Business Commons^™

Clearfield Inc: A Financial Analysis Report, Logan Zajac

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

Clearfield Inc is a manufacturer and distributor of telecommunication equipment, mainly Fiber. The firm is headquartered in Brooklyn Park, MN with an office and manufacturing plant. Additionally, Clearfield has operations in both Mexico and Finland. The firm provides work for approximately 407 full-time employees and is owned by 277 shareholders.

A thorough analysis of the Company using a benchmark, Cambium Networks Corp, showed that Clearfield Inc is a high-growth firm, with the most recent sales growth of around 90%, with expectations of more growth and expansion. Qualitative characteristics and historical financial statements point to great overall past and future performance.

High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas And Small/Community Banks In Rural Areas., Samuel Spencer

Honors College Theses

Drug trafficking is on the rise in America. Drug trafficking brings money laundering, and banks have to combat this with Anti-Money laundering (AML) policies from the Bank Secrecy act. This is combated by the High-Intensity-Drug-Trafficking Area (HIDTA) designation. The designation aims at providing support to local, state, and federal law enforcement to combat drug trafficking in these counties. HIDTA and banks are not connected. Rather I use the HIDTA designation as a proxy to clearly identify counties that have drug trafficking. I specifically focused on small and community banks in rural areas. Small and community banks are disproportionately affected by …

Personal Thoughts, Reflections, And Accounting, Caleb Colley

Honors Theses

This work consists of two portions. The first portion concerns the research, findings, and conclusions regarding various accounting-related topics. These topics include a reflection on the September 11 attacks and their impact on accounting and the United States in general, research on potential places to settle for my future career, an analysis of Pfizer Inc.'s financial performance in 2020 in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, and an interview with my mother regarding her previous experiences as a business professional. The second portion of this work pertains to several analyses of the Target Corporation from five perspectives. These topics consist …

Crafting Comfort: The Design And Production Of A High-End Poolside Lounge Chair, John Hollis Tackett, Robert Griffis

Honors Theses

This report focuses on the development, design, and manufacturing of the Adjustable Lounge Chair, a high-end poolside lounge chair created to address un-met customer demand in the market. The investigation began with a market analysis to identify sought-after features not currently offered by competitors' products. This analysis drove the design of the chair, which was developed using CAD software, followed by the construction of a physical prototype to validate the concept.

The chair's innovative features include adjustable lumbar support and chair height, as well as a removable face-piece that enables users to comfortably lie prone without straining their necks. These …

Access Granted: A Demographic Analysis Of How The Pandemic Has Disrupted The Monocentric City, Jaylin Terreau Jones

Honors Theses

Abstract

This study shows the disruption that the Covid pandemic has had on the national relationship between changes in quarterly House Price Index (HPI) values and distance from Metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs). This disruption is statistically modeled through linear regressions where quarterly changes in HPI values are set equal to distance as well as factors such as change in population, housing units, and home ownership. Special recognition is also given to the distance relationship during years affected by Covid. This disruption is then analyzed in relation to demographic factors such as age and race. The study showed that the disruption …

Pour-Over Coffee Stand With Warmer, Francesca Patawaran

Honors Theses

This project sought to demonstrate the process of bringing a new product into the market, from the initial design and prototyping stage to marketing and, ultimately, mass production. As part of the curriculum of The Haley Barbour Center for Manufacturing Excellence (CME), the project team manufactured fifteen Pour-Over Coffee Stands with electric heating components. We first created a 3D model of the proposed design, ensuring that all components fit together in an assembly. Next, we worked with the lab technicians to create a prototype of the product. Then, we refined the manufacturing process to eliminate waste where possible. Throughout the …

Combatting Consolidation In The United States Banking Industry: An Analysis Of Performance And Strategy Of First National Bank Of Clarksdale, Lydia Johnsey

Honors Theses

This thesis is based on a submission with group members in the 2023 Case Study Competition for the Conference of State Bank Supervisors. This thesis includes additional background information not included in the original competition paper in order to clarify the competition standards and goal of the paper. This thesis evaluates First National Bank of Clarksdale with respect to two areas: financial analysis, which evaluates earnings performance, loan portfolio composition, asset growth, capital levels, and liquidity of the bank; and strategy, which includes staffing, succession, training, and technology strategies instituted by bank management. Data from the bank’s Uniform Bank Performance …

