Business Commons^™

Are Csr Activities Associated With Shareholder Voting In Director Elections And Say-On-Pay Votes?, Charles Cullinan, Lois S. Mahoney, Pamela B. Roush

Accounting Department Faculty Journal Articles

When making investment decisions, many investors now regularly consider a company’s CSR activities along with traditional financial performance measures (Elliott et al., 2014). Our study considers whether shareholders may also consider CSR activities when voting in director elections and say-on-pay votes. We find that CSR performance is associated with shareholder support in both director elections and say-on-pay votes. In particular, we find higher support for both director elections and executive compensation when there are more CSR strengths. Additionally, we find that the social strength aspect of CSR is the most important component in the relationships between CSR and director elections …

Fixed Income Fund Report, December 2017, Bryant University, Archway Investment Fund

Archway Investment Fund

No abstract provided.

Fixed Income Fund Report, November 2017, Bryant University, Archway Investment Fund

Archway Investment Fund

No abstract provided.

Student Perceptions And Learning Outcomes: Evidence From The Education Testing Service (Ets) Major Field Test In Business, David C. Ketcham, Peter J. Nigro, Michael Roberto

Finance Department Faculty Journal Articles

We examine course evaluation data from the core finance course and analyze how these data relate to performance on the finance portion of the Educational Testing Service Major Field Test in Business (ETS). We find that gender, SAT scores, GPA and concentration all have significant impacts on student performance. We also find that student perceptions of teaching and of how much knowledge they gained do not relate to the finance ETS score. Finally, we find that students who feel challenged in their finance core course do significantly better on the finance portion of the exam. This result is robust to …

Can Tweets Predict Intraday Stock Price Movements?, Diwas Puri

Honors Projects in Finance

Twitter is a microblogging platform where over 320 million people post about things that matter to them in less than 140 characters. People post about their happiness, sadness, pride, disappointments, love, hate, expectations and other feelings. Nowadays, a popular trend has come up in which data from Twitter, can be gathered and analyzed in real time to see how people react to a particular situation including changes in stock markets. This research focuses on looking into the relationship, if any, between public mood from Twitter and the stock market returns by analyzing the Tweets about four major companies in consumer …

Talking The Talk: The Effect Of Vocalics In An Interview, Marilena Phillips

Honors Projects in Communication

Our voices carry more than just content. People continuously make assumptions of one’s intelligence, credibility, personality, and other characteristics merely based on the way we talk. As the diversity of individuals in the workplace increases, so too do the differences in how those individuals talk. It is important that we understand how these different ways of speaking are being perceived in the workplace. More specifically, how are individuals being perceived prior to being hired via the interview process? This Honors Capstone project aims to understand the impact that vocal characteristics in an individual have on the interviewer’s perception of the …

A Quantitative Content Analysis On Food-Based Advergames Aimed At Children, Emiko Barker

Honors Projects in Communication

No abstract provided.

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 …

Five Seconds To The Ad: How Program-Induced Mood Affects Ad Countdown Effects, Tiffany Venmahavong

Honors Projects in Marketing

The study examines what effects a five second countdown warning will have on consumer’s attitudes towards the advertisement depending on the main program content. This study builds upon several theoretical models concerning program-induced moods in relation to viewer’s judgment to commercial advertisements. Findings from two studies suggest that program-induced mood systematically influences attitude toward the inserted ad with (vs. without) a five-second countdown: for the negative-affect program, attitude toward the ad was more positive when the ad was preceded by the countdown than when the ad was not preceded by the countdown. However, for the positive-affect program, attitude toward the …

The Impact Of Logistics Performance On The Success Of Trade Agreements, Kevin Arbeiter

Honors Projects in Management

The purpose of this capstone project is to determine whether or not it is possible to predict the success and effectiveness of new trade agreements by looking at fundamental factors associated with efficient supply chain management. Typically, free trade agreements are analyzed using economic factors such as Gross Domestic Product or labor gains and losses. When this is done to determine whether or not a trade agreement is successful, it is usually backwards looking and too late for a country to opt out without economic repercussions. The aim of this study is to determine whether it is possible to predict …

Analysis Of How Companies Should Prepare To Recruit And Manage Generation Z, Corey Pires

Honors Projects in Management

No abstract provided.

