Business Commons^™

The Volkswagen Scandal, Britt Blackwelder, Katerine Coleman, Sara Colunga-Santoyo, Jeffrey S. Harrison, Danielle Wozniak

Robins Case Network

Volkswagen is one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world. For years the company has focused on producing attractive and environmentally friendly automobiles, and recent initiatives have included a project to reduce CO² production, along with advertisements claiming lower emission of greenhouse gases. The world was shocked to hear that Volkswagen had been producing diesel engines for its cars that were able to trick emissions testing equipment. The engines were producing many times the EPA standards for emissions, yet they passed emission tests. This case provides detailed information about the scandal as well as information about the history, …

Defensive Ability And Salary Determination In Major League Baseball, Christopher B. Shorey

Honors Theses

The process of salary determination in Major League Baseball (MLB) includes multiple levels of bargaining power and performance determinants. Previous studies of MLB salary determination have used a variety of measures of player performance. This paper examines the effect defensive ability has on salary determination for arbitration eligible players and for free agent players. Specifically, it will analyze player salary/contract data negotiated during the 2012-2015 period along with performance data from past seasons to examine the extent to which fielding percentage, errors, and the more recently developed measures of defensive ability affect player salary. Particular attention is paid to matching …

Global Reach, Local Markets: The Challenges Of Leading Global Innovation, Sarah Higgins

Honors Theses

This Global Studies honors thesis addresses how managers and leaders of global firms manage innovation across multiple markets. Current research on multinational corporations provides an understanding of different kinds of innovation and the ways to attend to multiple markets. However, there is less documentation of how these innovation strategies are actually implemented on the ground and the tensions that these efforts might produce. Therefore, my research focuses in particular on the challenges and tensions faced by leaders of global firms as they implement transnational innovation strategies. This study is based upon in-depth interviews with 20 participants who held positions in …

Accelerating Expertise To Facilitate Decision Making In High-Risk Professions Using The Dacum System, Ralph Kuchenbrod

Masters Theses

The purpose of this research was to determine whether the process of achieving occupational expertise could be accelerated enabling operators in high risk vocations to make effective decisions earlier in their careers. Scholars have hypothesized good decision making skills are largely a result of relevant experience within the specific domain. The rationale being that the greater the experience an individual has the more likely the operator has experienced similar situations and can apply solutions that have been successful in the past. Two distinct methods of decision making have been identified: traditional decision making and naturalistic decision making (NDM).

The ability …

Aau Basketball - Participants' Perceptions Of Their Aau Experience, Hakeem R. Willis

Masters Theses

In the United States, the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) has become the focal point for college recruiters in searching for top talent amongst middle and high school basketball athletes. Financially, AAU basketball can be expensive, making it difficult for families to allow their children to compete. However, players feel that AAU participation is worth the investment because of the benefits, which includes collegiate exposure. The purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions of former AAU basketball players' experience. The research question used to guide this study was: what are former AAU basketball players' perceptions of academic requirements, time/money, …

Royal Uncertainty: An In-Depth Analysis Of The Potential Affects Of Brexit On The U.K. Art Market, Ashley Solmer

MA Projects

The United Kingdom, most notably London, has been known on the international commerce scene as a pivotal trade center for many centuries acting as a stepping stone from Europe to the Western World. Even though the economic importance of London can be dated back to early times, the inherent popularity of its art market only began flourishing in the late eighteenth century, riding on the back of the already established, but restrictive, art epicenter in Paris. The rise and prominence of Paris’ art market from 17^th to 19^th century eventually came to an end at the heels of …

Business Plan - Art Marketing, Michelle Yu

MA Projects

Michianna & Co. is an art marketing company focusing on promoting Chinese contemporary artists in the Western art market (mainly New York).

