Business Administration, Management, and Operations Commons^™

“Untact”: A New Customer Service Strategy In The Digital Age, Sang M. Lee, Donhee Lee

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

The Industry 4.0 era has brought a shift in consumers’ purchasing behaviors from traditional retailing to online and/or mobile channels, triggered by advanced digital technologies and an easy access to the global market. Smart digital devices and advanced technologies have enabled “untact” service, facilitating customer encounters without a face-to-face contact with employees. This study presents the concept of untact service based on a review of the literature on technology-enabled customer encounters with service providers and analysis of several real-world cases. The results indicate that untact services are becoming widespread in various areas of daily life, such as ordering food at …

Organizational Aspirations And External Venturing: The Contingency Of Entrepreneurial Orientation, Varkey K. Titus Jr., Owen Parker, Jeffrey G. Covin

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

We contribute to the organizational aspirations and corporate venturing literature by theorizing and testing (a) the influence of a firm’s idiosyncratic strategic posture on behavioral responses to performance attainment discrepancies, and (b) that performance feedback may influence multifaceted yet thematically related forms of search. Specifically, we examine the influence of performance feedback on equity-based external corporate venturing. We then propose that a firm’s entrepreneurial orientation (EO) is a critical contingency when theorizing about how firms respond to attainment discrepancies. Our findings indicate that a firm’s EO is an important contingency when considering behavioral responses to attainment discrepancies.

Strategic Success: The Ansoff Matrix Vs. The Balanced Scorecard, Christian Cleberg

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Academic and professional research has proven that strategic planning and management frameworks have tremendous impact on an organization’s success. However, these studies do not opine on the usability and fit of strategic frameworks within an organization. This paper examines the composition of two popular frameworks, the Ansoff matrix and the balanced scorecard, and illustrates the various ways that these frameworks have found success in the corporate world. It also compares and contrasts the frameworks’ differing structures and offers recommendations for how these frameworks may be applied to companies with diverse goals and missions.

A Strategic Audit Of Google, Timothy Knaak

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Google is the premier tech company. One of the largest, most successful companies on the planet, Google derives the overwhelming majority of its revenue from Google AdWords to the tune of $136 billion last year. The following is an analysis of Google’s strengths, competition, and place in the market and society. Although Google needs no help dominating the ads industry — and thus no suggestion has been provided — should the digital ads industry falter, Google faces an existential threat. To counter this, various strategies to diversify Google’s sources of income, all of which leverage Google’s existing assets and competencies …

A Strategic Analysis Of The Nebraska Alumni Association, Colton Siebert, Michael Eesley, Conrad Shiu, Melissa Newkirk, Joshua Demers, Jeb Vavak

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

The Nebraska Alumni Association (NAA) is in a unique position regarding where it fits in the lives of the people it serves and the potential growth of their programs. Being separate from the University system, yet still driven by mission to help the university grow, has given the association several advantages as to being able to act in an agile manner. However, only 24,000 of the over 200,000 University of Nebraska-Lincoln alumni have paid to become a part of the Nebraska Alumni Association. This is shocking, and we believe that our recommendations can turn the tide through engagement of the …

Microsoft Store Strategic Audit, James Onnen

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

This paper looks at Microsoft's Universal Store's digital distribution strategies for apps and games and potential strategies Microsoft can use to leverage its store to create value for itself and its users. This paper looks at specific uncaptured markets in gaming that Microsoft could capture.

Strategic Audit Of Amazon.Com, Inc, Sarah E. Kenny

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Amazon has recently grown as a company, surpassing many other online retailing websites. However this success is threatened by Amazon's reputation as an evil company. Amazon faces numerous lawsuits for unlawful termination and inhumane warehouse conditions. This current generation of consumers dislikes supporting companies that they view as evil, meaning that if a company entered the market that had better business practices, consumers would quickly leave Amazon. The audit suggests that Amazon combats these views by improving warehouse conditions, increasing minimum wage at their workplaces, and increasing benefits for workers. This audit also suggests that Amazon improves one of their …

Strategic Audit Of Facebook Through The Lens Of International Reputation, Ryan M. Mcmanaman

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

This report investigates the history and current situation of Facebook, an international social media firm based in Menlo Park, CA. Facebook faces a number of international controversies and growing resentment from its userbase. In an industry where people are synonymous with capital, a strategic recommendation will be made to help Facebook regain some of its users’ lost faith and hopefully recapture old markets.

