Business Commons^™

New Covariance-Based Feature Extraction Methods For Classification And Prediction Of High-Dimensional Data, Mopelola Adediwura Sofolahan

Open Access Dissertations

When analyzing high dimensional data sets, it is often necessary to implement feature extraction methods in order to capture relevant discriminating information useful for the purposes of classification and prediction. The relevant information can typically be represented in lower-dimensional feature spaces, and a widely used approach for this is the principal component analysis (PCA) method. PCA efficiently compresses information into lower dimensions; however, studies indicate that it is not optimal for feature extraction especially when dealing with classification problems. Furthermore, for high-dimensional data having limited observations, as is typically the case with remote sensing data and nonstationary data such as …

2013-October-01-Pharmacists Month, University Marketing And Communication, East Tennessee State University

ETSU News

No abstract provided.

Selling Art Or Selling Out?: A Response To Selling Art: An Empirical Assessment Of Advertising On Fertility Clinics' Websites, Jody L. Madeira

Indiana Law Journal

Roundtable on Regulating Assisted Reproductive Technology 2012

Shoot For The Stars? Predicting The Recruitment Of Prestigious Directors At Newly Public Firms, Abhijith G. Acharya, Timothy G. Pollock

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This study explores how CEOs' and outside directors' desires for the benefits of signaling and homophily intertwine with their concerns over maintaining power and preserving local status hierarchies to affect the likelihood a firm recruits prestigious outside directors to its board. Using pooled cross-sectional data on the five years following the IPOs of 210 firms that went public between 2001 and 2004, we found that prestigious CEOs and directors viewed the recruitment of prestigious new directors differently, and that these perceptions were moderated by factors that increase the salience of risk of the potential losses to the CEO and existing …

The Instrumental And Symbolic Dimensions Of Organisations' Image As An Employer: A Large-Scale Field Study On Employer Branding In Turkey, Greet Van Hoye, Turker Bas, Saartje Cromheecke, Filip Lievens

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Research on recruitment and employer branding has typically been situated in Western countries with predominantly individualistic cultures. The present study investigates the instrumental-symbolic framework for studying organisations' image and attraction as an employer in a non-Western collectivistic culture. In a large nationwide sample of Turkish university students, both instrumental (working conditions) and symbolic image dimensions (competence) were positively related to organisational attractiveness. Moreover, symbolic traits explained significant incremental variance beyond instrumental attributes and accounted for a greater amount of predictable variance. In addition, organisations were better differentiated from each other on the basis of symbolic image dimensions (sincerity and innovativeness) …

The Effect Of Fair Value Versus Historical Cost Reporting Model On Analyst Forecast Accuracy, Lihong Liang, Edward J. Riedl

Accounting - All Scholarship

This paper examines how the reporting model for a firm’s operating assets affects analyst forecast accuracy. We contrast UK and US investment property firms having real estate as their primary operating asset, exploiting that UK (US) firms report these assets at fair value (historical cost). We assess the accuracy of a balance sheet-based forecast (net asset value, or NAV) and an income statement-based forecast (earnings-per-share, or EPS). We predict and find higher NAV forecast accuracy for UK relative to US firms, consistent with the fair value reporting model revealing private information that is incorporated into analysts’ balance sheet forecasts. We …

Simplified Method For Teaching Cash Flow Statement Construction To Entrepreneurship And Non-Accounting Majors, Dale T. Eesley

Mountain Plains Journal of Business and Technology

It is a common mantra of entrepreneurs that cash is king, and educators in entrepreneurship have stressed the need to make the understanding of cash flows a central theme early in a student’s education (Leauby and Wentzel, 2012; Pearl, 1986; Wouters, 2008). However, the ability to teach entrepreneurship students how to develop a statement of cash flows is viewed by many as a difficult task for educators. Many students struggle to understand the indirect method of modeling cash flows (Vent and Cocco, 1996) because the method of constructing the cash flow statement is not intuitive (Hodder, Hopkins, and Wood, 2008). …

Creating A Pipeline For Business Student Recruitment: Using A Collegiate Deca Chapter For Recruiting High School Students, Ronald W. Pimentel

