Honors Theses, Ohio Dominican University, 2023, Honors Theses

In January of 2020, the Center for Disease Control and Protection (CDC ) reported its first case of a new virus that quickly spread through the United States, as well as all other countries around the world. It caused a massive slowdown of our economy and the whole country. It made businesses adapt to strict rules and standards just to be able to operate. Because of that, Congress passed The CARES Act. In that relief program was a subset called the Restaurant Revitalization Fund. It aimed to help restaurants navigate the pandemic by providing financial assistance. To help answer the research question, “Is there a link between the Restaurant Revitalization Fund and restaurant survival?” a meta-analysis was used. In doing so, eight different research studies were examined to come up with three trends to help answer the research question. The three themes were the impact of the Restaurant Revitalization Fund on restaurant sales and employment, the effectiveness of the RRF in supporting restaurants, and the unique challenges faced by the restaurant industry. The findings suggest a link between the Restaurant Revitalization Fund and restaurant survival.

Committee: Thomas Eveland (Advisor); Arlene Ramkissoon (Committee Member); Douglas Ruml (Committee Member) Subjects: Business Administration

Doctor of Education , University of Dayton, 2022, Educational Leadership

A mutually-collaborative phenomenological action research study, rooted in the organizational values of the Catholic Marianist tradition, which engages empowerment concepts and positive organization theories to create a framework for the evaluation and iterative improvement of student-employing organizations. This study addresses a lack of intentional connectivity within student-employing organizations at the University of Dayton, which results in an organization's inability to capitalize on the successes of their peers. Student employees participated in a series of surveys, focus groups, and interviews, by which qualitative and quantitative data was gathered and reviewed. The results provided insights into the construction of empowering spaces for student employees. Through the student voice, these insights were distilled to create a series of best practices, which have been formatted into documents which will allow organizations to leverage University-wide high performing elements to construct policy and procedures that most fully empower student employees. These documents are customized to the needs of the organization in such a way that they will facilitate the planning and development of next steps, allowing for inherently flexible, iterative, process change.

Committee: Matthew Witenstein (Advisor); Peter Titlebaum (Committee Member); Corinne Daprano (Committee Member) Subjects: Business Administration; Educational Leadership; Higher Education Administration; Management; Organization Theory; Organizational Behavior

BBA, Kent State University, 2018, College of Business and Entrepreneurship, Ambassador Crawford / Department of Marketing and Entrepreneurship

Organizations throughout the country struggle to communicate with prospective members, current members, and other interested parties, including other organizations . Even with organizational fairs and existing social media, organizations often have difficulty attracting new members, promoting events, and marketing themselves to their schools and communities. Currently, no standardized platform exists to enable organizations to use to communicate. Instead, they rely on a non-standardized communication variety of tools. Clubhub101.com will provide a standardized platform in the form of a central website and mobile application for organizations, allowing them to easily connect and share information with interested parties across the country.

Committee: Denise Lee (Advisor); Don-John Dugas (Committee Chair); Jennifer Wiggins (Committee Member); Mary Heidler (Committee Member) Subjects: Business Administration; Business Costs; Entrepreneurship; Finance; Marketing

PHD, Kent State University, 2016, College of Education, Health and Human Services / School of Foundations, Leadership and Administration

Higher education institutions continually explore opportunities to streamline costs and improve efficiency. In many instances this results in the decision to outsource or privatize operations. Many of the operations that are outsourced are considered unrelated business-type activities according to the Internal Revenue Code. As such, these activities are required to pay U.S. income tax on their net profits. These unrelated business type activities include things like food service, bookstores, parking facilities, conference centers, and hotels. This study examines these two issues—outsourcing and unrelated business income tax—in combination. The study surveyed college and university business officers across the United States and inquired about their position within the organization, characteristics of their organization, outsourcing activities at their institution, individual's perceived understanding of Unrelated Business Income Tax (UBIT), and the perceived compliance with UBIT regulations. The results of the survey first conclude that college and university business officers self-reported an above average understanding of the application and compliance with unrelated business income tax. Secondly, however, the study concluded that the unrelated business income tax was of minor significance in decisions to outsource HIED operations.

Committee: MARK KRETOVICS (Committee Chair); STEPHEN THOMAS (Committee Member); C LOCKWOOD REYNOLDS (Committee Member) Subjects: Accounting; Business Administration; Education Finance

Doctor of Philosophy in Urban Education, Cleveland State University, 2016, College of Education and Human Services

Corporate America faces an erosion of senior leadership talent due to the exodus of many baby boomers who had occupied these positions. Many of them have either retired or will do so in the next decade. The erosion of this talent will become a major problem that can be avoided by grooming women to assume many of these positions. Over the past 60 years women have made significant strides in middle management as cited by their progression in the workforce since World War II. Education has been viewed as a key to career development by women. While women have made significant gains toward earning a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree, very few women have earned an Executive Master of Business Administration (EMBA) degree, which has been cited as an essential component for leadership development in today's globalized economy. The problem addressed in this research was the impact of an Executive Master of Business Administration (EMBA) degree on the career development of female executives. The purpose of this qualitative study was to gain an understanding of how earning an EMBA affected the career development of female executives. The research questions guiding this study were: 1. What were the women's experience in context of the Executive Master of Business Administration (EMBA) degree? 2. How does the experience of completing an Executive Master of Business Administration (EMBA) program influence women's professional development? The primary method of data collection was through qualitative process known as narrative inquiry. It was a process that was felt to provide a greater understanding of the experience associated with those that participated in this study. Restorying was used in order to analyze for key themes that emerged throughout the narratives. The findings indicate that an EMBA's program networking had an impact on the career development of the participants involved in this study. The (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Catherine Monaghan Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Catherine Hansman Ed.D. (Committee Member); Marius Boboc Ph.D. (Committee Member); Paul Williams Ph.D. (Committee Member); Mary Hrivnak Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Management

Doctor of Education, Ashland University, 2013, College of Education

This dissertation is a study of the leadership development process of community mental health center (CMHC) executive directors in Ohio. CMHCs are tasked with providing services to individuals struggling with complex mental and emotional diagnoses. In Ohio these centers are nonprofit organizations that offer a multifaceted array of services paid for by a variety of third party funding sources. Many executive directors of Ohio CMHCs begin their careers as clinicians and must acquire the skills necessary to effectively lead their organization. In this study six Ohio CMHC executive directors who began their careers as clinicians were interviewed to discover the clinician-to-director developmental process. The data revealed two primary themes each with subthemes that describe the phenomenon experienced by the directors.

Committee: Constance Savage Ph.D. (Committee Chair); James Olive Ph.D. (Committee Member); Alinde Moore Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Behavioral Psychology; Business Administration; Developmental Psychology; Health Care Management; Management; Mental Health; Public Administration; Social Work