Scholars @Bentley (Bentley University)
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415 research outputs found
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The Pursuit of Truth in Accounting: How Accountants Communicate Findings and Share Their Narratives
Full text linkThis three-paper dissertation investigates two mechanisms by which accountants can share their narrative and express the truth: data visualization and whistleblowing. The first paper is a comprehensive literature review of the quantitative data visualization research in accounting. We find that accounting research is highlighting data visualization usage for performance management, financial disclosure, system design, risk assessment, impression management, and fraud and forensics. While the existing contributions to data visualization research are substantive and important to accounting practice, many opportunities for data visualization remain under-or unexplored. The second paper investigates how accountants make the decision to blow the whistle and share their narrative. This study details two surveys, one completed by accounting professors and one completed by accountants from across the United States, to explore whether accountants contact accounting professors for advice when faced with unethical behavior in the workplace. Twenty-six percent of professors and twenty-four percent of accountants have engaged in this form of mentorship. Fifty-nine percent of professors and seventy-three percent of accountants report that consulting with the professor was the first course of action. The overwhelming majority of those professors (ninety-one percent from the professor sample and ninety-three percent from the accountant sample) provided accountants with advice. Overall, accountants are satisfied with both the professor’s advice and the professor’s mentorship. The third paper investigates a nascent outlet for external whistleblowing (i.e., social media) that enables accountants to expose their narrative expeditiously. I conduct a 2 X 2 between-participants experiment with 357 nonprofessional investors. I find that both perceived income inequity and perceived CEO incentive affect the firm’s reputation with investors through fairness and trust, in serial mediated models. However, investors’ subsequent investment activity is only impacted by perceived income inequity and perceived CEO incentive through trust. While most investors deem social media whistleblowing to be somewhat credible, this relationship is amplified in the presence of perceived CEO greed, such that CEO greed enhances the credibility investors attribute to online allegations. Taken together, these papers broaden our understanding of how accountants disseminate the truth and their narrative, and the implications of doing so
Embodied Action in Remote Online Interaction: A Preliminary Investigation of Hand Raising Gestures in a Zoom Meeting
Full text linkIn this paper I use a conversation analytic approach to investigate how participants in a meeting held remotely via Zoom use embodied action to solicit selection as next speaker. When hand raising is not immediately successful, participants use embodied actions to withdraw, modify, upgrade, downgrade or reissue gestures in pursuit of selection as next speaker. Due to the technological affordances and limitations of the remote meeting environment, participants’ gestures and hand positions differ from what would typically occur in face-to-face interaction, resulting in frequent gestures near the face that provide for both visibility to the Zoom audience and easy transition to a raised hand position when necessary. I discuss these results in terms of our understanding of how technologically mediated virtual interaction through the internet impacts the use of embodied action, and how participants coordinate their embodied action and responses to it with turn taking and sequence completion
OER Textbook Review for Cognitive Psychology - (1) Cognitive Psychology - (2) Research Methods in Psychology
Full text linkThis review by Dr. Jonathan Ericson, Associate Professor for Experience Design at Bentley University, evaluates two OER textbooks: Cognitive Psychology and Research Methods in Psychology.” Both texts, published on LibreTexts, are assessed for various criteria including comprehensiveness, accuracy, and relevance. The reviewer concludes that while suitable for introductory courses, both textbooks would benefit from supplemental materials and critical reflection questions to enhance student learning and address potential biases
OER Textbook Review for Public Speaking - (1) Exploring Public Speaking - (2) Speak Out, Call In - (3) Stand Up, Speak Out
Full text linkThis review by Dr. Kristin Roberts Raymond, lecturer in the English and Media Studies Department and the Director of ESOL at Bentley University, evaluates three OER textbooks for public speaking: Exploring Public Speaking, Speak Out, Call In: Public Speaking as Advocacy, and Stand Up, Speak Out: The Practice and Ethics of Public Speaking. Each text is assessed for its strengths and weaknesses. The reviewer concludes that a combination of these texts would be ideal for teaching, highlighting the benefit of OER resources in allowing instructors to draw from multiple sources without additional cost to students
Association Between Expedited Review Designations and the US or Global Burden of Disease for Drugs Approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, 2010–2019: A Cross-sectional Analysis
Full text linkPharmaceutical innovation can contribute to reducing the burden of disease in human populations. This research asks whether products approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) from 2010 to 2019 and expedited review programmes incentivising development of products for serious disease were aligned with the US or global burden of disease
Crisis negotiation techniques in interactional context: Managing a suicide threat in an emergency service call
