Business Commons^™

The Economics Of Residential Solar Panels: Comparing Tiered And Time Of Use Plans, Prashanth Nyer, Candace Ybarra, Jack B. Broughton

Business Faculty Articles and Research

This case study uses data from a Southern California Edison residential customer on a grandfathered tiered rate plan to investigate 1) whether it is economically beneficial for the customer to switch from a tiered-rate plan to a Time-of-Use (TOU) plan, 2) whether going solar now makes financial sense for new solar customers, 3) what level of usage offset (the percentage of the customer’s annual electricity consumption that is provided by the solar panels) would result in the maximum financial benefit for the customer under each of the many TOU plans, and 4) whether solar customers on TOU plans can save …

An Evaluation Of Sustainability In Consumption: The Behaviors Behind Purchase, Care, And Disposal Of Apparel, Ana La Rosa

Textiles, Merchandising and Fashion Design: Dissertations, Theses, & Student Research

Fashion trend cycles have become increasingly fast-paced and unsustainable due to competition and consumer demand in the apparel sector. Despite having sustainable apparel choices available, consumers seem reluctant to adopt sustainable changes in their consumption habits due in part to the market allure of rapid turnover of goods, better known as ‘Fast Fashion’. Paired with aggressive marketing campaigns that encourage increased consumption beyond need, the apparel industry keeps expanding at alarming rates around the world. Although it has been identified that consumers increasingly care about the unethical behaviors in the industry that negatively impact the environment, this feeling does not …

Building Nonprofit Capacity To Achieve Greater Impact: Lessons From The U.S.-Mexico Border, Meg Loomis, Shirly Thomas, Carla Taylor

The Foundation Review

Foundations often rely on strong relationships with grantees doing frontline work in marginalized communities. Yet these nonprofits typically face myriad financial and policy pressures that must be managed amid increasing need for their services. Helping them expand their impact requires funders to invest in their grantees’ organizational health and capacity.

This article discusses the capacity-building funding experiences of Methodist Healthcare Ministries of South Texas, which saw firsthand the needs of grantees when it partnered with eight community-health organizations through its Sí Texas initiative and, in response, created a $1.5 million capacity-building program for those organizations.

This article also shares the …

Moving Upstream: An Intersectoral Collaboration To Build Sustainable Planning Capacity In Rural And Appalachian Communities, Laura Milazzo, Holly Raffle, Matthew Courser

The Foundation Review

As part of an effort to address health inequities in Appalachian and rural Ohio, the state’s Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services developed an upstream intersectoral health innovation that specifically addressed the lack of infrastructure and other capacity issues that create barriers to obtaining federally funded prevention services among communities with the highest need for those services.

The department partnered with two nonprofit organizations and a university to create a performance-based, stepping-stone investment strategy that provided monetary awards to community organizations and included intensive, customized training and technical assistance that promoted capacity- building for data-driven strategic planning.

This article …

Hvac System Energy Audit For Leverett Elementary School, Connor Smalling

Biological and Agricultural Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Leverett Elementary School is located in Fayetteville, AR. The school needs significant upgrades to its infrastructure. The Fayetteville Public School District has voted to pursue an Energy Services Performance Contract (ESPC) in order to finance the desired upgrades to Leverett Elementary, among other schools in the district.

The scope of this thesis was to perform an energy audit on the existing heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system. By using an energy modeling software, eQuest, the building and the existing base system were modeled to determine utility consumption. Three different HVAC system alternatives were analyzed against the base system by …

B-Line Sustainable Urban Delivery: Can Last-Mile Bicycle Delivery Survive The E-Commerce Minefield?, Madeleine Pullman, Jacen Greene, Wanying Shi, Stephan Kaplan

Business Faculty Publications and Presentations

As the population of cities in the western United States continues to boom, the demand for retail and wholesale food has followed suit. To deal with the accompanying increase in traffic and congestion from population and business growth, the city of Portland planned to increase bikeways and reduce the use of single-occupant vehicles to less than 30% of total commuters by 2026. Despite efforts to decrease dependence on vehicles, traffic congestion in Portland
continued to increase, and traditional vehicle delivery in the urban area became less and less efficient. As ride-sharing services and online retailers increased their presence in the …

Panel 10 Rural Heritage Places In Turkey: Different Contexts | Diverse Issues | Distinct Responses, Ayse Guliz Bilgin Altinoz, Ozgun Ozcakir

ISCCL Scientific Symposia and Annual General Meetings // Symposiums scientifiques et assemblées générales annuelles de l'ISCCL // Simposios científicos yy las Asambleas Generales Anuales

Rural heritage places are social, cultural, economic and natural environments shaped according to the habitat in which they are located. Thus, they are unique places where people and natural environment are in constant interaction. However, rural heritage places in Turkey, face with various problems similar to those in the world such as depopulation, changes in policies for agricultural production and excessive cultural tourism.

