Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Diy Pr: How Independent Music Artists Use Online Social Networks For Public Relations Purposes, Martina Lawless

Theses

Significance of the study: Independent musicians are a huge part of the Irish music industry and yet they are the part that do not have the backing of a record label. This means independent musicians need to look at cheap or even free ways to promote themselves to existing fans and potential new fans. With the emergence of social networks musicians both signed and independent have the tools necessary to engage in a new form DIY PR. The purpose of this study is to look at the different ways that social networks have helped musicians in recent years, but also …

Small-Scale Aid Donors, Agribusiness, And The Zambian Export Sector, John R. Ledgerwood, Stephen N. Morgan

Publications

Production of high value agriculture and natural products has become a key instrument in economic development programs to accomplish the dual objectives of raising rural incomes and conserving valuable environmental resources. Rapid growth in global demand for organic and natural products has provided a strong economic incentive for small scale aid agencies to expand into this niche market. Through this analysis we investigate the economic impact that aid funded agricultural production has had on rural residents of Zambia and how this development strategy allows small scale aid donors to capitalize on the business and export opportunities in the Central African …

Problems Of Maintaining Adequate Accounting Records For A Non-Profit Organization In Sub-Saharan Africa, John R. Ledgerwood, Stephen N. Morgan

Publications

This paper looks at the accounting challenges faced by a small-scale non-profit organization operating in sub-Saharan Africa. We will look at the case of Enright Flight Ministries, Inc., a 501(c)3 non-profit organization based in Florida that carries out evangelical and humanitarian aid projects in Zambia. Building upon field interviews with administrative staff and project managers, we analyze the various problems facing the organization in maintaining adequate accounting records. After looking at both external and internal problems, we investigate the solutions employed by Enright Flight Ministries to maintain the integrity of accounting systems to derive best practices for the small-scale international …

Inbound International Tourism To The United States: A Panel Data Analysis, E. M. Ekanayake, Mihalis Halkides, John R. Ledgerwood

Publications

The objective of this paper is to analyze the demand for tourist arrivals to the United States, using the panel cointegration technique. The study attempts to identify and measure the impact of the main determinants of inbound international tourism flows to the United States. The study uses annual data from 1986 to 2011 for tourist arrivals from 50 major countries of tourist origin. The specified model includes several country-specific determinants. The panel unit root tests indicate all the variables are integrated of order one. The panel cointegration tests show that all seven test statistics reject the null hypothesis of no …

Securing Access To Lower-Cost Talent Globally: The Dynamics Of Active Embedding And Field Structuration, Stephan Manning, Joerg Sydow, Arnold Windeler

Management and Marketing Faculty Publication Series

This article examines how multinational corporations (MNCs) shape institutional conditions in emerging economies to secure access to high-skilled, yet lower-cost science and engineering talent. Based on two in-depth case studies of engineering offshoring projects of German automotive suppliers in Romania and China we analyze how MNCs engage in ‘active embedding’ by aligning local institutional conditions with global offshoring strategies and operational needs. MNCs thereby contribute to the structuration of field relations and practices of sourcing knowledge-intensive work from globally dispersed locations.Our findings stress the importance of institutional processes across geographic boundaries that regulate and get shaped by MNC activities.

National Contexts Matter: The Co-Evolution Of Sustainability Standards In Global Value Chains, Stephan Manning, Frank Boons, Oliver Von Hagen, Juliane Reinecke

Management and Marketing Faculty Publication Series

In this paper, we investigate the role of key industry and other stakeholders and their embeddedness in particular national contexts in driving the proliferation and co-evolution of sustainability standards, based on the case of the global coffee industry. We find that institutional conditions and market opportunity structures in consuming countries have been important sources of standards variation, for example in the cases of Fairtrade, UTZ Certified and the Common Code for the Coffee Community (4C). In turn, supplier structures in producing countries as well as their linkages with traders and buyers targeting particular consuming countries have been key mechanisms of …

The Effect Of Advertising-Focused, Short-Term Study Abroad Programs On Students’ Worldviews, Frauke Hachtmann

