Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Hospitality Management and Dietetics / Elizabeth B. Barrett / Rebecca A. Gould / Equipment to store foods at proper temperatures is critical to serving safe and nutritious meals in schools yet little is known about the amount or the adequacy of refrigerated storage in school nutrition programs. The purposes of this study were to identify the types and capacity of refrigeration equipment used in schools, determine the perceived adequacy of refrigerated storage capacity to meet new meal pattern requirements, and examine differences in adequacy and capacity. A modified Delphi technique, site observations, pilot study, and electronic survey were used for data collection. School nutrition directors in the USDA/FNS Southwest Region (N=2392) served as the population. Respondents provided an inventory of refrigeration equipment for one of the schools in their district and information about perceived adequacy of refrigerated storage, barriers to purchasing refrigeration equipment, resources used to develop specifications, and practices to compensate for inadequate refrigerated storage in their program. Data analysis included descriptive statistics, independent sample t-tests, regression, and ANOVA. Over a third of directors indicated that refrigerated equipment was inadequate to meet new meal pattern requirements. Directors with more experience rated adequacy higher than directors with less experience. Milk coolers (n=212, 88.3%) and walk-in freezers (n=180, 75.0%) were the types of refrigeration equipment found most often in schools. Walk-in freezers and refrigerators provided over 95% of refrigerated storage space. The mean average cubic feet of refrigerated storage per school was 1423±1152. School enrollment is a significant predictor of refrigerated storage capacity. Refrigerated storage is a concern for school nutrition directors who reported practices to compensate for inadequate storage including maintaining low inventory and decreasing the number of items purchased. School nutrition professionals may use the results of this study to implement practices to compensate for inadequate refrigerated storage. Results cannot be generalized due to the regional nature of the survey and low response rate and possible non-response bias.

Master of Agribusiness / Department of Agricultural Economics / Vincent Amanor-Boadu / The purpose of this research was to develop a decision tool to identify and rank potential locations for making a greenfield investment in flour milling. The driving characteristics of the tool developed are transparency, reproducibility, specificity and clarity. Currently, the approach to selecting countries in which to invest is driven purely by ad hoc frameworks that often lack the characteristics driving this investment index tool. The investment index was designed to have three main components: market conditions, economic environment and supporting infrastructure. Market conditions for the product of interest – in this case flour – were defined to encompass per capita wheat-based food consumption growth rate, wheat production versus wheat consumption and wheat flour imports growth rate. The economic environment was defined to incorporate the growth rate of per capita gross domestic product, corporate tax rate , labor productivity, foreign direct investment growth rates, position on the World Bank’s Doing Business 2012 rankings, and the number and extent of the country’s membership in regional economic and trade groups. Supporting infrastructure included electricity reliability, transportation quality, urbanization rate and the physical presence of the investing company in the country. The rationale for this last variable is that when the investing company already has a presence in the country under consideration, it has already incurred some of the hurdle costs that it would have to include in investments in a location where it does have current physical activities. The study started by filtering the scope of potential opportunities by a set of well-defined criteria: target geographical locations; Doing Business 2012 scores; and quantity of wheat flour imports in 2009. This led to four countries emerging as leading candidates for investment considerations: Brazil, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand. The investment index ranked these countries according to their relative suitability for investment. The three components of the index carry different weights because of their effect on the potential investment outcome. There is no data to support these weighting and therefore executives must utilize different probing approaches to weight the components. To this end, a base scenario and two other scenarios based on alternative weights were considered. The robustness of the ranking is revealed by the consistency of the rankings under the alternative weights applied to the components. The results showed that under the base scenario Malaysia had the highest investment index score. The results also showed that varying the alternative weights for the scenarios did not affect the overall outcome with Malaysia leading with the highest overall index score for each of the three scenarios.

