This study explores the decision-making frameworks used by investment consultants and due diligence analysts to evaluate investment strategies and award mandates. Grounded in qualitative research, it investigates the subjective factors influencing recommendations and highlights seven general factors contributing to the decision-making process. The research seeks to optimize frameworks to enhance value for clients and better understand the industry segment influencing over $26 trillion in assets.

This dissertation explores the decision frameworks used by analysts to select professional money managers. It investigates factors such as consistency, validation, and biases in institutional and wealth investment decisions. The research employs qualitative methods, including interviews and surveys, to develop a taxonomy of factors influencing investment manager selection. The findings highlight differences and commonalities between institutional and wealth segments, emphasizing the role of consistency and validation in decision-making.

This Spanish-language study addresses the retention of independent personal-lines insurance agents in Mexico, who placed 51% of sector premiums in 2025 while the number of active agents fell 8.6%. Using a documentary-bibliometric design based on 1,008 Scopus documents analysed with Biblioshiny and VOSviewer, it proposes a conceptual explanatory model in which organizational factors, agency (promotoría) leadership and personal psychological resources shape agents’ professional permanence. The model is presented as a theoretical structure ready for later empirical validation, with implications for selection, onboarding, leadership and retention strategies.

This study explores the barriers to leadership roles for women and minorities in large U.S.-based organizations, despite substantial investments in DEI programs. It systematically reviews strategies managers can implement to overcome these barriers, focusing on promoting inclusive recruitment, leadership-specific DEI training, and internal talent investment. Key findings include the impact of organizational strategy, team accountability, and minority employee experience on creating equitable workplaces.

This doctoral consortium submission investigates the potential of Generative AI (GenAI) in bridging the gap between academic research and business practice. By leveraging the Absorptive Capacity (ACAP) framework, this study develops translation protocols to make academic insights actionable for businesses. The research employs a Design Science Research (DSR) methodology, focusing on iterative testing and refinement of GenAI-assisted translation rules to enhance accessibility and applicability of academic knowledge.

This poster explores how Generative AI can be applied to make academic research more accessible and actionable for business practitioners. Using the Absorptive Capacity framework, it develops translation protocols and demonstrates their potential to bridge the gap between academic insights and business applications.

Digital transformation is a strategic priority for firms in the electric utility industry and accounts for billions of investment dollars (USD) across all industries. Leaders of these organizations strive for effective risk management governance systems and adequately prepared workforces to execute their strategic initiatives. Identifying and understanding the key factors that increase the effectiveness of project portfolio risk management in these organizations helps enable their digital transformation goals. The goal of this research is to identify and understand the key determinants of project portfolio risk management effectiveness (PPRME) relevant to power producers in the United States electric utility industry. A survey of over two hundred workers provided the data informing the investigation. Partial Least Squares - Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) was used to test a model describing the impact of risk management culture, leadership support, stakeholder engagement, and management processes on project portfolio risk management effectiveness. The results inform the key roles of organizational risk management culture and the quality of senior management support for improving the effectiveness of an organization’s project portfolio management. Effectiveness in project portfolio risk management is driven by informed, and empowered project teams and engaged, risk-aware leadership.

This project asks whether requiring competing alternative proposals reduces illusory consensus, where a group believes it has agreed while members privately disagree, in open-source software communities. Drawing on dual-process theory and a modified framework from Healey et al. (2015), it hypothesizes that multiple alternatives align voting with discussion valence, while alternatives introduced late increase illusory consensus. Two studies are planned: an online experiment with an Implicit Association Test to validate voting as a proxy for reflexive cognition, and an observational study of GitHub governance discussions in the Python and Rust projects.

This study explores leadership communication in multigenerational virtual workplaces. Using interpretive phenomenological analysis, the research highlights the importance of effective communication strategies by leaders to foster team cohesion and respect generational differences. Findings suggest clear, jargon-free communication and structured virtual interactions enhance team dynamics and productivity.

This ongoing DBA study examines how organisational experience, shaped by leadership behaviours and organisational culture, influences the development of engagement and disengagement over time and how these processes affect employee retention in continuously connected work environments, with particular attention to Gen Z employees. Grounded in Transformational Leadership Theory and Organizational Culture Theory, it uses a mixed-methods design combining the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire and the Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument with semi-structured interviews. Preliminary findings suggest that employees often begin highly engaged but gradually disengage when leadership and culture fail to align with expectations around communication, feedback and development, increasing the likelihood of turnover.