Business Commons^™

2021-December-01-Tri-Cities Proclaims Friday 'Blue And Gold Day', University Marketing And Communication, East Tennessee State University

ETSU News

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. —  The Tri-Cities may be lit up in a rainbow of colors for the holiday season, but, this Friday, the region is going all in on blue and gold. Leaders in Bristol, Jonesborough, Johnson City and Kingsport are all declaring Friday, Dec. 3, “Blue and Gold Day” in celebration of the East Tennessee State University football team’s run for the national championship. Mayors Mahlon Luttrell, Chuck Vest, Joe Wise, and Pat Shull are encouraging area residents to decorate homes, schools and businesses in blue and gold and wear the ETSU colors on Friday. 

“East Tennessee State University …

2021-December-01-Entrepreneurship-In-Residence Program Announced At Etsu, University Marketing And Communication, East Tennessee State University

ETSU News

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. – In a first-of-its-kind initiative in the region, the College of Business and Technology at East Tennessee State University has announced the start of its Entrepreneurship-In-Residence (EIR) program, exposing student candidates to startup investment decisions.  

The program is a collaborative effort between The Angel Roundtable (ART) of the Appalachian Highlands and the Entrepreneurship Program at ETSU’s College of Business and Technology. The Angel Roundtable is a network of successful entrepreneurs, investors, and community business leaders from Northeast Tennessee, Southwest Virginia and Western North Carolina who provide investment capital and strategic advice to late-seed and early-stage companies to …

2021-December-01-Etsu Commencement, University Marketing And Communication, East Tennessee State University

ETSU News

JOHNSON CITY – East Tennessee State University will confer more than 1,300 degrees during Commencement Exercises on Saturday, Dec. 11, at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. in the Ballad Health Athletic Center. Gayle Conelly Manchin, who is federal co-chair of the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC), will deliver the keynote address at 10 a.m. ETSU faculty member Dr. Sean Fox, who won the Distinguished Faculty Award for Teaching, will address graduates during the 2 p.m. ceremony.

Manchin works directly with the ARC’s 13 member governors, their state alternates and program managers, and a network of local development districts to continue to …

2021-December-01-Etsu Professor Writes About Plantation Sites Remembering Slavery, University Marketing And Communication, East Tennessee State University

ETSU News

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (December 2021) – Plantation sites have the ability to better tell the histories of former slaves in the United States. 

That point drives the new book, “Remembering Enslavement: Reassembling the Southern Plantation Museum.” East Tennessee State University’s Dr. Candace Forbes Bright is one of the book’s authors. 

Examining multiple plantation sites across the American South, these scholars consider the experiences of tourists, museum managers and tour guides.  

As the public and scholars alike debate how to best understand and remember slavery in the U.S., this work is designed to help professionals reassemble the narratives and landscapes of …

2021-December-01-Etsu Releases Annual Holiday Video, University Marketing And Communication, East Tennessee State University

ETSU News

Need a nudge to get in the holiday spirit? 

East Tennessee State University has released its annual holiday video, a parody of “Santa Baby” with the lyrics rewritten to “Santa Bucky.”

Making a festive appearance in the 2021 edition is Greyscale, one of ETSU’s best known a cappella ensembles. They perform a broad mix of music, including jazz and pop, and are well-known on campus and throughout the region.

ETSU President Dr. Brian Noland and First Lady Donna Noland are also part of the video, as is the university’s mascot, Bucky.

Parts of the video are shot at University Commons, …

2021-December-01-Etsu Scholars Publishing On Politics, University Marketing And Communication, East Tennessee State University

ETSU News

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (Dec. 1, 2021) – Professors in the Department of Political Science, International Affairs & Public Administration at East Tennessee State University are producing important research.

Two faculty members published books this year. 

“These fine contributions to the discipline reinforce that our department is home to first-rate scholars doing important research,” said Dr. Colin Glennon, associate professor and chair of the department. “Our faculty model the essential role of the teacher-scholar, one who is deeply engaged with students in the classroom and salient research outside of it.”

