Other Business Commons^™

A Dynamic Model Of Competitive Entry Response, Matthew Selove

Business Faculty Articles and Research

I develop a dynamic investment game with a “memoryless” research and development process in which an incumbent and an entrant can invest in a new technology, and the entrant can also invest in the old technology. I show that an increase in the probability of successfully implementing a technology can cause the incumbent to reduce its investment. Under certain conditions, if the success probability is high, the incumbent allows the entrant to win the new technology so that firms reach an equilibrium in which they use different technologies, and threats of retaliation prevent attacks; but if the success probability is …

Feasibility Analysis Of A Hop Farm In Edna Valley, Ca, Brandon James Spreafico

Agribusiness

No abstract provided.

Impact Of Oil Prices Fluctuations On Economies In The Age Of Globalization, Ancel Raynaud Soh Feussi

Applied Economics Theses

Early in the past century, oil has powered economic growth in industrialized economies. Towards the end of the 20^th century, as emerging and underdeveloped economies relied more on oil powered means for their everyday need, their appetite for oil has considerably increased and this put an upward pressure on the global oil demand. As supply now struggles to match demand, oil prices are more and more driven by macroeconomics fundamentals. The disparity between supply and demand has had different effects on economies depending, if it is a net oil-exporting or net oil-importing one. This paper will attempt to quantify …

Titanic: Consuming The Myths And Meanings Of An Ambiguous Brand, Stephen Brown, Pierre Mcdonagh, Clifford J. Shultz

School of Business: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Myths have come of age in consumer research. In the 22 years since Levy’s inaugural article, the literature has grown at an impressive rate. Yet important questions remain unanswered: What makes some myths especially meaningful to consumers? Why are certain consumer myths more prevalent and less perishable than others? This article argues that ambiguity is an influential factor. Using the RMS Titanic as an empirical exemplar, it unpacks the principal forms of myth-informed ambiguity surrounding “the unsinkable brand.” Predicated on William Empson’s hitherto unsung principles of literary criticism, the article posits that ambiguity in its multifaceted forms is integral to …

An Analysis Of The Use Of Dogs In Predicting Human Toxicology And Drug Safety, Jarrod Bailey, Michelle Thew, Michael Balls

Laboratory Experiments Collection

Dogs remain the main non-rodent species in preclinical drug development. Despite the current dearth of new drug approvals and meagre pipelines, this continues, with little supportive evidence of its value or necessity. To estimate the evidential weight provided by canine data to the probability that a new drug may be toxic to humans, we have calculated Likelihood Ratios (LRs) for an extensive dataset of 2,366 drugs with both animal and human data, including tissue-level effects and Medical Dictionary for Regulatory Activities (MedDRA) Level 1–4 biomedical observations. The resulting LRs show that the absence of toxicity in dogs provides virtually no …

How Do Firms Become Different? A Dynamic Model, Matthew Selove

Business Faculty Articles and Research

This paper presents a dynamic investment game in which firms that are initially identical develop assets that are specialized to different market segments. The model assumes that there are increasing returns to investment in a segment, for example, as a result of word-of-mouth or learning curve effects. I derive three key results: (1) Under certain conditions there is a unique equilibrium in which firms that are only slightly different focus all of their investment in different segments, causing small random differences to expand into large permanent differences. (2) If, on the other hand, sufficiently large random shocks are possible, firms …

Eight Years Of Journal Of Muamalat And Islamic Finance Research (Jmifr) (2004-2011): A Way Forward, Muhammad Ridhwan, Fuadah Johari, Muhammad Mohamad Yusoff

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

This article presents the result of various bibliometric patterns of articles published by Journal of Muamalat and Islamic Finance Research (JMIFR). This journal is devoted to the field of Islamic Banking and Finance studies and their application in modern times. Data from each volume of JMIFR were collected and statistically analyzed using the Statistical Product & Service Solution (SPSS) software. This study looked at variables which include authorship patterns, length of articles, number of articles published, author productivity, contributing institutions and subject area patterns. Among the significant findings are that dual authorship is prevalent and accounted for about 56.8% of …

Puppy Mill Closure: The Economic Impact On A Local Community, The Humane Society Of The United States

PUPPY MILL REPORTS

When a substandard dog-breeding facility (a puppy mill) closes, removing the dogs can drain the financial resources of a community, local animal welfare entities, and large humane organizations. Towns rarely derive any benefit from puppy mills, as they employ few staff, often don’t pay required taxes or license fees, generate much animal waste and pollution, and cause unpleasant odors and noise. Once a major puppy mill enterprise is discovered, many communities don’t have the necessary resources to handle the situation. Prevention is the key, and communities should discourage large scale breeding facilities from locating in their area.

