Business Commons^™

Does The Geographic Information Systems Benefit The Insurance Industry?, Andrew R. Brachear

Masters Theses

This research is intended to determine if the insurance companies are benefiting from Geographic Information System technology in the insurance industry. This is based on the consumers' point of view through the use of research, survey results, and technology at the insurance company's disposal. Today, this technology is used in many different areas including renewable energy, delivery business, and city planning. Insurance companies use this technology in order to determine safe driving habits. Some examples include Progressive's Snapshot and State Farm's In-Drive. These devices are used to collect data on response time, speed, and breaking. This is a possible concern …

Keeping Up With New Legal Titles; Introduction To Law Firm Practice By Michael Downey, Christine Iaconeta Dulac

Faculty Publications

The inner workings of a law firm is unknown territory for new lawyers. In fact, it is only recently that law schools have begun to teach classes that discuss law firm management, running a solo practice, or technology used by practicing attorneys. Michael Downey's Introduction to Law Firm Practice provides an in-depth examination of the structure and management of today's law firms, as well as many other aspects of law firm practice, including business development strategies, risk management, and professional responsibility, to name a few. ¶59 Before delving into the text, it is important to note the

Take Five? Examining The Impact Of Microbreak Duration, Activities, And Appraisals On Human Energy And Performance, Andrew Bennett

Theses and Dissertations

Employees in many occupations deplete cognitive resources of attention and energy (Dodge, 1913; Kahneman, 1973), impacting performance on subsequent work tasks (Dalal, Bhave, & Fiset, 2014). Individuals spend upwards of 10% of formal work time taking a break completing non-work tasks (Esteves, 2013; McGehee & Owen, 1940) in an effort to replenish these resources (Fritz, Lam, & Spritzer, 2011; Kim et al., 2014). This study used a randomized controlled experiment to answer three questions that are new contributions to the literature. First, I explored if engaging in a specific activity (watching a funny video, meditating, or completing a different work …

Foreign Investor Protection And Climate Action: A New Price Tag For Urgent Policies, Gus Van Harten

Osgoode Legal Studies Research Paper Series

From a climate perspective, not all investment is equal. Desirable investment in clean energy needs encouragement and protection, while undesirable investment in fossil fuels needs clear policy signals to avoid further investment in destructive activities and stranding more assets. In this paper, evidence is presented on how foreign investor protection provisions in trade and investment agreements tilt the playing field in favor of entrenched incumbents and against urgent action on climate; on the potential for a massive expansion of investor-state litigation and risks to climate policy in proposed trade deals; and on key flaws in recent European Commission proposals to …

Converging Divergences In Formal And Informal Work: Longitudinal Evidence From Mexico, Diana Denham, Chris Tilly

University Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

Analyses of neoliberal labor market restructuring debate whether neoliberalism is homogenizing jobs or polarizing them. Analyses of informal employment debate whether such employment is inferior, and if so, if it is typically a transition or a trap. This paper speaks to both debates, using a three time-point (2006, 2007, 2008) longitudinal survey of retail workers in the state of Tlaxcala, Mexico, to contrast workers’ experiences across the spectrum of formal and informal work. Using the longitudinal data, the paper compares workers’ trajectories, exploring how they make choices and navigate transitions between more formal and more informal work. A qualitative portion …

Marketing Plan: Remzen, Jerrod Thomas, Kranthi Kumary Reddy Rapolu, Liyan Xiao, Purva Chhatre, Shiva Ram Reddy Singireddy, Wendy Lally

Engineering and Technology Management Student Projects

More than 70 million Americans suffer from some form of sleep disorder. REMzen is a new startup company looking to take on the burgeoning wearable market-space with an advanced sleep mask capable of precision sleep cycle monitoring, deep analytics that provide meaningful real-life coaching for better sleep, and the only sleep-cycle driven light therapy wake up on the market. REMzen benefits begin day one by monitoring your sleep and waking you up utilizing natural light therapy at the optimal moment in your sleep cycle. Wake up feeling refreshed and ready; gone are the groggy, abrupt awakenings of alarm clocks, ripping …

Examining The Factors That Determine The Behavioural Intention Of E-Travel Sites In Egypt, Madiha Metawie, Reham Ibrahim Elseidi

Business Administration

The main purpose of this study is to explore external variables

that influence perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use and in

turn influence the behaviour intentions of e-travel sites in Egypt. The

study is based on the original TAM constructs and postulated

relationships. The study hypothesized that four external variablesrelevant

information content, information quality, functionality and

perceived risk of e-travel sites influence perceptions of usefulness and

ease of use, which in turn affect behavioural intention to use the site.

