Matching Items (54)
Description
Global violent conflict has become an increasing problem in recent decades, especially in the African continent. Civil wars, terrorism, riots, and political violence has wrought havoc not only on civilian lives, but also on economic foundations. Trade networks are a way to measure these economic foundations. To summarize trade networks clustering coefficient as well as trade quantity/value summation measures are used. To understand effects of global trade on violent conflict, Pearson product-moment correlations are utilized. This work details a comparison of African national economies and violent conflict events using clustering coefficient, trade summation measures and Pearson correlation coefficient.
ContributorsKadambi, Sagarika Sanjay (Author) / Maciejewski, Ross (Thesis director) / Shutters, Shade (Committee member) / Computer Science and Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description
Our lives are documented and facilitated by the internet. Given that an increasing proportion of time is being spent online, search and browsing history offers a unique frame of reference to conduct a qualitative study since it contains individual goals, day-to-day experiences, illicit thoughts, and questions, all while capturing sentiments rather than statistics. Seeing this recorded daily activity mapped out over the course of several years would hopefully provide a startling reminder of how life can be accurately and simply described as a series of constantly evolving interests and intentions, as well as give a sense of how exhaustively massive internet companies collect private information online. The search engine giant Google offers its users the transparency and freedom to export and download an archive of their web activity through a service known as Google Takeout. We propose using this service to empower ordinary individuals with Google accounts by developing a comprehensive and qualitative approach to understanding and gaining insights about their personal behavior online. In this paper, we first define and analyze the need for such a product. Then we conduct a variety of intent and interest-sensitive computational analysis methods on a sample browser history to explore and contextualize emergent trends, as a proof of concept. Finally, we create a blueprint for building an interactive application which uses our approach to generate dynamic dashboards and unique user profiles from search and browsing data.
ContributorsLi, Jason (Author) / Sopha, Matthew (Thesis director) / Shutters, Shade (Committee member) / Department of Information Systems (Contributor, Contributor) / Dean, W.P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-12
Description
Corporations work to reduce their negative impacts on the environment and society by adopting Sustainable business (SB) practices. Businesses create competitive advantages via practices such as waste minimization, green product design, compliance with regulations, and stakeholder relations. Normative models indicate that businesses should adopt similar sustainability practices, however, contingency theory suggests that effectiveness of practices depends on the context of the business. The literature highlights the importance of organizational culture as a moderating variable between SB practices and outcomes, however this link has not been empirically examined. This thesis presents the development and testing of a theoretical model, using configuration theory, that links SB practices, organizational culture, and financial performance.
Published frameworks were utilized to identify SB practices in use, and the Competing Values Framework (CVF) to identify dimensions of culture. Data from 1021 Corporate Sustainability Reports from 212 companies worldwide was collected for computerized text analysis, which provided a measure of the occurrence of a specific SB practice and the four dimensions of the CVF. Hypotheses were analyzed using cluster, crosstab, and t-test statistical methods.
The findings contribute significant insights to the Business and Sustainability field. Firstly, clustering of SB practice bundles identified organizations at various levels of SB practice awareness. The spectrum runs from a compliance level of awareness, to a set of organizations aware of the importance of culture change for sustainability. Top performing clusters demonstrated different priorities with regards to SB practices; these were in many cases, related to contextual factors, such as location or sector. This implies that these organizations undertook varying sustainability strategies, but all arrived at some successful level of sustainability. Another key finding was the association between the highest performing SB practice clusters and a culture dominated by Adhocracy values, corroborating theories presented in the literature, but were not empirically tested before.
The results of this research offer insights into the use of text analysis to study SB practices and organizational culture. Further, this study presents a novel attempt at empirically testing the relationship between SB practices and culture, and tying this to financial performance. The goal is that this work serves as an initial step in redefining the way in which businesses adopt SB practices. A transformation of SB practice adoption will lead to major improvements in sustainability strategies, and subsequently drive change for improved corporate sustainability.
Published frameworks were utilized to identify SB practices in use, and the Competing Values Framework (CVF) to identify dimensions of culture. Data from 1021 Corporate Sustainability Reports from 212 companies worldwide was collected for computerized text analysis, which provided a measure of the occurrence of a specific SB practice and the four dimensions of the CVF. Hypotheses were analyzed using cluster, crosstab, and t-test statistical methods.
The findings contribute significant insights to the Business and Sustainability field. Firstly, clustering of SB practice bundles identified organizations at various levels of SB practice awareness. The spectrum runs from a compliance level of awareness, to a set of organizations aware of the importance of culture change for sustainability. Top performing clusters demonstrated different priorities with regards to SB practices; these were in many cases, related to contextual factors, such as location or sector. This implies that these organizations undertook varying sustainability strategies, but all arrived at some successful level of sustainability. Another key finding was the association between the highest performing SB practice clusters and a culture dominated by Adhocracy values, corroborating theories presented in the literature, but were not empirically tested before.
