts from the teaching of statistical concepts and data analysis. An R package was developed based on the successive feedback of hundreds of introductory statistics students over multiple years to provide a set of functions that apply basic statistical principles with command-line R. The package offers …

When A Ban Is Not A Ban: Institutional Work And The Russian Doping Scandal, Mathew Dowling, Spencer Harris, Marvin Washington

Business Faculty Publications and Presentations

There are fewer cases of such blatant acts to defy and subsequent heroic efforts to rearrange institutional norms than the Russian doping scandal. In adopting a neo-institutional perspective, the authors theorize the scandal as a case of attempted but failed institutional disruption. More specifically, the authors draw upon the institutional change literature and the institutional work perspective to explain the key events surrounding actors’ response to the scandal. The analysis utilized Gioia’s methodological approach to examine secondary empirical data. Findings reveal how stakeholders circumvented traditional governance structures in an attempt to disrupt institutional arrangements, but despite this, much of the …

Marketing Tourism And Hotel Management Schools In The Context Of Higher Education Globalization And Student Mobility Through Improved Curriculum And Industrial Training Offerings, Ayse Bas Collins, Aysegul Gunduz Songur, Seden Dogan

Journal of Global Education and Research

Recent research from international statistics indicate an important flow of student mobility all over the world, creating a need to provide comprehensive information regarding educational institutions involved in the process. This study examines and compares tourism and hotel management (THM) programs at different levels, including the nature of programs offered, their curriculum, and internship components. A particular focus was given to the industrial training requirement as a core component of THM programs. Results showed both similarities and differences worldwide within the framework of the institutions compared. The findings may help all stakeholders in the education systems, including professionals, educators, students, …

Dynamic Spillovers Between The Term Structure Of Interest Rates, Bitcoin, And Safe-Haven Currencies, David Y. Aharon, Zaghum Umar, Xuan Vinh Vo

All Works

This study examines the connectedness between the US yield curve components (i.e., level, slope, and curvature), exchange rates, and the historical volatility of the exchange rates of the main safe-haven fiat currencies (Canada, Switzerland, EURO, Japan, and the UK) and the leading cryptocurrency, the Bitcoin. Results of the static analysis show that the level and slope of the yield curve are net transmitters of shocks to both the exchange rate and its volatility. The exchange rate of the Euro and the volatility of the Euro and the Canadian dollar exchange rate are net transmitters of shocks. Meanwhile, the curvature of …

Exploration Of Small Fashion Retailers' Green Efforts In Supply Chain Management And Their Coping Strategies During Covid-19, Madison Huskey

Finance Undergraduate Honors Theses

The purpose of this paper is to explore the current business model of small fashion retailers and their green efforts in supply chain management based on the Six-R framework that consists of recycle, reuse, reduce, re-design, recovery, and remanufacture. This study also investigated the impact of COVID-19 on small fashion businesses. Qualitative data were gathered through in-depth interviews of owners/employees of four small fashion retailers that addressed sustainable supply chain management, customer segments, and challenges and barriers in green supply chain management, and the effects of COVID-19. Interview findings revealed that small fashion retailers are more likely to implement green …

Use Patterns And Influencing Factors Of Irrigation Best Management Practices In The Lower Mississippi River Basin, Merri E. Day

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study uses the 2016 Irrigation Survey from Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi to document the use of irrigation best management practices (IBMPs), analyze use patterns, and use quantitative methods to determine factors that influence producers’ decisions regarding IBMPs. IBMPs included in the survey can be grouped as: field management practices (zero-grade leveling, precision-grade leveling, end blocking, warped surface, and deep tillage), water flow control practices (computerized pipe-hole selection, multiple-inlet irrigation, surge irrigation, alternate wetting and drying, cutback irrigation, flow meters, and pump timers), water recovery/storage practices (tail-water recovery system and on-farm storage reservoir), and advanced irrigation scheduling practices (soil moisture …

Kalman Filter Vs Alternative Modeling Techniques And Applied Investment Strategies, Heather E. Dempsey

Doctoral Dissertations (DBA)

This thesis examines the efficacy of alternative modeling techniques to predict stock market returns modeled with time-varying coefficients with the goal of developing and implementing a trading strategy that yields excess returns. First, we determine the modeling technique with the smallest forecast error using historical predictors: the differenced dividend-price ratio, lagged S&P 500 returns, and the change in implied volatility. The candidate modeling techniques include both constant and recursive ordinary least squares (OLS) regression methods and diverges from previous return forecast literature with the comparison of a state-space model (SSM) cast as a VAR(1) process to each OLS technique. The …