Master of Science / Department of Hospitality Management and Dietetics / Kevin R. Roberts / The purpose of this study was to explore United States school foodservice directors’ attitudes about food recalls and to determine recall practices in school foodservice operations. An online survey was used for data collection and consisted of three sections: attitudes, self-reported behaviors, and demographics. Content validity of the instrument was measured by three experts who examined the survey prior to pilot testing. The survey was pilot tested with 14 school foodservice directors and state agency personnel. Statistical analysis was completed using SPSS (v. 20.0). Internal consistency of the attitude scale was measured using Cronbach’s Alpha. All scales had a reliability coefficient greater than 0.70. The survey was randomly distributed to 4,049 school foodservice directors across the U.S. A total of 690 school foodservice directors (17%) completed the survey, with 567 being usable. Respondents rated attitudes on a 5-point scale, strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5). Principle components factor analysis was used to identify two factors: perceived importance and perceived likelihood of possessing a recalled product. Perceived importance was rated very high (M=4.8, SD=0.5), while perceived likelihood of possessing a recalled product was rated much lower (M=1.7, SD=0.8). Self-reported behaviors were evaluated on a 5-point scale, never (1) to very often (5). Overall, respondents reported positive behaviors related to responding to a recall. When dividing behaviors into three factors, behaviors regarding communication with state agency and vendors about food recalls (M=4.1, SD=0.6), use of recall systems (M=3.6, SD=1.0), and practices of responding to a recall (M=4.7, SD=0.4) were frequently reported. Multiple regression analysis was used to explore relationships between attitudes and behaviors of school foodservice directors towards food recalls, and their demographic characteristics. Predictors of attitudes were found to be certification, work experience, and prior experience with a food recall. Predictors of behaviors were found to be perceived likelihood of possessing a recalled product, educational level, prior experience with a food recall, and size of district. Federal and state agency personnel can use the results of this study in developing programs to improve food recall practices as well as school foodservice directors for improving recall practices in schools.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Hospitality Management and Dietetics / Deborah Canter and Junehee Kwon / Thailand is one of the world’s most popular tourist destinations. However, it has not been successful in capturing and sustaining the U.S. travel market, one of the world’s top source markets by international tourism expenditure. The destination image (DI) is a key factor that affects destination selection, but there has been limited research exploring U.S. travelers’ DI of Thailand. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to measure U.S. travelers’ DI of Thailand and identify important attributes for U.S. travelers in terms of destination selection using mixed methods of qualitative and quantitative approaches. To explore American travelers’ DI of Thailand, personal interviews with 56 U.S. travelers were conducted at Suvarnabhumi Airport in Thailand. Maximum variation purposeful sampling was used to ensure diversity of the sample. One interviewer and a verifier ensured consistent and credible data collection and analyses. Data analyses included inductive, deductive and cross-case analyses. “Friendly People,” “Beaches and Islands,” and “Amazing” described Thailand's DI. First-time visitors had tourist attraction and activity-based images, while repeat visitors rated people and culture-related experience as top reasons for destination selection. Results from the qualitative study were used to identify common and unique attributes for the quantitative survey instrument. To access general perception of Thailand’s DI among U.S. travelers, an online survey was conducted with 522 international travelers including non-visitors (n=173), virtual-visitors (n=175) and visitors to Thailand (n=174). Descriptive statistics, ANOVA, and factor analyses were conducted. Of five factors that solidified the DI of Thailand, cultural attributes and local experiences represented Thailand’s DI the most. DIs were different among different types of visitors. Importance-Performance Analysis illustrated Thailand’s destination attributes and their importance for destination selection. For U.S. travelers, travel environment was the most important factor but had low performance. Thailand tourism organizations may use these findings for future marketing efforts toward the U.S. travel market.

Master of Agribusiness / Department of Agricultural Economics / Vincent Amanor-Boadu / The overall objective of this research is to develop a business continuity plan for a relatively large livestock company located in Francophone West Africa. This is very important in an environment when both internal and external risks can lead to significant disruptions in the business processes. The research, thus, focuses on developing a process that can be applied to establish a business continuity management process in this firm and provides the framework for implementing such a plan successfully. The livestock company, let us call it Livestock Co. to protect its identity, wants to define strategies for recovery, resumption of business and other key activities under the potential scenarios. Its managers desire to formulate crisis response strategies that would be implemented quickly when these disasters hit. The thesis envisages the potential conditions that may trigger these crises and develops the management systems to mitigate them, returning the business to it activities as quickly as possible. Some of the natural disasters that may be considered are fire, accidents and political upheavals. Some technical disasters that may be imagined may be related to infrastructure, labor crisis, and grain dust explosions. Unlike natural disasters, which often are uncertain, technical disasters can be predicted based on careful assessment of the environment or the assets. The research evaluates the process for developing a business continuity management plan and offers an implementation process to ensure its smooth execution.

