The purpose of this research is to explore phenomena within the experience of consumer packaged goods (CPG) account representatives in customer-facing roles by investigating the impact of supply chain training, experience, and skills on sales role effectiveness in CPG companies. Findings suggest that skills needed for sales include technical competency, excellent communication skills, and the knowledge to keep commitments. Supply chain understanding within their industry impacts these identified skills by removing confusion, improving identification with their company, realistically aligning customer expectations, and building confidence.

Research Goal, Methodology, and Contributions

The research goal is to understand, identify, and analyze potential threats and vulnerabilities in the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) devices, and provide an analysis of solutions to the issues identified from a cybersecurity perspective. Through the investigation of the Mobile Cardiac Telemetry 3 Lead and the remote patient monitoring kit from Vivify Health, a critical analysis of security issues and potential solutions is presented to reach the research goal.

IoMT is a growing application of IoT technology. It directly improves the quality of life of patients and eases the burden on healthcare providers. IoMT consists of IoT devices specifically developed to meet the needs of patients and healthcare facilities. IoMT is developed for remote patient monitoring, intensive care, and context awareness, which gathers information about a patient’s environment. IoMT can also be utilized beyond direct patient treatment, such as medical equipment and medication management.

I have conducted investigative analysis of two IoMT devices, the Mobile Cardiac Telemetry 3 Lead (MCT3L) and the remote patient monitoring kit from Vivify Health. I have formulated a series of questions to meet the research goal. These questions serve as the basis for the analysis of the IoMT environment. I met with a local hospital that provided the MCT3L User Guide, which contained the specifications for the MCT3L. I also met with Wellstar Home Health for a demonstration of the remote patient monitoring kit from Vivify Health. The information gathered from these sources provided me with the information to conduct analyses to fulfill the research goal.

My contributions to the field include the analysis of real IoMT devices, their threats and vulnerabilities, and solutions to further protect them. Furthermore, the work in this thesis illustrates the lacking security countermeasures found in IoMT devices currently deployed. This work contributes to the IoMT literature by conducting a thorough investigation of specific devices, the MCT3L, and the remote patient monitoring kit. The IoMT security literature is lacking in thorough technical examination of devices that are currently deployed. This work provides details of IoMT devices and the security risks they impose, along with a comprehensive analysis of possible solutions. These solutions consist of using secure communication protocols, using multi-factor authentication for user equipment, understanding the device manufacturer’s role in security, implementing robust security policies and procedures organization wide, utilizing network hardening techniques and network segmentation, providing IoMT security training and education, using lightweight security protocols, and using blockchain and cloud computing technologies.

Abstract

The sense of belonging to a community, or social cohesion, is established in food spaces enabled by three separate and unique mechanisms: proximity, frequency, and interactions. This study looks specifically at the Fulton Street Farmers Market in Grand Rapids and the effects the COVID-19 pandemic had on the social benefits derived from the mechanisms of social cohesion, in an attempt to identify and discover new ways to leverage social cohesion in food spaces. Three populations were identified at the farmers market: customers, vendors, and market staff. Surveys and informal interviews provided evidence that proximity to and within the market, higher frequencies of attendance, and greater instances of interactions indicate a trend towards stronger feelings of belonging and connectedness (social cohesion) at the farmers market. Data on COVID-19 shows the market became a space where social cohesion was possible and may have even increased in part due to higher attendance, supported by higher food assistance transactions.

Abstract

The present study was designed to broaden the way researchers and practitioners of the organizational sciences conceptualize, measure, and ultimately work to improve the adaptability, innovativeness, and resilience of organizations. This involved identifying how to measure and delineate the relationships between the interlinked multilevel psychosocial constructs of organizational adaptability, innovativeness, and resilience and the individual and organizational level resources of personal resources, human capital, social capital, and job-related resources as components to conceptual model of organizational effectiveness coined The Adaptation and Innovation Model of Organizational Resilience, or AIR model. A survey was developed and administered to operationalize worker perceptions of the presence of each of these constructs within their organization of work. The data gathered generally supported the relatedness of the AIR model’s components and pointed towards the possibility of an indirect pathway between worker perceptions of their organization’s adaptability and their perceptions of its resilience.

Abstract

Given that technology and innovation are rapidly rising the last few decades at excessively high rates, people tend to become more creative, searching for new ideas that, through their entrepreneurial spirit, transform into businesses, known as startups. This process of transforming an idea into an actual business that becomes productive and profitable sets the basis for entrepreneurship. Being interested in startups and the idea of creating an enterprise from scratch, I decided for my senior project to focus on these new well-known enterprises and, more specifically to zoom in on the startup ecosystem of Greece, which seems to have great potential for economic growth for the country but also faces a significant number of challenges, nowadays. This project aims to present the structure of the Greek startup ecosystem, the importance that it has for the Greek economy, as well as the most important challenges that startups face in the market. Through the conduction of a questionnaire and recorded interviews I was able to validate the odds that entrepreneurs have to face in Greece and separate them into four different aspects: 1) Regulatory Framework / Bureaucracy, 2) Government Involvement and Provision of Appropriate Incentives, 3) Taxation, 4) Team Development and Performance. I hope that this research will contribute to highlighting the importance and the potential of the Greek startup ecosystem, thus sending a message to the Greek government to redefine some of the measures that currently harming the startups, and provide the right incentives for them with the ultimate goal of creating a startup ‘nation’.