Full text linkPrevious research reveals that standard crisis negotiation techniques are useful in assisting suicidal persons, but how routine interactional procedures impact their implementation has not yet been sufficiently examined. Aim: This paper investigates how routine interactional procedures impact the effectiveness of crisis negotiation techniques in an emergency services call involving a suicide announcement. Methods: A publicly released emergency service call was transcribed and analyzed using the qualitative technique of conversation analysis. Results: The call taker used crisis negotiation techniques such as maximizing autonomy, displaying active listening, and distracting the caller to keep them on the phone. These techniques were implemented successfully through routine interactional procedures such as topic shifts, requests, and listener responses. Interrupting or overlapping the caller\u27s speech or replacing requests with demands were less effective. Discussion: Instruction in the routine procedures of interaction may be as important as instruction in standard crisis negotiation techniques when training call takers to handle suicide announcement calls. Conclusions: Qualitative analysis of suicide announcement calls can be an effective means of learning how crisis negotiation techniques are used in practice and how emergency call takers can help prevent suicide by keeping callers on the phone and persuading them to abandon their suicidal plans
OER Textbook Review for Organizational Behavior - (1) Organizational Behavior, Libretexts - (2) Organizational Behavior, Openstax
Full text linkDr. Amanda C. Sargent, Assistant Professor of Management at Bentley University, reviews the OpenStax textbook “Organizational Behavior” as well as “Organizational Behavior” on Libretexts. While both open-source texts cover a wide range of organizational behavior topics, Sargent concluded that the information in OpenStax’s “Organizational Behavior” was outdated and difficult to read in some sections. At the same time, Sargent notes that while Libretexts’ “Organizational Behavior” had some outdated references, it was a more suitable textbook selection for an introduction to Organizational Behavior
Comments Re: Workshop on Transforming Discoveries into Products: Maximizing NIH’s Levers to Catalyze Technology Transfer
Full text linkWe are pleased to offer written comments to this workshop focused on “… making federally funded inventions more accessible to the public… .” These comments are informed by recent research from the Center for Integration of Science and Industry at Bentley University that has: Quantified the scope of NIH funding for basic or applied research, clinical development, or patents associated with drugs approved by the FDA 2010-2019. This work identified $187 billion in NIH-funded research directly related to these drugs (applied research – 17%) or their biological targets (basic research – 83%), representing a (discounted) investment comparable to reported levels of investment by industry, thus reducing the investment required by industry by approximately half. These studies further show that less than 3.5% of this funding contributing to phased clinical trials and \u3c1% resulted in patents cited as providing market exclusivity and subject to the public interest protections of Bayh-Dole. Compared the financial returns of biotechnology license from academic institutions with those between commercial firms. This work demonstrated that the effective royalty rates and other payments associated with licenses of academic technologies under Bayh-Dole were less than half of those between commercial firms independent of the development stage of products anticipated under these Agreements or other intrinsic terms of the Agreements. A novel approach to quantify the “health value” or direct health benefit realized by individuals taking specific pharmaceutical products independent of impacts on economic activity or indirect, econometric inferences
Digital Nudges: An Investigation of Both Consumer and Designer Perspectives
Full text linkThis dissertation explores how knowledge of digital nudges impacts consumer decisions, and how consumer preferences based on that knowledge impacts design decisions. Paper 1 presents a systematic narrative literature review on the evolution of digital nudge literature. This investigation uncovers several themes and provides a basis for a revised definition of digital nudges and a taxonomy wheel of digital nudges. Paper 2 (co-authored with Jeffrey Livingston, Jonathan Ericson, and Patrick McHugh) investigates how knowledge about digital nudges impacts consumer preferences to have them within the digital experiences they use. This paper highlights how knowledge of digital nudges impact consumer online shopping preferences. Consumers (N = 331) were given two options for a homepage, product page, and checkout page within an e-commerce experience. Using an experiment with consumers as subjects, we discover that consumers consider themselves more knowledgeable about digital nudges after the experiment rather than before. Additionally, findings indicate that consumers are more inclined to avoid web pages incorporating dark patterns into their design. Paper 3 (co-authored with Jeffrey Livingston, Jonathan Ericson, and Patrick McHugh) complements the consumer paper. It investigates how much designers know about digital nudges and whether designers would be less apt to use digital nudges and dark patterns in their designs if they knew more about those digital nudges and if they knew which ones consumers would prefer to avoid. In this study, we examine whether and how designers might be influenced to avoid using digital nudges that might be considered manipulative or that consumers find objectionable. Designers (N = 353) were given two options for a homepage, product page, and checkout page within an e-commerce experience. We found that designers originally considered themselves to be more knowledgeable about digital nudges before the study than after it. Additionally, our findings indicate that designers are more inclined to avoid using digital nudges if they know that the consumer does not prefer them within a page experience
On the Ethics of Selling Psychic Services
Full text linkIn many places, it is possible to buy psychic services, including tarot card, palm, and mediumship readings. Yet we have powerful evidence that psychic abilities do not exist. This paper asks whether psychic services should be for sale. I begin by considering whether psychics deceive or mislead buyers. Next, I consider a harm-based argument against the sale of psychic services. Finally, I consider an argument in favor of their sale that appeals to expressive considerations. I conclude with a tentative policy recommendation: the sale of psychic services should be permitted. This is so even though much of the money spent on them will be money wasted