Management Sciences and Quantitative Methods Commons^™

Review Of “Dreammakers: Innovating For The Greater Good” By Michele Hunt, Dreammakers (Dreammakers.Org), Sang M. Lee

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

This is an inspiring book about DreamMakers, those individuals and organizations that have the audacity to rethink, redesign, and co-create a new world view of doing well by doing good. These dream makers aspire to reset the workings of the world to alleviate major ills and problems that societies face today. To understand and appreciate this book fully, we need to know about the author.

Michele Hunt is an extraordinarily successful lady with colorful professional background. Upon graduation from college (BA in Sociology from Eastern Michigan University and MA in Sociology from University of Detroit), she worked for 9 years …

Motivating Employee Referrals: The Interactive Effects Of The Referral Bonus, Perceived Risk In Referring, And Affective Commitment, Jenna R. Pieper, Jessica M. Greenwald, Steven D. Schlachter

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

Research has provided compelling evidence that employee referrals result in positive outcomes for organizations and job seekers, but it has been limited on how organizations can increase the likelihood of obtaining employee referrals. Using the theoretical lens of social exchange theory and tenets from expectancy theory, we tested two common assumptions of most employers: A referral bonus motivates employees to refer, and higher bonus amounts incite greater likelihood of referring. We theoretically developed and tested a model integrating the effects of perceived risk in referring and affective commitment and their interactions with the referral bonus to better explain the likelihood …

Artificial Intelligence In Engineering Risk Analytics, Desheng Wu, David L. Olson, Alexandre Dolgui

Department of Supply Chain Management and Analytics: Faculty Publications

Risks exist in every aspect of our lives, and can mean different things to different people. While negative in general they always cause a great deal of potential damage and inconvenience for stakeholders. Recent engineering risks include the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster from the 2011 tsunami, a year that also saw earthquakes in New Zealand, tornados in the US, and floods in both Australia and Thailand. Earthquakes, tornados (not to mention hurricanes) and floods are repetitive natural phenomenon. But the October 2011 floods in Thailand were the worst in 50 years, impacting supply chains including those of Honda, Toyota, Lenovo, …

Developing An Innovative Entity Extraction Method For Unstructured Data, Waleed A. Zaghloul, Silvana Trimi

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

The main goal of this study is to build high-precision extractors for entities such as Person and Organization as a good initial seed that can be used for training and learning in machine-learning systems, for the same categories, other categories, and across domains, languages, and applications. The improvement of entities extraction precision also increases the relationships extraction precision, which is particularly important in certain domains (such as intelligence systems, social networking, genetic studies, healthcare, etc.). These increases in precision improve the end users’ experience quality in using the extraction system because it lowers the time that users spend for training …

Competitive Repertoire Complexity: Governance Antecedents And Performance Outcomes, Brian L. Connelly, Laszlo Tihanyi, David J. Ketchen Jr., Christina Matz Carnes, Walter J. Ferrier

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

Research summary: Past inquiry has found that implementing complex competitive repertoires (i.e., diverse and dynamic arrays of actions) is challenging, but firms benefit from doing so. Our examination of the antecedents and outcomes of complex competitive repertoires develops a more nuanced perspective. Data from 1,168 firms in 204 industries reveal that complexity initially harms performance, but then becomes a positive factor, except at high levels. We use agency and tournament theories, respectively, to examine how key governance mechanisms—ownership structure and executive compensation—help shape firms’ competitive repertoires. We find that the principals of agency theory and the pay gap of tournament …

Environmental Policy Performances For Sustainable Development: From The Perspective Of Iso 14001 Certification, Sang M. Lee, Yonghwi Noh, Donghyun Choi, Jin Sung Rha

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

This study investigated the financial performances of environmental policy by using the long-term effect of ISO 14001 certification. Drawing on a natural-resource-based view of the firm, this study examined abnormal performances of ISO 14001 certified firms on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations (NASDAQ) in the USA during the period 1996–2010 employing a rigorous event study methodology. The results indicate that the profitability variables showed immediate positive abnormal effects after firms applied for the ISO 14001 certification, while the market benefit variable showed gradual improvements after obtaining the certification. However, ISO 14001 …

