Operations and Supply Chain Management Commons^™

The Difficulty With Introducing Project Management Techniques In Digital Startups, Isabela Mantilla

Dissertations and Theses

Digital startups face complex issues when it comes to accurately using project management techniques because of the startup’s scarcity of resources and the governance of projects , such as having different stages of growth and development. Since project management is needed in almost all businesses, dealing with this problem is important to improve the growth of startups and their organizational issues. Because of the correlation between startups using traditional project management techniques and their problems with implementing project management, this traditional model might not be relevant for startups. Startups seem to require more flexible and quick solutions to project management, …

Go Green: Make Green, Sam Montague

Marriott Student Review

While cost might seem like an obstacle to some, adopting sustainable practices can turn out to be profitable for most companies. Recent research find positive correlation between business efforts and the consumer response, showcase direct benefits to the business, and provide suggestions to put the findings into practice.

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 …

Executive Leadership Challenges In Today’S Environment, Herbert J. Degraffe Jr.

Walden Faculty and Staff Publications

Abstract

Individuals in top management positions often have conflicting interpretations concerning the authoritative qualities that align with the intrinsic and external relations of an organization. Although, researchers may still debate about the extent to which athletic development personality factors are important internal components of an individual. The purpose of this correlational study was to determine if athletic development personality factors correlate with decision making at the executive leadership level. The research questions focused on determining if there was a relationship between athletic development personality factors and decision making. Social exchange theory, social representations theory, and leadership theories comprised the theoretical …

Spun Truths: Outcomes Of Mongolia’S Cashmere Program In Domestic Processing Facilities And Supply Chain, Daniel Strodel

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Since Mongolia’s transition to a market economy cashmere goats' population quintupled and their share of the nation’s total live-stock doubled. Cashmere is Mongolia’s third largest export and herders’ primary source of cash income. However, Mongolian cashmere processing facilities operate well below capacity because they cannot compete with high prices paid by Chinese traders. The latest intervention in a series of industry reforms is the four year Cashmere Program, which is being implemented by the Mongolian Ministry of Agriculture and Light Industry. In order to increase the amount of cashmere processed and exported from Mongolia, the program invests in domestic processing …

A Model For Better Social Project Management, Brenda Massetti

Journal of Vincentian Social Action

With environmental degradation and other social ills on the rise, demand for businesses to perform social action is growing (Robertson, 2014). Yet, most Commercial enterprises take a diminutive view of social projects, and many Social enterprises flounder in the harsh realities of commerce (Austin, Stevenson, and Wei-Killern, 2012). To improve all enterprises’ social performance, the paper introduces the Social Project Grid, a dual-factor assessment tool which prioritizes social projects for better managerial oversight. In specific, it compares social projects on their Resource Use and Outcome Clarity to highlight which projects are successful and which are in trouble. Not only is …

A Cochrane Method Systematic Review Of University Tech Commercialization Research, Clovia Hamilton

Winthrop Faculty and Staff Publications

Since 1980 universities have been able to commercialize inventions that their faculty researchers create as per the 1980 Bayh-Dole Act (P.L. 96-517). Research universities can now own and license these inventions to small and well established companies. Since 1980, research universities have used tech commercialization to support their regional economies with product development and sales, and academic entrepreneurship resulting in university spinoffs and start-up business formations. This results in job creation. The technology transfer offices (TTOs) which were established at many research universities to manage this process have been studied quite extensively. However, the foundational elements that fuel successful TTO …

The Digital Global Supply Chain: The Growing Case For Blockchain Technology Expansion Within Global Supply Chain, Jonathan Chichoni, Scott Webb

Marriott Student Review

In a competitive global market place, technology adoption and application in supply chain is becoming increasingly important as companies seek to acquire competitive advantages. Since blockchain’s advent to the global stage of modern disruptive technologies, several questions remain unanswered pertaining to the benefits that blockchain adoption poses to global supply chains. I apply a typology analysis to a corpus of company filings, press releases and industry studies to better understand the reasons for which global supply chains industry wide are adopting blockchain technology and the specific benefits which they seek to exploit through the use of blockchain. I characterize the …

Marriott Student Review Volume 2 Issue 2: A Bright Future, Marianna Richardson

Marriott Student Review

In business, opportunities are often determined by passion, drive, and persuasion in delivering a brilliant vision for future opportunities. In this issue of Marriott Student Review, we explore the bright future of the business world. Each article focuses on some aspect of business and the exciting possibilities that lay ahead.