Birkin Demand: A Sage & Stylish Investment, Brittanny Newsom

MA Projects

Hermès is a French high-fashion luxury goods manufacturer established in 1837. They specialize in leather and lifestyle accessories. Hermès is perhaps best known for selling the Birkin bag, a handmade leather tote sold as a personal accessory. Launched in 1983, the Birkin emerged from an exchange between former Hermès chief executive Jean-Louis Dumas and famous British actress and style icon Jane Birkin.1 The pair were seated next to each other on a flight from Paris back to London. Birkin had placed her flimsy straw carryall in the overhead compartment of her seat, and the contents of her bag spilled out …

Should I Invest In Art?, Alexandra Eldridge

MA Projects

One of the more interesting ways to consider the perennial is art a good investment? question is by looking at the various ways that the art market does or does not behave like other markets. When comparing art as an asset class to more traditional assets, we first need to ask ourselves – are the two even comparable? This article explores the idiosyncrasies of the art world, compares the claims people make regarding art's investment potential to the available research studies, discusses some non-monetary motives for buying, and may even have an answer for the nagging art-as-investment question.

Arts In The Hotel Industry: Bridging Creative And Financial Goals For A Twenty-First Century Experience, Yookyoung Kong

MA Projects

The hospitality landscape of cities has changed significantly in recent years: hotels are themselves destinations. The trend is to manage atmospheric interior yet not overwhelming the area with pieces. However, the fine line separating art and design has become increasingly blurry. This article will analyze the implications of displaying world-class contemporary art in hotels. In essence, art has the potential to transform the industry even further. It could even be said that exhibitions can be a boon to hotel business. Furthermore, this paper demonstrates that the emergence of boutique and life hotels will facilitate the movement of displaying artwork in …

Huntington Coin Collection And Donation Protection, Zhengcheng Li

MA Projects

Mr. Archer M. Huntington (1870-1955) was one of the greatest collector and donor in American history at the early 20th century. He was the founder of Hispanic Society of America and the president of American Numismatic Society. During his lifetime, he set up one of the most important Hispanic coin collection and donated all these coins to Hispanic Society of America in the meanwhile loaned to American Numismatic for study and research purpose. After he passed by, at 2008 Hispanic Society of America sued against America Numismatic Society for getting back the Huntington coin collection with other related documents and …

Key Flaws In The European Commission’S Proposals For Foreign Investor Protection In Ttip, Gus Van Harten

Osgoode Legal Studies Research Paper Series

In November 2015, the European Commission released a proposed text on foreign investor protection in the EU-US Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). In this paper, I outline key flaws in this proposal, including language buried in the text that significantly undermines the EC's proposed provisions on the investment court system (ICS) and on the right to regulate.

The Duty Of Corporate Directors To Tie Executive Compensation To The Long-Term Sustainability Of The Firm, Alberto Salazar, Muthana Mohamed

Osgoode Legal Studies Research Paper Series

Executive compensation is said to be for performance and, in liberal market economies, the board of directors along with compensation committees have largely been in charge of safeguarding pay for performance. This executive compensation system is legally protected by the business judgment rule (a strong judicial deference) and has recently been supplemented with shareholders’ ‘say on pay’. Further legal or government intervention has been deemed unnecessary. However, such system has resulted in extremely excessive executive compensation, outrageous pay disparities between executives and workers, poor or short-term performance, recurrent corporate failures and economic recession. This paper explores the need for a …

Universities And Innovation In A Factor-Driven Economy: The Performance Of Universities In Egypt., Hala Elhadidi, David A. Kirby

Business Administration

In the modern knowledge-based global economy, universities are being required to operate more entrepreneurially, commercialising the results of their research and spinning out new knowledge-based enterprises. In this article, the third in the series (El Hadidi and Kirby, 2015a and b), case studies are presented of activities in 3 Egyptian universities in order to demonstrate what is being done and the challenges Egyptian universities are facing when attempting to collaborate with industry and contribute to the innovation process. The results reveal that the initiatives are often the result of external influences and are not embedded within the core strategic planning …

Investigating Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure By Banks From Institutional Theory Perspective, Wafaa Salah, Iman Mohamed Arafa

