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Nationwide, community college administrators are attempting to maintain financial stability amid extreme budget challenges. The problem that was addressed through this study is that some community college administrators at a large Northeastern state lack strategies to sustain financial stability, which threatens the 14 institutions' ability to continue to operate as a viable educational choice. The purpose of this study was to investigate the strategies that community college administrators at multiple institutions of varying financial stability use. The conceptual framework that grounded the study was Porter's five forces framework. Research questions focused on what strategies are used, why these strategies are used, and in what way they support financial stability currently and in the future. For this case study, purposive sampling was used and semi structured interviews with 10 community college administrators were conducted. Data was analyzed by transcribing interviews, participant member checking, and the use of an online tool to identify codes and themes. The themes that emerged are budget control, marketing strategy, industry attractiveness, and competitive environment. These findings led to the development of a policy paper with the following recommendations: develop committees to share best practices on cultivating auxiliary revenue and competitive advantage strategies, adopt new marketing and outreach strategies, and invest in professional development for college administrators related to business strategies. These recommendations provide the potential of positive social change by supporting continued operations of the community colleges not only allowing the faculty and staff to continue their employment but also serving students that depend on community colleges. Educated students, in turn, serve their communities and society. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

The following thesis investigates the saturated conditions of the paper goods and gift industry, while addressing how the problem of competition discourages start-up brands. Targeted towards rising creative entrepreneurs with ambition to enter the marketplace, the thesis affirms opportunity for breakthrough created by the Maker Movement and identifies strategies for success through attention to customer experience. Based on the trending demand for experience, suggested strategies highlight the primary areas with opportunity for visual application, including brand, product, packaging, social media, and point of purchase. Scholarly research employs primary and secondary resources, along with case studies of successful brands in a variety of saturated industries, non-exclusive to paper goods and gifts alone. The final visual deliverables exemplify how creative entrepreneurs may increase impact in the five areas of experience, as demonstrated in the development and launch of a start-up paper goods and gift e-commerce brand. In conclusion, the thesis affirms continued opportunity, asserting that entrepreneurs who remain attentive to curating memorable customer experiences will increase brand value and potential for success in the saturated marketplace of paper goods and gifts.

This research reports the results of an explanatory sequential mixed methods approach performed to reveal variables and insights to high employee turnover in higher education business office environments. A quantitative and qualitative phase is performed using 30 participants to answer survey questions and interview questions about different aspects of their current job positions. IBM SPSS Statistical Software was utilized to tabulate and analyze all responses received from participants in the study. There is intention at the end of this paper to compare the quantitative data with the qualitative data in order to locate a reconciling factor explaining why employees are vacating their jobs in higher education business office at higher than normal rates. All findings from the study and emerging theories are discussed in detail. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

In discussing the intersection between business and politics, Robert Dahl claimed that there is "no dearth of important and even urgent questions." This dissertation tackles one such question: How do economic firm intervention in the development of the state influence modern outcomes? I argue that when institutions are in transition, firms and state actors both face uncertainty, and as a result, they enter an arrangement in which the state actor consistently provides the firm with public resources in return for patronage. I define this as state capture. Across my three papers, I find that when we focus on the role of firms in political development, there are widespread and long-term consequences for the state and local populations when the state is captured. Across all three of these papers, I explore these ramifications in Appalachia Kentucky.State capture is not a novel concept, but its usage is uneven and unclear, and there is no cohesive intellectual conversation. The first paper ameliorates this by taking this literature and synthesizing a concept from which we can derive clearer implications. I use Kentucky and the Appalachian coal region to explore this concept. I collect archival data to test one observable implication of the concept---lack of democratic commitment and non-competitive elections. I find the inverse of what I expect to observe, elections in Appalachia Kentucky, for the locally elected sheriff and tax commissioner are more competitive than my theory predicts. I discuss this finding considering my concept and argue that this represents a need for understanding how economic firms can influence political outcomes.The second paper applies the conceptualization of state capture more deeply to the case of Appalachia Kentucky, to create a model to better understand the region's persistent economic underdevelopment. I argue that compared to previous Appalachian development models, understanding the region's local politics as captured is empirically useful in creating observable implications and testable hypotheses. Using data from a Kentucky Department of Revenue audit of the county Property Valuation Administrator, I show that more historical coal production is associated with more inequitably assessed properties decades later. I argue that we find this dynamic due to the coal industry's incentives in skirting property taxation and that we can trace this modern trend to historical accounts of the region that claim the coal industry's capture of the property valuation administrator position.The third paper explores the impact of coal industry control beyond political institutions. When resource extracting firms enter new geographies, they often need to create novel community institutions around extraction areas to increase production efficiency. I argue that some firms take advantage of this institutional creation to formulate a set of identities centered on resource extraction. As a result, local populations become invested in resource extraction in the long term despite its negative externalities. To test this claim, I use the case of Appalachia Kentucky, measuring the level of coal interference in counties, and trace this to the exhibition of an Appalachian identity using place-based business names, which were collected via Google Places API.

