Previous URCA Participants

Adversity, Growth, and Opportunity: Implications of the Covid-19 Pandemic for Business Education and Practice

Kaitlyn Cahill

Mentor: Paul Drnevich

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has been affecting every sector of life worldwide since early 2020. From layoffs to lockdowns and school closures to safer at-home distance learning mandates, it is nearly impossible to find a segment of society that hasn’t been affected. Commonly, most people assume and focus on only the negative adverse impacts of the pandemic. However, a longer-term focus would indicate that historically, most crises have silver linings and with crisis also comes opportunity. For example, the financial crisis and related economic recession of 2008, as well as the devastation of the 2012 tornado, are two major events that greatly impacted the local area. As such, plans of action and proper resources are needed to better prepare us for when unexpected events occur in our lives and impact us on every level.

In this study, we seek to explore this broader range of possible longer-term implications from the COVID-19 pandemic with a focus on lessons and opportunities for business educators, students, and practitioners. We aim this paper at both professors and students, as well as local Alabama-based business owners, and the local and state government officials who seek to enact policies in response to the pandemic’s implications for these stakeholders. We argue that simply put, future graduates should be better prepared for how to handle adversity and change throughout their careers, to better enable them to succeed, and their education process should do its best to effect this outcome.

To conduct our study of how business practices were affected by implications of the COVID-19 pandemic, we reviewed and analyzed a variety of literature to identify common trends in the data that have emerged thus far. We identified three main implications which we term Adversity, Growth, and Opportunity. Our findings indicate that a substantial number of businesses in several sectors have been hurt significantly, some businesses in other sectors have been able to thrive due to their positioning, and new business opportunities have also been created by the pandemic allowing some businesses to form or expand to take advantage of the changing marketplace. Some such new opportunities which may continue to expand for the foreseeable future include increased demand for mental healthcare as well as for imparting social skills over longer than expected time horizons to students going through their formative years of school in socially distanced and online settings.

One early implication for education is that instruction at the university level, especially in The Culverhouse College of Business, tends to use an overreliance on positive/growth-oriented hypothetical scenarios. These examples are not effective for teaching them to manage adversity as little to no time is spent going over negative/adverse scenarios. Addressing these educational shortcomings has an impact not only on the University of Alabama but also on the economic impact on Tuscaloosa County and the whole state of Alabama. In this study, we examine a range of such implications in business education, practice, and policy, and conclude with a discussion of suggestions for additional future research.

Cultivating the Ideal Student Experience

Stephanie Cohen

Mentor: Quoc Hoang

Abstract

A 2014 Gallup-Purdue University study examined the relationship between the college experience and the degree to which college graduates have successful jobs and lives. The study concluded that there are six experiences that are high predictors of success—both personal and professional–of college graduates. These “Big Six” experiences fall into two categories: Support and experiential. In the study, graduates read six statements and indicated the extent to which they agreed/disagreed with each statement. The first three statements focused on the mentorship students experienced in college, while the remaining three focused on student involvement with long-term projects, internships, or other extracurricular activities. Interestingly, only 3% of college graduates reported having these experiences. Though the study brought a large problem to light, it also provided us with the information necessary to solve it.

Throughout the past year, COVID-19 has turned the world upside down for many students. The prevalence of virtual and hybrid learning has undoubtedly made it more difficult for students to identify and access the high-quality experiential learning and support that the Gallup-Purdue study suggested was so important for post-graduate success. As a result, it has become increasingly important to make a conscious effort to put the student experience at the forefront of everything a university does.

While the past year was full of uncertainty, it did not stop students, faculty, and staff from doing incredible things. The adaptability of students throughout the pandemic has been apparent, as many students have achieved incredible successes over the last year. That said, there is a gap between the existence of these successes and their visibility across campus.

This project investigated what higher-ed institutions, namely the Culverhouse College of Business, could do to ensure that more students are able to graduate feeling like they had a comprehensive undergraduate experience that included each “Big Six” element. The objective was to highlight “cool people doing cool things” through these resources, thereby emphasizing existing resources and experiences while also motivating the college to create additional ones.

One initial recommendation is a more interactive newsletter with sections for highlighting students, reminding them of important dates, informing them about upcoming events and seminars, and a submission box for questions. Each newsletter would answer questions submitted to the one preceding it. An additional recommendation is an interactive space for students to find answers to all of their questions regarding careers, classes, scholarships, extracurricular opportunities, and anything else that supports their success and well-being. Finally, web and social media resources to highlight people and experiences available in the college have been developed. The ultimate goal is to have both physical and virtual spaces that include all of the recommendations that lead to a high-quality, student experience.

Through this applied research project, we generated tangible ideas that support the Culverhouse College of Business’ ability to put the student experience at the center of everything the college does, thereby maximizing the likelihood of student success and well-being. All of these projects are ongoing and are designed to outlive the graduation of students involved in the research process.

Examining the Link Between Healthcare IT Spending and Data Breaches

Carson Derringer

Mentors: Marilyn Whitman, Thomas English

Abstract

Justification: Hospitals in the United States spent over $43 billion on IT expenses in 2019.

During this same year, 85 hospitals and health systems reported breaches to the Department of Health and Human Services. The current breadth of the literature has covered how healthcare facilities have adjusted their spending in response to data breaches, what kinds of hospitals are generally targeted by attackers, and how providers have responded to warnings from regulatory agencies about imminent cybersecurity threats. However, there has not been a deep dive into how spending correlates with the occurrence of breaches as well as trending patterns of the most common breach types.

Purpose: The purpose of our project is to determine if and how IT spending has any correlation with data breach occurrences, types, or locations within hospitals that provided spending data to the American Hospital Association. Our null hypothesis would be that spending and breaches have no correlation, therefore hospitals do not need to devote such a large portion of their budgets towards cybersecurity efforts.

Method: We utilize data from the American Hospital Association Annual Survey (AHA) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Breach Archive. The AHA data we have available includes general hospital information and IT spending for 2017, 2018, and 2019.

Operating expenses and capital expenses for the purpose of this research have been combined for a more efficient and universal analysis of the IT departments that reported data breaches to HHS in those years. Additionally, we have removed hospitals that did not report at least two years of expenses, as these would not reflect a change or pattern in spending over time. We have used Microsoft Excel as a tool for data organization and analyses and Tableau for our visualizations.

Result: The correlation between yearly IT spending and the likelihood of a cybersecurity attack that same year is explored in this research. Our sample consisted of 3,191 acute care hospitals that reported at least 2 out of 3 years (2017-2019) of IT spending. Data from HHS indicates that from 2016-2019 the percent of breaches involving Hacking/IT-related breaches increased significantly from 29.41% in 2016 to 43.53% in 2019. In 2019, 85 hospitals and health systems reported a breach. Future analysis will examine the role that IT spending plays in experiencing a breach. That is, we seek to determine if IT spending impacts the likelihood of experiencing a breach.

Conclusion: Given the vast amounts spent on IT expenses, and providers’ ongoing challenge to provide more with less, enhancing our understanding of the relationship between spending and cybersecurity is vital to curbing healthcare expenditures or prioritizing IT expenditures to minimize cybersecurity attacks. As cybersecurity attacks continue to increase in both frequency and severity, it is necessary to understand the role that IT expense plays.

Tracking Student Correspondence and Class Performance

Connor Dessert

Mentor: Chapman Greer

Abstract

Background

The disruption of the traditional learning model caused by COVID-19 has created an environment where students regularly switch between in-person and virtual attendance as they are exposed to, or contract, the virus. To mitigate the risk of transmission in the classroom, students must email their professors, justifying their absences, which usually extend to 10-14 days. We initially thought this provided an interesting opportunity to track COVID-related correspondence alongside student performance in Dr. Greer’s classes (i.e., observing student performance after an email was received, stating they would be attending virtually for a period due to COVID).

The Project

We extended the collection of student correspondence to all emails sent to Dr. Greer from members of her classes. Using NVivo, each email is documented, stored under the student’s record, and is used to assign a “status” to that student. Over the course of the semester, the goal is to track “status” versus performance – measured as a running cumulative total in the class – along the same time axis to see if there are observable correlations between the information we gather about students and their performance in the class. We will use Excel, NVivo, and Tableau to catalog student correspondence and performance across the SP2021 semester.

Findings

As of 2/28, the data collection is still in an early stage, as class sizes have been locked in for only one month following the extended Add/Drop date (1.29.21). By the presentation date, we will have nearly two months of data collected, from which we will display our findings. Our findings will be displayed on an individual student level. For broader comparisons, we will also represent our findings on an aggregate level, by class, and across classes. We will be using Tableau software to visually represent our findings, as preliminary datasets we have constructed can be understood with little burden to a reader’s cognitive load. Please see the sample datasets we have prepared to demonstrate how we will showcase the actual data we have collected.

Next Steps and Project Relevance

If we determine that the collection methods and data representations we build from our data offer valuable insights into how a student might perform, we hypothesize that it would be prudent to construct a database that can, in real-time, compare student “status” with class performance. Ideally, this database would automatically update both categories by scanning real-time student emails using text analysis software (NVivo) and pulling real-time quantifiable grading metrics from Blackboard. Both data sets would be built into a Tableau Dashboard, notifying the professor if critical criteria are met (e.g., various combinations of student “status” and “performance” changes). Such critical criteria have yet to be determined, as that is the scope of the project and research currently being conducted. We hypothesize that such a system would better allow professors and teaching faculty to intervene early in scenarios where significant student performance changes might otherwise occur.

A Literature Review: The Effects and Studies on Student-Athlete Transfers

Veronica Douglas

Mentor: Robert Hammond

Abstract

The focus of my research is a literature review on student-athlete transfers including transfer rates, reasons and rules for transferring, and public opinion concerning the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)’s role. Within the last couple of years, the rates of student-athlete transfers have increased, especially in sports such as men’s and women’s basketball, football, and men’s ice hockey. Due to the changes in collegiate sports popularity and increase in professionalism, the NCAA has is constantly creating new policies for transferring athletes. I focused my study on academic journal articles that documented the effect of student-athlete transfers, not only for the academic and mental effect of the students but also on the universities. I also studied public opinion of student-athlete transfers and overall opinions of the NCAA, including governing roles such as the graduate student policy, the rules of transfers, and the residence requirement policy. In recent years, the NCAA has changed its policies regarding their governing roles, especially regarding graduate student transfer policies. I analyzed those changes and their effect on student-athletes in regard to stated academic, coaching, and personal transfer reasons. My results concluded that the transfer process for student-athletes has an underlying negative effect on academic goals and graduation rates.

Examining the Disparities in Access to Obstetric Care in Alabama

Abigayel Fables, Breandan Molloy, Matthew Bolton, William Garcia

Mentors: Thomas English, Marilyn Whitman, Dwight Lewis

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this research is to highlight the disparities of obstetric care/prenatal care for women in Alabama based on their location and the adverse effects it creates for them.

Justification

This research is important because Alabama has some of the highest rates of infant and maternal mortality in the United States and has been showing increasing rates in recent years. This is very concerning because rates of maternal and infant mortality typically do not rise significantly in developed countries. It is important to identify what is driving these disparities in obstetrics (OB) and prenatal care that are contributing to higher mortality rates in the interest of reducing barriers to care.

Method

To dig deeper into this issue, we used the American Hospital Association annual survey data in conjunction with CMS data to identify specific healthcare centers with obstetric beds as well as the location, size, and designation of these centers. Data for 2017, 2018, and 2019 was used. We then used Excel to isolate and join the data we considered to be important to variables such as total beds, total facility admission, Medicare and Medicaid Discharges and days, whether they are a critical access, rural referral or sole community provider if they have OB services, and their latitude, longitude, city, and state. We also identified facilities’ rural, urban or isolated designation by comparing the facility zip code with RUCA data. We then ran a correlation analysis to find the relationships between these variables. We were able to link outcome data by the facility to our ACA data with CMS IDs. We used Tableau to create a map of the state of Alabama to visualize our findings. We will use SPSS to build regression models to fully explore the disparities in access to OB care.

Results

Using latitude and longitude variables, we were able to isolate facilities with OB services and critical care access in Tableau. We targeted latitudes and longitudes in the state of Alabama. Our results indicate that any city that isn’t a metro area such as Birmingham, Montgomery, or Mobile has a smaller population of healthcare facilities. There are large concentrations of health facilities in metropolitan areas. Our analysis has shown that many rural counties in Alabama are not capable of providing adequate prenatal and OB care to the women who reside there, instituting a barrier of care that forces these women to travel to urban areas to access the care they need. For example, Urban areas have an average capability of OB services of 2.0 out of 3.0 while in large rural and small rural we see averages of 1.17 and 1.67 out of 3 respectively (level 3 facilities would be able to perform all uncomplicated and complicated OB and delivery procedures and a level 1 would be able to perform the majority of uncomplicated OB services and deliveries).

Conclusion

To summarize, hospitals in rural areas are not offering the services necessary to adequately address labor and delivery cases. Consequently, there is less access to maternal and OB care in rural areas which is contributing to the increasing rates of infant and maternal mortality in Alabama.

Current State of Telehealth in Hospitals

Ella Finley, Khuyen Tran, Jay Vickers

Mentors: Thomas English, Marilyn Whitman

Abstract

Objective:

Telehealth refers to “the use of electronic information and telecommunication technologies to support long-distance clinical health care, patient and professional health-related education, public health and health administration” (HRSA, 2020). The recent health crisis forcing social distancing requirements has propelled telehealth to the forefront of care delivery with payors expanding the services allowed via telehealth. Consequently, the demand for telehealth services has never been greater. As such, the present study aims to offer a comprehensive overview of the current state of telehealth in the acute care setting. To our knowledge, no such overview has been offered for the acute care setting in particular. Thus, we seek to explore the telehealth landscape among U.S. hospitals to enhance our understanding of where we stand in hopes of better-informing leaders on the path ahead. First, we explore the various characteristics of facilities currently offering telehealth services. Second, we examine performance indicators to better understand the role that telehealth may play in improving patient outcomes. In doing so we hope to inform hospital leaders who may be considering offering telehealth services on its potential benefits. 