In the panel; complex physical, social and economic structure of rural heritage places and the problems that they are faced with today will be discussed with reference to three different villages from different regions of Turkey. The …

Can Luxury Fashion Provide A Roadmap For Sustainability?, Zeynep Ozdamar-Ertekin

Markets, Globalization & Development Review

Fashion industry is one of the prominent industries in the world with critical negative impacts on the social and ecological environments. It constitutes a very complex and fragmented industry. The currently dominant model of "fast fashion," fulfills the desires of consumers who aspire to wear luxury fashion brands but cannot afford them, by offering them similar styles at affordable prices. However, the main principles of fast fashion, which are speed, affordability, change, disposable trends and aesthetic fads, contradict with sustainability goals and principles. Luxury fashion, on the other hand, emphasizes longevity, durability, authenticity, craftsmanship and quality, and can therefore be …

More On The Pressing Global Problems, Socially And Ecologically, Deniz Atik, Nikhilesh Dholakia

Markets, Globalization & Development Review

No abstract provided.

The Financial And Nonfinancial Performance Measures That Drive Utility Abandonments And Transfers In The State Of Florida, Daniel Acheampong

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The down trending of investor-owned water and wastewater utilities and the continuous increase in utility abandonments and transfers within the regulatory environment motivated the study of investor-owned utilities, using samples from the state of Florida. The study determined the financial and nonfinancial drivers of utility andandonments and transfers. Using the NRRI and Acheampong et al. improved financial ratios, used in utility viability studies (liquidity ratio, leverage ratio, debt to equity ratio, profit trend ratio, growth and efficiency ratio, efficiency ratio, and the profitability ratio), the study identified sixteen nonfinancial performance measures under four categories (output measure, quality measures, owners’ equity …

The Role Of Sensemaking And Organizational Identification In Employee Engagement For Sustainability, Kent D. Fairfield

Organization Management Journal

This exploratory study examines how sensemaking and organizational identification occur inside an organization and how they can affect how employees engage in managing for sustainability. Qualitative data suggest a positive effect of organizational identification on support for sustainability goals and actions and, conversely, how individual sustainability actions may in turn increase organizational identification. The findings from interviews of a sample of eight companies reveal many different goals, challenges, and means of seeking sustainability. Analysis points toward the dynamics of cognitive and emotional processing across this diverse sample, suggesting implications for practitioners and further research.

Vertical Farms And The New Green City, Brandon Oliva, Christopher Rontanini, Meryl Rosenblatt

Faculty Works: Business

Urban agriculture, urban farming, or urban gardening is the practice of cultivating, processing and distributing food in or around urban areas. In densely populated regions, urban agriculture offers a new frontier for land use planners and landscape designers to become involved in the development and transformation of cities to support community farms, rooftop gardening, and vertical farms. Vertical farming is an agricultural method of cultivating vegetables that combines the design of building and farms all together in a high-rise building inside the cities. This form of farming can produce food in vertically stacked layers, vertically inclined surfaces and/or integrated in …

An Analysis Of Marketing And Microenterprise: Does Marketing Have An Impact On These Unique Organizations?, Bruce Alan Morgan

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This research study was a qualitative, multiple case study on how the implementation of good marketing techniques impacts the sustainability of microenterprises. This is a replicative extension study of prior research that revealed a theme of “promotional activities” correlating to microenterprise sustainability beyond two years (Haynes, 2017). This research extended the prior study by significantly increasing the number of participants (from six to forty), providing heterogeneity regarding lines of business, expanding to a new geography (the Upstate of South Carolina), focusing exquisitely on marketing techniques (as defined by the classical Marketing Mix), and defining sustainability by using both an accepted …

Toward Fair And Sustainable Capitalism: A Comprehensive Proposal To Help American Workers, Restore Fair Gainsharing Between Employees And Shareholders, And Increase American Competitiveness By Reorienting Our Corporate Governance System Toward Sustainable Long-Term Growth And Encouraging Investments In America’S Future, Leo E. Strine Jr.

All Faculty Scholarship

To promote fair and sustainable capitalism and help business and labor work together to build an American economy that works for all, this paper presents a comprehensive proposal to reform the American corporate governance system by aligning the incentives of those who control large U.S. corporations with the interests of working Americans who must put their hard-earned savings in mutual funds in their 401(k) and 529 plans. The proposal would achieve this through a series of measured, coherent changes to current laws and regulations, including: requiring not just operating companies, but institutional investors, to give appropriate consideration to and make …

Case Study: Tourism In Traditional Brazilian Quilombo Communities – From Theory Into Practice, Carolin Lusby, Thais Pinheiro

Journal of Global Business Insights

This case study discusses an initiative to aid a traditional Quilombo community in the State of Rio de Janeiro through community-based tourism (CBT). Through the Young Leaders of Americas program, a US Department of State funded initiative, the authors worked together in Brazil and the United States to increase visibility, linkages and awareness of this CBT project. The paper highlights how research in the field influenced what specific steps would be taken in practice to increase the benefits of tourism for the community. CBT as a concept is briefly discussed, and a background of Quilombos in Brazil is given.

