Business Commons^™

An Analysis Of Structural And Psychological Barriers To The Adoption Of Demand Response Smart Grid Technologies: Lessons Learned, John M. Richards

Sustainability and Social Justice

Over the past decade, America’s utility grid has undergone fundamental changes on a scale not seen during the past 100 years (Energetics Incorporated, 2014). These changes have largely been driven by the need to replace aging infrastructure, modernize the grid, incorporate new sources of energy, and better balance the supply and demand of energy. In order to address some of these changes, utilities have increasingly implemented smart grid programs that provide customers with consumer-focused demand response technologies that aim to reduce peak demand. This report examined the success these technologies have in reducing peak demand for smart grid programs by …

Haworth College Of Business News (05/2017), Haworth College Of Business

Haworth College of Business News

• Creating Industry Standards
• MYTURN
• #Broncos4Broncos
• Sustainability Champion
• Trailblazers

Crowdfunding: Financing Ventures In The Digital Era, Srinivas K. Reddy, Yee Heng Tan

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School of Business

Over the past few years, digital platforms have emerged as a new way to disrupt industries. These platforms not only connect riders and drivers, like Uber, or hosts and guests, like Airbnb, but also ventures and funders. Crowdfunding platforms like Lendingclub or Kickstarter have gained widespread visibility and acceptance in recent years. Crowdfunding was virtually non-existent until 2010 but has been growing exponentially since 2010. In 2015, the volume rose to US$34.4 billion, slightly surpassing the venture capitalist industry and is expected to continue growing quickly.

Information Technology Prioritization, In Merger Integration: A Grounded Theory Approach, Sandesh Dayanand Raikar

Dissertations and Theses Collection

This exploratory study, examines the significance of Information Technology (IT) Prioritization during the due diligence phase, in a merger integration scenario. In a world where firms are becoming increasingly dependent on information systems and technology, IT continues to play a progressively significant role within organizations. There is growing literature, on the increasing importance of IT in the business environment. However, till date, neither has there been a study regarding the role and impact of IT prioritization and IT integration schedule on the overall synergy savings, nor is there a study on the relationship between IT prioritization and the achievement of …

Dispositions Of First Year Teachers Who Teach Mathematics For Social Justice, Kyndall A. Brown

Journal of Multicultural Affairs

For over 10 years, mathematics educators have sought to use mathematics tasks with social justice contexts to engage students. While student teachers in the UCLA Teacher Education Program (TEP) engage in social justice tasks in their secondary mathematics method classes, very few teachers use these types of tasks with students in the classrooms. The master’s inquiry projects of three TEP students who engaged their students in social justice tasks are analyzed to determine how their backgrounds and positionality influenced their instructional decision making. Results show that personal experiences in the teachers’ lives, as well as a desire to increase motivation …

Can Tweets Predict Intraday Stock Price Movements?, Diwas Puri

Honors Projects in Finance

Twitter is a microblogging platform where over 320 million people post about things that matter to them in less than 140 characters. People post about their happiness, sadness, pride, disappointments, love, hate, expectations and other feelings. Nowadays, a popular trend has come up in which data from Twitter, can be gathered and analyzed in real time to see how people react to a particular situation including changes in stock markets. This research focuses on looking into the relationship, if any, between public mood from Twitter and the stock market returns by analyzing the Tweets about four major companies in consumer …

Worcester Black Small Businesses And Racial Inequality In Wealth, Shamen Laquan Radcliffe

Sustainability and Social Justice

This research presents findings from scholarly literature, two background cases, and three key informant interviews about why Black small businesses might receive less loan assistance through the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) than White small businesses. Specifically, it addresses whether racial inequality in wealth explains why Black small business owners receive less loan assistance than their White counterparts in the City of Worcester. By examining existing literature around topic, this research offers policy recommendations to improve conditions for Black small businesses and their minority counterparts in the small business market.