Data sources:

We analyzed data from 2017, 2018, and 2019 American Hospital Association’s (AHA) Annual Surveys. Data from the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on readmission rates were also used. Data were combined at the facility level using the Medicare ID number. 

Methods:

For structural data, we defined hospitals as offering ‘telehealth’ services if they indicated offering one or more of the telehealth services listed in the AHA annual survey. In addition to organizational structure, we considered participation in an Accountable Care Organization, as well as the types of data from CMS’s Hospital Compare, which was used to identify hospital readmission rates. Also, data from CMS’ Hospital Value-Based Purchasing (HVBP) database was used. We utilized the given total performance score, which was based on normalized clinical outcomes domain score (25%), Person and Community Engagement Domain Score (25%), Safety Domain Score (25%), and the Normalized Efficiency and Cost Reduction Domain Score (25%). All of these sources were joined together by CMS’ CCN# and visualized in Tableau by year. Once the data is fully cleaned regressions models will be built in SPSS. We will conduct a linear regression that uses generalized estimating equations to account for the correlation of an individual hospital's readmission rates over time.

Results:

A total of 6,282 hospitals were included in our analysis of which 2,770 provided some form of telehealth service. When grouping hospitals by type of organization, we found that there were 1,234 government (nonfederal), 3,155 nongovernment (not-for-profit), 1,682 investor-owned (for-profit), and 211 government (federal) organizations within our data set. 

Conclusions:  

Enhancing our understanding of telehealth utilization may assist leaders in their efforts to improve outcomes. As health providers are increasingly challenged to do more with less, the need to invest in services that contribute to the organization’s efforts to improve quality, as well as the bottom line, is of critical importance. Despite decades of pushback, telehealth is likely here to stay. Providers should take the opportunity to understand how best to leverage these services to meet demand and enhance the patient experience. 

Fake News In Social Media: Effects on Vaccine Usage and Developments

Hays Hooten

Mentor: Susan Fant

Abstract

People receive news updates constantly each day from various news platforms. These platforms have the ability to distribute information widely. Reading similar versions of headlining stories from different people as well as robots can make it hard to distinguish what is true or false. Our society is both consciously and subconsciously absorbing “fake news” every single day on social media. Fake news is news that contains deliberate disinformation to deceive readers. My research is studying the effects of fake news on social media platforms for the development and usage of vaccines.

Students at The University of Alabama has partnered with the University of Minnesota’s “The Mono Project” which is currently developing a vaccine that could potentially prevent Epstein Barr Virus (EBV)-caused diseases, such as infectious mononucleosis, cancers, systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), celiac disease, and multiple sclerosis (MS). A vaccine could also potentially prevent severe illness or even death from EBV infection following transplantation, especially in pediatric patients who have not been exposed to the virus or built up an immunity.

Through running the Mono Project’s social media accounts, I am able to experience firsthand the negative associations people make with the word vaccine. A research article by Andew Wakefield (1999), claimed there was a link between the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine in accordance with an increased autism rate in British children. This was an article published in The Lancet, a prestigious medical journal. The paper has since been discredited and Wakefield lost his medical license (Public Health). There have been several studies since, but none have linked autism and vaccines. This is a prime example of how one false claim can spiral into a frenzy of fake news. Since that article was released not many people know that it has no scientific truth to it and that it was retracted. One of the dangers of fake news is that it can be extremely difficult to tell what is true and what is false. Individuals and organizations are able to post an article or discuss a topic on social media and the public will believe it is true. These organizations are for the most part well respected by the general population. This means that if they announce that a doctor released an article saying that vaccines are a direct link to autism people will believe them even if the claim is completely false.

Researchers have now linked falling immunization rates to recent resurgences of vaccine-preventable diseases. In 2010, California saw 9,120 cases of whooping cough, more than any year since the whooping cough vaccine was introduced in the 1940s. Ten infants too young to be vaccinated died of whooping cough during the outbreak. The CDC warns that events like these will become more frequent and harder to control if vaccination rates continue to fall (Public Health). This is extremely dangerous for the United States and the whole world. The World Health Organization is concerned about the fake news associated with the coronavirus outbreak. This misinformation is shared mainly through social media posts and causes unnecessary fear and chaos around the globe (NPR).

As we move and advance into the future of technology, it seems to be pushing us back into the past with vaccines. If social media users were not sharing articles and talking about how vaccines are having horrible side effects then there may not be a rise in vaccine-preventable diseases. To keep our country healthy the immunization rates cannot fall below the 95% threshold and they have due to people no longer trusting modern medicine (Carrieri, Madio, Principe). When a population's immunization rates fall below the threshold it makes the country more susceptible to disease.

This past year at The Mono Project we had to hold off on the Epstein-Barr Virus posts on our social media accounts due to the sensitivity and severity of the Covid-19 pandemic which had vaccine priority. Posting about another vaccine or illness could come across as insensitive to some which was an issue we had to worry about. We have been and still are not able to use the hashtag vaccine (#vaccine) due to the threat of an attack by anti-vaxxers and the possibility of being shadowbanned.

The Mono Project is aiming to develop the first vaccine for the Epstein-Barr Virus as well as trying to change the stigma around vaccines through social media. Social media users can aimlessly comment on our social media posts talking about how horrible vaccines are when in reality they save lives every single day. My research is going to demonstrate the relationship between fake news on social media platforms and its effects on the development and usage of vaccines.

The Impact of Accountable Care Organizations Effect on Quality of Care and Patient Satisfaction

M'Kaila Isom

Mentors: Marilyn Whitman, Thomas English

Abstract

Justification: Accountable Care Organizations (ACO) are an organization composed of physicians, hospitals, and other healthcare providers that come together voluntarily to give coordinated high-quality care to patients (CMS 2020). The goal of ACOs is to deliver high-quality care to patients while avoiding unnecessary services and reducing medical errors. Emerging from the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, the ACO program began in 2012. From 2012 through 2018, there was a steady increase in new ACO formation. Recent case studies show that the implementation of ACOs only improved hospitals that were performing well. However, under-performing hospitals participating in ACOs experience little to no change (SagePub 2020). Nearly a decade in, we seek to examine the effect of ACO participation on HRRP. That is, the present study examines the impact of ACO participation on quality measures and readmission rates.

Methods: Data from the American Hospital Association Annual Survey from 2017 – 2019 was used. Hospital complications and deaths, patient satisfaction, and readmission data were obtained from CMS for 2018 and 2019. We grouped ACOs by geographic regions: Midwest, Northeast, South, and West. Once the data is fully cleaned regressions models will be built in SPSS. We will conduct a linear regression that uses generalized estimating equations to account for the correlation of an individual hospital’s readmission rates over time.

Results: After removing duplicates, 4728 hospitals remained with either serious health conditions, readmissions data, and patient satisfaction scores. Through assessment and extraction, roughly 300 hospitals were used as final measures. As of 2015, 554 new ACOs were formed. Though we notice a steady decline in rates of readmissions per year, accurate numbers are still being calculated. We are waiting on final results to see how the stabilization of ACOs has affected quality measures and if HRRP can be ruled out as a factor for this change.

Conclusion: The purpose of our study is to ensure ACOs deliver on quality and readmissions rate with each joining hospital. It is important for health leaders to discover methods that could save time and energy. Our understanding of an ACO’s role further explores the improvement of care and coordination which inevitably lowers readmission rates. The increase of ACO formation has now stabilized and grows at a slower rate.

Political Contribution & Pension Plan Return In Swing States

Nicole Kozhukhov

Mentor: Sugata Ray

Abstract

I am currently in the process of exploring and analyzing political contributions made by members on the pension plan boards of swing states (Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin) from the years 2001-2018. I chose these specific swing states due to the frequency at which they appeared as swing states in past election years within my dataset time period. At this time, I am parsing through data in RStudio from the Federal Elections Committee bulk data and voter registration data. These sources should provide context for some of the questions I will potentially be measuring such as: “Did the prevalence of these contributions have any effect on annual return for the plan?”, “Is there any correlation with the number of contributions by a certain director and their time served on the board?”.

Co-Movements of International Housing Prices: a Dynamic Factor Analysis

Anna Kutbay

Mentor: Junsoo Lee

Abstract

Global economic development can be evaluated through many lenses. One that is rather under-researched, yet has wide-ranging implications for growth and development, is housing prices. Forecasting housing prices in any state or country assesses stability, precedes credit contractions, and impacts consumption, drivers of economic activity[1]. My research seeks to understand how co-movements in housing price indices reflect economic volatility. Most research on the subject performs co-movement analysis on a micro-level: housing prices in one country, across several states, or across only one identifiable region. But our study supplements existing literature by using an expansive data set larger than previous work. Our preliminary results have indicated that not only do housing prices correlate across nations from a variety of economic and development backgrounds, but shifts in one country’s economic activity create a resounding global impact.

Our methodology and data ask whether there is evidence of global co-movements in housing prices. The subsequent follow-up then becomes: to what extent can these movements be explained by regional and economic factors? We obtained our data set from the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD). The data represents the percent change in housing prices on a base year, a variable known as Housing Price Indices (HPI), or Residential Property Price Indices. From there, a dynamic factor model (DFM) was used to represent relationships among time series variables specific to macroeconomic forecasting[2]. Our DFM allows us to graph regional co-movements, as well as understand the extent to which a region influences HPI over time. We divided our OECD data set into three subsets by start year: 1971, with 19 countries and 198 quarters of data, 2001, with 27 countries and 78 quarters, and 2007, with 39 countries and 54 quarters. This division created a robust analysis, considering not every country has data going back to 1971. Next, we picked Regions A – D to group the countries together as part of the factor analysis. Regions A and B were purely geographic, with B being more specific. Region C was currency-based, grouping Eurozone, Non-Eurozone, North America, and other countries into respective groups to assess rigidity of currencies. Finally, Region D grouped countries by their GDP growth percentage.

While our results are still in development, some early co-movements arise, such as a global rise and decline in housing prices preceding and following the 2008 crisis. Our results could not only explain this but help to determine just how interconnected countries are when it comes to housing prices; this measure of economic activity, as proved in 2008, is critical in predicting housing bubbles, credit seizures, and currency depreciation. If we can accurately predict how much one country’s housing shifts impact the region and globe, it has the potential to predict economic crisis before it strikes.

Uniting Through Disaster: Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) Responding to Crisis

Hadden Langley

Mentor: Theresa Welbourne

Abstract

Uniting Through Disaster: Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) Responding to Crisis

Employee resource groups (ERGs), also known as affinity groups, emerged in the 1970s as a way to unite individuals within an organization around a shared identity, life experience, or background. Since then, they have transformed from a mere support network to furthering many crucial business functions such as recruitment, retention, talent development, and employee education. ERGs are well equipped to do this, as there are usually groups for specific minority populations such as women, Black, LGBTQ, Latino, and Asian groups. Companies also have EGRs for backgrounds, like groups for veterans, generations, and environmentally conscious individuals. ERGs also provide support to communities and employees in times of crisis. They are ideally suited to accomplish this, as they are viewed as a safe space for many employees, and ERGs are well connected to the communities to which they belong.

With ERGs being structured to foster a sense of belonging, we were prompted to conduct a literature review and collect data on how ERGs respond to crises. Specifically, we were able to access survey responses from an organization that administered a diversity award program.  We analyzed over 150 survey responses to understand what diversity and inclusion (D&I) teams and ERGs did for employees and communities in response to COVID and crisis situations prior to COVID.

We found that ERGs provided relief in many different ways such as monetary donations, allowing flexible work arrangements, providing mental health resources, distributing personal protective equipment, helping parents with childcare, and maintaining connections in a virtual environment. Through our literature review, we aimed to find what ERGs did in response to specific crises, and how these events actually fueled inclusiveness within organizations. During times of crisis, ERGs can be an essential tool for organizations by providing feedback, staying connected to the community, managing business relationships, and fostering a sense of belonging. It was noticed that global catastrophes tend to bring people together, by uniting people through sympathy and compassion. ERGs play a key role in this process by allowing employees to feel as though they have a safe space to discuss their frustrations and anxieties regarding crises.

In the wake of George Floyd’s death, multiple corporations allocated funds to combat racial injustice and assist underprivileged minority communities.  Donation recipients were chosen by their Black ERG. Actions like these, enacted through ERGs, can play a crucial role in progressing the diversity of an organization and fostering an inclusive workplace, where every employee feels valued by their company. The impact that ERGs have on their respective companies has progressed significantly since their initial inception, but there are several more advancements to be made to make them as effective as possible.

How does Up-Take of Fortified Home Retrofits Impact Homeowners Insurance Coverages and Protection Gaps?

Trenton McAdams

Mentor: Sebastian Awondo

Abstract

We empirically investigate changes in salient homeowners insurance coverages after houses are retrofitted to be more resilient to windstorms and receive insurance discounts on the wind portion of the premium. We employ insurance policy data in Alabama to test for differences in the moments of salient insurance policy attributes before and after the policy changes. We find a statistically significant increase in coverage for dwelling, damage on other's property, liability protection, and ordinance law with the new/modified insurance policies. On the contrary, we find a significant decrease in coverage for personal property and additional living expenses.

