Business Commons^™

Does Social Media Affect Consumer Decision-Making?, Patarawadee Sema

MBA Student Scholarship

Does social media affect consumer decision-making? Social media becomes an important communication tool that people use to connect to other people or organization. People use social media to share their experiences, reviews, information, advice, warnings, tips and/or any kind of issues that are interesting to their “connection” or friends. That information is a helpful source, which may influence consumer’s decision-making. Most of studies showed that people use information on social media as the guideline for their future purchase or planning their future trip. Also, social media is used as an advertising for the marketer. Marketers take this advantage and create …

Brown-Forman Corporation And The Distilleries Industry, Keely J. Higbie

MBA Student Scholarship

This study showed that Brown-Forman Corporation’s (Brown-Forman) has a winning business strategy. It passes the three major tests, which are the Fit Test, Competitive Advantage Test, and Performance Test. The company’s strategy effectively addresses the company’s situation both internally and externally. The strategy takes advantage of most of the industry’s trends, mitigates the negative impacts of the industry’s driving forces, and ensures that the company meets the industry’s key success factors. It helps the company achieve sustainable competitive advantages by fully utilizing its biggest resources and capabilities.

The strategy has also directly contributed to the company’s financial success and market …

Research Proposal For Analyzing Users Of Consumer Generated Media Based On Age, Jamie Levitt

MBA Student Scholarship

Consumer Generated Media (CGM), a form of internet service in which customers provide feedback on the goods and services they have utilized, is the fastest growing sector on the internet. In fact, in 2005, more than 1.4 billion “consumer comments” were created for CGM. For the travel and hospitality industry, Tripadvisor™ is the largest source of information and data. It receives 47 million visits monthly.

Although CGM is increasingly relied upon by consumers, limited research has been conducted to demonstrate its value for businesses. Beyond an analysis regarding differences in CGM adoption on a country by country basis, there is …

Factors Influencing Students’ Selection Of A Bank, Wei Tai, Jiage Zhu

MBA Student Scholarship

The paper aims to determine what factors influence students’ choice of bank. Exploratory sample data (N= 100) was taken from students at John & Wales University, Brown University, and the University of Rhode Island (All Southern New England). The instrument was comprised of fourteen questions, ten being derived from the related literature: service provision, the proximity of ATM, branch location, card design, students benefit, service charge, financial products, recommendation, security, and online service. A total of 100 questionnaires were distributed using convenience sampling; 94 were returned, and among them 89 were deemed valid, yielding a response rate of 89%. This …

The Rise And Fall Of Bread In America, Amanda Benson

Academic Symposium of Undergraduate Scholarship

Over the last century bread has gone through cycles of acceptance and popularity in the United States. The pressure exerted on the American bread market by manufacturers’ advertising campaigns and various dietary trends has caused it to go through periods of acceptance and rejection. Before the industrialization of bread making, consumers held few negative views on bread and perceived it primarily as a form of sustenance. After its industrialization, the battle between the manufacturers and the neighborhood bakeries over consumers began. With manufacturers, such as Wonder Bread, trying to maximize profits and dominate the market, corporate leaders aimed to discourage …

Improving Non-Profit Organizations: Mon Ami, Dylan Yang, Kevin Diaz, Santos Miletes, Robert Tonucci

Academic Symposium of Undergraduate Scholarship

For our Collaborative Learning Program winter term group project, we completed community service at Mon Ami [1] and Service by going to the non-profit every Friday to help the teachers in the day care center. While we were there, our group made observations about the non-profit organization. At the end of the community service experience, our group constructed solutions for the problems we discovered at the non-profit organization and recommended ways to implement these solutions. Our research results were presented to our CLP professors in written form and as a formal presentation.

[1 ]The organization's name has been changed due …

Assessing The Financial Literacy Of Domestic And International College Students, Jane Boyland, Rex Warren

MBA Student Scholarship

Improving student financial literacy has become a major goal of colleges and universities within the United States in recent years. Many schools are now instituting programs to increase student financial literacy in order to improve their students’ later quality of life and decrease student loan default rates. The purpose of this study is to assess the current financial literacy of undergraduate students at a southern New England university in order to provide insights on how such a program could be customized to the unique needs of its student body. The Jump$tart Survey was administered to 92 junior and senior students …

Factors Affecting Students’ Decision Of Hotel Selection, Mingyang Liu, Ritong He

MBA Student Scholarship

The goal of this research is to identify the factors affecting students’ hotel choices, to examine the impact of hotel servers when a potential guest selects a hotel, and to determine how hotel servers influence a student’s preference. The target populations for this study were Johnson & Wales University students who had stayed in U.S. hotels. A print-out questionnaire survey was distributed, descriptive statistics, and z-tests were used to address the research hypothesis. The results of the study indicated a significant positive relationship between hotel services and students’ decisions on their hotel selection. Location of the hotel, online information, and …

The Value Of Foreign Languages In Business Communication, Racquel Moreau

MBA Student Scholarship

There are several factors that a company considers when deciding to operate in an international territory or with a foreign company. Factors such as language and culture greatly affect the success of business. Being able to effectively communicate ideas and strategies can be challenging in a new business environment. Determining the importance of language by a company is crucial to its success. Studying another language helps to understand the culture of the studied language which will assist in a corporation’s decision making process. English is a popular language in conducting business; however, communicating in other languages is gaining popularity. The …

The Rise And Fall Of Bread In America, Amanda Benson

Honors Theses - Providence Campus

Over the last century bread has gone through cycles of acceptance and popularity in the United States. The pressure exerted on the American bread market by manufacturers’ advertising campaigns and various dietary trends has caused it to go through periods of acceptance and rejection. Before the industrialization of bread making, consumers held few negative views on bread and perceived it primarily as a form of sustenance. After its industrialization, the battle between the manufacturers and the neighborhood bakeries over consumers began. With manufacturers, such as Wonder Bread, trying to maximize profits and dominate the market, corporate leaders aimed to discourage …