Master of Agribusiness / Department of Agricultural Economics / Vincent Amanor-Boadu / Farming is an important industry in the United States. The custom harvesting industry plays a major role in feeding the world. Schemper Harvesting is a family-owned and operated custom harvesting service that employs 20-25 seasonal workers and understanding how to manage a custom harvesting business professionally and efficiently is the key for its success. Today, there is data available through JDLink on John Deere combine performance beginning in year 2012. The purpose of this study is to examine the usefulness of this JDLink data to assess the efficiency of each of Schemper Harvesting’s seven combines, including machine efficiency and different combine operators. The goal is to determine how the data can improve Schemper Harvesting’s overall performance. Statistical methods were used to analyze Schemper Harvesting’s performance. The analysis indicated that fuel is a major expense and there are ways Schemper Harvesting can conserve fuel. This information may prove valuable in being able to operate a combine more efficiently and save money on expenses. Overall, the objective is to improve Schemper Harvesting’s performance, which results in higher profit without sacrificing quality. Precision technology is an added expense to the business. Being able to justify this expense with profit is the answer. Fuel, labor and machinery are the biggest inputs in the custom harvesting business. These costs related to production agriculture have increased the demand for precision agriculture to increase efficiency and profitability. In order to compensate for the investment in technology, it has been demonstrated that it pays for itself. Making correct use of precision technology adds to productivity. With experience, operators improve increasing their overall efficiency. Incentive plans can be utilized through this data. With the availability of data, the costs and benefits of precision technology can be further evaluated. Five of the seven combines are operated by family members and the other two by non-family employees. This study shows that the performance of the non-family employees was below that of family members. The initial assessment for this difference may be attributed to experience because all the family members have been operating combines for most of their lives. This implies that employing people with excellent performance experience records and/or a need to train non-family employees to help them understand the performance expectations at Schemper Harvesting. The results indicate that tracking operational output performance indicators, such as acreage and volume harvest should be completed so that they may be assessed in concert with the technical indicators such as time and fuel use. The study provides the potential benefits of using John Deere’s JDLink data service providing telematics information for its customers with the latest precision agriculture technologies.

Master of Agribusiness / Department of Agricultural Economics / Vincent Amanor-Boadu / Bunge is a global agribusiness company that has invested in a facility to produce extruded ingredients and inclusions in its Woodland, California rice mill. Because Bunge is not a branded food manufacturer, it is in a unique position to be a contract manufacturer to a variety of customers without the potential for a conflict of interest. Also, because Bunge is primary in three of the most common ingredients for extruded products, corn, rice and oil, this would be a move down the value chain that would allow it to be more competitive. The initial investment in Woodland has allowed Bunge to learn more about the manufacture of extruded ingredients and inclusions and also gauge overall market demand. A possible next step would be to build a second facility in the eastern half of the United States to expand capacity and be geographically situated to supply the Midwest, South and Northeast regions of the U.S. In order to begin exploring the possibility of a greenfield expansion into the contract manufacture of extruded ingredients and inclusions, this thesis considers three subjects. The first is a customer survey case study, which discovers the customer found high price and whether or not the manufacturer was considered a strategic partner to be the most significant factors in how desirable a manufacturer is. The second subject considered is the ideal location for a second manufacturing site based on a number of factors, including distance from both the customer base and inputs, labor issues, and any savings associated with a particular site. It was found that distance from the ultimate customer may be less important overall than the other factors. The third and final component of the research involved conducting a financial feasibility study. The analyses were conducted under alternative scenarios and subjected to a sensitivity analysis on a number of crucial variables. The weighted average NPV for the alternative scenarios was about $31 million and the IRR of 13.8% cleared the company’s investment hurdle rate. The payback period was estimated to be just under six years. All these suggest that the project as presented in this research is feasible and any investment in it, subject to the absence of any unforeseen event, will be profitable. It is hoped that this information can be used as a starting point and a guide to consider a future investment based on demand and other market indicators available at the time such a decision is required.

