Management Sciences and Quantitative Methods Commons^™

A Multilevel Examination Of Proactive Work Behaviors: Contextual And Individual Differences As Antecedents, Travis P. Searle

Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communication: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

In this study, the process through which individual differences (i.e., proactive personality, psychological empowerment, and servant leader characteristics at level-1) and contextual differences (i.e., servant leadership characteristics at level-2) are antecedents to proactive work behaviors (i.e., problem prevention, individual innovation, voice, and taking charge) was tested. Results indicated that psychological empowerment partially mediated the relationship between proactive personality and individual innovation. Psychological empowerment fully mediated the relationship between proactive personality and taking charge. Proactive personality was indirectly related to problem prevention, via psychological empowerment. Psychological empowerment was directly related to voice. In addition, servant leader characteristics at level-1 were positively …

The Great Recession And Its Effect On Small Businesses And Unemployment Rates, Alyssa Sharples

Honors Theses

The 2007 financial crisis, otherwise known as the "Great Recession," has impacted the economy tremendously in the past three years. Businesses have been drastically impacted, as have the lives of workers in the United States. Many articles have been published about different aspects of the recession. One question that has not been completely addressed is how the Great Recession has affected small businesses and unemployment rates. The reason for addressing these two topics is because they are closely related to one another. Small business owners are reporting that there has been a decline in sales. Consumers are not willing to …

Businesses Going Green: An Analysis Of The Factors That Motivate Firms To Adopt Environmentally Friendly Practices, Emma Currin

Honors Theses

The purpose of this analysis is not to degrade environmentally friendly efforts by firms, but rather to explore their motivations for adopting such sustainable initiatives. Current research would suggest that businesses are motivated to adopt environmentally friendly practices by a combination of legal requirements, corporate social responsibility, and gaining some sort of businesses advantage such as reduced costs, increased market share, and similar financial benefits. Determining what it is that contributes to a firm's decision making process can have several positive implications. It may help a firm to better address the changing needs of an evolving society, the government to …

Uncovering Hidden Profiles; Managerial Interventions For Discovering Superior Decision Alternatives, Brian D. Waddell

Honors Projects in Management

A common reason for the use of teams in organizations is the idea that each individual can bring a unique perspective to the decision task; however, research shows that teams often fail to surface and use unique information to evaluate decision alternatives. Under a condition known as the hidden profile, each member uniquely possesses a critical clue needed to uncover the superior solution. Failure to share and adequately evaluate this information will result in poor decision quality. In order to mitigate this team decision-making bias, the present study utilizes experimental research to examine the impact of the devil’s advocacy technique …

Empirical Methods-A Review: With An Introduction To Data Mining And Machine Learning, Matt Bogard

Economics Faculty Publications

This presentation was part of a staff workshop focused on empirical methods and applied research. This includes a basic overview of regression with matrix algebra, maximum likelihood, inference, and model assumptions. Distinctions are made between paradigms related to classical statistical methods and algorithmic approaches. The presentation concludes with a brief discussion of generalization error, data partitioning, decision trees, and neural networks.

Multiparty Negotiations And Their Settings: How A Change In Location Can Change Bargaining Strategies, Danielle Borel

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Financial Performance And Capacity Analysis For The Mice Industry In Las Vegas And The United States, Li-Ting Yang

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The meetings, incentive travel, conventions, and exhibitions (MICE) industry is comparatively young and diverse. As a result, there has been limited research conducted in this field, especially from the financial performance and capacity management perspective. The purpose of this study is to fill the gap by analyzing the MICE capacity optimization issue in Las Vegas, a leading MICE destination, and in the U.S., a leading MICE country in the world. The findings and results of this study should help industry practitioners better understand the current status of the U.S. MICE industry in terms of assets efficiency, operational costs, and profitability. …

Lean Manufacturing - An Integrated Socio-Technical Systems Approach To Work Design, Mohammed Raja

All Dissertations

Over the years, the manufacturing industry has witnessed a number of work design practices, based on different principles, which have significantly shaped the nature of work and have affected employees' behavior and performance. This study compares the socio-technical systems (STS) principles and lean production (LP) principles in to explore the potential for synergistic integration between the two. They are categorized according to the common overarching goals of these principles, and through a process of theoretical rationalization, these categories are operationalized into the work design practices of middle management support, social practices usage, and technical practices usage.
A model of work …

Alternate Models For Forecasting Hedge Fund Returns, Michael A. Holden

Senior Honors Projects

Alternate Models for Forecasting Hedge Fund Returns

Michael Holden

Faculty Sponsor: Gordon Dash, Finance and Decision Sciences

Investors have always wanted to improve the efficiency of modeling realized volatility to maximize directional trading returns and substantially improve profitability. As proposed, this honors project will provide evidence from hedge fund returns that a Radial-Basis Function (RBF) artificial neural network (ANN), specifically the Kajiji-4 RBF-ANN dominates other forecast methods in producing one-period ahead change-of-direction when forecasting the expected returns of various hedge fund indexes.

