Business Commons^™

A Video-Based Screening System For Automated Risk Assessment Using Nuanced Facial Features, Steven J. Pentland, Nathan W. Twyman, Judee K. Burgoon, Jay F. Nunamaker, Christopher B.R. Diller

Faculty Publications

This study investigates the development of an automated interviewing system that uses facial behavior as an indicator of the risk of given illicit behavior. Traditional facial emotion indicators of risk in semistructured dialogue may have limitations in an automated approach. However, an initial analysis of mock crime interviews suggests that the face may exhibit some form of rigidity during highly structured interviews. An interviewing system design using facial rigidity analysis was implemented and experimentally evaluated, the results of which further reveal that the rigidity is fairly generalized across the face. Whereas existing theory traditionally focuses on leakage of facial expressions, …

The Impact Of Green Businesses On The Building Of Sustainable Communities, Emily L. Plummer

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

Instilling a sense of community within businesses, the basis of our society, may strengthen community building and therefore our path towards sustainable communities. Thus, through a literature review, buyer behavior, green businesses, sustainable communities, and community building have been defined in order to further research regarding whether green businesses have a more significant impact on the well-being of a community. Additionally, six case studies of local Ypsilanti businesses were conducted through applying the Green America Green Business five-part criteria, sustainable community building criteria, and analogical reasoning to analyze whether a business could be classified as a green company and whether …

The Corporate Exploitation Of Fundamental Rights: A Nation Of Arbitration, Melanie A. Carlson

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis is an in-depth discussion and analysis of the alternative dispute resolution process of arbitration in the United States. It begins by providing a basic explanatory overview of arbitration clauses and the arbitration process. It then goes on to highlight the various benefits over traditional court litigation that arbitration has to offer. From there, the paper presents a detailed discussion of the many shortcomings of the arbitration process. It identifies the overall lack of procedural fairness that exists in arbitration today due to the fact that arbitration currently tends to favor businesses over consumers and workers during dispute settlements. …

Technology Mergers And Acquisitions In The Presence Of An Installed Base: A Strategic Analysis, Qiu-Hong Wang, Kai-Lung Hui

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

We study the strategic benefits of M&A when competing IT vendors sell different generations of the same product with different quality. We assume the new product arrives unexpectedly when an installed base of old product exists. We show that the combination of consumers' purchase history and heterogeneity leads to new demand complexity that gives rise to innovative product strategies. We find that shelving the old product is an important motivation for M&A. The acquirer may exercise static or intertemporal price discrimination depending on whether it can exercise upgrade pricing. M&A may speed up or slow down new product consumption, and …

Improving Search Ranking Using A Composite Scoring Approach, Larry D. Snedden

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, the improvement to relevance in computerized search results is studied. Information search tools return ranked lists of documents ordered by the relevance of the documents to the user supplied search. Using a small number of words and phrases to represent complex ideas and concepts causes user search queries to be information sparse. This sparsity challenges search tools to locate relevant documents for users. A review of the challenges to information searches helps to identify the problems and offer suggestions in improving current information search tools. Using the suggestions put forth by the Strategic Workshop on Information Retrieval …

The Workplace Consequences Of Obesity: Impacts On The Organization, The Employee, And The Proximal Coworker, Michael Johnson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Obesity is a condition affecting billions of people around the world. Its societal, psychological, and health outcomes have been well documented across multiple disciplines. Moreover, obesity leads to serious workplace outcomes for the organization, the obese individual, and the coworkers working around the obese employee. With this multi-chapter dissertation, I review the literature on the workplace consequences of obesity and extend one potentially fruitful area within this literature base: obesity's impact on a proximal employee. Chapter 1 reviews the workplace consequences associated with obesity. The purpose is to evaluate and integrate this multidisciplinary literature so that management scholars can take …

The Effect Of Food Labeling And Environmental Cues On Food Consumption Judgments And Choices., Sarah Lefebvre

