Medium-sized US Research Articles

An Study on the Causes and Consequences of the SVB Collapse

This comprehensive study delves into the nuanced causes and repercussions surrounding the failure of Silicon Valley Banks(SVB), scrutinizing both external and internal factors. Internally, the demise is attributed to mismanagement of assets and liabilities, coupled with flaws in the business model. Externally, the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hike and relaxed financial regulations during the Trump era are identified as pivotal triggers. Post-bankruptcy, the rapid acquisition and sale of SVB, First Total Bank, and Signature Bank temporarily alleviate risks within the US banking sector. Regulatory authorities respond by fortifying rules, enhancing industry resilience but simultaneously tightening loan conditions, potentially intensifying economic downturn pressures. Presently, market confidence is on the mend due to regulatory influence, limiting systemic risks. However, the looming 2023 interest rate hike poses a threat, particularly with tight monetary policies. Small and medium-sized US banks, heavily invested in commercial real estate, face heightened vulnerability, potentially precipitating a downward spiral in property prices. Drawing lessons from Lehman Brothers, the study advocates for a balanced approach to monetary policy, emphasizing financial stability, improved risk management by regulators, and ongoing efforts to avert and mitigate future financial crises.

The Impact of Socio-Economic, Land Use, and Travel Related Variables on Escort and Non-Escort Intermediate Stops on Work Tours

Stop frequency prediction model is one of the components of the activity-based travel demand models. Most of the previous studies have considered stops during commutes regardless of their purposes. This approach does not yield the contribution of the explanatory variables to the likelihood of making stops of different purposes. Besides, most of the former studies have been conducted in larger metropolitan areas. This study attempts to cover these gaps by using 2012 travel data of Fargo-Moorhead medium-sized US metropolitan area and classifying stops on work tours into escort, non-escort, and a combination of all stops. The results of logit models indicate that personal characteristics of the commuters do not contribute to the escort stop participation likelihood. In addition, household size variables have a large impact on the likelihood of participating in escort stops and participating in the combined stops on the outbound leg of the commutes. Contrary to several previous studies, the significance and sign of the coefficient of income level vary for different stop purposes. Commuters seemed to be more likely to make more than one non-escort stop close to their workplace on the outbound legs of their commutes. The general results suggest separating the stop purposes yields more illustrative results rather than using one model for the combined stops.

Correlates of Turnover: Salary and Bonuses

Purpose–This paper investigates how salaries and bonus payments are related to turnover. Design/methodology/approach–The wealth maximization hypothesis posits that turnover is negatively related to the worker’s expected future earnings at the current firm. Thus, salary and bonuses should be related to turnover to the extent they provide information about the worker’s future earnings at the firm. To evaluate this hypothesis, this paper uses data coming from the personnel records of a medium-sized US firm in the financial services industry. Results–The regression results show that pay variables are serially correlated and they signal future promotions in the firm. Thus, both salaries and bonuses provide information about the worker’s future earnings through these two channels. Further, as predicted by the wealth maximization hypothesis, both salaries and bonuses are related to turnover. In particular, the results show that the growth rate of salary and bonus size (as well as earning a bonus in the current year) are negatively related to turnover.Discussion–The findings of this study underscore the importance of pay variables on turnover behavior. While most existing studies focus on salaries, thereby ignoring bonuses, the current analysis shows that bonus payments are an important determinant of turnover. Hence, in addition to providing workers with effort incentives, the retention function of bonuses should be taken into account for designing optimal compensation schemes.

Determinants of cyber-incidents among small and medium US cities

Cyber-incidents threaten the confidentiality, efficiency, and integrity of digital information systems, causing privacy risks, economic losses, and reputational damages, and exposing managerial limitations. Although these phenomena are becoming more frequent in public agencies, research to date has mainly focused on private sector organizations and individuals. In this study, we contribute to the broader literature on cyber-incidents by exploring the drivers of both security breaches and unauthorized data disclosures in public organizations. Drawing from routine activity theory, we develop hypotheses on the determinants of cyber-incidents in departments in small and medium-sized US cities and test them using data from a national survey of public managers. Our findings suggest that both environmental and organizational factors are key determinants of cyber-incidents in city government. The results demonstrate the application of routine activity theory to public sector organizations and identify external and internal elements related to cyber-incidents in city government departments.