The Impact of Media Sensationalism and False Reporting on Investor Behavior

William Ortmayer

Mentor: Chez Sealy

Abstract

Individual investors can have a significant influence on today’s capital markets, and they are increasingly exposed to a variety of news media outlets. With a growing number of false news reporting incidences and pervasive media sensationalism surrounding public company information, it is important to understand the impact that this media exposure has on investors. We use an experiment to analyze how false news and sensationalized media reports impact investors’ judgments and decisions. Importantly, our study will allow us to examine whether investors accurately adjust for this media bias upon discovering the truth. The psychological theory of belief perseverance suggests that investors will react to false news by under-adjusting when true information is revealed, while affect theory predicts that investors will form a stronger affective connection to sensationalized information, causing an over-adjustment. We predict that individuals will anchor to negative false information, leading to under-adjustment, while positive false information will lead to over-adjustment, and these effects will be moderated by media sensationalism. This research proves especially relevant to practice as retail investing hits all-time highs and will contribute to our understanding of the impact of media on investor behavior.

Illicit Wildlife Trade: Network Interdiction

Jonathan Prell

Mentor: Burcu Keskin

Abstract

The illicit trade of wildlife is a dreadful and global reality that threatens the lives of several species around the world. The criminal economy through wildlife trafficking is estimated to be over twenty billion USD. This complex system is comparable to other illicit crimes such as drug, weapon, and human trafficking; and furthermore, it often has linkages with these other illicit trades, as least as a precursor. There has been much research and media awareness published about the conservation and moral wrongs of wildlife trade, but little is known about the supply chain operations of this illegal activity, especially from a quantitative, operations research perspective. This research reviews illicit wildlife trafficking through an operations and supply chain lens. By understanding these challenges faced in wildlife trafficking, we present opportunities to resolve them using OR/MS techniques. There will be a groundwork for future developments in detection, interdiction, and elimination of illicit wildlife trade, and ultimately, conserving nature.

Diversity Catalyzing Solutions: The Impact of Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) on COVID-19 Crisis

Ashton Royal

Mentor: Theresa Welbourne

Abstract

In more recent years, businesses have realized that diversity has an impact on customer relations. Given this and an attempt to create more workplace inclusivity, businesses have started to implement employee resource groups or ERGs. At its base level, ERGs are groups of employees who join together in their workplace based on shared characteristics or life experiences. Their basis was to give people in underrepresented groups a voice, and while that still holds true, more recently ERGs have evolved to prove their value to a business in a plethora of ways, including strengthening communications and connections as companies respond to coronavirus. ERGs have had a history of helping bring calm during rough times; for example, the inception point of ERGs was forming a Black Caucus, the precursor to current ERGs, at Xerox in the 1960s to promote diversity during the race riots. Given the current climate of the pandemic and the fact that ERGs are a powerful tool for engagement, we asked the following question: “Are ERGs effective in handling the coronavirus crisis?” This led to a qualitative data analysis of comment data given in response to 2 different surveys conducted about ERGs’ responses to coronavirus within organizations that have previously participated in the ERG Leadership Summit put on by the University of Southern California. In this survey, we found out what, if anything, ERGs are doing to help in response to COVID-19. We found that ERGs responded in a few prominent ways like disaster relief donations, social and personal support, and family support just to name a few. Our data analysis led to a literature review in order to further dive into whether ERGs are truly effective in this pandemic. Through this, we found that ERGs within proactive organizations are pivotal in strategies responding to coronavirus as well as connecting employees and communities that have been dispersed and disengaged by the virus. Given the structure of ERGs, their bottom-up approach, and the trust between ERG leaders and peers, it has proven to be an effective tool for helping employees who may feel isolated from quarantining or working from home as well as striving for better connection to communities and making an impact there. This research is important as we take what we learn from these data analyses and literature reviews and apply it to leveraging ERGs in the future, honing in on better coordination and focus in order to have a higher impact both in the day-to-day and the inevitable future crises.

Readmission and Patient Education Center Research

Blair Swindle

Mentors: Thomas English, Marilyn Whitman

Abstract

Objective:

The purpose of the study is to assess the relationship between hospital readmission rates and patient education centers. The staggering costs of readmissions are estimated at $26 billion annually (Wilson, 2019). With approximately 27% of 30-day hospital readmission rates are considered to be preventable, it is not surprising that readmissions have been dubbed the “low hanging fruit.” Consequently, reducing hospital readmission is a key policy goal due to its potential to improve quality and reduce costs. Thus, the present study aims to enhance our understanding of measures that may impact readmission rates. Of particular interest is patient education centers; that is, does providing patient education centers reduce readmission rates?

Data Sources:

Data from the American Hospital Association Annual Survey was obtained for 2017, 2018, and 2019. We also utilized publicly available data from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Specifically, CMS was used for readmission data and patient outcomes. AHA was used for hospital structural data.

Methods:

Data were combined and analyzed using Excel. Initial univariate analysis shows that readmission rates and patient education centers are related. Once the data is fully cleaned regressions models will be built in SPSS. We will conduct a linear regression that uses generalized estimating equations to account for the correlation of individual hospital readmission rates over time.

Results:

The results will be based on 2017- 2019 readmission data and its correlation to patient education centers. We will correlate data to show how education centers have the potential to decrease readmission rates across multiple hospitals. There is a negative correlation amongst different variables, specifically, heart failure, COPD, and pneumonia readmission rates, that proves with proper implementation of education centers readmissions can be improved.

Conclusions:

Reducing readmissions, particularly those that are preventable, is a key focus among industry leaders. The present study’s findings, therefore, have important implications for hospital leaders. Specifically, enhancing our understanding of the role that patient education centers play in the effort to reduce readmissions may assist hospital leaders in determining how best to invest resources.

Chatbots & Shopping Cart Abandonment

Caneel VanNostrand

Mentor: Carol Jones

Abstract

The abandonment of online shopping carts results in approximately $4.6 trillion lost in revenue for retailers each year (Bakker, 2016), leading to an abundance of research in the space trying to understand what can be done to convert the abandoners and bring them to complete their transactions. Now, thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic, e-commerce has grown at an unprecedented rate, only increasing the importance of being able to understand and control the process of getting online shoppers to the finish line completing their purchases. Some online retailers have started using pop-up chatbots to interact with shoppers and offer assistance in hopes that these chatbots will create personal interaction and provide the necessary information to consumers to encourage them to complete their purchases. The fact that consumers often shop differently when purchasing items they feel embarrassed about is well-documented (Blair & Roese, 2013), but what this process may look like online and how this may relate to abandoned purchases is not yet understood well. While online shopping is often assumed to be a private experience and therefore not an avenue by which social embarrassment occurs, a chatbot introduces a social agent to the shopping experience. This ongoing research aims to understand if these chatbots are therefore leading to increased embarrassment in the online purchase of certain products and therefore increased shopping cart abandonment, and if so, what can be done to mitigate the chatbots’ negative impact. Initial results confirm that while chatbots have a positive impact on purchases of non-embarrassing products, they negatively impact purchases of embarrassing products like condoms. Ongoing research seeks to understand what factors may moderate this relationship and reduce the social risk the chatbots create.

Locus of Control and Charitable Giving

Connor Best

Mentors: Laura Razzolini & Mike Price

Abstract

The primary goal of this research is to examine how locus of control impacts charitable giving. Locus of control is the extent to which an individual believes they have control over the events that occur in their own life. Studying the effect locus of control has on charitable donations helps to identify the reasons people choose to give to nonprofit organizations. It also serves as an identification of what kinds of individuals are likely to give. Prior research on locus of control has studied its impact on entrepreneurship and how individuals approach the job search process, but there is a lack of existing research on locus of control within the field of economics of charity. This research seeks to fill this gap. Through both surveys and a lab experiment, data will be obtained on locus of control and charitable giving. This data will then be analyzed using Stata to determine how locus of control affects the size of charitable donations and someone’s likelihood to give.

Self-Protection Under Compound Risk and Uncertainty

Nathan Brinkley

Mentor: Paan Jindapon

Video presentation

Abstract

We conduct an experiment designed to study elicit risk management behavior and their effects on disaster risk mitigation and insurance purchase. Resident homeowners in Tuscaloosa and Mobile are given choices against risk and uncertainty in both monetary loss and gain domains, and in both general and framed contexts. Demographics such as sex, marital status, household income level, and insurance policy premiums are taken to test potential differences across populations. This study seeks to understand factors influencing Alabama homeowners’ decisions to invest in windstorm loss mitigation. Homeowners’ participation in this research is necessary to help in the design of improved homeowners’ centered solutions for managing windstorm (tornadoes and hurricane) risks. The results of this study have significant policy implications on the design, selection, and promotion of specific windstorm resistant features.

Continued Strategic Marketing for Pickens County Medical Center

Caroline Brysacz

Mentor: Jef Naidoo

Video presentation

Abstract

We initiated a marketing campaign with Pickens County Medical Center (PCMC) to develop and distribute targeted advertising to increase utilization of all hospital services with an emphasis on preventive medicine. Rural hospitals are in a crisis and are rapidly closing throughout the United States. Contributing factors to these hospital closures include unfavorable demographics (“aging, poor, and declining populations”), the financial state of the hospital, and changes in delivery of care (Wishner et al, 2016). PCMC is losing its market share and has services that are under-utilized. In addition, PCMC provides a large amount of charity care which cuts into the revenues. The closure of PCMC would have a devastating impact on the county. It would force residents to find healthcare in other counties and would force the closure of the largest employer in the county, the federal prison. In previous years, the hospital has marketed based on the premise of "use the hospital or lose it," which called into question the quality of the hospital. The quality of the hospital is one of the top factors when deciding to pursue healthcare outside their home county (Wynveen, 2009). Promoting the quality of the hospital through trials of various promotional materials is key to changing the perception of the hospital and increase utilization. Data is still being generated but we will conduct a comparison of the various types of engagements we use and determined the most impactful ones. Facebook posts have varied in form and message, and we will collect more data before doing predictive analysis. When initially completing this project in 2019, Facebook engagement has far exceeded a typical Facebook page of the same size, yet lags behind comparable rural hospitals in Alabama. Two rural hospitals had engagement rates of 45% and 10%, while PCMC had engagement rate of 6% in the same time period. Testimonials also fostered the most engagement. Further analysis will be conducted to identify the gaps between PCMC and other rural hospital marketing. Testimonials with people well-integrated in the county performed the best. Photos and videos had the highest engagement. We are continuing to gather data to test our results of last year of testimonials having the highest engagement.

Impact of Immigration Policy on Mexican Immigrant Wages: A Generational Analysis

Isabella Cooley

Mentor: Kimberly Stowers

Abstract

As the debate around Latin American immigration intensifies in the United States political arena, gaining an understanding of the long-term financial effects for immigrants can provide telling information about the effects of US foreign policy. Through the joint analysis of wages of immigrants currently residing in the US, the number of immigrants crossing the border annually, and the policies that the US has employed in regards to immigration over the past 40 years, we can begin to understand how US immigration policy relates to the growing immigration crisis.

To complete the analysis, I used information from the Department of Homeland Security website to track the number of Latin Americans immigrating to the US annually. Then, using Simmons Insight, Statistical Insight, and Statistical Abstract, I recorded calculated wages of Latin American immigrants over 40 years. Finally, I utilized HG.org to collect information regarding US policies in relation to immigration and marked the dates they went into effect. In order to begin drawing connections between the number of immigrants crossing and the laws being passed, I combined the information from these three searches into a comparison line graph (number of immigrants vs wages), with the dates of US laws marked as time stamps. An additional analysis was completed looking at this information specific to Mexico-US immigration, with Mexican policies also being recorded.

From this information, I expect to be able to demonstrate how United States immigration policy is related to the number of immigrants crossing the southern border, and how policies can disproportionately affect immigrant economic status for generations. A primary limitation of this research is the inability to accurately track wages from immigrants who are being paid “under the table.” However, despite this limitation, this study lays a foundation for analyzing what policies are most effective in creating a permanent and beneficial solution for immigration and promoting financial prosperity for Latin American immigrant communities residing in the United States

Examining Administrations: Ability and Effort in Executive Systems of Government

William Cope

Mentor: Paan Jindapon

Video presentation

Abstract

The purpose of this experiment is to compare presidential executive systems versus appointed executive systems. In a system with an executive President, the President most seek election against a competing candidate and is therefore incentivized to put forward all of the effort necessary to defeat his/her opponent, be re-elected, and remain in office. In the case of an appointed executive, however, there is no opponent candidate that the appointed executive must compete with. The appointed executive must merely remain popular enough to avoid being removed from his/her position, and therefore will put in only enough effort to be popular enough to retain control of the office. Drawing from these assumptions, we hypothesize that presidential executive systems incentivize effort more than appointed executive systems do.

We construct a two-player Tullock contest and a single-player decision game where the player’s outcome is a function of their own effort and ability and their opponent’s effort and ability to test these assumptions. We examine the effects that modifying variables such as player ability and the initial probability of winning or losing the contest will have on contest outcomes.

The New Age of NCAA Sports and Player Ranking

Sidney DiNatale

Mentor: Robert Brooks

Abstract

The debate for compensating NCAA players branding rights, advertising or athletic performance has been astronomical over the last five years. As of Fall 2019, the organization has moved to allow players to receive financial compensation for their name, brand, and image. The NCAA Board of Governors are collecting various stakeholder’s opinions across all three national divisions: current and former student-athletes, coaches, presidents, faculty, and commissioners. Between the opinions of their stakeholders, as well as interactions with legislators, the Board will obtain feedback and other results in order to append these laws into the Association. Their discussions will continue until April 2020, however, each division is asked to implement their new rules immediately, but halt changes after January 2021. 