Pulling In Different Directions? Exploring The Relationship Between Vertical Pay Dispersion And High-Performance Work Systems, Jake G. Messersmith, Kyoung Yong Kim, Pankaj C. Patel

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

Vertical pay dispersion (VPD), a hierarchical pay structure used to motivate employees, has traditionally been studied separately from high-performance work systems (HPWSs). As a component of HPWSs, incentive-based compensation schemes focus on employee- or team-level incentives. However, the influence of the simultaneous utilization of VPD and HPWS on performance remains understudied. This study addresses the question of whether these approaches to managing human capital serve as complements or substitutes to one another. VPD and HPWS are argued to substitute for one another with respect to motivation- and skill-enhancing practices. The opposite notion is true in regard to opportunity-enhancing HPWSs, which …

Graphic Novels: A Brief History, Their Use In Business Education, And The Potential For Negotiation Pedagogy, Mallory Wallace

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

Over an extensive history, graphic novels have developed into a legitimate form of fiction and nonfiction for readers and students. Use of graphic novels in classrooms has proven effective in facilitating learning for students, as a conduit for lifelong reading, a tool for increased comprehension and critical literacy, and a stimulus for interest and comprehension. In applying this to teaching negotiation and conflict management, graphic novels may be effective in engaging students and increasing understanding when terms and concepts are confusing or vague, especially in their differences, and can help students understand the process and outcome of negotiation, both objective …

Psychological Capital: An Evidence-Based Positive Approach, Fred Luthans, Carolyn M. Youssef-Morgan

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

The now recognized core construct of psychological capital, or simply PsyCap, draws from positive psychology in general and positive organizational behavior (POB) in particular. The first-order positive psychological resources that make up PsyCap include hope, efficacy, resilience, and optimism, or the HERO within. These four best meet the inclusion criteria of being theory- and research-based, positive, validly measurable, state-like, and having impact on attitudes, behaviors, performance and well-being. The article first provides the background and precise meaning of PsyCap and then comprehensively reviews its measures, theoretical mechanisms, antecedents and outcomes, levels of analysis, current status and needed research, and finally …

Can Contracts Replace Qualification In A Sourcing Process With Competitive Suppliers And Imperfect Information?, Yue Jin, Jennifer K. Ryan

Department of Supply Chain Management and Analytics: Faculty Publications

This paper considers a manufacturer who outsources the production of a product to multiple competing suppliers, who differ in their cost structures and in their capabilities for producing high-quality products. The manufacturer must design the sourcing process to ensure that the selected supplier has sufficient quality capability, while encouraging competition among the suppliers. We develop and analyze a mathematical model of performance-based contracting, a sourcing method that is appropriate when the manufacturer has imperfect information regarding the suppliers’ costs and capabilities. We compare the performance of performance-based contracting with that of a two-stage sourcing process, an alternative sourcing method that …

Positive Psychology In Sales: Integrating Psychological Capital, Scott B. Friend, Jeff S. Johnson, Fred Luthans, Ravipreet Sohi

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

As positive psychology moves into the workplace, researchers have been able to demonstrate the desirable impact of positive organizational behavior. Specifically, psychological capital (PsyCap) improves employee attitudes, behaviors, and performance. Advancing PsyCap in sales research is important given the need for a comprehensive positive approach to drive sales performance, offset the high cost of salesperson turnover, improve cross-functional sales interfaces, and enrich customer relationships. The authors provide an integrative review of PsyCap, discuss its application in sales, and advance an agenda for future research. Research prescriptions are organized according to individual-level, intra-organizational, and extra-organizational outcomes pertinent to the sales field.

