Business Commons^™

Essays On Consumer Returns And Environmental Sustainability In Operations Management, Aditya Balaram

Theses and Dissertations

Consumer returns and environmental sustainability greatly impact the operational decisions that firms make. Focusing on consumer returns, lenient return policies aid consumers with resolving uncertainty but impose additional reverse logistics costs on retailers. The current retail landscape has largely eliminated the possibility of offering more stringent return policies since consumers have come to expect such policies as a given. This has driven retailers to look for innovative solutions while still offering costly free return policies. With respect to environmental sustainability, a number of operational decisions have been examined in the academic literature. These have ranged all the way from examining …

Arousing Motives Or Eliciting Stories? On The Role Of Pictures In A Picture–Story Exercise, Philipp Schäpers, Stefan Krumm, Filip Lievens, Nikola Stenzel

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Picture–story exercises (PSE) form a popular measurement approach that has been widely used for the assessment of implicit motives. However, current theorizing offers two diverging perspectives on the role of pictures in PSEs: either to elicit stories or to arouse motives. In the current study, we tested these perspectives in an experimental design. We administered a PSE either with or without pictures. Results from N = 281 participants revealed that the experimental manipulation had a medium to large effect for the affiliation and power motive domains, but no effect for the achievement motive domain. We conclude that the herein chosen …

Employability Of The Graduates From 14 Cfr Part 147 Schools: Understanding The Critical Factors Using Covariance-Based Sem, Christine T. Kelley

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Certified aviation mechanics are crucial to maintaining a healthy aviation industry in the United States. To fulfill this need, 14 CFR Part 147 aviation mechanic schools educate students under the supervision of the FAA. Though the demand for mechanics is projected to increase over the next 20 years, the supply is not expected to meet this demand. Therefore, the research discussed in this paper addressed this potential deficiency by asking two research questions. The first related to the factors students feel affect their employability, and the second was used to analyze whether the students learned these skills at school or …

An Investigation Into The Economic Useful Life Of Commercial Aircraft As Impacted By Maintenance And Economic Variables, Robert Gallagher

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

This research involved examining the economic useful life of commercial aircraft and the impact of maintenance and economic variables on the viability and longevity of the asset. The data sample consisted of the entire population of Boeing commercial aircraft produced between 1956 and 2021. The objective was to determine the effect of both maintenance and economic variables on the longevity and usefulness of commercial aircraft. As manufacturers work with issues such as service life, economic life, safety, and critical design features, those in the aviation community focus on the operational side of the equation––how long can one operate the asset, …

Patagonia’S Identity: Balancing Mission And Growth, Grace Clausen, Michael Kelly, Brysen Reeser, Liam Seper, Andy Zhang

B-Corp Case Studies by UNL Raikes Seniors

This case study examines the challenges Patagonia has faced in attempting to balance its mission of sustainability and company growth. Since its inception, Patagonia has been dedicated to environmentalism and sustainability. They demonstrate this dedication through numerous ways including donating to environmental groups, using recycled materials to make their products, and implementing renewable energy in their production practices. However, as the company has scaled, it has made decisions to meet the needs of its growing customer base and increasing demand, which has led to conflicts with its mission. Additionally, Patagonia’s hard stance on sustainability puts every action they take under …

Athleta B Corporation Case Study, Megan Chaffey, Vivian Jacobitz, Ariel Levi, Leah Olson, Nicole Serpico

B-Corp Case Studies by UNL Raikes Seniors

As a B Corporation, Athleta has the unique challenge of identifying a competitive strategy that will guide the company to success in the highly competitive athleisure market while also remaining consistent with its mission, vision, and values and supporting its parent company, Gap Inc. This case study was developed to evaluate this challenge through internal and external analysis of the company and to encourage readers to consider Athleta’s future priorities as the company undergoes changes in strategic leadership. The case study begins with a brief overview of the competitive landscape of the Athleisure market and a review of the history …

The Effect Of Social Skills On Analyst Performance, Cong Cong Li, An-Ping Lin, Hai Lu