This report will analyze Facebook’s internal situation using the framework of SWOT analysis, and the external environment Facebook exists in through PEST analysis. These tools will provide a helpful foundation to understand Facebook’s competitive advantages, and render …

Google Ads: A Strategic Audit, Jessee Zhang

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Google began as an internet search product, allowing users to find relevant sites based on a search query. Over the past several decades, Google has become an extremely large and profitable business though online digital advertisements. While Google has a diverse product mix, the overwhelming majority of its revenue is generated through ads. This strategic audit first looks at the current external environment, looking at the political, economic, social, and technological changes and opportunities relevant to the industry. Then, it looks at the current competitive environment and shows the profitability of the business because of the large barrier to entry. …

A Strategic Audit Of Boston Beer, Jake Lindvall

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

The Boston Beer Company ("Boston Beer") is an American brewery founded in 1984 whose mission is "to seek long-term profitable growth by offering the highest quality product to the U.S. beer drinker." Headquartered in Boston, the company is well-known for its flagship brand bearing the name of founding father Samuel Adams. This and other Boston Beer products have become popular across the United States in the past few decades; the Brewers Association ranks Boston Beer as the sixth largest brewery nationally. However, when subsetting to breweries defined as "craft," Boston Beer ranks even higher as the second largest brewery nationally. …

Strategic Audit Of Microsoft Office, Dylan Dmitri Gray

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Microsoft Office is some of the most iconic software ever made. It empowers people and organizations across the planet to achieve more.

The scope of this audit is limited to Office for business. The consumer market, which is less profitable and dominated by free products, is not considered.

This audit attempts to explain the strategies currently being pursued by the Office leadership team, and the relation of these strategies to the broader industry. Ultimately, this paper attempts to identify threats to Office and offer suggestions on how best to mitigate those threats.

Cboe Global Markets: Strategic Audit, Lambros Karkazis

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

This thesis fulfills the requirement for the strategic audit in MNGT 475H/RAIK 476. It provides in depth analysis of Cboe and its competitors, with particular attention given to comparing net income, market cap, and share price. Informed by this analysis, there is discussion of Cboe’s acquisition of BATS, which appears to have had the best impact on share price of any decision made by an exchange operator in the last 5 years. Finally, this thesis provides a strategy recommendation for Cboe moving forward.

Intuit, Inc.'S Small Business And Self Employed Unit: A Strategic Analysis, Cat Nyberg

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Intuit, Inc. is a business and personal finance software company founded in 1983 by Scott Cook and Tom Proulx. It is headquartered in Mountain View, California, and has offices around the United States and internationally. Intuit’s primary mission is to ‘power prosperity’, whether for small business owners, individuals, or accounting professionals.

Intuit has three major business units: Small Business and Self Employed, Consumer, and Strategic Partner. Each business unit offers one or more flagship software platforms, optimized for specific customer needs in business accounting, professional tax preparation, and individual tax filing. Intuit’s major software flagships are QuickBooks (business accounting and …

The Naa Challenge: Serving Millennials Through Subscription Boxes, Katie Gaul, Tommie Brechbill, Kylee Yakel, Grant Schirmer, Regan Burnham, Paris Gunderson

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

As an older generation of University of Nebraska-Lincoln graduates phases out, capturing the attention of millennials becomes more and more important. Unfortunately for the Nebraska Alumni Association (NAA), many soon to be and recent UNL graduates do not see the value in spending hundreds of dollars to become a lifetime member. Although some people we interviewed saw an NAA membership as just a donation and are not expecting much in return.

We believe that the Nebraska Alumni Association can take advantage of its connections with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln to offer experiences through subscription boxes that will engage millennials and …

Strategic Audit: Spreetail, Jake Rehwoldt

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

This report is an in-depth look at the history and trajectory of Spreetail, an ecommerce company based in Lincoln, Nebraska. As the ecommerce market itself grows rapidly, Spreetail is facing challenges and obstacles to success in the industry, especially since it is competing with Amazon. This report breaks down the factors affecting Spreetail both internally and externally (using SWOT and PEST analyses) and outlines several strategic possibilities for moving forward. The final strategy recommendation for Spreetail is to increase their catalog size and focus on exclusives.

