Business Commons^™

Hidden Fragility: Leveraged Loan Risk And Tail Exposure In The Clo 2.0 Era, Francis P. Gehring Iv

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis examines whether post-crisis changes in leveraged loan characteristics have increased the underlying credit risk embedded in collateralized loan obligation (CLO) portfolios and whether that risk is fully reflected in market pricing. Since the Global Financial Crisis, the leveraged loan market has expanded significantly alongside the growth of CLOs, while underwriting standards have weakened through higher borrower leverage, covenant-lite lending, and greater private equity sponsorship. Although post-crisis CLOs are often viewed as more resilient because of stronger structural protections, the quality of the underlying collateral remains central to overall risk. Using loan-level data from the Refinitiv DealScan database from …

Prediction Markets Vs. Sportsbooks: A Comparison Of Nfl Forecast Accuracy, Dylan Cotti

CMC Senior Theses

This paper compares the forecast accuracy of Kalshi, a prediction market, and DraftKings, a sportsbook, using data from 285 NFL games in the 2025-26 season. I collect win probabilities from both platforms at three time points in the week before each game and measure accuracy using the Brier score. I find that Kalshi produces slightly more accurate predictions than DraftKings, but the gap is small and marginally significant. More surprisingly, both platforms become less accurate as the game approaches rather than more accurate. Once I control for differences in how each platform distributes its quoted probabilities, the accuracy gap largely …

Why Dining Out Stayed Cheap In Japan, Taketo Hayashi

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis examines why food-away-from-home inflation in Japan was persistently lower than in the United States from 1995 to 2021 and why this dynamic changed after 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Two structural buffers sustained the divergence: wage stagnation in Japan, which kept restaurant labor costs flat for nearly three decades, and a strong yen, which absorbed global commodity price shocks before they could reach restaurant menus. In 2008, the financial crisis sent food and energy prices skyrocketing. However, even though Japan imports most of its food and energy, the effects from global price increases were due to a strong …

Fair Value And Funding Structures: Motivators Behind Banks' Reclassification Activities., Thomas Walker

CMC Senior Theses

U.S financial regulations and reporting standards are ever-changing and have a significant impact on how banks classify and oversee their assets. The implementation of ASC 320 in 1993, as well as ASC 820 and ASC 825-10 in 2008, altered the effects of fair value accounting. This study examines factors that drive banks to use the held-to-maturity (HTM) and available-for-sale (AFS) classifications following the implementation of ASC 825-10 during the 2008 Global Financial Crisis. I focus on how banks use the HTM classification to obscure the accurate valuation of their securities by failing to disclose unrealized gains or losses, and on …

Audit Pricing Under Asc 606: Evidence From Software-As-A-Service Technology Firms, Donald Weigle

CMC Senior Theses

ASC 606 is an accounting standard issued in May 2014 that fundamentally changed how firms identify performance obligations and recognize revenue. The standard requires a five-step framework that links recognition to the timing of customer contract satisfaction. Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) firms were uniquely affected by this standard due to subscription-based pricing models and multi-element contracts that make revenue recognition more complex. For this thesis, I estimate the impact of adopting ASC 606 on SaaS firm audit fees. I hypothesize that more complex revenue recognition results in more complex audit procedures and, hence, higher fees. I use a Differences-in-Differences (DiD) regression model …

Short-Window Market Reactions To Real Estate M&A: A Comparative Event Study Of Reits And Real Estate Services Firms, Aryan Kaila

CMC Senior Theses

Existing research on real estate mergers has largely focused on REIT acquirers in isolation, typically finding near-zero bidder reactions in short event windows. There is little work that directly compares REITs with publicly listed real estate services (RES) firms that operate in the same market cycles and conditions but follow different business models. Using a transaction-level dataset of 137 U.S. mergers from 1994 to 2024, this study applies event-study methodology and cross-sectional regression analysis to investigate whether equity markets respond differently to acquisitions undertaken by REITs and real estate services firms. The estimates show that REIT acquirers experience notably more …

The Impact Of Asu 2023-08 On Reported Profitability Of Cryptocurrency-Exposed Firms, William C. Graff

CMC Senior Theses

This study investigates the performance of corporate cryptocurrency holdings in the context of recent accounting regulation changes. It specifically examines how adopting Accounting Standards Update (ASU) 2023-08 has affected firms with material cryptocurrency exposure. Using a panel of U.S. public firms from 2019–2025, I classified 138 companies as having material crypto exposure if cryptocurrency comprised more than 0.01 percent of total assets, which was manually calculated. Of these firms, 67 were exposed to the rule change (under GAAP), 66 were not, and 5 were excluded from final calculations due to a lack of relevant information.