The NCAA is a complicated and multifaceted organization, thus the focus of this research is on College Football. Looking between qualitative and quantitative defining variables of the ESPN Top Ranked 50 ranked players, my goal is to determine quantitative variables that will statistically support any athlete’s rank. The idea that birth order, hometown, jersey numbers, and other defining characteristics of one's' childhood development could strongly influence their rank or athletic prowess has been a driving force to the cultivation of this research.

A Literature Review: The Effects and Studies on Student-Athlete Transfers

Veronica Douglas

Mentor: Robert Hammond

Abstract

The focus of research is a literature review on student-athlete transfers including transfer rates, reasons and rules for transferring, and public opinion concerning the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)’s role. Within the last couple of years, the rates of student-athlete transfers have been increasing in sports especially men’s and women’s basketball, football, and men’s ice hockey. Due to these increases, the NCAA has created barriers for transferring athletes, such as the “academic year in residence” requirement. The residence requirement says that transferring student-athletes must sit out for one year after transferring, and the NCAA grants exemptions and waivers for certain types of transfers. I focused my study on academic journal articles that documented the effect of student-athlete transfers, not only for the academic and mental effect of the students but also on the universities.

I also studied the public opinion of student-athlete transfers and overall opinions of the NCAA, including governing roles such as the graduate student policy, the rules of transfers, and the residence requirement policy. In recent years, the NCAA has changed its policies regarding their governing roles, especially regarding the graduate student transfer policies. I analyzed those changes and their effect on student-athletes in regard to stated academic, coaching, and personal transfer reasonings. These changes mostly affect African American students by decreasing their graduation rates and the ability to transfer from small community colleges to four-year universities to further their academic and athletic careers. My results concluded that the transfer process for student-athletes has an underlying negative effect on academic goals and graduation rates. I also found that in public opinion, the NCAA policies benefit large teams and conferences such as the Big Ten and SEC over individual athletes.

Reviewing New Venture Incubation & Acceleration: Implications for Research, Teaching, & Practice

Riley Doyle

Mentors: Paul Drnevich, Kris Irwin, Craig Armstrong

Video presentation

Abstract

Incubators and Accelerators focus on assisting entrepreneurs in turning early-stage ventures into profitable businesses by providing office space, technology, legal, and administrative support resources, coaching, and other mentoring services needed to launch, capitalize, and grow a venture. Through this multi-method study, we review, integrate, and examine the current state of academic research on incubators, accelerators, related university-based or -connected programs. Using a resource and capabilities perspective and applying a value creation and capture logic, our objective is to discern the contributory roles for what type of value is created and who captures it among the key stakeholders including entrepreneurs, institutions, investors, universities, and the ecosystems in which they operate.

Through doing so, we provide a typology of the current state of research on these subjects in terms of what questions have been asked, what findings have been supported, and what their implications are for research, teaching, and practice. Key findings indicate that incubators may provide more value for novice entrepreneurs than experienced ones, that business model alignment matters most with accelerators, and that in general, when tied to a university, such programs may divert scarce resources away from other types of innovation activity and decrease patentable knowledge generation. Through this review and synthesis, we contribute to these research streams by offering implications and an agenda for future academic research and entrepreneurial practice.

Developing versus Developed Country Foreign Direct Investment (FDI): A Comparison of Factors Affecting Multinational Enterprise (MNE) Entry and Exit

Abigail Gorbett

Mentors: Paul Drnevich, Kris Irwin

Video presentation

Abstract

Increasing FDI to developing countries is an important goal of many international development organizations and policymakers, being that increased investment can result in economic growth for the host economy (Zhang, 1999). Research on foreign direct investment (FDI) focuses mostly on developed countries, sometimes at the expense of better understanding the issues of the emerging other half of FDI from and among developing countries. The home-country environment, particularly in terms of its institutional quality and political stability, plays a significant role in a firm’s strategy. Comparing the factors that differ between developed and developing country MNEs in their FDI decisions can provide insight as to which factors allow firms to develop capabilities to excel in areas of high risk. In addition, whether a firm exits a developing country, and what causes them to exit, can demonstrate if a developing country MNE can better withstand the challenging institutional environment of a developing country.

In this proposal, we focus on measuring firm-specific factors and their role in the relationship between home-country institutional environment and FDI location (Wu & Chen, 2014). In doing so, we provide insights and implications for both research and practice by expanding our understanding of the institutional factors that contribute/prohibit successful FDI investment in developing countries. In our initial findings, we find support for the proposal that the factors influencing FDI entry and exits into developing countries differ by firms in developing and developed countries. In particular, we show that firms in developing countries more familiar with similar operating conditions will be both more likely to enter and less likely to exit than firms in developed countries. Firms in developing countries will also be less deterred to enter and less likely to exit due to uncertain macroeconomic events, and are less deterred to enter a country with an uncertain regulatory environment.

Shopping While Poor: The Impact of Government Assistance on Purchase Decisions and Consumer Emotions

Martha Groninger & Erin Obrien

Mentor: Stacey Robinson

Abstract

An estimated 42 million Americans struggle to afford food. Often referred to as the bottom of the pyramid, this underresearched group of consumers may live on fixed incomes, live with disabilities, and have children. The U.S. government spent over $6.3 billion providing financial assistance to an estimated 12.4% of the U.S. population with its Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). SNAP supported consumers to access their benefits via Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards. Similar to debit and bank (credit) cards, EBT cards are used at retail outlets to pay for food. While previous consumer research examines societal perceptions of SNAP recipients and their purchase decisions (Olson et al. 2016), the present research evaluates how payment form (i.e., EBT card v. bank card), as well as the shopping environment (i.e., budget vs. high-end retailer), impacts consumer emotion and choice. While the emotional impact of using an EBT card is of interest (e.g., SNAP recipients who are depressed may be less motivated and therefore less likely to become self-sufficient), the products purchased by these consumers is also worthy of study.

As such, this work examines the effect of EBT cards on consumer emotions and product choice. Our findings reveal that consumers shopping with EBT cards experience a number of negative emotions such as shame, guilt, and a lack of worthiness. In addition to these negative emotions (e.g., shame, guilt, unworthiness), our research shows consumers shopping with EBT cards choose private-label brands over national brands in a budget retail environment (e.g., Wal-Mart) compared to a high-end retail setting (e.g., Whole Foods). What’s more, EBT users are also more likely to choose healthy items. These findings suggest retailers and policymakers may benefit from better understanding of how SNAP recipients make important decisions related to both spending and nutrition.

Quantitative Analysis for Elemental Spectra of Archeological Glasses: Exploring the Feasibility of ED-XRF through Fundamental Parameters Calibrations

Hayden Hilkemeyer

Mentor: Elliot Blair

Abstract

Objectives

Energy dispersive x-ray fluorescence (ED-XRF) is one of the most compelling new anthropological and archeological practices due to its nondestructive, convenient, and timely analysis of artifacts. Prior research has proven the efficacy of this practice for materials such as pottery and metals but has yet to prove its efficacy for glass. This research project aimed to evaluate the efficacy of this practice using a fundamental parameters approach to calibration construction.

Data Sources

ED-XRF spectra were gathered in the .csv file format from ten glass certified reference materials (CRMs) and four test samples using a Bruker Tracer III SD. These ten CRMs were sourced from the Society for Glass Technology (SGT), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), esteemed glassmaking company Corning, and the Joint Research Centre of the European Union (BCR). Two spectra were collected for each glass - one utilizing a helium flush and lower x-ray voltages to capture low-density elements (those with an atomic number less than or equal to 26 for the purposes of this study), and another utilizing higher x-ray voltages and a filter to attenuate low-density elements from the reading to capture high-density elements.

Methods

After brief explorations of commonly occurring elements in each glass spectra in the elemental spectra software ARTAX, configurations were determined in the elemental spectra software PyMCA according to each data collection method for the CRMs and the commonly occurring elements measured. These configurations were used by PyMCA to calculate the part per million concentrations of elements in separate batches for both low-density elements and high-density elements. These calculated concentrations were compared in Microsoft Excel to the true concentrations for the CRMs for each element in order to construct a linear regression for each element, excluding noted outliers and samples where it was known that there was no presence of a certain element. This regression was applied to calculated values to determine predicted values, then assessing their difference from true values using an absolute percent error for each element of each test sample.

Results

Certain low-density elements (Si, K, Ca) more commonly found and important in the identification of archeological glasses were found to have lower percent errors. Most trace elements (which vary greatly in proportion from one glass to another) were far more difficult to account for and had much higher percent errors.

Conclusions

The fundamental parameters calibrations utilized were fairly effective at determining the concentrations of elements occurring in glass samples in both greater frequency and greater amount. Further CRMs are needed to construct a calibration that features greater variation among data points for the purposes of reducing the effect of leverage points in trace elements, and that features a larger sample size in general for the purpose of more accurate and consistent regression construction.

Fake News In Social Media: Effects on Vaccine Usage and Developments

Hays Hooten

Mentor: Susan Fant

Abstract

Fake News In Social Media: Effects on Vaccine Usage and Developments 

People receive news updates constantly each day from various news platforms. These platforms have the ability to distribute information widely. Reading similar versions of headlining stories from different people as well as robots can make it hard to distinguish what is true or false. Our society is both consciously and subconsciously absorbing “fake news” every single day on social media. Fake news is news that contains deliberate disinformation to deceive readers. My research is studying the effects of fake news on social media platforms for the development and usage of vaccines.

The University of Alabama has partnered with the University of Minnesota’s “The Mono Project” which is currently developing a vaccine that could potentially prevent Epstein Barr Virus (EBV)-caused diseases, such as infectious mononucleosis, cancers, systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), celiac disease, and multiple sclerosis (MS). A vaccine could also potentially prevent severe illness or even death from EBV infection following transplantation, especially in pediatric patients who have not been exposed to the virus or built up an immunity.

Through running the Mono Project’s social media accounts, I am able to experience first hand the negative associations people make with the word vaccine. A research article by Andew Wakefield (1999), claimed there was a link between the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine in accordance with an increasing autism rate in British children. This was an article published in The Lancet, a prestigious medical journal. The paper has since been discredited and Wakefield lost his medical license (Public Health). There have been several studies since, but none have linked autism and vaccines. This is a prime example of how one false claim can spiral into a frenzy of fake news. Since that article was released not many people know that it has no scientific truth to it and that it was retracted. One of the dangers of fake news is that it can be extremely difficult to tell what is true and what is false. Individuals and organizations are able to post an article or discuss a topic on social media and the public will believe it is true. These organizations are for the most part well respected by the general population. This means that if they announce that a doctor released an article saying that vaccines are a direct link to autism people will believe them even if the claim is completely false. 

Researchers have now linked falling immunization rates to recent resurgences of vaccine-preventable diseases. In 2010, California saw 9,120 cases of whooping cough, more than any year since the whooping cough vaccine was introduced in the 1940s. Ten infants too young to be vaccinated died of whooping cough during the outbreak. The CDC warns that events like these will become more frequent and harder to control if vaccination rates continue to fall (Public Health). This is extremely dangerous for the United States and the whole world. The World Health Organization is concerned about the fake news associated with the coronavirus outbreak. This misinformation is shared mainly through social media posts and causes unnecessary fear and chaos around the globe (NPR).

As we move and advance into the future of technology, it seems to be pushing us back into the past with vaccines. If social media users were not sharing articles and talking about how vaccines are having horrible side effects then there may not be a rise in vaccine-preventable diseases. To keep our country healthy the immunization rates cannot fall below the 95% threshold and they have due to people no longer trusting modern medicine (Carrieri, Madio, Principe). When a population's immunization rates fall below the threshold it makes the country more susceptible to disease. 

The Mono Project is aiming to develop the first vaccine for the Epstein-Barr Virus as well as trying to change the stigma around vaccines through social media. Social media users can aimlessly comment on our social media posts talking about how horrible vaccines are when in reality they save lives every single day. My research is going to demonstrate the relationship between fake news on social media platforms and effects on the development and usage of vaccines.
 

Gauging the Importance and Long Term Effects of Study Abroad on Professional Life

Cassandra Horkan

Mentor: Diana Gomez

Abstract

The world is becoming increasingly globalized, with the economy of the United States being among the topmost global countries today. The direction of businesses around the world and especially companies in the United States is moving towards a global economy. Therefore, a greater need for new graduates to have a global mindset when they begin their careers is presented. For students, studying abroad is the way to introduce themselves to the world and establish that mindset. This research is an analysis of data from students at the University of Alabama to find the importance of study abroad in their careers post-graduation. Moreover, this study will include an agenda for further research. The research focuses on data from various surveys sent to graduated students asking questions related to study abroad experience and the level of international interaction in their careers.

BeatBox to Future Proof – How Twenty-something Year Old Entrepreneurs Created a Thriving, Multi-product Enterprise

Gretchen Johnson

Mentor: Lou Marino

Video presentation

Abstract

This case study tracks the development of BeatBox from its inception in 2013 to its restructuring into a multi-product start-up, Future Proof, by 2019. More generally, this case study identifies the successes and pitfalls that any start-up can face: large investments, tremendous growth, supply chain difficulties, and ever-increasing demand. Additionally, it highlights the unique position and niche market that BeatBox created and how success in this category led the BeatBox team to expand into the exploding categories of hard seltzer and canned wine. Finally, this case leaves room for the reader to consider what specifically made BeatBox so successful, if restructuring made the most sense, if the new product lines follow current trends, and what Future Proof can explore next to continue finding success.