Business Administration

Previous research on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has mainly focused on the companies operating in different industry 􀏐ields. Yet, a limited number of research has investigated the CSR practices at the banking sector. Accordingly, this study attempts to add further knowledge to this domain by measuring and comparing the extent and quality of CSR practices and its components which are: Employees, Community, Environment and Corporate governance at a larger geographical scale. Moreover, the relationship between institutional environment and the CSR and its components will be empirically examined. Secondary data provided by CSRHUB database is used for a sample of 231 …

Comparative Efficiency Study Between Islamic And Traditional Banks, Mohamed Rashwan, Heba Ehab

Business Administration

Islamic banking caught attention due to its resilience to the significant shocks that hit the economy in late 2008. This research aims to evaluate the efficiency of a sample of 66 banks including both Islamic and traditional banks in various countries ranging from Egypt, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Iraq, Emirates, Sudan, Turkey, Bahrain and Jordan throughout 2009-2014. This research aims at identifying which banking regime proves to be more efficient and its significance using Financial Ratio Analysis (FRA), composed of cost efficiency, revenue efficiency and profit efficiency ratios along with the One-way ANOVA test. The impact of efficiency …

The Impact Of Corporate Governance On Stock Price And Trade Volume, Wafaa Salah, May Elewa

Business Administration

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether corporate governance is associated with stock prices and trade volume for 62 publicly traded firms on the Egyptian Stock Exchange during 2007-2014. The authors hypothesize that firms with strong corporate governance have a significant impact on stock prices and trade volume. To examine the associations, a multiple regression analysis is used. Consistent with the first hypothesis, this study finds firms with strong corporate governance have a significant impact on stock prices while has no significant impact on trade volume. Findings indicate that the quality of corporate governance can affect firms' stock …

A Quantitative Analysis For The Correlation Between Corporate Financial And Social Performance, Wafaa Salah, Mostafa Salama

Business Administration

Recently, corporate social performance (CSP) is not less important than corporate financial performance (CFP). Debate still exists about the nature of the relationship between the CSP and CFP, whether it is a positive, negative, or a neutral correlation. The objective of this study is to explore the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports and CFP. The study uses the accounting-based and market-based quantitative measures to quantify the financial performance of seven organizations listed on the Egyptian Stock Exchange in 2007-2014. Then uses the information retrieval technologies to quantify the contribution of each of the three dimensions of the corporate …

Examining The Relationship Between Customer Service, Efficiency And Financial Performance: An Application On The Egyptian Public Sector Banks, Madiha Metawie, Dalia Ahmed Elmosalamy

Business Administration

A sound, well-functioning banking system has an essential role in the economic development and sustained growth of any country. Egypt has faced two unexpected shocks; the global financial crisis at the end of 2008 and the recent 2011, January revolution. The Egyptian banking system in general and public banks in specific have shown resilience to the unexpected shocks in terms of solvency and liquidity. This study is important, examining the banking sector in an emerging Arab market that is rarely studied despite its growth potential and in a period of rapid political and economic changes. It tends to investigate empirically …

Determinants Of Fdi Flows To Developing Countries: An Empirical Study On The Mena Region, Dalia Ahmed Elmosalamy, Sherif M. Abbas

Business Administration

Many studies have provided evidence that foreign direct investment (hereafter FDI) can convey great advantages to host countries and can have important positive effects on their development efforts and economic growth. This paper contributes to the extant literature by providing evidence on the main determinants of FDI inflows and exploring the hindering factors that may have a negative influence on FDI and consequently economic growth. Our focus is the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region over the period 2006 to 2013, a period of great economic and political turbulence and uncertainty. To conduct this study, regression with time series …

Strategies Independent Coffee Shop Owners Require To Survive Beyond Five Years, Bruce Higdon

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Successful independent coffee shop owners in Washington struggle to compete with the larger coffee shop chains. The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to investigate what strategies owners of independent coffee shops in Washington use to survive beyond the first 5 years. Five independent coffee shop owners in Washington participated in the study and shared their practices and observations. Systems theory directed the study exploring the perspectives of successful independent coffee shop owners in Washington. Using communication skills and personal availability to answer questions and remain in contact throughout the research process built a rapport with participants. Data …

Event Program: 2016 Sapphire Symposium And Awards: Health Transformation: The Power Of Engagement The Honorees – Past And Present, Florida Blue Foundation

Florida Blue Archives Printed Materials

No abstract provided.

