Business Commons^™

A Learning Curve Model Accounting For The Flattening Effect In Production Cycles, Evan R. Boone, John J. Elshaw, Clay M. Koschnick, Jonathan D. Ritschel, Adedeji B. Badiru

Faculty Publications

We investigate production cost estimates to identify and model modifications to a prescribed learning curve. Our new model examines the learning rate as a decreasing function over time as opposed to a constant rate that is frequently used. The purpose of this research is to determine whether a new learning curve model could be implemented to reduce the error in cost estimates for production processes. A new model was created that mathematically allows for a “flattening effect,” which typically occurs later in the production process. This model was then compared to Wright’s learning curve, which is a popular method used …

Quantifying The Effects Of Aircraft Engine Upgrades On Operating And Support Costs, Bradford A. Myers, Edward D. White, Jonathan D. Ritschel, R. David Fass

Faculty Publications

For fixed wing aircraft within the U.S. Air Force, Operating and Support (O&S) costs encompass a large portion of total life cycle costs. O&S costs include fuel, maintenance, and engine upgrades. To the authors’ knowledge, no study to date has attempted to empirically quantify the realized effects of new aircraft engines on sustainment costs. Utilizing the Air Force Total Ownership Cost database, they focused on new engines appearing on the C-5s, C-130s, and C-135s. Although narrow in scope, results suggest newer engines have lower fuel costs. Maintenance costs for newer engines were not consistently higher or lower than the engines …

Feeling Depleted? If English Is Not Your First Language, You Might Be Experiencing Stereotype Threat, Mingang K. Geiger

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

An estimated 67.3 million people are nonnative English speakers in the U.S. Research has shown that nonnative English speakers are often perceived to be less competent in communication, less intelligent, and less reliable in English-speaking environments, regardless of their actual capability. Given that English is a common tool for business communication, the nonnative English speaker stigma is likely to be particularly salient in the workplace. For example, empirical research evidence has shown that nonnative English speakers are less likely to be hired or promoted to managerial positions and are more likely to fail to receive funding for their business due …

Fostering Music Performers In The 21st Century: A Contemporary Professional Perspective Toward A New Curricular Agenda For Graduate Study In Music, Andre Januario

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

What if the core curriculum for graduate students in music performance were designed to prepare students to succeed in the world of the Fourth Industrial Revolution?

This dissertation offers a hypothetical answer: a structured and systematic academic curricular framework for music graduate students of performance of concert music (especially those in terminal degrees, such as doctoral students), along with music instructors, professional music performers, school administrators, and college professors, seeking to prepare such students for achieving and maintaining a music career more in keeping with the current work environment, especially those skills demanded by the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the …

Do Secondary English Teachers Have Adequate Time And Resourcing To Meet The Needs Of Struggling Literacy Learners?, Margaret K. Merga, Saiyidi Mat Roni, Anabela Malpique

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

© 2020 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. As struggling Australian students may not typically receive additional support beyond the mainstream English classroom, more needs to be understood about the staffing and resourcing challenges that may impede secondary English teachers seeking to support these students. Data from the 2019 Supporting Struggling Secondary Literacy Learners project are explored, presenting views from N = 315 Australian secondary English teachers. Respondents disagreed that they have adequate time and resourcing to meet the needs of these students; public schools were perceived to be particularly poorly resourced. Our …

Employees’ Perceptions Of Corporate Social Responsibility And Ethical Leadership: Are They Uniquely Related To Turnover Intention?, Mehran Nejati, Michael E. Brown, Azadeh Shafaei, Pi-Shen Seet

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

© 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the simultaneous effect of ethical leadership (EL) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) on employees’ turnover intention and examine the mediating mechanism in these relationships. Design/methodology/approach: The authors conducted a field study of 851 employees across a variety of industries. This study applied partial least squares structural equation modelling for hypothesis testing. Findings: The results show that employees’ perceptions of CSR as well as EL are both uniquely and negatively related to turnover intention. The authors also found that employees’ job satisfaction but not commitment, mediates these …

Sustainability And Waste Imports In China: Pollution Haven Or Resources Hunting, Bowen Li, Antonio Alleyne, Zhaoyong Zhang, Yifei Mu

