Business Commons^™

The Smartest "Guise" In The Room: Why America Is Doomed To Repeat An Enron-Like Scandal, Shayne Reddington

Honors Theses

There is no question that Enron has brought change to the landscape surrounding business practices both domestically and globally. After the Emon Scandal occurred, Congress passed a very controversial and groundbreaking legislative act known as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act as a means of stopping the conditions that made this widespread scandal possible. There are several reasons why another Emon-type Scandal is prone to repeat itself in the near future. One of the reasons is that Sarbanes-Oxley is not the perfect bill. Although the controversial Sarbanes-Oxley is a valiant effort to reform the environment that fostered Enron, there are major gaps and …

December 2011, Inland Empire Business Journal

Inland Empire Business Journal

Harsh Realities: Five Truths Halting Your Company’s Organic Growth Making a lasting change is usually easier said than done. Most of us spend more time talking about change than actually going through with it. Businesses have just as much difficulty going through with change as individuals and Fired?

How to Sell Yourself When No One is Buying The toughest interview of all is the one you face when you are over 50. The over 50 age group has the highest rate of unemployment today. However, Tucker Mays and Bob Sloane give five important ways the over 50 job seeker can …

Diaspora Bonds: A Viable Source Of External Financing For Nigeria?, Omolara O. Duke

Bullion

The paper examines the need for external funding, arises from the inadequacy of domestic sources of funds to meet supply gaps and balance of payments (BOP) challenges and the potentials of Nigeria sourcing external financing through the issuance of Diaspora bonds. Following this introduction, Section ll reviews conceptual and empirical literature as well as country experiences on Diaspora bonds issuance. Section lll, discusses the bond market in Nigeria. ln Section lV. the prospects and challenges of issuing Diaspora bonds in Nigeria were highlighted. Section V concludes the paper.

Financing Nigeria's Growth After The Global Economic Crisis Within The Perspective Of Vision 20:2020 And The Transformation Agenda, Babatunde Lawal

Economic and Financial Review

The paper adopts content analysis method to investigate the underlying assumptions of the pillar of growth within the framework of Nigeria Vision 20:2020 (NV20:2020) and the transformation agenda. The aim is to show how realistic the underlying assumptions are and whether or not the available structure/measures of the financial system would be sufficient to finance the Vision. The conclusion is that the present Transformation Agenda and indeed the Medium-Term Implementation Plans adequately provide for the financing of NV20:2020 if the provisions of the documents are strictly adhered to.

November 2011, Inland Empire Business Journal

Inland Empire Business Journal

One Question Every Small Business Owner Must Answer — Understanding Your Competitive Advantage Every business owner must be able to answer one very basic question, “Why should a prospective customer buy my product or service rather than a competitor’s?” If the owner cannot answer this question, he or she should probably cut his or her losses and seek alternative employment

The 3 R’s for Dealing With Workplace Bullying Workplace bullying is a pressing problem in today’s workplaces. According to the Workplace Bullying Institute (WBI), 35% of the U.S. workforce report being bullied right now! Danita Johnson Hughes gives some tips …

October 2011, Inland Empire Business Journal

Inland Empire Business Journal

From Social Brand to Social Business Many organizations today are on a quest to become a social brand. They are investing in Facebook applications, branded communities and blogs

The Consequences of Living and Dying Without an Estate Plan Most of us expect that tomorrow will be another day like any other. But, as Euripides said, “No one can confidently say that he will still be living tomorrow.” If you don’t have the proper documents for your estate, the court will make decisions for you and your family

9 Timely Tips for Pre-Presentation Preparation If you ever find yourself invited to …

September 2011, Inland Empire Business Journal

Inland Empire Business Journal

Avoiding Consensus Overload: Seven Tips to Help Leaders Make Thoughtful, Yet Rapid Key Decisions To take advantage of a competitor’s weakness, as a leader, you have to be able to move quickly, and you can’t do that if you spend too much time trying to figure out what every last person on the team thinks

How to Get the Feedback You Didn’t Want to Hear (But Really Need to Know) There is only one way to find out the key things you are missing in business that could help you get even better results—and that’s by getting feedback

Sick of …

August 2011, Inland Empire Business Journal

Inland Empire Business Journal

How to Say “No” the Right Way People who don’t mind saying no may lack the skills to do it gracefully and often instill hard feelings, even when that is not their intent. For those who have no problem saying no, but need a little guidance, Carl Van gives some tips on saying no more effectively

10 Tips to Optimize Your Email Marketing Campaigns With the multitude of laws, spam filters and confusion over the best method in using emails, Gregg Brown gives 10 tips to help you get the best results from your email marketing campaigns

Can’t Live With …

Does Money Matter? Investigating The Financing Of Emerging Firms, Casey Frid

All Dissertations

In this dissertation I investigate start-up financing by nascent entrepreneurs in the United States between 2005 and 2010. By nascent entrepreneur, I mean individuals who are in the process of creating a new business, but the business itself is not yet affecting prices and quantities in the market. Nearly all research on financing has focused on established firms. Little work, however, has been done on how entrepreneurs acquire and use financial resources during the earliest stages of the firm creation process. The availability of financial resources has been linked to firm growth and survivability, and understanding how entrepreneurs use and …

