Nonprofit Administration and Management Commons^™

Barriers For Small Businesses To Adopt Sustainable Practices In The Sioux Falls Area, Meredith King

Honors Thesis

Sustainability is a broad concept that encompasses environmental, social, and economic factors to meet current and future needs. Many individuals and large businesses are becoming conscious of the effects they have on the planet and the people around them. However, despite the financial benefits and positive publicity of environmentalism, many businesses are not adopting sustainable practices. This study interviewed local business owners to answer the question “What are the main reasons that small businesses in the Sioux Falls area of South Dakota do or do not adopt sustainable practices that benefit the environment and the community?” Five business owners were …

Business Plan: Refuge Coffee, Zachary Lewandowski

Finance Undergraduate Honors Theses

Refuge Coffee will be the premier vendor of high-quality and sustainably sourced specialty coffee in Springdale, Arkansas. Its mission is to improve lives by providing a space that reflects the community—a space in which ideas, beliefs, attitudes, and values can be exchanged, with coffee acting as a common denominator. Refuge Coffee will offer specialty coffee beverages, locally baked goods, and merchandise to consumers. We intend to partner with Canopy NWA, a refugee resettlement organization that aims to welcome and equip refugees with all they need to build new lives, through the means of employment for refugees and the continuous donation …

How Exemplary Black Women Leaders Use Influence To Achieve Extraordinary Results, Catrena Elliott

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand and describe how exemplary Black women business leaders (BWBL) influence employees through personal motivation, personal ability, social motivation, social ability, structural motivation, and structural ability.

Methodology: This phenomenological study research design identified and explored how 10 exemplary BWBL who have achieved extraordinary results influence employees through personal motivation, social motivation, structural motivation, personal ability, social ability, and structural ability. Participants were selected from exemplary BWBL in Southern California and Northern California who fulfilled the study’s requirements. Interviews, observations, and artifacts were used to gather data. To identify study findings, data …

Healing Racial Injustice With Mindfulness Research, Training, & Practice, Danielle "Danae" Laura

Mindfulness Studies Theses

This thesis offers a collection of authors and studies in support of improved research, training, and practice connecting mindfulness with racial justice through intergroup applications. The paper identifies barriers at work (e.g., colorblindness, spiritual bypass, white fragility, and implicit bias) in contemplative science, Western Buddhist communities, and secular mindfulness centers, which block the sizeable contributions possible in studying the intergroup application of mindfulness practice—specifically Lovingkindness Meditation, among others—when used as an intervention with anti-racist aims. Through secondary qualitative research, I reviewed six key works from Black authors on mindfulness and race, as well as six sample studies on the prosocial …

The Private Art Collector’S Foundation In France: Issues And Implications For The Cultural Landscape, Milena Berman

MA Theses

The last two decades have witnessed an explosion in the number of private art spaces worldwide. From Bentonville, Arkansas, to Naoshima, Japan, hundreds of impressive structures built by star architects have been funded by private individuals and corporations to house collections of modern and contemporary art, often in unlikely places. The famously-termed “Bilbao effect” in which a grand museum structure is set up outside of the established art capitals of the world, thus putting the city “on the map” of cultural tourism, has become a widespread trend. The examples vary greatly and range from small private “home museums”
made to …

The Viability Of Pop-Up Thrift Shops In Increasing Revenues For Goodwill Industries Of Akron, Morgan Andrews, Casey Bachowski, Caitlin Croston, Zach Dunphy, Weston Latham

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The Honors Project in Business Administration course at The University of Akron (UA) College of Business (CoB), conducted September 2021 through May 2022, involved partnership with the local nonprofit Goodwill Industries of Akron (GIA) at the direction of Interim Dean of the CoB, Dr. Susan Hanlon. The purpose of this capstone project was to generate ideas and recommendations to GIA for a new, sustainable business unit, the revenue of which would cover the annual $250,000 operating cost of a new transportation support initiative to overcome GIA’s clients’ barriers to employment. During the secondary research phase of this project undertaken from …