Technology and Innovation Commons^™

Brave New World Reboot: Technology’S Role In Consumer Manipulation And Implications For Privacy And Transparency, Allie Mertensotto

Marketing Undergraduate Honors Theses

Most consumers are aware that our data is being obtained and collected through the use of our devices we keep in our homes or even on our person throughout the day. But, it is understated how much data is being collected. Conversations you have with your peers – in a close proximity of a device – are being used to tailor advertising. The advertisements you receive on your devices are uniquely catered to your individual person, due to the fact it consistently uses our data to produce efficient and personal ads. On the flip side, our government is also tapping …

The Pandemic Intern Of Nestlé Usa, Brenna Rose Beck

Marketing Undergraduate Honors Theses

Over the summer of 2020, I had the privilege to intern with Nestlé USA (NUSA), a sector of the multinational food and beverage processing conglomerate corporation that is headquartered in Vevey, Switzerland. As of 2014, Nestlé is known as the largest food and beverage company in the entire world. Over the course of ten weeks, I was able to learn from an immense number of opportunities that were available to me while working for this corporation. Nestlé was founded in 1866 by Henri Nestlé, originally as the Anglo-Swiss Condensed Milk Company that was aimed towards leveraging a safe, long shelf-life …

Generational Differences & The Millennial Impact On Business, Micah Wittschen

Marketing Undergraduate Honors Theses

Business is the backbone of the United States of America. Often called The American Dream, citizens grow up with the idea that the possibilities are endless living in the land of opportunity. This dream also comes with the desire for a family, thus a good job is needed for financial support. It is often believed and proven that those that work hard can yield financial returns and benefit socially.

Generational differences trickle down to every aspect of life including the different trends and impacts each cohort has on business. Each generation has a different view of work and behaves differently …

Immersive Systems And User Engagement Through Neurois Lens, Ali Balapour

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Immersive systems (e.g., Virtual Reality) are at the forefront of the next generation of innovative technologies. Recent technological advancements have made them viable for businesses and individuals to adopt. For example, some realtors now offer virtual house tours in the absence of walk-ins. The concept of “immersion” is at the heart of these technologies. However, despite the fact that this concept has been studied for almost three decades, our understanding remains weak and inconsistent. Specifically, there remains a lack of consensus on what it is, its antecedents, and how it should be measured.

This dissertation includes two essays. In Essay …

Food Hubs And Rebuilding Missing Middle Market Structure In Agriculture: The Social In Supply Chain Development, Stephen Luoni

Community Design Center Faculty Publications and Presentations

Tens of millions of Americans became food insecure during the COVID-19 pandemic as independent farmers dumped millions of tons of food due to economic lockdowns. Yet contract growers looped into vertically integrated monopoly supply chains escaped system breakdowns. Food provisioning is often seen as polarized between local scale and continental/ global market scale. Food supply and consumption are functions more of market structure than scale. Farmers reliant on direct sales to local restaurants, schools, universities, and hospitals saw their markets evaporate overnight. This Food Away from Home market constitutes 54 percent of food consumed nationally yet is vulnerable since direct-to-consumer …

A Financial And Environmental Impact Analysis On The Implementation Of Electric Vehicles For The Washington County, Arkansas Sheriff's Department, Lauren Chadwick

Supply Chain Management Undergraduate Honors Theses

Since the Biden administration has provided implication that the hope is for state and local governments to adopt net zero emission federal vehicles, it is important to see how this might work for a county in a rural area of Arkansas. Applying this real possibility to the local Sheriff’s department will aim to create a case either for the implementation of electric vehicles or prove to show that it is not a feasible solution.

This research will compare the financial advantages and disadvantages of this order along with the possible environmental impact that this solution can attribute to. Focusing on …

Integrating Systems, Processes, And Human Judgment: Three Essays On Value Creation With Supply Chain Analytics, Rebekah Inez Brau

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Big-data, analytics, automation, and machine learning are changing the role of managers in supply chain and operations functions. Extant research indicates that effective value creation by analytics is achieved through careful attention to three components: technology, people, and processes. As such, the purpose of my dissertation is to improve the integration of people in current supply chain and operations management systems with ever-changing technologies and processes. I focus on one critical function—demand planning—since it is increasingly influenced by predictive analytics yet can still require human judgment. My dissertation is comprised of three essays as follow.