 Dr. Frederick Gordon’s book, “The Damming of the Presidency: How Environmental …

2021-December-01-Tri-Cities Proclaims Friday 'Blue And Gold Day', University Marketing And Communication, East Tennessee State University

ETSU News

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. —  The Tri-Cities may be lit up in a rainbow of colors for the holiday season, but, this Friday, the region is going all in on blue and gold. Leaders in Bristol, Jonesborough, Johnson City and Kingsport are all declaring Friday, Dec. 3, “Blue and Gold Day” in celebration of the East Tennessee State University football team’s run for the national championship. Mayors Mahlon Luttrell, Chuck Vest, Joe Wise, and Pat Shull are encouraging area residents to decorate homes, schools and businesses in blue and gold and wear the ETSU colors on Friday. 

“East Tennessee State University …

2021-December-01-Paleontologists Discover Extinct Relative Of Tennessee State Wildflower, University Marketing And Communication, East Tennessee State University

ETSU News

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (December 2021) – For Tennesseans, passion flowers are a point of regional pride, officially designated as a Tennessee state flower back in 1919. Now, a century later, paleontologists have found fossil evidence of an extinct Appalachian passion flower species, Passiflora appalachiana, previously unknown to science. 

This ancient species is unique to the fossil record of Tennessee, museum officials said, and it is proof that these flowers have adorned the local landscape for millions of years.

The fossils were found at the Gray Fossil Site, overseen by the Don Sundquist Center of Excellence in Paleontology at East …

2021-December-Uh Alumni Homecoming Newsletter December 2021, University School, East Tennessee State University, University Marketing And Communication, East Tennessee State University

ETSU News

Link to University School Alumni Homecoming Newsletter, December 2021

Greetings to our University, Training and Model School Alumni, we hope this message finds each of you doing well!  As we wrap up the semester and final school week for 2021, I would like to take a moment to thank you all for your continued support of University School. The tradition of excellence which has been established at University School is one that we value tremendously and take great pride in continuing!  We believe this is a direct impact of the commitment of our alumni, staff (both past and present) …

Enhancement Of The Command-Line Environment For Use In The Introductory Statistics Course And Beyond, David W. Gerbing

Business Faculty Publications and Presentations

R and Python are commonly used software languages for data analytics. Using these languages as the course software for the introductory course gives students practical skills for applying statistical concepts to data analysis. However, the reliance upon the command line is perceived by the typical nontechnical introductory student as sufficiently esoteric that its use detracts from the teaching of statistical concepts and data analysis. An R package was developed based on the successive feedback of hundreds of introductory statistics students over multiple years to provide a set of functions that apply basic statistical principles with command-line R. The package offers …

When A Ban Is Not A Ban: Institutional Work And The Russian Doping Scandal, Mathew Dowling, Spencer Harris, Marvin Washington

Business Faculty Publications and Presentations

There are fewer cases of such blatant acts to defy and subsequent heroic efforts to rearrange institutional norms than the Russian doping scandal. In adopting a neo-institutional perspective, the authors theorize the scandal as a case of attempted but failed institutional disruption. More specifically, the authors draw upon the institutional change literature and the institutional work perspective to explain the key events surrounding actors’ response to the scandal. The analysis utilized Gioia’s methodological approach to examine secondary empirical data. Findings reveal how stakeholders circumvented traditional governance structures in an attempt to disrupt institutional arrangements, but despite this, much of the …

Marketing Tourism And Hotel Management Schools In The Context Of Higher Education Globalization And Student Mobility Through Improved Curriculum And Industrial Training Offerings, Ayse Bas Collins, Aysegul Gunduz Songur, Seden Dogan

