Business Commons^™

John Deere Construction Equipment - Strategic Audit, Michael Pallesen

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

John Deere construction equipment is an operating segment of the equipment manufacturing giant John Deere Corporation. The company is considered the second largest construction equipment manufacturer in the world. This report seeks to understand the operating environment of John Deere’s construction equipment manufacturing segment, its resources, its competitive advantages, and its future challenges. This analysis uses both PESTEL and Porter’s Five Forces analyses to evaluate the external environment. Additionally, strategic recommendations and explanations are offered into how John Deere can effectively navigate the challenges facing the construction equipment manufacturing industry in the near future.

Lululemon Athletica Inc. Backhaul Strategic Audit, Hadley Hiatt

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Lululemon Athletica Inc. (Lululemon) is an athletic apparel company headquartered in Canada. Lululemon targets consumers who strive to live a healthy, active lifestyle. Its business model is based on the “Power of Three x 2” focusing on three strategic pillars, product innovation, guest experience, and international expansion. This analysis seeks to understand Lululemon’s face paced growth and unique business strategy through the use of a PESTEL analysis of macro environment, Porter’s Five Forces analysis of the competitive environment of the industry, analyzing the company’s strategy, major strategic objectives, competitive advantages, resources that may lead to a sustainable competitive advantage, and …

Tesla Energy Division Strategic Audit, Kaleb Strawhecker

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Tesla’s electric vehicle manufacturing operation is the major revenue source for the company. Tesla has established itself as a significant player amongst other automotive manufacturers, specifically in the electric vehicle sector. Many trends are favoring Tesla’s expansion. This audit takes a look at trends and changes through a PESTEL analysis along with Porter’s Five Forces. Both provide an in-depth look into what the environment around Tesla is like. Then, these are used to evaluate Tesla’s major strategies, competitive advantages, and resources it has at its disposal. Finally, the audit will address how the factors allow Tesla to take advantage of …

Lululemon Athletica Strategic Audit, Nolan T. Rinn

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Lululemon Athletica Inc. (Lululemon) is principally a designer, distributor, and retailer of technical athletic apparel, footwear, and accessories with a vision to create transformative products and experiences that build meaningful connections, unlocking greater possibility and wellbeing for all (Lululemon). This paper will examine Lululemon to understand its market position and competitiveness within the athletic apparel industry. The analysis uses PESTEL and Porter’s Five Forces analyses to evaluate the changing external environment and industry Lululemon operates in.

Diageo Strategic Audit: A Deep Dive Into The Management Strategies Of Diageo, Hailey Hoogers, Maria Alessandro, Joel Myers, Abigail Grimm, Harrison Gates

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Diageo is a multinational premium drink producer and supplier with over 200 brands and sales in over 180 countries. A conglomerate since its founding, Diageo controls and operates some of the world’s well-known and loved drinks, like Guinness, Johnnie Walker, Smirnoff, Bailey’s, Captain Morgan, and Crown Royal. The firm is an industry leader in consumer insight, innovation and creativity, and sustainability efforts. Diageo believes pursuing sustainability, efficiency, and positive drinking allows them to compete, now and in the future. This audit analyzes the history, leadership, business model, mission, external environment, internal environment, core competencies, recent performance, competitive dynamics, business level …

Campus-Level Teacher Turnover In Texas Public Elementary Schools: An Examination Of The Impact Of Leadership Factors And School Demographics Using Heirarchical Linear Modeling, Amy Welch Baskin

Human Resource Development Theses and Dissertations

The 2022 Texas Teacher Survey conducted by the Charles Butt Foundation reported that in the past year 77% of public school teachers in Texas considered leaving their positions or the teaching profession, an increase of 19% since 2020. A secondary finding was that the presence or absence of administrative support was a key factor in the decision making about whether to leave. Teachers are the backbone of the U.S. education system which exists to educate future generations of citizens and leaders, and the teacher–student relationship is one of the most important school-related factors to student learning and success (Ronfeldt et …

Simulation Modeling For Robust And Just Public Policy Decision-Making, Jack Mitcham

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Public policy decision-making is challenging for several reasons. First, the outcomes of pulling a public policy lever are often deeply uncertain because of the complexity of the social and physical systems involved. Second, even if outcomes can be predicted, there are multiple points of view to consider, and the same outcome can be viewed anywhere from very positively to very negatively by different stakeholders. Because of this, public policy decisions should be both robust and just. Robustness helps with the uncertainty in outcomes and justice helps with differences in worldview. In this dissertation, I employ system dynamics and agent-based simulation …

Benefit To It Enterprises: Using Scrum Framework, Mary Piecewicz, Wenxing Wang

School of Professional Studies

No abstract provided.