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Social skills are important but difficult to measure. So far, few empirical studies have examined the effect of social skills on the performance of professionals. Using the number of LinkedIn connections as a proxy for social skills, we investigate the effect of financial analysts' social skills on their performance. We use multiple ways to validate the measure of social skills and show that analysts with better social skills produce more accurate earnings forecasts and that their stock recommendations elicit stronger market reactions. Furthermore, these socially skilled analysts are more likely to be voted as All-Star Analysts. This study provides the …

Covid Time: How Quarantine Affects Feelings Of Elapsed Time, Minju Han, Guy Voichek, Gal Zauberman

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The lockdowns imposed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic abruptly upended people's lives and daily structure. In this survey of 1,506 Americans conducted in June 2020, we test how quarantine affects feelings of elapsed time (the subjective temporal distance from an event). We find that feelings of elapsed time are determined either by how people spent their time in quarantine or by how much time since an event was spent in quarantine, depending on whether people are still in quarantine at the time of evaluation. Specifically, whether people quarantined alone and the extent to which they maintained a temporal structure …

Engaging Students Through Conversational Chatbots And Digital Content: A Climate Action Perspective, Thomas Menkhoff, Benjamin Gan

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

In this case study, we report experiences developing a conversational chatbot as a pre-class and post-class engagement tool for undergraduate students enrolled in sustainability-related courses aimed at educating them about the severity of climate change and the importance of climate action by offsetting one’s carbon footprint (e.g, by planting trees or mangroves in SEA). The intitiative supports the university’s sustainability efforts in general and our new sustainability major in particular aimed at helping students to achieve sustainability-related learning outcomes with reference to climate change and climate action (SDG 13), one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals established by the United …

Knowledge, Skills, And Workforce Development: Commentary On Ackerman, Frederick L. Oswald, Karyssa A. Courey, Zihan Liu

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Ackerman (2023) proposed incorporating a more comprehensive range of knowledge and skills into the conceptualization and operationalization of intelligence beyond traditional assessments. In agreeing with and extending this proposition, the current commentary focuses on the specific context of workforce development and highlights three critical considerations: (a) the development of knowledge and skills at different life stages of education and work, (b) the role of social contexts in knowledge and skill acquisition, and (c) quantitative and qualitative approaches to understanding and assessing a broader set of knowledge and skills in light of ongoing changes in the workplace. Overall, we encourage greater …

Multinational Family Firms’ Internationalization Depth And Breadth Following The Global Financial Crisis, Sebastian P. L. Fourné, Miriam Zschoche, Christian Schwens, Reddi Kotha

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This study examines how large family firms react to a macroeconomic shock in terms of their internationalization depth and breadth. Building on new internalization theory and acknowledging the dysfunctional manifestations of bifurcation bias in large family-owned MNEs, we argue that an unexpected shock induces family firms to recombine their family firm-specific resources with their thus far underutilized or unequally treated nonfamily resources. This recombination allows most family firms to economize on bifurcation bias and leverage their resources as firm-specific advantages (FSAs) resulting in an increased depth and breadth of internationalization post shock (while some of them may continue to suffer …

Liquidity Constraints, Consumption, And Debt Repayment: Evidence From Macroprudential Policy In Turkey, Sumit Agarwal, Muris Hadzic, Changcheng Song, Yildirim Yildiray

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Using account-level credit card data from a large Turkish bank, we study the impact of a unique credit card policy that increases minimum payment on consumption and debt repayment. We show that the policy reduces credit card spending and debt, boosts existing debt repayment, and reduces credit card delinquency. The credit card debt of affected consumers falls on average by 50% two years into the policy’s implementation. An increase in minimum payment has a stronger effect than does a decrease of a similar magnitude. We build a benchmark life cycle model with soft liquidity constraint to explain the reduction in …

What Do Americans Think About Federal Tax Options To Support Transportation? Results From Year Thirteen Of A National Survey, Asha Weinstein Agrawal, Hilary Nixon