Mountain Plains Journal of Business and Technology

The College Choice Model and the Theory of Planned Behavior are used to examine recruitment of students to university business programs. These concepts are applied in the context of a Collegiate DECA chapter on campus, which is presented as a method of facilitating progress of high school students through the stages of predisposition to attend college, search for information, and choice of institution of higher education. A survey of 84 high school students who attended events hosted by a Collegiate DECA chapter on a university campus suggests that the collegiate chapter can favorably affect predisposition about higher education, assist with …

Capability Deployment In Crisis: Response To Asian Tsunami Disaster, Gary Pan

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

On 26 December 2004, an earthquake occurred under the Indian Ocean, 250 km northwest of the Indonesian island of Sumatra. According to the U.S. geological survey, the magnitude of the earthquake measured 9.0 on the Richter scale and the immense energy released from the earthquake triggered a series of tsunamis traveling at more than 600 km/h. The tsunami devastated the coastline of 13 countries, leaving more than 280,000 people dead and millions homeless. Soon after the disaster, the United Nations and the international community responded quickly with crisis relief operations for the nations affected. Unfortunately, these relief efforts soon ran …

Stock Liquidity And The Pricing Of Earnings: A Comparison Of China’S Floating And Non-Floating Shares, Lou Fang, Jiwei Wang, Hongqi Yuan

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

The reform to convert non-floating shares to floating in China provides a setting in which shares are subject to different liquidity constraint. We show that the severity of this constraint is inversely related to the extent to which earnings information is reflected in the share prices. Specifically, before the reform, the transfer prices of non-floating shares reflect much less earnings information than the market prices of floating shares. After the reform, however, both types of transfer reflect more earnings information, although the weights are still less than that found in the market prices. Thus, China's unique setting shows that share …

Digital Firms Can Be A Taxing Problem For Govts, Yee Loong Sum

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

No abstract provided.

Relating Training To Job Satisfaction: A Survey Of Online Faculty Members, Brian Hoekstra

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

As the online education market continues to mature, institutions of higher education will respond to student demand by employing quality faculty members. Faculty members need unique training to successfully teach online. While the effect of training on job satisfaction has been investigated in the realm of business, it has not been tested extensively in the realm of online higher education. A convenience sample of 497 Iowa Community College Online Consortium (ICCOC) faculty members was invited to participate, and 148 responded. A quantitative study utilizing regression analysis investigated the relationship between the training methodology of online course module completion and job …

A Need For A Sales Course In Academia, Kevin H. Scholz

Professional Projects

Nearly 50% of all college graduates entering the workforce, after earning a business related degree, find themselves initially in a sales role. With only 4.8% of colleges and universities offering a sales course, are the vast majority of recent graduates entering the workforce prepared for a sales role? This exploratory study seeks the feedback of hiring managers in the field to bring awareness to faculty members involved with course selection and academic curriculum design for the purpose of encouraging colleges and universities to consider a sales course. The study provides learning objectives and competencies for a sales course based on …

Dragon Boat Festival Visitor Study: 2013, Christine Oschell

Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research Publications

The purpose of this study was to provide the organizers of the Montana Dragon Boat Festival with an understanding of their attendees and the total money spent by those surveyed in the area (Kalispell, Columbia Falls, Whitefish, Bigfork, and Polson). The population of interest was participants and attendees of the 2013 Montana Dragon Boat Festival.

Tourism Specialization And Economic Output In Small Islands, Robertico R. Croes

Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Purpose– This study aims to investigate growth differentials among small islands and the impact of tourism specialization on the growth and the economic performance of small islands.

Design/methodology/approach– The study is based on trade theory and uses data from a panel of small islands for 1995-2007. It applies panel regression and standard time series methods combined with a qualitative approach.

