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Dale Fodness - Satish & Yasmin Gupta College of Business

"The problematic nature of sustainable tourism: some implications for planners and managers."

Sustainability is a principle and practice expected of tourism development and management. The uneven performance of sustainable tourism policies and strategies is generating increasing attention and concern, along with a need to better understand sustainability and the problems it presents tourism planners and managers. In this article, we investigate the notion that traditional tourism problem-solving paradigms and approaches are not effective for all of the problems arising in sustainable tourism and explore what new approaches may be required. After a brief, but necessary definition of key concepts, we take a look at the range of problems which can arise in sustainable tourism and review what research has to offer in terms of understanding why some of these problems seem resistant to traditional problem-solving approaches. Following that, we consider the problems of sustainable tourism through a series of three analytical lenses, the Cynefin Framework, Complexity Science and Wicked Problems, to explore what would be required to address the more intractable problems of sustainable tourism. Examples of problems from sustainable tourism are used to illustrate how each analytical lens frames problems, incorporates stakeholder perspectives, and identifies alternative causes, processes and outcomes of problems. We conclude with implications for both theory and practice.

Fodness, D. (2017). The problematic nature of sustainable tourism: some implications for planners and managers. Current Issues in Tourism, 20(16), 1671-1683.

Faculty Profile: Dale Fodness

Jenny Gu, Satish & Yasmin Gupta College of Business

"Liability of foreignness in capital markets: Institutional distance and the cost of debt"

We extend the domain of liability of foreignness (LOF) research to capital markets and evaluate whether firms incur LOF when attempting to raise debt capital abroad. We rely upon multiple conceptualizations of institutional distance to capture the extent to which distance may contribute to LOF in capital markets. Based on a sample of 361 firms from 45 countries over 24-year time period, we find that institutional distances lead to increased cost of debt. More importantly, we find that frequency of foreign bond issuance helps to mitigate the LOF. We conclude with a discussion of our results and their implications for future research on understanding how firms address LOF when sourcing debt abroad.

Gu, Y. J., Filatotchev, I., Bell, R. G., & Rasheed, A. A. (2019). Liability of foreignness in capital markets: Institutional distance and the cost of debt. Journal of Corporate Finance, 57, 142-160.

Faculty Profile: Jenny Gu

Robert Walsh, Satish & Yasmin Gupta College of Business

"A History of US Tax Code Complexity Within Computer-Based Return Preparation"

The current income tax system in the United States is extraordinarily complex. Efforts like the tax law changes in 2017 have done little to lessen the overall compliance burden. There are a variety of reasons for this – some intentional and some accidental. This paper examines one of the accidental reasons - the history of growing computer technology over the past 50 years and its effects on increasing tax complexity in the US. A “black box” phenomenon of tax preparation that exists today has grown from an inconspicuous start by merely desiring arithmetic on the tax forms to be accurate. Decades later, it is easy to conclude that absent this enormous growth in computer technology, US lawmakers could not possibly have passed and continue to pass laws into such a convoluted tax system. Whether it is optimal for a tax system to be so “disguised” from the taxpayer is debatable, particularly with other parties, like the Internal Revenue Service and tax preparation companies like Intuit having so much now invested in this electronic process.

Walsh, R. (2019) "A History of US Tax Code Complexity Within Computer-Based Return Preparation," Accounting and Taxation, Vol. 11, No. 1, pp. 23-33

Faculty Profile: Robert Walsh

Sri Beldona, Satish & Yasmin Gupta College of Business

"Sustainable values and willingness to pay: an analysis of an analytical technique"

The concept of sustainability has become popular in today’s business environment as consumers’ environmental concerns remain a top priority for consumers. With the US consumer market projected to spend over USD 150 billion by 2021 in the sustainability segment, the importance of offering sustainable products has taken a renewed interest. Today, the agenda for sustainability has gained more traction among small and medium-sized businesses. However, such resource constrained companies do not typically have access to sophisticated tools to discern the drivers of consumer’s willingness to pay (WTP) for sustainable products. In this paper we study the factors that influence consumer’s WTP for sustainable products in the grocery industry. We show how traditional techniques of analysis such as regression analysis failed to bring out deeper insights that can be gained by using no-code machine learning. Implications of these findings and directions for future research are discussed in detail.

