Browsing by Subject "Budget"
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Item Analysis of the size, accessibility, and profitability of international defense sales in times of U.S. budget uncertainty(2015-05) Massey, Daniel Lee; Gholz, Eugene, 1971-; Gilbert, StephenImmediately prior to and following cuts to the U.S. defense budget in 2013, executives and board members from Lockheed Martin, Boeing, BAE Systems, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, and General Dynamics specifically cited the need to increase international sales to make up for lost U.S. revenue. Some statements predict aggressive international growth in the immediate future, while others take a more moderate or long-term approach. The purpose of this paper is to assess whether the international defense market is sufficiently large, accessible, and profitable for U.S. defense companies to maintain or grow overall revenue and profitability in the face of static or shrinking defense budgets in the United States.Item The costs of a growing city : a case study of Austin, Texas from 1982-2011(2013-05) Ellinor, Benjamin Daniel; Wilson, Robert HinesThis report explores the effects of rapid growth in Austin, Texas, with an emphasis on local government budgets, service delivery, and citizen satisfaction. The relationship between urban growth and public finances has been studied extensively, but a comprehensive analysis of the relationship between growth and public finances, service delivery performance, and citizen satisfaction over time is lacking. A multi-decade analysis reveals a steady increase in the cost of local government services and levels of taxation, with corresponding high performance and citizen satisfaction over time. In light of these findings, recommendations to improve cost-effectiveness, service delivery, and citizen satisfaction include: regular audits of the City’s performance measurement system to ensure the metrics tracked remain relevant to the challenges; better coordination of taxes and expenditures among local government entities to minimize the tax impact on residents; greater consideration of less costly alternative municipal service delivery systems; and concerted efforts to engage residents in the budget and service delivery decisions.Item Decremental budgeting in an incremental era: a study of the central-provincial budgetary relationship in the People's Republic of China after 1978(Texas Tech University, 1995-05) Yan, BaiThe Caiden and Wildavsky work of 1974 postulates a model of poverty-uncertainty: the governments of poor countries face disappearing and decremental budgets in financing public programs because of a lack of economic growth or poverty. The core argument is that economic development, as a critical variable, determines increments in budgeting practices. In other words, budgeting is incremental, and incremental budgeting results from the growth of GNP. This model has since become a set of principles with identifiable attributes to explain the budgetary processes in poor nations. This study is about application of that model in China's budgeting. China has a unitary budget system. The central government used to draw most of its revenues from provinces and its budget includes those of 31 provinces. Provinces thus play a dual role of collecting revenues from within and remitting them to the center in the name of revenue sharing. In 1978 China decided to open to the world, reform its economy, and decentralize budget to provinces. But the original intent of decentralization was to give incentives so that provinces accumulate more resources for further central extraction. The decentralization, however, has led to fiscal decline not anticipated by the reformers.Item Effects of educational television upon adults using a home study course in money management(Texas Tech University, 1973-12) Harvey, Elinor PaulineNot availableItem Impact of budget uncertainty on network-level pavement condition : a robust optimization approach(2013-12) Al-Amin, Md; Zhang, Zhanmin, 1962-Highway agencies usually face budget uncertainty for pavement maintenance and rehabilitation activities due to limitation in resources and changes in government policies. Highway agencies perform maintenance planning for the pavement network commonly based on the nominal available budget without taking the variability of budget into consideration. The maintenance program based on deterministic budget consideration results in suboptimal maintenance decisions that impact the overall network conditions, if the budget falls short in some future year in the planning horizon. As a result, it is important for highway agencies to adopt maintenance and rehabilitation policies that are protected against the uncertainty in maintenance and rehabilitation budget. In this study a multi-period linear integer programming model is proposed with its robust counterpart considering uncertain maintenance and rehabilitation budget. The proposed model is able to provide a maintenance and rehabilitation program for the pavement network that results in minimal impact of budget variability on the network conditions. A case study was carried out for a network of ten pavement sections. The solution of the robust optimization model was compared to those with deterministic model. The results show that the robust optimization model is an attractive method that can minimize the effect of budget uncertainty on pavement