My Family Made Me Do It: A Cross-Domain, Self-Regulatory Perspective On Antecedents To Abusive Supervision, Stephen H. Courtright, Richard G. Gardner, Troy A. Smith, Brian W. Mccormick, Amy E. Colbert

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

Drawing on resource drain theory, we introduce self-regulatory resource (ego) depletion stemming from family–work conflict (FWC) as an alternative theoretical perspective on why supervisors behave abusively toward subordinates. Our two-study examination of a cross-domain antecedent of abusive supervision stands in contrast to prior research, which has focused primarily on work-related factors that influence abusive supervision. Further, our investigation shows how ego depletion is proximally related to abusive supervision. In the first study, conducted at a Fortune 500 company and designed as a lagged survey study, we found that, after controlling for alternative theoretical mechanisms, supervisors who experienced FWC displayed more …

Pay-For-Performance’S Effect On Future Employee Performance: Integrating Psychological And Economic Principles Toward A Contingency Perspective, Anthony J. Nyberg, Jenna R. Pieper, Charlie O. Trevor

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

Although pay-for-performance’s potential effect on employee performance is a compelling issue, understanding this dynamic has been constrained by narrow approaches to pay-for-performance conceptualization, measurement, and surrounding conditions. In response, we take a more nuanced perspective by integrating fundamental principles of economics and psychology to identify and incorporate employee characteristics, job characteristics, pay system characteristics, and pay system experience into a contingency model of the pay-for-performance–future performance relationship. We test the role that these four key contextual factors play in pay-for-performance effectiveness using 11,939 employees over a 5-year period. We find that merit and bonus pay, as well as their multiyear …

Three Essays On Biofuels, Drought, Livestock, And The Environment, Sunil P. Dhoubhadel

Department of Agricultural Economics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This dissertation consists of three essays. The first essay examines the impact of the 2012 drought and the biofuels mandate on the U.S. grain and livestock markets. A stochastic equilibrium displacement model is used to analyze the impact on eight commodity markets viz. beef, pork, poultry, corn, distillers’ grain (DG), soybean, soymeal, and ethanol. Among the eight markets, corn and beef are found to be the most vulnerable to drought. The use of Renewable Identification Number (RIN) credits as an instrument to mitigate the impact of drought has limited effectiveness. A mandate waiver of about 23% is required to fully …

The Age Of Quality Innovation, Sang M. Lee

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

In this inaugural issue of International Journal of Quality Innovation, the Editor-in-Chief reports the evolution of quality management and the need for innovative research for creating new quality values.

Diffusion Of Innovation: Customer Relationship Management Adoption In Supply Chain Organizations, Vicky Ching Gu, Marc J. Schniederjans, Qing Cao

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

The successful diffusion of innovations in rapidly changing supply chain technological environments is essential to support operations and supply chain management functions. In this paper we conceptualize and develop a framework for research into the diffusion of innovations in organizations pertaining to software adoption in supply chain management. Incorporating Task-Technology Fit theory with a network externalities model, we develop a novel approach in customer relations management (CRM) software adoption. An empirical study using Partial Least Squares (PLS) on data from US supply chain managers is utilized to confirm the usability of the proposed framework as well as confirming the efficacy …

The Paradox Of Knowledge Creation In A High-Reliability Organization: A Case Study, Ivana Milosevic, A. Erin Bass, Gwendolyn Combs

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

We employed an instrumental case study of a multisystem hydroelectric power producer, a high-reliability organization (HRO), to explore how new knowledge is created in a context in which errors may result in destruction, catastrophic consequences, and even loss of human life. The findings indicate that knowledge creation is multilevel, nested within three levels of paradox: paradox of knowing, paradox of practice, and paradox of organizing. The combination of the lack of opportunity for errors with the dynamism of the HRO context necessitates that individuals work through multiple paradoxes to generate and formalize new knowledge. The findings contribute to the literature …

The Mcdonaldization Of Academic Libraries?, Brian Quinn

Copyright, Fair Use, Scholarly Communication, etc.

George Ritzer, a sociologist at the University of Maryland, has proposed an influential thesis that suggests that many aspects of the fast food industry are making their way into other areas of society. This article explores whether his thesis, known as the McDonaldization thesis, is applicable to academic libraries. Specifically, it seeks to determine to what extent academic libraries may be considered McDonaldized, and if so, what effect McDonaldization may be having on them. It also investigates some possible alternatives to McDonaldization, and their implications for academic libraries.