The purpose of this quantitative, causal-comparative and predictive correlational design study is to examine how workload, surface acting, work group inclusion, and emotional exhaustion impact African-American and Caucasian American managers in domestic, white-collar roles. A critical variable is emotional exhaustion which has been identified as a key characteristic and predictor of burnout in the workplace. While many current burnout studies have excluded underrepresented minorities and focused on job performance and job demands in human service industries, this study addresses relevant psychological workplace factors that have been associated with detrimental mental and physical conditions of underrepresented minorities - emotional dissonance and lack of inclusion. Such conditions impact organization commitment, engagement, and job satisfaction. This has been a gap in literature as well as a call for future studies. Four instruments were used to measure the variables workload, surface acting, work group inclusion and emotional exhaustion via an online survey - workload subscale of the Areas of Worklife Survey, surface acting subscale of the Emotional Labour Scale, Work Group Inclusion Scale, and the emotional exhaustion subscale of the Maslach Burnout Inventory, respectively. The following paper provides an introduction, literature overview, method detail, and findings of the study. Using quota sampling and snowball sampling techniques, 146 participants were included in the study. Keywords: burnout, job demand, emotional dissonance, surface acting, emotional labor

The focus of this paper is on the topics of artificial intelligence and supply chain management and how artificial intelligence-enabled supply chains provide organizations with competitive advantages. The supply chain’s adoption of data collection technologies as part of digital transformation and movements of industry 4.0 creates a strong foundation for artificial intelligence analytics. Artificial intelligence has three branches sensing and interacting, decision-making, and learning. Each branch uses its algorithms and serves a different purpose for the business. Artificial intelligence-enabled supply chains create unique, inimitable competitive advantages that fit Michael Porter’s five forces.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) is a key source of technology transfer, economic growth and development, but many resource-rich economies attract less FDI compared to resource-poor countries. In light of this, it is surprising that there are very few studies available on the effects of natural resources on both the composition and volume of FDI. This thesis investigates the impacts and determinants of sectoral FDI in oil-exporting and producing economies of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), using three empirical papers and considering several aspects. The thesis starts by investigating the impacts of natural resource abundance (oil) on the behaviour of FDI inflows to GCC countries, utilising two different data sets and different estimators to control for the issue of endogeneity. The empirical findings show that natural resources decrease aggregate inflows of FDI to GCC economies. More specifically, the resource sector (oil) attracts more FDI inflows but deters FDI to the nonresource sector. These results confirm the so-called FDI-Natural resource curse, through crowding out effect. This thesis also examines the relationship between aggregate FDI and sectoral FDI (resource and non-resource) inflows on economic growth, using a unique data set on sector-level FDI developed by the Financial Times: fDi market. The empirical results indicate a negative relationship between total FDI inflows and GDP per capita growth in the GCC economies. Moreover, two-sector analysis (resource and non-resource) shows that resource-based FDI hinders economic growth and non-resource FDI has insignificant effects on GDP per capita growth. This gives an indicator of the presence of the natural resource curse via the FDI channel. Finally, the third chapter of this thesis explores the effects of total FDI (inflows and outflows) and sectoral FDI inflows on public and private domestic investments in GCC countries. Aggregate estimations show that FDI inflows contribute significantly to public domestic investment but discourage private domestic investments. Also, FDI outflows promote private domestic economic activities, while in contrast, they negatively affect public domestic investment. Disaggregate data shows that greenfield FDI inflows to the oil sector yield a significant and positive effect on public domestic investment. Non-oil FDI has an ambiguous effect on domestic investment.

Abstract This paper covers the viable options that the United Kingdom may take to avoid economic and political crisis as they exit the European Union. There are several benefits and detriments to the exit. Some benefits include economic and political freedom from a slowly degrading system and increased options for global expansion. Detriments include loss in Foreign Direct Investment and trade with their larger European Union partners. The options as they exit are to either join the European Economic Area or leave with no deal and set up trade agreements later. This paper draws on recent studies on the effects of Brexit on economics and politics and uses those studies to decide the least damaging option for the United Kingdom. Post-Script: Currently, England still faces many issues presented in this paper; however, as Brexit officially happened on January 28th, 2020, England does face a declining economy amidst the backlash from the official leave. Their current deals are still in effect until the end of 2020, and England will need to determine how they will approach future deals with the European Union. Keywords: Brexit, economic separation, crisis avoidance plans, European Union, United Kingdom