A Collection Of Financial Accounting Case Studies, Madison J. Demus

Honors Theses

The following thesis presents a comprehensive examination of various accounting topics through compilation of case studies. These studies delve into a range of subjects, including an interview with a successful business professional and identifying financial and accounting solutions for Apple, Inc., among others. Dr. Victoria Dickinson supervised and instructed the completion of these studies as part of the curriculum for the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College and Patterson School of Accountancy. Throughout this research, I have been able to explore several areas of interest in accounting, such as the role of financial accounting in decision-making and the implications of tax …

How Awareness Levels Of Environmental And Ethical Risks Affect Consumer's Perceptions Of Fast Fashion, Antonina Stragapede

Honors Theses

The fast fashion industry is known for its low prices, quick inventory, and its ability to keep up with runway styles. Yet, the amount of risk that comes along with their processes has been kept hidden. The lenient policies in international countries have given the fast fashion industry leverage to create tons of dangerous carbon emissions, as well as keep labor at an inhumane level. The point of our study was to try to create awareness of both ethical and environmental risks through a randomly distributed intervention. Participants were also encouraged to take part in our longitudinal study to determine …

A Marketing Analysis On Disney Cruise Line, Erin Bradley

Honors Theses

The objective of this thesis is to discuss the SWOT analysis and PEST analysis of Disney Cruise Line and to provide recommendations. The SWOT analysis involves identifying the company's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, while the PEST analysis focuses on analyzing external factors that could impact the company's success such as political economic, sociocultural, and technological factors. The SWOT analysis highlights the opportunities for the company to expand into new destinations, form partnerships and acquisitions, and capitalize on industry growth, while also identifying the threats of competition, changing consumer preferences, and economic downturns. The strengths of the company include its …

Two-Essay Based Exploratory Research On Service Robots’ Anthropomorphized Voice Types, Accents, And Speaking Styles, Jutong Wen

Theses and Dissertations

With the rapid development of artificial intelligence, service robots play an increasingly important role in frontline service across various industries. However, many questions surrounding service robots as a novel service option are still less studied, and thus, remain uncertain to marketers. Therefore, this dissertation investigated and addressed some of these questions, by assessing the potential advantages of service robots, not only as compared to human employees, but also among service robots’ different humanlike vocal features, including voice types, accents, and speaking styles. Specifically, to address the research gaps identified through an in-depth literature review conducted in Chapter 2, a series …

Endeavors Of Large Family Firms: A Property Rights Perspective Of Internationalization, Vitaliy Skorodziyevskiy

Theses and Dissertations

A large number of firms around the world are family firms. Many of these family firms are involved in internationalization strategies. Despite the breadth of knowledge on the internationalization of large family firms, not enough attention has been paid to some of the aspects of internationalization. Specifically, the literature is scarce with respect to understanding the mechanisms that may help or harm family firms in their internationalization strategies and the impact of these strategies on firm performance. In my dissertation, I use property rights theory to argue that family firms are able to minimize their negotiating and policing costs, allowing …

The Ties That Blend: Social Capital And Family Firm Innovation, Dustin L. Odom

Theses and Dissertations

The research project empirically assesses the influence of an under-researched aspect of social capital on the family firm’s entrepreneurial behaviors. Specifically, blending social capital, which consists of bonding social capital and bridging social capital that develops between family firms and external family stakeholders, is considered in examining the family firm’s engagement in innovation efforts. Additionally, familial tie strength and outside business ownership of external family stakeholders are argued to moderate the proposed relationship between blending social capital and family firm innovation. The surveying methods for assessing the hypothesized relationships included conducting a two-wave study with adapted, modified, and validated scales. …

An Electric Commerce Platform For Material Testing Laboratories, John Ferris Mitchener

Theses and Dissertations

The emergence of the Internet has allowed businesses to create new sales and marketing channels to provide value for their customers in the marketplace. Engineering manufacturers and suppliers have taken advantage of the internet to automate the customer service aspects of their businesses as well as to market their services in a cost-effective but widespread manner. This work aims to apply the practices and benefits of electronic commerce (e-commerce) to a material testing laboratory through the creation of a functioning website with e-commerce features. The effects of Search Engine Optimization, website accessibility issues, marketing considerations, security concerns, and common business …