Mineta Transportation Institute

This report summarizes the results from the thirteenth year of a national public opinion survey asking U.S. adults questions related to their views on federal transportation taxes. A nationally-representative sample of 2,620 respondents completed the online survey from January 31 to March 10, 2022. The questions test public opinions about raising the federal gas tax rate, replacing the federal gas tax with a new mileage fee, and imposing a mileage fee just on commercial travel. In addition to asking directly about support for these tax options, the survey collected data on respondents’ views on the quality of their local transportation …

Code Will Tell: Visual Identification Of Ponzi Schemes On Ethereum, Xiaolin Wen, Kim Siang Yeo, Yong Wang, Ling Cheng, Feida Zhu, Min Zhu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Ethereum has become a popular blockchain with smart contracts for investors nowadays. Due to the decentralization and anonymity of Ethereum, Ponzi schemes have been easily deployed and caused significant losses to investors. However, there are still no explainable and effective methods to help investors easily identify Ponzi schemes and validate whether a smart contract is actually a Ponzi scheme. To fill the research gap, we propose PonziLens, a novel visualization approach to help investors achieve early identification of Ponzi schemes by investigating the operation codes of smart contracts. Specifically, we conduct symbolic execution of opcode and extract the control flow …

Development Of Modeling Tools To Determine The Effects Of Customer Diversification On Customer Lifetime Value Volatility In Higher Education, Oscar Neal

Dissertations

As societies become increasingly global the competition for customers continues to increase. In competitive markets, it is important to identify a process to acquire and retain the most profitable customers. To discriminate customers, it is important to understand the value different customers bring to an organization. Much research has been done modeling customer value using customer lifetime value, however, there is limited research on the effect current customer diversity has on future customer lifetime value of future customer portfolios.

In this dissertation, a Lifetime Value Model considering the interaction between customer diversity, revenue management, and customer lifetime value in an …

Informational Justice And Employee Knowledge Hiding Behaviours: Mediation Of Organizational Identification And Moderation Of Justice Sensitivity, Guang Xu, Ying Huang, Songshan (Sam) Huang

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Purpose: This study examines the effects of information justice on employee knowledge hiding via the mediation of organizational identification, and further investigates how justice sensitivity moderates these effects. Design/methodology/approach: Data were collected through a questionnaire survey with 250 working individuals in China. Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to test the validity and reliability of the construct measurement. Regression analyses were then used for hypothesis tests. Findings: Informational justice is negatively associated with evasive hiding and playing dumb behaviours but positively associated with rationalized hiding behaviour through the mediation of organizational identification. In addition, justice sensitivity moderates the relationship between informational …

Analyzing The Impact Of Salary Discrepancies Between Professional Sports Organizations, Benjamin R. Garner

Senior Theses

While it has long been theorized by sports fans that an organization’s salary influences the success of the team, this thesis will look to examine if the supposed correlation is accurate. This thesis compiles existing research regarding current salary cap systems in American professional sports leagues and examines league-wide methods employed to maintain competitive balance. The discussion then shifts to consider the additional governing factors that determine organizational success, such as team cohesion, the rise in international players, and the increased player movement via free agency. The research then shifts to examine two specific professional sports leagues: Major League Baseball …

Bm-01 Marketing Research Tutoring Center, Roger Brian Herrera, Zachary Jennings, Shamarion C. Tubbs, Christina A. King-Johnson

SC Upstate Research Symposium

Marketing Research Tutoring Center

Spartanburg Methodist College is interesting in determining the perceived effectiveness of their tutoring center from both the students and faculty perspectives. There is a focus on ude the integration of drop-in tutoring, commuter culture and involvement, invested time results, students with time conflicts, and Intelligent Tutoring Systems.

Altogether, these subjects represent attributing factors that can help better understand the research question: Are there any issues that exist with our tutoring center that need to be addressed to increase attendance? For instance, with topics such as drop-in tutoring it was stated that attendance rates were increased and …

Bm-02 Spartanburg Methodist College: Evaluation Of Classroom Space Efficiency, Kahleag D. Terry, Drake A. Taber, Christina King-Johnson

SC Upstate Research Symposium

Spartanburg Methodist College: Evaluation of Classroom Space Efficiency

In 2019, Spartanburg Methodist College converted from a two-year to a four-year institution. As the college grows, more classrooms are needed to satisfy the course requirements for students. A research study was conducted to answer the following question: What is the best option to implement additional class times/locations for traditional undergraduate students for both student and faculty.