The Funding Of Start-Up Nonprofits: An Exploration Of Funder Perceptions, Attitudes, And Advice, Christina George

VA Engage Journal

With the rapid expansion of the nonprofit sector, there is approximately 43 percent of nonprofits that are not surviving past five years of operation. As there are many misconceptions about start-up organizations, this may affect their growth and financial viability. A qualitative study was conducted to understand the perception of start-up nonprofit organizations and how that may influence funder giving behaviors. Interviews were administered with three funders of Greater Richmond area foundations and corporations. Five major themes were developed from the findings to include mission alignment, life cycle stages, perception, elimination of bias, and organizational barriers and common mistakes. Funder …

Two Essays On Limiting The Negative Impact Of Product Recalls, Seyyed Amirali Javadinia

Theses and Dissertations

The dissertation is composed of two essays. In the first essay, authors conceptualize recall environment, test its effect on post-recall stock returns and identify the role of recall and product characteristics in moderating this relationship. The authors test their hypotheses on a sample of 90 recall announcements in the automobile industry from 2011 to 2016. The results show that on average, announcing a recall in an intense environment aggravates negative stock returns accruing from the recall. Further, while low reputation brands are mostly prone to this negative impact of recall environment, high reputation brands are less susceptible to this negative …

Crop Planning In Sustainable Agriculture: Dynamic Farmland Allocation In The Presence Of Crop Rotation Benefits, Onur Boyabatli, Javad Nasiry, Yangfang (Helen) Zhou

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This paper examines crop planning decision in sustainable agriculture---that is, how to allocate farmland among multiple crops in each growing season when the crops have rotation benefits across growing seasons. We consider a farmer who periodically allocates the farmland between two crops in the presence of revenue uncertainty where revenue is stochastically larger and farming cost is lower when a crop is grown on rotated farmland (where the other crop was grown in the previous season). We characterize the optimal dynamic farmland allocation policy and perform sensitivity analysis to investigate how revenue uncertainty of each crop affects the farmer's optimal …

Reviewing The Concept Of Green Hrm And It Practices Application ( Green Staffing): A Review From Literature Background And Testing The Prospective Of Construction Sector In Egypt And Uk, Safaa Shaaban

Business Administration

Green HRM has become one of the most critical topics in the Business world and sustainability. Many researchers and studies indicate that environmental green staffing associated strongly with the success of financial and marketplace components. The Green Human resource in green-oriented organisations plays a significant part in shaping the culture of suitability in their organisation. Shaping the practices and applications of the HR with the green view and applications will have an effect on all HR decisions and through all the activity of shareholders viewpoint. Currently, all the work gives more attention to the relationship between GHRM and organisation sustainability. …

How Co-Creation Increases Employee Corporate Social Responsibility And Organizational Engagement: The Moderating Role Of Self-Construal, Bonnie Simpson, Jennifer Robertson, Katherine White

Management and Organizational Studies Publications

This research merges literature from organizational behavior and marketing to garner insight into how organizations can maximize the benefits of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) for enhanced CSR and organizational engagement of employees. Across two field experiments, the authors demonstrate that the effectiveness of employee co-creation activities in increasing employees’ positive CSR perceptions is moderated by self-construal (i.e., whether an individual views the self as relatively independent from or interdependent with others). In particular, the positive effect of co-creation on CSR perceptions emerges only for employees with a salient interdependent self-construal (either measured as an individual difference or experimentally manipulated). Moreover, …

Selling Off-Grid Light To Liquidity Constrained Consumers, Bhavani Shanker Uppari, Ioana Popescu, Serguei Netessine

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Problem definition: A large proportion of the world’s population has no access to electricity and so relies on noxious kerosene for their lighting needs. Solar-based solutions require a large up-front investment and are often unaffordable in this market owing to consumers’ tight liquidity constraints. As an alternative, there are business models relying on rechargeable light bulbs that are sold at a subsidized price (which renders them affordable) and require regular micropayments for recharges (which eases liquidity constraints). These bulbs provide a cheaper and healthier light source than kerosene, yet their adoption is lower than expected, and some consumers continue …

2010 - California Agricultural Vision - Strategies For Sustainability

Miscellaneous Documents and Reports

California is a major contributor to the global food supply and to the national security of the United States. To keep pace with growing demand for food, as the world’s population continues to expand, California agriculture must remain profitable and competitive in a global market by efficiently using resources and controlling production costs. California faces unprecedented challenges to its sustainability in the form of pressures on its profitability and productivity related to water, regulations, labor, invasive species, urbanization and many other factors.

