Business Administration, Management, and Operations Commons^™

How The Level Of Firm Support For Employee Volunteering Affects Employee Work Productivity And Altruistic Behavior Inside The Firm, Xiaomei Xiong

Theses and Dissertations

Employee volunteering refers to employees giving time to volunteer for charitable causes with explicit support from their employer. Offering support for employee volunteering is one of the fastest-growing areas of employee benefits. Using a laboratory experiment, I examine the effectiveness of individual employee volunteering programs in motivating employees’ altruistic behavior outside the firm, as well as their work productivity and altruistic behavior inside the firm. I predict and find that the level of firm support for employee volunteering not only affects employees’ volunteering engagement outside the firm, but also affects employees’ work productivity inside the firm. Moreover, I predict and …

Essays On Delegation Under Migrating Technologies: The Case Of Mobile Network Value Chain, Fan Zou

Theses and Dissertations

The fast expansion of the mobile services market has propelled the growth of MVNOs to reach an expected 7.4% of the global market and, even higher, 8.1% of the North American market by 2022 (Research&Markets 2017), which reaches a total size of 90 billion US dollars. The growth of MVNOs, meanwhile, has complicated implications for MNO market performance because of the fast industry clockspeed, under which new mobile network technologies inevitably overlap with existing technologies (Tilson and Lyytinen 2006). Adding MVNOs to the value chain allows MNOs to develop proper growth strategies by exploring new technologies balanced against exploiting existing …

Leading Through Paradox In A Covid-19 World: Human Resources Comes Of Age, David G. Collings, Anthony J. Nyberg, Patrick M. Wright, John Mcmackin

Faculty Publications

The impact of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic is unprecedented. At an organisational level, the crisis has been hugely disruptive, complex and fraught with ambiguity for leaders. The crisis is fundamentally a human one, making human resource (HR) leaders central in enabling organisations to manage through and ultimately exit the crisis successfully. We apply a paradox lens to understand the HR leadership challenges posed by the COVID-19 crisis. We argue that how the HR function responds to the challenges of the crisis and its role in mapping the exit route from the crisis are likely to shape the trajectory of …

Value Creation Mechanisms In The Contemporary Art Market, Niharika Goel

Theses and Dissertations

As marketing theory has evolved, value co-creation has taken center stage in exchange processes. The goal of this dissertation, situated at the intersection of market systems and the visual art market, is to generate a deeper understand of the fundamentals of value co-creation at the level of practice, in part because the visual art world is organized as a Bourdieusian field of cultural production with its own set of rules, narratives, individuals and institutions. While individuals can effectively position themselves in this field to accumulate social capital, they are inextricably linked to others. Hence, it is imperative to understand the …

Strategic Human Resource Management And Covid-19: Emerging Challenges And Research Opportunities, David G. Collings, John Mcmackin, Anthony Nyberg, Patrick M. Wright

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Effect Of Product Likes On Consumer Behavior In Online Shopping, Quynh Le

Theses and Dissertations

This research examines the impact of likes in the context of online shopping websites. Likes are popular metrics in digital and social media marketing. Previous research has investigated the roles of likes on consumer behavior and product sales in the context of social media websites such as Facebook, Instagram. However, little has been known about another type of likes, product likes, which are used on online shopping as an information cue for consumer’s purchase decisions. We propose four studies to understand the impact of product likes in the context of online shopping websites where transactions occur. We expect that the …

Bank Liquidity Creation And Systemic Risk, Destan Kirimhan

Theses and Dissertations

My dissertation includes three essays on bank liquidity creation and systemic risk. In the first essay, we examine the role of distracted institutional investors in banks in one of the most comprehensive measures of bank output, bank liquidity creation. We employ institutional investor distraction measure developed by Kempf et al. (2017). With a sample of publicly listed U.S. banks over the period of 1986-2016, we find that as institutional investors become more distracted, banks create more liquidity on the asset-side and off-balance sheet side. These results are stronger for large banks relative to small banks and are more pronounced during …

Iterate To Innovate: How Firms Strategize Design Iteration To Navigate The Uneven Landscape In The Global Mobile Application Industry, Pengxiang Zhang

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation builds on the logic of opportunity and the institutional perspective to explore how firms iterate to innovate in the uneven landscape of the global digital marketplace. In such nascent industries, innovative firms could not rely on differential positioning or valuable resources to sustain advantage but must take actions of iterative search to capture fleeting opportunities. Specifically, I focus on the role of design iteration, through which firms engage in trial-and-error learning and create situation-specific knowledge. While this logic of opportunity has received a significant upsurge of interest from strategy and entrepreneurship scholars, it largely assumes a homogeneous institutional …