Through out the semester, the student researchers analyzed various types of data address the problems of space and later class time allocation opportunities. An evaluation of the last eight semesters class location and times were …

The Dark Side Of Leadership: Mid-Level Managers And Their Experience With Hubristic Behaviors Of Executives, Leili Sadaghiani

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of the study is to identify the emotional reactions of mid-level managers to executives’ hubris behaviors in a corporate setting.

Methodology: This leadership study uses qualitative phenomenological methodology was executed to explore the lived experiences of mid-level managers with past executives who practiced hubristic behavior.

Findings: The findings of this research on the lived experiences of mid-level managers with hubristic behaviors of executives suggest that the lack of support lessens the mid-level manager’s confidence; with little support; the mid-level manager was either afraid to fight the executive or gave up trying; the mid-level manager faced stress even …

Power Dressing And Its Importance In Modern Democracy, Mansiben R. Patel, Dr. Catherine Amoroso Leslie

Undergraduate Research Journal for the Human Sciences

This research aimed to study the significance of Power Dressing in a modern democracy, by exploring the dynamics of clothing concerning the power it portrays for women holding influential positions in public office in a variety of countries throughout the world. This research accomplished its motive by collecting, reviewing, and analyzing scholarly articles, academic journals, newspapers, and current events which formed the foundation for data collection using a survey developed by the researchers. The analysis provided a platform for procuring knowledge of the association between Fashion and Politics, the concept of Women’s Power Dressing, and its significance in a modern …

Does Management Education Need A Facelift? The Intersection Of Managing, Leading, And Coaching. Part Iii, Maureen L. Mackenzie Ph.D.

Business: Faculty Presentations

This paper continues the multi-phase exploration of management education, the growing profession of executive coaching, and its value to workplace preparation. It is the third in a series of five papers dedicated to this exploration. Part III summarizes the knowledge presented in both Part I and Part II. Part I included a literature review and discussion as to who defines premier business education, the growing profession of executive coaching, and higher education’s responsibility to relevant workforce preparation. It set the stage for the multi-phase research plan focused on three sets of stakeholders: senior leaders/employers, business faculty, and MBA graduates. Part …

Please Don’T Label Me: An Examination Of Black-Owned Labels And How A Positive Consumer Activism Movement May Have A Negative Outcome, Khalia C. Jenkins

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Covid-19 crisis that began in 2020 brought to light many societal issues as people had time to sit and reflect. One of these issues is the systemic injustices against African Americans, which were highlighted after the death of George Floyd. This event re-ignited the Black Lives Matter movement amongst U.S. citizens of all races and within corporations. While some companies pledged to donate to various Black causes, others opted to empower Black businesses economically by supporting the Buy-Black Movement. One of the ways they are accomplishing this goal is by adding a Black-owned label to products and businesses. While …

Turmoil In The Workforce: Introduction Of The Nomadic Employee, Catrina Hopkins

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This phenomenological study is designed to define a “nomadic employee,” a figure who has emerged in the ever-changing labor force, and to define what drives these workers to move between companies within a short period of time (generally within a 12-month period). These nomadic employees are driving higher turnover rates and causing rising onboarding costs. Relationships between employees and their employers have changed drastically in recent decades. Business concepts have evolved, and, thus, so have employee motivations. With the introduction of the millennial generation into the workforce and the emergence of the technology revolution, workforces have transformed, again establishing the …

Attention-Grabbing Tactics On Social Media, Arjun Kadian

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

News posts are popular among social media users. Since news reading is critical for both social media platforms and news providers, the use of attention-grabbing tactics, such as hyperbole and expressed emotional arousal, is commonplace to increase news readership. However, there is scant empirical evidence to explain the impact of attention-grabbing tactics on social media users’ reading intentions and behavior in social media. Therefore, I first explore how and why the use of hyperbolic statements in news headlines influences users’ interest and intention to read the news. Drawing on expectation violation theory, I propose competing hypotheses. I conducted three experiments …