A Model For Evaluating Charitable Contributions In Nonprofit Organizations In Kalamazoo County, Michigan, Kristen Smith

Dissertations

Reported data suggest there has been an increase in charitable giving and the number of charitable organizations in communities nationwide over the last 20 years. It is widely believed that growth in nonprofit organizations would be a valuable asset for a community, but limited research evaluates the return on investment in these organizations. To ensure these organizations are good stewards of resources, various forms of accountability have been established, including websites like “Charity Navigator™,” which provide rankings and scores to charities nationwide. Data repositories like these make it possible to investigate variations in these organizations' funding, growth, and impact. This …

Application Of Optimization Techniques In Corporate Cash Management, Venkateswara Reddy Dondeti

Theses and Dissertations in Business Administration

For any individual person or firm, there is a trade-off between carrying too much or too little cash on hand to meet the day-to-day transactions demand for cash. The BAT model, named after three eminent economists, Baumol, Allais, and Tobin, is the foundation for almost all cash management models in use today. The goal of the BAT model is to minimize the total costs involving the brokerage fees and the opportunity cost of interest lost on the cash held on hand. The brokerage fees are incurred in connection with the transactions for liquidating securities and converting them into cash. The …

How Leader And Follower Mindfulness Relate To Performance And Ocb Through Conversation Quality And Empathy: A Moderated Mediation Model, Arianna White-Levatich

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Interest within the organizational research community regarding mindfulness has recently surged. Little research, however, has examined how employees’ mindfulness may influence interactions between leaders and followers. This study examined how followers’ trait mindfulness related to two specific aspects of dyadic interactions: leader – member conversational quality (LMCQ) and follower empathy toward a leader. Further, the study examined how this influence extended (via LMCQ and leader-oriented empathy) to task performance and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), two important workplace outcomes for followers. Leader mindfulness was also expected to have a significant influence on the relationships, in that it was expected to strengthen …

Lean Application: An Assessment Of 5s On Employee Attitudes And Productivity, Nickolaos Dimitrios Karvounis

STEMPS Theses & Dissertations

This study examines the effect of the implementation of 5S on employee attitudes and productivity in an Asian based facility of a global manufacturing company. Utilizing an assessment of the 5S implementation in various areas of the facility and organizational performance data for each of those areas, a non-experimental, causal comparative approach is used to analyze the impact. The study concluded that statistically significant improvements from the implementation of 5S were found both in quality and product cost for this facility; however, the study also found statistical significance where the implementation of 5S led to a decrease in performance and …

Interpreting Summer In The Parks In The National Capital Area Of The National Park Service, Brendan J. Kane

Human Movement Studies & Special Education Theses & Dissertations

Washington D.C. has witnessed many watershed events throughout the history of the United States of America. One of these events was the Summer in the Parks (SITP) program organized by the National Park Service (NPS) from 1968-1976. Summer in the Parks was a community-based series of events including concerts, park visits, and exhibitions designed to quell racial tensions and promote park usage. Researchers have begun chronicling SITP, but have yet to explore how the story of SITP is conveyed by park interpreters to visitors and subsequently what themes are shared to inform public understanding of the historic relationship between NPS …

How To Train Your Algo: Investigating The Enablers Of Bias In Algorithmic Development, Marta Stelmaszak Rosa

Business Faculty Publications and Presentations

Literature on algorithmic bias identifies its source in either biased data or statistical methods, more rarely in the development of algorithmic solutions as a potential factor. Because of the prior unknowability of algorithms, data scientists developing such solutions have to take various design decisions. Drawing from the flow-oriented approach, we study algorithmic unknowability and how data scientists respond to it in 35 public data science Jupyter notebooks containing algorithmic solutions to predict customer churn in a credit card dataset on a data science platform Kaggle.com. We offer a more thorough understanding of the unknowability in algorithmic development that can enable …

Media As Other Information For Fundamental Valuation, Jiajia Fu, Jingran Zhao

School of Accountancy Faculty Publications

The media is an important information intermediary. We investigate the informational role of the media by examining whether media content, measured by the sentiment of news articles, contains information about a firm’s fundamental value beyond that conveyed in earnings, book value, and analyst forecasts. We show that incorporating media content into Ohlson’s (1995) residual income model generally improves its ability to predict future residual income, explain current stock prices, and predict future stock prices. Our results are strengthened when media coverage is higher and when media sentiment is more dispersed

Machine Learning Models Predicting The Prices Of Houses In Boston, Sheikh-Sedat Touray

Senior Honors Projects

No abstract provided.