The findings of this study contribute to enriching our understanding of

how tourists evaluate e-travel sites and the factors affecting …

Taking Back Migrants: A Theoretical Investigation On The Low Propensity Of Entrepreneurship In Ofw-Dependent Households, Carlo Anton G. Arguelles

Angelo King Institute for Economic and Business Studies (AKI)

In light of different Philippine economic issues, it can be said that this country is evolving and is constant at the same time. This evolution and consistency are present in the opportunity-seeking behavior of Filipino households. One aspect of change is the higher engagement of households in entrepreneurship as reported by GEM (2014a). Data on entrepreneurship presents the Philippines with an early-stage entrepreneurship (TEA) rate of 18.4%. GEM (2014b) stated that this rate is higher than the average start up rates of Asia and Oceania (13%); which implies that Filipino households, relative to their counterparts in these regions, are more …

Pay Comparisons And Top-Team Turnover, Center For Executive Succession

Research Briefs

• View the pay of top executives as an overall strategy, not a series of individual decisions. • Executives respond to comparisons of their pay with that of peers in their own organization, but also with the pay of peers in other organizations and with their CEO’s pay. • Executive turnover is minimized when executive pay is higher than external peers, similar to internal peers, and substantially lower than CEO pay.

Investor Response To Ceo Succession After Financial Wrongdoing, Center For Executive Succession

Research Briefs

• Following financial wrongdoing, firms who replace CEOs with an outside successor receive a positive investor result of 3.85 percent. • Investors respond most negatively when firms hire an interim CEO or fail to name a successor following a CEO succession after material financial misstatement. • Boards must be wary of acting symbolically to remove a CEO following financial misconduct without a readymade successor to condition investor response.

Earnings Management By Interim Ceos To Influence Ceo Selection Processes, Center For Executive Succession

Research Briefs

• Interim CEO successors are 35.7 percent more likely to engage in earnings management as a means to boost short-term performance than non-interim CEO successors. • Interim CEO successors who manage earnings are 6.1 percent more likely to be named permanent CEO. • Effective boards of directors and greater analyst coverage of the company reduce the likelihood that an interim CEO who manages earnings will be named the permanent successor.

Directorship Effects In The Executive Labor Market, Center For Executive Succession

Research Briefs

• Non-CEO level executives benefit in the labor market by serving on boards. • Non-CEO level executives who serve on boards are more likely to become CEOs than those who do not sit on boards. • Non-CEO level executives who serve on boards are more likely to be promoted and to receive higher pay from their current firms.

Providing Incentives To Cheat: How Firm Complexities Influence Financial Reporting Fraud, Center For Executive Succession

Research Briefs

• Complexity of a firm’s operations and its industry environment increases the likelihood firms will engage in financial reporting fraud. • Financial reporting fraud is more likely in complex firms when audit committee oversight is weak or CEOs have many unexercised stock options.

Pay Dispersion, Sorting, And Organizational Performance, Center For Executive Succession

Research Briefs

• When pay dispersion and pay-for-performance is high, poor performer quit rates are higher than when pay-forperformance is average or low. • When pay dispersion and pay-for-performance is high, the quit rates of low performers leads to greater organizational performance. • High performer quit rates are highest when pay is compressed and pay-for-performance is not used.

Retention Of Departing Ceo As Board Chair: Effects On Strategic Change And Performance, Center For Executive Succession

Research Briefs

• Retention of departing CEO as board chair leads to lesser strategic change and lower performance variability. • Successor CEOs engage in greater resource reallocation, divestitures and leadership team changes following their predecessor’s departure from the board, which increases performance variability.

Ceos And Firm Strategic Actions And Firm Performance, Center For Executive Succession

Research Briefs

• CEO characteristics are related to firm outcomes. For instance, younger CEOs are more likely to be associated with firms that engage in international diversification, risk taking, and product innovation • CEO tenure is negatively associated with the firm’s strategic risk taking, change, and product diversification. • There is a strong positive relationship between a CEO’s prior career experience and the firm’s strategic actions.