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As obesity levels reach epidemic levels globally, an understanding of the multitude of factors that influence both eating behavior and food choice is necessary. This dissertation attempts to investigate the role of emerging food categories, namely organic foods, and the influence of environmental cues on eating behaviors and choices. This goal is accomplished through three essays. The first essay focuses on the organic food trend and consumer taste expectations. Specifically, this essay explores how the presence of an organic label influences taste expectations differently for minimally processed versus highly processed foods due to the level of consistency (congruency) between the …

Gee, Thanks: The Emotional And Structural Forces That Influence Subordinates' Upward Gratitude Expressions, Sharon Sheridan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Recently, relationship scholars have demonstrated the importance of expressions of gratitude in cultivating relational bonds and relational satisfaction between close friends and romantic partners. Although there is growing evidence that gratitude facilitates improved relationships, organizational scholars have largely ignored the importance of gratitude in the workplace. What little we know indicates that expressions of gratitude in organizations may be rare. Indeed, a recent national survey revealed that 74% of the participants rarely, if ever, expressed gratitude to their supervisors (Kaplan, 2012). What might explain this apparent lack of gratitude? Research demonstrates that when individuals feel grateful for the generosity of …

Determinants Of Continuance Intention And Word Of Mouth For Hotel Branded Mobile App Users., Liza Cobos

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the cognitive and affective factors that influence users' post-adoption behavioral intention. Specifically, based on the Expectation Confirmation Model (ECM) (Bhattacherjee, 2001b) the impact of cognitive factors (i.e., perceived usefulness, confirmation of expectations, mobility, personalization and responsiveness) and affective factors (i.e., satisfaction, perceived enjoyment) on hotel branded mobile applications (apps) users' continuance intention and WOM were examined. Hospitality firms invest considerable resources on technology solutions that are aimed at improving the consumer experience. However, for investments to be profitable firms must ensure that technology solutions are continuously used and ensure post-adoptive behaviors such as continuance intention and WOM. …

Power Effects On Consumer Well-Being: Two Essays On The Power Effects On Donation And Material/Experiential Consumption, Yue Liu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Power is a fundamental concept in social science (Russell 1938), which has gained much academic attention in various disciplines. Two essays of this dissertation examine the theoretical and practical implications of power effects on donation decisions and material/experiential consumption. The first essay demonstrates power's moderating effect on the relationship between publicity and donation. Specifically, it is proposed that powerful people tend to donate more in public (vs. private) situation, whereas powerless people do not show such a difference. This effect is driven by people's concern about self-presentation in a donation scenario. Additionally, this effect only holds when people strongly believe …

واقع الاقتصاد العراقي ومتطلبات اصلاحه, ثامر عبد العالي كاظم

Muthanna Journal of Administrative and Economics Sciences

يعد العراق من الدول التي تعاني من تدهور كبير في معدلات النمو الاقتصادي الذي يمثل الهدف الرئيس لجميع الدول ، اذ لا يمكن تصور عملية التنمية بدون ان تكون هناك معدلات مرتفعة ومستمرة من النمو الاقتصادي ، والعراق يعتمد منذ امد بعيد وحتى اليوم على القطاع النفطي الذي يهيمن على نسبة كبيرة تتراوح بين 40 – 62 % من الناتج المحلي الاجمالي و 78 – 98 % من ايرادات الموازنة العامة للدولة وعلى ما نسبته 83 – 99 % من اجمالي الصادرات خلال المدة 2003 – 2014 ، تؤكد هذه البيانات وجود اختلالات بنيوية كبيرة جعلت الاقتصاد العراقي مرهون بتبعيته …

Identifying Key Areas Of Worklife And Their Interactive Effect In Explaining Pakistani Nurses’ Burnout, Faisal Qadeer, Amnah Imtiaz, Imran Hameed

Management Faculty Publications

We examined the effect of incongruence in the areas of worklife (AWL) on burnout of nurses. Specifically, we were interested in identifying the most important AWL and interactions among AWL and psychological resilience in explaining nurses’ burnout. Incongruence in the worklife escalates burnout and resilience is a coping trait. The phenomenon needs to be studied in developing countries where entirely different health dilemmas exist. A cross sectional survey was conducted from 147 nurses. SEM through AMOS 21 and Process Macro of SPSS was used for data analysis. Two AWL namely control and reward, emerged out to be the most important …