Case Study: National Employment Service Implementation Project Analysis, Muzaffar Kosimov

School of Professional Studies

No abstract provided.

A Guide To The Advancement Of Leadership Post Covid, Kelly Grace Dolan

School of Professional Studies

No abstract provided.

Worcester's Changing Media Landscape And Political Participation, Claire M. Robbins

School of Professional Studies

No abstract provided.

The Sec Revolving Door And Comment Letters, Michael Shen, Samuel T. Tan

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Government officials, advocacy groups, and the business press have raised concerns that former SEC employees may continue to influence the SEC after leaving the agency. Using hand-collected data on the characteristics of 1,384 lawyers who represented firms in responding to SEC comment letters between 2005 and 2016, we examine the impact of post-revolving SEC employees on the SEC comment letter process. Among other determinants, we find that older and larger firms with a history of litigation are more likely to hire former SEC lawyers over non-SEC lawyers. Relative to firms that involve only non-SEC lawyers, we find that firms that …

Smart Vending Machines: The Minimarts In The Near Future?, Ramaswami, S.

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

In a commentary, SMU Associate Professor of Marketing (Education) Seshan Ramaswami discussed how the vending machine has stood the test of time even as e-commerce shook the retail industry. He noted the advantages of the vending machine and how it could be an alternative to a brick-and-mortar store and become the minimart of the future. Assoc Prof Ramaswami believes vending machines could get smarter and better as companies have begun using artificial intelligence to build smart vending machines to provide more personalised and interactive features for customers.

Algorithms, Leadership, And Morality: Why A Mere Human Effect Drives The Preference For Human Over Algorithmic Leadership, Jack Mcguire, David De Cremer

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Algorithms are increasingly making decisions in organizations that carry moral consequences and such decisions are considered to be ordinarily made by leaders. An important consideration to be made by organizations is therefore whether adopting algorithms in this domain will be accepted by employees and whether this practice will harm their reputation. Considering this emergent phenomenon, we set out to examine employees’ perceptions about (a) algorithmic decision-making systems employed to occupy leadership roles and make moral decisions in organizations, and (b) the reputation of organizations that employ such systems. Furthermore, we examine the extent to which the decision agent needs to …

2023-05-00 Newsletter, Morehead State University. Staff Congress.

Staff Congress Records

Staff Congress newsletter from May of 2023.

Learning-Based Stock Trending Prediction By Incorporating Technical Indicators And Social Media Sentiment, Zhaoxia Wang, Zhenda Hu, Fang Li, Seng-Beng Ho, Erik Cambria

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Stock trending prediction is a challenging task due to its dynamic and nonlinear characteristics. With the development of social platform and artificial intelligence (AI), incorporating timely news and social media information into stock trending models becomes possible. However, most of the existing works focus on classification or regression problems when predicting stock market trending without fully considering the effects of different influence factors in different phases. To address this gap, this research solves stock trending prediction problem utilizing both technical indicators and sentiments of the social media text as influence factors in different situations. A 3-phase hybrid model is proposed …

Factors That Affect The Motivation And Satisfaction Of Emiratis Workforce In Critical And Key Positions: The Case Of The Uae Media Sector, Afra Sulaiman Al Mheiri

Dissertations

With the economic boom of the UAE in recent years, the country has seen a major change in terms of employment of Emiratis and expatriates and influx of foreign job-seekers into UAE market. Despite the federal government's continued efforts to promote Emiratization and create a favourable business environment that attracts Emirati job-seekers, a slight improvement in the employment situation of Emirati workers, especially in key positions in private media sector. Although the UAE media sector plays a key role in reshaping the sociocultural landscape and is used as a soft tool of public diplomacy, it is slow in achieving Emiratization …

