Business Commons^™

The Role Of Ethical Evaluation Of Corporate Social Responsibility In The Perception Of Corporate Hypocrisy, The Intention Of Opinioned Communication And Behavior Toward A Firm, Kyujin Shim

Dissertations - ALL

Corporate hypocrisy refers to publics' negative perception of CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) as a result of ethical attribution of CSR to normative ethics, and thus can be a useful indicator of the disappointing and ineffective role of CSR programs geared toward raising publics' goodwill toward a firm. However, scant scholarly effort has been made to explore the concept of corporate hypocrisy in relation to corporate issues and crises, publics' ethical orientation, cultural and national influence, and polarized sentiments toward global business in the media landscape. These aspects collectively constitute the unpredictable, uncontrollable public opinion, in particular the opinion of the …

Influences Of Product Concept Demonstrations In Trade Shows: Two Essays, Taewan Kim

Marketing - Dissertations

I study the effects of product concept demonstrations on firm value and on firms' profit using two different methods: empirical and analytical approaches.

Utilizing an event study, in Essay 1, I assess the effects of product concept demonstrations in trade shows on abnormal stock returns and risks. My investigation has two interconnected parts: (1) analysis of the firms' decision on how many concepts to demonstrate and what would be the concept mix; and (2) analysis of investor reactions to the demonstration that influence the firm value and risk. I find that the number of concept demonstrations are influenced by the …

Does Regulatory Scrutiny Change Investment Behavior? Evidence Of Suboptimal Portfolio Rebalancing After The Financial Crisis, Willie Dion Reddic

Business Administration - Dissertations

Insurers that show losses are expected to sell tax-free securities and replace them with taxable securities since they can no longer benefit from tax savings. However, rebalancing these portfolios after the financial crisis would entail recognizing additional losses during a time period when their financial performance was under stress and their industry was under increased scrutiny. I examine portfolio rebalancing behavior using the period after the financial crisis as a proxy for increased regulatory scrutiny. I predict and find that insurers with losses subsequent to the financial crisis were less likely to increase their ratio of taxable/nontaxable securities. Insurers may …

Entrepreneurship As A Process Of Self-Fulfillment: Well-Being, Affect, And Behavioral Strategies, Shoko Kato

Business Administration - Dissertations

This study unravels the underlying mechanisms that influence entrepreneurs' behavior during the startup process. Theories of entrepreneurial behavior have assumed that entrepreneurs try to achieve goals--profit, sales, job satisfaction, autonomy, to name a few. Yet, past studies are silent about how entrepreneurs keep making efforts toward business startups while not achieving goals for a prolonged period of time. If goals are hard to reach and entrepreneurs are unable to assess their achievement level toward their goals, how do they manage to keep making efforts during the business startup process? What factors influence their effort level during the startup? Based on …

The Struggle For Power And Pay: Implications Of Board Of Directors' Power On Monitoring Effectiveness And Pay For Performance Sensitivity, Mariana Judith Lebron

Business Administration - Dissertations

Boards of directors monitor and incentivize CEOs to make decisions that maximize shareholder value; however, research has been inconsistent in identifying the relationship between board composition and monitoring effectiveness (Daily, Johnson, Ellstrand, & Dalton, 1998). Integrating an economic perspective (agency theory) with a socio-psychological perspective (upper echelon theory), this paper examines how outsiders' and insiders' power bases relate to pay-for-performance by proposing and empirically examining a multi-dimensional model of board power bases: ownership, prestige, and structural. I argue that board structural and composition characteristics can be used as proxy indicators of board power. Using data from 37, 066 directors of …

Applications Of Search Theory In Finance, Hongyu Song

Finance - Dissertations

In this dissertation, I apply two types of search based theoretical models to interpret two important issues in finance, respectively. (1)The first essay belongs to the field of corporate finance, in which a random search model is set up to describe the pre-IPO market searching and matching process between private firms with intent to sell equity in an IPO and investment banks (IB) that underwrite the issue. Our model tightly links many IPO-related phenomena such as IPO underpricing and long run underperformance under one unified searching framework. (2) The second essay is related to market microstructure, i.e. bid-ask spread, in …

Studies In Income, Investment, And Stock Returns: The Permanent Income Hypothesis And The Overinvestment Puzzle, Insun Yang

Finance - Dissertations

Increased sales drive earnings; increased earnings drive investment; and increased investment drives higher stock returns. In this dissertation, I studied the relationship of sales income, firm investment increase and stock returns. The first paper, titled "Permanent Income and Investment", investigates the relationship between changes in sales income and levels of investment. When firms experience increases in sales that they consider to be permanent, the present value of expected profits also increase, leading to increases in the firms' investments. Firm's investment behavior is primarily explained by permanent changes in sales incomes and not by transitory change. The second paper, titled "Firm …

Off-Price Vs. Department Store Retailing, Denise Aghion

Honors Capstone Projects - All

There are multiple forms of retailing in the United States – two of the most common forms are department store retailing and off-price retailing. Both types of retailers are looking to create profits by negotiating costs with vendors to create suitable gross margins; however, they go about doing so in very different ways. Because I have interned at both types of corporations, my Capstone is to identify which, if either model, is more sustainable in today’s conditions.