The Effect Of Four Decades Of Deregulation On Competition And Productivity Of The U.S. Freight Transportation Industry, Seungjae Shin

Theses and Dissertations

This study reviews the competition and productivity of the U.S. freight transportation industry for the past 41 years. This study investigated the trends of HHI market concentration index values and labor productivity values of rail and truck sectors and tried to find any relationships between the two values in the separate periods before and after the abolishment of the ICC. This study also investigated how the existence of a regulatory body impacted productivity of the freight transportation industry by using a Cobb Douglas production function on annual financial statement data in the U.S. stock exchange market. This study found that: …

‘If They Laugh They Will Love The Learning’: Experiences Of The Use Of Humor By Adult Education Practitioners In Egypt And The United States, Mohamed Serry

Masters Theses, 2020-current

This qualitative research studied the experiences of adult education practitioners from Egypt and the United States with the usage of humor. The problem was that humor is a commonly used communication and education tool, yet it is not studied enough within adult education contexts. The sample included three participants from Egypt and three from the United States. All six had adult education experiences in different contexts, including educational interventions in nonprofits, manufacturing contexts, and corporate office settings. The study aimed to determine the positive and negative results of humor on adult learners, also the practitioners' needs for a better usage …

The Relationship Between Sustainable Supply Chain Management Controversies, Sustainability Practices, And Firm Performance: The Role Of Different Organizational Resources And Environmental Turbulence, Amir Naderpour

Information Systems & Operations Management Dissertations - Archive

This dissertation explores the relationship between sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) controversies and sustainability practices, and their direct and indirect effects on firm performance. SSCM controversies refer to the conflicts between companies and stakeholders due to the negative impact of the company's activities on different pillars of sustainability throughout the supply chain. I study the direct relationship between SSCM controversies - measured by indicators in the Sustainalytics database (Tamayo-Torres et al., 2019) – and future sustainability practices. Using resource-based view, and the influence of investments in other resources on this relationship, I posit that the relationship between SSCM controversies and …

Financial Accounting Case Studies, Winn Sams

Honors Theses

This thesis is an assembly of eleven accounting case studies completed during the 2021-2022 academic year, while enrolled in the ACCY 420 course instructed by Dr. Victoria Dickinson. The case studies included in this thesis cover a broad range of topics within the field of accounting. These topics include the impact of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on businesses, the financial effects of COVID-19 on Pfizer Inc., examining cities of future residence for accounting careers, an interview with a business owner, and an Excel verification course. Cases 6 through 11 are dedicated to the analysis of ExxonMobil and its …

The Adventures Of A Right-Handed Debitor, James Aubrey Christian

Honors Theses

The Accounting Capstone is designed to force accounting students to think through problems in the accounting industry. This will be accomplished by working through a series of case studies dealing with several areas of financial reporting. After selecting the group’s focus area, my group and I presented a case study regarding tax recommendations for Goldman Sachs.

Three Essays On New Issues In Corporate Finance, Abdullah Shoeb

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on three new issues in corporate finance, each aiming at different aspects of a firm's behavior. First, I propose a novel way to classify domestic manufacturing firms based on their level of financial constraint. Using the operating cash flow ratio as my new measure, I find that the behavior of constrained and unconstrained firms differ significantly, unlike existing constraint measures from the literature. My results indicate that constrained firms cannot engage in equity recycling, have a higher sensitivity to cash flow, use the proceeds from the sales of their fixed assets in R&D, and cannot change leverage …

Complexity Of Perfection, Ayanna M. Johnson

Honors Capstones

Many of the first art galleries and museums existed in places where elite individuals were allowed. The constant pursuit of achieving perfection in many circumstances may stem from a white supremacist narrative that often stagnates creativity from achieving its full potential. This sends a series of alarming messages to artists as they tend to lose the initial interest they have for their medium by attempting to achieve a level of perfection that is unattainable. As a result, this notion can shed light on the social impact art can have in society and the relationship with the type of artwork displayed. …

How To Grow My Business On Social Media, Thomas Vehige

Honors Theses

This thesis discussed goals, strategies and tactics to expand an existing freelance sports videography business into a more robust business through the use of targeted social media campaigns. Author discusses demographic choices, social media platform selection and goals for thoughtful evaluation of opportunities and core competencies.