Inditex: A Case Study In Transferring Fast Fashion To International Markets, Anna Stooksbury

Senior Theses

Using Industria de Diseño Textil, S.A. (Inditex) and its subsidiaries as a case study, this thesis is an analysis of the largest fashion group in the world and its success in transferring a unique fast fashion business model into almost 100 markets worldwide. This thesis examines the internationalization of a large company and the steps it must take to enter into a new market, including internationalization motivations, market selection, and entrance strategies (both physical and virtual). This analysis uses an in-depth case approach to analyze the fast fashion business model that has made Inditex a success. Using extensive secondary research, …

There’S More Than Meets The I(Dentity): A Multidimensional View Of Identity Threat, Christina B. Hymer

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation provides a multiple identity perspective to how people experience challenges towards their identities ("identity threats"). While research on identity threat has normally focused on identity threat in relation to a single identity, my dissertation challenges this assumption by examining how connections between multiple identities (e.g., professional, spouse) affect how people experience identity threats. I provide a review of identity threat research, after which I establish an intrapersonal identity network view of identity threat that considers how the centralization of a threatened identity, as well as the density of one’s identity network in terms of enhancing and conflicting relationships, …

Three Essays On Corporate Governance And Financial Reporting Quality, Hyo Jin Yoon

Theses and Dissertations

Corporate governance broadly refers to the oversight activities undertaken by internal and external actors to assure a fair distribution of cash flows and wealth transfers among the contracting parties. One of the most important functions of corporate governance is to ensure the integrity of the financial reporting process. A substantial body of work highlights the role of corporate governance mechanisms in curtailing earnings management that stems from managerial opportunism. Prior research has also found a direct link between weak corporate governance and financial misstatements and reporting frauds. While the effects of governance mechanisms on corporate reporting quality are well documented …

Information Production And Price Discovery In The Syndicated Loan Market, Yafei Zhang

Theses and Dissertations

My dissertation studies information production and price discovery in the syndicated loan market. Over the past twenty years, collateralized loan obligations (CLOs) and the market-flex model have changed the landscape of the loan market. In the first chapter, I document that CLOs make up more than 60% of the investments in syndicated loans in recent years. A syndicated loan is in the portfolios of dozens of CLOs and they often disagree on the value of the loan. I examine how the disagreement affects the trading behavior of CLOs and the loan illiquidity in the secondary market. I find that such …

Two Essays Investigating Numerical Information Influence On Consumer Preference And Predictions, Gustavo Schneider

Theses and Dissertations

Numerical information is ubiquitous in consumer contexts, consumers rely on numerical information to evaluate product attributes, make judgments and decisions, and make predictions for relevant outcomes. This dissertation investigates how numerical information influence consumer judgment and preferences.

Essay 1 introduces the concept of numerical expressions—numerical quantifiers such as pairs, trios, quartets, dozens—and demonstrates that consumers prefer offers expressed using numerical expressions (e.g., buy a dozen health drinks) relative to their numerical counterpart (e.g., buy 12 health drinks). This occurs because numerical expressions are perceived to be more complete and are easier to justify, and therefore serve as goals in consumption …

Essays On Cryptofinance, Robert Douglas Viglione

Theses and Dissertations

Cryptofinance is a term that describes the application of Bitcoin, cryptocurrencies, and blockchain technology to the traditional domains of finance; this includes both asset pricing and corporate finance. This work first documents the new technology, peer-to-peer financial instruments and how they trade, evaluates the small but growing literature in finance and economics, and then explores important relationships that explain cross-country differences in cryptocurrency premiums. The first finding is that investors pay a persistent premium over global prices in countries with less economic freedom, particularly when there exist barriers to trade, less secure property rights, or foreign exchange and capital controls …

Carolina Consulting Scholars Cohort: Enabling Students To Be Stronger Analytical Thinkers And Problem Solvers, Alexis Mcconomy, Justin Farley

Senior Theses

Undergraduate students at the Moore School currently have limited avenues to pursue management consulting upon graduating from the University of South Carolina. The Darla Moore School of Business has academic excellence initiatives that have led to great success from certain programs and centers; however, there lacks a formalized support system to help students looking for internships or full-time roles in consulting. Our proposed Consulting Scholars cohort seeks to gather top students from all majors and offer them a cohort that will educate and prepare them for success as future consultants. By leveraging existing classes within the Management department and the …

The Benefits Of A More Physically Active Workforce In The Corporate World, Dillon M. Billingham-Hemminger, Jacob D. Locke

Senior Theses

With the ever-expanding knowledge of the benefits of physical activity and good general health for all aspects of our lives, it should be quite surprising that activity levels are declining at accelerating rates. After taking a deeper look into the probable cause for this phenomenon, it becomes clearer that the increasing pressures of workplace culture are leading to more sedentary lifestyles.

