Business Commons^™

Journey To The Dragon's Gate: A Study Of Hybrid Ride Systems And How They Enhance Attraction Storytelling, Matthew Moore

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

The purpose of this thesis is to explore a new type of ride design which integrates one or more transitions between formats. Theme Park visitors have come to expect a certain type of immersive experience from attractions. Most rides in the parks are very predictable such as roller coasters which offer loops, drops, speed and quick turns, while dark rides offer a slower pace with the attention on storytelling. The solution to this situation is to combine two ride systems or more into a single ride. The ride system for my attraction begins with a free-floating boat ride navigating its …

Theme Park Queues As Diegetic Worlds: Using Star Wars: Rise Of The Resistance As A Case Study For Core Design Elements, Jordan Zauha

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

This thesis seeks to establish core design elements for use by theme park designers to complement the guidelines established by Ledbetter and his colleagues for theme parks. Building upon Rose Biggin's "strands of enquiry" for examining immersive theatre, the suggested core design elements for immersive theme park queues serve as guidance to craft queues where audiences can actively engage with the queue's storyworld and narrative. Implementation of the core design elements alongside the already established queue design guidelines should assist designers in crafting queues that minimize discomfort and maximize narrative immersion. Theme parks offer location-based narrative landscapes, often contributing to …

Two Essays On The Evolution And Role Of Short Selling Activity In Financial Markets, Wanxi Zhao

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

My dissertation studies the evolution and role of short selling activity in financial markets. My first essay examines the cross-sectional and time-series variations in the characteristics of equity lending market in the setting of IPO, where, as suggested by Duffie et al. (2002), search frictions are likely to be high. I find that the initial supply of lendable shares and short interest levels increase with offer size, while initial lending fees decrease with offer size. The initial lending fees are also positively related to the bargaining power of lenders and negatively related to the bargaining power of borrowers. The supply …

The Implementation Of Conversation-Help-Activity-Movement-Participation-Success Procedures To Improve Behavior And Academic Performance, Henreta Jarrett

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation was designed to examine the fidelity level of implementation of Conversation-Help-Activity-Movement-Participation-Success (CHAMPS) classroom management strategies designed to reduce students’ behavior problems and boost academic performance at a large Title I elementary school in the southeastern United States. The participants included 10 teachers with experience teaching Grades 3 to 5 who had 3 years of experience implementing the CHAMPS classroom-management plan.

The researcher implemented bracketing, intuition, open-ended coding, and Axial coding to examine the implementation of the CHAMPS classroom-management plan in reducing behavior problems and boosting academic performance. The evaluation intended to address the central research question: How is …

Self-Actualized Leaders’ Relationships With Dynamic Teams, Joseph Walter Pieri

Theses and Dissertations

A recent study of 831 companies around the world found that employees on average tend to spend 54% of their time working within teams (Frey et al., 2013). Today, this number is estimated to be an additional four to six percent higher (Gallup, 2020). Despite the upward trend of increased reliance on team-based structures in effort to improve productivity and boost morale, research reveals approximately two-thirds of U.S. employees are not engaged in their workplace (Gallup, 2020). More than half (51%) of workers merely go through the motions of their job, barely meeting minimum position responsibilities. However, leadership is essential …

Police Officer Attitudes About The Importance Of External Procedural Justice, David Borchardt

Theses and Dissertations

External procedural justice has been found to have a relationship with cooperation, compliance, and police legitimacy. Extant methods to increase external procedural justice during police-citizen interactions have been met with mixed results. Fair policing from the inside out proposes that organizationally just treatment of officers will lead to external procedural justice during encounters between officers and citizens. Police organizational justice, comprised of the dimensions of distributive justice, procedural justice, interpersonal justice, and informational justice, has been found to have a relationship with external procedural justice, however, the majority of research has been conducted using overseas samples. The minority of work …

Three Essays On Splits, Insiders, And Retail Traders, Paul Van Nes

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The first essay tests the split signaling hypothesis by examining the reaction of sophisticated investors to stock split announcements. Return-based tests of signaling used in earlier studies produce conflicting results and have been criticized as unreliable. I bypass this criticism by focusing on long-term post-split behavior of short sellers who are generally recognized as sophisticated investors. Upon controlling for alternative hypotheses and conventional short selling determinants, I show that short interest permanently declines in reaction to split announcements. Furthermore, consistent with signaling, the degree of the decline is positively related to signal strength and to the splitter’s level of information …

The Hidden Side Of Work-Family Boundary Management: Uncovering The Role Of Cognitive Boundary Work And Boundary Context, Victoria Daniel