The Effect Of Contemporary Learning Approaches On Student Perceptions In An Introductory Business Course, Lori A. Coakley Ph.D., Kenneth J. Sousa

Information Systems and Analytics Department Faculty Journal Articles

University administrators and educators continue to explore and implement new approaches for delivering coursework. Ultimately, they are attempting to achieve the same goal; increasing the level of student engagement and retention of knowledge while maintaining educational quality. Various contemporary learning approaches can provide a “launching point” to assess, evaluate and implement creative course pedagogies in many introductory courses. To validate the influence of these approaches, this research offers an assessment of the changes applied to an Introduction to Business course using active, experiential, and cooperative learning approaches. The scope of the data was broadened to include both quantitative and qualitative …

The Strategic Planning Process In Complex Settings: The Case Of Construction Professional Service Firms, Roisin Murphy, Iain Henderson

Conference papers

No abstract provided.

Environmental Impacts Of One Puppy Mill Among Many: A Case History, John A. Gill

Puppy Mills Collection

In recent decades, the animal welfare aspects of irresponsibly-managed commercial dog-breeding businesses have attracted national attention, prompting legislative and regulatory actions. However, the environmental impacts of such businesses, also known as puppy mills, have received far less attention. Most puppy mills are secretive; therefore, it is hard to get documented information about their environmental impacts. Although the former Whispering Oaks Kennels near Parkersburg, W.Va., also kept secrets, reliable environmental information regarding its operation became available because in the summer of 2008, Wood County cited the facility for violating the State’s water pollution and solid waste statutes. This report is based …

"The Living Building Challenge", Giovanni Roberto

Honors Theses

As we look around our community and the world, it becomes very apparent that we are facing many environmental, social and economic issues. In hope to make strides toward a positive future, the International Living Future Institute has developed many stringent programs, one of them being the Living Building Challenge (The Challenge). The Challenge is working to fix the problems of the built environment and to restore the negative impacts our building, landscapes, structures, etc. are having on the Triple Bottom Line (People, Planet, Profit).

The Challenge’s mission states:

To encourage the creation of Living Buildings, Landscapes and Neighborhoods in …

Inclusive Business: Using For-Profit Business Models To Address Global Poverty, Samuel James Conner

Senior Honors Theses

Due to the rise of globalization, modernization, and the Internet revolution, awareness of global poverty has expanded, making its eradication a chief goal of the global development community for the twenty-first century. Though corporations are often expected to participate in social and community development initiatives without regard for profits, this paper presents inclusive business as a way for businesses to profitably engage impoverished segments of society. Inclusive businesses seek to expand their consumer bases or strengthen their supply chains by moving into new markets among the poor that have limited access to global markets and remain largely untapped. The research …

Leadership: Learning To Surf Into A Wave Of Change, Zachary Putnam

Honors Theses

In recent decades, leaders have needed to learn to surf into the wave of change. Throughout the business world, there are number of changes that are currently happening. The ideals of surfing can be used as an analogy to guide how leaders should react to these changes. Leadership is a process of influencing people, and it continues to change with the uncertainty and ambiguity in the business world today. Therefore, it is important to try to move through the five levels of leadership: position, permission, production, people development and personhood. Over the past decades, the nature, scope and intensity of …

Innovators And Imitators In Product-Market Competition And Accounting Reporting, Carlos Corona, Lin Nan, Ran Zhao