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Motivations behind a country’s importation of waste are categorized into the pollution haven hypothesis (PHH) and the resource hunting hypothesis (RHH). The importation of wastes can lead to environmental sustainability concerns, requiring governments to intervene when the market fails to reduce the negative externalities by strengthening and implementing environmental regulations. Motivated by China’s position within a rapidly growing but environmentally damaging sector of trade, this paper has three goals: (1) to classify the primary hypothesis that governs China’s flow of traded wastes; (2) to verify the heterogeneous impact of the pollution …

Sustainability In Construction Projects: A Systematic Literature Review, Reza Kiani Mavi, Denise Gengatharen, Neda Kiani Mavi, Richard Hughes, Alistair J. Campbell, Ross Yates

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

This paper aims to identify the major research concepts studied in the literature of sustainability in construction projects. Two bibliometric analysis tools—(a) BibExcel and (b) Gephi, were used to analyze the bibliometrics indices of papers and visualize their interrelations as a network, respectively. Therefore, a research focus parallelship network (RFPN) analysis and keyword co-occurrence network (KCON) analysis were performed to uncover the primary research themes. The RFPN analysis clustered the studies into three major categories of evaluating sustainability, project management for sustainability, and drivers of sustainable construction. The KCON analysis revealed that while each paper had a different focus, the …

Text Mining To Identify The Origin Of Chronic Wasting Disease, G. Webb

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Chronic wasting  disease (CWD)  is  a 100  percent  fatal,  prion  disease of  deer  that  has  the potential  to decimate  the  deer  population and  jump to  the  human  population.   A  simple  Google  search on  the  “origin of  chronic wasting  disease” yielded  a total  of  56  relevant  articles.   Of  these,  75  percent  report  that  the origin  is  unknown,  19.6  percent  report  that  the  disease  may  have  originated  in  a  Fort  Collins,  Colorado, government  research facility, and 5.4 percent  report  other  possible  origins.  Government  sources  reported the  Fort  Collins  theory  4.3 percent  of  the  time  while  non-governmental  sources,  such  as news articles, reported …

Workplace Bullying, Psychological Hardiness, And Accidents And Injuries In Nursing: A Moderated Mediation Model, Stephen T. T. Teo, Diep Nguyen, Fiona Trevelyan, Felicity Lamm, Mark Boocock

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

© 2021 Teo et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Workplace bullying are prevalent among the nursing workforce. Consequences of workplace bullying include psychological stress and workplace accidents and injuries. Psychological hardiness is proposed as a buffer for workplace bullying and psychological stress on workplace accidents and injuries. This study adopted the Affective Events Theory and Conservation of Resources Theory to develop and test a moderated mediated model in two field …

Comparison Of Weighted And Unweighted Methods Of Wealth Indices For Assessing Socio-Economic Status, Muhammad Tareq, Assim Ibrahim Abdel-Razzaq, Md Arafat Rahman, Tonmoy Choudhury

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Due to some of the limitations of monetary measures, various non-monetary approaches for assessing household wealth have been developed as alternative tools for classifying household socio-economic status. Among them, wealth indices based on household durable assets are being used. The literature revealed that two basic methods of constructing wealth indices are employed: an unweighted method, where assets are weighted equally; and a weighted method, where specific weights are assigned to assets. In the case of using the weighted method, weighting can be assigned using various techniques. The overall objective of the study is to compare the wealth indices constructed by …

Recovery Agenda For Sustainable Development Post Covid-19 At The Country Level: Developing A Fuzzy Action Priority Surface, Meisam Ranjbari, Zahra S. Esfandabadi, Simone D. Scagnelli, Peer O. Siebers, Francesco Quatraro

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

As a response to the urgent call for recovery actions against the COVID-19 crisis, this research aims to identify action priority areas post COVID-19 toward achieving the targets of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) within the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development launched by the United Nations (UN). This paper applies a mixed-method approach to map the post-COVID-19 SDGs targets on a fuzzy action priority surface at the country level in Iran, as a developing country, by taking the following four main steps: (1) using a modified Delphi method to make a list of the SDGs targets influenced by COVID-19; (2) …

Public Health Lessons From Crisis-Related Travel: The Covid-19 Pandemic, Jun Wen, Zhaohui Su

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

No abstract provided.