Determinants Of Cash Holding Of Listed Manufacturing Companies In The Indonesian Stock Exchange, Muhammad Arfan, Hasan Basri, Risma Handayani, M. Shabri Abd. Majid,, Heru Fahlevi, Azimah Dianah

DLSU Business & Economics Review

This study is primarily aimed at identifying significant factors that affect the level of cash holding of 77 manufacturing companies listed in the Indonesian Stock Exchange for the period 2009 to 2013. Factors normally identified in the literature that affect cash holding, including the levels of growth opportunity, networking capital, and financial leverage of firms, are examined in the study. Other than these variables, this study also incorporated the profitability and capital expenditure of the firms as controlled variables. Out of 138 manufacturing companies, 77 companies were selected as sample of the study using the purposive sampling technique. Secondary data …

The Mars Sales Management Simulation: 10+ Years Later, Joseph Chapman, Russ Wahlers

AMTP Proceedings 2017

The authors discuss the MARS Sales Management Simulation (MARS) based on over 10 years of experience using the simulation in a sales management course. Over the years, the authors have tried a variety of ways of incorporating the MARS game into the sales management course and have written this paper to share their insights. This paper presents an overview of the MARS Sales Management Simulation, how to incorporate MARS into a sales management course, additional sales management assignments that relate to information from the MARS Simulation, advantages of using the simulation, disadvantages of using the simulation, some possible guidelines for …

Corporate Social Responsibility Performance And Outsourcing: The Case Of The Bangladesh Tragedy, Daniel Gyung Paik, Brandon B. Lee, Kip R. Krumwiede

Accounting Faculty Publications

Multinational firms frequently outsource the manufacturing of their products to factories in less- developed countries to take advantage of much lower labor costs. A tragic disaster occurred in Bangladesh in April 2013 when a clothing factory building collapsed, killing more than a thousand workers. Subsequently, textile companies in the U.S. and in Europe who outsource their manufacturing in Bangladesh had to decide whether to commit to better working conditions by signing one of two worker safety agreements (WSAs) born in the after-math of the tragedy. Although many firms signed one of these agreements, many more did not. This study explores …

Short And Long Run Uncertainty, Jose Maria Barrero, Nicholas Bloom, Ian Wright

Faculty Publications

Uncertainty appears to have both a short-run and a long-run component, which we measure using firm and macro implied volatility data from options of 30 days to 10 years duration. We ask what may be driving uncertainty over these different time horizons, finding that oil price volatility is particularly important for short-run uncertainty, policy uncertainty is particularly important for long-run uncertainty, while currency volatility and CEO turnover appear to equally impact shortand long-run uncertainty. Examining a panel of over 4,000 firms from 1996 to 2013 we find that R&D is relatively more sensitive to long-run uncertainty than investment, and in …

Bankruptcy Spillovers, Shai Bernstein, Emanuele Colonnelli, Xavier Giroud, Benjamin Iverson

Faculty Publications

How do different bankruptcy approaches affect the local economy? Using U.S. Census microdata at the establishment level, we explore the spillover effects of reorganization and liquidation on geographically proximate firms. We exploit the random assignment of bankruptcy judges as a source of exogenous variation in the probability of liquidation. We find that within a five-year period, employment declines substantially in the immediate neighborhood of the liquidated establishments, relative to reorganized establishments. Most of the decline is due to lower growth of existing establishments and, to a lesser extent, reduced entry into the area. The spillover effects are highly localized and …

Behaviorally Informed Policies For Household Financial Decisionmaking, Brigitte C. Madrian, Hal E. Hershfield, Abigail B. Sussman, Saurabh Bhargava, Jeremy Burke, Scott A. Huettel, Julian Jamison, Eric J. Johnson, John G. Lynch, Stephan Meier, Scott Rick, Suzanne B. Shu

Faculty Publications

Low incomes, limited financial literacy, fraud, and deception are just a few of the many intractable economic and social factors that contribute to the financial difficulties that households face today. Addressing these issues directly is difficult and costly. But poor financial outcomes also result from systematic psychological tendencies, including imperfect optimization, biased judgments and preferences, and susceptibility to influence by the actions and opinions of others. Some of these psychological tendencies and the problems they cause may be countered by policies and interventions that are both low cost and scalable. We detail the ways that these behavioral factors contribute to …