Results showed statistically significant effects …

Impact Of Attention And Yield Curve On Term Structure Of Equity, Matthew C. Aved

CMC Senior Theses

This paper examines the term structure of equity and specifically focuses on the impact of term spread and market attention. The paper builds on prior work that developed the concept by adding behavioral explanations for differences between the short-term and long-term returns while also attempting to link the term structure of equity and the bond yield curve. The study examines these influences by running t-tests and regressions on dividend strip and S&P 500 return data (1996-2017) and attention data collected by Bloomberg (2010-2017). The results provide some insight into how these variables influence short-term and long-term returns; however, limited instances …

Attention And Technical Analysis: State‑Dependent Predictability Of Cnn‑Based Stock Return Forecasts, Crystal Y. Ma

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis studies how investor attention around Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) announcements affects cross-sectional return predictability measured by a convolutional neural network (CNN) trained on price charts. I replicate Jiang, Kelly, and Xiu’s (2023) image-based CNN using 20-day OHLCV “price images,” train it on U.S. equities from 1993–2000, freeze the model, and apply it out of sample to 2001–2024 CRSP data. The CNN assigns each stock a weekly probability of outperforming which is then sorted into deciles that form high–minus–low (H–L) long–short portfolios at horizons of 1 to 10 trading days. For matched non-FOMC (control) weeks, the equal-weighted CNN …

Investor Reactions To Clinical Trial Outcomes: Interpreting Impacts Using Ai-Based Measures Of Investor Sentiment, Sofia K. Weinstein

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis examines how investors react to biotechnology firms’ clinical trial announcements and whether artificial intelligence (AI) can enhance our understanding of those market reactions. Using a representative sample of 95 firm-event observations between 2014 and 2025, the study measures cumulative abnormal returns (CARs) surrounding clinical readouts, regulatory decisions, and partnership disclosures. Event-study regressions test for heterogeneity across trial phase, therapeutic area, and textual sentiment derived from company press releases. Consistent with expectations, later-phase trials, particularly Phase II and III, produce stronger short-term abnormal returns. However, categorical variables such as phase or therapeutic area explain little of the total variation …

Rewards That Resonate- How Incentivized Online Reviews Shape Customer Loyalty And Review Outcomes, Sameeha Khizindar

Marketing Dissertations

In today’s competitive marketplace, online reviews have become a central feature of consumer decision-making and business strategy. Research consistently documents that online reviews have a positive impact on outcomes such as review volume and product sales, underscoring their critical role in shaping firm performance. However, the majority of consumers do not voluntarily write reviews, posing a challenge for companies that rely on user-generated content. To address this issue, companies often offer incentives to motivate customers to write reviews. Despite their widespread use, research on their impact remains limited. This dissertation is comprised of two essays that examine the impact of …

Impact Of Foreign Direct Investment On Employment In The Metropolitan Statistical Areas Of North Carolina, Matthew Y. Xiong

Doctor of Business Administration Dissertations

Foreign direct investment (FDI) is widely recognized as a catalyst for regional economic development; however, limited research has examined its relationship with employment growth at the metropolitan level within individual U.S. states. This study examined the relationship between FDI and employment growth across fifteen North Carolina Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) from 2010 to 2019. Guided by Dunning's Eclectic (OLI) Paradigm (1988), Endogenous Growth Theory, the Human Capital/Absorptive Capacity Framework, and Institutional Capacity Theory, this quantitative study employed a balanced panel dataset of 150 MSA-year observations. Fixed-effects panel regression models with cluster-robust standard errors were used to examine the effects of …

