The Impact Of Adaptive Learning In Principles Of Microeconomics, Doris S. Bennett, Cynthia S. Mccarty, Michael S. Carter

Southwestern Business Administration Journal

Abstract

The spread of Covid-19, which forced almost all learning to move to online in March, 2020, abruptly increased the number of undergraduates taking at least one online course by approximately 177% between the fall of 2019 and the spring of 2020 (Koksal, 2020; Carey, 2020; National Center for Education Statistics, 2020). Even without the Covid-19 disruption, online education has become increasing prevalent due to the decreasing allocation of resources to higher education and the pressure on college administrators to make a college education effective, affordable, and accessible for more students. Originally online instruction differed from in-class instruction only be …

Teaching, Learning And Academic Integrity During The Pandemic, William Saunders, Carlton Perkins

Southwestern Business Administration Journal

Abstract

The COVID 19 pandemic is responsible for instructional delivery changes in the higher education environment. The forced closing of many traditional classrooms, and teaching virtually, is taking the transfer of knowledge to students into a different realm. Adjustments must be made by students and professors alike to ensure that students continue to learn. However, as institutions transition away from the face to face classroom setting to the virtual platform, opportunities for cheating increases and changes to teaching and assessment should be implemented. Included among the innovations and adjustments must be testing and assessment methods that will hopefully guarantee learning …

Global E-Commerce Readiness Of U.S. Smes Towards The Mexican Market: Are American Small Businesses Prepared For Digital Commerce To Mexico?, Ricardo Cardoza, Eileen Daspro Dba

McNair Summer Research Program

The entry into force of the United States-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement on July 1st, 2020, ushered in a new era of regional trade for the region. The modernized agreement’s inclusion of a chapter specifically focused on expanding digital trade and investment reflected a business phenomenon that had expanded markedly over the last ten years: cross-border e-commerce within the former NAFTA region. This article examines the literature needed to assess the readiness of U.S. small and medium-sized businesses (SME’s) to sell to the Mexican market online based on the degree of localization of their firm’s websites towards the Mexican market. First, a …

Proceedings Of The Global Conference On Services Management: Volume 2, Cihan Cobanoglu, Valentina Della Corte

University of South Florida (USF) M3 Publishing

This is the second volume of the Global Conference on Services Management Proceedings Series.

ISSN: 2641-5062

Advances In Global Services And Retail Management: Volume 2, Cihan Cobanoglu, Valentina Della Corte

University of South Florida (USF) M3 Publishing

This is the second volume of the Advances in Global Services and Retail Management Book Series. This volume has the following parts:

• Part 1: Hospitality and Tourism
• Part 2: Marketing, E-marketing, and Consumer Behavior
• Part 3: Management
• Part 4: Human Resources Management
• Part 5: Retail Management
• Part 6: Economics
• Part 7: Accounting and Finance
• Part 8: Sustainability and Environmental Issues
• Part 9: Information Technology

ISBN: 978-1-955833-03-5

Hospitality and Tourism

• Significance of VR in the spa: A spatial analysis
  • Irini Lai Fun Tang, Schultz Zhi Bin Xu, and Eric Chan
• Social media marketing in rural hospitality and tourism destination research
  • Samuel …

Impacts Of The Covid-19 Pandemic On Business Education: Case For The Aacsb’S Agility Standard, Lucy Ojode, Mulugeta Wolde, June Claiborne

Southwestern Business Administration Journal

We explored an undergraduate business program’s navigation of an unplanned change, response to the Covid-19 pandemic-occasioned move to online learning, and the resilience of its curriculum by following cohorts of students through two consecutive courses from the end of 2019 through 2020 up to summer 2021. The exploration was aimed at the assessment of the impact of the pandemic-induced disruptions, i.e., how the school’s curriculum fared through the pandemic. Premised on the school’s accreditor, AACSB’s agility-cultivating curriculum guideline, the curriculum should adapt and stabilize post-pandemic. To identify the appropriate cohort for observation, we scrutinized the four progressive levels of agility …

Administering Online Exams From Hesitantly To Innovatively - A Personal Perspective Through An Action Research, Minh Q. Huynh

Southwestern Business Administration Journal

In the midst of COVID-19, university campuses were shut down and faculty had to move their classes online. The abrupt change opened up many challenges. One of them was how to handle online exams. This paper recounted how one instructor had managed the exams online. The paper presents this experience from an action research perspective. At the core is the narrative that captures the exam design process, the tools used, and the proctoring setup. The results are based on the interpretation of the phenomenon through a lens of the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT). The insights …

