Business Commons^™

Requirement Elicitation, Cameron Myers

Honors Theses

Requirement Elicitation is a flexible and malleable process that can be changed based upon the requirements of the analyst, stakeholders, and/or the application. In recent years analysts have given more distinction to the effectiveness and the types of result yielded based on the unique attributes of each elicitation technique. These distinctions arose because of advancing technology and use cases used when developing an application. Naturally, the elicitation techniques are advancing as well. They are advancing into different categories to better focus on yielding the right information to identify the right requirements. Such as behavioral techniques, cognitive techniques, contrived techniques, etc. …

The Effects Of The H2-A Program On Southwest Michigan Farmers, Marisol Quiroz

Honors Theses

Growing up as the daughter of migrant farm laborers has sparked an interest in researching the effects of the H-2A program. With more and more unwilling domestic laborers, farmers were left with a significant lack of workers. The H-2A program is a guest worker program, that brings foreign laborers into the United States in order to assist farmers in their harvesting efforts. The lack of willing domestic labors to assist farmers in times of harvest has created the need for such program. This is a reoccurring trait throughout American history, where other guest worker programs such as the H-2A program …

An Examination Of Western Michigan University's Financial Statements, Jordan Farrel

Honors Theses

In the attempt to fulfill the university’s mission, the leaders must constantly balance each decision and its effect on the various stakeholders at the university. Students, faculty, and outside enterprises all want what is best for themselves, and sometimes those wants can clash. In order to ensure that the university is allocating its resources in a way that is beneficial to stakeholders collectively and focuses on the long-term, financial analysis can be done on the university’s annual financial reports. The financial reports for universities experienced massive changes in the early to late 1990s as the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) …

Trends In The Study Of Indirect Procurement, Daniel Israel

Honors Theses

Indirect procurement has largely been ignored in scholarly research due to only representing a small portion of a firm’s expenditures, and suffers from a confusing nomenclature that makes drawing conclusions difficult. However, indirect procurement is a diverse and crucial component of purchasing that allows for sustainable competitive advantages and reduced costs, if managed properly. By performing a keyword search in the ABI/INFORM database, we analyzed, consolidated, and summarized the current areas of research as it pertains to indirect procurement. We also identified suggested further areas of research, as educated by our previous analysis. We find that the majority of the …

Financial Literacy: The Argument For Required Coursework Regarding Personal Finance In Schools, Maclain Canfield

Honors Theses

Financial literacy is one of the most important skills for adults to possess, and therefore personal finance should be required education. Being financially literate provides individuals with the knowledge needed to make financially prudent decisions that substantially impact their lives (Kenton, 2019; Lusardi, 2008; Zucchi, 2018). However, only fifty-seven percent of adults in the United States are financially literate (Klapper, Lusardi, & Oudheusden, 2015).

Although financial literacy provides lifelong benefits, basic personal finance is seldom taught in schools (Council for Economic Education, 2018; NPR, 2019). Research shows that students are more financially literate where financial education in high school is …

Generational Differences In Remote Work, Lauren Nowakowski

Honors Theses

In business, a remote worker consists of an individual that does their day to day work from an environment that is out of the office. Some employees work remotely 1-2 days a week; other times, it is remote work all the time. Different generations may view remote work differently. Some may find it to be a blessing, others a curse. This report will discover what generations are best suited for remote work, and which are better off in the office. The organization begins with defining who a remote worker is. Next, there are the benefits of having a remote worker …

Marketing Plan For The Foundation Scholarship Program, Marissa Chupp

Honors Theses

The Foundation Scholarship is a full-tuition scholarship for incoming freshman who meet the scholarship’s criteria at Western Michigan University (WMU). Along with the scholarship funds, the Foundation Scholar program aids students by providing a solid community of peers and mentors. Since the program’s debut in 2015, there has been no marketing plan set in place. This thesis is devoted to the creation of a marketing plan that can be used as a guideline to promote the Foundation Scholarship. The goal of this marketing plan is to persuade donors to give to the program and incoming WMU students to apply for …

Strategic Continuity Plan, Margaret Scannell

Honors Theses

To earn a Minor in Nonprofit Leadership with Certificate at Western Michigan University (WMU), all students must enroll in PADM 3210 and 3220, which are one-credit courses two different semesters. The difference between earning a nonprofit minor with certificate versus without certificate is a 300-hour internship, enrolling in PADM 3210 and 3220, and attending the Alliance Management Institute Conference (AMI). At AMI, which happens for three days every January, the Nonprofit Leadership Alliance (NLA) will give graduating students their credentials of Certified Nonprofit Professionals (CNPs).

This course, PADM 3210/3220 is direct involvement in the Nonprofit Leadership Student Association (NLSA). I …

Western Michigan University Stallions Club Hockey Business Plan, Zachary Roberts

Honors Theses

This project discusses the different areas in which the Western Michigan University Stallions hockey club can improve their organizational structure. Being a part of the club from 2015 – 2019, I saw the tremendous amount of growth that the club had throughout Western Michigan University and the hockey world, but also understood that there was much room for improvement. By addressing these issues and offering solutions of improvement, the club will have a strategic direction to move forward with and implement.

The objectives of this plan are: (1) improving internal operations (2) increase involvement with the Kalamazoo community (3) increase …

Knowledge Gap: Supply Chain Students And Employers, Kathryn Bules

Honors Theses

This thesis project aims to identify the gap(s) between supply chain students and employers for both the preparedness and relative importance of the critical job skills employers seek in graduating students. This research is relevant because students view college as an investment that will pay off through better job placement and higher pay upon graduation. The problem is that some employers feel students do not have the skills necessary to be successful on the job. While there has been extensive research regarding a skills gap in graduating students and common criteria employer’s use to rank these students, there is minimal …

Preparing College Graduates For Work Success In A Rapid Changing Modern-Day Business Landscape., Benito Vavra

Honors Theses

The goal of this thesis is to provide a well-developed and hypothetical course curriculum overview that could serve as a course for students in business school.

The course itself will contain three core phases:

1. Getting a job – How to get a job, more specifically covering the complexity in navigating through the process of attaining a job after college. Some of the topics will be getting hired, the interview process, job hunting, wage negotiation and its importance, setting up goals, and selecting a career path. (Readings: What Color is your Parachute)

2. Your Hired – Once a graduate is …