Findings– Small islands experienced stronger basic patterns of growth than many developed countries, especially where economies of scale are not an issue. The findings further suggest that tourism specialization is not harmful to growth, and, in lieu of technological gaps …

Comparison Of The Effect Of Caffeine Ingestion On Time To Exhaustion Between Endurance Trained And Untrained Men, Steven Porterfield, Jon Linderman, Lloyd L. Laubach, Corinne M. Daprano

Health and Sport Science Faculty Publications

This study compared the ergogenic effects of caffeine on men who were endurance trained to those who were untrained. The study was a double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover experimental design. Ten endurance trained men (mean age 24.4 ± 2.0 yrs, weight 79.4 ± 8.5 kg, predicted VO2 max 46.3 ± 1.8 mL·kg-1·min-1) and 10 untrained men (mean age 22.8 ± 1.9 yrs, weight 88.9 ± 9.9 kg, predicted VO2 max 37.6 ± 2.7 mL·kg-1·min-1) completed two cycle ergometer trials to exhaustion at 80% of their predicted workload max 30 min after ingesting either 5 mg·kg-1 of body weight of caffeine or a …

Africa’S Contributions To Information Systems, Richard T. Watson

The African Journal of Information Systems

Africans created the world’s first major information systems, gesturing and language. Now days, Africa is once again showing leadership in the area of frugal IS.

The Crisis In State Highway Finances: Its Roots, Current Effects, And Some Possible Remedies, Juita-Elena Yusuf, Lenahan O'Connell

School of Public Service Faculty Publications

This paper focuses on the American states and the sources of the expanding structural imbalance between their highway-related revenues on the one hand and expenditures for transportation infrastructure needs on the other. The paper describes the roots of the funding problem over recent decades, looks at some of the responses taken at the state and federal level, and discusses their inherent limitations as solutions to this funding crisis. The paper also presents several policy recommendations for increasing revenues. We demonstrate that a variable rate gas tax indexed to the construction cost index and improvements in automobile fuel efficiency and a …

Understanding The Determinants Of Corporate Social Disclosure Strategies: An Examination Of Firms' Use Of Gri Guidelines, James Michael Simmons Jr.

Dissertations, Theses and Capstone Projects (Full IR Collection)

With the evolution of CSR reporting practices and the introduction and widespread adoption of the GRI Guidelines, this research sought to understand the factors that determine a company’s CSR disclosure strategy. It examined the relationship between a four-dimensional model of reporting determinants and a firm’s CSR disclosure strategy. The proposed model drew from legitimacy, institutional and stakeholder theories and included the following constructs: non-financial corporate characteristics, the firm’s financial performance, the involvement of the firm’s stakeholders and environmental turbulence. The firm’s CSR disclosure strategy was represented by the GRI application level chosen by the firm and the presence or absence …

Theory Of Constraints Project Management In A Manufacturing Environment, Shihching Kraft

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The following thesis covers the concepts of Theory of Constraints (TOC) Project Management. Introduced by Eliyahu M. Goldratt in I 984, TOC is a management philosophy that focuses on the use of critical chain project management to prioritize everyday tasks in a company. In TOC Project Management, there is always at least one resource constraint that limits the speed at which projects are completed. TOC management philosophy also recognizes that most projects in the manufacturing industry face unknown schedule delays that could cause projects to be completed late or over the planned budget. During project plan creation, plans are developed …

Integration And Divergence Of Patent Systems Across National And International Institutions, Deli Yang, M. Sönmez

School of Business Faculty Research

Based on a framework grounded in the institution-based view, this paper addresses the extent of global patent system integration and development. Our findings suggest that nations’ patent systems have yet ‘met’ the ‘international standards’, despite national and international endeavor toward this goal. The impact of international institutions on national institutions is reflected in the process rather than the outcome. Among the three components of patent systems across 88 nations, conformity is the strongest for ‘patent mechanism', operations is the most diverse for ‘patent administration’ and ‘patent enforcement’ does not form a cross-nation divide due to most nations being moderate enforcers.

2013-October-01-7 Habits Workshop, University Marketing And Communication, East Tennessee State University

ETSU News

No abstract provided.