Online Review Solicitations Reduce Extremity Bias In Online Review Distributions And Increase Their Representativeness, Hülya Karaman

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Representative online customer reviews are critical to the effective functioning of the Internet economy. In this study, I investigate the representativeness of online review distributions to examine how extremity bias and conformity impact it, and explore whether online review solicitations alter representativeness. Past research on extreme distribution of online ratings commonly relied solely on observed public online ratings. One strength of the current paper is that I observe the private satisfaction ratings of customers regardless of whether they choose to write an online review or not. I show that both extremity bias and conformity exist in unsolicited online word-of-mouth (WOM) …

Incorporating Online Simulated Environments Into An Mis Curriculum To Accommodate For Disruptions Caused By The Covid-19 Pandemic, Richard Taylor, Marion Smith

Southwestern Business Administration Journal

The Covid-19 pandemic has become a major disruption to colleges and universities around the world with most institutions moving to online-only instruction. As a result, the use of controlled environments to deliver hands-on experiences in typical MIS curriculum courses, such as programming, database management, network administration, information security, and web design was no longer available. This paper discusses a variety of simulated environments where students get hands-on experiences to replace the traditional learning environment in a classroom or computer lab setting.

Fostering Engagement And Learning In Students Through Assignment Modifications During Covid-19, Madhu Bala Sahoo

Southwestern Business Administration Journal

Critical thinking and innovative problem solving are two crucial skills for management students to develop in this fast-changing business world. These skills are even more relevant in today’s turbulent times of the COVID-19 pandemic. Case analysis and simulation games are popular pedagogical tools to develop these skills in a classroom setting. Remote learning due to COVID-19 has made it challenging for instructors to use these tools effectively. While working within the same course timeframe and budgets, an instructor in a national southern university, opportunistically used the current context of COVID-19 to modify a written assignment for an introductory HR course …

Covid-19: Impact On Business Students' Transition From Face-To-Face To Online Instructional Delivery, Beverly A. Bryant, Cynthia R. Mayo, Keisha M. Williams, Danielle Colbert-Lewis

Southwestern Business Administration Journal

ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 pandemic has shaken the world to its proverbial core with institutions for higher learning caught in the crosshairs. Consequently, every facet of higher education has been indelibly affected. Traditional classroom instruction immediately changed, and a nontraditional delivery method emerged inclusive of both hybrid and online instruction. This delivery method was new to many students as all instruction shifted from face-to-face to virtual. To mitigate the spread of the virus, immediate action was required and campuses had to determine the probability of closing. This was a challenge for many reasons, some students did not have the resources to …

Gucci: Steering Into The Post-Covid Era, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

Marco Bizzarri and Alessandro Michele proved there is life after Tom Ford. COVID-19 could yet make Gucci’s revival a short-lived one

Impact Of Covid Responses On Brand Performance, Emy Rezkalla

Theses and Dissertations

The main objective of this study is to understand and evaluate whether COVID responses have a significant positive impact on brand performance. Accordingly, the proposed conceptual model focused on the top four COVID-19 responses: donations in cash, donations in kind, customer service, and employers/suppliers and evaluated the impact of each proposed response on brand value, brand growth, and brand ranking in 2020 versus 2019.

The research question of this paper is, Do COVID responses (customer service, employers/suppliers, donations in kind, and donations in cash) have a significant positive impact on brand performance (brand value, brand growth, and brand ranking vs. …

Intention To Adopt E-Commerce: A Comparative Review Across Developed And Developing Economies, Mousa Albashrawi

The African Journal of Information Systems

The purpose of this study is to conduct a comprehensive literature review of online purchase intention and present a comparative case between developed and developing economies over a 20-year period to reveal insightful implications for academia and industry. Online purchase intention refers to the intended behavior of an individual to buy a product or service from an online store. Prior research has failed to present a review that compares an individual’s online purchase intention across developed and developing economies in order to disclose the largest and smallest influencing factors, theories, and models in e-commerce. Our sample consists of 97 relevant …

Beauty And Lifestyle Subscription Services: A Modern Retailing Format For The Vigilante Collaborative Consumption Consumer, Melisa Spilinek

Department of Textiles, Merchandising and Fashion Design: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Advancements in technology and ease of use of online shopping via phone applications (apps) and subscription services have fundamentally changed how consumers shop. Now more than ever, consumers are turning to time-saving technological tools that are subscription services. Subscription services provide a multitude of benefits to consumers and contribute to collaborative consumption in nearly every product and service category from coffee to apparel. To investigate beauty and lifestyle subscription services and collaborative consumption this study will utilize a mixed methods convergent design to analyze user experience including price sensitivity, subscription service apps and ease of use. Anticipated contributions to the …