The “Unseen” Tourism: Travel Experience Of People With Visual Impairment, Guanghui Qiao, Hanqi Song, Bruce Prideaux, Songshan (Sam) Huang

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

The World Health Organization has estimated that globally, over 2.2 billion people live with some form of visual impairment. However, research into the tourism experiences of this large group of people remains limited. This paper employs embodiment theory and sensory compensation theory to examine aspects of the tourism experience from the perspective of visually impaired tourists. The analysis was based on travel notes written by Chinese visually impaired tourists. Seven unique types of tourism experience were identified including “Sensory Compensation” and “Barrier-free experiences”. The findings highlight opportunities to build a more comprehensive understanding of the tourism experiences of visually impaired …

Remembering Wenonah: Colonialism And The Power Of Representation, Adam Gaffey, Monica De Grazia, Iyekiyapiwiƞ Darlene St. Clair, Jill Ahlberg Yohe

CLASP Lecture Series

This panel explores how the lover’s leap narrative and its representation of Native American figures has been used to forge distinctive visions of public memory both in and beyond Winona, Minnesota. For most, details of the lover’s leap are reduced to Wenonah’s fatal action, specifically how she protested her family’s rigid customs of arranged marriage by jumping to her death from a bluff atop the Mississippi River. The goal of this panel is to offer a fuller account of the purposes this story has served in popular memory and the implications of its persistence for different audiences, past and present. …

The Effect Of Magnet Hospitals On Nursing Burnout, Jonathan Settle, Michael Davis, Eric Pulice, Alberto Coustasse

Management Faculty Research

Introduction:

The World Health Organization [2019] defined burnout as a syndrome caused by chronic job stressors that are not successfully managed, characterized by exhaustion, depersonalization, job detachment, and feelings of inadequacy (WHO, 2019). According to Murthy [2022], the nursing burnout crisis was underway before COVID-19. Nurse burnout recognized pre-COVID-19 was due to systemic organizational problems such as inadequate organizational support and underinvestment in public health (Murthy, 2022).

A 2022 survey of 2500 nurses exhibited increased rates of burnout during the pandemic, with 75% of respondents experiencing burnout, while 65% of those surveyed expressed their desire to leave the healthcare field …

Effects Of The Needle Exchange Program And Its Current Status In West Virginia, Thomas Norton, Amber Graves, Anthony Uriarte, Katherine Duty, Alberto Coustasse

Management Faculty Research

Excerpt:

One of the main problems that have impacted the state of healthcare in West Virginia has been the rising costs of treatments for bloodborne infections (Bates et al., 2019). Bloodborne pathogens and their resulting diseases have commonly spread by exchanging contaminated needles (Denault & Gardner, 2021). In West Virginia, Needle Exchange Programs (NEPs) have been implemented to reduce the transmission of certain infections, such as HIV, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C, which have been more common among drug users (Beck & Kersey, 2018). In 2015, West Virginia had the second-highest rate of cases of hepatitis C Virus (HCV) in …

دور السياسة المالية في تحقيق التوازن الداخلي في العراق بعد 2003, علي جابر عبد الحسين, حوراء حاكم حسن

Muthanna Journal of Administrative and Economics Sciences

واجه الاقتصاد العراقي العديد من المشاكل والاختلالات الاقتصادية على المستوى الداخلي ، الأمر الذي أدى إلى تعثر جهود التنمية وتراجع مؤشرات الأداء الاقتصادي,ولذلك سعت الدولة بعد2003 الى تحقيق مستوى من التوازن الاقتصادي وذلك بفضل الصدمات التي تحصل في اسعار النفط الخام. باستعمال آلية محددة وان عدم التوازن داخليا نتيجة تزايد الإنفاق العام غير المبرر اقتصاديا من حيث طبيعة القنوات التي يتوزع فيها الإنفاق العام ونتيجة نهج الذي يعتمد الية السوق بما ينطوي عمى تغيير دور الدولة الاقتصادي من دور انمائي الى دور تصحيحي تكون السياسة المالية والسياسة النقدية جزأ مهما في هذا الدور عبر إلغاء الدعم الحكومي أزله والقيود عن …