A Decade Of Progress Toward Ending The Intensive Confinement Of Farm Animals In The United States, Sara Shields, Paul Shapiro, Andrew Rowan

Farm Animal Welfare Collection

In this paper, the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) farm animal protection work over the preceding decade is described from the perspective of the organization. Prior to 2002, there were few legal protections for animals on the farm, and in 2005, a new campaign at the HSUS began to advance state ballot initiatives throughout the country, with a decisive advancement in California (Proposition 2) that paved the way for further progress. Combining legislative work with undercover farm and slaughterhouse investigations, litigation and corporate engagement, the HSUS and fellow animal protection organizations have made substantial progress in transitioning the …

Practical Steps For The Utilization Of Action Research In Your Organization: A Qualitative Approach For Non-Academic Research, Paul J. Antonellis Jr., Gwendolyn Berry

Management Faculty Publications

Action research is different from traditional research. Action research is more practice based as it is implementing an intervention to improve a problem. Action research involves collaboration and communication between the researcher and the participants within the study. The purpose of this article is to explain the multi-step process for a non-academic researcher or novice researcher when employing qualitative action research in an organization that is looking to solve a complex issue. The article will explore the action research steps for conducting phone employment interviews within the organization and an example of the process to follow. The outlined steps can …

Water-Based Strategies For Making The Small Beverage Industry In New England More Sustainable And Climate-Change Resilient, Michelle Kozminski

Sustainability and Social Justice

Water is a vital resource to the ecosystem, human life, and the economy. However, it is a limited resource that is threatened by a changing climate. The small beverage industry relies on large amounts of high quality water and is therefore at risk due to the uncertainties of climate change. This paper explores how the small beverage industry in New England approaches water to ensure that the industry is sustainable in the long term. A water threatened brewery in California, Sierra Nevada Brewing Company, is used to determine “best practices.” Three small beverage companies in New England are examined to …

Relationship Between Generations Of Entrepreneurs And Entrepreneurial Traits, Ihsan Eken

Theses & Dissertations

This quantitative descriptive study investigated the relationship between 3 different generations of entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship traits. The specific purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between entrepreneurial traits and generations of U.S. entrepreneurs in Southwest (San Antonio), Northeast (Dallas), Center (Austin), and Southeast (Houston) Texas, to see whether generational differences are associated with entrepreneurial traits. 3 different generations of entrepreneurs were investigated in the study: baby boomers, generations Xers, and millennials. The research aimed to contribute beneficial insights to their understanding in enterprising potential and differentiate themselves in entrepreneurial traits in (a) need for achievement, (b) need for …

Ada News - 05/01/2017, American Dental Association, Publishing Division

ADA News

Established in 1970 as the official newspaper of the American Dental Association, the ADA News serves practicing dentists and others allied to the dental profession in the U.S. and internationally. It is the No. 1 source of news and information about the many benefits and services the ADA delivers to members daily as well as timely information on scientific, social, political and economic developments affecting dentistry and health care.

Beyond Moneyball: Changing Compensation In Mlb, Joshua Congdon-Hohman, Jonathan A. Lanning

Economics Department Working Papers

This study examines the changes in player compensation in Major League Baseball during the last three decades. Specifically, we examine the extent to which recently documented changes in players’ compensation structure based on certain types of productivity fits in with the longer term trends in compensation, and identify the value of specific output activities in different time periods. We examine free agent contracts in three-year periods across three decades and find changes to which players’ performance measures are significantly rewarded in free agency. We find evidence that the compensation strategies of baseball teams increased the rewards to “power” statistics like …

Umass Memorial Healthcare Information System Job Ladder, Matthew Simoncini, Vamsi Kavuru, Antariksh Nanda, Tahaseen Mahaboob Basha, Vikram Patil

School of Professional Studies

The capstone project report emphasizes the importance of a job ladder and the need of an hour to implement it at UMASS Memorial health care. The scope of this project is to create a well-established job ladder at UMASS with pre-defined standards on job levels related to Information Technology department that would facilitate in hiring, developing and promoting employees at various stages.

A Learning Framework For The Ywca Central Massachusetts, Dayna Ankermann, Manjushree Burdekar, Priyanka Joshi, Ying Song, Yumeng Chen, Xing Xie

School of Professional Studies

After meeting with the Director of Wellness and Health Equity at the YWCA Central Massachusetts (which will be referred to as the YWCA from here on out), we learned that as a non-profit gym and health center, it is heavily underfunded. The main focus of the project was to determine how to upkeep the facility while bringing in new customers with limited resources and budget. Due to the needs of the YWCA, our group focused on six aspects: revenue stream, donor retention, increasing membership, customer experience, social media marketing, and membership fee structure. After completing extensive research, we were able …

Human Services Management (Hsm) Certificate Program Expansion To Western Massachusetts Feasibility Study, Paul Campbell, Patrick Deschenes, Maria Pacheco, Bradley Paul, Elizabeth Vittum, Jing Zhang