The Value of Information in Sequential Contests

Sabrina Jung

Mentor: Paan Jindapon

Abstract

A contest is defined as any situation in which agents invest irreversible and costly efforts toward winning a prize. The field of contest theory has been developed to aid in the understanding and designing of contests and has applications in sports competitions, elections, litigation, insurrections, and more. Risk preferences refer to the attitudes people hold towards risk and is an important factor in behavior and decision making. The goal of this project is to understand risk preferences and contest investment decision by designing an experiment to analyze risk preferences in a specific contest. The Tullock contest is one of the most well-studied types of contests in which two players compete to win a prize by expending resources in order to increase their chance of winning. Many variations of Tullock contests have been studied, for example, contests where the odds of winning are not known by the players, one player has an advantage, or one player moves before the other.

For this project, we will be addressing a version of the Tullock contest where one player moves before the other, the first/second mover advantage puzzle. That is, we will be attempting to discern whether the first or second mover in a sequential order contest has the advantage based on risk preferences. An experiment published in 2000 found that although the first mover should theoretically have the advantage a second-mover advantage was actually observed. Additionally, Dr. Jindapon has predicted that the first/second mover advantage puzzle depends on the risk preferences of the first and second movers.

The purpose of this project is to evaluate the investment behaviors of the first and second movers in a contest in order to determine how much a player will invest to increase their chance of winning a prize, how much the second mover will invest to see what the first mover invested, and how much the first mover will invest to prevent the second mover from seeing their investment.

Participants will be students at the University of Alabama. Data sources will be whether the student was a first or second mover, how much money they invested to increase their chances of winning, and how much money they invested to prevent the other player from seeing their investment (if first mover) or see the other player’s investment (if second mover). If there is a second-mover advantage, the first mover will elect to hide information. The initial trial run will be on paper, allowing participants to write the amount that they want to invest in each scenario. There will be 12 rounds containing two different scenarios, each scenario has a control. After the trial run, appropriate changes will be made to the design and implementation of the experiment, and a simulation will be created for this contest using oTree, a software platform for economics experiments.

Interest rate swaps: Floating vs Fixed.

Matt Jung

Mentor: Robert Brooks

Abstract

Interest rates come in two main types, fixed and floating. A fixed interest rate is one that is constant and does not change over the course of the loan. A floating (sometimes referred to as variable) interest rate is one that changes over time. These floating interest rates always have a basis for their interest rates such as LIBOR or other benchmarks. As these benchmarks change they then also affect the rate on a floating interest rate loan. Interest rate swaps are a financial tool that allows companies, banks, or anyone with a loan to enter into an agreement that changes the interest rate on that loan from fixed to floating or vice versa. 

The purpose of my research is to predict whether a fixed or floating interest rate will be more cost-effective and which one will save companies more money. In order to predict this, I will be collecting historical data on these interest rate swaps daily rate as well as the LIBOR rate. I am using the Bloomberg Terminal, a campus resource with vast amounts of financial data and tools, in order to collect a large amount of data from 1988 to the present. I am using Rstudio, an open-source data analytic coding software, to analyze this data. I will be plotting this data into multiple graphs in order to visualize and to predict or confirm the results and findings we have. I will run multiple tests and analyses to confirm which one (fixed or floating) saves more money historically and use this to predict which one will be most cost-effective now and in the future. One of the analyses will be to calculate the amount of money saved or lost with each type of interest rate based on a theoretical loan, assumed date range, and the historical data. This will show in dollars how much a company could have saved using a certain method of investing in interest rate swaps.

Almost every company, bank, and the individual has debt or has had debt in the past. Our research aims to gather knowledge and evidence to find the best debt financing strategy that will have over 30 years of data to back it up. The use of this research could allow companies to save millions of dollars on interest payments as well as give investors the information to invest in interest rate swaps with low risk and good returns.

Anchoring and Overconfidence: Risk-Taking Behavior in Fund Managers

Asaf Katzir

Mentor: Christopher Whaley

Abstract

The average American investor often seeks financial return through intermediary institutions rather than directly purchasing securities in financial markets. One of these intermediaries is mutual funds, in which $16 trillion in U.S.-based assets are currently held. Investors benefit from understanding risk profiles of financial instruments which allows for more informed decisions on the allocation of their capital. For mutual funds, one notable resource that many individuals, institutions, and financial advisors employ to assist in decision making is the use of the Morningstar star rating system. Mutual funds are rated on a five-star scale, with five stars indicating top performance, and one, or even no stars suggesting subpar performance.

Existing literature gives substantial weight to competitive and efficient security pricing in comparison to that of behavioral responses within financial firms. In this study, we investigate how mutual fund managers may alter investment behavior given particular star ratings or star rating shifts. This study extracts archival data from the Morningstar Direct database and runs regression discontinuities to determine if Morningstar rating dynamics impact the implied level of risk of any given mutual fund. Using a panel of U.S. open-end, large-cap mutual funds, historical star-rating is linked to the overall risk of the fund. Initial evidence shows that there are changes to fund manager risk-taking behavior with subsequent mean regression. We further conduct a difference-in-difference design to estimate any counter-factual evidence using the same dataset. Evidence using this approach is mixed and we provide a further discussion of the resulting implications.

The Economic Implications of School Closures in the United States

Colton Lapp

Mentor: Peter Brummund

Abstract

There is no standardized national procedure that schools adhere to when deciding whether or not to close school due to inclement weather. Casual observers of "snow days" in the United States will be quick to note that there is a large discrepancy between the weather conditions necessary to justify canceling school for a day. To explain this phenomenon, we hypothesize that states/counties are making investment decisions ex-ante concerning snow infrastructure that creates the different average weather thresholds that schools are willing to close for. To test this hypothesis, we collected school closure data from state boards of education from around the United States and are matching that closure data with corresponding weather data on snow and temperature. Under our economic hypothesis, we expect to find no marginal effect of additional snow on the number of snow days a school has in a year, once state fixed effects are accounted for. Our regression results will reveal insights into the decision-making process of policymakers and educators around the United States and may point to a need for some school districts to close school less or more often. 

A Narrative of Oppression: The Historical and Literary Presentation of the Omride Dynasty

Daniel Lee

Mentor: Theodore Trost

Abstract

In this paper, I analyze the economic standing of the Omride dynasty within the historical narrative developed by archeological finds and that of the Biblical Narrative of tradition. Comparisons are made between this dynasty's activities and those of the previous monarchs. Once this analysis is complete I theorize about the Biblical Narrative's decision to make these changes.

Digital Marketing Strategies in the Pharmaceutical Industry

Hannah Marlow, Linsey Medlin, David Ford, Natalie Vaughn

Mentor: Jeff Lucas

Abstract

The MIS Capstone team has been working with client Galt Pharmaceuticals, a startup out of Atlanta, Georgia, to provide a strategic roadmap for improving prescriber outreach.  In order to fulfill this objective, the Capstone team conducted research on Galt’s current marketing strategy and strategies of other pharmaceutical companies. The team’s goal in research was to gain a thorough understanding of current problems and areas of opportunity within the pharmaceutical industry,  particularly with regard to digital marketing strategies and prescriber outreach. The team interviewed various industry professionals and supplemented these interviews with online research.

Through web research and talking with pharmaceutical representatives, the team learned that the cost and the science behind the drug are important when reaching out to prescribers.  Pharmaceutical representatives and the relationships they make with both physicians and pharmacies are the most effective channel to promote and sell a company's product. Often, these representatives meet with physicians for a short period of time to briefly inform the physician on their product and the type of patients who would benefit from it.  All of the pharmaceutical representatives and doctors who were interviewed emphasized the importance of a patient-focused strategy.  

From looking at various small pharmaceutical companies’ websites, the team noticed that many companies spend a large amount of time and money on direct and indirect marketing.  It is typical for companies to include blogs, articles, statistics, shareholder reports, and transparency reports on their corporate websites.  The purpose of this is to provide potential customers with updated information on the brand’s products and to create a sense of transparency and trust in the company.  Some companies even have social media handles or links on the corporate website, and some offer customers the ability to sign up for emails to receive routine updates about the company.  

Statistical Analysis of the Houston Astros Cheating Scandal

Michael O'Grady

Mentor: Erik Johnson

Abstract

In 2017, the Houston Astros became the best baseball team in the world by winning the World Series over the Los Angeles Dodger. Since, the MLB has come forward and confirmed that multiple cheating tactics were used by the Houston Astros to steal pitching signs from their opponents, allowing the Astros' batters to know what type of pitch was about to be thrown before the ball even left the pitcher's hand.

One specific tactic was the use of banging trash bins during players' at-bats to signal the upcoming pitch type to the current batter. Using a database of all the instances of audible trash can bangs, statistical analysis shows the extent of how much this cheating helped the Houston Astros succeed in the 2017 season. Future analysis of other MLB teams from other seasons hopes to detect unusual batter behavior and other potential cheating.

Single Item Constructs in Industrial and Organizational Psychology

Amber Payne

Mentor: Russell Matthews

Abstract

Surveys in the field of industrial and organizational psychology are used to improve crucial human resource functions within an organization such as onboarding, retention, employee satisfaction, and pay. However, many of these surveys are lengthy and redundant, which discourages survey response and completion and fosters satisficing, the behavior that occurs when respondents answer questions adequately but not to the best of their ability. This can skew the data, misrepresent validity measures, and lead to inaccurate results. Our goal of this project is to minimize these negative effects by developing single items to best represent a construct using both its definition and the relevance that potential respondents find between the item and the construct. By adopting the use of single-item measures, surveys can give human resource professionals a more accurate understanding of needed improvements, helping both the employees and the organization overall.

Application of Walt Disney World Training and On-boarding Techniques to the Automotive Manufacturing Industry

Avery Perry

Mentor: Russell Matthews

Abstract

Walt Disney World employs around 60,000 hourly employees and uses unique training and on-boarding techniques to engage them in company culture early on. This has positively affected their employee turnover rates and led to high engagement and commitment. I have examined three techniques that Walt Disney World uses in training and on-boarding their hourly employees, cross-referencing them with proven statistics concerning each technique’s effectiveness. I aim to compare these techniques with those currently used by automotive manufacturing companies in Alabama. The automotive manufacturing industry employs around 60,000 Alabamians and is a vital part of our economy. Currently, companies like Mercedes-Benz and Hyundai rely heavily on training centers and online training for their manufacturing personnel. This industry tends to report low employee engagement and high turnover, which is not optimal. This research shows that implementing Walt Disney World’s training and on-boarding techniques can positively affect turnover rates, employee engagement, and total quality management. 

Applications of Microservices in IS Research

Rachel Porter

Mentor: Greg Bott

Abstract

Microservices is an architectural design pattern in which large systems are delivered through a collection of extremely small, independently deployable services or functions.  Prior to 2014 microservices did not appear in the research literature.  In the years since there has been an increasing amount of energy spent on the topic, but this research has been exclusively focused on engineering principles and uses of the pattern.  The goal of this study is to introduce microservices to the business research community.  The aim is to define the pattern for the IS community, outline the prior research on the topic, and identify research streams within the IS research community in which the impact of this emerging design pattern deserves further investigation.

Investigation of Wildlife Trafficking Supply Chains

Jonathan Oakley Prell

Mentor: Burcu Keskin

Video presentation

Abstract

The illicit trade of wildlife is a dreadful and global reality that threatens life on Earth. Each year, $23 million USD is generated in the criminal economy through wildlife trafficking. This complex system is comparable, shares many resources, and has linkages with other illicit trades such as drug, weapon, and human trafficking. There has been much research and media awareness published about the conservation and moral wrongs of wildlife trade, but little is known about the supply chains behind this illegal activity. This research highlights findings that have been observed through an operations and supply chain approach to this issue. By understanding these challenges and opportunities faced in wildlife trafficking, there will be groundwork to future developments in the detection and elimination of this illegal trade.

Improving Patient Outcomes: Developing a Mobile Application to Allow for Early Detection of Preeclampsia

Jemarcus Pullins

Mentor: Kimberly Stowers

Abstract

A mobile application (app) was developed to aid in the identification of symptoms of preeclampsia, an often untreated pregnancy complication that leads to high blood pressure and damage to organs like the liver and kidney. The goal of the app was to help identify early symptoms of preeclampsia and expedite patient-doctor communication. In order to assess the quality of the app, a Qualtrics study was created to collect public opinions on the usability of the app. The data will be collected and analyzed using a mixed-methods approach, collecting both qualitative and quantitative data analyzed separately and simultaneously. The information from the study will be used to make improvements to the app. Once finalized, this app will help to increase the prevalence of technology in the wellness environment. It will also help pregnant women recognize early symptoms of preeclampsia and get treatment in a timely manner.

Bankruptcy Commonalities

Lance Rodriguez

Mentors: Josh Pierce, Rachel Li

Abstract

I am analyzing 10k and proxy statements from the year previous of a company's bankrupt filing year. Some areas that we are the top executives' age, start firm-year, start position year, salary, bonus, total compensation, and their biographies. 

Turning Diversity Upside Down: The Impact of Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) on Growth

Ashton Royal

Mentor: Theresa Welbourne

Abstract

In more recent years, businesses have realized that diversity has an impact on customer relations. Given this and an attempt to create more workplace inclusivity, businesses have started to implement employee resource groups, or ERGs. At its base level, ERGs are groups of employees who join together in their workplace based on shared characteristics or life experiences. Their basis was to give people in underrepresented groups a voice, and while that still holds true, more recently ERGs have evolved to prove their value to a business in a plethora of ways, including talent management, innovation, and employee development to name a few. This led us to complete a literature review in which we found that ERGs impact growth in the following areas: personal, ERG, and overall company growth. In our data analysis of 2018 ERG Summit Research Findings as well as extending our literature review, we found that there are lower scores when it comes to the ERGs’ impact on the overall company growth. We thought it was strange and interesting how ERGs had such a positive impact when it came to personal and professional growth and how that did not translate at all into overall company growth. With this finding, we decided to extend our research to a second part to look at why there is a disconnect for ERGs impact on overall company growth. This consisted of another literature review as well as analyzing each company’s website from those that are listed on Great Place to Work’s Best Workplaces for Diversity™ 2019 list. We analyzed how information for ERGs was presented on each website and how readily available that information was in terms of ease of finding it. We quantified this by counting how many clicks it took to get to information on ERGs, if the information was available at all, and we saw how that coordinated to both its Great Place to Work’s Best Workplaces for Diversity™ 2019 ranking and its Glassdoor reviews. The second part of this research is still in progress. 