Accounting Faculty Articles and Research

In this study, we examine firms’ investments in explorative initiatives and their choices of capitalization method in a product-market competition setting. Since the capitalization of exploration expenditures may contain information on whether a firm’s exploration investment is successful, financial reports may reveal important information to competitors, and thus may have real consequences in product-market competition. In our paper, we identify two driving forces that induce firms to choose different capitalization methods: an information-spillover effect and a preempting effect. We also find that enforcing an accounting method that requires firms to capitalize expenditures of only successful explorations may increase or decrease …

Airline Quality Rating 2013, Brent D. Bowen, Dean E. Headley

Airline Quality Rating Report

The Airline Quality Rating (AQR) was developed and first announced in early 1991 as an objective method for assessing airline quality on combined multiple performance criteria. This current report, the Airline Quality Rating 2013, reflects monthly Airline Quality Rating scores for calendar year 2012. AQR scores for 2013 are based on 15 elements in four major areas that focus on airline performance aspects important to air travel consumers over the calendar year of 2012.

The Airline Quality Rating 2013 is a summary of month-by-month quality ratings for U.S. airlines that are required to report performance by virtue of having at …

The Rise And Fall Of Bread In America, Amanda Benson

Academic Symposium of Undergraduate Scholarship

Over the last century bread has gone through cycles of acceptance and popularity in the United States. The pressure exerted on the American bread market by manufacturers’ advertising campaigns and various dietary trends has caused it to go through periods of acceptance and rejection. Before the industrialization of bread making, consumers held few negative views on bread and perceived it primarily as a form of sustenance. After its industrialization, the battle between the manufacturers and the neighborhood bakeries over consumers began. With manufacturers, such as Wonder Bread, trying to maximize profits and dominate the market, corporate leaders aimed to discourage …

2013 Ijbe Front Matter, Tamra Connor

International Journal for Business Education

1. Editorial Board
2. President's Letter
3. SIEC-ISBE International

Investing In Sustainability: Making Portsmouth, New Hampshire A Sustainable City, David Freeman

Honors Theses and Capstones

No abstract provided.

The Use Of Twitter By Luxury And Midscale Hotels, Yolanda M. Tselepidakis

Honors Theses and Capstones

Twitter has demanded a presence in company brands since its start up in 2008, including the hotel industry. As an up and coming marketing tool, the social media website is still new to both hotels and their guests. Observing the different strategies incorporated by luxury and midscale hotels, the paper provides explanations on how these two segments differ in utilizing Twitter. Through direct interviews with US luxury and midscale hotels and analyzing individual Twitter feeds, it was found that luxury hotels and their target market are much more active on Twitter than the midscale hotel segment. Implications suggest that although …

Development Of A Model Of Airline Consumer Satisfaction, Erin E. Bowen, Brent D. Bowen, Dean E. Headley

Aviation Technology Faculty and Staff Publications

Previous research on perceptions, satisfaction, and attitudes regarding the major commercial air carriers in the United States has provided little more than an interesting descriptive “snapshot” of the average air traveler. Building upon 20 years of work with the National Airline Quality Rating, the present study attempts to move beyond basic descriptive information of air travelers to identify attitudinal patterns and relationships in the way consumers at varying levels of travel frequency view the commercial air industry. Development of such a model allows key players the ability to improve their understanding of the prime drivers and perceptions of passenger behavior. …

Q&A Platforms Evaluated Using Butler University Q&A Intelligence Index, Trent Ritzenthaler, Richard Fetter, Ginger Lippert

Scholarship and Professional Work - Business

A new study using the Butler University Q&A Intelligence Index measures how various mobile Q&A platforms deliver quality, accurate answers in a timely manner to a broad variety of questions. Based on the results of our analysis, ChaCha led all Q&A platforms on mobile devices.