Beldona, S., Radighieri, J. & Remidez, H. (2021) Sustainable values and willingness to pay: an analysis of an analytical technique. Journal of Global Business Advancement, Vol. 14, No. 2, pp. 216-239, https://doi.org/10.1504/JGBA.2021.115769

Faculty Profile: Sri Beldona

Scott Wysong, Satish & Yasmin Gupta College of Business

"Website Words Matter: An analysis of business schools' online brand personalities"

This study investigates how a business school website informs a prospective student about the school's brand personality. Using a content analytical approach, words were extracted from business school websites in one major US market. The results of this research demonstrated the utility of a dictionary-based approach to identifying brand personality, and that within the sample, business schools at public universities signalled more competence, while those at private universities exhibited more excitement and sincerity. Also, higher enrolment business schools portrayed themselves as more competent, while lower enrolment schools described themselves as more sincere. Interestingly, there was no difference between AACSB-accredited and non-AACSB schools on the brand personality dimension, competence. Implications and directions for future research are discussed in detail.

Frank, B., Beldona, S., & Wysong, S. (2020). Website words matter: An analysis of business schools' online brand personalities. Journal for Global Business Advancement, 13(1), 53–69.

Faculty Profile:Scott Wysong

Mike Cosgrove, Satish & Yasmin Gupta College of Business

"Political Agreements and Exporting Activities: An Empirical Assessment of the Effects of the JCPOA Agreement on Iran's Exports"

Conflicts hinder international trade. Political agreements that restrain conflicts and remove sanctions may contribute positively to exporting and importing activities. In this study, we examine the effects of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, commonly known as Iran Nuclear Deal, on Iran’s non-oil exports. Employing a dynamic panel model, we find a significant increase in the growth rate of industry-level exports following the removal of nuclear-related sanctions, resulting from this political agreement. In particular, the exports of industries that have relatively low shares in Iran’s non-oil exports grow significantly faster than industries with relatively high shares in those exports. Our findings suggest that even a short-lived political agreement could have significant positive effects on exporting activities in middle-income countries.

Reference: Dadpay, A., & Tabrizy, S. S. (2021). Political Agreements and Exporting Activities: An Empirical Assessment of the Effects of the JCPOA Agreement on Iran’s Exports. Comparative Economic Studies, 63(1), 147-180. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41294-020-00136-x

Faculty Profile:Mike Cosgrove

Mike Cosgrove, Satish & Yasmin Gupta College of Business

"Inequality in Church-Related Universities' Salaries"

In the United States, income inequality has increased, and many assume that this results from the spread of earnings among workers within an organization. However, research indicates that most of the disparity in salaries can be ascribed to a rising disparity among organizations in the average salaries paid. The average salary difference between firms is the issue and not the gap between the highest and lowest paid employees within firms. However, the large-firm salary premium has been declining in the private sector. In this research, these results are generalized from the private sector to church-related universities with the finding of sizeable salary differences between groupings of universities. The 11-year cumulative mean faculty salary differential within academic rank was calculated for universities in the church-related university AAUP Category I and IIA classifications at the national level. Adjusted for inflation, the cumulative 11-year differences in the two classifications range from nearly $210,000 for assistant and $235,000 for associate professors to greater than $515,000 for full professors. In addition, there is no indication that the Category I annual salary premiums declined over this 11-year study. These salary differences are extrapolated to a full career where the earnings differential could easily exceed one million dollars. The earnings differential is expected to feed through to a higher standard of living in retirement as higher-paid professors can be expected to have more income from retirement contributions and from Social Security. In addition, the monetary incentive to be full professor at Category I church-related institutions compared to the assistant professor rank is sizeable, at nearly $670,000 inflation-adjusted, over this 11-year study time span. This compared to approximately $380,000 for the same time period at IIA church-related entities.

Cosgrove, Michael and Frank, Blake. Inequality in Church-Related Universities’ Salaries. Journal of Academy and Business Economics. Vol.19, 3, 125-136.

Faculty Profile:Mike Cosgrove

Jennifer Bannister, Satish & Yasmin Gupta College of Business

"Equal opportunity market: Sources and remedies of home bias in US market reactions to restatement announcements"

Purpose – This paper aims to compare U.S. market reactions to the restatement announcements of foreign firms listed in the U.S. and those of U.S. firms by applying the Capital Market Liability of Foreignness (CMLOF) concept. It further investigates the incremental effect of an improved information environment, proxied by analyst following, on mitigating the negative market reaction to a restatement for foreign versus domestic firms.
Design/methodology/approach – Regression tests are performed on a matched-sample, which matches foreign and domestic firms based on industry and firm size. Market reaction is defined as three-day abnormal stock returns calculated using a market model. The sources of CMLOF are defined as institutional distance, information costs, unfamiliarity costs and cultural distance.
Findings – Results suggest that, on average, the magnitude of the market reaction to a restatement is 1.8% lower for foreign firms than for domestic firms. Information and unfamiliarity costs contribute to the differing market reactions. In addition, it appears that the improved information environment created by a higher analyst following is more important for foreign firms that face CMLOF than for domestic firms.
Originality/value – While prior research establishes a negative market reaction to restatement announcements, comparing the market reactions for foreign and domestic firms provides evidence regarding whether U.S. investors treat foreign and domestic firms differently. Additionally, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that examines CMLOF using restatement announcements.