Broadening State Capacity

Andrew Schmidt

Mentor: Traviss Cassidy

Abstract

The paper “Broadening State Capacity” finds the effects of the introduction and change of the State Income Tax: a critical component of state capacity. Using archived data on the State Income Tax from 1900-2006, the difference-in-difference research design allowed for the analysis of the staggered introduction of state income taxes. An increase in the State Income Tax was found to lead only to short term gains in government revenue and expenditure. In the long term, taxpayers migrate from the state of tax introduction or increase to new states with no income tax thus shrinking the tax base and offsetting the gains of the tax increase. Per capita revenue and expenditure were, however, found to permanently increase. This migration effect was found to affect higher income earners the most, and so the migrant outflow has the potential to be of sufficient size to completely negate the increase in government revenue.

The paper also finds a significant difference between the introduction and expansion of State Income Taxes. The introduction of a new tax is found to have a greater migratory effect than the expansion of an old tax, even if the actual amounts that taxpayers pay are the same. Two explanations for this finding are administrative cost and expected tax growth. It is much more difficult for a state to introduce a new income tax than to expand an old one as the administrative structures necessary to collect and enforce the tax are expensive and complicated. Taxpayers are also more likely to expect a new income tax to be increased in the future, thus factoring the future tax rate into their decision making; while an existing tax raise has no further effects beyond the concrete increase in the rate. My job as it relates to this paper is to collect more data on the introduction of state income taxes pre-1941, providing a more accurate and complete model.

Beyond average health: higher moments in health distributions

Nickolas Schwartz

Mentor: Chris Whaley

Abstract

This project investigates the impact of classic variables like medical care and lifestyle choices on the mean, variance and skewness of several health distributions. We achieve this by positing health as an output from a stochastic production process, a seemingly practical advantage over much of the deterministic literature. We leverage this unique approach to estimate how a set of explanatory variables impact the conditional moments of several health distributions. We then use these moments in a maximum entropy framework to analyze the shape impact on these health outcomes. We find evidence that medical care utilization significantly impacts the variance and skewness of the distribution of the ten leading causes of death in the United States. 

A Data-driven Investigation of Inventory Management Practices

Trip Starkey

Mentor: Nickolas Freeman

Abstract

Inventory management has been extensively studied in the operations management literature. Several best practices regarding inventory management have emerged from this body this research and can be found in numerous textbooks and trade publications on the topic. Although inventory management has received a lot of attention in the literature and has clear implications on companies’ bottom lines, there is little empirical evidence regarding inventory management techniques used in practice. In this research, we harvest publicly available data from a large retailer of home improvement products and use this data to study their inventory management practices.

Uniquely Alabama: Community Engagement across UA

Taylor Steen

Mentor: Chapman Greer

Abstract

This project, done in coordination with the General Education Taskforce, is an in-depth inventory of the efforts of the individual colleges within the University to give back to the community by means of community engagement and outreach programs. This will serve as a benchmark for the inclusion of a University-wide civic engagement requirement in the new core curriculum being designed by (and for) UA. It is imperative that the new core emphasize aspects unique to UA, distinguishing it to draw attention from a greater number of prospective students. Through this study, we can answer the question, "what is uniquely Alabama?", allowing for a more robust core.

A New Approach to Valuation of Fuel Economy

Tyler Trupke & Jed Henderson

Mentors: Alecia Cassidy, Traviss Cassidy

Abstract

We have compiled a dataset containing historical automobile characteristics from multiple sources for the years 1984—2009. It contains revisions to fuel economy labeling for each car. For a given make and model (or, if possible, VIN stub), we are able to access car and engine attributes merged with data from DOE guides (much of this information is publicly available, but in a virtually unusable format).

Valuation of fuel economy is important because policymakers think that there is an "energy efficiency gap," where people undervalue energy costs when making purchases because of behavioral failures. Policymakers use this gap as one justification for why we need fuel economy standards. Our goal is to use thresholds created by an incentive program to characterize consumer preferences for fuel economy in a static framework. This will tell us about heterogeneity in consumers’ willingness-to-pay for fuel economy.

By examining automobile transactions from the Car Allowance Rebate System (informally known as “Cash for Clunkers”), we can observe tangible incentive thresholds and their effect on consumer purchases.

Putting Words in Their Mouths: The Effects of Providing Customers with Pre-Written Social Content

Caneel van Nostrand & Bryan Gilliland

Mentor: Clay Voorhees

Abstract

Online customer reviews and social media comments drive consumer purchase decisions to the extent that 97% read these posts prior to making a purchase decision and 88% trust the opinions shared at least as much as they would an opinion from a close friend (Local Consumer Review Survey 2017). Given the importance of user-generated content, many firms have rushed to invest in social media spending to spur engagement with consumers, but few executives have seen any return on these investments (CMO Survey 2019). Given these lackluster results, firms like Amazon have developed new tactics to influencing online reviews: putting words in consumers’ mouths by providing them with suggested content for a post. In this research, we examine the efficacy of these emerging strategies through an experiment and analysis of secondary data from IMDb.

The results reveal that providing consumers with pre-written content can result in a substantial increase in sharing rates, bolstering a brand’s online presence and customer engagement. Specifically, the results of the experiment demonstrate that both neutral and positive pre-written comments are shared more often than a general request to share without content. The follow-up analysis of the IMDb social media footprint shows a substantial spike in the effectiveness of their efforts to provide customers with automated content for their social media posts in 2018. Taken together, our results reveal that firms could increase their social footprint by increasing the convenience of posting online by pre-writing content for their consumers to share on social media.

Factor Analysis of United States Incarceration Rates

Jacob Waggoner

Mentor: Junsoo Lee

Abstract

This project utilizes the econometric methods of a principal component model and a dynamic factor analysis to determine if there are common drivers of incarceration rates and their racial makeup in the United States. By using data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics and the U.S. Census Bureau, this project attempts to determine the proportion of each states’ incarceration rate that is a result of national and regional factors for four groups. The groups being analyzed nationally and regionally are white males, black males, white females, and black females.

The goal of this project is to identify any common components of the incarceration rates across states, determining how dependent these states are upon one another for their incarceration rates. Due to the division of prisoners into racial groups, the analysis will also demonstrate how a state prison system’s racial makeup is influenced by the makeup of other states. This analysis will provide valuable insight to those with interests in the state of American law enforcement and imprisonment, providing a valuable perspective when receiving media reports of law enforcement and legal system discrimination and providing suggestions as to whether state or national policy will be more effective in prison reform.

Designing an Equitable Food Bank Network with Minimum Disruption Risk

Lauren Williams

Mentor: Irem Orgut

Video presentation

Abstract

Alabama is the fifth state with the highest food insecurity rate in the United States, with 16.3% of the population lacking reliable access to sufficient food. In the United States, food banks serve the food insecure population by distributing food donations via a network of charitable agencies. The locations of the food banks and their service areas are critical decisions in terms of achieving equitable and effective distribution of food donations. Further, food bank operations are highly affected by natural disasters so when strategic decisions are being made on where to place the food banks, the risk of supply chain disruption due to disasters should also be considered.

We present mathematical models for achieving the following objectives: The first is to minimize the disparities between the agencies in different counties in terms of the distance they need to travel to access the food bank through an envy measure. The second is to minimize supply chain disruption risk by utilizing The Fujita scale as a measure to determine each counties’ risk of destruction as a result of a tornado. Our goal is to develop a resilient food bank network that provides equitable access to beneficiaries.

Analyzing Stress and Recovery Using Heart Rate Monitors and Heart Rate Variability with Tennis Players

Blake Wright

Mentor: Jenny Mainz

Abstract

We will use a heart rate variability app to record each players’ stress and recovery levels every day before practice or match and monitor these with the goal of keeping them as healthy as possible. We will use these numbers to help us lower injury risk and increase performance. In the future, we will get sensors that will even work while they play and monitor the players during their practice and gather their training load as well as their recovery intervals to help them perform their best in matches.

Network Spillovers in Contests
1st Place Business, Work-in-Progress Category
Mentor: Paan Jindapon

We generalize Tullock's rent-seeking contest by allowing each player to receive spillover benefits when a "friend" wins the rent and derive equilibrium of the game given various network structures. We find that total effort is maximized when network is empty albeit some players do not participate in the contest. If the network planner's goal is to increase participation, network structures that connect players with different costs of effort may be optimal. We analyze network stability and the network's planner's cost of keeping these structures stable.

Effects of Perspective of Donating Behavior
Mentor: Carlos Bauer

Over the past twenty years, psychology and marketing research have investigated the effects of visual perspective on individual behavior. A number of experiments have shown that the type of perspective one uses while visualizing actions can have an effect on future behavior. In this project, we expand on previous literature to examine the effects of visual perspective on donating behavior and how these effects may be moderated by additional factors. Visual perspective will act as the predictor in our research and will be mediated by hedonic enhancement and internalization. Moreover, the relationship between visual perspective and donating behavior may be moderated by additional influences. We will focus on how past donating behaviors, political affiliation, and religious orientation may attenuate or bolster donation when considering the relationship between visual perspective and donations.

Examining the Relationship Between Creativity Goal Orientation and Self-Reported Creativity in Occupational Therapists
Mentor: Russell Matthews

The present study seeks to examine the relationship between internal creativity goal orientation and self-reported creativity in a sample of health care professionals (i.e., occupational therapists). Creativity is a critical component of delivering health care to patients, particularly with changing regulations that rely on quality as a key driver in payment models. In recent years, there has been a push for medical providers to provide care that is high-quality, innovative, and adapted to the specific needs of the individual patient. 



Occupational therapists work in a unique predicament, relying on the willingness of the patient to complete exercises that intend to adapt the patient's current environment to fit his/her needs with the goal of improving function in daily activities. Occupational therapy is only meaningful and effective when the patient actively participates. These factors place occupational therapists under great pressure and make them more prone to stress and depression. Occupational therapists rely inherently on creativity to develop individualized programs for their patients. In this study, we examine not only the relationship between creative goal orientation and creativity, but also identify factors that may contribute to the strength of this relationship.

Data for this study were collected from 386 occupational therapists based on validated multi-item measures.  Primary analyses suggest that the relationship between internalized creative goal orientation and perceived externalized pressure to be creativity interact to predict self-reported creatively.  Interestingly, this pattern of effects appears to be further moderated based on the occupations therapist's career stage.

Results from this study will inform occupational therapist hiring decisions, as it is likely that hiring a candidate for his/her creativity goal orientation will affect the degree to which that individual expresses creativity in the workplace. Results may also inform managerial practices, as management has a large impact on the external creative pressure felt by medical providers.

Does Non-Tax Revenue Reduce Political Accountability?
Mentor: Traviss Cassidy

History suggests that taxation leads to representation: in exchange for their tax payments, citizens demand a government that is responsive to their needs. Conversely, non-tax revenue may undermine political accountability, giving incumbent politicians the means to buy the support of pivotal voting blocs, suppress political competition, or line their own pockets. We test this hypothesis in the context of Indonesia, a fledgling democracy where vote-buying and corruption are commonplace. To do this, we construct a new panel dataset on mayoral elections from 2005 to 2015, which we combine with data on the two largest sources of non-tax revenue for Indonesian districts: the general grant and shared oil and gas revenue. We test whether increases in non-tax revenue affect the incumbent's likelihood of reelection, the winner's margin of victory, and the number of candidates running for office. The results will shed light on whether non-tax revenue helps incumbents to reduce political competition and entrench their own power.

Keep Droning On: A Review of Applications, Regulations, and Risks Associated with Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Usage in the United States – Honorable Mention, Completed Work Category
Mentor: Paul Drnevich

By 2022, the Federal Aviation Administration expects the total number of Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), or drones, to top 2.2 million units in use within the United States (2018). Increased interest and utilization of UAS units calls for a deeper understanding of their applications, regulations surrounding their use, and risks involved with their utilization. This study provides a review of applications, regulations, and risks involved with the increased popularity of UAS units specific to four sectors of use, including public, private, recreational, and military. Finally, the study proposes an agenda for future research. The following research questions drive the study: 1) What applications drive UAS utilization within the United States 2) Do current regulations help or hurt applications of UAS usage within the United States, and 3) How does risk vary across applications of UAS usage in the United States.

New Venture Challenges and Growth
Mentor: Lou Marino

Entrepreneurs starting new ventures face several challenges, and many of these cross industries and disciplines. For this research project, I have used a qualitative case study approach to identify common challenges and obstacles faced by entrepreneurs. The case studies we have written include MoviePass, Zoe's Kitchen, and BeatBox Beverages. These case studies will be published individually, and the knowledge gained from the qualitative analysis will set the foundation for an empirical research project on rideshare drivers that focuses on these challenges along with growth factors and entrepreneurial perceptions.

Information for each study comes from first-hand accounts and articles related to each industry. After gathering this information, we will look for common challenges between industries along with their solutions in order to draw conclusions about new ventures. For the empirical research project, we will use a survey to collect information from rideshare drivers by posting the link on social media platforms. Once the data has been collected, we will assess results to understand entrepreneurial perceptions in a new industry.