I began this project by collecting historical economic data in monthly increments to serve as the dependent variables. …

Bond Volatility Transmissions Between United States And European Markets, Seth Kulman

Senior Honors Projects

Bond Volatility Transmissions Between United States and European Markets

Seth Kulman

Faculty Sponsor: Gordon Dash, Finance and Decision Sciences

Recent events have illustrated the degree of connection between the world’s economies.  Economic events occurring in one country are felt in countless others, most vividly demonstrated by the onset of a worldwide recession following the financial collapse in the United States.  Volatility no longer stays contained within one local economy.

The purpose of this study is to examine volatility spillovers between the United States and European bond markets.  To identify volatility effects in a given country, we will be using a …

Information Seeking Behavior: The Effects Of Relationalism On The Selection Of Information Sources, Chris Zimmer

All Dissertations

In a world where 'Google' is a verb, this research asks the question 'what influences an individual's decision to select one information source over another?' Previous works have discussed relational versus nonrelational information sources (Rulke, Zaheer, & Anderson, 2000). Other research focuses on the information quality (O'Reilly, 1982), source accessibility (Culnan, 1984, 1985), or source richness (Daft, Lengel, & Trevino, 1987; Daft & Macintosh, 1981) but all these prior works do not address the social aspects of information sources.
This research defines and develops the construct of relationalism which is reflective of the social aspects of information sources. An important …

Government Financial Management, Strategy For Preventing Corruption In Indonesia, Haryono Umar

The South East Asian Journal of Management

In popular view, the term accountability generally refers to a wide spectrum of public expectations dealing with organizational performance, responsiveness, good governance, and even morality of government and nonprofit organizations. These expectations often include implicit performance criteria – related to obligations and responsibilities – that are subjectively interpreted and sometimes even contradictory. And in this broader conception of accountability, the range of people and institutions to whom public and nonprofit organizations must account include not only higher authorities in the institutional chain of command but also the general public, the news media, peer agencies, donors, and many other stakeholders (Kearns, …

Productivity Spillovers From Foreign Direct Investment: What If Productivity Is No Longer A Black Box?, Tran Toan Thang

The South East Asian Journal of Management

While the positive productivity spillover from Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to domestic owned firms in host countries is unequivocally emphasized in theory, the empirical evidence is contradictory. This paper, based on firm level data in Vietnam (enterprise census, 2000-2005), provides more inside on that. Using time-varying stochastic frontier approach, the study decomposed the change of productivity into technical change, technical efficiency change and scale efficiency change. The evidence from estimating the spillovers in each corresponding components suggest that horizontal FDI bring negative spillovers, mainly to technical change but positive spillovers to technical efficiency. Vertical FDI also have mixed impacts to …

Relationship Between Organizational Justice Perception And Engagement In Deviant Workplace Behavior, Muhammad Irfan Syaebani, Riani Rachmawati Sobri

The South East Asian Journal of Management

Deviant workplace behavior is not something unusual and is prevalent in organizational dynamics. It is found in all types of organizations and in all levels of positions. This deviance is costly not only in financial, but also in social and psychological terms. This research aims to reveal whether there is any association between organizational justice perception and engagement in deviant workplace behavior since so many scholars argue that organizational injustice can serve as one of the causes to workplace deviance. Three forms of organizational justice are used in this research; they are: distributive, procedural, and interactional justice. Additionally, two dimensions …

Intellectual Capital: A Focus On Human Capital Reporting Practices Of Top Malaysian Listed Companies, Norhayati Mat Husin, Noormala Ahmad, Raedah Sapingi

The South East Asian Journal of Management

This paper aims to examine the extent of human capital (HC) reporting among top Malaysian companies and introduce an HC reporting guideline that can be used by Malaysian companies and regulator. It begins by developing the HC framework based on previous intellectual capital (IC) frameworks. This framework is then used to examine each of the top 100 Malaysian companies listed on the Bursa Malaysia in year 2008. Using the content analysis method, it reviews the annual reports of these companies to determine the extent of HC reporting. The findings of this paper highlight the need for the development of IC …

The Influence Of Corporate Social Responsibility Activity Toward Customer Loyalty Through Improvement Of Quality Of Life In Urban Area, Tengku Ezni Balqiah, Hapsari Setyowardhani, Khairani Khairani