Politics Of Privacy: The Role Of Individual Political Views In Consumer Data Privacy Concerns, Connor Neill

Honors Theses

Today, every choice that is made, from where to shop to what music to listen to, has turned into a reflection of one’s political views and identity. The main purpose of this research is to explore the relationship between an individual’s political views and his or hers attitudes toward the security of personal information in the consumer realm. Two studies were conducted in the form of surveys. The first study aims to measure the consumer’s trust and risk beliefs for a company of a certain size as well as their feelings toward the dimensions of control, collection, and awareness of …

Exploring The Perception Of Sponsored Posts On Instagram, Mahek Verma

Honors Theses

Influencer marketing has grown immensely, and consumers are now frequently interacting with and making decisions based on content published by influencers on social media. This thesis explores how different types of endorsed influencer posts are perceived along with how the type of endorsed post can impact a consumer’s perception of the product and brand being endorsed. Using self-administered questionnaires, semi-structured interviews a simulated influencer content browsing experience, this research examines differences between influencer endorsements officially sponsored by a company, endorsements of products merely gifted by the company, and endorsements of products with no company involvement. Research findings identified a lack …

Illusional Marketing: The Use Of Storytelling, User Experience And Gamification In Business, Adnan Veysel Ertemel

Zea E-Books Collection

“This book is a must-have for marketers who need to use a composite set of tools to break through the attention economy. The book is also for the general public who might be concerned about the growing and numbing screen time that takes people away from doing other things.” — Philip Kotler on Illusional Marketing

Digital platforms know how to “hook” consumers and keep them glued to the screen. These products were developed based on psychologists’ research into the way the human brain works. These are new weapons in the marketing toolkit that will become even more effective when combined …

Advertising During The Covid-19 Global Pandemic: The Rise Of Influencer Marketing Strategies In A Recession, Bre Tenhulzen

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

The COVID-19 pandemic reached the United States in January of 2020 and has since impacted nearly all industries, including advertising. Consumers, the guiding factors for all advertising strategies, faced drastic lifestyle changes and behavior shifts which sent current strategies askew. The virus has created insurmountable unknowns, thus advertising and marketing experts must rely on historical and recent data to develop strategies for brands forging ahead. COVID-19 is the first global crisis in the age of social media which has both helped and hindered communication during the crisis. Additionally, emerging influencer marketing strategies are proving more effective than ever as brands …

Digital Marketing And Smes: A Systematic Mapping Study, Abdurrahman Rahim Thaha, Erna Maulina, R Anang Muftiadi, Mohammad Benny Alexandri

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) have a high priority for many governments because of their important economic contribution and the number of people they employ. The very rapid development of ICT in the digital era has an impact on various lines of life, including changes in business environment and consumer behavior. Therefore, the need to find out about research trends and themes in digital marketing in SMEs is important. The objective of this paper is to classify, and identify related themes and trends in the literature that are directly related to digital marketing and SMEs over the past 10 years. …

Why Online Personalized Pricing Is Unfair, Jeffrey Moriarty

Philosophy Faculty Publications

Online retailers are using advances in data collection and computing technologies to “personalize” prices, i.e., offer goods for sale to shoppers at their reservation prices, or the highest price they are willing to pay. In this paper, I offer a criticism of this practice. I begin by putting online personalized pricing in context. It is not something entirely new, but rather a kind of price discrimination, a familiar pricing practice. I then offer a fairness-based argument against it. When an online retailer personalizes prices, it competes unfairly for the social surplus created by a transaction. I defend this argument against …

Effects Of Clickbait Headlines On User Responses: An Empirical Investigation, Supavich Fone Pengnate, Jeffrey Chen, Alex Young

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

This study investigates the influence of a conventional method of delivering news headlines, clickbait, on online users’ perceptions and responses. An experiment was conducted on two groups of news headlines—traditional news and clickbait—to provide empirical evidence of the effects of clickbait on online users. The findings suggest that clickbait headlines can evoke users’ arousal and curiosity. In addition, the results from structural equation modeling fill the gap in the literature by providing evidence of the factors influencing users’ intention to read and share online news. The results reveal that while the major determinant of users’ intention to read news stories …

The Future Of Fashion: Corporate Social Responsibility And Essential Marketing Strategies, Taite Jorgensen

CMC Senior Theses

This paper analyzes how fast fashion has impacted future trends of the fashion industry. Due to globalization, the fast fashion industry has been able to create new norms of over-consumerism and international labor. Because of this, the fast fashion industry is able to mass produce in a way consumers have never seen before, in addition to making it all at extremely low prices. However, fast fashion brands are only able to mass produce cheap goods through unethical methodologies; these methodologies include unsustainable materials and practices, inhuman labor conditions and wages, and by making sizes that exclude bigger bodies. Consumers are …