Human Resources Representation Models And Municipal Employee Outcomes: A Quantitative Study Of Small Pennsylvania Municipalities, John W. Crouser

West Chester University Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Final Projects

Small municipalities operate in resource-constrained environments that shape how human resource management (HRM) is organized and experienced. This study examines whether HR representation models (in-house, delegated, outsourced, and hybrid) differ in association with employee job satisfaction and manager-reported turnover trends (RQ1), and whether delegating HR responsibilities to non-HR managers is associated with outcomes differently than other models (RQ2). Grounded in Strategic Human Capital Management, the Resource-Based View, and contingency theory, the study assesses whether HR information system (HRIS) capability is associated with turnover trends or employee satisfaction (RQ3) and whether Strategic Human Capital Management (SHCM) alignment is associated with manager-reported …

The Financial Effects Of Clinically Significant Readmissions In Florida Hospitals, Brian Patrick Cotton

Doctor of Business Administration Dissertations

This study examines how the financial performance of hospitals in the state of Florida impacts the quality of care. This study used data from 2017-2019 to evaluate how the number of hospital readmissions – a proxy for care quality – are associated with and vary in relation to the stability of the financial resources held by the hospital. The Hospital Readmission Reduction Program (HRRP), a Medicare value-based purchasing program, uses a mandatory pay-for-performance process that was initiated to decrease the 30-day hospital readmission rate. Hospitals with high readmissions are held accountable and financially encouraged to increase their quality of care …

Exploring The Determinants And The Effects Of Crypto Assets, Qiu Zheng

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This dissertation consists of three studies that primarily delve into the factors influencing and outcomes of firms’ crypto assets. The first paper examines the association between corporate crypto assets and firms’ credit ratings. Using a large sample of U.S. public firms, we find that firms holding crypto assets receive significantly better future credit ratings, particularly when their activities are related to crypto mining, which generates relatively stable cash flows. However, crypto exposure also increases disagreement among credit rating agencies, reflecting the uncertainty associated with evaluating crypto-related risks. This effect is more pronounced when firms operate in less transparent information environments …

Upper Echelons And Corporate Venture Capital: Ceo Effects On Investment Direction And Resource Deployment, Ralph Judicael Mompoint

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This study examines how founder-CEO status shapes the strategic orientation of corporate venture capital (CVC) activity. Drawing on upper echelons theory, I argue that founder-CEOs differ from non-founder CEOs in where they direct CVC investments, not simply in whether they engage in CVC at all. Using a panel of S&P 500 firms spanning 2004 through 2024, I test whether founder-CEOs pursue greater CVC activity overall and whether they concentrate that activity in ventures operating within the firm's core industry. Results from random-effects negative binomial regression models show that founder-CEO status is positively associated with core-industry CVC but not with investments …

The Impact Of Ai Service Workers On Opportunistic Complaint Behavior, Chelsi J. Baker

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Consumer complaint behavior research has traditionally focused on interactions between customers and human employees, leaving open questions about how these behaviors may change when the service agent is artificial intelligence. This research looks at whether customers are more likely to engage in opportunistic complaint behavior when interacting with AI service agents and explores what might explain that behavior. The results show that customers are more likely to behave opportunistically when interacting with AI service agents than with human employees. Perceived morality helps explain this relationship, as more human-like service agents increase the extent to which exaggerating a complaint is seen …

Milan As A Future Art Capital: Opportunities And Limitations Within The European Art Landscape, Camilla Zoe Nicelli

MA in Art Business Dissertations

Italy is renowned world-wide for its cultural heritage but contemporarily being resistant to innovation, however Milan can be viewed as an exception. it’s a city which combines art, fashion, finance and design, and it has been recognised as a future art capital. Nevertheless, there is a significant absence of scholarly research analysing the Milanese art market in a systematic manner. The aim of this dissertation is to answer the following research question: “What factors will allow Milan to establish itself within the European art landscape, and what are the challenges that might limit its rise as an art capital?”. This …

From The Classroom To The Workplace: The Role Of Internships In Shaping Student Values, Jasmine Williams

