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Articles 1 - 13 of 13

Full-Text Articles in Industrial Organization

Reality Tv’S Place In The Entertainment Landscape: A Look Into The State Of Contemporary Media Costs, Lila Rose Beckford Hoge Jan 2023

Reality Tv’S Place In The Entertainment Landscape: A Look Into The State Of Contemporary Media Costs, Lila Rose Beckford Hoge

Scripps Senior Theses

Previous literature has confirmed that reality television is less expensive to produce than scripted. This paper investigates both how production costs have developed overall, and how and why they differ between the two genres of scripted and unscripted television. After interviewing professionals in the industry, the results shed light on how the production processes have key differences, perhaps most important being the writer’s presence or lack thereof. The results expose reality television’s function in streaming platforms as retainment content. Streaming platforms are also examined as a catalyst for change in the industry’s landscape, bringing many disruptions along with them. Ad-based …


The Road To Human Emancipation - The Moral And Political Foundations Of Markets, William Shi Jan 2020

The Road To Human Emancipation - The Moral And Political Foundations Of Markets, William Shi

CMC Senior Theses

The thesis aims to provide both a real public ideology and the legal and socioeconomic structures to realize Karl Marx’s ideal of human emancipation. Marx argues that in capitalist society, the legal and political superstructure forces the ruling class to represent its interest as the public interest, which legitimizes the massive inequality in resources and social power. To demonstrate how to realize the substantive public interest, the two parts of the thesis have two goals. The first part aims to formulate a rightful candidate to the public ideology of human emancipation, which represents the substantive public interest rather than the …


The Impacts Of Supra-Regional Multi-Resort Season Passes: A Hedonic Pricing Model Of Single-Day Lift Tickets For Us Ski Areas, Sijia Lai Jan 2019

The Impacts Of Supra-Regional Multi-Resort Season Passes: A Hedonic Pricing Model Of Single-Day Lift Tickets For Us Ski Areas, Sijia Lai

CMC Senior Theses

Numerous media analyses claim that supra-regional multi-resort season passes (mega passes) are negatively impacting skiing, snowboarding, and winter-sport communities. In particular, media claims that ski areas on these season passes are charging higher single-day lift ticket prices to nudge people to buy their season pass products. To test this claim, I use a hedonic pricing model to estimate the impact of season passes on adult single-day lift ticket prices. By applying OLS regressions to a dataset of 302 US ski areas for the winter of 2018-19, I find that the ski areas on the leading season passes (Ikon and Epic …


Trade Union Trade-Offs: Unions, Voters, And The Rise Of Right-Wing Populism, Kim Gabbitas Sep 2017

Trade Union Trade-Offs: Unions, Voters, And The Rise Of Right-Wing Populism, Kim Gabbitas

Claremont-UC Undergraduate Research Conference on the European Union

Trade union membership in European Union member states has been in decline for decades, which has many concerned about the future of workers’ rights. While existing work examines the reasons for this decline, my research shifts the focus from union density to the functions unions serve and how these functions affect and are affected by changing electoral behavior. I examine the rise of right-wing populist movements in Europe and how these movements and the challenges today’s labor unions face can be traced to the same underlying forces. I argue that, as the relevance of trade unions declines for blue-collar workers, …


The Potential And Limits Of Extended Producer Responsibility: A Comparative Analysis Study, Jessica Bass Jan 2017

The Potential And Limits Of Extended Producer Responsibility: A Comparative Analysis Study, Jessica Bass

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis draws on the concept of product stewardship and its focus on incorporating all of the actors in a product’s lifecycle into steps to take responsibility for waste management. Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) recognizes the producer’s distinct potential to consider and drive change in waste management. Producers often serve like mediators between the design and use phases of a product’s lifecycle. Through EPR policies, the producer takes on the costs of ensuring safe end-of-life waste disposal. In this way, EPR can be expected to help relieve the public of some of the costs of waste disposal, and to support …


Craft Beer Expansion In The United States, Alex J. Herrera Jan 2016

Craft Beer Expansion In The United States, Alex J. Herrera

CMC Senior Theses

For centuries the world’s biggest breweries, including Anheuser-Busch InBev and MillerCoors, have been producing America’s favorite beers like Budweiser and Coors Light. However, more recently smaller, craft breweries have seen significant expansion as a growing number of Americans are drinking craft beers. How has this recent trend affected the beer market in the United States? More specifically, how has the recent success of craft breweries affected Anheuser-Busch InBev and MillerCoors? I examine the economic factors that have led to craft beer’s success in a highly competitive market, and further, how this success has impacted Anheuser-Busch InBev and MillerCoors. My study …


The Evolution Of The Music Industry In The Post-Internet Era, Ashraf El Gamal Jan 2012