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Work-family life is becoming increasingly complex for the modern-day working parent, making boundaries that define the physical, temporal, and psychological aspects of work and family domains evermore important in how people choose to structure and manage the interface. However, the literature on boundary management has predominantly studied the enactment of certain boundaries and treated these boundary constructs as stable (e.g., general preferences and tendencies to behaviourally integrate or segment work and family). This research has also largely been conducted in contexts where the environment naturally created a way to organize the interface without the employees having to do as much …

Going Green: Carving A Niche In A Global Market, Ahmed Maamoun

AMTP Proceedings 2022

Companies that do well are described in accounting terms as being “in the black”. This is the accounting term for being profitable. The “black” shows up in the bottom line of the financial statement. Business practices that simultaneously benefit the business, society, and the environment help a firm become more sustainable. The triple bottom line refers to the economic, environmental, and social impacts of an organization. Here the company reaches out to its stakeholders rather than shareholders. However, the triple bottom line approach does not negate the drive for profits, it just does so in the context of also considering …

Spending All Your Money On Me: Influencer Marketing’S Impact On Engagement, Rebecca A. Vanmeter, Michael C. Peasley, Parker J. Woodroof

AMTP Proceedings 2022

Influencer marketing has been around for a few years and is rapidly approaching a $15 billion industry by 2022. In its nascency, the research is limited which investigates factors that substantiate the growth and popularity of advertising tools. In this study, we propose and explicate how two different types of influencers, namely mega- and macro-influencers, impact their audience's engagement with sponsored posts. Utilizing secondary data from more than 650 Instagram posts, our results suggest mega-influencers are able to mitigate the negative effect of utilizing various post attributes, including meta-tags and product prominence.

Social Media Influencers: Talk Is Not Cheap!, Antoinette Okono

AMTP Proceedings 2022

Social media influencers are digital opinion leaders who have amassed large followings on social media. Through their content and communication on social commerce platforms, and social networking sites, social media influencers can influence their audience's attitude towards brands and encourage purchase decisions. This paper explores the impact of social media influencers on the relationship between social commerce and purchase intention. Since the relationship between social commerce and purchase intention has been thoroughly examined by researchers, I discover through reviewing the literature how an independent entity can impact social media consumers' attitudes and purchase decisions. Specifically, I analyze the social commerce …

The Complexity Of Understanding Online Product Evaluation Expressions In The Chinese Cultural Context: How Ratings And Reviews Tell A Different Story, Mousumi Bose, Lei Ye

AMTP Proceedings 2022

Most online retail websites provide consumers the opportunity to elicit feedback about products and services through ratings and reviews. Extant research has suggested that product ratings and reviews may be reflective of consumers’ cultural views. Little research exists that discusses this lack of consistency between ratings and reviews beyond that suggested by Hofstede’s cultural typology. This research shows that although consumers may provide higher ratings, review texts provide a different perspective: consumers use reviews to provide negative feedback, however, with some tempering nuances.

Monetizing Student Projects: Advice For Marketing Educators, Zach Moore

AMTP Proceedings 2022

As resources become more scarce in colleges of business, it is increasingly important for faculty members to be creative to generate revenue for their programs. This paper provides several tips for using student projects to raise funds for student development.

The Effects Of Shape-Taste Congruence On Product Evaluations, Jurui Zhang, Raymond Liu, Yufang Jin, Menglin Li

AMTP Proceedings 2022

The background design of a product presented online is important to attract consumers’ attention and further help them make proper judgments about the product. Although many studies have investigated factors of advertising background design, few focus on the effect of shape feature in the background on product evaluations. The present research investigates the influence of congruency between the shape in the background design and product taste perception on consumer product evaluations by using a pretest and three experiments. The results show that shape-taste congruency intensifies product evaluations with an increase evaluation of sweet-taste products and a decreases evaluation of sour-taste …

Nostalgia As A Tactic For Marketers: The Use Of Retro Marketing To Entice Consumer Purchase, Cortnee Y. Bunch

AMTP Proceedings 2022

In marketing, nostalgia involves linking a product, service, or brand to the past to create an emotional connection. While it has existed in marketing positioning for some time, it has become a strategy that marketers can take advantage of through retro marketing. Retro marketing involves relaunching a product or service brand from an earlier period, by using familiar packaging or product designs, to evoke a nostalgic connection among consumers (Brown et al., 2003). Through the effective use of brand attitude, product experience, and brand preference, companies small and large can use retro marketing to create a competitive advantage and entice …

Rainbow-Washing Away Customers: Does The Consumer’S Perception Of Rainbow-Washing Affect Purchasing Behavior?, Ashley N. Johns, Sindy Chapa, Nakima Brooks, Holly Coleman, Maya Dubois