The Mediating Roles Of Upward Social Comparison And Self-Esteem And The Moderating Role Of Social Comparison Orientation In The Association Between Social Networking Site Usage And Subjective Well-Being, Jin-Liang Wang, Hai-Zhen Wang, James Gaskin, Skyler Hawk

Faculty Publications

The increased pervasiveness of social media use has raised questions about potential effects on users’ subjective well-being, with studies reaching contrasting conclusions. To reconcile these discrepancies and shed new light on this phenomenon, the current study examined: (1) whether upward social comparison and self-esteem mediate the association between social networking site (SNS) usage and users’ subjective well-being, and (2) whether the association between SNS usage and upward social comparison is moderated by users’ social comparison orientation. Data from 696 participants were collected. Structural equation modeling revealed that upward social comparison and self-esteem mediated the relationship between SNS usage and users’ …

Internet-Based Behavior Of It Professionals: Implications For Online Ergonomic Education To Prevent Work-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders, Priyadarshini Pattath

Theses and Dissertations

INTERNET-BASED BEHAVIOR OF IT PROFESSIONALS: IMPLICATIONS FOR ONLINE ERGONOMIC EDUCATION TO PREVENT WORK-RELATED MUSCULOSKELETAL DISORDERS

By Priyadarshini Pattath, Ph.D. A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Virginia Commonwealth University Virginia Commonwealth University, 2017 Director: Dr. Robin Hurst, Assistant Professor of Adult Learning, Teaching and Learning,

School of Education

The purpose of this study was to explore the preferences of medium of ergonomic education and views about self-directed online training modules to prevent musculoskeletal disorders in computer professionals and understand their perspectives and experiences about online health information seeking using a …

Social Sustainability: The Role Of Ecotourism In Regenerating Cultural And Environmental Histories In Rio De Janeiro, Nia Mcallister

Pomona Senior Theses

Ecotourism is a rapidly growing global export industry that aims to uphold the ethics of responsible tourism by engaging with local communities and encouraging environmentally conscious travel. With existing critiques of the greenwashing of ecotourism and the tendency for tourism agencies to exploit host communities, I advocate for participatory community-based models of ecotourism. This thesis explores both the material and conceptual benefits of community-based ecotourism through the critical examination of community-based ecotourism projects in Rio de Janeiro Brazil. Focusing on the implementation of ecotourism in of some of Rio de Janeiro’s peripheral communities, areas that are impacted by social and …

From Yosemite To A Global Market: How Patagonia, Inc. Has Created An Environmentally Sustainable And Socially Equitable Model Of Supply-Chain Management, Mary-Clare Bosco

Pomona Senior Theses

There is an urgent pressure of the time (2016) to re-evaluate our patterns of consumption to adapt to changing climates and reduce waste and pollution. Because an immediate restructuring of global production strategies is not likely any time soon, industrial innovators are finding new ways of redesigning supply-chain management in efforts to move towards environmentally sustainable business in which all manufacturing practices are transparent. Patagonia, Inc. is a testament to the often-debated question of economic value in green business practices, and this thesis acts as an outline as to how they arrived at such an impressive presence in the business …

Eco-Label Certification: A Case Study Of The Campeche Shrimp Fishery, Mexico, Antonio Di Cintio, Luis Bourillón Moreno

Gulf and Caribbean Research

The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) eco—label certifies that seafood comes from a sustainable source. The use of this eco—label lags behind in the developing world, where ecosystem approaches to fishery management have not yet been widely implemented. However, the Food and Agriculture Organization under its REBYC—II LAC project is addressing ecosystem concerns within the shrimp trawl fisheries of a number of developing countries in Latin America and the Caribbean by helping them to improve management of the negative ecosystem impacts by modifying their gear to reduce by—catch and habitat damage. This study investigates how the potential improvements identified by the …

The Expansion Of Financial Regulation To Include Humanitarian Issues:An Examination Of The Development Of Conflict Mineral Reporting Requirements Using Actor-Network Theory, Robert Tennant