College of Journalism and Mass Communications: Faculty Publications

Global employers in the advertising industry are increasingly interested in hiring students with intercultural communication skills and cultural experience. While the benefits of long-term study abroad programs are well documented, this study focuses on advertising-specific, short-term study abroad programs. The purpose was to explore the effectiveness of such programs on students’ worldviews using a mixed methods design. The results show that students displayed lower levels of ethnocentrism after participating in short-term, advertising-focused study abroad programs. In addition, five qualitative themes emerged: an awareness of and appreciation for the out-group, an increased awareness of the in-group, the importance of communication, a …

Electric Vehicles In Ireland: The Future?, Angela Wright

Dept. of Organisation & Professional Development Publications

This study explores the merits of the Electric Vehicle (EV) as an alternative mode of transportation in Ireland. The EV has been produced for many decades, but never in a mass production capacity. EVs do not require fossil fuels to power them. With fossil fuels being in short supply and as global climate change is deteriorating each year; the EV will help reduce Ireland’s dependence on depleting fossil fuel resources. This current study seeks to establish if the EV can be part of the solution to prevent further un-repairable damage to the environment. The findings of this current study, demonstrate …

Smiles As Signals Of Lower Status In Football Players And Fashion Models: Evidence That Smiles Are Associated With Lower Dominance And Lower Prestige, Timothy Ketelaar, Bryan L. Koenig, Daniel Gambacorta, Igor Dolgov, Daniel Hor, Jennifer Zarzoza, Cuauhtémoc Luna-Nevarez, Micki Klungle, Lee Wells

WCBT Faculty Publications

Across four studies, the current paper demonstrates that smiles are associated with lower social status. Moreover, the association between smiles and lower status appears in the psychology of observers and generalizes across two forms of status: prestige and dominance. In the first study, faces of fashion models representing less prestigious apparel brands were found to be more similar to a canonical smile display than the faces of models representing more prestigious apparel brands. In a second study, after being experimentally primed with either high or low prestige fashion narratives, participants in the low prestige condition were more likely to perceive …

Job Satisfaction Determinants: A Study Across 48 Nations, Jeanine K. Andreassi, Leanna Lawter, Martin Brockerhoff, Peter Rutigliano

WCBT Faculty Publications

This paper examines the drivers of job satisfaction across four cultural regions—Asia, Europe, North America, and Latin America. Using Hofstede’s theory, determinants were used to predict job satisfaction for each region and then compared to determine significant differences. Data was collected from a proprietary industry survey on employee work attitudes. The sample consisted of over 70,000 employees from 4 large multinational organizations. Data was analyzed using regression analysis and comparison testing across models. There are significant relationships between job characteristics and job satisfaction across all regions of the world, with a sense of achievement universally the most important driver. Although …

Are Subcompact Cars Driving Consumers Towards Sustainable Transport, Enda Mcgovern

WCBT Faculty Publications

Access to private transport is a critical component of the modern industrialized world but it is also recognized as a major source of carbon dioxide emissions, one of the global warming gases contributing to climate change. This paper looks at increased use of subcompact cars as a key component in developing a sustainable transport policy. These cars benefit the environment by emitting reduced levels of carbon emissions due to their smaller engines. This empirical research explores the opinions of Smart car owners in a focus group study. Smart car owners are primarily focused on reducing their costs due to difficult …

Proceedings Of 2012 Annual Meeting Of The Academy Of International Business-Us North East Chapter: Business Without Borders, Academy Of International Business. Us North East Chapter, Jing'an Tang, Ed.

SHU Conference Publications

Proceedings of the 2012 Academy of International Business-US North East Chapter Fairfield, Connecticut, October 11-13, 2012.

"Business Without Borders." Host, John F. Welch College of Business, Sacred Heart University. Editor, Jang'an Tang.

AIB-NE 2012 Conference Co-Chairs, Khawaja Mamun, Ph.D. and Jang'an Tang.

