Business, Dhillon School of
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- ItemIncompleteness in digital public services: A case study of Lethbridge's construction permitting process(Lethbridge, Alta. : University of Lethbridge, Dhillon School of Business, 2024) McLeod, Bradley I.; University of Lethbridge. Dhillon School of Business; Bao, YongjianThis thesis examined the digitization of the permit application process at the City of Lethbridge. The findings focused on service delivery and the tension between operational efficiency and human-centric values by employing a grounded exploratory case study approach, interviewing eleven members of the public and nine staff members. The research identified significant time savings and efficiencies while highlighting challenges, such as accessibility issues, personal interaction loss, and trust degradation. The concept of incompleteness is introduced in complex and non-transactional public services, highlighting how digitization can negatively impact human-centric values such as connectedness, satisfaction, and trust. This research integrated design thinking with public value management theory to emphasize the need to balance operational efficiency and human-centric values. The case study revealed that while digitizing the permit application process increased accessibility for many users, it created new inequities. This thesis advocates for a hybrid model that combines digital service platforms with additional support to address the issue of incompleteness. This ensures that the digitized services remain accessible and legitimate. This research provides insights into the lived experiences of digitizing public services and emphasizes the need to balance technological efficiencies with human-centric values and proficiencies. It contributes to the theoretical discourse on public value management and offers practical recommendations for policymakers, service designers, and practitioners looking to implement inclusive digital public services.
- ItemWitnessed incivility: consequences and moderating factors(Lethbridge, Alta. : University of Lethbridge, Dhillon School of Business, 2024) Emegokwue, Tsemaye Patience; University of Lethbridge. Dhillon School of Business; Stuart-Edwards, AnastasiaThis study examined the relationship between witnessed incivility and workplace outcomes (emotional exhaustion, organizational citizenship behavior, and work engagement) by drawing on the Conservation Resource Theory (COR) and the Job Demands-Resources Theory (JD-R Model). Furthermore, this study sheds light on mindfulness as a moderating factor and the impact of power distance on how witnessed incivility is perceived and interpreted. Data was collected using a time-lagged survey design. A total of 202 surveys were completed amongst workers and supervisors across various industries in Nigeria and Canada. Findings from the study revealed that there was a significant relationship between witnessed incivility and two workplace outcomes (emotional exhaustion and OCB-O). While power distance did not moderate the relationship between witnessed incivility and workplace outcomes, it was observed that country as a moderator, moderated the relationship between witnessed incivility and OCB-O for participants in Nigeria. Also, mindfulness moderated the relationship between witnessed incivility and emotional exhaustion. More studies are required for a broader insight into the witnessed incivility literature.
- ItemThe relationship between cost of equity and ESG: the effect of COVID-19(Lethbridge, Alta. : University of Lethbridge, Dhillon School of Business, 2024) Fan, Ruijie; University of Lethbridge. Dhillon School of Business; Tian, Gloria; Asem, EbenezerSeveral prior studies report that environmental, social, and governance (ESG) initiatives temper the cost of equity. More recent studies show that COVID-19 increased the cost of equity. It is unclear whether the ESG mitigated the higher cost of capital during the COVID period. I focus on studying this using ESG and basic financial data for the period ranging from 2015 to 2022 based on U.S. and Canadian firms listed on NYSE, AMEX, and NASDAQ. The results show that the increase in the cost of equity during the COVID period concentrates less on firms with high ESG performance scores, suggesting ESG mitigated the increase in the cost of equity. This is consistent with the insurance-like effect of ESG on the cost of capital, cushioning the increase in the cost of capital during uncertain periods. In addition, my study reveals that the amplified ESG benefit in cost of equity reduction can be moderated by levels of industrial GDP growth and the stringency of the COVID-19 government policy.
- ItemEquity market reaction to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) corporate disclosure: executive compensation(Lethbridge, Alta. : University of Lethbridge, Dhillon School of Business, 2024) Akumaning, Edward; University of Lethbridge. Dhillon School of Business; Baulkaran, VishaalCorporate disclosure is crucial for corporate governance as it reduces information asymmetry, misalignment of investors’ interests, and other agency costs. Therefore, the US Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) has adopted various disclosure regulations to provide investors and other stakeholders with more transparent and comparable information about executive compensation. This quantitative study seeks to expand the body of knowledge by adopting an event study methodology to explore the stock market reaction to increased corporate disclosure of executive pay for US public firms. The population of this research comprises American-listed firms from 2021-2022. I employ a final sample of 2,914 firms for the complete sample analysis. Applying Zellner’s Seemingly Unrelated Regression (SUR) methodology, I provide evidence that the equity market reacts positively to all the news announcements, giving rise to the 2022 SEC’s final executive compensation disclosure rules adopted on August 25, 2022. This positive market response confirms the prediction that increased compensation disclosure improves governance. The results also suggest that enhanced corporate disclosure increases shareholder value by reducing agency costs linked to information asymmetry. In addition, the positive daily abnormal returns tend to be stronger for small firms versus large ones for the initial publication and the final rules. This suggests that small firms have more information asymmetry, uncertainty, and risks and thus react more positively than large companies that likely have less information asymmetry and uncertainty.
- ItemEarnings announcement and information spillover: evidence from cross-listing(Lethbridge, Alta. : University of Lethbridge, Dhillon School of Business, 2023) Sumon, Khairul Kabir; University of Lethbridge. Dhillon School of Business; Jiao, FengThis study explores the intra-country information spillover of earnings announcements by a cross-listed firm to its non-announcing peer firms from the same home country in the US market from 1993 to 2021. Using a standard event study methodology, this study shows that non-announcing peer firms' cumulative abnormal returns (CARs) show a statistically significant positive association with the CARs of announcing firms over a three-day event window around the earnings announcement. The magnitude of information spillover of earnings announcements on peer firms is more pronounced in the bear market than in the bullish market. The intensity of information spillover is stronger and positively related to the home country's financial reporting quality and the size of the announcing firms.