The Evolution Of The Music Industry In The Post-Internet Era, Ashraf El Gamal

CMC Senior Theses

The rise in the prevalence of the Internet has had a wide range of implications in nearly every industry. Within the music business, the turn of the millennium came with a unique, and difficult, set of challenges. While the majority of academic literature in the area focuses specifically on the aspect of file sharing within the Internet as it negatively impacts sales within the recording sector, this study aims to assess the Internet’s wider impacts on the broader music industry. In the same time that record sales have plummeted, the live music sector has thrived, potentially presenting alternative business models …


A Bass Diffusion Model Analysis: Understanding Alternative Fuel Vehicle Sales, Michael H. Shoemaker Jan 2012

A Bass Diffusion Model Analysis: Understanding Alternative Fuel Vehicle Sales, Michael H. Shoemaker

CMC Senior Theses

Frank M. Bass developed the Bass Diffusion Model to predict how innovative consumer durable products diffuse through consumer markets. This thesis will use data from 1999-2011 to examine the applicability of the Bass Diffusion Model to the introduction of alternative fuel vehicles (AFVs) in the automobile market. The findings in this thesis indicate the Bass Diffusion Model fit the diffusion pattern exhibited by AFVs well, but failed to accurately forecast diffusion patterns outside a given range of data. This thesis investigates potential reasons for the inaccurate 'Out of Sample Forecast', and gives recommendations for directions of future research on AFV …


A Historical Review Of Five Of The Top Fast Food Restaurant Chains To Determine The Secrets Of Their Success, Alex Leon Lichtenberg Jan 2012

A Historical Review Of Five Of The Top Fast Food Restaurant Chains To Determine The Secrets Of Their Success, Alex Leon Lichtenberg

CMC Senior Theses

The primary goal of this paper is to critically examine five of the top nine US fast food chains to look at their history and to determine what factors have lead to their massive success. The companies that will be analyzed include: McDonald's, Taco Bell, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Domino's Pizza, and Subway. Similarities and differences of these companies are compared and contrasted throughout the paper and clearly demonstrate how each company has managed to capture and maintain major market share in their respective food categories. Areas that are examined range from product quality to to business models to consumer psychology. …


The Effect Of Executive Compensation On Firm Performance Through The Dot-Com Bubble, Maxwell J. Chambers Jan 2012

The Effect Of Executive Compensation On Firm Performance Through The Dot-Com Bubble, Maxwell J. Chambers

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis examines firm performance through the dot-com bubble through the lens of executive compensation. Hypotheses based on the theoretical literature of Bolton, Scheinkman and Xiong (2006) as well as Bertrand and Mullainathan (2001) in regards to management compensation in a speculative bubble motivate three regression models with differing market-cap-growth based dependent variables and specific compensation variables. Regression analyses test the models using public compensation and security data from S&P's Execucomp and Compustat databases. Synthesizing regression results show that stock option vesting schedules and executives' status on the board of directors may significantly affect firm performance through the dot-com bubble, …


Estimating The Effects Of Integrated Film Production On Box-Office Performance: Do Inhouse Effects Influence Studio Moguls?, Daniel M. Polyakov Jan 2011

Estimating The Effects Of Integrated Film Production On Box-Office Performance: Do Inhouse Effects Influence Studio Moguls?, Daniel M. Polyakov

CMC Senior Theses

Each year well over one billion movie tickets are sold to an audience who knows very little about what they are getting themselves into. Why is it that despite the uncertainty, people return to the theaters to see what Hollywood has in store for them? In efforts to provide answers regarding the driving forces behind Hollywood’s blockbuster hits, this study takes into account the integration levels of the studios. Specifically, does a movie produced in-house at a large studio have a better chance of being a blockbuster hit than one which is outsourced to an independent production company? Further, I …


Take Me Out Of The Ball Game: The Efficacy Of Public Subsidies In The Success Of Professional Sports Stadiums, Jonah Chodosh Jan 2011

Take Me Out Of The Ball Game: The Efficacy Of Public Subsidies In The Success Of Professional Sports Stadiums, Jonah Chodosh

CMC Senior Theses

This paper weights the relative advantages of multiple factors that lead to the success of professional sports stadiums in major markets, though a discussion of the arguments for and against public subsidies towards these projects. Using a logit statistical model, the paper determines that the two factors determining the highest likelihood of venue success include multiple tenants and access to mass transit. The analysis demonstrates that public subsidies towards stadiums don’t generate sufficient economic returns, and that successful stadiums can be created without using taxpayer funds.


Winning Off The Field: The Determinants Of Mlb Franchise Value, David F. Ulrich Jan 2011

Winning Off The Field: The Determinants Of Mlb Franchise Value, David F. Ulrich

CMC Senior Theses

This paper examines the underlying drivers of MLB franchise value. Using panel data for MLB teams from 2000-2010, I find that a team’s ballpark and metro-area market are significant determinants, yet revenues truly drive value. Further, I find that incremental increases in winning percentage by a particular team has an insignificant effect on total revenues and has no marginal impact on the value of the team, particularly if the team recognizes consistent revenue streams every year. Finally, I show that the modern sabermetric approach to player management negatively impacts firm value, suggesting that although small market teams have been successful …