This paper looks at the benefits of physical activity on people and on corporations, specifically workplace disease prevention and wellness programs, to see if there exists a mutualistic relationship between the two. For people, physical activity was consistently found …

The Effects Of Organic Products On Conventional Products And Retailer Assortment Planning, Zhihao Zhang

Theses and Dissertations

The rapid growth in organic products has posed a major challenge to conventional retailer assortment planning. On the one hand, conventional retailers, driven by the relatively high margins of organic products, have increased organic product offerings. On the other hand, the shelf space for conventional retailers has remained the same, with newly opened stores much smaller in sizes. Therefore, retailers need to carefully manage their conventional product assortments to harvest the benefit of offering and increasing organic product assortments. In order to manage the assortment efficiently, conventional retailers need to understand how organic products would affect their existing products, consumers, …

Clarifying And Measuring The Value Of Human Capital Resources, Donald Hale, Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

The concept of value is central to the strategic human resources (SHRM) and strategic human capital resource literatures (SHCR) because of their grounding in Resource Based Theory (RBT). In order to facilitate a firm’s competitive advantage, both the SHRM and SHCR literatures argue that the practices and people in a firm must work together to generate resources that are valuable, rare, inimitable, and non-substitutable. Value is the first and primary consideration in this logic. Despite the centrality of value in both literatures, prior attempts to identify and measure human capital resource (HCR) value (e.g. utility analysis) have produced mixed results …

A Scenario-Based Analysis On The Impact Of Covid-19 On The Public Sector, Private Sector, And International Business, Charles Nastopoulos

Senior Theses

Drawing on four years of academic education received from the #1 International Business Program at the Darla Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina Honors College, this is a comprehensive and forward-thinking strategic thought piece addressing the international business world and its potential post-pandemic reality. This thesis will answer the overarching question: What are the short- and long-term impacts of the coronavirus pandemic on international business?

The Macroeconomic And Cultural Microcosms Of Global Groceries, Emily C. Mccluskey, Stephanie A. Barton

Senior Theses

The aim of this thesis is to understand the global grocery market and to present a framework to assist sector players in developing go-to-market strategies as they expand abroad. In order to holistically study the cultural and economic implications of grocery stores across the world, we first selected six unique countries to focus our research: Singapore, Brazil, Chile, Australia, Germany, and the United States. In addition to having personally traveled to each of these countries, we chose to analyze these six very different markets in order to include a wide range of cultures and levels of economic development. We found …

Analyzing Local Alcohol Vendor Inventory Management Strategy, Angelo J. Amore

Senior Theses

This paper attempts to analyze how local alcohol vendors maintain their inventory throughout the year in Columbia, attempting to manage factors such as the season, sporting events, and other public gatherings and events. The research question resulted in contacting over 30 local alcohol vendors in Columbia, to ask them questions regarding their strategy in alcohol inventory management. The responses to these questions were then used to organize the vendors into groups by whether or not they utilize a reorder point to purchase/brew alcohol, or if they utilize periodic ordering. The vendors were also asked to rank the seasons from most …

Two Essays Examining Consumer Responses To Product And Service Failures, Sotires Pagiavlas

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is comprised of two essays that examine consumer responses to product and service failures. In essay 1, I use the U.S. automobile industry as a backdrop to investigate how consumers respond when their products experience a defect-related failure identified by the manufacturer that necessitates a recall. I develop a conceptual framework to test the impact of a regulator-initiated digital marketing campaign (DMC) on consumer compliance to product recalls. The empirical context is the launch of a nationwide DMC by the U.S. automobile industry’s regulator. The analysis spans 12 quarters of recall completion data pertaining to 296 recalls falling …

Unpacking The Effects Of International Experience In Intercultural Negotiations, Chei Hwee Chua