Department store retailing is the most well-known form of retailing, and is currently the largest sector of retailing in the United States. They …

A Changing Dynamic: The Business-To-Individual Relationship, Robert Bloomberg

Honors Capstone Projects - All

As the Digital Revolution sweeps the world over, modern marketing strategies have had to adapt and change. Power has shifted from brands into the hands of consumers. This paper explores how this relationship is changing, and offers a glimpse of how this new relationship manifests itself in two forms of digital marketing strategy: the digitization of the in-store experience and the gamification of the modern day loyalty program. These strategies are intended to enhance the consumer experience and ensure that any interaction they have with the brand is a fulfilling one. This paper also discusses how digital technology has broken …

Motivations Behind Traveling To Dark Tourism Destinations: A Qualitative Study For Future Marketing Campaign Targeting Dark Tourism To Chernobyl, Oleksandra Korotchuk

Honors Capstone Projects - All

In 2011, the Ukrainian government granted tourist access to a place where one of the worst nuclear disasters in history occurred – Chernobyl. Since then, Chernobyl became the hottest Dark Tourism destination, attracting those who want to see the abandoned ghost-town of Pripyat, a place that 40,000 people used to call home. After the entire city was evacuated in a matter of hours, their belongings were left in pristine condition, disturbed only by the passage of time. Now, thousands of curious travel to Pripyat for guided tours of the Alienation Zone. These so-called Dark Tourists travel to destinations where death …

Gender, Politics, And The Media: An Analysis Of Media Coverage During The 2008 Democratic Presidential Nomination, Janelle Bridson

Honors Capstone Projects - All

This thesis examines media coverage of female politicians. Through conducting background research, a personal interview with a nationally acclaimed political strategist, and a content analysis of 640 online articles published by The New York Times, the thesis presents a thorough review of media coverage. Results revealed that the media did not provide a consistent standard of coverage between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama during the 2008 Democratic Presidential Nomination. The New York Times depicted Obama in a more favorable light than Hillary Clinton. Additionally, Clinton was significantly more likely to be described in terms of her family life, physical appearance …

Clearview Church: An Online Brand Management Model For Nonprofits, Lindsey Nicole Colegrove

Honors Capstone Projects - All

This project aims to provide specific recommendations to ClearView Church, and by extension nonprofits in similar situations, on how to strengthen their online presence. The recommendations are formed through in depth research into ClearView’s resources, goals and requirements as well as calling upon my expertise and experience in the technical and communications sides of the nonprofit field.

Through multiple interviews with church staff and members, I determined an overarching goal of sharing the warm, welcoming personality of the church with young families in the surrounding community. However, this goal was not guiding their online outreach efforts and therefore needed to …

Oureconomy: Social Impact In Syracuse, Daniel Cowen

Honors Capstone Projects - All

In today’s society we rely on non-profits and government institutions to ameliorate our most pressing problems. Everyday these organizations employees work tirelessly to help people most in need. Their efforts are recognized and commendable, but they are constantly limited by countless restraints like lack of funding, slow service innovation, and accurate impact measurement tools. Implementing a new sector that would effectively combat the problems that organizations battle when they are doing their best to solve other people’s problems would exponentially improve services.

In this paper I start by outlining the societal problems that are especially prevalent in Syracuse, but characteristic …

Wired Women: Understanding And Reaching The 18-24 Year Old Women Of Today, Jessica David

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Wired Women represent a segment of the larger millennial generation that has not previously been looked at as a singular target. Previous generational spans of 15-20 have until now successfully identified people of similar tastes, behavior and experience. The increased rate of technological discovery and innovation that has taken place over the past 25 years has caused a generational divide within millennials. It is necessary that this group of 18-24 year old women be examined separately from older millennial women as well as their same-aged male cohorts.

18-24 year old women represent an opportunity for advertisers to reach a group …

Helping Child Workers: How Should Multinational Corporations Accommodate Child Workers In Southeast Asian Countries To Which They Outsource?, Ryan (Haerim) Hong

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Outsourcing is one of the major supply chain strategies adopted by many multinational corporations in order to respond to market demand by lowering the cost. As the emphasis on social responsibility and sustainability has been increasing, there has been a lot of pressure on firms to control many problems caused by different living conditions or cultures. One of the most significant humanitarian issues is ongoing child labor practices. This paper describes how corporations, such as Nike, Reebok, Wal-Mart and the Pentland Group, have been addressing this issue. Many of them have been eliminating child labor among their suppliers; however, that …

The Perfect Balance: Combining Global And Local Strategies For Effective International Public Relations, Anne Frances Krengel

Honors Capstone Projects - All

This paper discusses the benefits of using a combination of global and local public relations tactics to optimize global marketing activities and reach target publics. It also compares various cultures and public relations practices around the world, and offers examples of international public relations campaigns that have successfully reached their target markets by incorporating global strategies with cultural twists that are specifically tailored to local communities. In today’s progressively more globalized world, where people are connecting more quickly than ever before, it is vital that organizations know how to communicate correctly. While many theorists prefer either global strategies or local …

Barlee: Business Plan For An Urban Beer Garden, Marcella M. Lahara

Honors Capstone Projects - All

The development of a business plan is a requirement of all graduating seniors enrolled in the Hospitality Management program. The concepts and development of the businesses are extremely varied. In the particular case of BarLee, an urban beer garden, the idea came from a variety of sources.