Honors College Theses

A significant degree of research on workplace values has been conducted to better understand how employees are motivated in the hopes of reducing turnover. There also exists a significant body of literature on how internships impact career outcome and can effectively prepare students for the workforce. However, previous studies have not explored the differences between students who have completed internships in comparison to those who have not. The goal of this research is to determine whether internships create a significant impact on students’ workplace values (e.g. intrinsic, extrinsic, altruistic, and social) when compared to students who have not completed an …

Cracking The Code Of Ai Autonomy: Examining The Role Of Challenge And Hindrance Appraisals And Ai Literacy In Task Satisfaction, Rujuta Parekar

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

AI is constantly evolving and being rapidly integrated into the workplace. Limited research has examined how this integration is affecting employee outcomes, and particularly the impacts of whether employees are expected or mandated to use AI for their work. The present study utilized the challenge-hindrance framework to examine the effect of autonomy in using AI on task satisfaction through challenge and hindrance appraisal among working adults. Since the ability to understand and use AI can influence how individuals perceive it, the moderating effect of AI literacy on the hypothesized research model is also examined. A multi-wave research design was used …

“What Is In Vogue?” A Critical Study Of Photography, Psychology, And Power In Vogue Magazine, Hannah Eve Osinoff

MA Theses

Capitalizing on our obsession with beauty and power, this thesis examines, through psychological and art-historical lenses, how Vogue’s use of photography increased the public’s fascination with elitist culture. Using archives and secondary sources, this thesis aims to prove that photography was so powerful that it compelled readers to covet what they did not have. Accordingly, Vogue serves as a key example of how photography informed cultural perceptions of beauty and class. Ultimately, photography has and continues to impact fashion and media, as exemplified by Vogue’s early dominance of this medium and the resulting change in culture.

An Investigation Into The Scottsdale Art Week: Cultural Focus, Location, And Sustainability In An Already Saturated Environment, Sophia K. Meshel

MA Theses

This thesis examines the role of regional art fairs within the wider American art market and examines how these events contribute to the growth of local cultural artistic ecosystems. While firmly established international art fairs often dominate attention within the global market, lesser known regional fairs play an important role in connecting artists, galleries, collectors, and cultural platforms within specific communities. Through analysis of established regional fairs and consideration of factors such as artist selection, audience engagement, institutional partnerships, and economic impact, this study investigates how art fairs can move beyond temporary commercial events to become meaningful cultural platforms. Particular …

Strategic Signaling Or Structural Friction?: How Ai Disclosure Moderates Resource-Performance Dynamics In Hotels And Restaurants, Jaewan Heo

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

Artificial intelligence (AI) has become an increasingly important strategic issue in the hospitality industry. While prior research has primarily examined AI as an operational technology that improves efficiency and service delivery, less attention has been paid to how AI-related disclosures influence investor evaluations of firm resources. This dissertation investigates whether AI-related disclosures moderate the relationship between organizational resources and financial performance in publicly traded hospitality firms.

Drawing on signaling theory and the resource-based view, this study conceptualizes AI disclosures as strategic signals that shape investor perceptions of firm capabilities and future value creation. Firm-level financial data were obtained from Compustat …

Partisan Local Media And Corporate Voluntary Disclosures: Evidence From Sinclair Acquisitions, Ming Li

Theses and Dissertations

I investigate the impact of local media’s political orientation on firms’ voluntary disclosure, exploiting the acquisitions of local TV stations by Sinclair Broadcast Group, a conservative media conglomerate. Drawing on the media bias theory and implementing a staggered difference‐in‐differences design, I find that the local partisan media affects management earnings forecasts. Specifically, Conservative-leaning CEOs in designated market areas (DMAs) affected by Sinclair’s acquisitions forecast more optimistically, increasing forecast frequency and inflating forecasted earnings. The impact is stronger if the DMAs are more Liberal-leaning before the acquisitions and when firms have weaker corporate governance. I also find that the stock market …

Curating The Other: Colonial Genealogies, Institutional Logics, And Market Classification In The Construction Of 'Latin American Art', Mariana Duque Mordecai