Abstract

Since the reform and opening up, China’s family enterprises have developed rapidly and some family enterprises have entered the period of intergenerational inheritance which may experience some organizational turbulence and face great uncertainty. Meanwhile, more and more CEOs of Chinese enterprises realize that innovation has become the driving force for the transformation and upgrading of SMEs. So, during the intergenerational inheritance and afterwards, whether CEOs of family enterprises make the same decision on innovation strategy as CEOs of non-family enterprises? Whether the second generation CEOs of family enterprises make the same decision on innovation strategy as the founders of family enterprises? It’s worthy of examining the role of family ownership and the regulatory focus of CEOs. Using the multi case study and grounded theory, this study selects 7 Chinese SEMs to explore the relationship between CEOs and innovation strategies of family and non-family SMEs. Through the interviews, field observation, and the archived information, a large number of data has been collected, which provided a multiple evidence basis for the formation of concepts and the development of theories. We find that different ownership influences the decision-making on innovation, and the different regulatory focus of CEOs mediates the relationship between CEOs’ social identity and their preference on innovation strategy.

Abstract

The purpose of this Honors Capstone research project is to gain insight and understanding into how buyer behavior may or may not have changed after by the COVID-19 Pandemic through the perspectives of sales professionals, marketing professionals, and consumers themselves. This research project compared data from literary based research, 1:1 interviews, and three unique mass surveys dispersed on LinkedIn to gather information from multiple touch points. There were limitations to this research given the Pandemic is ongoing and there continues to be adjustments to this global phenomenon. Additionally, data collection from interviews and surveys was strictly voluntary and survey responses were limited in sample size due to lower interactions and responses to the postings on LinkedIn. Overall, this research has indicated a dramatic effect on buyer behavior as there is a clear divide in those who have disposable income and those who don’t, with consumers expecting more from businesses both in their offerings and digital buyer journey.

Abstract

Across many industries, reputation management has been a top priority, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, and the ongoing issues surrounding gender, race, and ethnicity. The beauty and cosmetic industry, for example, continues to face several challenges involving diversity and representation in product development and advertising. This is a study of the beauty and cosmetic industry and how corporate reputation is shaped by representation in advertising and product development. This research demonstrates select ways how brands have marketed their products throughout history by retrieving print advertisements from archives and social media. Changes in representation of gender, age, skin tone, skin type, and ideas of femininity and masculinity are all seen in the historic examples of cosmetic advertising. Therefore, it is critical that beauty companies be inclusive as they continue to set standards of how diverse groups perceive and value themselves.

Abstract

This study seeks to revalidate existing research insights on the relationship between internationalization and firm performance and to examine the role of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) as a potential moderator to this relationship. The research uses a longitudinal database of US-listed manufacturing companies over the period 2000-19. It employs a foreign market penetration-based construct as well as a foreign production-based construct of internationalization and uses a fixed effects linear regression model for the analysis.

The study suggests that the relationship between foreign market penetration-based internationalization and firm performance shows a declining trend over the past two decades. This may not be a negation of the generally accepted relationship (inverted-U or S-shaped) but a reflection of the data set used and the economic conditions of the study period. The trend towards co-movement of global business cycles has eroded the benefits of internationalization while factors like protectionism and political and foreign currency risk continue to create challenges for diversified firms. Foreign Production based internationalization, on the other hand, does not have a significant relationship with firm performance.

Further, the GFC negatively moderated the relationship in the case of Foreign Market Penetration based internationalization. This could be due to heightened protectionism, increased complexity and cost pressures induced by the crisis. The moderation impact of the GFC in the case of Foreign Production was not significant. This can be attributed to the fact that the strong negative effects mentioned above were attenuated by the benefits of strong subsidiary linkages (i.e. financial support as well as internal markets in the case of vertical linkages.)

Finally, and drawing from these points, the study also suggested that the negative moderation impact of the GFC on firm performance was stronger in the case of foreign market penetration-based internationalization than in the case of foreign production -based internationalization.