School of Professional Studies

One of the most popular cost-savings programs that the Providers’ Council currently offers its members is a Certificate in Nonprofit Human Service Management (HSM) provided in partnership with Clark University and Suffolk University. As human services providers are struggling to hire and retain qualified staff, the need to provide professional development opportunities to help grow and expand a skilled health and human services workforce is a critical issue facing nonprofit organizations and communities in Massachusetts. This feasibility study examines the viability of Providers’ Council and Clark University expanding its HSM Certificate Program to organizations and staff located in western Massachusetts. …

Somali National University, Sharmarke Abdulla, Nikala Pieroni, Jenna Caskie, Sergii Odnodvorets, Tanyue Gong, Lahari Dasari

School of Professional Studies

The executive summary presents an overview of the principal conclusions and recommendations for Somali National University Faculty of Education (FoEd) regarding the following concerns: Difficulty with recruiting high quality prospects to the FoEd; Ineffective and counterintuitive use of social media as a tool to improve brand equity, as well as as a tool to attract and communicate with prospective and current students; Unbalanced gender ratio of current student body; Absence of student services and student supports; Low student retention rate; Limited resources for academic advising; This document is the result of a Clark University School of Professional Studies Capstone Project.

Putting The Honey On The Table: A Business Plan To Create A Successful Part-Time Beekeeping Operation, Samuel L. Goll

Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness Undergraduate Honors Theses

The objective of this thesis was to use a survey targeted at different niche markets to gain insights about different honey bee products and thereby to provide information for their economic feasibility when produced on a small, local scale for retailers that support such producers and cater to such consumer demand. Since cost of production information about operating an apiary is widely available, the focus of this work was on gaining marketing knowledge. One of the aspects of the survey was to develop a better sense of what potential resellers of honey bee products considered locally-produced. Another objective was to …

An Assessment Of Economic Considerations For Industrial Hemp Production, Luke T. Lane

Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness Undergraduate Honors Theses

The Farm Bill now allows for the legal production and research of industrial hemp as long as it meets the standards outlined in the Farm Bill. The bill passed by the House of Representatives states, “To amend the Controlled Substances Act to exclude industrial hemp from the definition of marihuana, and for other purposes” (House of Representatives, Bill 525). Prior to the passing of this bill, farmers were not allowed to produce industrial hemp. Industrial hemp is defined as, “the plant Cannabis sativa L. and any part of such plant, whether growing or not, with a delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol concentration of …

Cost Benefit Analysis Of Genetic Markers In Cattle, Josh Crystal

Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness Undergraduate Honors Theses

Genetic sequencing in beef cattle (L. Bos Taurus) is expected to aid producers select cattle with traits that enhance profitability. Using data from experimental trials conducted with Angus, Brahman, and their reciprocal cross, this project analyzes the profitability of grazing endophyte infected tall Fescue (L. Festuca arundinacea Schreb.) vs. Bermuda grass (L. Cynodon dactylon) pasture. The study is unique in the sense that actual cow-calf breeding failure rates (open cows were not culled) were tracked from 1991 to 1997 on herds that were bred to calf in spring and either exposed to fungal endophyte (L.Acremonium coenophialum Morgan-Jones …

To Be Or Not To Be An Ethnic Firm: An Analysis Of Identity Strategies In Immigrant-Owned Organizations, Diya Das, Eileen Kwesiga, Shruti R. Sardeshmukh, Norma Juma

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

In this article, we develop a theoretical framework that draws on the concepts of liability of foreignness and social identity theory in the context of immigrant entrepreneurship.

Short-Term Bias And Strategic Misalignment In Operational Solutions: Perceptions, Tendencies, And Traps, Rick Hardcopf, Paulo Gonçalves, Kevin Linderman, Elliot Bendoly

Management Faculty Publications

In this study, we use a multi-method approach to examine the following questions: when faced with explicit profit gaps, does a firm’s strategic orientation influence manager perceptions regarding the ability of various tactical options to resolve the gap, do managers feel pressure to pursue certain tactical options over others, and what implications do tactical mismatches with strategy have for long-term gap resolution? As part of the research process, we build a grounded systems model (using grounded theory and Systems Dynamics techniques) which attempts to capture how tactical changes, in combination with the firm’s competitive strategy, can ostensibly impact a firm’s …

Understanding Youtube Culture And How It Affects Today's Media, Jessica A. Zanatta

Senior Theses

The rise and growth of YouTube has created some of the biggest social media and marketing entrepreneurs and has enabled its audience to navigate the platform to their liking. Because of the business franchise YouTube has become a catalyst for famous YouTube creators, regular people with a dream to make it in the “Hollywood Industry.” YouTube provided the resources to these stars, so they would could share their content and be given the opportunity to partner with other Public Relations and Marketing teams for other businesses.