[From the Introduction]: The divestiture of formerly nationalised public utilities during the 1980s and 1990s in the UK and elsewhere was accompanied by the vertical unbundling of their natural monopoly elements, i.e. the physical distribution networks, from upstream activities such as electricity generation and gas supply and downstream activities such as retail in order to facilitate competition in the latter. The expectation was that opening up these upstream activities to private firms would foster competition, which would in turn lead to improvements in efficiency, lower prices and increased consumer welfare. There are, on the other hand, possibilities for considerable rents to be made; these could be in the form of profits, but given the regulation that the firms face and the degree of informational asymmetry between utility managers and other stakeholders, such as regulators, shareholders, and customers, they may also take the form of slack within the firm, and the maximisation of managerial utility. We analyse the effect of RPI-X regulation on the efficiency of the UK’s water and sewage and electricity distribution industries using stochastic frontier analysis. We extend the literature in several ways; first, in the case of the water and sewage industry, we look at efficiency not only on the cost side, but also on the revenue side. Second, following the findings of Restrepo-Tobón and Kumbhakar (2014) on the shortcomings of the direct estimation of the alternative profit frontier, we show that the profit maximisation problem of a monopolist with fixed scale characteristics separates into separate cost minimisation and revenue maximisation problems, then derive an alternative specification for the revenue frontier with a firmer basis in theory. Third, we include the publicly-owned Northern Ireland Water and Scottish Water, and the three former Scottish Water Authorities that preceded the latter, in our water cost and revenue analyses, and likewise include Northern Ireland Electricity in one of our cost analyses, providing an original insight into the performance of these utilities relative to their English and Welsh and Great British counterparts, respectively. In addition, we use more recent samples than those found in the literature, providing new evidence relating to the latest price control periods in both industries. We derive two new formulae for calculating the marginal effects of environmental variables on efficiency, and apply these to analyse the impact of annual price caps and time trends on revenue and cost efficiency, giving an insight into the static and dynamic impacts of RPI-X regulation, while also examining the impact of board composition variables and public ownership. This thesis is organised into seven chapters. In the remainder of Chapter 1, we give a short history of the UK water and electricity industries. In Chapter 2, we introduce basic efficiency-related concepts, before moving on to discuss issues of market power and firm performance in utility firms, and the theory relating to utility regulation. In Chapter 3, we review the literature on frontier analysis, introducing some of the main data envelopment analysis (DEA) and stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) methods in particular. The relative advantages and disadvantages of each method are considered, and the features of the method used in the subsequent empirical chapters are discussed. Chapter 4 reviews the empirical literature on the performance of water and electricity utilities in the UK and internationally, along with several papers on the impact of regulation on the performance in other utility industries. Chapter 5 and Chapter 6 apply SFA to analyse the efficiency of UK water and sewage and electricity distribution utilities, respectively. Efficiency predictions are discussed and compared, trends are discussed, and the marginal effects of our environmental variables on the various efficiency measures are derived and discussed at length. Finally, Chapter 7 summarises the conclusions from our analyses and relates them back to the existing literature, and discusses implications for utility performance and policy. The limitations of this thesis, and suggestions for future research, are also discussed.

This thesis investigates the experiences of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the agricultural sector of the Russian Federation. The focus is on the form of FDI, and how each investor responds, and adapts, to the Russian operational environment. This is achieved through extensive qualitative, and multiple methods research on three manifestations of FDI: corporate, privately-funded investment; corporate, publically-funded investment; and smaller, individual private investment. Of interest are the Russia-specific constraints that may be largely underprepared for by foreign investors, and unexpected events that occur in the Russian space that hamper the efforts of investors. This thesis, thus, informs the reader of the variable nature of the Russian agricultural sphere, and the problems that exist within its boundaries, and presents the stories of some of the foreign investors that have tried to penetrate its market, mostly since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The thesis consists of four papers that have either been published, or submitted for publication, in academic journals, and utilises fieldwork that was conducted between 2013 and 2014. This thesis finds that all of the foreign investors studied have experienced - in certain aspects - failure on the Russian frontier, though there have also been certain successes. It seems that financial success is dictated by the business model of each investor; those who are afforded longer time horizons, more time to adapt on the frontier, and a source of funds that does not place short-term pressure on the business, are more likely to succeed. The Russian operating environment is unique, peculiar, and unpredictable, with a tendency to produce substantial obstacles that, for investors, are difficult to overcome; for agricultural FDI to avoid these struggles, these environmental conditions need to be anticipated and prepared for, with clear strategies painstakingly thought through before any venture physically begins on Russian soil.

This thesis investigates economic growth in Africa using three empirical papers from a number of different angles. The thesis begins by investigating the effects of different natural resources on economic growth in Africa. Three exogenous natural resources proxies (for agriculture, fuels and minerals) have been constructed to account for endogeneity issues. Empirical results show that agriculture has a strong positive effect on economic growth, while fuels and minerals affect growth negatively in all specifications even after controlling for endogeneity, quality of institutions and economic policy. The results reject the notion for generalized natural resource curse and argue that the amalgamation of natural resources components into one measure may obscure differences in their respective growth impacts. The thesis also investigates the effect of total and sectoral (primary, manufacturing and services sectors) FDI inflows on total factor productivity (TFP) at a macro level, using a new dataset for TFP developed by UNIDO-World Productivity Database and employing instrumental variables 2SLS estimation technique to control for endogeneity problem. Empirical findings show positive and statistically significant effects from total and sectoral FDI inflows on TFP growth. The findings also show that services sector has the highest potential to accelerate TFP growth (especially through communications, and trade and business sub-sectors). Finally, the thesis considers the role of economic transformation in the form of increased manufacturing share in aggregate output in accelerating growth and reducing growth volatility in Africa. It examines the key determinants of growth in the share of manufacturing output (in GDP) and its relationship with real GDP growth and (growth) volatility. Empirical results indicate that real GDP growth and domestic investment are among the key drivers of growth in the share of manufacturing output and that growth in the latter has, in turn, the potential to raise GDP growth and reduce growth volatility.