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines how international experience influences the outcomes of intercultural negotiations. Its main contributions lie in the novel and contextualized conceptualization of international experience and the development of a comprehensive theoretical model that unpacks the effects of international experience in intercultural negotiations. I propose that international experience is a multi-dimensional construct that encompasses four dimensions: breadth, depth, cultural distance, and cultural heterogeneity. I argue that experiences abroad develop and strengthen individuals’ intercultural competence, psychological capital and global identity, which in turn positively influence the outcomes of intercultural negotiations, i.e., they mediate the relationship between international experience and intercultural negotiation …

Having Newcomers In Diverse Teams: The Effects Of Subgroup Identification And Established Faultlines On Newcomer Information Seeking And Team Creativity, Xing Liu

Theses and Dissertations

The current literature has demonstrated the importance of newcomers’ information seeking on their socialization in teams and the consequences of newcomers on team outcomes such as team creativity. However, there is limited knowledge on the antecedents of newcomer information seeking and team creativity in diverse teams after the entry of a newcomer. In this dissertation, with a focus on newcomers in diverse teams, I investigated two phenomena at the individual level and team level, respectively. At the individual level, I explored the influence of newcomers’ subgroup identification on information seeking via their feelings of psychological safety and the role of …

Sticks And Stones May Break My Bones: Social Undermining As Social Influence, Jason Kautz

Theses and Dissertations

The current social undermining literature suggests the important role of the witness in determining the negative impact on the victim. However, the literature has yet to explicitly explore the witness’ role in social undermining. In this dissertation, I integrate theory and research on social influence and emotions to develop a framework that suggests social undermining be considered a form of social influence. This framework allows for the exploration of the witness’ sense-making process following a social undermining event along with the accumulated effects of repeated exposure to a series of social undermining events. I propose that social undermining influences witness …

Operational Drivers Of Hospital And Physician Adaptation To Industry Change, Justin Taylor Kistler

Theses and Dissertations

Hospitals and physicians are often required to adapt their operations in response to macro changes in their industry environment. This dissertation examines the operational factors which influence and incentivize changes in hospital and physician operating performance. The first essay in this dissertation investigates how legislative political support and competition in the area in which a hospital operates influences hospitals’ investments and commitment to complying with performance mandates implemented by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) legislation in the United States. Leveraging United States hospital performance data from 2007 to 2014, results indicate a differential impact of government ideology …

Serving As A Backup Plan: Accounting Reserves And Their Impact On Managerial Risk-Taking, Kun Lui

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines how accounting reserves influence firms’ internal decisions. In particular, this study investigates whether and how reserves currently reported in a firm’s balance sheet affect managerial risk-taking in the making of capital investment decisions. The experimental results show that firm managers are more likely to take risks in the making of capital investment decisions when the amount of reserves is large compared with when it is small. Additionally, the amount of reserves influences managerial risk-taking through sequentially influencing managers’ perceived risks of missing relevant earnings targets and managers’ perceived risks of investing in risky capital investment options. These …

The Effect Of Audit Procedure Extent And Precision On Auditors’ Skeptical Judgments, Sarah Alexis Judge

Theses and Dissertations

I investigate how the extent and precision of an audit procedure influence auditors’ responses to errors. The results suggest that while audit procedures with expanded extents are beneficial, this benefit is influenced by the presence of false positives. Specifically, I predict and find that as the extent of an audit procedure expands, auditors will be more likely to recommend audit adjustments. However, this effect is moderated by the presence of false positives. When false positives are absent, auditors are more likely to recommend an adjustment when they use a large extent procedure, however when false positives are present, there is …

Three Essays On Optimization And Decision-Making Solutions In Grocery Retail Operations, Olga Pak

Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation titled “Three Essays on Optimization and Decision-Making Solutions in Retail Operations,” we explore various techniques aimed at optimizing the operational efficiency in a grocery retail store. Specifically, the first essay examines a store manager’s decision of which stock-keeping units (SKUs) from a given category to assign to a promotional display space. We develop a decision support tool that consists of an estimation model and an optimization model. Using a grocery store sales transaction dataset, we introduce a methodology to measure the incremental lift in sales of placing a particular SKU on promotional display space. Our optimization model …

A New Generation Of Workers: Preparing For Generation Z In The Workplace, Kendra Harris

Senior Theses

A new generational wave has begun to enter the workforce. The oldest members of Generation Z, those approximately at the age of 25 and below, have recently begun their careers. In the past few years, some changes have been made to work environments, like constructing gyms and daycares at workplaces, expanding the options for work at home programs, and firms hosting social events to attract top, young talent. Some of these actions were to appease Generation Y (Millennials), but some, whether the intent was known or not, will be very pleasing and beneficial to Generation Z. However, Generation Y and …