BarLee’s layout and format adheres to that outlined by the Small Business Association. The guideline for business development is a standard followed by all small business entrepreneurs. The style of the writing is in the form of a pitch to an investor. The investor may be a bank, in the form of small …

Israel’S Travel And Tourism Public Relations, Jillian Marom

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Israel’s geopolitical location and conflict with its surrounding neighbors has resulted in constant negative media coverage and poor public perception of the country. As a result of the ongoing turmoil and biased media reports, the country’s tourism industry has failed to live up to its dreams and expectations. In an attempt to fully understand Israel’s travel and tourism industry, the researcher wrote a case study analysis that analyzes Israel’s PR efforts and media campaigns that are created to brand the country and change its negative image in the media. Through online research, news articles, scholarly journals and in-person interviews, the …

The Heteronormative Objectification Of Women In The Disney Princess Films: A Study Of Brand Advertising And Parents’ Perceptions, Melanie Greenblatt

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Although the Disney Princess franchise portrays its ten princess movies as tales of “happily ever after,” they are filled with negative stereotypes of all kinds; this study in particular focuses on those addressed towards females. Each of these princesses lives in a patriarchal society and her sole desire is to find a man who guides her to happiness. The Princess brand has immense popularity even with these unconstructive stigmatizations of women. This study explores these movies while investigating, through qualitative research, the potency of these stereotypes and whether the parents of the target audience (defined by Disney as ages three …

Determinants Of Major League Baseball Player Salaries, Tyler Wasserman

Honors Capstone Projects - All

In 2003, Michael Lewis published Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, which forever changed the finances and economics of baseball. It began a movement towards using advanced statistical analysis to determine the value of baseball players, in order to build a roster that will win the most games at the lowest cost. The Moneyball movement has resulted in a multitude of new statistics to try to drill a player’s value down to one number that represents his marginal revenue product, or his individual contribution to the team’s success.

Player salaries are typically the largest cost for Major …

Major League Soccer Case Study An Examination Into The Future Of The League, Matt Samost

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Major League Soccer has grown tremendously since its inception in 1996. The league, however, still is a work in progress. The overarching question of this case study deals with an examination into the future of the league. Will it continue to be a niche sport on the American sports landscape or will it challenge the big four leagues in the years to come? Broken into five subtopics, the case study looks to address this question by examining the league through multiple lenses in order to be able to take both an in-depth and wide look at the current condition of …

Healthy Monday: A Mobile Web Application, Megan E. Snyder

Honors Capstone Projects - All

For my capstone project I created a mobile web application to help promote the Healthy Monday initiative. This is a program on campus that is run by the Learner Center for Public Health Promotion that encourages student and people in the community to start the week with healthy lifestyle choices. Healthy Monday’s website states: “Healthy Monday is a national initiative to help end chronic preventable diseases by offering weekly prompts and programs to support people and participating organizations in starting and sustaining healthy behaviors. Healthy Monday is a public health initative founded in 2005 in association with the Johns Hopkins …

The Significance Of Color In Food Marketing, Faith Elizabeth Zaki

Honors Capstone Projects - All

The effect of color on the perception and expectation of flavor and taste was researched. Psychological and scientific studies were used to demonstrate the benefits of using the right colors in advertising and marketing. Color, in these studies, was proven to affect consumers’ behavior when purchasing food. Color is interpreted by different genders, races, and ages were also studied. Color is a significant marketing tool that can help attract the right target markets. Also, examples of how color has help and hindered marketing campaigns in the past were examined.

Fair Value Measurements And Earnings Management: Evidence From The Banking Industry, Xiaolu Xu

Accounting - Dissertations

I examine the association between fair value measurements and bank earnings management using financial data for a sample of U.S. bank holding companies from 2009 to 2012. I follow the methodology in Beatty et al. (2002) and find that banks reporting higher recurring basis fair values, especially level 2 fair values and banks reporting increased fair values are more likely to report small earnings increases both in the current year and one-year ahead after controlling for discretionary loan loss provisions, discretionary security gains and losses, and other bank-specific characteristics. By decomposing the fair values into different types, I find that …

Taking Nonprofits At Their Word: The Role Of Conflict Over Mission In Organizational Change And Response To Environmental Pressures, David Gregory Berlan

Public Administration - Dissertations

Central to any nonprofit is a mission; a defining purpose and set of values that provide its exempt purpose, differentiate it and motivate action by the organization and others on its behalf. Even the most formal and established mission is subject to redefinition, interpretation and different ideas over achieving it. This dissertation addresses the question of what role these interpretations of mission play in the processes by which nonprofits change, not just mission but also leadership, strategy and structure. Two distinct theoretical models are examined for fit with empirical results: (1) change processes as a response to external pressure moderated …