Modesty In The Top Management Team, Center For Executive Succession

Research Briefs

•Minority CEOs could be hindered by bias, or might be in high demand, and there’s reason to expect either. • Female CEOs make 6% more, and ethnically diverse CEOs make 32% more total compensation than their similarly situated white male counterparts. • This is not necessarily evidence that bias does not exist at the highest levels of the firm – females and ethnic minorities are still substantially underrepresented among for CEOs.

Ceo Influence On Corporate Reputation, Center For Executive Succession

Research Briefs

• High reputation CEOs positively affect the firm’s reputation. • Negative press coverage for a CEO damages a firm’s reputation. • A CEO’s prominence is insufficient to raise a firm’s reputation on its own.

Firm Contexts And The Ceo's Organizational Identification, Center For Executive Succession

Research Briefs

• Positive firm performance and image motivate the CEO to identify with the firm. • Providing CEOs with ownership of the firm and tying their compensation to firm performance increases CEO organizational identification. • Board independence from management and institutional ownership (e.g., mutual funds) decreases CEO organizational identification.

Ceo Career History And Firm Strategy, Center For Executive Succession

Research Briefs

• The career path of a CEO can influence the strategies they pursue. • CEO career variety comes from experience in more industries, more firms, and more functional areas. • CEOs with broader experience engaged in more strategic change, pursued strategies that were more unique in their industries, and made more changes to top management.

Micro-Loans: A Socially Responsible Corporate Investment, Olivia D. Marshall

Senior Honors Theses

This thesis seeks to examine the socially responsible actions of corporations across America in the funding of micro-financing endeavors both of foreign and domestic intent as a means to alleviate poverty. Micro-loans are examined in light of the history of corporate social responsibility and the magnitude of impoverishment across the globe. The overarching purpose of this paper stands to prove that funding micro-loans is a sufficient means of acting socially responsible for corporations nationwide as a sustainable solution to poverty.

Corporate Social Responsibility And Financial Performance Of Banks In The United States, Waidi Alani Gbadamosi

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Corporate social responsibility has evolved as a business strategy, but the business worth of voluntary social conduct has not been well understood. The contradictory research findings mean that social performance is not maximized, which constrains economic growth and sustainable development. Grounded by stakeholder theory, this correlational study was aimed at examining the effect of social responsibility factors on the market-based Fama-French cost of capital. Within a sample of 71 United States banks, the publicly available ethical ratings, financial data, and stock market data were analyzed using multiple regression models. Contrary to the positive effect of social conduct on financial performance …

A Scalable Algorithm For Locating Distribution Centers On Real Road Networks, Saeed Ghanbartehrani, Jose D. Porter

14th IMHRC Proceedings (Karlsruhe, Germany – 2016)

The median problem is a type of network location problem that aims at finding a node with the total minimum demand weighted distance to a set of demand nodes in a weighted graph. In this research, an algorithm for solving the median problem on real road networks is proposed. The proposed algorithm, referred to as the multi-threaded Dijkstra’s (MTD) algorithm, is then used to optimally locate Wal-Mart distribution centers on the 28-million node road network of the United States with the objective of minimizing the total demand weighted transportation cost. The resulting optimal location configuration of Wal-Mart distribution centers improves …

Evaluating Transaction Pairing Strategies For Vehicle-Based High-Density Storage Systems, Debjit Roy, Harit Joshie

14th IMHRC Proceedings (Karlsruhe, Germany – 2016)

Vehicle-based storage and retrieval systems present an attractive choice for distribution center automation because it provides the flexibility in managing demand fluctuations without affecting transaction throughput times. In this research, we contend that while dual-command cycles can reduce the vehicle travel times for processing transactions, it may not be the best policy for reducing transaction throughput times when transactions arrive at random time instants. We develop stochastic models to test the transaction throughput time performance with multiple pairing strategies and present operational insights.