‘Going Through The Mist’: Early Career Transitions Of Chinese Millennial Returnees, Emily T. Porschitz, Chun (Grace) Guo, José Alves

WCBT Faculty Publications

Over the past decade management practitioners have sought to understand the career expectations of the Millennial generation - those born between 1979 and 1994 (Myers and Sadaghiani, 2010) - who are rapidly becoming a dominant force in the global economy. As workers from the Baby Boomer generation move towards retirement, organization leaders are becoming more interested in understanding how to attract and retain millennial employees most effectively (Walmsley, 2007). A large body of research is devoted to uncovering the career expectations of millennial workers, so that practitioners can better understand them. Findings suggest Millennial have high expectations regarding career success …

Momentum 2012, Bryce Linden

Momentum

A journal of undergraduate research

Will It Be A Tough Year?, Daniel D. Selby, W. Darrell Walden

Accounting Faculty Publications

While there may be some glimmers of hope about a turnaround to the U.S. economy, such as decreasing unemployment, Virginia CPAs aren't betting on a huge recovery in the next year.

The second annual VSCPA Economic Outlook Survey reveals Virginia CPAs are more pessimistic about the United States and Virginia economies than they were last year, but they are actually more optimistic about Virginia's economy compared to the United States as a whole. Likewise, VSCPA members continue to feel good about the economic outlook in Virginia relative to neighboring states.

An Administrative Mess: A Case Study From The Officiating Community, Stacy Warner, Jacob K. Tingle, Pamm Kellett

School of Business Faculty Research

This case is written for instructors of classes focused on strategic management, organisational behaviour, human resource management, and/or an officiating course. The case highlights the numerous administrative processes a new employee in a sport organization would face. Although the case is fictional it is based on the authors’ personal and professional experiences in athletics administration and officiating, and further draws upon the authors’ research in the area of officiating. Consequently, this case study was constructed based on first-hand observation, interviews and conversation with numerous officials and administrators, and through the examination of documents frequently used to manage officials. As a …

Real Jobs, Real Community, Real Wages: A Guide To Customized Employment, Kelsey Christy

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The purpose of this capstone project is to develop a customized employment self-guided training and an in-person training based on evidence-based research. The customized employment guide and in-person training will strive to motivate and educate various entities of Dakota County Social Services, initially implemented with AS/CLS sections, for more individualized approaches to attaining and maintaining employment. The goal of the customized employment guide and training is to have a fluid, consistent, and a readily available training tool for managers, social workers, contracted agencies, providers, and direct care staff within Dakota County AS/CLS. Furthermore, it will embody the AS/CLS value of …

Neighborhood Crime And Travel Behavior: An Investigation Of The Influence Of Neighborhood Crime Rates On Mode Choice – Phase Ii, Christopher Ferrell, Shishir Mathur

Faculty Publications, Urban and Regional Planning

No abstract provided.

Effective Popular Financial Reports: The Citizen Perspective, Juita-Elena (Wie) Yusuf, Meagan M. Jordan

School of Public Service Faculty Publications

The article presents a study that investigates the views of citizens on the efficiency of financial reports in the U.S. Researchers did a survey to discern the perspectives of respondents about the effectiveness of the said reports in informing other individuals about government finances. Moreover, results reveal that 80% of respondents believed that the reports are effective. [Associates Programs Source, EbscoHost database]

Executive Summaries

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Helping Government Agencies Become More Effective And Efficient: Discovering ‘Catalytic Combinations’ In Public Child Welfare Reform, Dara Menashi, Christopher Behan, Kathleen Noonan

The Foundation Review

· This article describes work of the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Casey Strategic Consulting Group (CSCG), a 10-year, multistate initiative that embeds outside experts – both public-system and traditional management consulting – in child and family services systems to improve system performance and outcomes.

· The article describes five types of levers that were influenced in different combinations to promote change in different state systems. We call these “catalytic combinations.”

· In numerous states, including Maine, Louisiana, Virginia, and Indiana, the CSCG initiative produced measurable improvements in key performance areas, including shortening stays in foster care, improving rates of permanent …

Building The Capacity Of California’S Safety Net: Lessons From The Strengthening Community Dental Practices Demonstration, Fontane Lo, Clare Nolan, Len Finocchio

The Foundation Review

· Community dental practices provide “safety net” services to populations who would otherwise have limited access to care. The financial crisis of recent years has made it increasingly difficult for safetynet dental practices to serve people most in need while still balancing their books.