The Perceptions Of Accounting: What Do You Think?, Brianna Darin

Honors Projects in Accounting

Accounting is often considered “the language of business,” but is sometimes perceived to be a difficult topic. This study seeks to get a deeper understanding as to why business students and other students perceive accounting to be such an intimidating subject. The ultimate research question addressed is: What are the perceptions of accounting among accounting students, non-accounting business students, and non-business students? A review of the relevant background literature led to two hypotheses that assist in answering the research question. Following the literature review and hypotheses development, a two-part process took place: (1) we conducted focus groups and (2) we …

An Investigation Of Accounting Education To Help Students Improve Important Job Skills, Alec Schuberth

Honors Projects in Accounting

Upon graduation, many college students embark on their professional careers in accounting. These graduates have completed their degree and moved to their new, exciting, and challenging jobs; but have these corporations recently expressed satisfaction with the performance of these young employees? Some studies suggest that many executives do not think that their new employees have developed the skills needed to be successful in today’s competitive business landscape. This project extends the literature by examining professional development in college graduates and applying it within the context of accounting education in college and universities nationwide. Overall, this project aims to investigate why …

Do Some Stakeholders In Publicly Traded Firms Benefit At The Expense Of Others As A Result Of Corporate Inversions?, Ryan Hitchcock

Honors Projects in Accounting

This report examines corporate inversions to determine whether this practice benefits the majority of stakeholders or merely a select few. A sample of firms previously incorporated in the United States that have since undergone inversions is examined to answer this question. Annual stock price returns, stock price volatility, and earnings per share changes from the sample of inversion firms are the main sources of data examined. These results are compared to the S&P 500 and peer firms to determine whether the changes can be attributed to the inversions, or are merely a result of general economic conditions. Supporting topics addressed …

An Historical Analysis Of The Role Of Accounting For The Japanese Internment Camps During World War Ii, Midori Knowles

Honors Projects in Accounting

On December 7th, 1941, the United States was the victim of a tragic attack on a naval base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. This resulted in the United States’ entry into World War II, including the declaration of war against the country of Japan. On February 19th, 1942, just two months after the attacks, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which permitted the War Relocation Authority (WRA) to relocate over 110,000 Japanese- American citizens. The forced relocation sent these Japanese-Americans to ten relocation centers spread throughout the west and mid-west of the country. The government declared that this relocation …

Daily Fantasy Sports: Chance Or Skill?, Danielle Bergner

Honors Projects in Mathematics

Online daily fantasy sports is a billion dollar industry that has caused controversy for the last few years with states debating its legal status. As of today, under the current United States federal laws and regulations, betting money on daily fantasy sports online is considered legal. However, several states have decided to ban these games within their borders believing they are based on chance and should be considered gambling which they have ruled to be illegal online. Each state has the right to make their own rules of what they consider gambling even if the federal government has allowed it. …

Ex-Dividend Price Behavior In Spanish Speaking Markets: Do Stocks Behave Differently In Spain, Mexico, And Chile?, Kayla E. Nikosey

Honors Projects in Finance

The main focus of this thesis is to analyze the behavior of stock price on ex-dividend day of ADRs in Spain, Mexico, and Chile. Announcement date, and ex-dividend date for each ADR is collected to be analyzed against the other ADRs. One would expect different behaviors in the different markets because of different tax treatments in Chile, Mexico, and Spain. Traditional event testing is being used to analyze the stock price behavior on and around ex-dividend days. The event test measures the impact of regulatory events and allows for abnormal changes in stock prices that occur in conjunction with dividend …

Weather Variability And The Tourism Industry: A Panel Data Analysis, Carmela Coppola

Honors Projects in Economics

Increasing weather variability around the world has led to many researchers examining the impacts of weather variability on vulnerable industries. For example, the tourism industry can make up a large portion of an economy’s growth, with some of the most dependent countries relying on tourism for over 40% of GDP (World Travel & Tourism Council 2014). In an attempt to better understand the relationship between weather variability and the tourism industry at the country level, this study employs a series of fixed effects panel regression models to analyze the impact of rainfall and temperature on tourism levels and growth rates …

Globalization Of The Catholic Church: Implications For Managing A Large Multinational Organizations For A Long Period Of Time., Paula Robinson

Honors Projects in Marketing

No abstract provided.