Crowdfunding Digital Platforms: Backer Networks And Their Impact On Project Outcomes, Yee Heng Tan, Srinivas K. Reddy

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Crowdfunding platforms serve to connect project creators and backers. Previous research has explored several project and platform determinants that impact crowdfunding outcomes. However, there has been limited research on these determinants at an individual level. Our paper addresses how backers may influence the outcomes of projects in crowdfunding platforms. We explore several methods commonly used in the industry to identify influence and show that centrality measures through a backer affiliation network best exemplifies influence. Using data from Kickstarter, we construct a weighted backer network based on 52,678 common projects backed by 11,134 backers. Controlling for digital media mentions and project …

Implementation Of Green Marketing Concept Throughsocial Media Activities: A Systematic Literature Review, Elnur Nabivi

Journal of Marketing and Consumer Behaviour in Emerging Markets

The last century’s industrial and technological development has led to the growth of environmental problems such as global warming, climate changes, water, air, and ground pollution. The awareness of modern consumers about these issues is growing, and companies respond by using “green marketing” strategies. Green marketing refers to the development and marketing of products that are considered environmentally safe. Furthermore, the extensive use of the Internet and increasing social media’s importance in recent years forced brands to communicate with consumers in this way. In this study, these two mega-trends influencing contemporary consumer behavior were combined: social media and green marketing. …

Influence Of Convenience, Time-Savings, Price, And Product Variety On Amazon Prime Members And Non-Prime Shoppers’ Online Apparel Purchase Intention, Md Rashaduzzaman

Department of Textiles, Merchandising and Fashion Design: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The number of internet users and online shoppers in the United States has grown at an incredible rate over the past few decades. Greater convenience and availability of a wide assortment of apparel products at a cheaper price made online shopping very enticing to consumers. Amazon.com (Amazon) gained unprecedented popularity among consumers with its Amazon Prime program. Amazon’s retail revolutions changed consumer’s way of shopping and expectations. Both online and physical store retailers are facing tremendous pressure to fulfill that level of expectation. Thus, it is essential for retailers clearly understand the shopping expectations and preferences of Amazon Prime members …

The Challenges And Opportunities Created By A Global Pandemic's Effects On Consumer Shopping Behavior Within The Fashion Retail Industry, Kate O'Connor

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The fashion retail industry has already been undergoing an extensive transformation since the introduction of e-commerce in the late 1990s. However, changes in consumer shopping behavior caused by the COVID-19 pandemic have fundamentally altered the industry in a matter of months. Because the COVID-19 pandemic is relatively recent, there is a lack of literature regarding the challenges and opportunities for fashion retailers in light of these changes in consumer behavior. This project will illuminate the challenges and opportunities created by the COVID-19 pandemic for the different distribution modes in the fashion retail industry: brick and mortar stores, e-commerce, and omnichannel …

Tree-Based Algorithm For Stable And Efficient Data Clustering, Hasan Aljabbouli, Abdullah Albizri, Antoine Harfouche

Department of Information Management and Business Analytics Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

The K-means algorithm is a well-known and widely used clustering algorithm due to its simplicity and convergence properties. However, one of the drawbacks of the algorithm is its instability. This paper presents improvements to the K-means algorithm using a K-dimensional tree (Kd-tree) data structure. The proposed Kd-tree is utilized as a data structure to enhance the choice of initial centers of the clusters and to reduce the number of the nearest neighbor searches required by the algorithm. The developed framework also includes an efficient center insertion technique leading to an incremental operation that overcomes the instability problem of the K-means …

A Place To Grow: Social Media And The Small Business, Lilli Vehikite

Marriott Student Review

E-commerce has revolutionaized the way we shop-- yet many small businesses have yet to embrace the growth that can come through harnessing the power of social media.

An Evaluation Of Three Online Chatbots, Mahesh Vanjani, Jamison Posey, Milam Aiken

Southwestern Business Administration Journal

Chatbots enable machines to emulate human conversation. While research has been done to examine how human-like communication with chatbots can be, heretofore comparisons of the systems with humans have not accounted for abnormal behavior from the users. For example, the people using the chatbot might be lying or trying to, in turn, imitate a computer’s response. Results of a study comparing transcripts from three chatbots and two humans show that student evaluators were able to correctly identify two computer transcripts, but failed on one. Further, they incorrectly guessed that one of the humans was a chatbot. The study also presents …