Pollution And Politicians: The Effect Of Pm On Mps, Anthony Heyes, Nicholas Rivers, Brandon Schaufele

Business Publications

Applying methods of textual and stylometric analysis to all 119,225 speeches made in the Canadian House of Commons between 2006 and 2011, we establish that air pollution reduces the speech quality of Canadian Members of Parliament (MPs). Exposure to fine particulate matter concentrations exceeding 15 μg/m3 causes a 3.1 percent reduction in the quality of MPs speech (equivalent to a 3.6 months of education). For more difficult communication tasks the decrement in quality is equivalent to the loss of 6.5 months of schooling. Our design accounts for the potential endogeneity of exposure and controls for many potential confounders including individual …

Ua25/2 25 Year Club Recognition Banquet, Wku Human Resources

WKU Administration Documents

Program for 25 year service awards banquet with list of recipients.

Demographic Characteristics And The Bounds Of Occupational Choice, Cheryl K. Mcintosh

Business Administration Dissertations - Archive

The purpose of this research is to examine the relationships between race, gender, generation, perceptions of discrimination, and socioeconomic status (SES) of origin and the prestige level of occupational choice. This study finds that the prestige level of occupational choice is significantly related to background factors that are outside of the control of the individual. This suggests that the interaction between race, gender, generation, perceptions of discrimination, and SES of origin may shape the choices that people make, potentially calling into question the extent of control that people have over their occupational choices. This is an important addition to the …

Institutional Investors And Cross-Border Mergers And Acquisitions: The 2000-2012 Period, Jinsuk Yang

Finance and Real Estate Dissertations - Archive

Using mergers and acquisitions (M&As) from 26 countries between 2000 and 2012, I examine the role of foreign and domestic institutional investors in cross-border M&As. I have several findings. First, both foreign and domestic institutional ownerships increase significantly during the period 2000-2012.Meanwhile, the volume of the cross-border M&As does not increase during the same time period. Second, domestic institutional investors facilitate both domestic and cross-border M&As. However, this seems to be inconsistent with the negative impact of domestic institutional ownership on the intensity of cross-border M&A activity, as reported in Ferreira et al. (2010). I discover that domestic institutional investors …

Essays On Product Market Dynamics And Corporate Cash Holdings Across Countries, Trang Thuy Thai

Finance and Real Estate Dissertations - Archive

My dissertation is composed of two essays that investigate two related yet distinct dynamics of product market and their influence on corporate cash holdings, and both are concerned with these dynamics being determinants of cash policy for international samples over the period of 1999-2015. The samples for the first and second essays respectively cover fourteen and ten countries that span not only developed countries but also emerging economies. The first essay focuses on the impact of product market competition risk on corporate cash level. I construct a composite score of competition that captures three horizontal dimensions of product pricing competition …

Cognitive Biases, Style Investing, And Stock Return Predictability, Samar Mohamed M. Ashour

Finance and Real Estate Dissertations - Archive

This dissertation consists of three distinct essays. In the first essay, “Does Credit risk explain market’s participants ‘cognitive biases - Evidence from Anchoring Bias in Analysts’ Earnings Forecasts”, using anchoring bias in analysts’ earnings forecasts, I examine the relation between credit risk and market participants’ cognitive biases. Recent findings indicate that analysts suffer from anchoring bias as they anchor their earnings per share (EPS) forecasts on the industry median without making sufficient adjustment. I show that the profitability of anchoring bias based trading strategies concentrates in the worst-rated stocks, especially around credit rating downgrades, suggesting that analysts exhibit stronger cognitive …

Three Essays On The Role Of Sales Strategy In Salesperson Performance, Eddie Inyang

Marketing Dissertations - Archive

The importance of the sales force to implementing organizational strategy has been widely acknowledged in both the academic and practitioner literature. With organizations spending over $800 billion a year on their sales forces, when the activities of the sales force become uncoupled from organizational strategy, it results in direct and indirect costs to the firm. Despite the importance of the sales force to implementing organizational strategy, there have been scant empirical studies in the academic literature on the role of salespeople in implementing strategy. In this dissertation, three essays examine the performance outcomes of salesperson implementation of sales strategy, along …