Winning Project: Living The Suite Life: The Implementation Of Environmental Technologies In The Hotel Industry, Avary Huff

2019 Lynn Haggard Undergraduate Library Research Award

This paper explores what techniques can be incorporated into everyday functions of hotel management to create a sustainable environment. Sustainability has become an important objective for businesses to consider and implement in their day-to-day processes. The types of sustainable practices in environmental technologies that are currently being experimented with in the hotel industry that this paper evaluates include LED lights, key-card systems, water restrictors, and paperless systems. LED lights, as well as key-card systems assist in the reduction of energy in guest’ rooms. Water restrictors have also been inserted into the faucets and water heads in guests’ rooms to decrease …

2018 San Diego Regional Climate Collaborative Annual Report, San Diego Regional Climate Collaborative

San Diego Regional Climate Collaborative

The San Diego Regional Climate Collaborative is a network for public agencies that serves the San Diego region to share expertise, leverage resources and advance comprehensive solutions to facilitate climate change planning. By partnering with academia, nonprofits, and businesses, the SDRCC also works to leverage the profile of regional leadership. This is the 2018 San Diego Regional Climate Collaborative Annual Report.

Society Or The Environment? Understanding How Consumers Evaluate Brand Messages About Corporate Social Responsibility Activities, Sara Hanson, Lan Jiang, Jun Ye, Nagesh Murthy

Marketing Faculty Publications

This research examines how and why consumers evaluate brand messages about corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities differently. Insights from secondary data suggest that brands may prioritize environmental activities over social activities, and vice versa, depending on the type of company. Using a field experiment and surveys, we explore whether consumers’ attitudes toward these brand decisions follow company priorities. We find that consumers perceive brands that sell goods and communicate messages about environmental sustainability activities more positively than services companies, while consumers perceive brands that provides services and communicate messages about social sustainability activities more positively than goods companies. We show …

Rural Hospital Health In The United States, Stephanie Cole, Kathleen Lanham

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Introduction: Rural hospitals experienced both challenges and opportunities in providing healthcare to the community. As these facilities were one of the largest employers in the area, their impact was significant. Additionally, accessibility to necessary medical services was essential. Thus, sustainability of rural hospitals was vital. In order to assess sustainability, exploration into financial and quality outcomes could help support their ability to thrive.

Purpose of the Study: The purpose of this study was to determine the sustainability of rural hospitals in the U.S. by examining variables that affect these institutions such as accessibility, availability of services, quality outcomes, and …

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The Sustainable Use Of Natural Resources In Egypt's Ecotourism Hotspots / الاستخدام المستدام للموارد الطبيعية في أماكن جذب السياحة البيئية في مصر, Menna Moataz Elsehrawy, Omneya Nagib Ibrahim, Yara Ali Moustafa, Yousra Osama Taha

Papers, Posters, and Presentations

This paper focuses on ecotourism in Egypt, and its current challenges. Based on the analysis of current policies, different stakeholders, and challenges as well as opportunities within the ecotourism sector, this policy paper --targeting the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency and requiring collaboration from the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism-- provides a set of recommendations.

Challenges And Opportunities For The Development Of River Logistics As A Sustainable Alternative: A Systematic Review, Ademar Vilarinho, Lara Bartocci Liboni, Jane Siegler

Scholarship and Professional Work - Business

In the last decades there has been great concern about sustainability, especially in companies, where the concept of sustainable development is no longer a trend, but a reality. In the logistics field it should not be any different, since it´s importance to the movement of goods and people. This movement is carried out by four transportation modals, road, air, rail and river. The road transportation is widely used in relation to the others, bringing some problems in large urban centers like traffic jams, climate change, pollution, high CO2 emissions, among others. Thus, it is currently a great challenge to make …

Successful Climate Change Strategies In Corporate Farming, Deann Renee Reaves

Journal of Sustainable Social Change

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Centers for Environmental Information (2016), climate-related disasters occurring from 2011 to 2015 caused property damages in excess of US$230 billion—and the agriculture sector incurs some of the largest losses (Hoffmann, 2013). The purpose of this case study was to identify, through an in-depth interview and document review, successful climate-change-based sustainability strategies in a publicly held farming operation. The findings indicated that the farm’s climate-change-based sustainability strategy had basic qualities of corporate social responsibility, triple-bottom-line thinking, and systems thinking. Specific approaches identified were mitigation- and adaptation-oriented approaches. Implications for social change include …