2014 Presentation Abstracts

https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/acf_abstracts/1006/thumbnail.jp

Three Essays on CEO Activism, Strategic Choices and Firm Performance

There is a longstanding societal expectation that business leaders refrain from involving in social and political issues and primarily focus on managing their firms. In recent years, however, there is a growing trend of CEOs taking a stance on controversial sociopolitical issues that are not directly related to their company’s core business. This dissertation consists of three essays focusing on this phenomenon of CEO activism. In my first essay, given that CEO activism represents a nascent phenomenon, I explore the conceptualization of CEO activism. Additionally, I propose three main motives behind CEO activism: intrinsic, instrumental, and stakeholder-focused. In my second essay, I shift my focus from the antecedents to the consequences of CEO activism. In particular, this essay examines whether CEO activism enhances firm performance and how investors may react to incidents of CEO activism. Having addressed the antecedents and consequences of CEO activism in the first two essays, the third essay focuses on the relationship between CEO activism and non-market strategies. Specifically, I examine the impact of CEO activism on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate political activity (CPA). I empirically test my predictions using data drawn from U.S.-based publicly traded S&P 500 between 2008–2017. The findings provide mixed support for my predictions. The first essay shows that several organizational (firm reputation and firm political engagement), managerial (CEO celebrity status and CEO power), and industry level (intensity of consumer activism) variables are positively related to CEO activism. Consistent with agency theory predictions, empirical findings of the second essay indicate that CEO activism engenders a significant negative stock market reaction. The findings suggest that investors and consumers are two prominent stakeholders with conflicting reactions to incidents of CEO activism. Consumers support the stance taken by conservative leaning activist-CEOs rather than liberal leaning activist-CEOs as reflected in the firm’s quarterly sales growth. Finally, the third essay demonstrates that liberal leaning CEO activism, compared to conservative leaning CEO activism, is positively related to CSR. Overall, the findings of this dissertation contribute to the on-going research on corporate governance

Digital Storytelling for Employability

This publication results from the research work undertaken by the partner institutions involved in the KA3-ICT Project Transversal Lifelong Learning Programme, Learn about finding jobs from digital storytelling(143429-2008-LLP-RO-KA3-KA3MP), with the main purpose of enhancing graduates' employability possibilities. For graduating students looking for a job it is perhaps harder than ever to meet success on the job market. They must use every tool they know to express themselves and to reflect their knowledge, competences and skills. The book aims to explain the main aspects of using digital storytelling as a method for employability, career development, reflection, assessment, consultancy, presentation and communication. Through digital storytelling, students begin to comprehend how all the elements of writing a narrative work together and how to manipulate them for the best effects in readers and viewers. Also, sharing and evaluating digital stories among peers is an excellent way to foster self-expression and tolerance and to create an engaged community of learners

EXAMINING THE INFLUENCE OF ONLINE USER GENERATED CONTENT ON CONSUMER CHOICE: VARIETY SEEKING, LEARNING, AND SHARING

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

The internationalization case of Yunit consulting, LDA.: in-depth country analysis - Spain

Yunit Consulting is a Portuguese management consulting company wishing to expand its business. This report, presenting an extensive internationalization plan, incorporates a firm overview, an industry assessment, a country clustering, and a ranking analysis. Having identified five potential target markets, Spain is then thoroughly assessed through a PESTEL analysis, a forecast of the industry and company’s sales potential, and the evaluation of the market entry conditions. Further, a strategic alliance with a digital transformation consulting company in Catalunya was found suitable. Thus, a marketing strategy was developed, together with a financial assess the viability of such international expansion

INFORMATION TRANSPARENCY AND USER BEHAVIOR IN EMERGING ONLINE MARKETPLACES: EMPIRICAL STUDIES OF SOCIAL MEDIA AND OPEN INNOVATION MARKETS

Web 2.0 and social media have significantly increased the amount of information available to users not only about firms and their offerings, but also about the activities of other individuals in their networks and markets. It is widely acknowledged that this increased availability of information is likely to influence a user's behavior and choices. However, there are very few systematic studies of how such increased information transparency influences user behavior in emerging marketplaces. My dissertation seeks to examine the impact of increased information transparency - particularly, information about other individuals - in two emerging platforms. The first essay in my dissertation compares online "social" marketing on Facebook with "non-social" marketing and examines their relative impacts on the likelihood of adoption, usage and diffusion of an "App". While social marketing - wherein a user gets to see which of her other friends have also "liked" the product being marketed- is one of the fastest growing online marketing formats, there are hardly any studies that have examined the value of the social aspect of such marketing. I find that social marketing is associated with increased app adoption, usage, and diffusion as compared to non-social marketing. The study also uncovers interesting tradeoffs between the effects of different types of "social" information on user behavior outcomes. The second essay examines the behavior of contestants in an open innovation design marketplace, wherein firms seek solutions from a crowd through an online contest. The study examines how the availability of information about other contestants as well as the availability of feedback information provided to others by the contest holder, impacts a focal contestant's behavior and outcomes. I find that contestants adopt different strategic behaviors that increase their odds of winning the contest under the different information-transparency regimes. The findings have interesting implications for the design of online contests and crowdsourcing markets. Overall, my dissertation provides a deeper understanding of how the visibility of different types of information in online platforms impacts individual behaviors and outcomes

Business management and administration. Supporting lecture notes

The study guide covers the main provisions of business operation, management and administration, in particular the operation and management of the financial and marketing structure of the business, business administration, formation and selection of a business model, determination of operational efficiency of the business, building relations with stakeholders and improvement of commercial activity. The manual will contribute to students' assimilation of knowledge and practical skills in business management and administration, mastery of methods and tools for their improvement, and assessment of business efficiency. Intended for master's degree holders in the "Management and Business Administration" educational program, specialty 073 "Management"