Journal of Global Education and Research

Recent research from international statistics indicate an important flow of student mobility all over the world, creating a need to provide comprehensive information regarding educational institutions involved in the process. This study examines and compares tourism and hotel management (THM) programs at different levels, including the nature of programs offered, their curriculum, and internship components. A particular focus was given to the industrial training requirement as a core component of THM programs. Results showed both similarities and differences worldwide within the framework of the institutions compared. The findings may help all stakeholders in the education systems, including professionals, educators, students, …

Exploration Of Small Fashion Retailers' Green Efforts In Supply Chain Management And Their Coping Strategies During Covid-19, Madison Huskey

Finance Undergraduate Honors Theses

The purpose of this paper is to explore the current business model of small fashion retailers and their green efforts in supply chain management based on the Six-R framework that consists of recycle, reuse, reduce, re-design, recovery, and remanufacture. This study also investigated the impact of COVID-19 on small fashion businesses. Qualitative data were gathered through in-depth interviews of owners/employees of four small fashion retailers that addressed sustainable supply chain management, customer segments, and challenges and barriers in green supply chain management, and the effects of COVID-19. Interview findings revealed that small fashion retailers are more likely to implement green …

Use Patterns And Influencing Factors Of Irrigation Best Management Practices In The Lower Mississippi River Basin, Merri E. Day

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study uses the 2016 Irrigation Survey from Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi to document the use of irrigation best management practices (IBMPs), analyze use patterns, and use quantitative methods to determine factors that influence producers’ decisions regarding IBMPs. IBMPs included in the survey can be grouped as: field management practices (zero-grade leveling, precision-grade leveling, end blocking, warped surface, and deep tillage), water flow control practices (computerized pipe-hole selection, multiple-inlet irrigation, surge irrigation, alternate wetting and drying, cutback irrigation, flow meters, and pump timers), water recovery/storage practices (tail-water recovery system and on-farm storage reservoir), and advanced irrigation scheduling practices (soil moisture …

Kalman Filter Vs Alternative Modeling Techniques And Applied Investment Strategies, Heather E. Dempsey

Doctoral Dissertations (DBA)

This thesis examines the efficacy of alternative modeling techniques to predict stock market returns modeled with time-varying coefficients with the goal of developing and implementing a trading strategy that yields excess returns. First, we determine the modeling technique with the smallest forecast error using historical predictors: the differenced dividend-price ratio, lagged S&P 500 returns, and the change in implied volatility. The candidate modeling techniques include both constant and recursive ordinary least squares (OLS) regression methods and diverges from previous return forecast literature with the comparison of a state-space model (SSM) cast as a VAR(1) process to each OLS technique. The …

How To Train Your Algo: Investigating The Enablers Of Bias In Algorithmic Development, Marta Stelmaszak Rosa

Business Faculty Publications and Presentations

Literature on algorithmic bias identifies its source in either biased data or statistical methods, more rarely in the development of algorithmic solutions as a potential factor. Because of the prior unknowability of algorithms, data scientists developing such solutions have to take various design decisions. Drawing from the flow-oriented approach, we study algorithmic unknowability and how data scientists respond to it in 35 public data science Jupyter notebooks containing algorithmic solutions to predict customer churn in a credit card dataset on a data science platform Kaggle.com. We offer a more thorough understanding of the unknowability in algorithmic development that can enable …

Machine Learning Models Predicting The Prices Of Houses In Boston, Sheikh-Sedat Touray

Senior Honors Projects

No abstract provided.

2021-December-01-Etsu Professor Writes About Plantation Sites Remembering Slavery, University Marketing And Communication, East Tennessee State University

ETSU News

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (December 2021) – Plantation sites have the ability to better tell the histories of former slaves in the United States. 

That point drives the new book, “Remembering Enslavement: Reassembling the Southern Plantation Museum.” East Tennessee State University’s Dr. Candace Forbes Bright is one of the book’s authors. 

Examining multiple plantation sites across the American South, these scholars consider the experiences of tourists, museum managers and tour guides.  