The results of this research offer insights into the use of text analysis to study SB practices and organizational culture. Further, this study presents a novel attempt at empirically testing the relationship between SB practices and culture, and tying this to financial performance. The goal is that this work serves as an initial step in redefining the way in which businesses adopt SB practices. A transformation of SB practice adoption will lead to major improvements in sustainability strategies, and subsequently drive change for improved corporate sustainability.
ContributorsBehravesh, Shirley-Ann (Author) / Dooley, Kevin (Thesis advisor) / Basile, George (Thesis advisor) / Kinicki, Angelo (Committee member) / Shutters, Shade (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
Description
In the face of profound shock and change, individuals, organizations, and communities are seeking new ways to prepare for an uncertain future, their only certainty being that the present trajectory of change will intensify. Pandemics, wildfires, heat waves, hurricanes, flooding, social unrest, economic strife, and a rapidly changing climate system comprise a resounding wake up call: we must reinvent our institutions to think about and act with a resilient mindset. The purpose of the playbook is to support these efforts and build stronger, adaptive, and resilient communities.
ContributorsHinrichs, Margaret (Editor, Contributor) / Solís, Patricia (Editor, Contributor) / Arizona State University. Knowledge Exchange for Resilience (Contributor) / Global Council for Science and the Environment (Contributor) / Applegate, Joffa Michele (Contributor) / BurnSilver, Shauna (Contributor) / Goldman, Erica (Contributor) / Johnston, Erik W., 1977- (Contributor) / Miller, Thaddeus R. (Contributor) / Morrison, David (Contributor) / Nation, Marcia (Contributor) / Ngo, Christine Ngoc, 1981- (Contributor) / Shutters, Shade (Contributor) / Wentz, Elizabeth (Contributor) / Wyman, Michelle (Contributor)
Created2021
A Visual Analytics Process for Exploring Risk and Vulnerability in International Food Trade Networks
Description
The rise in globalization has led to regional climate events having an increased effect on global food security. These indirect first- and second-order effects are generally geographically disparate from the region experiencing the climate event. Without understanding the topology of the food trade network, international aid may be naively directed to the countries directly experiencing the climate event and not to countries that will face potential food insecurity due to that event. This thesis focuses on the development of a visual analytics system for exploring second-order effects of climate change under the lens of global trade. In order to visualize how climate change impacts the world trade network of agricultural goods I have developed an interactive data visualization platform for analysis of the interaction between climate events and the trade network. The proposed visual analytics system focuses on visualizing current trade dependencies at a more granular level than the currently available tools and to aid in the identification of future vulnerabilities. To demonstrate the applicability of the tool, two case studies are described. The first case study focuses on the Chinese drought of 2011 and its impact on the global trade network and food security. The second case study will model the potential impact of a climate event affecting production in the United States, a large supplier of corn, to demonstrate the potential consequence of cascading effects in the global trade network.
ContributorsSeville, Travis Allen (Author) / Maciejewski, Ross (Thesis advisor) / Hsiao, I-Han (Committee member) / Shutters, Shade (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
ContributorsOlakkengil, Joseph (Author) / Valenzuela, Eliana (Co-author) / Weinberg, Andrea (Thesis director) / Shutters, Shade (Committee member) / Ruiz, Elizabeth (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Historical, Philosophical & Religious Studies, Sch (Contributor)
Created2022-12
DescriptionThe aim of this study is to illuminate potentially powerful forms of inspiration for teachers during typical challenges, as well as crises. We use the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic that exacerbated existing teacher burnout as an opportunity to learn how we can build capacities for critical hope to support teacher agency.
ContributorsValenzuela, Eliana (Author) / Olakkengil, Joseph (Co-author) / Weinberg, Andrea (Thesis director) / Shutters, Shade (Committee member) / Ruiz, Elizabeth (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor)
Created2022-12
ContributorsValenzuela, Eliana (Author) / Olakkengil, Joseph (Co-author) / Weinberg, Andrea (Thesis director) / Shutters, Shade (Committee member) / Ruiz, Elizabeth (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor)
Created2022-12
ContributorsValenzuela, Eliana (Author) / Olakkengil, Joseph (Co-author) / Weinberg, Andrea (Thesis director) / Shutters, Shade (Committee member) / Ruiz, Elizabeth (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor)
Created2022-12
ContributorsValenzuela, Eliana (Author) / Olakkengil, Joseph (Co-author) / Weinberg, Andrea (Thesis director) / Shutters, Shade (Committee member) / Ruiz, Elizabeth (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor)
Created2022-12