Front-Line Management During Radical Organisational Change: Social Exchange And Paradox Interpretations, Bassam Buhusayen, Pi-Shen Seet, Alan Coetzer

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. External shocks have severely affected the aviation sector with detrimental impacts on airport service employees. Service-sector organizations tend to implement radical organizational change to survive and front-line managers face often-opposing demands. This study aims to shed light on how front-line managers cope by utilizing social exchange-based strategies during radical organizational change. This study uses an exploratory qualitative design and thematically analyses data obtained from 40 semi-structured interviews with senior managers, front-line managers and employees working for an airline services provider operating in a major international airport in Australia. The study finds …

Revisiting Collaboration Within And Beyond The School Library: New Ways Of Measuring Effectiveness, Margaret K. Merga, Sayidi Mat Roni, Chin Ee Loh, Anabela Malpique

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

© 2021 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. Collaboration in school libraries can be viewed as a supportive and respectful working relationship between participants involved in developing, planning and creating learning opportunities and experiences, as well as to ensure optimal use of the school library resource. While strong collaboration between school library staff and teachers and leadership beyond the school library is a key goal of school libraries, actual levels of collaboration may be lower than desired. There is a paucity of recent research that captures factors relevant to effective collaboration from current and diverse …

A Nonlinear Autoregressive Distributed Lag (Nardl) Analysis Of The Ftse And S&P500 Indexes, David E. Allen, Michael Mcaleer

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

The paper features an examination of the link between the behaviour of the FTSE 100 and S&P500 Indexes in both an autoregressive distributed lag ARDL, plus a nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag NARDL framework. The attraction of NARDL is that it represents the simplest method available of modelling combined short-and long-run asymmetries. The bounds testing framework adopted means that it can be applied to stationary and non-stationary time series vectors, or combinations of both. The data comprise a daily FTSE adjusted price series, commencing in April 2009 and terminating in March 2021, and a corresponding daily S&P500 Index adjusted-price series obtained …

Collaboration And Opportunism In Megaproject Alliance Contracts: The Interplay Between Governance, Trust And Culture, Peter Galvin, Stephane Tywoniak, Janet Sutherland

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Alliance contracts have been introduced in megaprojects to improve the alignment of objectives, risk and reward between client and contractor. However, the relational norms of alliances are not sufficient on their own to eliminate opportunistic behaviors. This study shows that, investing in mechanisms supportive of governance, culture, and trust provides a platform upon which firms may foster collaboration and limit self-interest oriented behavior amongst alliance partners. Our qualitative case study of a major project-based organization reveals the impact of these mechanisms, and more pointedly, how they interact and often reinforce each other. Governance, culture and trust are interlinked and complementary, …

Impact Of Enhanced Enterprise Resource Planning (Erp) On Firm Performance Through Green Supply Chain Management, Zeplin J. H. Tarigan, Hotlan Siagian, Ferry Jie

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

This study investigates the impact of enhanced enterprise resource planning (ERP) on firm performance through green supply chain management, supplier integration, and internal integration. The population is the manufacturer domiciled in East Java, Indonesia, which has implemented ERP and been certified by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in the environmental management system. Data collection used a questionnaire designed with the five-point Likert scale. Of 243 manufacturers, 150 questionnaires were distributed, and 135 questionnaires are considered valid for analysis. Data analysis used smart PLS software. The result indicated that all eight predetermined hypotheses were supported. Enhanced ERP affects supplier integration, …

Supply Chain Integration Enables Resilience, Flexibility, And Innovation To Improve Business Performance In Covid-19 Era, Hotlan Siagian, Zeplin J. H. Tarigan, Ferry Jie

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about a sudden change from normal conditions to disruption conditions, and industrial sectors have experienced eroded growth. In particular, the manufacturing industry experienced a slowdown due to the sudden disruption in supply and demand. This situation stimulates the manufacturing industry to recover from this current challenging disruption. This study investigates the impact of supply chain integration on business performance through supply chain resilience, supply chain flexibility, and innovation system in Indonesia’s manufacturing companies. Data collection has obtained as many as 470 questionnaires considered valid for further analysis. Data analysis used the partial least square (PLS) …