July 2011, Inland Empire Business Journal

Inland Empire Business Journal

Practice Nets More Benefits for Public Executive ‘Airtime’ allows workers to receive credit toward pension for years they didn’t work

Building Outrage: How Corruption Has Crippled the Construction Industry Stories of corruption should warn every major construction project owner of the dangers of placing millions—and sometimes tens and hundreds of millions—into the hands of companies with very questionable business practices

Resisting the Steve Jobs “Innovation Temptation”; Steps to Creating Great New B2B Products Steve Jobs method of creating products without his customers’ input won’t work for most businesses, especially B2B (business-to-business) suppliers. Dan Adams offers his advice on how you …

June 2011, Inland Empire Business Journal

Inland Empire Business Journal

The Galleano Winery—a National Landmark The Galleano Winery remains much the same from 1927 when the land was first purchased by the Galleano family. It is a national landmark right in our own backyard

Economic Forecast Employment in Riverside/San Bernardino is beginning to show signs of an imminent recovery, per California State University, Long Beach

The Exchange: Four Tips for Having Conflict-Busting Conversations in the Workplace The trick to moving past office conflicts and on to increased productivity in your organization is knowing how to broach the topics in ways that leads to improved working relationships

Getting Organized Doing too …

Feasibility Study For Building A Tasting Room In Napa Valley, Trevor Mitchell

Agribusiness

This study was undertaken to determine if it would be financially feasible for Altamura Winery to build and operate a wine tasting room in Napa Valley over the course of a 30 year period.

This report used a feasibility study to examine the investment of the tasting room.  The study used the cost approach of valuation to value the construction costs.  Then capital budgeting was used as a method to determine if the tasting room should be constructed.  The capital budgeting methods of this study include the use of a cash flow budget, break-even analysis, and a net present value …

Examining Capm In Today's Markets, David R. Knox

Honors Scholar Theses

The purpose of this work is to empirically assess the validity of the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) in terms of how can it model an equity’s return. The goal of this work is not to challenge the theory behind CAPM, nor compare it to alternatives, but simply to test whether or not it is applicable in the real world. This is an exploratory research study: rather than testing a specific hypothesis, my goal is to let the data speak for itself.

The main difficulty with assessing CAPM is that there is no consensus on how much data we ought …

May 2011, Inland Empire Business Journal

Inland Empire Business Journal

How Much Does Depression Cost? Government statistics released in November show that 6.5 percent of U.S. adults suffer from depression

The Engagement Factor: Four Ways to Use Your Customers to Boost Innovation (and Profits!) at Your Company The best way to ensure your company will be a success is to deliver more than your share of customer value

Do We Run Universities as Businesses? CSU System is facing challenges at this time. This means that for CSUSB the budget will be around $18 million less

How to Protect Yourself Against Medicare “Gaps” Every Medigap policy has to follow federal and …

April 2011, Inland Empire Business Journal

Inland Empire Business Journal

Get Hired 2011: Nine Best Practices for Using Social Media to Win Your Dream Job If you’re one of the many Americans today braving the job market, you’ve probably learned that your social media presence can make you or break you. Maribeth Kuzmeski explains how to use your online presence to leave a great impression with potential employers

Regaining Conference Attendance and Maximizing Your Conference Experience Uwe Janssen gives us up-to-date tips in gaining conference attendance seeing the struggle with the decline in conference attendance due to budget cuts, rising travel expenses and concerns over impact to productivity

I Made …

Refund Anticipation Loan, Ann House

All Current Publications

This fact sheet defines a refund anticipation loan and gives the benefits to considering other options.

An Analysis Of Ncaa Enforcement And Its Influence On Conference Bowl Revenue: Does The Punishment Fit The Crime From A Financial Perspective?, Mark Joseph Patterson

Human Movement Studies & Special Education Theses & Dissertations

In 2009, $260 million dollars in bowl game revenue was paid out to Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) schools competing in bowl games (BCS, 201 la). This study examined the relationship between the annual revenue each FBS conference receives from their teams' bowl appearance and various factors impacting this revenue. Specifically, this examination identifies what, if any, impact violations and probation have on conference bowl revenue, and the distribution of that revenue to individual institutions.

The majority of research in this area focuses on individual athletic department success and how variables such as attendance, postseason play and winning percentage can be …

March 2011, Inland Empire Business Journal

Inland Empire Business Journal

The Mommy Trap—Family-Prenup for Financial Insurance Susan Spencer discusses the Jack and Jill Syndrome—mothers who become single parents with no savings, no child support and no career. She suggests that a “family prenup” might be helpful before marriage —insuring the couple’s children have some financial security

Five Ways to Make the Most of the Recovering Economy at Your Company Many economists are saying that the U.S. economy is finally on an uptick. Now that more growth is possible, Dan Adams warns that it’s the time to make sure your company is poised to get its share of the economic recovery …

February 2011, Inland Empire Business Journal

Inland Empire Business Journal

Toward a New American Century Michael Milken believes America can extend pre-eminence on competition from China and other countries if we assume greater responsibility for its common destiny. He gives six areas in particular that provide opportunities for positive change

Create a Mastermind Group That Works for You Joelle Jay outlines six steps of mastermind creation—a small group of dedicated peers who share and support each other through the challenges of life and leadership.