conditions at the network level.Item Micropolitics of the university budgeting process: a qualitative multi-site study(Texas Tech University, 1994-12) Birdsall, Douglas G.This study investigates the political nature of internal budget allocations at four land-grant universities located in the Western United States. The research problem is expressed in the following question: What strategies are used by academic deans and heads of major support units as they seek desired levels of funding from the university's central administration? The study also investigates the strategies used by the same administrators as they allocate funds to departments within their colleges and units, as well as strategies of central administrators as they allocate funds to colleges and support units. A qualitative approach was used in this study for the collection and analysis of data. Interviewing is the primary data collection method, although some document collection was also undertaken. Multiple sites were chosen, rather than a single case study, because of their greater potential for explanatory power and generalizability. Twenty university administrators were selected for on-site interviews, including each university's budget officer, a director of a major support unit, and several deans or associate deans. Micropolitics is used as a perspective of investigation for this study, and it is defined as the use of formal and informal power by individuals and groups to achieve their goals in organizations. Micropolitical budget strategies are viewed as patterns in actions relating to fiscal matters that involve the use of power by individuals and groups within organizations. The study utilizes a multi-model perspective for large universities, as these organizations include patterns that are hierarchical, collegial, anarchical, and political. The findings of this study indicate that micropolitical strategies used by deans and unit administrators predominantly concern access to central administrators and the maintenance of ongoing communication with them. The use of explicit and analytical presentation of arguments is also important. To a lesser degree, coalition building and circumvention of reporting lines are utilized as budgeting strategies.Item Strategic communication issues for nonprofits : targeting donors, utilizing new media, and planning for crises(2012-12) Garcia, Lauren Elizabeth; Drumwright, Minette E.; Eastin, MatthewThe purpose of this paper is to examine the growing nonprofit sector in the marketplace and the challenges and opportunities involved with attracting and maintaining donor relations and charitable giving. Nonprofit organizations have a number challenges relating to marketing and communications but I have chosen to focus on three dominant areas: targeting donors for support and greatly needed funds, the use of emerging media tools, and crisis management. These issues have a significant impact on an organization’s ability to effectively communicate their brand as compelling to their public. First, I will briefly go over the branding process and what makes a nonprofit brand so unique. I will discuss the target market of donors, the importance of understanding them and their mindset, and finally provide some variables that relate to successful recruiting and maintaining of those relations. Additionally, my research will cover not only methods that could best attract donors but also why many nonprofits do not have marketing or communications plans in place already and the consequences for such a choice. Following that research, I will go into the actual marketing and communication tactics that can be used, not only through traditional but also in new or emerging media communications. Then, I will transition into research of crisis management, linking to the necessity of implementation of marketing plans and the consequences that can occur when nonprofits deal with crises ineffectively. Based on the research, I will conclude my own set of guidelines for how nonprofits should proceed should they want to be successful in a competitive marketplace.Item What can entertainment theory say about perceptions of classic versus popular films?(2014-05) Wang, Pei-Ling, active 21st century; Lewis, Robert J. (Assistant professor)The purpose of this study is to examine individuals’ perceptions of classicness in film experiences. To this end, the paper begins by providing general anecdotal and professional definitions of classicness, and by pointing out the limited explication found in previous academic literature in entertainment. I discuss distinctions between enjoyment and appreciation from previous literature in media psychology. Following this, a study is presented by applying a measure of enjoyment and appreciation adapted from Oliver and Bartsch’s scale (2010) to an online questionnaire in order to understand individuals’ film experiences with both popular (high grossing) and classic (high rating) films. Results indicate that perceptions of classicness are highly associated with appreciation, but unrelated to enjoyment. Additionally, results also provide a negative relation between appreciation and the release-year as well as budget. Discussion focuses on the study’s empirical definition of classicness, as well as the study’s extension of previous research examining the relationship between film popularity, budget, and audience perceptions (Grizzard, Lewis, Lee, & Eden, 2011).