Resource Planning In Engineering Services Firms, Vincent Hargaden, Jennifer K. Ryan

Department of Supply Chain Management and Analytics: Faculty Publications

We develop a model to enable engineering professional services firms to improve the management of their competitive resources, i.e., skilled engineers, to be better able to respond to customer demand. The model was informed by semistructured interviews with senior executives from engineering, information technology (IT) services and technical consulting firms. As a result, we capture many of the complexities associated with the resource planning process in the professional engineering services sector. In the resulting model, the key attributes of supply, demand, and operations constraints are identified. Based on information obtained from the interviews, a number of test firms are created.We …

Quality Management And Innovation: New Insights On A Structural Contingency Framework, Dara Schniederjans, Marc Schniederjans

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

With increasing market competition, organizations are striving for greater innovation in products and services. Quality management has the potential to invigorate an organization’s product, process and administrative innovation when strategically aligned with internal contingencies. This paper seeks to address the relationship between social and technical quality management with innovation. Moreover, this paper empirically assesses contingency factors including organization size, task and managerial ethics which play roles in moderating the relationship between quality management and innovation. Based on an empirical study we find social quality management practices, not technical quality management practices, are positively associated with innovation. We also find a …

Racial Differences In Job Attribute Preferences: The Role Of Ethnic Identity And Self-Efficacy, Jakari N. Griffith, Gwendolyn M. Combs

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

Using a sample of 149 white and 190 black business students, the authors examined racial differences in job attribute preferences. Results of this study indicate there were significant racial differences in 19 of 21 job attributes examined, with black students placing greater importance on job attributes than white students. Investigation of the mechanisms contributing to this difference reveals that the relationship between race and job attribute preferences was mediated by ethnic identity. Furthermore, the relationship between ethnic identity and job attributes was moderated by personal efficacy, with higher self-efficacy levels leading to greater importance placed on job attributes.

The Influence Of Exploration On External Corporate Venturing Activity, Varkey K. Titus Jr., Jenny M. House, Jeffrey G. Covin

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

We utilize the exploration/exploitation framework to examine how a firm’s engagement in exploration influences its portfolio of external corporate venturing (ECV) activities. Three forms of equity-based ECV are considered: corporate venture capital investments, joint ventures, and acquisitions. The organizational learning literature is used to investigate how a firm’s engagement in exploration influences its usage of acquisitions relative to its overall portfolio of ECV activities. The investing firm’s industry technological dynamism is posited as a moderator of the relationship between exploration and the relative usage of acquisitions. Utilizing a sample of 1,326 firm-year observations between 1996 and 2008, we find that …

Contagion Effect Of Global Leaders’ Positive Psychological Capital On Followers: Does Distance And Quality Of Relationship Matter?, Joana S. P. Story, Carolyn M. Youssef-Morgan, Fred Luthans, John E. Barbuto Jr., James A. Bovaird

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

A key assumption of effective international human resource management (IHRM) is that global leaders influence and serve as role models for their followers, regardless of the inherent distance (physical and frequency of interaction) between them in today’s global context or the quality of the relationship. Although considerable attention has been devoted to cultural differences between global leaders and their diverse followers and teams, this study investigates the impact that distance and quality of the relationship has on a sample of a Fortune 100 multinational firm’s global leaders’ level of positive psychological capital (PsyCap) contagion effect on their followers located around …

Results Of The April Survey Of Nebraska Business: May 9, 2014, Eric Thompson, Shannon Mcclure, Mihdi Vahedi

Leading Economic Indicator Reports

Respondents to the April 2014 Survey of Nebraska Business remained positive in their outlook for sales and employment at their business. More respondents expected sales to rise (31%) than decline (18%) in the next six months. Further, more respondents expected to add (10%) than to reduce (4%) employment. Respondents also were more focused on the market challenges facing their businesses. When asked about the most important issue facing their business, 6.5 in 10 focused on core business operations issues such as customer demand, the cost of supplies, labor quality, competition, improved business practices, and credit availability. 3.5 in 10 focused …

Business Intelligence In Risk Management: Some Recent Progresses, Desheng Dash Wu, Shu-Heng Chen, David L. Olson

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

Risk management has become a vital topic both in academia and practice during the past several decades. Most business intelligence tools have been used to enhance risk management, and the risk management tools have benefited from business intelligence approaches. This introductory article provides a review of the state-of-the-art research in business intelligence in risk management, and of the work that has been accepted for publication in this issue of Information Sciences.

