University of Michigan - Flint

Fall/Winter Projects

Application Deadline - August 1 

Impact of ISO9000 Registration on Organizational Effectiveness

Cross-border Mergers and Acquisitions Data

Impact of 2007, 2008 and Early-2009 Financial Crisis

Institutional Influences on MNE FDI Inflows and Outflows in Southeast Asia

Winter/Spring/Summer Projects 

Application Deadline - December 1

The Examination of Rationalization in the Fraud Triangle

Impact of 2007, 2008 and Early-2009 Financial Crisis

Faculty:  C.P. Kartha

Project Description:

ISO9000 Quality Standard is a series of internationally accepted guidelines as to how companies should set up their quality assurance systems. Focusing on procedures, controls and documentation, the standard is designed to help a company identify mistakes, streamline its operations and be able to guarantee a constant level of quality. Certification to this quality standard is rapidly becoming to be a de facto requirement for doing business globally.  The certification process requires a significant investment of both human as well as financial resources of the organization.  Even though obtaining certification is largely a voluntary decision, according to the latest statistics released by the ISO, 161 countries accounted for over eight hundred thousand certifications and the number is growing at the rate of about fifty thousand every year. 

The process of obtaining ISO certification can be long and expensive and depends on the quality improvement efforts that exist in an organization. The cost of initial certification could be anywhere from $150,000 to $200,000. A recent survey reported that the average total cost associated with registration was $187,000.  However, a majority of organizations make this decision partly because many customers require certification as a pre-condition to do business with them. There have been questions raised as to the worthiness of making such investments by organizations for obtaining certification. This research investigates this question by comparing the effects of ISO certification on organizational effectiveness.  A questionnaire is developed to compare the effect of certification on a number of factors such as profitability, productivity and customer satisfaction.   An e- survey will be conducted and results compared for companies with and without ISO certification. A sample of approximately 500 companies is to be taken to help guarantee representation of manufacturing and service organizations as well as organizations with and without certification. About half of those companies have been selected in the last several days. A follow-up interview with management personnel from a selected subgroup is done to identify successful strategies used by companies in both certified and non-certified organizations. The interview is also designed to understand the management perspectives on the implementation issues involved. The study will be conducted in Italy as part of a larger international comparative study involving US, Asia and Europe.  A similar study was conducted in India and is currently in the data analysis stage. A customized survey instrument for the US was initiated two months ago and we have data on about 70 responses already.

While the desirability for having ISO certification is well understood and well researched, the question of its worthiness in relation to the financial and other organizational outcomes such as profitability, quality and customer satisfaction, remains not sufficiently addressed.  After a significant initial investment of close to two hundred thousand dollars for getting the certification, the organization still has to spend several thousand dollars annually to maintain its certification status. The results of this investigation will help to establish guidelines and strategies that could be used to make an educated fact-based decision as to whether or not an organization should seek and maintain ISO certification.

Describe the work the SOM Assistant would perform:

The Research Assistant will help with the following research activities.

(1)Help with the analysis of the data from the recently completed survey for Indian companies. The data from the e-survey is stored automatically in SPSS format.

(2)The US study is currently underway. Depending on the response rate additional companies may have to be selected for e-survey. The RA will provide assistance in selecting appropriate companies as well as sending the questionnaire for e-survey. Also data from this group is to be analyzed from the SPSS database.

(3)For representation from Europe I have selected Italy. We are currently in the process of identifying companies and their email addresses. The sample will consist of 500 companies representing both manufacturing and service sectors. Help is needed first in selecting these companies and their email addresses and later conducting the e-survey. Also the data is to be analyzed once the survey is completed.

(4)Finally the study will involve a comparison between the three countries. This will require further statistical analysis and RA will be helpful at this stage also.

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Cross-border Mergers and Acquisitions Data

Faculty: Yener Kandogan

I am working on a number of projects that relate to cross-border mergers and acquisitions. Generally speaking, the research questions I have are the impact of differences in cultures on the success of these forms of entry into foreign markets. Does cultural proximity make them more successful? Does past experience in dealing with cross-cultural differences increases the likelihood of success? Is there any particular culture that is more prone to success in cross-cultural M&As? Which cultural characteristics increase the likelihood of success? How do gravitational factors, such as geographic distance and economic size, affect the volume of such international activities?

Describe the work the SOM Assistant would perform:

These projects are at their initial stage of data collection. The School recently acquired two related data sets. Mergers and Acquisitions SDC Platinum and Compustat Global. I would like the assistant to learn the specifics of these data bases, learn what kind of data are available in these, and help downloading as much data as possible before the School’s subscription ends. I would also like the assistant help in cleaning up the data downloaded, probably with the help of a computer program such as Matlab, to bring it to a stage that is ready for statistical analysis. I am looking for a student with some research experience, especially with research databases, and some experience in basic computer programming. 

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Impact of 2007, 2008 and Early-2009 Financial Crisis

Faculty: Surendranath Jory

Assess the impact of the financial crisis on businesses in general.

Collecting information, like performing news searches, reading journals, collecting data
Writing up a preliminary version

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Institutional Influences on MNE FDI Inflows and Outflows in Southeast Asia

Faculty: George O. White III

I will be developing a series of databases and performing research on how different environmental institutions (formal and informal) influence industry and MNE FDI flows in Southeast Asia countries. A primary aspect of this research is to better understand how institutions (e.g., laws and regulations, political environment, national culture) influence one another (i.e., act as complements or substitutes), and how this impacts long-term MNE FDI inflows and outflows into the countries in Southeast Asia.

Describe the work the SOM Assistant would perform:

The assistant would collect data from several data sources (including the COMPUSTAT GLOBAL database) and then build a series of databases related to the research project(s) mentioned above. They would also be requested to collect research articles in order to assist the professor with the development and writing of the project(s). Other assistance that is associated with these research projects will be performed (e.g., basic proofing of research manuscripts, etc.).    

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The Examination of Rationalization in the Fraud

Faculty: Clement Chen 

Project Description:

Auditing textbooks typically discuss three factors that increase the risk of fraud:  motivation, opportunity, and rationalization (e.g. Louwers, et al. 2005).  Motivation results from the presence of some pressure in an individual’s life, such as gambling debts, college tuition, or a large hospital bill, that creates a motive to steal.  Opportunity exists when one in a position of trust sees an opening in a company’s internal controls that would allow him/her to embezzle money or take something else of value.  Rationalization occurs when there is some lapse in integrity that leads a person to believe that it is actually acceptable to commit an act that might otherwise be thought of as unethical.  For instance, a manager may have been passed over for a promotion and perceive that there was an injustice, or may convince himself/herself that anyone else would do the same thing in similar circumstances, and that no one is really being hurt.

Some empirical research has been conducted on motivation and opportunity; however, there appears to be a dearth of research that has examined the third part of this “fraud triangle”:  rationalization.  Some argue that, when one or two of the three factors are present, a person is more likely to commit a fraud.  The proposed study will examine the role of rationalizations in carrying out an unethical act.  We will examine whether rationalization is a necessary condition for carrying out a fraud, or if high levels of motive and opportunity are sufficient without rationalization.  We will also examine whether one’s own moral compass (or lack thereof) affects the tendency to rationalize.  Assistance is needed in order to identify the relevant material that will be necessary to formulate our expectations and to assess the extent to which the proposed study will contribute to the literature.

Describe the work the SOM Assistant would perform:

The SOM Assistant will search the relevant literature and summarize the findings from the prior literature in Fall 2009 and Winter semester 2010. Another task will involve data entry after surveys are collected.

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