Employee onboarding and satisfaction in US manufacturing companies

PurposeThe purpose of this study was to identify primary issues related to employee onboarding and satisfaction in US-based manufacturing companies.Design/methodology/approachIn total, 19 focus groups using semi-structured interviews with senior management, middle management, tenured employees and new employees were conducted with personnel from five manufacturing companies located in the Midwest USA. Onboarding procedures, training manuals, employee satisfaction surveys and performance evaluations were subsequently reviewed.FindingsInsufficient onboarding, poor communication and a perceived lack of support were reported as satisfaction concerns by manufacturing employees. In addition, management had vastly differing perspectives regarding the work environment when responses were contrasted with those from new or tenured employees.Originality/valueThis paper reveals contributing factors that influence satisfaction early and throughout an employee’s tenure with small- to medium-sized US manufacturing companies.

Urban nocturnal cooling mediated by bluespace

The spatiotemporal characteristics of air temperature and humidity mediated by urban bluespace are investigated using a combination of dense network of climatological observations in a medium-sized US city, computational fluid dynamics, and analytical modeling approaches. Both numerical simulation and observational results show that the rate of change of hourly averaged air temperature and humidity at 3.5 m over urban areas peaks 2 h after sunset, while it decreases with time monotonically over greenspace, indicating different impacts due to presence of urban lakes. The apparent temperature decreases with distance to lakes in urban area due to higher near-shore humidity. This highlights that urban lakes located near city center can deteriorate the nighttime cooling effects due to elevated humidity. Finally, two analytical models are presented to explain the connection between the surface and air temperature as well as the spatial variation of air temperature and humidity adjacent to the urban lakes. These simplified models with parameters being inferred from the network of measurements have reasonably good performance compared to the observations. Compared to other sophisticated numerical simulations, these analytical models offer an alternative means that is easily accessible for evaluating the efficacy of bluespace on urban nocturnal cooling.

A financial performance-based assessment of SMEs’ competitiveness – an analysis of Hungarian and US small businesses

The study aims to identify the financial performance measures used as a proxy of the firm-level competitiveness dimensions of small and medium-sized enterprises and their competitiveness. By investigating the factors that affect competitiveness in general, those areas will be introduced, related to an identified competitiveness dimension. Financial and non-financial performance indicators will assess these areas. The paper considers competitiveness as an outcome variable, suggests a relationship between financial performance and the identified areas, and searches for the financial performance measures drivers. A panel data model was tested on Hungarian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and US SMEs. The collected data cover the period between 2013 and 2017. As a result of the applied panel regression, those variables were successfully identified that drive and could predict financial performance measures related to competitiveness. The research found a significant difference between the two-sample dataset results, which differences can be connected to country, industry, and, in general, to economic development characteristics.The results provide decision-making support and hint about the managerial tools and techniques aiming to control the firm characteristics, performance, and, eventually, firm-level competitiveness. Based on the results, further research can be dedicated to the development characteristics of firm-level competitiveness and the analysis of the relationship between the competitiveness dimensions and competitiveness itself. AcknowledgmentThe research was financed by the Higher Education Institutional Excellence Programme of the Ministry for Innovation and Technology in Hungary, within the framework of the 4th thematic programme „Enhancing the Role of Domestic Companies in the Reindustrialization of Hungary” of the University of Pécs.