In Essay 1, I implement …

Three Essays On The Performance Evaluation Of Actively Managed Investment Funds, Qing Yan

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the performance of hedge funds and actively managed U.S. equity mutual funds.

The first chapter examines the relation between hedge funds and the low beta anomaly. Different conditions in the mutual fund and hedge fund industries should lead to different approaches with respect to the low beta anomaly. I find that, unlike most mutual funds, the average hedge fund tends to benefit considerably from the anomaly. About 2.3% per year of apparent alpha for the average hedge fund can be attributed to the low beta anomaly rather than manager skill. Low skill managers are the most reliant …

Crypto And Blockchain Fundamentals, Mary C. Lacity

Arkansas Law Review

"I believe blockchain will do for trusted transactions what the Internet has done for information." - Ginni Rometty, CEO of IBM Since the 1990s, we have had an "Internet of Information" that allows us to seamlessly share information such as documents, images, emails, and videos over the Internet. While most Internet users do not need to understand the details of the technical protocols operating underneath user-friendly software interfaces, it is helpful to understand how they work at a high-level. With the "Internet of Information," copies of information are routed over the Internet. If a sender emails a friend, the sender …

Study On New Sampling Plans And Optimal Integration With Proactive Maintenance In Production Systems, Sinan Obaidat

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Sampling plans are statistical process control (SPC) tools used mainly in production processes. They are employed to control processes by monitoring the quality of produced products and alerting for necessary adjustments or maintenance. Sampling is used when an undesirable change (shift) in a process is unobservable and needs time to discover. Basically, the shift occurs when an assignable cause affects the process. Wrong setups, defective raw materials, degraded components are examples of assignable causes. The assignable cause causes a variable (or attribute) quality characteristic to shift from the desired state to an undesired state.

The main concern of sampling is …

Outcomes Of Platform Openness In Complementary Markets, Franck Loic Soh Noume

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Mobile platform ecosystems are hyper-competitive environments. They provide important entrepreneurial opportunities for businesses that develop mobile apps. Platform openness is foundational in mobile platform ecosystems as it enables interactions between complements and platform. Although there are several studies on the impact of platform openness, our understanding of the outcomes of platform openness remains limited. In this dissertation, we examine thoroughly underexplored facets of platform openness as well as understudied outcomes. In the first essay, we investigate the impact of platform openness on incumbent complements’ performance outcomes. We unravel important causal mechanisms related to competition dynamics between new entrants and incumbent …

Simulation Modeling Of Cross-Dock And Distribution Center Based Supply Chains, Ghewa Al Chall

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Companies are implementing new strategies to meet the customer requirements in terms of quality, timing, and cost. One of these strategies is cross-docking, which can be defined as the process of consolidating the products coming from different suppliers, but having the same destination, with minimal handling and almost no storage between loading and unloading of the goods. The purpose of this research is to investigate the benefits of having a cross-docking facility in a supply chain. In this research, we focus on developing discrete event simulation models using the opensource Java Simulation Library (JSL). Also, we work on augmenting an …

Getting Serious About Games: A Study Of Work And Play Through Information Systems, Jeffrey K. Mullins

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Play and games shape, and are shaped by, culture. They represent an integral and ubiquitous component of humanity. Technological advances are blurring the lines between work and play, and their increasing convergence requires deeper understanding. Organizations seek to harness the motivational power of games to improve instrumental outcomes but face numerous challenges in doing so. Extant theory struggles to inform practice on the use of gameful experiences to achieve practical goals. This dissertation presents three essays that explore the domain of gameful information systems (IS), defined as IS that are designed or perceived to afford or support user experiences similar …