Understanding Well-Being At Work: Development And Validation Of The Eudaimonic Workplace Well-Being Scale, Amy L. Bartels, Suzanne J. Peterson, Christopher S. Reina

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

Given the amount of time and effort individuals pour into work, scholars and practitioners alike have spent considerable time and resources trying to understand well-being in the workplace. Unfortunately, much of the current research and measurement focuses on workplace well-being from only one perspective (i.e. hedonic well-being rather than eudaimonic well-being) or by generalizing between workplace well-being and general well-being. In this study, we sought to integrate the workplace context into the current eudaimonic perspective to develop an 8-item measure of eudaimonic workplace well-being. Using multi-wave data, we developed and validated a reliable, two-dimensional eudaimonic workplace well-being scale (EWWS). The …

A Strategic Audit Of Microsoft Azure, Lee Fitchett

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

This paper looks at Microsoft Azure's current strategies and proposes possible options for the future. It looks at several competitors and explores how Azure will affect and react to Microsoft’s vision.

Huskers Helping Huskers: A Corporate-Level Analysis Of The Nebraska Alumni Association, Rachel Kleist, Jordan Newsom, Jackson Grasz, Anne Conley, Anna Brodersen, Samantha Turco

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

The Nebraska Alumni Association appears to have become distracted from serving the alumni and has instead focused its energy into advancing University interests. To graduating Huskers, it has become unclear what value the Nebraska Alumni Association provides to them and whose interests they are promoting. This has resulted in a declining alumni membership base and an unstable revenue source. Because of this, we recommend that the Nebraska Alumni Association refocus their resources into serving alumni first.

Adidas: A Strategic Audit, Rebekah Birch

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Adidas is a leader of today’s sportswear industry with its core competencies being footwear and apparel. Adidas employs various strategies to remain competitive in the industry against powerful companies including Nike and Under Armour. The industry is strongly defined by the high levels of competitive rivalry, among other forces. Adidas is directly affected by various factors in their external environment including political, economic, social, technological and environmental factors. It also has various opportunities and threats that affect its external environment and help determine the company’s success. Adidas’s internal environment explains the basis of their strategic decisions and why certain aspects …

Ibm Cloud Strategic Audit, Jack C. Johnson

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

An examination of IBM Cloud's strategy and history and a recommendation for what to do moving forward.

Planting And Harvesting Innovation: An Analysis Of Samsung Electronics, Seung Hoon Jang, Sang M. Lee, Taewan Kim, Donghyun Choi

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

This study explores how firms manage the entire life cycle of innovation projects based on the framework of harvesting and planting innovation. While harvesting innovation seeks new products in the expectation of financial performance in the short term, planting innovation pursues creating value over a long time period. Without proper management of the process of planting and harvesting innovation, firms with limited resources may not be successful in launching innovative new products to seize a momentum in high tech industries. To examine this issue, the case of Samsung Electronics (SE), now an electronics giant originated from a former developing country, …

The Quality Management Ecosystem For Predictive Maintenance In The Industry 4.0 Era, Sang M. Lee, Donhee Lee, Youn Sung Kim

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

The Industry 4.0 era requires new quality management systems due to the ever increasing complexity of the global business environment and the advent of advanced digital technologies. This study presents new ideas for predictive quality management based on an extensive review of the literature on quality management and five realworld cases of predictive quality management based on new technologies. The results of the study indicate that advanced technology enabled predictive maintenance can be applied in various industries by leveraging big data analytics, smart sensors, artificial intelligence (AI), and platform construction. Such predictive quality management systems can become living ecosystems that …

Born To Take Risk? The Effect Of Ceo Birth Order On Strategic Risk Taking, Robert J. Campbell, Seung-Hwan Jeong, Scott D. Graffin

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

The importance of birth order has been the subject of debate for centuries, and has captured the attention of the general public and researchers alike. Despite this interest, scholars have little understanding of the impact birth order has on CEOs and their strategic decisions. With this in mind, we develop theory that explains how CEO birth order may be associated with strategic risk taking. Drawing from evolutionary theory arguments related to birth order,we theorize that CEO birth order is positively associatedwith strategic risk taking; that is, earlier-born CEOswill take less risk than later-born CEOs. As evolutionary theory proposes that birth …

Employee Performance, Well‐Being, And Differential Effects Of Human Resource Management Subdimensions: Mutual Gains Or Conflicting Outcomes?, Chidiebere Ogbonnaya, Jake G. Messersmith