Does real-time transit information reduce waiting time? An empirical analysis

Abstract A claimed benefit of real-time information (RTI) apps in public transit systems is the reduction of waiting time by allowing passengers to appropriately time their arrivals at transit stops. Although previous research investigated the overall impact of RTI on waiting time, few studies examine the mechanisms underlying these claims, and variations in its effectiveness over time and space. In this paper, we theorize and validate the sources of RTI-based users’ waiting time penalties: reclaimed delay (bus drivers compensating for being behind schedule) and discontinuity delay (an artifact of the update frequency of RTI). We compare two RTI-based strategies – the greedy strategy used by popular trip planning apps and a prudent strategy with an insurance buffer – with non-RTI benchmarks of arbitrary arrival and following the schedule. Using real-time bus location data from a medium-sized US city, we calculate the empirical waiting times and risk of missing a bus for each trip planning strategy. We find that the best RTI strategy, a prudent tactic with an optimized insurance time buffer, performs roughly the same as the simple, follow-the-schedule tactic that does not use RTI. However, relative performance varies over time and space. Moreover, the greedy tactic in common transit apps is the worst strategy, even worse than showing up at a bus stop arbitrarily. These results suggest limitations on claims that RTI reduces public transit waiting times.

Social Cognitive Factors Associated with Sharing Overt and Relational Cyberaggression Digitally

Cyberaggression is a substantial problem for college-aged students. The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to examine associations between social cognitive factors and digitally sharing one’s own and others’ overt and relational cyberaggressive material among college students. Social cognitive factors included cyber moral disengagement and facets of cognitive autonomy, including comparative validation, voicing opinions, and evaluative thinking. A convenience sample of 437 college students from a medium-sized US university completed an online survey about cyber aggression and related social cognitive factors. Results from a structural equation model, controlling for gender, showed that cyber moral disengagement was positively associated with sharing own and others’ overt and relational cyberaggressive material. Sharing one’s own and others’ relational cyberaggression was positively associated with comparative validation but was negatively associated with evaluative thinking. The present research reinforces prior links between moral disengagement and cyberaggression while examining other social cognitive factors associated with cyberaggression and assisting cyberaggression perpetrators.

Current situation and prospect of Permian Basins in the United States

The Permian Basin of the United States is a hot spot for global mergers and acquisitions of oil & gas assets, with the transaction value as 20% of the world’s total. Majority of participants in these activities are small and medium-sized US companies. With the decreasing costs triggered by technical advancements, more and more large oil companies have started to acquire oil and gas assets in the Permian Basin. This paper analyzed the features of M&A transactions concerning the Permian Basin, and highlighted the root causes thereof from the perspective of geologic reserves, engineering technology and surface facilities. On this basis, the future situations on the global oil markets were forecasted.

Towards more digital cities? Change in technology use and perceptions across small and medium-sized US cities

ABSTRACT There is continuous pressure on public managers to adopt information and communication technologies (ICTs) to transform the way cities work. E-government research provides insights on the institutional, organisational, and individual factors that shape technology adoption and use. Yet most studies on small and medium sized cities use cross-sectional data or rely on small samples. We lack a systematic understanding of how technology use in smaller cities has changed over time and where these cities are lagging. Drawing from a multi-year, multi-method national study of city government technology use, we describe advancements and gaps in the enactment of a range of technologies, from social media to open data portals, and explore variation across city population, department type, and manager age. Our findings show that smaller cities still lag in the adoption of key features while local government managers are more inclined to adopt and positively perceive social media than traditional ICTs.

Electronic monitoring in public organizations: evidence from US local governments

ABSTRACTTechnology use in the workplace expands the ability to monitor employees through activities such as website tracking, email scanning, and social media monitoring. Monitoring is a fundamental aspect of the relationship between organizations, employees, and stakeholders and can affect perceptions of privacy, autonomy, and trust in the workplace. However, electronic monitoring is little investigated in public management research and we have minimal knowledge about the factors that prompt public managers to adopt electronic monitoring. Focusing on small- and medium-sized US municipalities, we investigate types of electronic monitoring and how organizational, sociopolitical, and technological factors shape electronic monitoring intensity. We test our hypotheses with data from a 2014 national survey of 2,500 local managers, website coding data, and US Census data. We find that electronic monitoring, especially monitoring online activities, is a response to organizational centralization, participation of internal stakeholders, social media use, and technology concerns.