Results of the study are based upon review of a large set of responses from each of the major Q&A platforms, coupled with a comparison of disparate Q&A platforms that serve answers in different ways. Our methodology included the creation of a new metric, termed the Butler University Q&A Intelligence Index, which measures the likelihood …

Measuring Quality In Diabetes Care: An Expert-Based Statistical Approach, Dimitris Bertsimas, David Czerwinski, Michael Kane

Faculty Publications

We present a methodology for using health insurance claims data to monitor quality of care. The method uses a statistical model trained on the quality ratings of a medical expert. In a pilot study, the expert rated the quality of care received over the course of two years by 101 diabetes patients. A logistic regression model accurately identified the quality of care for 86% of the patients. Because the model uses data derived from patients’ health insurance claims it can be used to monitor the care being received by a large patient population. One important use of the model is …

Fact Sheet On Puppy Mills And Flea Markets, The Humane Society Of The United States

PUPPY MILL REPORTS

Flea Markets are meccas for problematic puppy sellers. Since the USDA is now regulating commercial breeders who sell puppies sight-unseen over the Internet, flea markets are one of the last unregulated marketplaces for questionable puppy sellers, many of them unlicensed and uninspected. As a result, there has been an increase in the number of operators selling puppies at flea markets across the country—likely in an effort to escape government regulation.

Environmental Impacts Of Puppy Mills, The Humane Society Of The United States

PUPPY MILL REPORTS

A puppy mill is “a dog breeding operation in which the health of the dogs is disregarded in order to maintain a low overhead and maximize profits.” Avenson v. Zegart, 577 F. Supp. 958, Dist. Court, Minnesota (1984). State and federal inspection reports reveal that a common method employed to maximize profits includes irresponsible waste management practices that are harmful to the environment. Impacts may be caused by improper disposal of feces, urine and carcasses.

Puppy Mill Brokers, The Humane Society Of The United States

PUPPY MILL REPORTS

A puppy mill “broker” is a pet dealer engaged in the business of re-selling puppies who were bred elsewhere. Unlike retail pet stores, brokers are middleman dealers who obtain puppies from breeders and puppy mills, and then transport and resell them. Brokers typically sell puppies to pet stores, but sometimes to research facilities, often travelling great distances to do so. In some cases the term is also used loosely to describe people who re-sell litters directly to the public that they themselves did not produce, for example, by posing at the original breeder and selling them through websites or classified …

Texas Puppy Seller Investigation, The Humane Society Of The United States

PUPPY MILL INFORMATION

Over a five-month period in 2013, HSUS staff visited 16 pet stores and three flea markets across the state with hidden cameras to find out where they get their puppies and to check on the puppies’ conditions. HSUS staff also studied hundreds of shipping documents representing more than 1,400 puppies shipped into Texas between May 2012 and August 2013 from out of state, representing just a sampling of the thousands of puppies shipped into Texas every year for resale. Between the document research and in-person visits, investigators studied a total of 34 pet stores and flea markets. HSUS investigators found …

Investigation: Many Maryland Pet Stores Found In Violation Of Puppy Mill Disclosure Law, The Humane Society Of The United States

PUPPY MILL INFORMATION

An undercover investigation by The Humane Society of the United States and ReLove Animals, Inc., found most of the pet stores in Maryland that sell puppies are apparently not fully complying with a law designed to provide shoppers with information about the origin of their puppies. In September 2013, investigators visited 12 puppy-selling pet stores in Maryland. Specifically, investigators checked to see if the stores were fulfilling the requirement that they “post conspicuously on each dog's cage” the “state in which the breeder or dealer of the dog is located” and “the United States Department of Agriculture license number of …

A Horrible Hundred 2013: Problem Puppy Mills In The United States, The Humane Society Of The United States

PUPPY MILL INFORMATION

This report is a list of some of the nation’s dog breeding kennels that are of high concern to The HSUS due to repeated problems with animal health or animal care. It is not a list of all puppy mills, nor a list of all problematic facilities. The list does not include other problematic puppy mill dealers, such as brokers and pet stores, unless the operators are also breeding dogs.

The Reality Of Digital Currency As A Financial Medium Of Exchange, Dale H. Shao, Lawrence Shao, Ralph E. Mckinney, Duane C. Rosenlieb

Management Faculty Research

This paper presents a discussion of the requirements for the long term acceptance of digital currency as a financial medium of exchange through the examination of fundamental criteria associated with common tender and the examination of selected digital currencies. According to the U.S. Treasury, digital currencies are subject to regulation if that digital currency has a substitutive purpose for facilitating exchanging goods and services (Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, 2013). Although governments can place stipulations on currencies, users of common tender, such as digital currencies, expect at least three basic privileges for a digital currency to evolve from conception to realization. …