Making Sense Of Sustainable Seafood Certifications, Samantha Yoder

Honors Projects in Management

This project is aimed at tackling the issues regarding the varying seafood sustainability certifications currently in circulation. It aims to uncover the confusion, controversy, and differences that arise from the numerous governmental policies and organizations that issue seafood sustainability certifications. Furthermore, it will assess the primary motivations for each participant in the sustainable seafood supply chain, as the value derived from participation. Supply chain members considered include the fisheries that supply the seafood products, the various companies that issue the seafood certifications, the grocers that stock the numerous seafood products, the restaurants that serve sustainable seafood products, and the end …

Accounting For Ethics: Emphasis On Ethics Education In Us Collegiate Business Curricula, Sarah Stokowski

Honors Projects in Accounting

The accounting field holds a background in ethical understanding to be of great importance. The purpose of this project was to investigate the extent to which ethics education is emphasized and implemented within the business, and specifically accounting, curricula of US collegiate level institutions. Course curricula from a sample of 445 AACSB (Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business) accredited business programs in the US were examined for their emphasis on ethics education. This emphasis was quantified through a novel measurement, the Ethics Education Index, which is an originally constructed weighted measure of the number of stand-alone courses dealing with …

International Currency Correlation, Thomas Griffin

Honors Projects in Finance

The purpose of this project is to examine the effects that one country’s currency can have on another countries currency. Currency is one of the key determinants of how a country’s economy is performing compared to the rest of the world. Some currencies have a negative or positive correlation with other currencies around the world. This data will help investors determine what they can expect to happen to a countries currency when there is a fluctuation in another currency. Certain industry practices where this information will be useful include the hedge fund industry and other global companies. This will be …

20 Years Of Inspiring, Empowering, And Advancing Women!, Mary Kelly, Leymah Gbowee, Geena Davis, Debi Silber

Women's Summit Presented by Bryant University

20 Years of Inspiring, Empowering, and Advancing Women! Over the last two decades, we have witnessed tremendous local, national, and international changes. The world is more accessible as a result of technology and the global economy. Terrorism and the resulting war on terror are now part of our world. We have had four presidents elected to office, and our country rebounded from an economic downturn with the stock market now reaching record highs.

During the past 20 years, Bryant has experienced transformational changes in its academic curriculum, its physical appearance, the number of facilities on campus, and in its athletic …

Analyst Ratings For Firms Filing And Reorganizing Under Chapter 11, Elena Precourt, Henry Oppenheimer

Accounting Department Faculty Journal Articles

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine analyst followings of firms starting from one year prior to their filing for Chapter 11 and as the firms progress through bankruptcy proceedings with a focus on firms receiving “Hold” or better recommendations. The authors attempt to answer questions such as what the common characteristics of the firms receiving stronger than expected recommendations one year prior to filing for bankruptcy reorganization or while in bankruptcy are, and how the market reacts to the issuance of stronger ratings for those firms.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors design various regressions and apply them to a …

The Archway Investment Fund Quarterly Report, First Quarter 2017, Bryant University, Archway Investment Fund

Archway Investment Fund

No abstract provided.

Sino-Forest Corporation: The Case Of The Standing Timber, Gail B. Wright, Charles Cullinan

Accounting Department Faculty Journal Articles

The Sino-Forest Case provides a real-world example of financial misstatement and audit failure.2 The case encompasses related parties, auditing procedures for tangible assets, and internal controls. Sino-Forest Corporation was engaged primarily in the purchase and sale of standing timber in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The principal executive office was in Hong Kong and its securities were traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange until 2011. The management of Sino-Forest created a complex web of subsidiaries and related entities whereby it controlled the purchase and sale of standing timber in widely dispersed regions of the PRC. Sino-Forest personnel created false …

Accounting Outsourcing And Audit Lag, Charles Cullinan, Xiaochuan Zheng

Accounting Department Faculty Journal Articles

This paper examines the relationship between accounting outsourcing and audit lag. Accounting outsourcing may reduce misstatement risk, reducing the amount of audit effort necessary and thereby decrease audit lag. Alternatively, outsourcing may increase the amount of coordination necessary between the auditor, client management and the outside accounting service provider and thereby increase audit lag.

The Archway Investment Fund, Annual Report 2017, Bryant University, Archway Investment Fund

Archway Investment Fund

The Archway Investment Fund, led by professor Asli Ascioglu, is a series of two classes, consisting of a semester focused on Securities Analysis, and a semester of Portfolio Management. The students begin as Securities Analysts, where they gain a foundational knowledge for investment management and financial analysis.