Bannister, Jennifer, Ho, Li-Chin Jennifer and Song, Xiaoxiao, (2019), Equal opportunity market: Sources and remedies of home bias in US market reactions to restatement announcements, Review of Accounting and Finance, 18, issue 3, p. 508-531.

Faculty Profile:Mike Cosgrove

Laura Munoz, Satish & Yasmin Gupta College of Business

"Acquaintances or friends? Exploring the effects of contracts, trust, and ethical level on opportunism in manufacturer-distributor relationships."

This study aims to examine how contractual mechanisms, trust and ethical levels impact opportunism in marketing channel relationships between manufacturers and distributors. Because the type of interactions, short-term or transaction-based vs long-term or relation-based, may also affect the level of opportunism, the study includes two scenarios to assess the impact of interaction type. The data were collected via a survey from 145 distributors with 69 being transaction-based and 75 being relation-based interactions. The sole use for transaction-based and relation-based interactions is not a significant deterrent for opportunistic behavior by a distributor. Ethical level is negatively related to opportunism in transaction-based interactions, perhaps because of calculative commitment. Trust positively moderates the relationship between contractual enforcement and opportunism in transaction-based interactions. Under relation-based interactions, the opposite occurs as trust reduces contractual enforcement efforts, and thus, opportunism is reduced as well. Ethical level negatively moderates the relationship between contractual enforcement and opportunism in transactional and relational based interactions.

Miller, Richard J., Laura Munoz, and Michael L. Mallin (2021), "Acquaintances or friends? Exploring the effects of contracts, trust, and ethical level on opportunism in manufacturer-distributor relationships." Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, 36 (1), 137-149.

Faculty Profile: Laura Munoz

Renita Murimi, Satish & Yasmin Gupta College of Business

"On Elastic Incentives for Blockchain Oracles"

Murimi, R. and Wang, G. (2021). On Elastic Incentives for Blockchain Oracles. Journal of Database Management. 32(1).

Faculty Profile: Renita Murimi

Sandra Blanke, Satish & Yasmin Gupta College of Business

"Machine learning in auditing: Current applications and a look toward the future."

Machine learning provides the potential for significant improvements in audit speed and quality, but also entails certain risks. The proliferation of data, primarily due to the rise of the Internet and advances in computer processing speed and data storage, has now made machine learning a significant component of modern life. Machine learning has the potential to disrupt nearly every industry during the next several years.

The research shows large firms such as Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers, KPMG and Ernst & Young major are experimenting with machine learning algorithms and expect the way audits are performed will change. This change is due to the opportunity to review an entire population for anomalies – rather than relying on representative sampling techniques. Machine Learning excels at performing repetitive tasks allowing auditors more time for review and analysis plus a better understanding of the larger overall picture.

Dickey, G., Blanke, S.J., Seaton, L. (2019). Machine learning in auditing: Current applications and a look toward the future. The CPA Journal June, 2019.

Faculty Profile: Sandra Blanke

Brian Murray, Satish & Yasmin Gupta College of Business

"Leadership: Leaders, Followers, and Context"

This twelve article volume includes an outstanding roster of established and emerging leadership authors who tackle questions of leadership at the intersections of leaders, followers, and context. The volume opens with two articles that set the stage for the current state of leadership research and paths for its future including a commentary by Edwin Locke and Gary Latham on current management research practices and an action-oriented review of leadership research from the start of the 21st century. The volume is organized around three themes: leadership and diversity, leader-follower relationships, and systems of leader, follower, and context.

Dulebohn, J. H., Murray, B., & Stone, D. L. (2021). Leadership: Leaders, Followers, and Context. Information Age Publishing.

Faculty Profile: Brian Murray

Julia Fulmore, Satish & Yasmin Gupta College of Business

"A hierarchical map and application to traverse and unify analyses subsumed by canonical correlation"

This article presents a hierarchical map of analyses subsumed by canonical correlation and a shiny application to facilitate the connections between said analyses. Building on the work of other researchers who used canonical correlation analyses to unify analyses in the general linear model, we demonstrate that the hierarchy is not as flat as some have portrayed. While a simpler hierarchy may seem to be more accessible, it implies a lack of relationship between analyses that may cause confusion when learning the vast majority of univariate and multivariate analyses in the general linear model. Because it is not always intuitive how all the relevant analyses for a given data type can be conducted, we developed the Shiny application canCORRgam to demonstrate the hierarchical path of analyses subsumed by canonical correlation for 15 different models. The canCORRgam application provides emerging researchers evidence of the transitive properties implied in the map. Our work also promotes meta-analytic thinking and practice as we provide the tools, formula, and software to relate test statistics to effect sizes in addition to transforming relevant test statistics and effect sizes to equivalent test statistics and effect sizes.