Project Management And The Temporary Relocation Of The Decoupling Point: Hermeneutical Phenomenological Study, Christopher Hicks

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This study investigates, understands, and describes the value of engaging a project manager to support a customer-driven project that creates a random supply chain demand event. Specifically such an event would require the temporary re-positioning of the decoupling point between the supply push and demand pull within the supply chain. In response to the challenges of this type of event, this study will focus on two specific project manager roles. First, the project manager would act as an extension of a customer-driven project and serve as a conduit for the voice of the customer (VOC) into the supply chain. Secondly, …

Strategic Analysis Of Lifeloop, Llc: Current Positioning And Recommendations For Future Growth, Erin Dabbs

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

LifeLoop is a senior living software company that has the potential to gain market share in a new and growing industry. By making changes to current processes, business level strategy, and corporate level strategy, the company can grow organically, faster. LifeLoop must make these strategic changes to areas of marketing and sales processes now as the industry is changing life cycle stages; the company’s movement in this window of opportunity is critical to their future success. These findings outline where LifeLoop is currently positioned and the first steps needed to grow and develop into a reputation of excellence that will …

The Ambivalent Effect Of Complexity On Firm Performance: A Study In The Global Service Provider Industry, Marcus M. Larsen, Stephan Manning, Torben Pedersen

Management and Marketing Faculty Publication Series

Prior literature is ambivalent about whether organizational complexity has positive or negative effects on firm performance. Using rich data on global service providers, we explore this ambivalence by disentangling performance consequences of different types of organizational complexity. We show that complexity arising from the coordination of different services and operations negatively influences profit margins through increased coordination costs, whereas complexity coming from the sophistication of particular services may positively influence margins through informational advantages. We also investigate the moderating effects of process commoditization and client-specific investments. Our findings point to critical performance dilemmas facing global service providers in a highly …

Sewing Garments, Sowing Lives: Two Generations Of Migrant Workers' Back And Forth To The Chinese Coast, Alice Tzou

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Migrant workers in China have been at the center of popular news media and scholarly attention for three decades, since they started to migrate to work in factories on the coast in the post-1978 Economic Reform era. As western and central China has developed and work opportunities have arisen in these migrant-sending regions, internal migrants have started to return home. Push and pull factors of internal migration have been reversed. Poverty and lack of job opportunities used to be the push factors; they are now replaced by new push factors—long hours of work and long-distance travel to and from the …

Senior Business Seminar Proposal, Alex C. Mcgrainer

Senior Honors Projects

How could a single idea increase the value of a university’s college of business? My project aims to do this through the successful implementation of a single class. It addresses some of the most important factors that current and prospective students should consider while they undergo their college searches, such as the post-graduation employment rate and starting salary across majors of interest.

My inspiration for the topic came from students struggling to find a job. I realized that every year around March, they would begin to suffer due to the self-inflicted pressure of being unemployed after commencement. I immediately knew …

Sustainable Tourism Study Through Solimar International, S Silongwengjia

Capstone Collection

This inquiry explores a pragmatic approach of sustainable tourism and its application as a transformative development instrument. It seeks a general understanding of the global tourism sector, looks specifically at an individual tourism enterprise, Solimar International, and examines rural tourism, and its proposed standards. It discusses the opportunities and threats to the culture, ecology, and livelihoods of the residents of destination tourism and the unique experience to geotravelers. It analyzes the theoretical development history of tourism and the integrated approach of Solimar International as a leading agency in the tourism industry sector. And it seeks to understand a new type …

Implementation Of A Supply Chain Management "Intern For A Day" Program, Erin K. Mcconnell

Honors Projects

This program was developed to send students to local corporations to attain a better understanding of a business professional environment and the Supply Chain Management departments at those companies. Students were sent to Therma Tru Doors, in Maumee, Ohio to be "interns for a day". They received the chance to shadow employees in all aspects of the Supply Chain field and learn about what their day to day job responsibilities entail. There are many benefits to this externship program for both the students and Therma Tru. Students gain valuable experience and knowledge while Therma Tru gains access to some of …

Crop Choice And Proximity To Ethanol Plants, Junpyo Park, Eric Thompson

College of Business: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Taking into account local crop processors and livestock, we show transport costs have a substantial influence on land use decisions by farmers.