As the public and scholars alike debate how to best understand and remember slavery in the U.S., this work is designed to help professionals reassemble the narratives and landscapes of …

2021-December-01-Etsu Health Family Medicine Accepting New Patients, University Marketing And Communication, East Tennessee State University

ETSU News

JOHNSON CITY – A heart for ministering to others paired with a love for science drove Dr. Allison Powers to obtain her medical degree and to pursue opportunities to serve others.

She is accepting new patients at ETSU Health Family Medicine Johnson City.

Powers offers the full scope of family medicine care for all stages of patients’ lives, including acute inpatient care, pediatrics, obstetrics and office procedures. 

“You will receive excellent care through ETSU Family Medicine Johnson City,” Powers said. 

“We are able to provide for many of your health needs in one medical home, while working with a …

When It Hits The Fan, Does Network Management Matter? : A Study On Policy Shocks And The Production And Delivery Of Public Goods And Services By Service Delivery Networks, Jennie Rhodes Law

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

EXECUTIVE SUMMARYFor decades public administration and management scholars have conceptualized organizational networks as solutions to failures of markets and hierarchies (see, for example, Goldsmith and Eggers 2005; Osborne and Gaebler 1992). Relationships among organizations or actors within a network are framed positively as channels through which human, financial, and knowledge resources flow to address complex or “wicked” social problems (see, for example, Rittel and Weber, 1973). However, recent scholarship has sought to pull the curtain back and identify the pitfalls of networked arrangements for public service delivery (see, for example, O’Toole & Meier, 2006; O’Toole & Meier, 2004). Such studies …

A Reexamination Of The Illiquidity Premium In Cryptocurrencies, Wyatt Fitz

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

In this study, I examine the illiquidity premium amongst the 372 most actively traded cryptocurrencies from September 2014 to May 2021. I find that the average returns on the most illiquid cryptocurrencies are larger than those on the most liquid cryptocurrencies. My results are robust to different weighting mechanisms for the market index and to various asset pricing model specifications. These results suggest that an investor might be able to go long a portfolio of illiquid cryptocurrencies while simultaneously shorting a portfolio of liquid cryptocurrencies to effectively generate a positive risk-adjusted return.

Financial Literacy And Behavior In Credit Unions: An Exploration Of Member Financial Literacy And Financial Behavior In The Credit Union Model, Peter R. Fisher

Doctor of Business Administration (DBA)

Financial literacy is economically essential and plays a critical role in an individual’s overall financial capability, yet financial literacy is declining. Financial knowledge has been linked to financial behavior, with financially literate individuals displaying positive financial behaviors while those with lower financial knowledge exhibit poor financial behavior. Credit unions are member-owned financial cooperatives whose purpose is to support their membership’s social and economic goals. Credit unions are well-positioned to deliver financial literacy to members (McKillop & Wilson, 2015). This study examined financial literacy and behavior among credit union members and compared the financial literacy of credit union members with results …

Real Earnings Management And The Properties Of Analysts' Forecasts, Lisa A. Eiler, Joshua J. Filzen, Mark Jackson, Isho Tama-Sweet

Accountancy Faculty Publications and Presentations

Prior literature generally finds analysts are able to identify and process complex financial information. However, research suggests that in certain settings, analysts struggle to fully incorporate into their forecasts all available information. We examine analysts' forecast properties in the face of a specific type of complex financial information: real earnings management (REM). First, we investigate the relation between measures of REM and analysts' forecast properties. We find REM measures are associated with greater forecast error and dispersion in the following year. However, REM measures, by definition, capture abnormal operating results, and thus include both firms engaging in manipulative REM as …

Essays In Mutual Funds, Aadhaar Verma

Doctor of Business Administration Dissertations

This dissertation examines mutual fund portfolio formation, the economic forces that determine how fund managers construct their portfolios, and the market effects of fund portfolio disclosures.