The aim of this paper is to analyze the role that nonprofit organizations can play in utilizing economic development to alleviate poverty. The thesis components will be analyzed by answering six research questions (RQ): (1) What is economic development in developing countries? (2) What is the connection between economic development and poverty alleviation? (3) What are some examples of economic development lessening poverty? (4) What are the essential features of a nonprofit organization? (5) What can nonprofit organizations do to create economic development? and finally, (6) What are archetypical examples of nonprofits creating economic development and reducing poverty? To understand economic development, this paper will show that many tools are necessary, including: trade, entrepreneurship, education, and political stability – to name a few. Secondly, it will be explained how these tools can be used not only for growth but even to better the living conditions of every participant in an economy. A few examples of each will be provided. Next, the essential features of a nonprofit organization will be provided. With this comprehensive understanding, the primary objective can be more fully appreciated. The thesis looks at how two of the major tools of economic development – trade and entrepreneurship – can be applied by nonprofit organizations (NPOs) to provide opportunities for the low-income individuals to better their own circumstances. Finally, specific NPOs will be provided that are carrying this vision out in their operations. Throughout this thesis, it will be seen how nonprofits can utilize economic development to alleviate poverty.

Generational differences in the workplace are a perceived challenge that can present hidden opportunities. The workplace currently consists of four generations shaped by the political, social, and economic environments that marked their formative years. These generational differences have resulted in differing workplace values. Employee engagement balances productivity in one’s job with enjoyment in one’s work, optimizing both employee satisfaction and organizational outcomes. The key to engaging employees lies in the meaning each employee finds in the work environment and job functions. This paper aims to address whether or not engagement is affected by generational differences in the workplace and how an employee can tailor the training practices in order to cater to the needs and preferences of each generation.

Companies seek to strategically utilize their resources and personnel to obtain an advantage over competitors. With generational diversity being a relevant topic, emphasis is placed on the strategic management of its personnel as they are essential in the innovative practices’ companies implement to evolve organizations and enable them to be viable in a dynamic business environment. The aspect of leadership methodologies is demonstrative in not only their verbal communication, but also nonverbal behaviors. Contributors to leadership styles displayed through communication cues may be emblematic of cultural upbringings and demographic differences. As organizations develop the skillsets of their personnel, diversification should be instrumental in the process particularly in emerging leaders from an array of backgrounds into leadership positions. As the variety in the organization’s demographical makeup is transforming with societal norms, it is beneficial to analyze the leadership styles and the reception of their subordinates. In delving into the peculiarities of leaders, this paper will explore the upbringings of leaders in conjunction with demographical considerations, which is inclusive of generational miscellany.

This study seeks to understand, through a qualitative phenomenological design, the meaning of happiness at work for clinic managers who work for a mission-driven healthcare organization. There exists many organizational dynamics that can influence happiness at work; nevertheless, for the scope of this investigation, this paper converged on three theoretical premises: (1) Positive Psychology: Happiness at work which is divided into eudemonic and hedonic happiness, (2) Intrinsic Motivation Theory: Self-determination, and (3) Extrinsic Motivation Theory: Self-determination. The evidence discovered in this study demonstrates the importance of understanding the context for what happiness at work means for management-level caregivers/employees. The clinic managers that participated in this study overwhelmingly displayed a strong sense of intrinsic motivation/eudemonic happiness, in part, because they take happiness to work and they display a strong desire to help develop and grow their respective staff. Yet the study also realized that extrinsic factors influenced their happiness at work. For example, a key extrinsic factor on the clinic manager’s happiness was his/her direct supervisor, a prime illustration, if the clinic manager’s direct supervisor fails to recognize the clinic manager’s skills/abilities and if the direct supervisor of the clinic manager was a micromanager. Notwithstanding, when clinic managers utilize their full skills and when they were able to support, encourage, and develop their direct reports, it seems that clinic managers maintained a sense of happiness at work despite any external negative experiences. Several contributions have been realized based on the findings of this study. Most interestingly, the phenomenon of happiness at work has been found to be dynamic and multidimensional.

Although a great deal of work has been done to develop new educational innovations, in the field of engineering, few innovations have found widespread acceptance in the classroom. Therefore, frameworks that conceptualize the interactions among the variables that influence successful dissemination are critical. In this dissertation, dissemination is defined as a process of first creating an awareness of an educational innovation, then influencing the intention to adopt, the actual adoption, and finally the routine use of that innovation (Fincher, 2000; Gravestock, 2002; Hutchinson & Huberman, 1994; King, 2003). This dissertation establishes the importance of achieving three research goals: 1) developing a framework that describes the interrelationships among the characteristics of educational innovations and an organizations’ readiness to disseminate, 2) having an expert panel rank the characteristics of the educational innovations and readiness of faculty members, administrators, and students to disseminate, and 3) testing whether important characteristics of educational innovations and readiness of faculty members variables are significant predictors of successful dissemination. Three papers using different methodologies were sequentially developed to achieve the research goals: 1) a systematic literature review of recent dissemination literature, 2) a Delphi study of grant recipients who had disseminated educational innovations, and 3) a survey of electrical engineering and computer science faculty members. Analysis of the results from these papers led to the following findings: 1. Ease of use of an educational innovation and care about student learning outcomes were significant predictors of intention to adopt that innovation; 2. Efficacy of faculty members toward change and valence moderated the relationship between ease of use and intention to adopt educational innovations; 3. Attitude to educational innovation moderated the relationship between ease of use and intention to adopt educational innovations and moderated the relationship between intention to adopt and adoption; and 4. Awareness of others using an educational innovation was a significant predictor of adopting an educational innovation. The results of this dissertation may be leveraged by developers, faculty members, department chairs, college deans, and grant program managers, to successfully disseminate educational innovations in engineering and technology disciplines.