AMTP Proceedings 2022

In this study, researchers will test to see the effects rainbow-washing has on consumers’ intent to purchase. Rainbow-washing is a new marketing technique in which companies implement different initiatives to appeal to the LGBTQ+ community while not genuinely investing in the community itself. To test if rainbow-washing is correlated to a consumer’s desire to purchase, a survey was distributed using nonprobability sampling to 38 participants. Of the sample, less than half identified as members of the target community (LGBTQ+). As a result, it was concluded there is no significance between consumer attitudes towards rainbow-washing and their intention to purchase. However, …

You Don't Belong: Exploring Luxury Branding Strategy, Lauren E. Beverly, Jamye Foster

AMTP Proceedings 2022

Luxury branding strategies create impressions of exclusivity which is transmitted into the brand’s products and retail spaces. Exclusivity is a necessary component to create consumer desire despite limitations of accessibility, time, effort, and pricing. A new population of aspirational shoppers, known as Chandlers, highly value exclusive brands as they increase perceptions of social status. This study will examine the impact of loud vs. discrete luxury branding on perceptions of brand status and browsing intentions, and the moderating impact of the Chandler effect.

Empathy, Altruism, Csr, And Consumer Buycott Behavior During Covid 19: Lessons Learned, Ania Izabela Rynerzewska, Eliza Hetrick

AMTP Proceedings 2022

As Covid-19 became a global pandemic, life as businesses and consumers know it changed dramatically. Suddenly, in-person shopping became rare while social distancing and working remotely became common practice. The impact of Covid-19 reached beyond the obvious death toll and economic recession and contributed to a shift in what is considered relevant and what is secondary. This study analyzed the impact of consumer levels of altruism and empathy on interest in Covid-19 exacerbated topics like employee treatment, social justice, and the environment. Further, this study emphasized the importance of CSR efforts supporting current topics, which have been found to contribute …

Money, Medals, And Championships: Politically Driven Conspiracy Of Silence, Model Development; Implications To Diversity And Inclusion., Ania Izabela Rynerzewska

AMTP Proceedings 2022

Athletic organizational image and reputation management often require careful consideration of values shared and enacted to create a flawless image with which many fans identify and often admire. However, under the cover of perfect brand image covered with medals, championship and glory, there is often a hidden world of abuse and active participation in silencing the victims to protect the image. This paper analyzes relatively recent cases of two sex scandals in sports: Jerry Sandusky case and Larry Nassar case. Both individuals held higher positions within their organizations’ network of supporters who participated in a conspiracy of silence. This paper …

Supply Chain Resilience And Agility During Covid19: The Case Of Automobile Manufacturing, Leor Ben-Meir, Steve Lemay, Dave Mcmahon

AMTP Proceedings 2022

In this paper, we examine disruptions in the automobile manufacturing supply chain that resulted from the COVID19 pandemic. We explore the relationships between organizational resilience and agility and supply chain resilience and agility. We frame this exploration in terms of rare earth elements (REEs) and microchips, supplies that come from Tier 3 and Tier 4 in the automobile supply chain. We look at some adaptations made by Volkswagen to adapt to these disruptions but note that organizational resilience and adaptation does not always result in supply chain adaptation.

The Application Of Kahneman’S Concepts To Marketing Police In Ontario, Canada, Pritpal Thind, Steve Lemay, Dave Mcmahon

AMTP Proceedings 2022

Marketing concepts are rarely applied to policing, although for most modern societies it is an essential function and part of the social contract between governments at all levels and the publics they serve. In this paper, we look specifically at how marketing concepts apply to policing in Ontario, Canada. We frame our examination with concepts like the halo effect, the availability effect, and other ideas outlined by Kahneman (2013).

Love At First Touch: How Swiping Vs. Typing Changes Online Dating Decision-Making, Farhana Nusrat, Yaniu Huang, Cait Lamberton

AMTP Proceedings 2022

Online dating is one of the fastest-growing industries in the United States. Due to its increasing popularity, various dimensions of online dating have been studied in recent years. However, no research has explored how the type of digital platforms used impacts online dating. In this research, we investigate how the use of different platforms (computers vs. smartphones) can influence customers’ decision-making process in the context of online dating. Through multiple studies, we demonstrate that while using their computers (vs. smartphones) to evaluate dating profiles, customers will prioritize the inner attributes of the person (e.g., personality and compatibility). Moreover, the effect …

Investigating How Tacit Knowledge Management Inclination And Explicit Marketing Agendas Impact Business Success., Christine A. Makama

AMTP Proceedings 2022

The purpose of this paper is to develop and propose a framework that illustrates the relationship that exist between tacit knowledge management inclination, internal explicit marketing agendas and external explicit marketing agendas. Furthermore, the paper will also show how these variables act together to enhance business outcomes such as competitive advantage, growth and development, employee’s satisfaction, customers retention, loyalty, and satisfaction. Similarly, the conceptual framework would demonstrate how the assimilation between the variables extends and fill in the gap on conceptual and operational boundaries of existing models on explicit marketing agendas and how they help organizations attain success. And standing …