Discussion Of The Potential Of Blockchain In Finance, Andrew Kincaid

Finance Undergraduate Honors Theses

This paper analyzes the current application of blockchain technology to demonstrate its disruptive potential has across different financial industries. This paper analyzes the potential difficulties that blockchain technology must face and overcome to realize this potential. Blockchain is currently in a stage in its development where there has not been enough research done to provide empirical answers to its benefits or added costs; however, there have been many early innovations that have helped propel blockchain forward. Blockchain in corporate finance is primarily used in corporate governance where blockchain has the ability to increase transparency and reduce possible corruption. Blockchain has …

Cryptocurrency: The Argument For Its Allocation Within The Traditional Investor's Portfolio, Nicholas Costanza

Finance Undergraduate Honors Theses

This research explores the significance of cryptocurrencies upon the “traditional” investor’s portfolio, particularly elaborating on the potential returns and advocating for its allocation within any balanced (or diversified) portfolio. Cryptocurrencies are a relatively new asset and are still considered to be extremely risky. They are characterized by ever-fluctuating prices, ongoing government regulation, and overall market skepticism. However, the potential of major cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin, Ripple, Ethereum, and Litecoin) to produce major returns cannot be easily ignored. This paper builds upon the research of those in academia, as well as highly respected investors. The hope is to outline both the pros and …

Technology Advancement Influence In Accounting And Information System Fields, Shannon Gordon

Accounting Undergraduate Honors Theses

This research serves to relate the accounting and information technology fields. The information in the research documents changes in the accounting and information technology fields, and how the fields are expected to change in the coming years. The research also discuss the relationship between the accounting and information technology fields. The topics on the ideal accounting candidates for employers and the expectation gap between graduates skills and employers’ expectations are also discussed. Careers in accounting and information systems and also similar and different basic skills of both fields are documented in the research.

The changes in accounting are influenced by …

Lithium And The Foreseeable Future, Paolo Vargas

Mechanical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

This paper aims to clarify the uncertainties regarding worldwide lithium resource availability in the years to come. Previous studies made on the subject are presented with some ambiguity and this work intends to fill the gaps. The information and data presented throughout this script with respect to global lithium resources and reserves are mostly based on data released by the United States Geological Survey (USGS). Lithium resource availability in the future is a point of paramount significance primarily for the automotive, portable electronics, and the power generation industry. Since, a change of supply would ultimately affect the price of lithium, …

Feasibility Analysis Of Recycled-Paper Fueled Agricultural Desalination Process: Design Of Recycling And Desalination Processes, Sean M. Street

Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

While recycled-paper-briquettes have lower BTU ratings than wood, and fresh water is typically a low cost to agricultural entities, situations exist where economic and/or environmental factors may allow a recycled-paper-fueled desalination process to be viable for some specific agricultural entities. This document begins with a discussion of how water is priced throughout India before analyzing trends in the Maize futures market. By tying the two together, an opportunity is created for solution which the remainder of the document presents. Paper waste in India makes-up 50% of its solid waste country-wide; however, only a quarter of that waste is recycled - …

Big Data And Organizational Impacts: A Study Of Big Data Ventures, Taha Havakhor

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

New information technology (IT) ventures are at the forefront of developing IT innovations. In spite of their importance in the advancement of IT and the unique risks of survival that distinguishes them from established firms, the organizational literature on IT has mostly overlooked new IT ventures. Specifically, Big Data industry is a context where new IT ventures actively change the landscape of IT innovations. However, less is known about the factors influencing the economic success of Big Data ventures (BDVs), as well as the established firms that invest in them. To shed light on these factors, three essays are designed …

The Impact Of Uber Technologies On The New York City Transportation Industry, Jonathan K. Alley

Finance Undergraduate Honors Theses

Uber Technologies (Uber) is a mobile ride request company founded in 2009 by Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp. Initially named “UberCab”, the company began offering black car services in San Francisco via an iPhone app. Beginning in May 2011, Uber expanded to a new city each month, moving into New York City, Chicago, and Washington D.C that year. The company also expanded internationally in December 2011, moving into Paris. After only its first six months of operation, Uber had already gained nearly 6,000 users and done close to 20,000 rides. The company expanded to its first international city, Paris, in …

Are Music Streaming Services Healthy For The Recorded Music Industry?, Elizabeth W. Pittman