The purpose of this paper was to examine the impact in a two-family-owned business of the management succession process to the second generation. The research explored the use and makeup of a management team in transferring the leadership of the company. The study looked at the preparation and determination of which members of the family would assume positions formerly held by the two patriarchs and who would assume executive responsibilities as president. The research endeavored to answer the following question: How is succession planning for multiple senior executive positions in a two-family-owned business accomplished in a second-generation family-executive team? The research study used case study methodology to look at a business located in Southern California. The case study focused on the two patriarchs of the business and the nine members of the executive management team. The findings of this research contributes to the body of information on management succession in a family-owned business and the importance of using a management team to facilitate the process of transferring leadership to the next generation.

Despite the efforts of many leadership development programs, more than 80 percent of new leaders transitioning into the first role as a leader fail to make a successful transition (Korn Ferry Leadership Principles, 2018). This paper studied a leader’s failure to shift his or her thinking and behaviors from an individual contributor mindset to a people leader mindset. This research is suggesting that organizations adopt two tools to improve leadership transition effectiveness: Leadership Transition Readiness Assessment, and Start, Stop, Change, and Transition questionnaire.

While agile software development is being adopted in more organizations recently, many products using the methodology are still failing in the market due to inadequate customer collaboration despite the purported benefits. Within start-ups, where speed and early market penetration can be the death or success of a company, understanding if using agile software development including adequate customer collaboration makes a significant difference is important. A study which investigates the impact of including customer collaboration in the agile product development process could uncover whether or not a product is successful within technology focused start-up’s in the Pacific Northwest. This research could allow technology focused start-ups to learn how to emulate success and avoid pitfalls using agile software development to create better, more transformative products for the world. The research question is: how does the inclusion of customer collaboration in the agile product development process by product owners impact the overall success of the product within Pacific Northwest technology start-up companies? This concept paper includes information on the nature of the study, the significance, relationship to cognate, a literature review beginning, and a significant amount of research related to the hypothesis.

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is an important trading phenomenon which takes place universally. FDI is one of the key drivers for world economic growth as it alleviates and promotes international business. In fact, the primary activities of multinational corporations make a significant contribution to the practice of FDI around the world. This paper initially discusses several benefits of both inward and outward FDI fluxes in developing and transition economies. Moreover, disclosure on potential risks from FDI inflows is presented. This research also mentions current scenarios and future prospects regarding FDI in the less industrialized regions based upon the annual World Investment Report. Lastly, alternative approaches for FDI recipients to appeal to more foreign investors will be suggested.

Crisis communication is an ever-evolving form of communication that is integral to a business’s success. When tragedy strikes, businesses must have a thorough plan of response that manages the situation and protects their brand. This paper discusses the definition of crisis communication, its history, and how modern trends like social media, have revolutionized it. This study is important because it influences a business’s public perception, and sustainability. Thorough knowledge of crisis communication is critical to a business student’s education and will prepare them for working in fast-paced communication and business environments. An analysis of this topic should yield an understanding of crisis communication and how it can be best applied in crisis situations.

These two companion studies theoretically and empirically examine managers' use of different cognitive frames in decision-making related to corporate sustainability. Study I is a theoretical undertaking aimed at highlighting potential zones of investigation arising from the introduction of paradox theory into managerial accounting. First, I examine extant literature on paradoxes to garner an understanding of its evolution and application in the management and psychology domains. Second, I use current constructs and typologies to identify multiple sustainability and managerial accounting tensions as paradoxical. Third, I make recommendations on how to apply paradox theory more effectively to the corporate sustainability tensions I identified. I conclude the first paper with research questions pertaining to managerial accounting in corporate sustainability. Study II is a behavioral experiment. In this study I examine the effects of business case and paradoxical case cognition on managers and seek to uncover which organizational performance measures better support each cognition. Scholars suggest that the tensions in corporate sustainability arise from the complicated and interdependent relationship among its dimensions. and oftentimes progress towards any single dimension, might have unintended consequences on the other dimensions Hence, the empirical question becomes, amid such tensions, how do managers make decisions that are not solely driven by the financial dimension of corporate sustainability? Applying paradox theory, with its emphasis on acknowledging and working through tensions, holds the potential to elucidate how managers can further explore the tensions inherent in management accounting and sustainability. Study II results show that managers operating in a paradoxical case cognition with broad performance measures made more sustainable decisions relative to their counterparts operating in a business case cognition with narrow performance measures. Together these companion studies generally support the use of paradox theory in studying sustainability decision-making and its use in moving beyond short-term economically focused organizational processes.

The grand narrative of the Bible could be broken into three distinct parts- Creation, Fall, and Redemption. The main focus of this paper will go through the distinct parts of Creation and the Fall, but the focus will be on Redemption specifically in the realm of work and how it relates to business marketing. In Creation, God created us in His image meaning we were gifted with the ability to create and to form relationships. We express God’s image through the dominion mandate, which is God’s command to us to be stewards of the earth through the act of work. After the Fall, work and business became distorted. Work, a thing created to glorify God, now had great potential to harm others. The Fall triggered humans to leverage their creativity and relationships, in business specifically, to manipulate others and to serve themselves rather than to serve God and others. Instead of perpetuating the effects of the Fall, business, specifically marketing, can be a catalyst for Redemption.