Bus commuting, subway commuting, and walking to workplaces in US cities: Socioeconomic factors of transit commuters

ABSTRACTMost previous studies that examine the controversies involved in transit subsidies concentrate on large metropolitan areas in the United States. The main contribution of this article to the extant literature is that it investigates bus ridership data in small- and medium-sized US cities, which has been primarily ignored in earlier literature. The article also analyzes data on bus commuters, subway commuters, and walkers to workplaces in the eight largest cities with extensive subway systems and 22 other large cities. The analysis employs the 2010 US Census (IPUMS data). Generally, the characteristics of subway commuters are quite different from those of bus commuters. The characteristics of walkers in all the US cities are very similar to those who commute by bus.

The typology of the American metropolis: monocentricity, polycentricity, or generalized dispersion?

ABSTRACTAlthough the spatial structure of employment in large US metropolitan regions is a well-researched topic, few studies focus on medium-sized and small US metropolitan regions. Consequently, there is no overall typology relating small-to-medium urban form to employment distribution. We address this gap by investigating the spatial structure of employment in 356 metropolitan regions. We conceptualize six typologies based on three categories that have overlapping properties: “monocentricity,” “polycentricity,” and “generalized dispersion.” The study has three main findings. First, the three types of urban form that we identify as “hybrid” outnumber the three “pure” types by almost four to one. Second, job dispersion is a dominant characteristic in almost 70% of all metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) (including the hybrid types), and polycentricity (56.7% of MSAs) is somewhat more common than monocentricity. Third, there is a strong relationship between population size and density. The population of medium-sized metropolitan areas is generally more dispersed than that of small and large metropolitan areas. Polycentricy emerges mostly in large metropolitan regions, while monocentrity is found in both small and large metropolitan regions.

Up close and personal

Purpose – The purpose of this research is to explore the drivers of computer-related sustainability behavior at a medium-sized US university and the extent to which an inexpensive energy-saving device installed on 146 administrator, faculty and general staff workstations achieved significant savings in kWh, CO2 kg and dollars. Design/methodology/approach – A mixed-method approach was used to collect qualitative and quantitative data to inform the study, and an intervention was introduced to raise awareness of energy-saving initiatives on a medium-sized university campus at an individual level. A simple computer energy efficiency device to measure the kWh, carbon emissions and monetary savings was installed on office workstations of 146 administrator, faculty and general staff. The research design enabled analysis of university mitigation strategies along with energy-saving behaviors, attitudes and savings in CO2 kg and dollars resulting from the installation of the adaptation intervention. Findings – Extrapolating individual workstation savings over the eight-week study period suggests potential annual average savings of $122,087.21; 1,327,003 kWh of energy; and 577,044 kg CO2. Usage behaviors and attitudes of study participants toward green practices in general and the specific energy-saving device showed participants hold highly positive attitudes toward both. Themes that captured participants’ feeling toward the energy-saving device included: easy to use; enjoyment; feedback; habit and technical issues. Drivers that most highly motivated participants to save energy at work were participants’ sense of social responsibility and the recognition of the need to reduce energy at work. Practical implications – The implementation of a voluntary individual-level energy-saving adaptation has the potential to be more far effective than expensive mandated strategies imposed on university employees and the value of feedback in positively influencing sustainability behavior. Originality/value – This study is one of the first to report on the implementation of a voluntary individual-level climate change adaptation intervention on a university campus. The research addresses concerns voiced in previous literature that higher education is not stepping up the critical role in climate adaptation required of it and contributes to the sustainability in higher education literature by providing empirical evidence of the usefulness of implementing a simple adaptation technique. Specifically, it documents how increasing sustainability awareness in university employees can encourage socially responsible and energy conversation behaviors and achieve significant energy savings in dollars, kWh and CO2 kg.

Learning strategy preferences of working engineers

Many continue to call for increased continuing education for working engineers, but relatively little research has been done on how to most effectively teach that group. Many have also recommended using learner characteristics to enhance learning, but relatively little is known about the learner characteristics of working engineers. In the experimental study reported here, engineers at a medium-sized US manufacturing company were surveyed to determine their preferred learning strategies as defined by the ATLAS instrument. There was a much higher percentage of problem solvers among these engineers compared to the general population. This suggests that instructional designs for continuing engineering education should include a significant amount of problem solving activities.