2021-December-01-Etsu Professor Writes About Plantation Sites Remembering Slavery, University Marketing And Communication, East Tennessee State University

ETSU News

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (December 2021) – Plantation sites have the ability to better tell the histories of former slaves in the United States. 

That point drives the new book, “Remembering Enslavement: Reassembling the Southern Plantation Museum.” East Tennessee State University’s Dr. Candace Forbes Bright is one of the book’s authors. 

Examining multiple plantation sites across the American South, these scholars consider the experiences of tourists, museum managers and tour guides.  

As the public and scholars alike debate how to best understand and remember slavery in the U.S., this work is designed to help professionals reassemble the narratives and landscapes of …

2021-December-01-Etsu Health Family Medicine Accepting New Patients, University Marketing And Communication, East Tennessee State University

ETSU News

JOHNSON CITY – A heart for ministering to others paired with a love for science drove Dr. Allison Powers to obtain her medical degree and to pursue opportunities to serve others.

She is accepting new patients at ETSU Health Family Medicine Johnson City.

Powers offers the full scope of family medicine care for all stages of patients’ lives, including acute inpatient care, pediatrics, obstetrics and office procedures. 

“You will receive excellent care through ETSU Family Medicine Johnson City,” Powers said. 

“We are able to provide for many of your health needs in one medical home, while working with a …

When It Hits The Fan, Does Network Management Matter? : A Study On Policy Shocks And The Production And Delivery Of Public Goods And Services By Service Delivery Networks, Jennie Rhodes Law

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

EXECUTIVE SUMMARYFor decades public administration and management scholars have conceptualized organizational networks as solutions to failures of markets and hierarchies (see, for example, Goldsmith and Eggers 2005; Osborne and Gaebler 1992). Relationships among organizations or actors within a network are framed positively as channels through which human, financial, and knowledge resources flow to address complex or “wicked” social problems (see, for example, Rittel and Weber, 1973). However, recent scholarship has sought to pull the curtain back and identify the pitfalls of networked arrangements for public service delivery (see, for example, O’Toole & Meier, 2006; O’Toole & Meier, 2004). Such studies …

A Reexamination Of The Illiquidity Premium In Cryptocurrencies, Wyatt Fitz

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

In this study, I examine the illiquidity premium amongst the 372 most actively traded cryptocurrencies from September 2014 to May 2021. I find that the average returns on the most illiquid cryptocurrencies are larger than those on the most liquid cryptocurrencies. My results are robust to different weighting mechanisms for the market index and to various asset pricing model specifications. These results suggest that an investor might be able to go long a portfolio of illiquid cryptocurrencies while simultaneously shorting a portfolio of liquid cryptocurrencies to effectively generate a positive risk-adjusted return.

Financial Literacy And Behavior In Credit Unions: An Exploration Of Member Financial Literacy And Financial Behavior In The Credit Union Model, Peter R. Fisher

Doctor of Business Administration (DBA)

Financial literacy is economically essential and plays a critical role in an individual’s overall financial capability, yet financial literacy is declining. Financial knowledge has been linked to financial behavior, with financially literate individuals displaying positive financial behaviors while those with lower financial knowledge exhibit poor financial behavior. Credit unions are member-owned financial cooperatives whose purpose is to support their membership’s social and economic goals. Credit unions are well-positioned to deliver financial literacy to members (McKillop & Wilson, 2015). This study examined financial literacy and behavior among credit union members and compared the financial literacy of credit union members with results …

Real Earnings Management And The Properties Of Analysts' Forecasts, Lisa A. Eiler, Joshua J. Filzen, Mark Jackson, Isho Tama-Sweet

Accountancy Faculty Publications and Presentations

Prior literature generally finds analysts are able to identify and process complex financial information. However, research suggests that in certain settings, analysts struggle to fully incorporate into their forecasts all available information. We examine analysts' forecast properties in the face of a specific type of complex financial information: real earnings management (REM). First, we investigate the relation between measures of REM and analysts' forecast properties. We find REM measures are associated with greater forecast error and dispersion in the following year. However, REM measures, by definition, capture abnormal operating results, and thus include both firms engaging in manipulative REM as …

Economic Forecast Of Grand Rapids, Mi, Zachary Fillmore

Honors Projects

The purpose of this report is to analyze the current state of the Grand Rapids, MI economy, as well as provide a ten-year forecast of the city’s economic condition. Economic forecasting is the process of predicting the future condition of an economy using the combination of several indicators. The indicators being used for this report will include population growth, economic production, wages, industry specific production trends, unemployment rates, home values, occupancy rates, rent forecasts, education, and tourism. From intensive research and data analysis, a snapshot of the economic condition of Grand Rapids in ten years will be displayed. Additionally, several …