American College Football Division I Team Attachment: A Model For Sponsorship Effectiveness, Hsin-Chung Chen, Lamar Reams

Human Movement Studies & Special Education Faculty Publications

The purpose of this study was to examine sponsorship effectiveness at the Division I level, including the relationship between fans and sponsors. To collect the necessary data, the 13-item questionnaire was disseminated at two college football games by volunteer sampling at three Division I universities in the United States. With a total of 407 respondents, LISREL 8.52 and SPSS 17.0 were used to analyze the data for descriptive statistics, CFA, and SEM. By utilizing SEM, the variables of team attachment, sponsor image, word of mouth, and purchase intentions fit the proposed model. Pragmatically, the significance of team attachment can be …

Strategic Upgrades: A Vehicle Routing Overview And Implementation For Nokia Siemens Network, Lukas Kessler, Chris Davis, Farzad Moshfegh, Jerrod Thomas

Engineering and Technology Management Student Projects

The Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP) is combinatorial optimization problem that has real-world synonyms for many organizations and problem types. In this paper we discuss various implementations of the Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP), an extension of the traditional traveling salesman problem and explore a best-fit solution as well as a heuristically derived “good” solution. The best-fit solution utilizes a branch and bound technique but requires an exponential amount of computational resources to complete when applied to problems of marginal size. Some heuristic methodologies are elucidated to compare and contrast their benefits and drawbacks and an open source solution for capacitated vehicle …

2013-October-01-Etsu C. Cherry, University Marketing And Communication, East Tennessee State University

ETSU News

No abstract provided.

La Realidad De Comercio Justo: Una Investigación De Las Fallas Y Los Éxitos Del Sistema En El Valle De La Convención, Perú, Desde La Perspectiva De Los Productores, Katy Keisling

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Este informe es el producto de mi proyecto de investigación sobre el funcionamiento del Comercio Justo en el cultivo del café en el Valle de la Convención, Perú. El Comercio Justo fue creado hace 25 años con el objetivo de mejorar la vida del pequeño productor a través de un sistema de comercio que valora la democracia y pago justo. Ahora, muchos investigadores han estudiado el tema para analizar sus impactos – pero la mayoría de literatura existente sobre el tema falta la voz del productor. Por esta razón, ubico mi estudio en la perspectiva del pequeño productor. Utilizando la …

El Papel De Ecoturismo En La Comunidad Nativa De Shintuya, Alto Madre De Dios, Peru: Las Percepciones De La Misma Comunidad, Dylan Barnes

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Este informe examina el rol de ecoturismo en la comunidad nativa Shintuya, Madre de Dios, Perú. Para hacer eso, uso las percepciones de los mismos comuneros sobre el ecoturismo y el futuro de su comunidad. La comunidad y la región alrededor tiene muchas atracciones turísticas, y por eso hay un gran potencial de turismo para la comunidad. También hay una presencia de una empresa de petróleo, con que los comuneros están trabajando. En estas páginas siguientes, voy a argumentar que esta situación no es tan blanca y negra como parece. No hay un lado a favor y un lado en …

The Trajectory Of Warwick Junction As A Site Of Inclusivity In Post-Apartheid South Africa, Kara Van Schilfgaarde Van Schilfgaarde

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Warwick Junction, a thriving trading hub in the inner city of Durban, has long been considered one of the best examples of collaborative urban management practices between the local government and informal traders. In a post-apartheid South Africa, there was a national desire to transform the old systems of governance, which in Warwick translated to city government institutions making an effort to include informal traders in the policymaking and management processes. This paper tracks the history of Warwick Junction, using its oppressive past to frame common perspectives of informal trade. It considers the legacy of the post-apartheid era South Africa, …

Access To Capital In Dakar: An Analysis Of Microfinance, Michael Furlane

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This study analyzes the effectiveness of micro credit in a developing African country by evaluating the history of microfinance and then focusing on access to credit in modern day Dakar, Senegal. Microfinance, or small capital loans to business startups in budding nations, has been used as a tool in developmental economics for a several decades. Ideally it is an elegant solution to a problem that permeates developing countries around the world: the lack of available credit. This lack of credit stifles economic growth in every sector of an emerging economy. As part of this study I interviewed both credit firms …

The Case Against Stock Picking, Charles J. Higgins

Finance Faculty Works

This paper brings together various topics in finance--the Capital Asset Pricing Model, Portfolio Theory, the empirical evidence, and the Efficient Market Hypothesis--to address whether individual security selection--Stock Picking--is or is not a meritorious venture.