Australian Postgraduate Student Experiences And Anticipated Employability: A National Study From The Students’ Perspective, Elizabeth J. Cook, Linda Crane, Shelley Kinash, Amy Bannatyne, Joseph Crawford, Gary Hamlin, Madelaine-Marie Judd, Jo-Anne Kelder, Helen Partridge, Sarah Richardson

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Postgraduate students are navigating a rapidly evolving landscape for their future careers. In this context, higher education providers are responsible for supporting and monitoring postgraduate (masters and doctoral) students’ development for both education and employability contexts. This empirical research provides a rich analysis of feedback breakfasts, focus groups and interviews with 319 postgraduate student participants from 26 universities. Emergent themes highlight widespread lack of confidence in university-mediated student experiences, particularly in the context of employability, and pessimism regarding career outcomes. Students expressed a view that higher education providers need to direct further attention and relevant supports toward postgraduate education. Future …

Evaluation Of Work-Integrated Learning: A Realist Synthesis And Toolkit To Enhance University Evaluative Practices, Elizabeth J. Cook

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Situated in the context of work-integrated learning (WIL), this paper aims to build the evaluative capacity of universities in response to an increasing need for evaluation in higher education. It contributes a realist synthesis of international peer-reviewed literature on university evaluation of WIL, which revealed no use of evaluation theory or approaches by the authors. In response, to support the enhancement of university evaluative practices, this paper offers a toolkit of evaluation theory and approaches, with examples relating to WIL, featuring an evaluation planning tool (RUFDATAE). RUFDATAE is demonstrated using a study from the realist synthesis, to highlight its relevance, …

Young Adults’ Preferences For Influenza Vaccination Campaign Messages: Implications For Covid-19 Vaccine Intervention Design And Development, Zhaohui Su, Dean Mcdonnell, Jun Wen, Ali Cheshmehzangi, Junaid Ahmad, Edmund Goh, Xiaoshan Li, Sabina Šegalo, Michael Mackert, Yu-Tao Xiang, Peiyu Wang

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Background Health campaign interventions, particularly those tailored to the target audience’s needs and preferences, can cost-effectively change people’s attitudes and behaviors towards better health decision-making. However, there is limited research on how to best tailor seasonal influenza vaccination campaigns for young adults. Vaccination is vital in protecting young adults and their social circles (vulnerable populations like older adults) from the influenza virus and critical in shaping these emerging adults’ vaccination habits in the long run. However, amid the prevalence of easily-accessible, attention-grabbing, and often malicious false and misinformation (e.g., COVID-19 vaccine conspiracy theories), it may be more challenging to develop …

Covid-19 Governance, Legitimacy, And Sustainability: Lessons From The Australian Experience, Michael Lester, Marie Dela Rama, Julie Crews

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

During 2020, Australia managed the global and systemic COVID-19 crisis successfully as measured by health and economic indicators. It marshalled the government’s delivery capacity to control the health crisis and put in place measures to offset the induced economic and social costs. At the same time, the crisis revealed long-standing structural weaknesses in a small, democratic, wealthy, and economically successful country that raised questions about post COVID resilience and sustainability. This paper examines that experience by applying a “co-production” governance model that sees success in “crisis management” as the striking of a balance between government capacity and its legitimacy in …

Subjective Knowledge, Perceived Risk, And Information Search When Purchasing A Franchise: A Comparative Exploration From Australia, Peter Balsarini, Claire Lambert, Maria M. Ryan, Martin Maccarthy

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Franchising has long been a method by which organizations seek to expand and facilitate local market development. However, franchising as a growth strategy can often be hampered by lack of suitable franchisees. To mitigate this shortage, some franchisors have engaged in recruiting franchisees internally from the ranks of their employees in addition to the traditional approach of recruiting franchisees externally. Predominantly franchisees are individuals rather than corporations and thus purchasing a franchise should most commonly be characterized as a consumer acquisition. To explore the relationship between subjective knowledge, perceived risk, and information search behaviors when purchasing a franchise qualitative interviews …

Applications Of Blockchain Technology In Sustainable Manufacturing And Supply Chain Management: A Systematic Review, Ahmad A. A. Khanfar, Mohammad Iranmanesh, Morteza Ghobakhloo, Madugoda Gunaratnege Senali, Masood Fathi