Esg Disclosure Scores And Ceo Compensation, Zane M. Rankin

Honors Thesis

This paper examines the impact of environmental, social, governance (ESG) disclosure scores on chief executive officer (CEO) compensation. I analyze the S&P 500 from 2011 – 2021 utilizing the within estimation method for fixed effects regression models to find that a one point increase in a firm’s ESG disclosure score is associated with a 0.49% increase in CEO compensation, ceteris paribus. However, certain S&P 500 industries have an advantage in boosting their ESG disclosure score relative to other industries. After including interaction terms between industry and ESG disclosure score, I find that, for the median industry, a one point increase …

Professional Shame As Experienced By Pre-Professional Accountants, Grant R. Countess

Honors Theses

While the role of shame in professions is an emerging area of research, it has not been thoroughly studied in accounting’s professional or educational settings. Shame has been explored in engineering and nursing education with powerful implications regarding well-being and learning. This study is primarily driven by the research question, “How do pre-professional accountants experience professional shame?” Using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA), I interviewed three pre-professional accountants to further understand the lived experiences of shame as accounting interns. I demonstrate the insights from the analysis of these transcripts, which characterize the experience of locating identity as pre-professionals, navigating expectations, experiencing …

Tied Together, Eiko Nishida

Theses and Dissertations

The paper is about a site-specific installation that questions a viewer’s norms and perspectives, through the use of multilingual newspapers as a sculptural material.

Stock Splits And Corporate Peer Effects, Albert J. Saad

Theses and Dissertations

We find that a company’s decision to execute a stock split is affected by the number of stock splits carried out by its peers. Through the use of a broad peer group construction methodology, we also reveal the presence of asymmetric effects with regard to companies of different market capitalization size. In the periods of 1983–1996 and 1997–2009 we find that firms are more likely to split their stock if more of their peers have recently done so. However, in the period of 2010–2019 we see that the opposite is true. These results provide further evidence on social learning from …

The Change In Representation Of Women In Perfume Advertisements With Respect To Power, Rasika More

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Gender portrayals in advertising have been examined extensively in the last six decades and remain an important topic. Certain brands have taken the initiative of destabilizing patriarchal norms entrenched in society by supporting modern trends and initiatives through various brand/product campaigns and advertisements that support the fluidity in power and representation. The present study navigates the changes in the representation of women in perfume advertisements that have taken place in the advertising world in the past two decades to see if women are shown to possess a sense of power with their head held high and strong posture, compared to …

Artist Branding Toolkit: Exploring The Creation Of Eras In Artist Marketing, Annabella Bird Cooley, Anastasia Petukhova

Honors Thesis

The purpose of this thesis is to act as a toolkit for artists early in their careers to reference when building their brand in the early stages. This toolkit is to be used by labels, artist management teams, and independent artists. In order to achieve this, I will go into an overview of personal branding. I will demonstrate how to apply these branding techniques to artists. I will then deepen my inquiry into an exploration of “eras,” showing how they are created and why they are important through a deep dive into three artists that have successfully created eras in …

Off The Beaten Path - A Podcast Interview Series, Shaun Holmes, Jason D'Mello

Honors Thesis

For my Honors Senior Thesis, I created a short podcast series entitled "Off The Beaten Path". My podcast delves into the lives of individuals who have who have been unafraid to grab life by the horns and choose a less traditional path in pursuit of bringing their passion or their own new creation to life. My interest in interviewing these types of individuals stems from my own life story, as well as my own desire to learn from the insights of people who have succeeded in these types of endeavors before me.

Off The Beaten Path - A Podcast Interview Series, Shaun Holmes, Jason D'Mello

Honors Thesis

For my Honors Senior Thesis, I created a podcast-style interview series called "Off The Beaten Path". In this podcast, I interview individuals who have been unafraid to grab life by the horns and choose a riskier, less traditional path in pursuit of their passion or the goal of bringing their own new creation to life. My interest in this would be to hopefully integrate any takeaways relevant to this mindset into my own personal perspective, and to disseminate the insights from these interviews to others who may benefit from hearing them.