We utilize detailed GIS data sources which are commonly available rather than a special survey of agricultural producers.

Estimate how the proximity to local agricultural processors impacts crop choice.

The International Business Risk Of Terrorism: A Pragmatic Framework For Assessing Its Impact On The U.S.-Based, Small- To Medium-Sized Enterprise’S Supply Chain Operations, Scott A. Lemons

The Hilltop Review

Purpose - Subject paper examines the international business risk of terrorism’s impact on the focal firm’s supply chain operations, as proliferated by the acceleration of globalization, via a fundamental review of pertinent country- and firm-level considerations shaped by global environmental factors. Subsequently, a managerial risk assessment and mitigation planning framework is presented for the supply chain executive’s pragmatic use.

Design/methodology/approach – Broad evaluation of contemporary viewpoints precedes a risk assessment and mitigation planning framework from the supply chain executive’s point-of-view.

Findings – While observed research found the probability of the risk of terrorism to be low, the severity (impact) of …

How Hybrids Manage Growth And Social-Business Tensions In Global Supply Chains: The Case Of Impact Sourcing, Chacko G. Kannothra, Stephan Manning, Nardia Haigh

Management and Marketing Faculty Publication Series

This study contributes to the growing interest in how hybrid organizations manage paradoxical social—business tensions. Our empirical case is ‘impact sourcing’ – hybrids in global supply chains that hire staff from disadvantaged communities to provide services to business clients. We identify two major growth orientations - ‘community-focused’ and ‘client-focused’ growth - their inherent tensions and ways that hybrids manage them. The former favors slow growth and manages tensions through highly-integrated client and community relations; the latter promotes faster growth and manages client and community relations separately. Both growth orientations address social-business tensions in particular ways, but also create latent constraints …

The Strategic Potential Of Community-Based Hybrid Models: The Case Of Global Business Services In Africa, Stephan Manning, Chacko G. Kannothra, Nichole K. Wissman-Weber

Management and Marketing Faculty Publication Series

As a latecomer economy, Africa faces persistent difficulties with catching up in global markets. This study examines the strategic potential of community-based hybrid models, which balance market profitability with social impact in local communities. Focusing on the global business services industry in Kenya and South Africa, and the practice of ‘impact sourcing’ – hiring and training of disadvantaged staff servicing business clients – we find that while regular providers struggle to compete with global peers, hybrid model adopters manage to access underutilized labor pools through community organizations, and target less competitive niche client markets. We further identify key industry, institutional …

Cooking And The Books: A Guide To Restaurant Accounting, Lena Lambrou

Honors Projects in Accounting

The restaurant industry is known for particularly low profit margins; this project aims to understand where restaurants spend money and how expenses can be allocated for in this fast-paced environment. Through research of various cost accounting methods and the adaptability of those methods to restaurant culture, activity based costing (ABC) provided the most useful data for the restaurant. This project focuses on small business restaurants, specifically those that serve pizza. The backbone of experimentation for applying these accounting processes is a local pizza restaurant, in which the managers are unaware of how food cost and operating expenses could be combined …

Turning To Case Studies As A Mechanism For Learning In Action Learning, Denise O'Leary, Paul Coughlan, Clare Rigg, David Coghlan

Articles

Case studies are a useful means of capturing and sharing experiential knowledge by allowing researchers to explore the social, organisational and political contexts of a specific case. Although accounts of action learning are often reported using a case study approach, it is not common to see individual case studies being used as a learning practice within action learning sets. Drawing on a network action learning (NAL) project, this paper explores how the process of coaching, articulating, authoring, sharing and editing case studies provided a vehicle for learning and research within a NAL set. The intended contribution of this paper to …

Customer Service Through Incoterms, Josh Nichol-Caddy

White Papers

Settling for the "one size, fits all" shipping solutions typically offered by large logistics companies, small businesses miss out on customer service options that could help differentiate their products. This paper defines the terms and conditions of all the options Incoterms present.