The South East Asian Journal of Management

The success of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities can create competitive advantage by influencing customer responses to firms’ offering. Customer’s awareness of CSR activity will influence their loyalty through their perception that activity can improve society’s quality of life where the CSR activities were implemented. The objective of this study is to evaluate the relationship between CSR awareness and loyalty that mediated by CSR Belief, Company Ability Belief, Quality of Life, and Company Reputation using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). The result shows little differrences among five firms/brands as the object of the research, that are beverage, soap, car, lubricant, and …

People Skills: Optimizing Team Development And Performance, Robert Levasseur Phd

School of Management Publications

This is another in a series of articles about some of the most effective models, methods, and processes of organization development (OD), also known as change management, a discipline that offers much to professionals intent on solving real-world problems. Because it is based on a systemic view of organizations, OD includes the whole universe of fuzzy people issues that increasingly determine the success or failure of efforts to implement otherwise flawless technical solutions. This article examines the stages of group development, the role that conflict plays in the process, and the importance of conflict management in group development and team …

Complexity In Work Identifications: The Case Of The H-1b Worker In The United States, Cinthia Fruci

Honors Projects in Management

The H-1B visa program allows for United States employers to supplement their workforce with high-skilled foreign workers. Issues arise for these workers when transitioning their lives to the U.S because they have to adapt to a new culture and are exposed to a constantly changing work environment. This exploratory study addresses how these individuals identify with their employing organization and their clients. The findings show that the H-1B contract workers identify more with the client organization as opposed to the employer, who was viewed by the majority as the “payroll department.” Primary factors of such client identification include treatment and …

Hospital Boards And Hospital Strategic Focus: The Impact Of Board Involvement In Strategic Decision Making, Karen Ford-Eickhoff, Donde Ashmos Plowman, Reuben R. Mcdaniel Jr.

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

Background: Despite pressures to change the role of hospital boards, hospitals have made few changes in board composition or director selection criteria. Hospital boards have often continued to operate in their traditional roles as either “monitors” or “advisors.” More attention to the direct involvement of hospital boards in the strategic decision-making process of the organizations they serve, the timing and circumstances under which board involvement occurs, and the board composition that enhances their abilities to participate fully is needed.

Purposes: We investigated the relationship between broader expertise among hospital board members, board involvement in the stages of strategic decision making, …

People Skills: Optimizing Team Development And Performance, Robert Levasseur Phd

Walden Faculty and Staff Publications

This is another in a series of articles about some of the most effective models, methods, and processes of organization development (OD), also known as change management, a discipline that offers much to professionals intent on solving real-world problems. Because it is based on a systemic view of organizations, OD includes the whole universe of fuzzy people issues that increasingly determine the success or failure of efforts to implement otherwise flawless technical solutions. This article examines the stages of group development, the role that conflict plays in the process, and the importance of conflict management in group development and team …

An Empirical Study Of The Impact Of Ceo Characteristics On New Firms' Time To Ipo, Qin Yang, Monica Zimmerman, Crystal X. Jiang

Management Department Faculty Journal Articles

An initial public offering (IPO) is one of the most critical events in the life of a firm. As the IPO market continues to attract attention from both entrepreneurs and investors, research examining the relationship between the firm's characteristics and its IPO performance is growing. In this paper, we use the upper echelon perspective to empirically examine the relationship between the firm's chief executive officer (CEO) and the firm's time to IPO, a relationship that has so far received little attention. Using data obtained from 237 IPOs in the U.S. software industry, we found that the CEO's prior executive experience, …

Examination Timetabling With Mathematical Programming An Application In Turkish Air Force Academy, Emrah Koksalmis

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The focus of this thesis is the educational timetabling problem, which is a very challenging problem to solve especially with a high number of the departments, branches, classes, and students. Due to the large scale of educational timetabling problems and preferences of the stakeholders, it is almost impossible to form a general model that solves all of the timetabling problems in the literature. This resulted in the need to develop and employ specific models for specific institutions.

The purpose of this study is to develop a mathematical programming model that solves the examination timetabling problem in Turkish Air Force Academy …

The Effect Of Employee Engagement On Continuance And Normative Commitment To The Organization, Wai Kwan (Elaine) Lau

Management Faculty Research

A positive relationship between employee engagement and affective commitment is already documented in the literature. However, we do not adequately know how engagement is associated with continuance and normative commitment. Using survey methodology we find that while engagement has a non-significant positive association with continuance commitment, it has a positive association with normative commitment. No negative association was found between engagement and continuance commitment. This study’s results support recent critiques to Allen and Meyer’s three-dimensional model of organizational commitment.