Two Essays On Industry Tournament Incentives, Sarah Almisher

Theses and Dissertations in Business Administration

A large body of literature has developed on the disparities in compensation among chief executive officers. Financial media has highlighted the fact that CEOs in the United States receive excessive pay and that the gap among executive compensation is soaring. High compensation creates incentives for CEOs to take higher risk in firm policies to land a more attractive position managing another firm and attaining higher pay which is considered the ultimate prize (Kale, Reis, and Venkateswaran 2009; Coles, Daniel, and Naveen 2006). This creates a tournament in the managerial labor market. We define this tournament as the pay differential between …

Quality Determinates Of Rice Price In Open Bag Markets In Sub-Saharan Africa, Bailey Peterson-Wilhelm, Lawton Nalley, Alvaro Durand-Morat, Aaron Shew, Francis Tsiboe, Willy Mulimbi

Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness Faculty Publications and Presentations

Purpose

Weaknesses in the grades and standards system in low-income countries across Sub-Saharan Africa undermine the transparency of agricultural markets. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Ghana and Mozambique rice is predominately sold in open bags and if rice price does not reflect its quality, then inefficiencies may lead to consumer welfare losses. Importantly, it is possible that impoverished communities are priced out of the market due to inflated and inefficient prices. The objective of this study is to examine determinates of rice price by estimating the impact of selected rice quality attributes on rice prices in Democratic …

Peers And The Choice Of Irrigation Practices In The Arkansas Delta, Kent Kovacs, Christopher Henry, Qiuqiong Huang, Larry Jason Krutz

Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness Faculty Publications and Presentations

There are a range of demographic, climatic, and economic factors that influence the use of irrigation practices, along with the effect of peers and Extension agents on agricultural technologies. This research was conducted to determine how a peer's use of multiple irrigation practices influences the use of common irrigation practices in the Delta region of Arkansas. Using data from a producer survey conducted by telephone in 2015, we identify the determinants of the use and the share of an irrigated farm with five common irrigation practices in the Arkansas Delta. The role of peers for irrigation practice use depends on …

The Role Of Organizational Support In The Relationship Between Safety Climate And Organizational Outcomes, Lee Chambers

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Organizations employing individuals in high-risk or safety-sensitive occupations (e.g., construction workers, commercial drivers, pilots, and oil rig workers) face the challenge of ensuring their employees’ safety and well-being amidst various hazards and dangerous situations. To address this, cultivating a positive safety climate has been identified as a crucial factor in reducing workplace accidents or injuries. However, despite its importance, the link between safety climate and non-safety outcomes remains underexplored in the literature. In response, this study proposed a model based on social exchange theory, which highlights the crucial role of organizational support in explaining the relationship between safety climate and …

Accounting And Financial Statements Auto Analysis System, Zhen Jia

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This project was motivated by the need to revolutionize the generation of financial statements and financial analysis process thus speeding up business decision making. The research questions were: 1) How can machine learning increase the speed of financial statement preparation and automate financial statements analysis? 2) How can businesses balance the benefits of automating financial analysis with potential concerns around privacy, data security, and bias? 3) Can the Java J2EE framework provide a reliable running environment for machine learning?

The findings were: 1) Machine learning can significantly increase the accuracy and speed of financial analysis. Using machine learning algorithms, financial …

Exploring Antecedents Of Generation Y And Z Customers’ Intention To Adopt Cryptocurrency Payments In The Context Of Hotels: A Sequential Mixed-Methods Study, Jehun Moon

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Cryptocurrency payments (CPs) are an innovative technology that can disrupt the hospitality industry. However, studies on the antecedents of CP adoption are scarce. To bridge this gap, this study targeted Gen Y and Z, the potential primary user groups, to explore the determinants of intention to adopt CPs. A mixed-methods approach was used to capture the depth and breadth of understanding of factors that impact Gen Y and Z customers’ CP adoption intentions. Study 1, a qualitative study, was utilized to acquire contextualized components. In parallel, Study 2 used a quantitative approach to validate the proposed research model, which combined …

Exploring The Role Of Soft Skills Amongst African American Women Navigating Barriers To Achieving Corporate Leadership, Latoya Newell Burke

Theses and Dissertations

This study sought to explore the role of soft skills in African American women's ascension to corporate leadership as they navigate and overcome barriers. The disparity of African American women in corporate leadership is longstanding. African American women's corporate American experience is distinct and often fraught with difficulties. In order to overcome the obstacles they encountered while pursuing executive leadership, this study investigated if soft skills were thought to be a crucial skill required. The study fills a gap in research that addresses African American women specifically. Previous studies have addressed the barriers that African American women face in corporate …