Supply Chain Organizational Infrastructure For Promoting Entrepreneurial Emphasis And Innovativeness: The Role Of Trust And Learning., Divesh Ojha, Jeff Shockley, Chandan Acharya

Publications and Research

Research has argued that inter-organizational trust and learning are critical factors associated with successful supply chain innovation and long-term competitiveness. In this paper, we develop and test a proposed model of supply chain organizational design using survey data collected from 128 decision-makers across diverse sample of supply chain decision-makers across many industries. Our analysis provides evidence that both trust and supply chain learning play important, but distinctive roles in developing an entrepreneurial and innovative supply chains. Moreover, our research findings add critical insight into existing resource-based perspectives of supply chain innovation by illuminating the roles and progression of the different …

The Social Accountability Paradox In The Regional Democratic Budget Policy Making, Rutiana Dwi Wahyunengseh, Sri Hastjarjo

BISNIS & BIROKRASI: Jurnal Ilmu Administrasi dan Organisasi

Social accountability has been believed as an approach to overcome the deficit of the formal accountability (both horizontal and vertical accountability). Social accountability is percieved as a public accountability which is initiated by and aimed for the society. Several studies found the effectiveness of social accountability in encouraging a more transparent government and a wider public involvement. Those studies identified variables which contribute to the social accountability, i.e. the degree of government openness; the density of community organizations and their advocation capability; social, political, and cultural environment; and the public information accessibility. Data for this paper is collected through in-depth …

An Exploratory Analysis To Understand Organic Food Market In The United States In Comparison To Europe, Alfiya Ansar, Ismet Anitsal, M. Meral Anitsal

Atlantic Marketing Association Proceedings

To meet the increasing continuous demand of food, many techniques are used for mass production food but these techniques in turn have diminished the quality of many products. The negative effects associated with such production methods make them controversial in nature and thus requires discussion. One such method is the use of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO), which involves genetically modifying the Deoxyribose Nucleic Acids (DNA) of plants or animals of interest to introduce certain traits such as resistance to pests or diseases. Food allergies are on a rise and researchers estimate that up to 15 million Americans suffer from vast …

Salvaging Print: Letterhead In Post-Industrial Urban America, Nancy Sharon Collins

The Mid-America Print Council Conference

This panel will explore the link between today’s small press movement and the formal aspects of commercial printing during the American 20th century. Panelists include Christine Medley , Philip Gattuso, and Nancy Bernardo.

Using as its primary example letterhead from defunct companies in Detroit, and secondarily, specimens of business and legal letterhead from other urban centers of the industrial United States, this panel will examine and discuss: What did letterhead represent to 20th century printers in local markets such as Detroit? What is the significance of printed letterhead, and stationery, to the art of small press printing in post-industrial cities …

The Business Of Beds: An Exploration Of Hotel And Hostel Business Strategy, Robert B. Bunda

Honors Scholar Theses

At their cores, hotels and hostels are similar in that they provide a place for travelers to stay. Despite this core similarity, the structures of the two industries are radically different. The hotel industry began in the Middle Ages and has given rise to massive multinational companies, many managing more than four thousand hotels. In stark contrast, the hostel industry began in 1909 and is mostly comprised of independently owned and operated guesthouses, with the largest global chain comprising of less than twenty properties. This study first defines the hotel and hostel industries and examines the different experiences they offer …

Maryland's Social Networking Law: No "Friend" To Employers And Employees, Alexander Borman

Journal of Business & Technology Law

No abstract provided.

Implementing Green Roofs On Movie Theaters And Shopping Centers: Business Cases In Profitable Sustainability, Ryan J. Miller

Pomona Senior Theses

This thesis presents the business case for installing green roofs on movie theaters and shopping centers. These businesses can then derive increased profits from the environmental benefits of reduced energy use and increased stormwater retention. After presenting the basic design and benefits of a green roof, the thesis develops stand-alone business plans for a movie theater and shopping center. The author finds that green roofs are a profitable sustainability solution for the commercial enterprise.