The higher education industry has faced increased competition in recent years from new institutions and learning platforms entering the marketplace. Public higher education institutions, in particular, have been forced to develop strategic plans due to limited state funding in recent years. These colleges and universities face the challenge of allocating their limited financial resources in a manner that will optimize financial strength and ensure long-term sustainability. Institutions classify their operating expenses into several different functional expense categories, including instruction, academic support, student services and operations and maintenance of plant. This paper analyzed the relationship between changes in state appropriations, allocation ratios of functional expenses, and an institution’s financial condition. Bivariate and multiple regression analysis was performed to determine how fluctuations in state appropriations and financial allocation ratios impact an institution’s financial condition. The research could aide higher education institutions in strategically allocating resources to improve their financial position. God has called us all to live in community and flourish. Higher education institutions promote community among students, faculty, and staff as well as provide knowledge and skills for individuals to flourish upon graduation.

Prior literature examines consequences (e.g., negative market reactions, higher subsequent audit fees, and debt covenant violations) audit clients face arising from missed regulatory due dates. These clients likely pressure the auditor to provide additional resources to perform the audit. This paper examines whether an audit office resource allocation shock stemming from late-filing clients is associated with the audit quality of the other timely-filing clients in that audit office. I find that timely-filing clients are more likely to subsequently restate their financial statements when there are late-filing clients in the same audit office. Using audit fees as a proxy for auditor effort (resource allocation), I also find evidence consistent with auditors allocating resources from timely-filing clients to late-filing clients. Subsequent tests indicate that office size mitigates the association between late-filing clients and audit quality of the timely-filing clients. Taken together, these findings support the argument that the observed relation between misstatements and late-filing clients can be linked, at least in part, to the implications of shocks to office-level resource allocation plans. Thus, my findings highlight an important factor for auditors to consider for their client acceptance and continuance decisions. These findings also have implications for standard setters considering the costs associated with regulatory due dates.

This is a critical and reviewer study, under an interdisciplinary approach (between Liberal Arts and Social Sciences), which warns to move on a global mass consumer society and its dangers, by the accentuated lost of humanity and sociality, because the priority of the having-issue than the been-issue (the preference of welfare than happiness, the business than the recreation, the company than the profession, the desire than the experience, etc.). The structure of the paper goes from general view (removing the confusion veils that make impossible the recognition of the post-globalized World and its study), to particular view (focusing on the complex economic and business rules in the new millennium), and the risk evaluation of the non-authenticity of the current consumer.

Project portfolio management (PPM) is a growing business practice and field of academic study, and is recognized for positively impacting return on investment (ROI), project success, and organizational performance. Despite this growth, there is inconsistent use of PPM, and minimal research examining a connection between PPM and organizational culture. The problem addressed was a lack portfolio management practice established for the allocation of human resources within a group of retail stores located in the Midwest. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect implementing PPM practice into the human resource allocation process has on the organizational culture. Utilizing the competing values framework (CVF), this paper explored the impact PPM had on organizational culture through a conceptual framework connecting PPM and organizational culture through the common themes of strategy alignment and stakeholder engagement. The goal of this study was to inform business practice, as well as add to the PPM literature by examining the impact PPM had on organizational culture. This study provided insight for project managers, project portfolio managers, and organizational leaders as to the directional effects PPM had on organizational culture to consider when implementing and executing PPM within their organizations, and incorporates the biblical principles of stewardship and the intrinsic value of employees and their importance when considering all aspects of the organization in the strategy making process within the holistic framework of PPM.

My first essay examines compensation of newly formed boards of directors following tax-free corporate spin-offs. The empirical results show newly formed spin-off boards are paid significantly more than peer boards in the same industry with similar firm size. Higher compensation is observed for spin-off firms where the CEOs are not formerly employed by the parent firms but not for spin-off firms with parent related CEOs, indicating that new directors demand higher compensation for the work involved in setting up the new governing system for the spun-off firms especially when there is a brand new CEO managing the spinoff firm. Differences in the structure of director compensation are consistent with better incentive alignment for the newly formed spinoff boards who have the rare opportunity to design their compensation from scratch. The paper also finds evidence that limited CEO's influence on the composition of the spinoff board leads to weaker cronyism between the board and the CEO of spinoff firms. My second essay explores the role CEO gender plays in shaping the board of directors. The literature provides strong evidence that male CEOs are more overconfident than female CEOs. I contend that a male CEO, who may overestimate his ability and/or underestimate the monitoring role of the board, will prefer to exert as much control over the board as possible and thus prefer a weaker board. I find consistent results that new male CEOs are more likely to increase board size, decrease board independence, reduce board gender diversification, have worse director attendance and have lower overall board monitoring. In contrast, new female CEOs have more gender diversified boards and are associated with an increase in overall board monitoring intensity. I also find supporting evidence in terms of CEO compensation, where new male CEOs gain more control and are compensated more in both total compensation and equity compensation post transition, consistent with what we expect from a weaker board. My third essay examines CEO's influence on the board of directors in spinoff firms. CEO's influence on the board of directors has been the main concern for shareholders who entrust the firm board with the task of monitoring the firm CEOs. Current literature shows that the more powerful the CEO, the better he is able to extract rents via his compensation at the expense of shareholders. In this study, I utilize a sample of spinoff firms that need to form a brand new board of directors from scratch to shed more lights on the CEO influence question. Particularly, I hypothesize and find that since spinoff CEOs appointed from the parent firm have more influence over the selection of spinoff directors, they enjoy higher compensation with lower pay-performance sensitivity (PPS) and have lower turnover-performance sensitivity than CEOs at similar non-spinoff firms. In contrast, spinoff CEOs hired from outside the pre-spinoff business have similar compensation, PPS and turnover-performance sensitivity to their peers. The results provide supporting evidence for the CEO influence hypothesis and show that limiting CEO's involvement in the selection of directors might help mitigate subsequent CEO rent seeking behavior.