From our current completed case studies on MoviePass and Zoe's Kitchen, common challenges appear to be receiving enough funding, marketing and reaching the desired target market and growing at a healthy rate. These commonalities give us a baseline for our current study on BeatBox Beverages and our future study on rideshare drivers.

If these challenges continue to persist in other industries and companies, we will be able to draw conclusions about general entrepreneurial challenges and how to overcome these before they occur. Additionally, we will identify the changing perceptions of entrepreneurship in the new gig economy.

Locus of Control and Charitable Giving
Mentor: Michael Price

The primary goal of this research is to examine how locus of control impacts charitable giving. Locus of control is the extent to which an individual believes they have control over the events that occur in their own life. Studying the effect locus of control has on charitable donations helps to identify the reasons people choose to give to nonprofit organizations. It also serves as an identification of what kinds of individuals are likely to give. Prior research on locus of control has studied its impact on entrepreneurship and how individuals approach the job search process, but there is a lack of existing research on locus of control within the field of economics of charity. This research seeks to fill this gap. In the past Dr. Michael Price, now of the University of Alabama, conducted an experiment in which over 900 participants were given 80 dollars. The participants were then put through a series of decision-making processes in which they could choose to donate a portion of the 80 dollars to charity. The decisions made by the participants were then analyzed using the statistical software program Stata to study how locus of control affects the size of charitable donations and someone's likelihood to give.

Predicting Audit Quality based on Digital Footprints gathered from Social Media
Mentor: Chezham Sealy

The past two decades have seen exponential growth in social media use. It has expanded from a platform primarily used by teenagers and young adults, to an integral part of society utilized by many businesses and professionals. Facebook is one such platform that allows users to connect and share their lives, opinions, and ideas. The use of social media platforms leaves behind a digital footprint of the user, which based on prior psychology research, can be analyzed to reasonably predict personality traits and other psychological characteristics. This paper examines whether digital footprints collected from the social media accounts of professional auditors can be used to identify specific personality traits that could predict their ability to provide high-quality audits. Utilizing psychology theory related to the Big 5 personality traits and other key psychological characteristics, we gather digital footprint information and place participants in an experimental setting in which we administer a diagnostic audit test. From this research, we hope to establish a reasonably accurate job performance assessment that can be applied in real-life scenarios to better assign auditors to jobs more suited towards their personality, and ultimately increase overall firm audit quality.

Setting the Tone for Executives: A look at how article tone impacts the performance perception of male vs. female CEO
Mentor: Vishal Gupta

This research study was conducted to investigate the differences in tone between news articles regarding male and female CEOs in times of executive turnover. By attempting to utilize a tone analysis of various texts regarding male and female CEOs, we sought to find a potential correlation between anxious/emotional tones in female articles and tones of agreeableness/analytical skill in male articles. Our expectation was to discover statistically significant amounts of anxious/emotional tonal correlation in the articles about female CEOs, while the articles about male CEOs would have a greater agreeableness/analytical tonal correlation. In order to test our expectations and potential hypothesis, we ran multitudes of articles through the tone analyzer AI software from Overlay (formerly ParseMate), to produce an output of tonal correlation percentages. We selected articles from dates ranging from 6 months prior and 6 months following for both the male and female CEO variable following a leadership transition. The CEOs chosen were from companies on the S&P 1500 from 2010 to present and who had an executive level transition between 2010 and 2018. Once reliable tone analyses were completed, our goal was to investigate whether or not these tonal variations potentially impacted perception of CEO performance, thus leaving female CEOs worse-off in comparison to their male counterparts.

Automated Assessments Using Google Streetview and Tenrsorflow
Mentor: Erik Johnson

This project utilizes both Google Streetview and Tensorflow to develop an A.I. model that can accurately detect the window area and house-frontage area of a home from the image recognition data it collects from Google Streetview. This model can be used to determine how window area affects the value of a real-estate property, given certain data points such as average income of the area and proximity to local parks.

Google Streetview is a technology featured in Google Maps which allows the user to view an interactive, 360-degree view of the area surrounding a given street location. Tensorflow is an open-source software library that allows users to perform a number of tasks, among which is developing object detection models through machine learning. This project combines the possibilities of Tensorflow with the vast amount of information available with Google Streetview in order to automate the assessment of window area and house-frontage area.

How Female CEOs Shatter the Glass Ceiling
Mentor: Lixiong Guo

"How Female CEOS Shatter the Glass Ceiling" is presented by Lauren Dutch under the guidance of Lixiong Guo. At the end of 2018, only 24 of the Fortune 500 companies were led by female CEOs. This research seeks to analyze the conditions through which female CEOs rise to power so that we can better understand the underrepresentation in the C-suite. In our research, we used Factiva to scan through press releases related to CEO turnovers at 572 different companies and noted the conditions surrounding each turnover, i.e. forced turnover, succession plan, activist investor pressure, family ties, outsider versus insider, etc. Through our research and the related literature, we have discovered that female CEOs typically rise to power when the firm is in good health and the turnover is not forced. Females are not seen by the board as being fit to take over a struggling firm, perhaps due to stereotypes surrounding female characteristics.

State Lottery Demand Analysis
Mentor: Erik Johnson

Some claim that the lottery is a tax on the poor. State lotteries such as Powerball and Mega Millions provide a lucrative source of revenue for state governments. In 2016, Americans spent $80.5 billion on lotto games, up from $73.8 billion the previous year. These state-sponsored lotteries operate as a monopoly that sells directly to its citizens. State lotteries are unique due to their size and commercial marketing. This project was about analyzing lottery demand and the reasons why people buy lottery tickets. Lotteries shed light on economic behavior and choices involving risk. We investigate the sales response associated with the relative size of the jackpot along with other demographics and whether the increase in sales is persistent. The goal of this research project is to explore the local sales response to large-prize winning tickets and gain insight into how consumers make economic decisions.

New Venture Creation through Incubators & Accelerators: What Value Is Created and Who Captures It? Implications for Research, Teaching, and Practice
Mentor: Paul Drnevich

Incubators and accelerators are organizations focused on training and mentoring novice entrepreneurs to help them turn their ideas into profitable businesses by providing aspiring new ventures with office space, technology and legal/administrative support resources, coaching, and other services needed to launch a venture and raise capital. Through this early stage multi-method study, we seek to review, integrate, and examine the current state of academic research on incubators and accelerators. Using a resource and capabilities perspective and applying a value creation and capture logic, our objective is to discern the contributory roles for what type of value is created and who captures it among the key stakeholders including entrepreneurs, institutions, investors, universities, and the ecosystems in which they operate. Through this review and assessment, we provide a typology of the current state of research on these subjects in terms of what questions have been asked, what findings have been supported, and what their implications are for research, teaching, and practice. Key findings indicate that incubators and accelerators may provide more value for novice entrepreneurs than experienced ones, and that in general, such programs may divert scarce university resource allocation away from other types of innovation activity and decrease patentable knowledge generation. We contribute to the ongoing conversations on these topics by offering a detailed agenda for future research and practice.

Empowerment and Entrepreneurship as Means of Improving Overall Well-Being of Women
Mentor: Gina Simpson

The participation of women in entrepreneurial ventures has catalytic implications for social and economic development in rural countries (Sharma, Sapnadua, & Hatwal, 2012). Development, while most often measured in economic terms, can also be seen as the process of increasing overall well-being. This review frames empowerment - through freedom in economic and social contexts - as core means of development by increasing overall well-being. Despite being widely argued as integral to development, there are still disparities and barriers that impact women's ability to partake in entrepreneurial activity (Bayeh, 2016). Analysis of academic journals and articles in the fields of entrepreneurship and empowerment reveals a critical relationship between entrepreneurship and empowerment that plays a critical role in improving overall well-being for women who have engaged in income-generating opportunities.

Fund managers and Morningstar: a dynamic analysis of mutual fund risk profiles
Mentor: Christopher Whaley

The average American investor often seeks financial return through intermediary institutions rather than directly purchasing securities in financial markets. One of these intermediaries is mutual funds, in which $16 trillion in U.S.-based assets are currently held. Investors benefit from understanding risk profiles of financial instruments which allows for more informed decisions on the allocation of their capital. For mutual funds, one notable resource that many individuals, institutions, and financial advisors employ to assist in decision making is the use of the Morningstar star rating system. Mutual funds are rated on a five-star scale, with five stars indicating top performance, and one, or even no stars suggesting subpar performance.

Existing literature gives substantial weight to competitive and efficient security pricing in comparison to that of behavioral responses within financial firms. In this study, we investigate how mutual fund managers may alter investment behavior given particular star ratings or star rating shifts. This study extracts archival data from the Morningstar Direct database and runs regression discontinuities to determine if Morningstar rating dynamics impact the implied level of risk of any given mutual fund. Using a panel of U.S. open-end, large-cap mutual funds, historical star-rating is linked to the overall risk of the fund. Initial evidence on performance shows a short-term increase in risk for a fund following a four to five-star rating shift with subsequent mean regression. We further conduct a difference-in-difference design to estimate any counter-factual evidence using the same dataset. Evidence using this approach is mixed and we provide a further discussion of the resulting implications.

2019 IPOs-- Where are the Women?
Mentor: Theresa Welbourne

Women taking on executive leadership jobs is no novel concept, and they are applauded at least on the surface of our culture. Our research examines where exactly women appear in the top management of companies that have recently gone public. We wanted to gain understanding on what role higher education, industry, and geographic location play in the leadership and gender composition within companies that have issued an IPO in 2018. IPOs are of interest to me personally because companies that go public are planning on expanding, and looking at trends in recent IPOs can be an indicator of the future business cycles. Another interest to me personally is the possibility of geographic significance and correlation to patterns in executive education. Findings show that a significant portion of the companies is headquartered internationally, but registered in the United States stock exchange. Of the 185 companies that issued an IPO last year, only nine of them are lead by a woman. I looked through each company's prospectus and coded the management data to find patterns. Top leadership statistics holds significance to me because I wonder about the people behind the corporations that make headlines. Who is making the decisions that impact business? When I code this data and discover individuals who lead innovative companies, especially women, it inspires me to discover more about the professional opportunities that made them successful. That is why while continuing this research, I began to pay special attention to where the executives were educated. The data shows small geographic groupings of companies based on industry, and patterns of executives being educated at the same institutions. Previous literature on the topic, including Dr. Welbourne's prior research work, reveals that while having women listed in management positions in the prospectus may correlate to a lower initial stock price, it positively impacts company health and a higher stock price later in the company's life.

Funding the Future: Exploring Fundraising Opportunities for the University of Alabama Honors College
Mentor: Robert Witt

The University of Alabama Honors College currently lacks a Director of Development like other colleges within the University, while our alumni have belonged to a primary college in which they received their degree. These issues have put the Honors College at a disadvantage when it comes to being able to financially support resources and opportunities for our current students. This research aims to find funding opportunities, both in the present and the future, that will benefit the University of Alabama's Honors College by engaging current students, alumni, and parents, while also conducting an internal review of the College's current resources in comparison to similar institutions. Current students are being surveyed as to whether or not the Honors College has managed to meet their expectations, giving the administration an idea as to future fundraising success. Students are also being asked for their unique narratives that will be utilized when approaching donors. Finally, we are examining the resources of our Honors College in comparison to similar institutions, including those that are vying for the same caliber of high-achieving students. This will help form a more comprehensive view of our college that will allow us to prioritize funding areas with the biggest need. Once we have compiled both quantitative and qualitative information, the Honors College will be better equipped to request funding from our alumni, parents, and students in the future.

The Effects of Long-term Stress and Congestion on Time Preferences
Mentor: Michael Price

Congestion is found to increase stress and aggressive driving behavior. Stress is found to affect discounting behavior. However, existing literature on present bias is limited and has mixed results. In addition to filling the gaps in the literature about present bias, we seek to understand how stress influences time preferences and consistency, whether stress effects sophistication about time inconsistency and demand for commitment, and if there are different effects across time of stress on time preferences, sophistication, and commitment. By January 2019, the Interstate 20 (I20) will be shut down for construction, which will force 300,000 cars per day to take alternate routes and increase congestion, which in turn we expect to increase stress. In order to measure the effects of the congestion on stress and present bias, we will survey a random sample of registered voters ages 18-65 in Jefferson and Shelby County. Through the course of the study, we will administer a total of five surveys. The first survey will be a pilot survey, the next two surveys will take place while the construction is still going on, and the last two surveys will take place after the construction has been completed. The survey will include basic questions about the subjects commute and stress level and an optional study to estimate individual-level present bias, sophistication and demand for commitment. We will replicate the design by Augenblick et al. (2015). In addition to the surveys, we will collect biomarkers from a subset of the subjects to measure their long-term stress level. Our results will shed light on the mixed results on the stability of economic preferences. We will gain a better understanding of how preferences are formed and what influences them. We particularly clarify how long-term stress and congestion will shape our decision-making involving intertemporal trade-offs.

Cuba's New Real Estate Market and Its Ramifications
Mentor: Quoc Hoang

The November 2011 law that permits Cubans to buy and sell residential real estate is among the most impactful of the reforms undertaken in Cuba since Raul Castro became president in 2008. It opens a potential source of capital to the 84 percent of households that own their homes by ending a prohibition on the essence of property rights-the ability to buy and sell it. It has created a new and unusual real estate market where brokers were only recently allowed to operate, no mortgage finance is available, and local demand is hampered by a lack of cash to make purchases.

The main provisions of the law allow Cubans and foreign nationals legally residing in Cuba to buy and sell homes at prices they set between themselves. Ownership of one residence and one vacation home is permitted. Properties may also be transferred by donation or through swaps.