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Developing sustainable products and processes is essential for the survival of manufacturers in the current competitive market and the industry 4.0 era. The activities of manufacturers and their supply chain partners should be aligned with sustainable development goals. Manufacturers have faced many barriers and challenges in implementing sustainable practices along the entire supply chain due to globalisation, outsourcing, and offshoring. Blockchain technology has the potential to address the challenges of sustainability. This study aims to explain the applications of blockchain technology to sustainable manufacturing. We conducted a systematic literature review and explained the potential contributions of blockchain technology to the …

Analysis Of The Use And Perception Of Shared Mobility: A Case Study In Western Australia, Craig Standing, Ferry Jie, Thi Le, Susan Standing, Sharon Biermann

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

The sharing economy has acquired a lot of media attention in recent years, and it has had a significant impact on the transport sector. This paper investigates the existing impact and potential of various forms of shared mobility, concentrating on the case study of Wanneroo, Western Australia. We adopted bibliometric analysis and visualization tools based on nearly 700 papers collected from the Scopus database to identify research clusters on shared mobility. Based on the clusters identified, we undertook a further content analysis to clarify the factors affecting the potential of different shared mobility modes. A specially designed questionnaire was applied …

Does Corporate Eco-Innovation Affect Stock Price Crash Risk?, Rashid Zaman, Nader Atawnah, Muhammad Haseeb, Muhammad Nadeem, Saadia Irfan

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

We examine the effect of corporate environmental innovation (hereafter eco-innovation) on stock price crash risk and document a significant negative association. Utilising a large sample of publicly listed U.S. firms for the period 2003 to 2017, we find that an increase in eco-innovation from the 25th to the 75th percentile is associated with 17.62% reduction in stock price crash risk. This outcome remains robust to a variety of sensitivity tests and after accounting for potential endogeneity concerns. Eco-innovative firms attract more institutional investors and equity analyst following and disclose more information leading to lower stock price crash risk. Additional tests …

Trading Macro-Cycles Of Foreign Exchange Markets Using Hybrid Models, Joseph Z. B. Ling, Albert K. Tsui, Zhaoyong Zhang Prof

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Most existing studies on forecasting exchange rates focus on predicting next-period returns. In contrast, this study takes the novel approach of forecasting and trading the longer-term trends (macro-cycles) of exchange rates. It proposes a unique hybrid forecast model consisting of linear regression, multilayer neural network, and combination models embedded with technical trading rules and economic fundamentals to predict the macro-cycles of the selected currencies and investigate the predicative power and market timing ability of the model. The results confirm that the combination model has a significant predictive power and market timing ability, and outperforms the benchmark models in terms of …

Chinese International Students In The United States: The Interplay Of Students’ Acculturative Stress, Academic Standing, And Quality Of Life, Zhaohui Su, Dean Mcdonnell, Feng Shi, Bin Liang, Xiaoshan Li, Jun Wen, Yuyang Cai, Yu-Tao Xiang, Ling Yang

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Background: Acculturation could cause grave health consequences in international students. However, there is a shortage of research into how acculturative stress might affect international students’ quality of life in light of their academic standing and experience. The lack of research is particularly pronounced among Chinese international students, representing the largest body of international students studying in the United States (U.S.). Thus, to bridge the research gap, this study aims to examine the interplay between international students’ acculturative stress, academic standing, and quality of life among a nationally representative sample of Chinese international students studying in the United States. Methods: An …

Fiduciary Duty Or Loyalty? Evidence From Co-Opted Boards And Corporate Misconduct, Rashid Zaman, Nader Atawnah, Ghasan A. Baghdadi, Jia Liu

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

We examine the effect of co-opted boards on corporate misconduct and document a significant positive relationship. Utilising a large sample of public U.S. companies from the period 2001 to 2015, we find that a one standard deviation increase in the proportion of co-opted directors on a board leads to a 4.3% rise in corporate misconduct. This outcome is robust to a series of sensitivity tests and continues to hold after accounting for potential endogeneity concerns. Further analyses indicate that co-opted directors propose fewer board agenda items, exhibit lower attendance at board meetings, and receive compensation packages in excess of industry …