Abstract

This project began as an attempt to understand how events, such as the “Great Resignation” (i.e., an unprecedented mass exit of employees from the U.S. workforce), have impacted the way in which organizations are attempting to mitigate employee turnover. In addition, this project examined what role managers might play in promoting a positive organizational culture. A review of literature identified Schein’s (1990) model of organizational culture and Spitzberg and Cupach’s (1984) conceptualization of communication competence as useful frameworks for helping managers understand and promote positive organizational culture and employee mental health and well-being. In addition, the review of literature pointed to key skills that could be developed to increase the communication competency of managers. Those skills were identified as, but are not limited to, perception checking, cognitive complexity, empathy, and role-taking. These four skills were the focus of a proposed workshop that is aimed at promoting positive organizational culture and improving managers communication competences.

Introduction

This thesis takes a closer look at concrete construction in the modern area and, more specifically, the use of formwork to shape the built environment.

Traditional rigid concrete formwork has been optimized for buildability while serving structural needs. This mentality means simple prismatic elements that are entirely overbuilt for the task, stacked on top or next to one another. The idea that these elements are the peak of efficiency in concrete production has informed virtually all modern concrete construction. Any shapes that vary from the simple prismatic volumes are seen as challenging to build and expensive. For the most part, this is true if traditional methods of constructing formwork are used to create those shapes, but what if that did not have to be the case?

Over the last 100 years, several alternative methods of building formwork have been suggested, but almost all of them have stayed almost entirely in the academic realm. The major categories of these technologies include flexible formwork, such as fabrics; Folding formwork, using materials such as fiberglass; 3D printing formwork, using plastics; and even Knitted formwork. The major challenge that most of these technologies face is that they only propose formwork to replace select elements needed to construct a building, and this leads to a strange mix of architectural languages that is not desirable. Even if they include multiple elements, they often use vastly different systems and materials to create the framework, making them not viable at larger building scales.

The objective is to define an architectural language for concrete structures that will introduce a new design for formwork systems as well as explore solutions to minimize the use of reinforcement without sacrificing structural integrity. The goals are to evaluate the new design strategies and computational tools so that they can seamlessly integrate architectural forms with structural needs. Based on previous research, this approach could lead to an approximately 40% reduction in concrete usage, dramatically affecting the sustainability of such a building. In order to achieve these results, individual structural elements and their formwork systems will be analyzed and evaluated for their strengths and weaknesses, followed by an investigation of how these different systems can be combined into one unified language using one type of formwork.

Abstract

Higher Education plays a key role in developing societies’ economies through preparing successful leaders and citizens who can compete in today’s rapidly-changing labor market. Entrepreneurship education can pave the way for job creation, innovation, critical thinking, and economic growth. The aim of this study is to explore the views of higher education stakeholders about the economic, socio-cultural, and pedagogical implications of entrepreneurship education in a private international higher education institution in Egypt, namely the American University in Cairo (AUC). Moreover, the study seeks to investigate some of the obstacles and best practices of entrepreneurship education at the AUC. The study adopted a qualitative case study design to answer the study questions. Semi-structured one-on-one interviews were utilized to gather the required data. The purposeful sampling technique was utilized for selecting fourteen stakeholders from the AUC. Clark’s (1998) framework of the entrepreneurial university informed data collection and provided the lenses from which the study results were analyzed and interpreted. The study provides a clear picture and deep understanding of entrepreneurship education in higher education, its implementation practices and the challenges faced in one of the Egyptian international higher education institutions. The findings showed that there is a direct correlation between entrepreneurship and economic growth, innovation, and job-creation. Moreover, entrepreneurship education acts as a catalyst for tackling social issues and changing learners’ mindset to take risks, pursue opportunities, and become job-creators. The findings also revealed that although the AUC is considered as the best university that supports entrepreneurship and business ventures in Egypt, there is still a lot to be done to advance entrepreneurship at the AUC.

Abstract

Study 1

Blockchain technology (BT) in the supply chain/logistics has drawn much attention. Several benefits associated with the technology include cost-saving, sustainability enhancement, and economic viability. However, there are limited BT performance measurement models. The topic of the BT performance in supply chain management (SCM) is scattered across multiple disciplines. This study identifies different dimensions of BT performance and supports SCM managers to understand the systematic and holistic assessment of BT performance.

Study 2

The specific features of blockchain provide promise in managing supply chain risks. Given the growing research scrutiny in blockchain-based supply risk management, the development of a reliable and valid instrument to measure supply chain risk management is imperative. Nonetheless, no systematic research has been done to develop such an instrument. This study employs a comprehensive and rigorous procedure to develop a multifaceted measurement scale through an empirical analysis. We defined and operationalized the concept of blockchain-based supply chain risk management followed by validation and item measurement development.

Study 3

The supply chain management field is experimenting with the integration of blockchain, a cutting-edge and highly disruptive technology. However, blockchain research in supply chain risk is still nascent, especially the relationship between blockchain adoption and its impact on both risk management performance and supply chain competency. We aim to investigate the potential influence of BT-based security management in mediating the effects of blockchain adoption on both risk management performance and firm performance. We plan to administer a survey to review the opinions and views of supply chain practitioners.