Reducing Challenging Behaviors In Intellectually Disabled Individuals: A Comparison Of Organizational Culture And Treatment Approach, Frances Mascolo-Glosser

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The deinstitutionalization of the intellectually disabled (ID) and their transition to community living in New York State necessitated training initiatives for staff to manage challenging behaviors safely and humanely. However, the use of physical interventions to control self-injury and physical aggression may have become organizationally habituated, and limited research has compared programs that use physical versus nonphysical interventions. This mixed-method, comparative case study compared a restraint-free day habilitation program with one that used physical interventions, examining the differences in reducing self-injury, aggression, and types of interventions applied. Qualitative differences in philosophical approach to behavior intervention strategies and staff training protocols …

Using Sustainable Development As A Competitive Strategy, Pat Spearman

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Sustainable development reduces construction waste by 43%, generating 50% cost savings. Residential construction executives lacking adequate knowledge regarding the benefits of sustainable development practices are at a competitive disadvantage. Drawing from the diffusion of innovation theory, the purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore knowledge acquisition within the bounds of sustainable residential construction. The purposive sample size of 11 executive decision makers fulfilled the sample size requirements and enabled the extraction of meaningful data. Participants were members of the National Home Builders Association and had experience of a minimum of 5 years in residential construction. The research question …

The Quest For Work And Family Balance Using Flexible Work Arrangements, Sandra Ellen Forris

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Abstract

Employees experience challenges managing home and work. The increase of women in the workforce, single-parents, childcare, elder care responsibilities, and men in nontraditional roles warrant changes in traditional working hours and flexibility in work schedules. Through the theoretical frameworks of work-family conflict, spillover, border, and boundary theories, the purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore how flexible work arrangements (FWAs) assisted employees in meeting work and family obligations. Minimal research is available in the defense industry and the use of FWAs. A nonprobability, convenience sample was used to explore how management and nonmanagement participants from a Midwest defense …

The Impact And Interaction Of Music Familiarity And Congruency On Responses To Advertisements, Michael Blecha

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Music is commonly used by marketers to enhance the effectiveness of ads. Research shows that music can make ads more memorable and shape a viewer's response to the ad. This study explores the impact of three music characteristics, its likability, its familiarity and its "fit" with the ad (referred to as congruency), on consumer response to an ad. I hypothesized that all three music characteristics would positively impact responses to an ad. Additionally, I hypothesized that there would be a significant interaction between music familiarity and congruency with subjects responding the most positively to an ad when the music was …

Security Risk And Social Presence In E-Commerce, Amy Isabelle Wright

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

The object is to investigate the relationship between consumers' sense of security of a store and their purchasing intention from the store. This was investigated by evaluating how perceptions of security vary among pure play websites with no social presence on the one hand and with social presence on the other; and click and mortar websites with no social presence on the one hand, and social presence on the other. It was also investigated by evaluating how social presence might mitigate the risk of security perceived by consumers. The research method included a scenario given to each participant which requires …

A Question Of Culture: The Impact Of College Major And Personality On Pursuits Of Different Types Of Company Culture, Kathryn E. Carroll

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

What to do with one's future and career is a question with which every collegeaged student struggles. It is not simply a matter of finding a "job" that pays the bills, but rather a "career" that they will be happy with for the length of their professional life. Furthermore, this happiness in their careers consists of many attributes from appropriate pay to satisfaction with their job tasks to the culture of the company for which they choose to work. This last attribute is possibly the hardest for young adults to define and measure. The purpose of this study is to …

The Importance Of University Traditions And Rituals In Building Alumni Brand Communities And Loyalty, Mary C. Martin Ph.D., Emi Moriuchi, Ronda M. Smith, Jill D. Moeder, Charlene Nichols

Applied Business Faculty Publications

The purpose of this study is to expand the literature and determine factors that impact alumni giving and loyalty at institutions of higher education. Specifically, this research aims to identify a relationship between university traditions and rituals, the relationships of an alumni brand community, and loyalty toward an institution of higher education. This research proposes that a university, as a branded institution, constitutes a brand community, and that traditions and rituals, an important component of brand communities, can serve as a means by which students engage on campus and participate in a university’s brand community and, in turn, become active …

New Media Communication Preferences, James G. Ward Ed.D., Wally Guyot Ph.D., Robert Meier Ph.D., Mark Bannister J.D.