Organizational Culture During The Era Of A Black Swan: A Phenomenological Examination Of New Hire Sales Training Within A Medical Diagnostic Company, Maelyn Zweben Lessard

Theses and Dissertations

Traditional sales training in a medical diagnostic organization takes place in multiple locations over the period of many months. New hires attend classes with a set group of other new hire employees establishing a cohort. It is the responsibility of the sales training department and the new hire’s direct supervisor to incorporate training into the organizations culture. This is done by bringing the new hire into the corporate office and, through the months of training, exposing the new hire to leadership, support functions, manufacturing, and multiple departments that will support their job moving forward. COVID-19 created a rapid market increase …

Understanding The Operations And Decision-Making Of Cow-Calf Farmers In Northwest Arkansas, Clayton Weyl

Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness Undergraduate Honors Theses

Societal pressure on farmers has become a more central part of the rhetoric surrounding livestock production. This study includes farmers in the discourse on the rhetoric surrounding climate change via interviews and simulations tailored to their operation. Previous research has addressed regenerative agricultural practices and conditions that influence farmer decision-making, but little research has analyzed decision-making in tandem with environmental practices. The literature reveals that cow-calf producer decision-making is influenced by their reliance on cattle as an income source, and farmers overall choose climate-friendly practices based on their perceptions about climate change. The goal of this research was to gather …

Foreign Ownership Of Agricultural Land In The United States: A Case Study Concerning The 2023 Grassroots Policy And Legislative Landscape, Mary Eichenberger

Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness Undergraduate Honors Theses

Historically, foreign ownership of land in the United States has existed for centuries. Many state laws expressly allow for foreign ownership of agricultural land in their state. However, this study will find that a push to amend these laws has begun in recent years in state and federal legislatures. Grassroots member-focused agricultural organizations, representative of the agricultural community, have also seen a shift in member-developed policy. This shift is toward an attitude of concern and increased oversight of foreign land investment. From the data gathered, it can be inferred that public awareness in the agricultural community is increasing concerning foreign …

Artificial Intelligence Superteams & Augmentation Strategies: Increasing Performance Of High-Functioning Virtual Team Members Via Human Machine Teaming Enhancements, Eric Lawrence Demirjian

Theses and Dissertations

Artificial intelligence (AI) can impact future workforce business operations in extraordinary ways through human-machine teaming. A human-machine teaming revolution will unleash enormous change upon businesses by merging humans and AI. For years, scholars and mainstream thought leaders have argued that firms must embrace AI and human-machine teaming to advance employee performance and deliver a high-performance, cost-effective, comprehensive business strategy (Raisamo, Rakkolainen, Majaranta, Salminen, Rantala, & Farooq, 2019). The era of human inadequacy, human-only teams, and human performance ceilings is disappearing as AI rapidly augments work and teams (Ashley & Sahota, 2019). AI augmentation and human-machine teaming will drive tomorrow’s blended …

Fake News Detection Using Narrative Content And Discourse, Hongmin Kim

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

With the growth of modern technology, we are living in a world where anyone can share news with the tap of a finger. The simplified process of news sharing has brought an inundation of information on the Internet, along with a vast amount of fake news. Researchers have been working to understand the characteristics of fake news, in order to accurately identify them through automated text analysis.

In this thesis, we propose the Narrative Content and Narrative Discourse features brought from the ideas by van Laer et al., Berger et al., and Aleti et al. We performed various experiments including …

Inference For Multiple Utility In Time-Dependent Choice Pairs Under Copula-Based Models, Sasanka Adikari

Mathematics & Statistics Theses & Dissertations

Models for discrete choice experiments (DCE) are frequently used to analyze consumer choices about products and services. A family of DCE, best-worst scaling experiments, offers more in-depth insights into consumer preferences by eliciting a best and worst choice from a set of options, rather than just a single preference. Traditional approaches often assume that choices are mutually exclusive over time, which may not always be the case. This dissertation proposes a novel model for DCE that takes into account the changing nature of consumer choices over time and the priority constraint of transition probabilities. The model introduces a copula combination …