Business Research Forums

Spring 2019 Forums
Customer and employee perceptual congruence in service co-production
Ahmet Ozkul, Department of Economics and Business Analytics

Thursday, April 11, 2019
3:30-4:30 p.m. Orange Campus, Room N138

Building on perceptual congruence research, this paper argues that when a customer and a front-line employee have similar perceptions of a co-produced output, employee awareness can support quality improvement efforts in service operations. The authors develop an analytical model describing perceptual congruence in a dyadic customer-employee relationship using a constant elasticity of substitution (CES) function. This model allows the authors to describe a service context with three factors: 1) customer work-allocation level (that is, percent of work expected to be done by the customer); 2) customer-employee interaction level (that is, level of communication needed); and 3) customer-employee interaction type (that is, superiority or inferiority perceived by the customer and the employee in the interaction). The authors also calculate which type of customer-employee perceptual bias alignment is needed to achieve perceptual congruence under these three contextual factors. Their model may guide service managers how to manage perceptual biases -- considering their service design characteristics to achieve perceptual congruence.

Sport Analytics: What It Entails and How to Get in
Ceyda Mumcu, Department of Sport Management

Wednesday, April 17, 2019
12:30-1:30 p.m. Maxcy Hall, Room 124

The definition of sport analytics varies depending on whom you ask. Alamar and Mehrotra's definition of sport analytics is focused on application of data analytics to gain a competitive advantage on the field of play (2011). Other scholars argue that sport analytics are use of data to drive decision making at every aspect of sport business. With this presentation, the audience will be introduced to various uses of data analytics in sport including on the field and off the field applications. Some examples will focus on winning games, player health and development, customer insights, and optimization of event experience for attendees.

The Diffusion of Corporate Sustainability In Global Supply Networks: An Empirical Examination Of The Global Automotive Industry
Bruno Barreto de Góes, Department of Management

Thursday, April 18, 2019
3:30-4:30 p.m. Orange Campus, Room N138

This study examines the diffusion process of corporate sustainability (CS) in the global automotive industry. It discusses the different roles played by the automakers, as the industry's focal firms, in diffusing CS strategies throughout their respective supply networks. Studies have explained this phenomenon as being the result of the higher levels of stakeholder exposure faced by focal firms, which generate higher levels of supplier sustainability risk. In this context, we examine the effects of three network-related firm characteristics resource dominance, resource substitutability, and network centrality in determining the effectiveness of a firm in diffusing CS in its network. For that purpose, we present a theoretical framework from which we derive a set of hypotheses, and test them on a sample of the global automotive supply network containing 10,726 firms linked by 45,044 inter-firm relationships. The results lend significant support to the argument that these network-related attributes are crucial mechanisms to the process of diffusion of CS strategies in a supply network, thus contributing to extant literatures in strategic management, and sustainable supply chain management.

Fall 2018 Forums
  • "A Configurational Approach on Family Firm Innovation"
    Vasiliki Kosmidou, Department of Management

    Friday, October 12, 2018
    12:15-1:30 p.m. N138, Orange Campus

    This paper develops and tests an integrated framework for the examination of innovation drivers in small and privately-owned family firms. Drawing on the family-driven innovation model, we study how factors at the family level, the firm level, and the environment level combine into different configurations that spur innovation. Analyzing 277 family firms using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA), we find six optimal configurations of factors leading to high family firm innovation and show that none of the examined antecedents by itself is sufficient for high family firm innovation. We also find four configurations leading to the absence of high family firm innovation. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

  • "Weather and Housing Prices"
    Patrick Gourley, Department of Economics and Business Analytics

    Friday, December 7, 2018
    12:15-1:30 p.m.
    S109, Orange Campus

    Houses are the largest asset for millions of American families. Even a change as small as a single percentage point could equate to thousands of dollars in lost or gained equity. It is also agreed that curb appeal is one of the most important factors in the selling of a home. Yet there is little research into how much time variant environmental conditions affect the sale of a house. Combing weather data with housing sales from the highly unpredictable climate of Jefferson County, Colorado, I ascertain the effect that weather can have on housing prices.

Spring 2018 Forums
  • "University Tenure and Course Evaluations"
    Dr. Patrick Gourley, Assistant Professor, Department of Economics & Business Analytics

    Wednesday, February 21
    12:15-1:30 p.m.

    Being awarded tenure is a hard earned achievement for professors in the American university system. With tenure comes the promise of nearly unparalleled job security and the stability to embark on high-risk, high-reward research projects. On the other hand, critics of the tenure system claim that it enables professors to mail-it-in for the rest of their careers, especially with regard to teaching. Surprisingly, no one has examined if this is true. Using a large dataset that encompasses all course evaluations from the University of Colorado Boulder over a decade, we are able to observe 280 professors who were granted tenure. Using both a difference-in-difference and regression discontinuity design, it is clear that professors’ evaluations do not change once they are granted tenure.

  • "Comparison of Cost Equity Models: New International Evidence"
    Dr. Demissew Ejara, Associate Professor, Department of Finance

    Wednesday, March 28
    12:15-1:30 p.m.

    For individual companies of 46 countries, we empirically compare cost of equity estimates of three static risk-return models of interest to practitioners: (1) the traditional (local) CAPM; (2) the global CAPM (GCAPM), where the only risk factor is the global market index; and (3) an international CAPM (ICAPM) with two risk factors, the global market index and a wealth-weighted foreign currency index. Using improvements on prior research methods, we find that the model choice makes a substantial difference for many countries: (1) For firms in 33 countries, the average difference between the local CAPM and ICAPM cost of equity exceeds 70 basis points. (2) For firms in 39 countries, the average difference between the GCAPM and ICAPM cost of equity exceeds 40 basis points.

  • Predicting Retention Rates in Mid-Sized Private Universities
    Dr. Brian Kench, Professor, Dean of Pompea College of Business and Department of Economics

    Wednesday, April 25th
    12:15-1:30 p.m.

    This study identifies key factors associated with first-year retention at a mid-size masters level private university. We construct a logit model to test four main hypotheses regarding the likelihood of first-year students returning to the university their sophomore year. Using a data set of 8,010 full-time first-year students we confirm many standard results in the literature while making additional contributions regarding the impact on retention from student motivation and ability, faculty effects, financial aid, and peer effects. For signals of student motivation, we show that a timely housing application, closer proximity to home, and a higher number of schools on a student’s free application for federal student aid all raise retention. Signals of ability, such as high school GPA and standardized tests, have effects which depend upon whether controlling for first year GPA. Faculty effects from honors programs raise retention. Financial aid in the form of institutional grants raise retention, whereas federal aid reduces retention, ceteris paribus. Peer effects, such as roommates’ academic efforts, residing on an "honors" floor, and membership in some extracurricular groups raise retention. Novel contributions include measurements of student and roommate effort and the strong predictive power and complex impacts they have on retention. In addition, the quadratic impact of fall GPA on retention shows that a higher fall GPA raises the likelihood of retention but only up to a point (the fall GPA threshold is approximately 3.5 for our sample of first-year students). Such high academic achievers may be incentivized to stay by connecting them with co-curricular membership (e.g., honors programs) or with extracurricular ones. Analysis of dorm roommates and floor mates suggests where, and with whom, one is housed, may be a key to raising the rate of retention. The model predicts approximately 78% of student outcomes correctly and is robust to alternate functional forms of our regression.