· The California HealthCare Foundation (CHCF) and the California Pipeline Program (CPP) funded a demonstration project to test the effectiveness of practice-management consulting as a strategy for helping California’s community clinics survive and thrive. This model emphasizes customized technical assistance to enhance the business infrastructure behind the delivery of care.

· The evaluation of this demonstration …

Defining, Building, And Measuring Capacity: Findings From An Advocacy Evaluation, Debra A. Strong, Jung Y. Kim

The Foundation Review

· Funders often focus their grants to build capacity, recognizing the important roles that leadership, skills, and infrastructure have on an organization’s effectiveness in carrying out its mission.

· This article reports on results from Mathematica Policy Research’s evaluation of Consumer Voices for Coverage, a program funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to support the role of consumer health advocacy coalitions in 12 states.

· The foundation based the program on a study that identified six core advocacy capacities, and designed it to strengthen these capacities.

· The evaluation found that the level of funding, substantial and targeted technical …

Editorial, Teresa R. Behrens

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Changemaking: Building Strategic Competence, Prudence Brown

The Foundation Review

· Foundations have begun to recognize that how they go about their work is as important as what they support. To be better armed to address the urgent challenges facing Detroit’s children, the Skillman Foundation has adopted a changemaking role that draws upon and leverages its knowledge, networks, and civic reputation to supplement its grantmaking investments.

· Effective changemaking depends on the accrual of trust and respect that is built over time in relationships with community residents and stakeholders, public and private partners, and others with influence and resources.

· Changemaking required the foundation to build new strategic competencies such …

Evaluating The Kaiser Permanente Community Fund’S Social Determinants Of Health Portfolio, Sarah B. Paige, Emily Bourcier, Carol Cahill, Clarissa Hsu, Chris Kabel

The Foundation Review

· Research over the past two decades repeatedly demonstrates the relationship between poor health outcomes and socioeconomic factors such as poor housing, poverty, racism, and structural inequity.

· In 2005, the Northwest Health Foundation, supported by the Kaiser Permanente Community Fund, began an initiative to address these social determinants of health (SDOH).

· A variety of projects – short- and long-term, large and small – were supported over the five-year period for a total of $12.4 million. The mean project-implementation grant was $175,350 and 2½ years in length; capacity-building grants averaged $50,000 for 1½ years.

· In all, 323 social-determinant …

Executive Summaries

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Building The Capacity Of Networks To Achieve Systems Change, Douglas Easterling

The Foundation Review

· Networks have historically played an essential role in promoting progress in areas such as social justice, political reform, environmental protection, and public health.

· Foundations are increasingly recognizing the power of networks and looking for strategies to help networks achieve their potential.

· The most common strategies are: a) convene a new network around a mission in line with the foundation’s interests, or b) make grants to an existing network whose interests align with the foundation’s. Each strategy has practical limitations.

· This paper analyzes an alternative strategy developed by the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation (MRBF). In addition to …

Corporate Giving Gets Smarter: Conagra Foods Foundation Fights Childhood Hunger, Lisa Wyatt Knowlton, Cynthia Phillips

The Foundation Review

· This article discusses how a better “map” can develop strategic focus and alignment, increasing the potential for results.

· Program development and evaluation are best done hand in hand.

· In complex systems, co-construction has huge yield. It promotes accuracy, comprehensiveness, and utility.

· Grantmakers can provide more than funding; they can identify and use new tools, processes, and resources with multiple stakeholders for effectiveness.

· Alignment and integration are powerful principles inside and outside organizations as well as across sectors in pursuit of social change.

Evaluation For Models And Adaptive Initiatives, Heather Britt, Julia Coffman

The Foundation Review

· Although there has been a growing emphasis on use of experimental designs in evaluation, there is also increasing agreement that evaluation designs should be situation specific.

· The nature of the program is one of the key factors to consider in evaluation design.

· Two types of programs – models, which provide replicable or semi-standardized solutions, adaptive initiatives, which are flexible programming strategies used to address problems that require unique, context-based solutions – require different evaluation designs.

· Evaluation of models requires understanding the stage of development of the model program, with summative evaluation done only when the model …