Determining Patient Satisfaction And Well-Being In Dental Healthcare: Expanding Theoretical Models Through Grounded-Theory Methods, Kristina M. Harrison

AMTP Proceedings 2022

This research involves examining the antecedents of patient satisfaction in dental healthcare while utilizing a grounded theory approach. We created a model of dental care patient satisfaction and well-being and found that past experiences, expectations, desires, emotions, sensations, co-creation behaviors, relational factors, level of involvement, and level of patient engagement impacts patient satisfaction, which subsequently impacts patient well-being. These findings contribute a theoretical model incorporating extant research on customer and healthcare satisfaction while also providing practical implications for dental service providers to implement in their practices. Future research can expand this study to include the point of view of dental …

Examining The Relationships Between Branding Factors And Likelihood Of Recommending: Determinants Of Net Promoter Score, Musa Pinar, Tulay Girard

AMTP Proceedings 2022

The study identifies the branding factors related to Net Promoter Score (NPS) that would predict the likelihood of recommending the two strategic business units of the company--convenience store and fuel. It investigates customer perceptions of branding factors of a convenience store/fuel station corporate chain and the relationships among them. The data were collected from the members of the company’s loyalty program. The results reveal that the company has been performing well in branding factors, where the loyalty program is perceived the highest, followed by friendly employees, likelihood to recommend fuel, satisfaction with fuel, and helpful employees. The correlation and regression …

Investigating Consumer Choice Criteria For Free Services, Samer Elhajjar, Shaheen Borna, Russ Wahlers

AMTP Proceedings 2022

Behavioral sciences recognize the following steps in the consumer purchase decision process: recognition of a problem or a need, search for information, alternative evaluation, purchase decision, and post-purchase evaluation. There is a plethora of research related to the aforementioned consumer decision-making process. The unanswered question in the marketing literature is: what changes, if any, in the consumer's decision process will be observed if they can obtain the product free of charge. Results of our study indicate that when consumers are spending their money on themselves, they are very careful and want to get the most for their money. On the …

Event-Related Potentials Differentiate Gender-Based Responses To Brands, William J. Jones, Kelene A. Fercho, Lee A. Baugh

AMTP Proceedings 2022

Despite significant advances in scholarship at the intersection of gender and neuroscience, marketing scholars have failed to capitalize on these developments. This research seeks to fill a gap in the literature by examining brain-related responses to brands as a function of gender using event-related potentials (ERPs), which employs time-locked electroencephalographic (EEG) data. Thirty-three participants (17 female) made evaluations of clothing brands and clothing articles, individually and combined, while their preferences and brain-related data were recorded. Results reveal a gender-based dissociation in the time course of product-brand evaluations and offer new insights for gender selectivity theory.

“Just Hanging With My Friends”: U.S. Latina/O/X’S Perspectives On Parasocial Relationships In Podcast Listening During Covid-19, Arthur D. Soto-Vasquez, Olga Vilceanu, Kristine Johnson

AMTP Proceedings 2022

There is a need to delve into major subgroups among Latina/o/xs and identify emerging patterns in their understanding and consumption of new media. This study used six small-group interviews to explore the fluidity of parasocial dynamics with podcasts in the context of young Latina/o/x podcast listeners experiencing the COVID-19 lockdown. The conceptual acronym EASY (Engaged Experience, Accessible Authenticity, Socialization in Solitude, and Youth and YouTube) was developed to interpret pandemic listening amount Latina/o/x podcast users.

Brand Love And Purchase Intention: Does A Sports Team Name Matter?, Kristy C. Grayson Dba, Katie Kamachi Phd, David Olsen Phd

AMTP Proceedings 2022

This study aims to explore the relationship between the construct of brand love, the strength of fan allegiance to a sport team brand name, fan past purchase behavior, and future purchase intention should a team change its controversial name. The overall research question that bounds this study is: How does consumer brand love and a change to a sport team name impact fan purchase behavior?

The Patient-Centric Blockchain, Sunil Erevelles, Maanasi Bulusu, Timea Honeycutt, Stephanie Seligman, Padma Bulusu

AMTP Proceedings 2022

A revolution is brewing in the healthcare marketplace. In the early nineties, the World Wide Web initiated a new era for the use of the Internet in the consumption of healthcare services. This eventually led to the Big Data movement (Erevelles et al. 2016), which initiated a non-linear transformation in healthcare analytics and developed into a dominant paradigm in the healthcare marketplace. However, the World Wide Web architecture was never designed to support a marketplace in healthcare or, for that matter, a marketplace of any other kind. It was primarily designed for the sharing of information and was even referred …