Black Mobility Matters: An Exploratory Study of Uber, Hacking, and the Commons in Baltimore

Questions about the city – its boundaries, fabric, size, scale, culture, economy, historical and political contributions – populate the expansive horizon of architectural theory. Its immediate denotation is elusive, but the city is frequently captured within images of living networks: complex organisms, ecosystems, hives, colonies, bundles of neurons. These images of “city as living being,” present it as possessing essential organs connected by an indispensable circulatory system, regulated by a metabolism. Thus, the vitality and relative scale of a city can be measured from its transportation infrastructure and flow of capital. Many large-sized US cities survived the devastating effects of deindustrialization and white flight, maintaining adequate circulatory systems that connected urban residents to means of work. For the majority of medium-sized US cities – Baltimore, Cincinnati, Buffalo and Pittsburg to name a few – this was not the case. These cities suffered large declines in employment, population, and infrastructure maintenance, as they transitioned from an industrial to a tourist and service (FIRE) based economy. While mobile network technologies supplement existing transit systems in large-sized US cities, they exploit the hollowing out of medium-sized cities in the US post-industrial landscape. These technologies are attempting to both define urban labor and imagine how people connect to labor. In so doing they (re)imagine and (re)define the city itself, (re)organizing the way essential organs are connected and regulated. This article examines the economic and social practices of Uber and how it shapes, and is shaped by, the commons of medium-sized cities that revolutionizes traditional notions of urban work and mobility, but not necessarily for the better in the long run. Later, the article explores how this imagining impacts the commons through differentiating Uber from Hacking, a long-standing though illegal solution to urban immobility in Baltimore. Through their comparison, the article proposes a civic-minded, open-sourced on-demand car service that capitalizes on Baltimore’s car centricity and strengthens the commons through cooperative and mobile networks.

Verbal-visual preferences of working engineers

ABSTRACTMany have argued for increased continuing education for working engineers, but relatively little research has been done on how to most effectively teach that group. Many have also recommended using learner characteristics to enhance learning, but relatively little is known about the learner characteristics of working engineers. In the study reported here, 116 engineers at a medium-sized US manufacturing company were surveyed to determine their verbal-visual preferences as defined by the Verbal-Visual Learning Style Rating instrument. There was a much higher percentage of visualisers in the engineering sample compared to the general population. This suggests that instructional designs for continuing engineering education should be highly visual.

Environmental practices and innovation performance of US small and medium-sized manufacturers

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to describe the adoption of environmental management and collaboration practices by US small and medium-sized manufacturers and explore whether there are discernible differences in product and process innovation that can be explained by differences in their adoption.Design/methodology/approach– This research uses descriptive statistics and probit regression analysis of survey data from 295 small and medium-sized US manufacturers in seven industries.Findings– There are significant industrial sector differences in the adoption of environmental management and collaboration practices, larger and older companies are more advanced in their adoption of these practices, and companies adopting these practices are outperforming their competitors in terms of product and process innovation.Originality/value– This research assesses US industry sector differences among small and medium-sized manufacturers in the adoption of environmental management and collaboration practices and differences in product and process innovation linked to this adoption.

Cause of death in HIV-infected patients in South Carolina (2005-2013).

The life span of persons with HIV has been greatly extended over the past 30 years due to novel therapies. In the developed world and urban settings, this results in a lifespan rivaling the lifespan of a person without HIV. A retrospective study was conducted on 459 patients of an urban, academic medical center who died between 2005 and 2013 in a medium-sized US city. Using the established Cause of Death Project (CoDe) protocol, we measured multiple factors including comorbidities, risk behaviours, contributing and underlying causes of death. This study is one of the few US-based studies using this validated protocol. Among the deaths, 25.9% were sudden and 15.2% were unexpected. Almost one-fifth were related to AIDS-related infections; 47.5% related to non-AIDS causes; with the remainder unknown. Statistically significant increases in CD4 counts and decreasing viral loads were observed over the study period. There were no statistically significant differences observed by HIV risk behaviour, race, gender, age at death, or on antiretrovirals at death. In support of the existing literature, improved HIV management appears to reduce the AIDS-related attributable death among patients observed in this study.