Applied Business Faculty Publications

According to Barelka, Jeyaraj, and Walinski, “New Media is conceptualized as an umbrella class of information and communication technologies that is intended to connect individuals in novel and meaningful ways” (2013: 56). As part of the process of continuous quality improvement, a study was conducted in the College of Business and Entrepreneurship at a rural Midwestern university. The survey sought to determine business student preferences for the use of various types of new media to receive information from the Dean’s Office. Facebook, smartphone, and YouTube were the most popular among the students in the study; therefore, the researchers focused on …

Ua68/17/2 Potter College Of Arts & Letters Theatre & Dance Western Players / Summer Players, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Records created by and about the Western Players theater group including the Summer Players.

The Effect On Building Elements On Direct Dementia-Care Staff Job Satisfaction, Margaret E. Byal

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

This interior design research study explores the experience of direct dementia-care staff member tasks in relation to the physical environment. The study asked the following questions: 1) Do building elements in dementia-specific long-term care units interact with staff job satisfaction? 2) What building elements of patient direct-care are identified by staff as being helpful on the job and what are identified as a hindrance? 3) What, if any, environmental elements demand more dementia-specific modification? Physical environment assessments were collected, and surveys assessing job satisfaction and tasks relating to the physical environment were administered. Focus groups captured more detailed responses. Results …

The Relationship Between Simulation Assessments And Standardized Written Examinations For Emergency Medicine Residents, Sheri Leigh Etapa Clarke

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Historically, the assessment of medical resident knowledge and skill has occurred through standardized written examinations and faculty observation during real patient encounters. The written examinations, including three levels of board qualifying examinations (USMLE and COMLEX-USA) and specialty specific annual in-training examinations, are used to identify each resident’s knowledge deficiencies. Research shows that faculty evaluations are unable to predict how residents will perform on emergency medicine in-training examinations, and that practicing skills on real patients puts patients’ lives at risk. To improve patient care and enhance the learning environment, medical educators have created simulation tools for medical residents to practice procedures …

Entrepreneurship: Theory And Application In A University Arts Management Setting, Paul Linden

Scholarship and Professional Work - Communication

This article explores the applicability of entrepreneurship as an academic course of study with respect to the broader area of arts management pedagogy. A historical overview of primary texts ranging from the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries serves as a preface for a discipline-based perspective of its twentieth-century articulations. Primary theoretical exponents reveal the economic, sociological, and psychological underpinnings of entrepreneurship as it is developed as an academic topic. Mahoney and Michael’s subjectivist theory informs the relationship between entrepreneurship and the study of creative and cultural industries. Recommendations for specific pedagogical application include structuring and content for in-class activities and outreach …

A Customer Choice Modeling Framework For Assortment Planning Of Configurable Products In Automotive Industry, Farah Dubaisi

Wayne State University Theses

Due to the increased competition in the auto industry, proliferation of the vehicle models and increased customer need for choice and customization, it has become more critical than ever to offer a variety of features and customization flexibility while at the same time restraining and, even better, cutting down the costs. Product complexity, in the automotive industry, can be measured by the size of the assortment offered, i.e., set of vehicle configurations a customer can choose from (e.g., for a given model of a brand). While complexity fosters growth with increased alignment of product characteristics and customer needs, it results …

International Management: Strategic Opportunities And Cultural Challenges, Paul B. Sweeney, Dean B. Mcfarlin

Management and Marketing Faculty Publications

As the economies of many countries become more interrelated, international managers are facing huge challenges and unique opportunities associated with their roles. Now in its fifth edition, Sweeney and McFarlin's International Management embodies a balanced and integrated approach to the subject, emphasizing the strategic opportunities available to firms on a global playing field, as well as exploring the challenges of managing an international workforce.

Integrating theory and practice across all chapter topics, this book helps students to learn, grasp, and apply the underlying principles of successful international management:

• Understanding the broad context of international business, including the critical trends impacting …