In the first chapter of my dissertation, I study how funds modify their portfolios around disclosure dates in order to cater to their investors’ non-financial preferences. Using social norms and investor boycotts surrounding tobacco and firearm sectors as a proxy for non-financial preferences, I find that these stocks experience significant negative returns on portfolio disclosure dates and significant positive returns on the day after the portfolio disclosure. I also find that funds accelerate their …

Sustainability Issue Of The Total Quality Management (Tqm) System In The Manufacturing Industry, Jesus A. Guillergan

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this research is to understand the sustainability issue of total quality management (TQM) and its effects in the manufacturing industry. Having exploratory and descriptive objectives, this research used a flexible design single case study on a water treatment company in the southeastern United States to facilitate the examination of the phenomenon using real‐life, present‐day context, and multiple perspectives from participants. The single bounded case study collected and integrated many forms of qualitative data ranging from interviews, observations, and quality‐related archived documents to answer the research questions. The results revealed that failure in sustaining the quality system in …

The Devil Is In The Details: The Effect Of Nonverbal Cues On Crowdfunding Success, Yuanqing Li, Nan Xiao, Sibin Wu

Information Systems Faculty Publications

Many reward-based crowdfunding platforms encourage entrepreneurs to introduce their projects and make a personal appeal with a video clip. In this study, we investigate the impact of such a pitch video on financing outcomes. Grounded in social perception literature, we propose that effective use of nonverbal cues in a pitch video increases funding success. We coded and analyzed videos of crowdfunding campaigns and found that an entrepreneur could improve the funding outcomes by gazing less, appearing early, and reducing speech hesitations in a pitch video. We also found that smiling has no impact on funding success.

Exempting Battery Electric Vehicles From Traffic Restrictions: Impacts On Market And Environment Under Pigovian Taxation, Xu Hu, Zhaojun Yang, Jun Sun, Yali Zhang

Information Systems Faculty Publications

In busy metropolitan areas, traffic restrictions based on the last digits of license plates effectively ease traffic jams and improve air quality. Recently, policy-makers in China exempted battery electric vehicles (BEV) from traffic restrictions to promote their diffusion in place of conventional vehicles (CV). To examine the impacts of such an exemption on consumers and manufacturers as well as the environment, this study models the duopoly competition between BEV and CV manufacturers as a Cournot game. The numerical analyses compare three traffic restriction policies concerning BEV and CV, and reveal the pros and cons of each. In particular, the BEV-exempted …

Isscm Newsletter, December, 2021, Raj Soin College Of Business, Wright State University

ISSCM Newsletters

A three page newsletter from the Department of Information Systems and Supply Chain Management in the Raj Soin College of Business at Wright State University.

2021-December-01-Entrepreneurship-In-Residence Program Announced At Etsu, University Marketing And Communication, East Tennessee State University

ETSU News

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. – In a first-of-its-kind initiative in the region, the College of Business and Technology at East Tennessee State University has announced the start of its Entrepreneurship-In-Residence (EIR) program, exposing student candidates to startup investment decisions.  

The program is a collaborative effort between The Angel Roundtable (ART) of the Appalachian Highlands and the Entrepreneurship Program at ETSU’s College of Business and Technology. The Angel Roundtable is a network of successful entrepreneurs, investors, and community business leaders from Northeast Tennessee, Southwest Virginia and Western North Carolina who provide investment capital and strategic advice to late-seed and early-stage companies to …

Exploration Of Creativity, Leadership, And Entrepreneurism: Reflection And Participation In A Unique Holistic Military Transition Fellowship With Dog Tag Inc., Valerie-June Button

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

Leaders and Entrepreneurs change the world. How might we best help them to inspire positive change? Perhaps by recognizing that the positive change that leaders and entrepreneurs drive starts with the hearts and minds of humans. Being mindful of this can open doors to new creative leadership/entrepreneurial development practices and have a positive butterfly effect on the world we live in. The purpose of this project is to observe, reflect and document the experience of participating in a uniquely holistic entrepreneurship hands-on fellowship as it relates to creativity and leadership development. The fellowship is a five-month program that exists to …