Nimon, K., Zientek, L. R., & Fulmore, J. A. (2021). A hierarchical map and application to traverse and unify analyses subsumed by canonical correlation. Multivariate Behavioral Research.

Faculty Profile: Julia Fulmore

Susan Rhame, Satish & Yasmin Gupta College of Business

"A class of one: Students’ satisfaction with online learning"

This study explores how students evaluate their satisfaction with online classes. Data from three focus groups of undergraduate and graduate students was analyzed using Thematic Collation and Thematic Analysis to illuminate how students evaluate their satisfaction with online classes. Student satisfaction with online learning emerged as a lived consonance, that is a “gearing together” of student concerns. The main dimensions of these concerns are student expectations regarding the time and space of online learning, self-motivation, and the role of others, including fellow students and the teacher. Ultimately, student satisfaction depends on the convergence of the student’s expectations regarding these dimensions with the student’s overarching educational and life goals for taking the course.

Landrum, B., Bannister, J., Garza, G., and Rhame, S. (2020). A class of one: Students’ satisfaction with online learning. Journal of Education for Business, Volume 96, Issue 2, pp. 82-88.

Faculty Profile: Susan Rhame

Bruce Evans, Satish & Yasmin Gupta College of Business

"Life Settlement Transactions From the Standpoint of the Investor"

The life settlement industry brokers the transfer of rights in life insurance policies from policyholders to investors. In this article, we examine life settlement transactions from the standpoint of the investor. We discuss the history and current state of life settlement structure, regulation and taxation. READ MORE

Journal of Insurance Regulation, Vol. 32 .2014

Faculty Profile:Bruce Evans

Ruth May, Satish & Yasmin Gupta College of Business

"Institutional Erosion and its Effects on Russia’s Corporate Leadership"

In this article, my co-authors and I provide a dual-level perspective of the longitudinal erosion in Russia’s independent media, electoral process, judicial independence, and civil society, along with the corresponding effects on the attitudes and behaviors of Russia’s corporate leadership. READ MORE

May, Ruth C., Rayter, G. R. & Ledgerwood, Donna. E. (2016). Institutional erosion and its effects on Russia’s corporate leadership. Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies, 23(2),191-207.

Faculty Profile: Ruth May

Jenny Gu, Satish & Yasmin Gupta College of Business

"Mortgage Loan Securitization and Personal Consumption Smoothening"

In this paper we examine the extent to which personal consumptions are sheltered from state-specific economic shocks because of banks’ mortgage loan securitizations. We posit that securitization contributes to personal consumption smoothening due to securitizations’ positive effect on banks’ credit supply, which reduces consumers’ consumption constraints during economic shocks. READ MORE

Gu, J., Hernandez, R., Liu, P., & Shao, Y. (2015). Mortgage Loan Securitization and Personal Consumption Smoothening. Journal of Economics and Finance. “lead article” in issue.

Faculty Profile: Jenny Gu

Lynn Kendall, Satish & Yasmin Gupta College of Business

"Bank Failure Prediction and the Subprime Mortgage Crisis"

The most recent financial crisis, generally viewed as being precipitated by the early 2000s spate of sub-prime mortgages and their securitization, led to the failure of 507 banks between 2008 and 2014. The year 2008 saw the first wave of 25 bank failures and by the middle of 2009, another 45 banks had closed. This prompted us to develop a model to predict future bank failures from mid-2009. READ MORE

Kendall, Lynn, and Walter Kendall (2016). Bank Failure Prediction and the Subprime Mortgage Crisis. E-Journal of Business & Economic Issues, XI (III).

Faculty Profile: Lynn Kendall

Richard Peregoy, Satish & Yasmin Gupta College of Business

"Towards a further understanding of work as spiritual"

This research adds to the existing literature on the spirituality of work by focusing on work itself as spiritual. By recognizing work and everyday tasks as spiritual and co-creative efforts, man can find the meaning and purpose that he so adamantly desires to achieve. This striving towards something transcendent, or a unity with others and the universe, energizes and empowers man to achieve greater success in work and greater satisfaction in life. Distinguishing spirituality from religion, this research asserts that spirituality is universal and inclusive, referring to our innate capacity to relate to others and the world through a “personal experience of transcendence.” Comparing Catholic, Protestant, Islamic, Judaic, and secular teaching and thought, this article uncovers the underlying desire of man to find unity and connectedness that can ultimately be utilized for finding meaning and attaining excellence in work. READ MORE

Peregoy, R., (2016). Towards a further understanding of work as spiritual. Journal of Management, Spirituality, & Religion. (in press).

Faculty Profile: Richard Peregoy

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