In my first essay, I investigate the relationship between IPO long-run underperformance (Ritter, 1991) and the idiosyncratic risk puzzle (Ang, Hodrick, Xing and Zhang, 2006), the phenomenon of abnormally low returns for stocks with high idiosyncratic risk. I show that IPO long-run underperformance is in fact a manifestation of the surprisingly low returns for high idiosyncratic risk stocks. IPO underperformance disappears after I control for the idiosyncratic risk. Specifically, the underperformance of IPO firms only presents following the months in which they are classified into the highest idiosyncratic risk quintile. On the other hand, I find that the idiosyncratic risk puzzle is magnified by the IPO underperformance for two reasons. First, IPOs are over-represented in the highest volatility quintile. Second, while stocks in the highest volatility quintile underperform in general, the intra-quintile underperformance is substantially more severe for the IPO firms. My results are robust to different sample requirements. My second essay examines school quality and quality risk capitalization when school quality is uncertain, taking into account uncertainty induced by low signal content in quality measures available to parents or stochastic quality outcomes. Extending the residential bid rent theory to the uncertainty environment, the theory shows that greater school quality increases housing prices steepens the price gradient, whereas the quality risk decreases the housing prices and flattens the price gradient. The empirical models incorporate two sources of quality risk, the variance in measured school quality and school attendance zone instability. Coupling an output based measure using the over-period average of school normalized math test scores based on the Orange County public elementary school average scores with an input based measure using student/teacher ratios provides quality measures that appear to correlate sufficiently with parents' perceptions of elementary school quality, but school peer effects play important role as well. Estimates reveal capitalization of quality and uncertainty that are consistent with theory as well as systematic patterns across housing market phases and neighborhood in income level. My third essay is a meta-analysis of the body of empirical results for school quality capitalization in house prices. One puzzling aspect of the housing markets literature is that, while public school quality is a major concern of many households, empirical studies of school quality capitalization into house prices yield mixed and sometimes inconsistent results not only across studies, but also within studies when using different school quality measures and models. These differences are reflected in the capitalization coefficient value, level of significance, and even direction of capitalization effects. This paper conducts meta-analysis of the school quality capitalization estimates to identify the factors contributing to this variation. It reveals that the way the school quality is measured matters. Peer effects measures yield less significant capitalization estimates than input and output based measures and value added measures exhibit lower significance than other output based measures. Moreover, both boundary fixed effects and neighborhood fixed effect approaches can effectively and significantly control for the influence of neighborhood amenities. Adding more school quality variables reduces the capitalization significance of individual school quality variables. The most unexpected finding is that school quality capitalization significance is much less in the South than in other regions. Also surprising is that econometric methods do not appear to be driving results.

The intent of this paper is to define the importance of the balanced scorecard in the strategic management process. The need for the balanced scorecard will be established by explaining the roles of demand shifters, traditional management accounting, Senge’s concept of a learning organization, and the strategic management process. This will involve detailing the stages of the strategic management process and connecting them to the various aspects of creating a balanced scorecard. Ultimately, the goal of the balanced scorecard is to translate the overarching strategy into specific actions that can be implemented throughout the organization. Lastly, other strategic applications of the balanced scorecard will be identified and explained.

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is a difficult business environment for women. Before deciding to join the MENA workforce, a woman must take into account barriers related to religious beliefs, oil booms, personal connections, and access to financing. She must also consider economic indicators of the region, some of which include GDP, population, and economic freedom. This paper focuses on female nationals and expatriates and provides information regarding the following: commonalities shared among nationals, definitions of nationals’ success, expatriate motivations, expatriate relational considerations, and an expatriate’s potential to succeed. The conclusion gives stories of Arab women in order to demonstrate the reality of success for business women in the MENA region.

ABSTRACT Sponsorship of sport properties accounts for approximately two-thirds of all sponsorship expenditures ("IEG Sponsorship Report," 2014). The global sponsorship sector increased from $48 billion dollars to $51 billion from 2011 to 2012 ("IEG Sponsorship Report," 2014). Organizations have increasingly shifted to sponsorship as a marketing communications vehicle in the hopes that the goodwill that consumers feel toward the cause will transfer to their image (Madrigal, 2001). With the same token, many researchers suggest there is a link between social initiatives and an organization's improved financial performance (e.g., Davis, 1960; Arlow and Gannon. 1982; Ullmann, 1985; McGuire et al., 1988; Waddock and Graves, 1997; Margolis et al., 2003). The main purpose of the proposed research is to better understand stakeholder perceptions of sponsors, specifically perceptions about the sponsors' CSR activities, and the potential impact of such perceptions on sponsors' image. The current study was quantitative in nature; using a quasi-experimental pre- and post –test control group design. The questionnaire was completed by FSU Sport Management students in three different sessions. The instruments for study were paper based questionnaires, which participants filled out between viewing two short video clips. Three different groups were participate in the study at three different times; each group received a different scenario pertaining to the sponsor's information and CSR activities; this study consisted of two experimental groups and one control group. All the groups followed the same procedure except the manipulation of the independent variable. Those in Group 2 read about the company's sponsorship activity, and those in Group 1 read information about the sponsorship activity and the company's CSR activity, and those in Group 3 read about the company's information. The measures in this study were adapted from existing literatures. The participants were 98 students. A descriptive analysis was conducted to assess the frequency of age (based on date of birth), gender, race and year in school. I analyzed the data to assess evidence of reliability pertaining to the constructs of interest: attitude toward the sponsor, sponsor's image, and attitude toward the sport property. Univariate analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to test, and the result revealed that there were no significant differences between groups at the pre-test stage for all the dependent variables. While in the post-test there was a significant difference between groups were found regarding on attitude toward the sponsor and sponsor's image where p [less than] .05. Regarding attitude toward the sport property there was no significance difference both at the pre-test and post-test stages. Overall, group 1 (CSR and sponsorship) had a higher mean score of all dependent variables than group 2 (sponsorship) and group 3 (company information). Group 2 (sponsorship) had a higher mean score of all dependent variables than group 3 (company information).