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

The human resource management (HRM) literature supports the idea that coherent systems of HRM practices can induce attitudinal effects when perceived subjectively by employees. Recently, scholars have proposed that subdimensions of HRM systems exist and account for variance in outcomes. This study explores differential effects of three subdimensions of HRM systems (skill‐, motivation‐, and opportunity‐enhancing HRM practices) on employee innovative behaviors and well‐being. Our predictions are based on the mutual gains perspective, which specifies positive relationships between HRM practices and employee performance, and the conflicting outcomes perspective that links HRM practices to higher job demands and stress. Using data from …

Dynamic Pricing Of Wireless Internet Based On Usage And Stochastically Changing Capacity, Demet Batur, Jennifer K. Ryan, Zhongyuan Zhao, Mehmet C. Vuran

Department of Supply Chain Management and Analytics: Faculty Publications

(1) Problem Definition: Inspired by new developments in dynamic spectrum access, we study the dynamic pricing of wireless Internet access when demand and capacity (bandwidth) are stochastic. (2) Academic / Practical Relevance: The demand for wireless Internet access has increased enormously. However, the spectrum available to wireless service providers is limited. The industry has thus altered conventional license- based spectrum access policies through unlicensed spectrum operations. The additional spectrum obtained through these operations has stochastic capacity. Thus, the pricing of this service by the service provider has novel challenges. The problem considered in this paper is therefore of high practical …

Lincoln Area Skills Gap Report: Final Report, Eric Thompson

Bureau of Business Research Publications

In recent months, the Nebraska Departments of Labor and Economic Development have led efforts to conduct two surveys regarding the skills of workers and skill needs of employers in the Lincoln area. The surveys were conducted during late 2017 and early 2018. The Lincoln area includes the two counties of the Lincoln Metropolitan Area (Lancaster and Seward), all or most of five surrounding southeast Nebraska counties (Gage, Jefferson, Saline, Saunders, and York) and a portions of 4 other adjacent counties (Butler, Cass, Fillmore, and Otoe). The two surveys are the Lincoln Area Labor Availability Survey and the Lincoln Area Survey …

Firm Structure And Environment As Contingencies To The Corporate Venture Capital–Parent Firm Value Relationship, Varkey K. Titus Jr., Brian Anderson

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

Corporate venture capital (CVC) is a valuable strategic tool associated with numerous innovative outcomes. However, less is known about whether CVC investing creates value for the investing (or parent) firm. Drawing from the attention-based view and contingency theory, we suggest that an increase in firm value from CVC investing is contingent on attentional mechanisms that discipline the selection of new investment opportunities. We posit that increases in firm value associated with CVC investing accrues to firms adopting specific operational structures and operating in particular environmental contexts. We find support for our research model in a sample of 95 companies between …

Nvidia Corporation: A Strategic Audit, Daric Teske

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

NVIDIA is company that has been involved with the production of computer hardware known as a graphics processor units (GPUs) since the turn of the century. Over the past decade, NVIDIA has begun to explore other applications of its proprietary technology, including the fields of artificial intelligence (AI) and accelerated computing. Looking from a business perspective, this strategic audit analyzes the history of the company and its current state, as well as industry outlooks to provide a strategic recommendation. Annual reports, market reports, and press releases were all utilized to provide the best perspective of the industry possible. Though NVIDIA …

A Strategic Audit Of Tesla, Abigail Hoelzlhammer

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

This strategic audit will examine the problems Tesla is currently facing, do a Porter’s Five Forces analysis of the company, review environmental factors affecting Tesla, state Tesla’s current strategy, evaluate their distinguishing resources and competitive advantages, and end with a strategic recommendation along with implementation requirements.

One of Tesla’s vehicles crashed in March 2018 while on autopilot, which caused their stock to drop significantly. They’re also experiencing issues with the production of the new Model 3. The current political situation and growing demand for the parts Tesla needs are environmental factors that are having a negative effect. On the other …

Strategic Audit Of Wwe, Henry Recker

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

WWE is a media and entertainment company that is known as the most popular professional wrestling promotion in the U.S. It has transformed from one of many regional promotions in the 1980s to the dominant force in “sports entertainment” with a market capitalization of $2.4 billion. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the situation WWE is in both internally and externally, and to develop a strategic recommendation for the company. Analysis tools like SWOT and PEST are used to evaluate the current state of WWE, and strategic alternatives are generated based on WWE’s existing differentiators and distinctive competencies. …