MA in Art Business Dissertations

This dissertation investigates how “Latin American art” emerged as a category within the intertwined fields of museums and the art market, revealing how institutional, linguistic, and economic practices shaped its visibility and limits. It argues that the label was never neutral, but a performative construct born from colonial histories and sustained by market logics that translated cultural difference into economic value. Drawing on decolonial theory, the study examines the creation of MoMA’s Latin American Collection (1943) and Sotheby’s establishment of its Latin American Art Department (1979) to trace how regional identity became a curatorial and commercial framework. Through discourse analysis, …

Revisiting The Foundation Of Strategic Core Theory: Informal Roles And Teamwork Roles In Work Team Centrality, Allen Thomas Shorey

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

Strategic core theory makes a distinction between roles within a team that are central to the team’s workflow (i.e., core roles) and those that are not central (i.e., non-core roles) (Humphrey et al., 2009). This line of work has shown that attributes, such as job-related skill of core team members, were more predictive of team performance than those of non-core members. However, this line of work has primarily examined core and non-core roles as defined by formal taskwork roles. In this thesis, I examine patient care teams and management simulation teams with the principal conviction that (a) informal roles and …

A Multi-Study Examination Of Student-Athlete Mental Health And Mental Health Service Delivery In Mid-Major College Athletic Programs, Grace Louis

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Student-athlete mental health has become a central priority in intercollegiate athletics, with the NCAA emphasizing its Mental Health Best Practices (2016) and strengthening and expanding these standards through updated recommendations in 2024. These efforts reflect a broader cultural shift toward recognizing the unique psychological stressors faced by college athletes, including performance pressure, identity foreclosure, high time demands, and transitions both into and out of sport (Moreland et al., 2018; Hughes & Leavey, 2012). Additionally, student-athletes frequently delay or avoid help-seeking due to stigma, time constraints, identity-protective behaviors, cultural norms emphasizing toughness, and limited mental health literacy (Gulliver et al., 2012; …

Mistreatment As Instrumental Or Obstructive? How Appraisals Of Customer Mistreatment Impact Entrepreneurial Action, Nicholas A. Smith

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Theory on entrepreneurial action emphasizes the role of cognition in guiding when and how entrepreneurs act. Research in this area has accordingly focused on identifying antecedents of entrepreneurs’ cognitive processes, often emphasizing environmental or economic conditions that broadly influence how entrepreneurs evaluate opportunities. Yet, much less attention has been given to how everyday social interactions spark cognitive processes that influence venture-directed behavior. This dissertation integrates the transactional theory of stress to examine customer mistreatment, defined as low-quality interpersonal treatment from customers, as a social stressor that impacts entrepreneurs’ cognitive appraisals and resulting venture-directed behavior. Here, I argue that mistreatment from …

Can A "Good Jab" Lead To A "Good Job?": Teasing As An Organizational Performance Feedback Tool, Jared P. Wilson

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Performance feedback is a valuable tool for bolstering workplace performance, but the prospect of receiving feedback is often aversive, leading to decreased acceptance, increased turnover intent, and increased recipient stress. One plausible explanation for why critical feedback can be aversive is that feedback is face-threatening. Politeness theory suggests that pro social agents can intentionally attenuate face-threat while still communicating intrinsically threatening information. Pro-social teasing, a humorous form of off-record communication, is one such method, offering a potentially less aversive mode of performance feedback. A sample of 133 participants read a vignette where they took on the role of a grocery …

The Effect Of Innovative Value Proposition On Buyer Reactions: The Moderating Roles Of Price Orientation And Perceived Risk, Chad Stuttz

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Value propositions are essential to the success of personal selling in the Business-to-Business (B2B) context. While earlier studies have offered valuable insights into the roles of value propositions in driving B2B sales, they have often regarded value propositions as uniform. In this dissertation, I argue that value propositions vary in their levels of innovativeness. The dissertation introduces the concept of innovative value proposition (IVP) and proposes that IVP indicates greater future growth potential to buyers, leading to more favorable reactions such as responsiveness and willingness to engage than less innovative ones. Additionally, the dissertation explores the moderating effects of buyer …