This quantitative research study was carried out as a partial requirement for earning a Doctor of Business Administration degree from George Fox University. The main goal of the research study was to investigate whether trait emotional intelligence variables of well-being, self-control, emotionality, and sociability can individually or collectively predict a software development engineer’s creativity or creativeness potential. Employee innovativeness is the primary focus of many organizations in today’s turbulent business environment whereby employees are increasingly gaining autonomy in self-managed teams. The study discusses the theoretical frameworks of creativity and trait emotional intelligence (Trait EI), an extension of the emotional intelligence (EI) construct that focuses on personality behaviors and abilities. Trait EI attributes such as well-being, self-control, emotionality, and sociability are growing in importance given the trend towards self-managed teams, especially in high-tech firms that rely on agility for creative innovation. Participants in the study were drawn from software engineers in the greater Seattle region in Washington state, USA. The Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire-Short Form (TEIque-SF) was used to measure Trait EI perception of participants and the Kaufman Domain of Creativity Scale (K-DOCS) was used to measure creativity perception of participants. Data analysis procedures are highlighted and include use of multiple regression to investigate the predictability of an engineer’s creativity using trait emotional intelligence variables of well-being, self-control, emotionality, and sociability. Central to this study was the desire to add empirical understanding of the relationship of trait emotional intelligence influence on creativity.

The entrepreneurship aspects of private professional practice has been largely overlooked in both the literature and most graduate school professional programs, including acupuncture and oriental medicine (AOM). Because selfemployment in a private practice is the path for the majority of acupuncturists at the present time, they must exhibit entrepreneurial behaviors, and they receive little support from the profession. This research explored 12 new professionals’ experiences founding their private practices in depth using narrative methodology in order to gain insights to guide future research and interventions. Analysis focused on cognition/perception (C), social capital (S) and entrepreneurial learning (L) process aspects in the experiences of these professionals at the individual, community/profession, and larger society levels using Salzer’s (1998) and Rappaport’s (1994) conception of socializing influences as lenses. All three factors appear to be important to entrepreneurship in a professional context, and they interact with each other on multiple levels. As to Cognition/Perception (C), the study found that those embracing entrepreneurship aspects of practice had enhanced success, while those resisting it experienced difficulty until their perceptions changed. Thus, findings supported Hofer and Sandberg’s (1987) contention that entrepreneurship can be learned. As to Social Capital (S), those whose focus is inward and engagement is primarily within the profession experienced isolation and difficulty to a greater degree, while those who engaged the larger society and built cross-profession networks found their connections more satisfying and helpful. Those who adopted an outward-looking, society-focused, transformational vision for their practice seemed to enjoy the most business success, professional development and satisfaction. As to Entrepreneurial learning (L), Daley’s (1999) novice-toexpert professional development model was adapted to describe mutuallyreinforcing, interactive professional and business learning trajectories. Those engaging in experiential learning and reflective behaviors reported increased levels of both business and professional development. Participants provided a rich trove of insights based upon their experiences that may be helpful to new professionals starting private practices, including seeking a business mentor rather than one from the profession at first, engaging the larger society with a transformational healthcare vision, locating in an underserved area and removing cultural barriers as important practices. Recommendations for future research and suggested interventions for improving experience and outcomes for new professionals are offered.

The field of management has built a wealth of literature on turnaround management as well as the effect unethical actions have upon organizations. However, there has been less study on the application of these topics to turnarounds specifically in small, regional, public institutions of higher education. It is important that an institution of higher education that has been affected by an ethical failure execute a turnaround to restore trust and faith in the organization, internally and externally. A small, regional, public institution of higher education in the upper Midwest recently encountered a series of organizational difficulties that negatively influenced its reputation. An organizational course change was necessary. The research titled “The Management of a Turnaround after an Ethical Breech in a Public Institution of Higher Education” applies the differing, yet related, theories of turnaround management and the restoration of trust to a small, public institution of higher education. The research investigated whether or not the university employees (faculty, staff, and administrators) believed that the organization and its leadership had demonstrated a process/path illustrative of a turnaround. Ultimately, the research investigated the theory that institutions of higher education can be restored through an ethical turnaround (Hofer, 1980; Patnaik & Sahoo, 2010; Puffer & McCarthy, 2008).