In response to these reforms, Cuban Americans and other foreign investors are beginning to buy properties through Cubans who live on the island. Retirees, especially, are selling their homes to buy smaller ones, retaining a nest egg from the sale. The new policy, with an assist from a more recent judicial decision, is leading homeowners to update and register their property titles. The policy does not directly address the serious shortage of residential units, but the government is beginning to implement policies that, if expanded in time, will increase the housing stock.

Through this research I will examine Cuba's real estate market at this early stage of development, describing the functioning of the sector and role of foreign nationals. I am basing my research on reviews of Cuban laws and regulations as well as interviews with participants in the market.

Hiring and Assimilating Disabled Workers into Distribution Centers
Mentor: Alex Ellinger

As consumers increasingly choose to make their purchases from the comfort of their own homes rather than visit brick and mortar stores, the need for fast-moving fulfillment distribution centers is proliferating. The "Amazon Effect" that is so significantly changing the way people shop is also associated with an acute shortage of blue-collar workers in the retail distribution industry. Traditional organizational responses to the scarcity of warehouse labor are for firms to increase hourly wages and integrate automation and robotic product fulfillment technologies. Our research identifies an innovative human capital management approach that provides a timely, alternative solution to this important business problem. Descriptive overviews of exemplar firms that are leveraging blue ocean strategy (BOS) to hire and assimilate disabled workers into their distribution centers are presented as well as best practices for partnering with local disability service agencies to ensure that proactively hiring disabled warehouse workers creates mutual value and improves productivity. Finally, the corporate social responsibility and social impact implications of successfully hiring and assimilating disabled workers are discussed with the intent of encouraging firms in the retail distribution industry to view the traditional business problem of hiring warehouse workers from a new and alternative perspective.

Facebook Marketing at Pickens County Medical Center
Mentor: Jef Naidoo

We initiated a marketing campaign with Pickens County Medical Center (PCMC) to develop and distribute targeted advertising to increase utilization of all hospital services with an emphasis on preventive medicine.

Rural hospitals are in a crisis and are rapidly closing throughout the United States. Contributing factors to these hospital closures include unfavorable demographics ("aging, poor, and declining populations"), the financial state of the hospital, and changes in delivery of care (Wishner et al, 2016). PCMC is losing its market share and has services that are under-utilized. In addition, PCMC provides a large amount of charity care which cuts into the revenues. The closure of PCMC would have a devastating impact on the county. It would force residents to find healthcare in other counties and would force the closure of the largest employer in the county, the federal prison. In previous years, the hospital has marketed based on the premise of use the hospital or lose it, which called into question the quality of the hospital. The quality of the hospital is one of the top factors when deciding to pursue healthcare outside their home county (Wynveen, 2009). Promoting the quality of the hospital through trials of various promotional materials is key to changing the perception of the hospital and increase utilization.

Data is still being generated but we will conduct a comparison of the various types of engagements we use and determined the most impactful ones. Facebook posts have varied in form and message, and we will collect more data before doing predictive analysis.

Initial Facebook engagement has far exceeded a typical Facebook page of the same size, yet lags behind comparable rural hospitals in Alabama. Two rural hospitals had engagement rates of 45% and 10%, while PCMC had an engagement rate of 6% in the same time period. Testimonials fostered the most engagement. Further analysis will be conducted to identify the gaps between PCMC and other rural hospital marketing.

Testimonials with people well-integrated in the county performed the best. Photos and videos had the highest engagement. We are continuing to gather data to test our initial conclusions of testimonials having the highest engagement.

The Evolution of Technology and Its Impact on Patient Outcomes in Healthcare – 1st Place Business, Completed Work Category - 1st Place Business, Completed Work Category
Mentor: Kimberley Stowers

This project reviews the evolution of technology in healthcare and how these advancements will impact and shape the U.S. health system going forward. The purpose is to inform researchers and practitioners of the changing trends in healthcare innovation and how the delivery of care will transform as a result. We completed a search of industry and academic articles, analyzing the literature to identify changes in medical technology from the 1800s until the present. Based on this review, we proposed four broad categories of technology that currently exist in healthcare: decision support systems, medical robots, telemedical devices, and electronic health records. We also identified several challenges that exist with the ongoing use of these technologies. Finally, we make predictions about how they will be used in the future. Our findings provide insights to readers regarding the evolution of healthcare technology and how these capabilities can be expected to influence how care is delivered in the future.

The Socio-Economic Impact of Nonprofits in West Alabama – 2nd Place Business (tie), Completed Work Category
Mentor: David Ford

The research of non-profits is an innovative study as it changes the way nonprofits write their request for proposals. Traditionally, many non-profits must rely on pathological reasoning to write their grant application. However, there has been a shift in society where concrete data are a better justification to support their request. As a result, by studying the economic and social impacts of non-profits, we can produce the numbers that they need to develop a request for proposal based on research. The purpose of this study was to quantify and analyze the effects of nonprofits in their surrounding community. Our study specifically focused on West Alabama nonprofits, with the goal of providing numerical data about the economic and social effects of non-profit organizations in the seven-county region disprove the common notion of non-profits as simply "charities" by exhibiting the substantial influence that they actually do have.

From the analysis of financial documents from fiscal years 2011-2015, we found that direct economic impact equaled $68,015,526 in 2015 from just the seven selected non-profit organizations. This is calculated with all expenses being combined with $5,079,551 in donated value provided to the community and $1,498,477 provided in volunteered value. The indirect and induced effects of nonprofit action can be indefinite in addition to the known direct impact.

From our research, we find that nonprofits have the ability to take inputs that are not highly valuable to some and turn them into outputs that are very important to people who are in need. When accounting for all the education, support, healthcare services, and many other programs led by these organizations, the return on investment is significant in many ways. In an increasingly commercial climate, the impact of non-profits has been overlooked. It is important for us not to let this trend continue, as NPOs are capable of affecting a large portion of the community in ways that are not addressed by their profit-driven counterparts.

The Next Generation of Marketing: Entering the Digital Age
2nd Place Business (tie), Completed Work Category
Mentor: Susan Fant

While it is evident the future of marketing is changing, and digital marketing is becoming more prominent amongst future generations, nobody seems to know exactly what digital marketing is, and what all it entails. Digital marketing is not just the creation and publishing of content. Digital marketing is the promotion of products or brands via one or more forms of electronic media. It differs from traditional marketing in that it uses multiple channels and means that enable an organization to examine marketing campaigns and audience engagement. Digital marketers monitor things like what content being viewed, how often it is being viewed, how long it is being viewed, sales growth (or decline), and what works and does not work. These millennial and gen z generations have begun shaping the future of marketing and have made digital marketing an absolute necessity for companies. The millennial generation is defined as people born between 1981-1995, while gen z is defined as being born between 1996-2010. The biggest difference between the two generations is the environment they grew up in, and major events that occurred throughout their childhood. The millennial market consists of approximately 77 million people. Out of those 77 million people, 84% of those people are more likely to view an ad on a social media platform than a print ad. On average, millennials spend approximately 25 hours online per week. Millennials make up the largest purchasing power, with a $200 billion dollar buying power. With a purchasing power that large, it is vital for marketers to target that generation, and create content they'll pay attention to. The gen z is said to become the most influential generation in the next few years. Their current population is approximately 65 million people. It is said that gen z will make up 40% of all consumers in the United States by 2020. How should marketers begin to tackle such a large market, we will provide further discussion by reviewing the creation of a large international social media community through a partnership with The Mono Project.

Which Global- and Country-Level Economic Changes Matter Most for Cross-Border Mergers and Acquisitions?
Mentor: Paul Drnevich

Changes in both global and country-level economic conditions present numerous challenges to international organizations. Country-level changes such as declining GDP growth, trade conditions, and/or increasing regulations or inflation often drive a firm's inward contraction of focus. Conversely, expanding global markets often drive an outward expansion of focus as organizations respond and adjust to external opportunities created by changing global and country-level conditions. Given increasing technological interconnectedness and global economic interdependencies, a firm's strategies and investment decisions can be heavily influenced by different fluctuations in global and country-level economic conditions dependent on the configuration of conditions of firm-, country-, and global-level variables. We theorize and empirically assess how different changes in economic conditions affect the frequency and value of cross-border M&A (CB M&A) activity and determine which matter more to develop new insights for both theory and practice. Our findings from a multi-level model using a 13-year panel of CB M&A activity by multinational enterprises illustrates how the complexity of a firm's strategic decisions interacts with the type of both global and country-level economic fluctuations. In the future, we plan to expand the research to include the impact of global political uncertainty and instability, in light of the effects of Brexit, US-China trade war, and the global rise in populism.

Klaro Aqua Water Filtration Business Proposal for Mexico
Mentor: Kimberley Williams

Our company leaders have engaged in many hours of research in order to thoroughly examine and develop our business proposal from every possible angle. We have every major element of our plan, including the foreign location, geographic factors, labor market, and economy.

We chose Mexico as the location for our enterprise after recognizing the country's need for improved water sanitation. While Mexico has improved its infrastructure significantly over the last several decades, including water supply and sanitation facilities, there is still much to be done in order to bring Mexico's water safety and quality into the twenty-first century. We believe that our company can carve out a niche in this area that will be both profitable and beneficial to the welfare of the Mexican people.

Mexico faces a dire need for a cleaner, more sustainable future with regards to the future of its water resources management. According to Mexico's National Water Commission, groundwater overexploitation has reached almost 40% of total groundwater use, which is concerning in light of the fact that surface water provides a majority of the supply of Mexican water. The quality of this surface water is also suffering; the National Water Commission estimates that less than 10% of surface water is currently in acceptable condition while more than 50% is very polluted. Our company's products will play an important role in ameliorating this problem by allowing consumers to fully trust and effectively utilize the limited water resources that are available to them.

Kitschy Packaging: How Consumer Expertise and Product Packaging Impact Perceptions – Honorable Mention, Completed Work Category
Mentor: Clay Voorhees

Previous research shows consumers are impacted by a product's packaging. However, these studies focus primarily on how individual aspects of product packaging, such as color, font shape, font size, product size, and product image, impact consumer perceptions of the product. Consumers make purchase choices between many alternatives in a relatively short time, making packaging an essential marketing tool. Packaging is an extrinsic cue that consumers use to make intrinsic inferences about product attributes (Underwood and Klein, 2015); it is, therefore, important that consumer impressions of overall product packaging are examined. Previous research has also addressed consumer preference for the norm in product design and packaging. Normative frameworks have been recommended for product packaging for the purposes of communicating a clearer explanation of the product to the consumer. (Underwood and Ozanne, 2010).

This study extends previous research by exploring the way consumers perceive packaging designs based upon their level of product knowledge. More specifically, it is focused on how a consumer's personal expertise level regarding a product category can influence his or her perception of standard versus kitschy (i.e., garish) packaging. As opposed to focusing on a single element of a product packaging (e.g., color, font, size), this study focuses on the consumer's perception of kitschy product packaging and demonstrates how a person's level of expertise within a product category factors into the way the product is perceived, as well as how it impacts subsequent purchase intentions.

A 2 (consumer expertise) x 2 (product packaging) experimental study in which participants were trained to be experts in a particular product category and then were exposed to standard v. kitschy packaging was conducted.

This research demonstrates consumers who perceive themselves as experts in a particular product category are unaffected by a product's packaging whereas those who are novice consumers are significantly influenced by kitschy product packaging and demonstrate a preference for products in standard packaging.

Shields Up! An Examination of Organizational Changeover Following Significant Data Breaches
Mentor: Matthew Hudnall

The magnitude and frequency of corporate data breaches is growing at an accelerated rate as companies transition to technology-driven databases and systems. In the last fifteen years alone, 9,071 data breaches, encompassing over 11.5 billion individual records, have been publicly reported. With an average cost of $141 per lost or stolen record, it is crucial for companies to react appropriately following the disclosure of a breach. Prior investigations into corporate actions following attacks neglect to explore a crucial aspect in opportune reactionary behavior: time. To quantify the relevant timeline associated with management decisions succeeding a breach, the corporate initiatives of companies who experienced the loss of 10,000,000 or more records in a single attack were tracked and analyzed. This analysis was narrowed to focus on the relevant appointment of new executive hires (CTOs, CIOs, CISOs, and CEOs) in relation to the date of its associated data breach. In addition, the immediate industry experience of any new hire was documented to reveal trends in targeted professionals following a significant breach. Analysis of such events revealed that on average, 61% of companies who were victims of a significant breach did not hire a new chief executive or technology related officer subsequent to the attack. Of those companies who did appoint a new officer, the average nomination of a new technology related official was announced 6.5 months following a breach, 33% faster than the nomination of a new CEO subsequent to a breach. These results demonstrate the unpredictable action companies assume following a breach to minimize disturbances in operations and investor wariness.

Visual First in AGILE development
Mentor: Greg Cottrell

Agile is a standard methodology developers follow in the workforce to create applications in the most efficient way possible, however, Agile is very flexible and it is often disputed which way is the best way to build an application. There is not one set solution to a problem, but many ways to achieve the same goal, however, some methods are more efficient than others. Developers and Agile methodology agree that visual mock-ups should come last during development, that there is no time to make a visual to show to clients. This research paper considers an alternative approach towards the customs of Agile development, by choosing to make visuals first. Agile development is highly adaptable and certain procedures can change depending on the situation, including creating visual mock-ups early in development. Creating visuals first in development allows developers to have a clear tangible understanding of the project, and encourages clients to give more accurate feedback, in turn allowing the developers to provide faster solutions. The key to development is meeting the requirements from the client, and confirming on visuals enables a development team to have a clear objective. I argue that creating visuals first allows developers to succeed and this paper will make developers reevaluate how to build an application.