Impact Of Authentic Leadership On Performance: Role Of Followers’ Positive Psychological Capital And Relational Processes, Hui Wang, Yang Sui, Fred Luthans, Danni Wang, Yanhong Wu

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

Authentic leadership has received considerable attention and research support over the past decade. Now the time has come to refine and better understand how it impacts performance. This study investigates the moderating role followers’ positive psychological capital (PsyCap) and the mediating role that leader–member exchange (LMX) may play in influencing the relationship between authentic leadership and followers’ performance. Specifically, we tested this mediated moderation model with matched data from 794 followers and their immediate leaders. We found that authentic leadership is positively related to LMX and consequently followers’ performance, and to a larger degree, among followers who have low rather …

Two Stage Procurement Processes With Competitive Suppliers And Uncertain Supplier Quality, Yue Jin, Jennifer K. Ryan, Walter Yund

Department of Supply Chain Management and Analytics: Faculty Publications

This paper considers a sourcing problem faced by a manufacturer who outsources the manufacturing of a product to one of several competing suppliers, whose cost and quality capabilities are unknown. We consider a two-stage sourcing process in which the first stage is the qualification stage, while the second stage is the supplier selection stage. In the first stage, the manufacturer exerts effort to learn about the quality level of each of the suppliers and then must determine the set of qualified suppliers, subject to some tolerance for error. In the second stage, the manufacturer runs a price-only procurement auction, in …

A Sociogenomic Perspective On Neuroscience In Organizational Behavior, Seth M. Spain, Peter D. Harms

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

We critically examine the current biological models of individual organizational behavior, with particular emphasis on the roles of genetics and the brain. We demonstrate how approaches to biology in the organizational sciences assume that biological systems are simultaneously causal and essentially static; that genotypes exert constant effects. In contrast, we present a sociogenomic approach to organizational research, which could provide a meta-theoretical framework for understanding organizational behavior. Sociogenomics is an interactionist approach that derives power from its ability to explain how genes and environment operate. The key insight is that both genes and the environment operate by modifying gene expression. …

Uncovering The Nuances Of Referral Hiring: How Referrer Characteristics Affect Referral Hires’ Performance And Likelihood Of Voluntary Turnover, Jenna R. Pieper

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

The literature on employee referral hiring gives little attention to referrers. Synthesizing two theories in the literature (the better match and social enrichment accounts), through the lens of social resources theory, I provide a conceptual and empirical breakdown of the effects of referrer quality (referrer performance at hire and referrer tenure at hire) and post-hire accessibility (referrer employment and referrer-referral hire job congruence) on referral hire performance and likelihood of voluntary turnover. I tested my hypotheses with longitudinal data from 386 referrer-referral hire pairs at the same job level in a U.S. call center over a 2-year period. Across analyses …

Going Beyond Research On Goal Setting: A Proposed Role For Organizational Psychological Capital Of Family Firms, Esra Memili, Dianne H.B. Welsh, Fred Luthans

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

Kotlar and De Massis found that membership assortment and the number of organizational members, as well as the imminence of succession, influence goal diversity in family firms. They also showed that goal diversity can be managed and family-centered goals can be stabilized through professional and familial social interactions, driving the formation of collective commitment to family- centered goals (CCFG). Using this research as a point of departure, we propose that CCFG may impact family firm economic and noneconomic performance. Furthermore, we introduce to the family firm literature the organizational psychological capital (OPC), consisting of hope, efficacy, resilience, and optimism. We …