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study conceptually and empirically examines the establishment of certain financial regulation that resulted from the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) of 2007-2009. The crisis led to the establishment of the most extensive change in the regulation of the financial sector since the Great Depression (Green, 2011). During the forty years leading up to the crisis, the United States had engaged in a process of increased deregulation to promote greater efficiency (Yaron & Hendershott, 1998). The belief that reduced regulation would improve efficiency and foster innovation became the mantra of many economic advisers to policy setters, to the point that as …

Three Studies Examining The Effects Of Informal Management Control Systems And Incentive Compensation Schemes On Employees' Performance, Kazeem Akinyele

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is comprised of three studies investigating the effects of informal management control systems (MCS) and different types of incentive compensation schemes on employees' performance. Prior research describes informal MCS as implicit sets of structures that management adopts to encourage employees to act in a way that aligns with overall organizational goals (Berry et al. 2009). Management usually puts informal MCS in place to inspire self-regulation behaviors among employees; hence, management may not reward or penalize employee behavior that is consistent or inconsistent with this informal MCS (Berry et al. 2009; Christ et al. 2008). Informal controls are implied …

Three Studies Examining Accountability In Auditing, Amy Donnelly

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This is dissertation consists of three studies investigating accountability in auditing. It is aimed at gaining a better understanding of how auditors make decision in the presence of accountability pressure. The first study is a literature review of the experimental audit research on accountability. It provides a conceptual framework for organizing prior research on this topic and offers opportunities for future research. The second study experimentally investigates accountability as a potential mitigating mechanism for the performance declines caused by ego depletion. Auditors are shown to be susceptible to depletion, but research has yet to consider how a natural element of …

Three Essays On The Compensation, Structure, And Decision Making Of The Board Of Directors, Duong Pham

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

My first essay examines compensation of newly formed boards of directors following tax-free corporate spin-offs. The empirical results show newly formed spin-off boards are paid significantly more than peer boards in the same industry with similar firm size. Higher compensation is observed for spin-off firms where the CEOs are not formerly employed by the parent firms but not for spin-off firms with parent related CEOs, indicating that new directors demand higher compensation for the work involved in setting up the new governing system for the spun-off firms especially when there is a brand new CEO managing the spinoff firm. Differences …

Three Essays On Market Efficiency And Corporate Diversification, Fawzi Jaber Hyder

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In my first essay, I use additions to the S&P 500 index as a laboratory to investigate how the interaction between arbitrageurs and arbitrage risk affects security prices. I find that the price effect is strong when there is high arbitrage risk (as measured by the lack of close substitutes) and low presence of arbitrageurs (as measured by low ownership by active institutions). Furthermore, a strong presence of arbitrageurs moderates the effect of arbitrage risk on the post-addition price reaction of added stocks. I also find a significant decrease in arbitrageurs' ownership in the added stocks post addition. More importantly, …

Why Mobile Money Users Keep Increasing? Investigating The Continuance Usage Of Mobile Money Services In Tanzania, Daniel Koloseni, Herman Mandari

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

This study examined factors that affect continuance usage of mobile money services in Tanzania. The Theory of Planned Behavior was adopted as a theoretical foundation of the study. The theory was further extended by including the constructs of perceived cost, perceived trust and satisfaction as determinants of mobile money service continuance usage behaviour. A total of 309 valid and reliable responses collected using questionnaires were used for data analysis. The data were analysed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) approach. The findings depict that perceived trust, attitude and perceived behavioral control have significant influence on continuance behavioral intention while perceived trust, …

Case Analyses Of Standard Accounting Practices, Warren N. Ball

Honors Theses

The completion of this thesis is due mostly in thanks to ACCY 420, a class designed by the Patterson School of Accountancy and taught by Dr. Victoria Dickinson that gives accounting students a structured process for designing their theses on purposeful accounting topics. During my Junior and Senior years, there was a whirlwind of activity surrounding accounting students: accounting classes step into a new realm of difficulty, internship recruiting begins, and eventually my peers and I departed for multi-month internships. All of that activity left us with far less time to work on our theses than students in other academic …