The Future of Your Business is in the Palm of Your Hand—Using the Power of Smartphones to Grow Your Business What started as a must-have device …

Spring Clean Your Financial House, Ann House

All Current Publications

This publication suggests 5 simple steps to reviewing and improving your financial status.

January 2011, Inland Empire Business Journal

Inland Empire Business Journal

We Are the Champions: Seven Tips for Turning Your Customers Into Fans for Life There are tons of ways to win over your customers and create brand loyalists who keep coming back. Maribeth Kuzmeski gives us seven tips and easy-to-implement ideas that will help you turn any customer into a fan for life

The 2010 Execution Round-Up: Companies That Couldn’t “Get It Done” This Year and Those That Did Rick Lepsinger outlines several world-known companies that either could or could not “Get It Done” in 2010 and the lessons learned by their mistakes or accomplishments

The Future of Business Is …

Restoring Transparency To Automated Authority, Frank Pasquale

Faculty Scholarship

Leading finance, health care, and internet firms shroud key operations in secrecy. Our markets, research, and life online are increasingly mediated by institutions that suffer serious transparency deficits. When a private entity grows important enough, it should be subject to transparency requirements that reflect its centrality. The increasing intertwining of governmental, business, and academic entities should provide some leverage for public-spirited appropriators and policymakers to insist on more general openness.

However well an "invisible hand" coordinates economic activity generally, markets depend on reliable information about the practices of core firms that finance, rank, and rate entities in the rest of …

A Financial Impact Assessment Of Ld 1725: Stream Crossings Presentation, New England Environmental Finance Center

Economics and Finance

This report looks at the potential financial impact of LD 1725 on the estimated 30,000 stream crossings in the State of Maine that would be affected by the law. Our research for this report included the analysis of nearly 2000 stream crossings and the data collection necessary for the development of extensive stream crossing replacement cost models. We found that the 1.2 bankfull requirements in LD 1725 would result in a 75% ‐ 250% increase in structure widths for stream crossing projects across the state. An upsize of this magnitude would increase the cost of replacing stream crossings statewide by …

Psychological Correlates Of Investor Risk, John Laurin Vaughn

Theses Digitization Project

The present study explores the efficacy of a standardized psychological test known as Rotter's Internal/External Locus of Control Scale in predicting investor's level of risk aversion.

Lessons From Teaching Undergraduate Finance Online., Martina K. Schmidt

USF St. Petersburg Campus Faculty Publications

With the continuing growth of student enrollment in online courses, teaching classes in an online format is becoming part of life for many educators. Teaching courses online is a challenging task and educators can benefit from the experiences of other educators when preparing for this challenge. The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, it lists some important observations that can help an educator create effective online courses. Second, it describes some insights from teaching online finance courses, specifically. As most academic leaders feel that student learning in online classes is inferior to face-to-face classes, the author also investigates the …

Finance, Fear, And Family: Issues Of Trust And The Common Ground With Terrorist Funding, David M. Cook, Timothy Smith

Australian Counter Terrorism Conference

In the immediate aftermath of al-Qaeda’s September 11 attacks on the United States of America, examinations of terrorist funding focused on the Middle Eastern and South Asian use of Hawala and non-traceable financial transactions. However, whilst the cloaking of identity is certainly a part of criminal activity for funds transfer, there are other factors. South Asia’s community banking norms align far more closely with informal systems that follow centuries-old customs of familial trust rather than reportable record keeping. Tightened restrictions on money movement in the form of identity checks and statements of purpose have coerced more than two hundred million …

The Influence Of Budget Allocation By Function On Student Retention Of Public Community Colleges In The Sixteen States In The Southern Region Education Board, Clayton Clendenin Burton

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Stakeholders of higher education expect a positive return for their investment. One of the measures of success for higher education is persistence; one of the measures of persistence is retention rate. One segment of higher education, community colleges, receives a significant outlay of public resources in terms of government appropriations, student financial aid, and individual investment. This study follows the framework of Ryan (2004) and Gansemer-Topf and Schuh (2006) who successfully created models using the allocation of financial resources to predict graduation and retention rates for four-year colleges. Using data from the U. S. Department of Education’s Integrated Postsecondary Education …

State And Local Governments With Conforming Changes As Of March 1, 2011; Audit And Accounting Guide, American Institute Of Certified Public Accountants (Aicpa)

Industry Guides (AAGs), Risk Alerts, and Checklists

No abstract provided.

Government Auditing Standards And Circular A-133 Developments - 2011; Audit Risk Alerts, American Institute Of Certified Public Accountants (Aicpa)

Industry Guides (AAGs), Risk Alerts, and Checklists

No abstract provided.

Government Auditing Standards And Circular A-133 Audits, With Conforming Changes As Of April 1, 2011; Audit And Accounting Guide, American Institute Of Certified Public Accountants. Single Audit Working Group

Industry Guides (AAGs), Risk Alerts, and Checklists

No abstract provided.