Economics Undergraduate Honors Theses

To listen to music just a few hundred years ago would require hundreds of miles of travel, tons of wood and metal and ivory and copper strings, construction of a stage and audience platforms, human capital to perform the music of course, and lots of money. All of these variables would combine to produce an auditory experience of approximately 45 minutes total. Today, a single musician can produce the sound of dozens with just a laptop, and it can be consumed relatively cheaply with the click of a button. Digital services such as iTunes or Spotify give listeners access to …

Essays On Technology-Mediated Training: Implications For Design And Evaluation, Vishal Satyapal Shah

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Information technology (IT) is increasingly used to impart a variety training skills, and these skills may range from specific software application operations and computer programming to learning about generic business processes. Using IT to assist training is broadly termed “Technology-Mediated Learning” (TML). Following the three essay model, this dissertation examines training interventions in the context of TML. In Essay 1, a thorough literature survey of technology training in Information Systems (IS) was conducted, resulting in clarification of the nomenclature used in TML. Essay 1 also identified of two leading theories used in TML research: (a) Social cognitive theory (SCT) (b) …

The Differentiation And Integration Of Information Technologies: Three Empirical Studies On `Bring Your Own Devices', Zachary R. Steelman

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines how the management and configuration of organizational IT portfolios enhance organizations and their employees. Specifically, the theory of the differentiation and integration of information technologies is developed with in-depth examinations of "Bring-Your-Own-Device" (BYOD) policies. Four data collections are utilized: survey vignettes, case studies, agent-based simulations, and a questionnaire survey. Each essay uses a mixed-method approach providing insights into the selection, development, and management of ITs across individual and organizational levels.

Essay 1 explores the impact of BYOD on employees' performance, job satisfaction, and work-life conflicts. The results indicate that IT integration improves performance and job satisfaction, and …

Explaining Implicit And Explicit Affective Linkages In It Teams: Facial Recognition, Emotional Intelligence, And Affective Tone, Mary M. Dunaway

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Over 80 percent of task work in organizations is performed by teams. Most teams operate in a more fluid, dynamic, and complex environment than in the past. As a result, a growing body of research is beginning to focus on how teams’ emotional well-being can benefit the effectiveness of workplace team efforts. These teams are required to be adaptive, to operate in ill-structured environments, and to rely on technology more than ever before. However, teams have become so ubiquitous that many organizations and managers take them for granted and assume they will be effective and productive. Because of the increased …

On Export Intermodal Transportation Problem, Supriya Arun Jadhav

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates a logistics problem facing companies that export their products to other countries. The problem is called export intermodal transportation problem. In the export intermodal transportation problem, goods ordered by overseas customers need to be transported from production plants or warehouses of an export company to the customers destinations overseas. The transportation involves using multiple transportation modes such as trucks and rails for the inland portion and ocean liners for the overseas portion, and its objective is to have the goods moved and the cost minimized subject to various constraints. Cost can be minimized by combining orders from …

Academic Integrity: A Study Of Attitudes And Behaviors Focused On Technology & Narcissism, Joseph Hogan

Information Systems Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis focuses primarily on the misuses of technology in regards to academic integrity violations and examines some of the psychological traits that are more likely to lead these violations. It begins by defining Narcissism, and then analyzes its effect on cheating frequencies and attitudes. The next portion focuses on the relationship between the misuse of technology and narcissism. Finally, technological cheating methods are examined; survey results are compared with UA academic integrity case records to find areas in which violations most often occur.

A Study Of Sales Training Within The General Aviation Industry, Clyde Eli Harris Jr.

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The study analyzed the manner in which the five leading utility aircraft companies conducted their sales training activities, the reasons for their methods of sales training, and the problems encountered in their sales training program. Sales training, as defined in this paper, refers to an organized attempt by the management of a business organization—in this instance a utility aircraft manufacturer—to advise, assist, prepare, discipline, teach, and educate the organization’s selling personnel at all levels so that better results—greater sales with less effort at lower costs—can be attained. Sales training in the general aviation industry appears to be important for three …