Master of Agribusiness / Department of Agricultural Economics / Vincent Amanor-Boadu / Transforming Belmont Estate from a traditional agricultural production business into a profitable agri-tourism enterprise is the issue addressed in this thesis. The importance of this problem rests on the fact that the author is the general manager of this family business and needs to organize it in ways that facilitates its ability to keep growing in a rapidly changing market environment. Given the increasing positioning of Grenada as a preferred tourist destination and the increasing number of people who are responding to this positioning, the management of Belmont Estate believes that transforming this traditional agricultural production business into an agritourism business will create significant value for shareholders and stakeholders. The process of transforming the organization needs to start with a new way of envisioning it. Therefore, a strategic direction and a compelling value proposition were developed. An assessment of the business environment was conducted to develop a framework where specific strategies could be developed to support the new strategic direction that has been established. Additionally, a financial analysis that focused on the contribution of the different enterprises to the new strategic direction was conducted to assess the potential financial outcome of this effort. The results show that Belmont Estate is well-positioned to benefit from increasing tourism business in Grenada. If the management of Belmont Estate can implement the strategic plan, it can successfully transform Belmont Estate from an agricultural production business into an efficient agritourism business that not only creates value for its shareholders and stakeholders but offers a welcome diversity to Grenada’s growing tourism industry.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Hospitality Management and Dietetics / Carol W. Shanklin / This study used two operational research components to explore strategies to decrease waste in university dining facilities. Component one assessed students’ beliefs and behaviors toward food waste in a selected dining center. The relationships between students’ food waste behavior, sustainability beliefs, and demographics were evaluated with the use of a self-administered survey and continual food waste monitoring. This study also assessed whether simple prompt-type message interventions had an impact or if the addition of more personally relevant feedback-based data elicited a greater change in consumer beliefs and behaviors On average, more than 57 grams of edible food was left on each tray. Food waste behaviors were not influenced by demographic factors. Individuals with higher levels of food waste beliefs also disposed of less edible food items. The simple prompt-type messages stimulated a 15% reduction in food waste. The addition of more personalized feedback-based messages did not stimulate a change above that of the prompt message. These findings indicate that simply making university students aware of the topic of food waste may be useful in improving their behaviors. Component two evaluated the operational feasibility of implementing tray free dining at Kansas State University Dining Services. Telephone interviews with managers of university dining facilities involved in tray free dining were conducted to identify best practices. Focus groups of students were used with a written survey to gain insight into their perceptions of tray free dining. Benefits included: decreased waste, reduced chemical, resource, and food costs, and improved student satisfaction. Managers identified complaints and dining room cleanliness as negative outcomes. Student involvement, education, and communication were strongly recommended by both managers and students. This research supports the recommendation to consider the implementation of tray free dining at Van Zile. Decreased costs, improved satisfaction, and positive public perception are likely positive outcomes.

Organisational learning has been identified as a lasting source of competitive advantage in uncertain environments. Plentiful research has highlighted that knowledge and skills and the capabilities they develop are strategic resources and that effective utilisation of these resources enhances firm innovation and performance. However, in spite of this widespread recognition, family businesses, specifically family SMEs, have not been the subject of previous research exploring the strategic impact of organisational learning on innovation and firm performance. This research, therefore, sets out a theoretical framework drawing upon organisational learning theory and innovation, and explores the strategic links between organisational learning, innovation and firm performance “within” family SMEs and “between” family and non-family SMEs. The study was undertaken in an Australian context using a sample of 222 manufacturing SMEs comprised of 104 family and 118 non-family SMEs. The data were obtained from the Business Longitudinal Survey conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics over the financial years 1995/96 - 1997/98, which provides the most recent available comprehensive longitudinal dataset of SMEs in Australia. The study involved three constructs: organisational learning, innovation and firm performance. Organisational learning was operationalised using commitment to learning, shared vision, and networking. To measure commitment to learning, three variables, employee training, management development, and comparison of performance were used. Shared vision was measured using the presence of formal planning in the firms. Networking was measured using the existence of external networks. The innovation construct was measured using product and process innovation intensity, and firm performance was measured by growth of sales and rate of return on total assets. Data were analysed using two tests: regression analysis and the Chow test. Whereas the former test was conducted to explore the direct and indirect effects of organisational learning on innovation and firm performance “within” family SMEs, the latter was conducted to compare those effects “between” family and non-family SMEs. Our “within” results, concerning the direct effects of organisational learning on innovation found that network relationships positively influenced innovation in family SMEs. With regard to the direct effects of organisational learning on performance, we found that management development and formal planning were positively linked with family SMEs’ performance. Moreover, relating to innovation and firm performance, our research concludes that innovation in family SMEs is positively linked with their performance. In the case of the indirect effect, we found that networks affect firm performance via innovation. With respect to the “between” results, we found that whereas the effects of formal planning and innovation on firm performance of family SMEs were stronger than for non-family SMEs, the effects of employee training and management development on firm performance were stronger in non-family SMEs. Concerning networks, we found a stronger effect of family SMEs’ networks on their innovation than non-family SMEs. Finally, we re-emphasised the necessity of more scholarly studies linking organisational learning with family business characteristics such as familiness, leadership, ownership, social interactions and organisational process.