ASU Electronic Theses and Dissertations
This collection includes most of the ASU Theses and Dissertations from 2011 to present. ASU Theses and Dissertations are available in downloadable PDF format; however, a small percentage of items are under embargo. Information about the dissertations/theses includes degree information, committee members, an abstract, supporting data or media.
In addition to the electronic theses found in the ASU Digital Repository, ASU Theses and Dissertations can be found in the ASU Library Catalog.
Dissertations and Theses granted by Arizona State University are archived and made available through a joint effort of the ASU Graduate College and the ASU Libraries. For more information or questions about this collection contact or visit the Digital Repository ETD Library Guide or contact the ASU Graduate College at gradformat@asu.edu.
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- All Subjects: Business Administration
- Creators: Webster, Scott
Description
Nonprofits and humanitarian organizations play a critical role in the modern world. Yet, to operate sustainably, they often encounter challenges including financial insecurity and operational obstacles. My dissertation investigates nonprofits' decisions and strategies for delivering sustainable services from the perspectives of financial security and operations in short- and long-term horizons.The first chapter is focused on the role of governance quality in nonprofits' donation income. Donors, generally, support charities that maintain higher program spending ratios (PSR). Yet, PSR does not reflect charities' actual social impact, and a focus on PSR may eventually limit their capacity in providing humanitarian aid. Since 2008, as a result of a policy change by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, nonprofits are able to better display their governance quality. My empirical investigation shows that governance quality is now an important factor in driving donations to nonprofits, although PSR still remains a key driver. Results suggest that nonprofits should consider improving their governance quality in their strategies for securing donation income, although that may lead to lower PSRs.
Pressures resulted from the focus on PSR encourage nonprofits to prioritize strategies that enable them to report higher program expenses. In the second chapter, I empirically examine one of these strategies, grant provision, that allows nonprofits to increase their reported program expenses without having to spend their funds on their own programs. I find that providing grants to other organizations enables nonprofits to earn more revenue and make a bigger social impact in the long term, but this strategy increases the administrative burden needed to make an impact.
Given the challenges in coordination and lack of effective coordinated response in humanitarian operations, in the third chapter, I develop a non-cooperative game theoretical model to analyze horizontal coordination among non-governmental organizations in disaster relief operations in centralized and decentralized models. I show that coordination does not always maximize social welfare, and time inefficiencies due to bureaucracies involved in coordination mechanisms are substantial obstacles against higher levels of coordination, especially in urgent response operations. I also show that decentralization of coordination mechanisms increases both coordination levels and social welfare.
ContributorsParsa, Iman (Author) / Efrekhar, Mahyar (Thesis advisor) / Webster, Scott (Committee member) / Corbett, Charles J. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
As Charles Darwin’s evolution theory reveals, it is not the strongest species that survive, but those most responsive to change. This principle also applies in the realm of operations management, where managers shall creatively redesign operations to address new challenges. This dissertation presents three cases where renovating traditional operations cost-effectively solves emerging problems, including fraudulent reviews on online platforms (Chapter 1), inefficient strategy design of advertisers (Chapter 2), and inadequate user participation in global procurement initiatives (Chapter 3). I demonstrate that such a practice not only enhances operational efficiency but promotes social welfare. The first two chapters examine operational renovation in the private sector, while the third focuses on the public sector. Specifically, Chapter 1 investigates sellers’ review manipulation on e-commerce platforms and shows that platforms may not be as committed to combating fake reviews as they claim to be. To mitigate this problem, I craft a game-theoretic model and illustrate that restructuring return policies – an essential, long-established operation – can inhibit review manipulation. Chapter 2 analyzes geofencing, an emerging advertising strategy that enables advertisers to send ads to consumers within a virtual fencing zone. While extant literature shows the usefulness of geofencing, the optimal implementation of the strategy remains unclear. Therefore, I analytically examine the optimal operations of geofencing. The findings suggest that the typical practice of setting the geofence around the advertiser’s store is not cost-efficient. Advertisers shall think outside of the box and consider placing the fencing zone elsewhere. My proposed geofencing location and radius could increase resource utilization, advertising efficacy, and consumer welfare. Chapter 3 switches the focus to the public sector, addressing the unaffordability of health products in low- to middle-income countries (LMICs). Social planners have managed procurement pools to help LMICs access health products, yet countries’ willingness to join the pool can vary greatly. A lack of country participation would jeopardize the success of pooled procurement. To encourage more countries to join, I design a procurement mechanism that considers countries’ heterogeneous preferences, disease burdens, and ability to pay. This proposed mechanism, with an appropriately designed subsidy plan, could maximize the aggregate social welfare.
ContributorsChen, Xiangjing (Olivia) (Author) / Webster, Scott (Thesis advisor) / Wang, Yimin (Thesis advisor) / Ho, Yi-Jen (Ian) (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
Platform business models have become pervasive in many aspects of the economy,particularly in the areas experiencing rapid growth such as retailing (e.g., Amazon and
eBay) and last-mile transportation (e.g., Instacart and Amazon Flex). The popularity
of platform business models is, in part, due to the asset-light prospect which allows
businesses to maintain flexibility while scaling up their operations. Yet, this ease of
growth may not necessarily be conducive to viable outcomes. Because scalability in a
platform depends on the intermediary’s role it plays in facilitating matching between
users on each side of the platform, the efficiency of matching could be eroded as growth
increases search frictions and matching costs. This phenomenon is demonstrated in
recent studies on platform growth (e.g. Fradkin, 2017; Lian and Van Ryzin, 2021; Li
and Netessine, 2020). To sustain scalability during growth, platforms must rely on effective platformdesign to mitigate challenges arising in facilitating efficient matching. Market design
differs in its focus between retail and last-mile transportation platforms. In retail
platforms, platform design’s emphasis is on helping consumers navigate through
a variety of product offerings to match their needs while connecting vendors to a
large consumer base (Dinerstein et al., 2018; Bimpikis et al., 2020). Because these
platforms exist to manage two-sided demand, scalability depends on the realization of
indirect network economies where benefits for users to participate on the platforms
are commensurate with the size of users on the other side (Parker and Van Alstyne,
2005; Armstrong, 2006; Rysman, 2009). Thus, platform design plays a critical role in
the realization of indirect network economies on retail platforms. Last-mile transportation platforms manage independent drivers on one side andretailers on the other, both parties holding flexibility in switching between platforms.
High demand for independent drivers along with their flexibility in work participation induces platforms to use subsidies to incentivize retention. This leads to short-term
improvements in retention at the expense of significant increases in platforms’
compensation costs. Acute challenges to driver retention call for effective compensation
strategies to better coordinate labor participation from these drivers (Nikzad, 2017;
Liu et al., 2019; Guda and Subramanian, 2019). In addition to driver turnover,
retailers’ withdrawal can undermine the operating efficiency of last-mile transportation
platforms (Borsenberger et al., 2018). This dissertation studies platforms’ scalability
and operational challenges faced by platforms in the growth.
ContributorsWang, Lina (Author) / Rabinovich, Elliot (Thesis advisor) / Richards, Timothy (Committee member) / Webster, Scott (Committee member) / Guda, Harish (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021