Business Commons^™

Financial Literacy And Investing Habits Of Generation Z As It Pertains To Financial Marketing, Meghan Mazzatto

Honors Projects in Marketing

As technology boomed at the end of the 20th Century and into the 21st Century, the methods young adults use to manage their finances have also evolved. Between moving financial investing and banking to the internet, robo-advising apps, college debt, and the generational reaction to the 2008 Financial Crisis, the world of investing has taken a drastic turn when it comes to young investors. The purpose of this study is to examine the financial habits of Generation Z in order for financial planning companies to better market to the upcoming Generation Z. A survey was used for this study to …

Social Media Influence: Metrics Matter, Juliana Houldcroft

Honors Projects in Marketing

It is imperative for companies to engage in social media marketing as consumers are often dependent on online information and electronic word-of-mouth. Past literature claims that consumers evaluate the influence of communications differently on social media than they would in a traditional environment because of the nature of the internet. This study aims to analyze user’s perceptions of social media marketing influence and determines if user’s perception of influence changes based on the number of social media metrics (likes, comments, and shares) that accompany a Facebook post. The study also investigates if perceptions of influence vary depending on a user’s …

Who Pays For Music?, Meg Aman

Honors Projects in Management

The purpose of this capstone project was to determine the attributes of consumers that pay for music, specifically music streaming services. The recent decline in current individual track sales and the increase in the number of streamed songs, highlights the relevance of this topic. The increasing popularity in music streaming has caused much contreversy in the music industry. Many artists are unhappy with the low revenue they receive from songwriting royalties from these streaming services that offer a free platform. Artists are not the only ones who need consumers to pay for music, the music streaming sites that provide free …

Valuing “Green” How “Going Green” Affects A Company’S Stock Price, Alexia Bayer

Honors Projects in Finance

Environmentally conscious decision making has become a prominent topic in business that has the potential to affect the public opinion and performance of companies. This project seeks to identify whether or not positive changes in excess return might offer an incentive for companies to adopt green initiatives. It examines the ways in which companies’ green initiatives, as measured by their annual Carbon Disclosure Project S&P 500 Climate Change Report score, impact their stock price. In other words, is there value in “going green”? It is hypothesized that companies exhibiting greater variance in their environmental initiatives from one year to the …

The Impact Of New Product Announcements On Quick Service Restaurant Companies’ Stock Returns, Tim Drechsler-Martell

Honors Projects in Finance

This study seeks to answer two main questions: 1) Do product announcements impact quick service restaurant stock returns? 2) Do economic conditions impact the degree which product announcements impact quick service restaurant stock returns? 159 total product announcements were collected for 6 quick service companies: McDonald’s Corp., YUM! Brands Inc., The Wendy’s Co., AFC Enterprises Inc., Jack in the Box Inc., and Sonic Corp. 84 of these announcements were from 2005-2007 (Labeled “Pre-Recession”), and 75 were from 2009-2011 (Labeled “Post-Recession”). Using historical stock price data, an analysis of the overall trends of the mean-adjusted excess returns was conducted to determine …

The Evolution Of The “Southwest Effect”, Daniel Webb

Honors Projects in Finance

The “Southwest effect” - a large decrease in fares paired with an increase in traffic - has been discussed around the airline industry since the term was first coined in a government study in the early 1990s. But the airline industry has drastically changed since then - Southwest has become the largest domestic airline, and many of its competitors have had the chance to restructure through bankruptcy.

This study examines some of Southwest's latest city additions, as well as a few of the airline’s intra-California routes where it is now a dominant player. Using publically-available government data, the change in …

Major League Baseball: America’S Recession-Proof Pastime, Mark Mcdonnell

Honors Projects in Finance

This project is a study which examines how attendance levels in Major League Baseball stadiums have been impacted by the current recession in the United States which began in October 2007. Research on attendance during past recessions has shown a strong relationship that during downtrends in the economy, baseball attendance levels generally do not suffer. Using an ordinary least squares regression, independent variables including; percent change in ticket price from previous season, distance to closest competitor, percent change in ticket price of the closest competitor, winning percentage during previous year, winning percentage during current year, unemployment rate during current year, …