Managing Complexity In Modern Farming, Ross Kingwell

Natural Resources Research Articles

Modern farming in Australia is no longer simple. Farms are large, multi-enterprise businesses underpinned by expensive capital investments, changing production technologies, volatile markets and social challenges. The complexity of modern broadacre farming leads to the question: what is the nature of the relationship between farm business complexity and farm profitability? This study uses bioeconomic farm modelling and employs eight measures of complexity to examine the profitability and complexity of a wide range of broadacre farming systems in Australia. Rank order correlations between farm profitability and each measure of complexity show inconsistent relationships, although the most profitable farming systems are found …

How Cios Overcome The Competing Values Challenge: Irish Cios’ Perspectives, Harvey Enns, Dean B. Mcfarlin, Paul B. Sweeney

MIS/OM/DS Faculty Publications

Competing values are a fact of organizational life. However, there are gaps in our understanding about how these opposing beliefs hinder influence processes. This article draws on interview data to demonstrate how Irish Chief Information Officers (CIOs) are able to convince their colleagues to support new projects within their firms in the face of competing values. Focused interviews were used to explore the influence process and the competing values phenomenon, since this type of research is at an early stage and qualitative methods and analysis serve as a rich source of theory development.

The data showed that the CIOs who …

The Key Characteristics Of Different Types Of Employees: A Summary Of Six Studies, Chong W. Kim, Harlan M. Smith Ii, Andrew Sikula Sr., Lorraine P. Anderson

Management Faculty Research

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is, first, to summarize six studies which analyze the key characteristics of different types of employees. Three types of employees found in workplaces all over the world are identified as “Necessities,” “Commoners,” and “Parasites” and, second, to combine the results of these studies in order to identify the key traits and behaviors that characterize each type of worker across a variety of social and cultural settings.

Design/methodology/approach – For starters, three types of employees are defined. First, a person is a Necessity if s/he is irreplaceable and critical to the functioning of an …

Towards Evaluating The Quality Of A Spreadsheet: The Case Of The Analytical Spreadsheet Model, Thomas A. Grossman Jr., Vijay Mehrotra, J Sander

Business Analytics and Information Systems

We consider the challenge of creating guidelines to evaluate the quality of a spreadsheet model. We suggest four principles. First, state the domain—the spreadsheets to which the guidelines apply. Second, distinguish between the process by which a spreadsheet is constructed from the resulting spreadsheet artifact. Third, guidelines should be written in terms of the artifact, independent of the process. Fourth, the meaning of “quality” must be defined. We illustrate these principles with an example. We define the domain of “analytical spreadsheet models”, which are used in business, finance, engineering, and science. We propose for discussion a framework and terminology for …

Enhanced Expense Practices For Higher Education: Enduring Continuous Reductions In State Appropriation, Ralph E. Mckinney, Lawrence Shao

Management Faculty Research

The way forward for higher education to survive and to endure reductions in state appropriations is the enrichment of practices associated with traditional expenses. Because consistent reductions in state appropriations threaten to cause major changes to educational services within Higher Education, this paper advocates enhancement to program management and changes to teaching practices without sacrificing students' expectations. In fact, these practices strengthen learning through practical and team teaching environments while promoting unity of colleges and integration of courses. Module learning and transition programs encourage students to complete degrees faster and step up to the next advance degree. Flexibility can be …

Developing A Capacity For Organizational Resilience Through Strategic Human Resource Management, Cynthia A. Lengnick-Hall, Tammy E. Beck, Mark L. Lengnick-Hall

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

Resilient organizations thrive despite experiencing conditions that are surprising, uncertain, often adverse, and usually unstable. We propose that an organization's capacity for resilience is developed through strategically managing human resources to create competencies among core employees, that when aggregated at the organizational level, make it possible for organizations to achieve the ability to respond in a resilient manner when they experience severe shocks. We begin by reviewing three elements central to developing an organization's capacity for resilience (specific cognitive abilities, behavioral characteristics, and contextual conditions). Next we identify the individual level employee contributions needed to achieve each of these elements. …

Frederick Winslow Taylor: Reflections On The Relevance Of The Principles Of Scientific Management 100 Years Later, Cristina M. Giannantonio, Amy E. Hurley-Hanson

Business Faculty Articles and Research

"This Special Edition of the Journal of Business and Management was organized to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the publication of Frederick Winslow Taylor’s The Principles of Scientific Management. The large response to our call for papers is indicative of the scholarly interest in Taylor, his work, and its relevance to management practitioners. The papers we received were broad in scope. While most were supportive of scientific management, some felt that Taylor should not be honored. The merits of Taylor’s work can certainly be debated, but what cannot be argued is that Taylor changed the way people worked in the …