Office of Undergraduate Research and Creative Scholarship

Events & Activities

2013 Festival of Scholars

School of Management Poster Session

Date: Tuesday, April 24
Time: 6:30pm - 8:00pm
Location: Soiland Recreation Center

Description:

Nominated students from the School of Business, both undergraduate and graduate, compete for excellence and awards with the presentation of highly developed projects presented in poster session format. Judging will be done by esteemed professionals and alumni.

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Student Abstracts at this Session

Student(s):
Bander Alfaiyez

Faculty Mentor:
Dr. Paul Witman
Identity Theft
Identity Theft is a major crime in which thieves steal victim’s information for their own business. With this information, thieves can have access to victim’s privacy and start use them to his/her benefits. My interest is to understand how identity theft is done, how can we avoid it, and how we can reduce our risk. In fact, privacy must be protected to avoid the problem. The objective of this research is to examine the effect of computer security practices on identity theft. In order to achieve this objective, I performed a systematic literature review and worked to synthesize the phenomenon of identity thief. I found out that there are several ways identity thieves can gain access to your personal information. They steal online credentials for banking, e-mail, and social networking sites, as well as all manner of physical items - wallets and purses, mail, pre-approved credit applications, and calling cards.
Student(s):
Shannon Beagin
and Kasey Noble, James Emma, Chelsea Peterson

Faculty Mentor:
Dr. Veronica Guerrero
Electric Generating Shoes
In today’s fast-paced world, where everyone is heavily dependent on technology to stay in contact during the day, a drained cell phone battery can have a significant impact on one’s personal and professional life. After surveying over one hundred people from Generation Y, our research team commenced a comprehensive marketing campaign to launch a new product by Creative Recreation known as “Electric Generating Shoes” (EGS). Our marketing plan consists of promotion, advertising and product placement strategies that are creative and innovative; as well as public relations campaigns and sales promotions that focus on the eco-friendly, technological and versatile nature of our product. Our marketing plan is aimed to promote product awareness as it penetrates the market.
Student(s):
Jodi Blevens
and Paula Runesson, Corrine Barroso, Diana Heyman, Kamal Katkoria, Hakon Olaisen, Ollie Boyd

Faculty Mentor:
Mr. Edgar Terry
ExxonMobil Financial Analysis
This extensive research project involves examining ExxonMobil by evaluating data analysis derived from the company’s income statement, balance sheet, and statement of cash flows from 2006-2010. Additionally, the analysis depicts ExxonMobil’s free cash flow, economic value added, financial ratios, beta coefficient and other financial tools comparing the company’s financial position to the industry and its peers: the Shell Corporation, Chevron Corporation, and British Petroleum Oil Corporation. The company’s optimal capital structure is also studied including a theoretical discussion compared to the actual market value of its components.
The goal is to determine ExxonMobil’s financial position and if it maximizes the wealth of its shareholders. Our research confirms ExxonMobil’s profitability and strong financial position. Despite changes in technology and demand ExxonMobil delivers superior shareholder wealth compared to its peers. Even though the company is close to its optimal capital structure it would benefit further by using additional debt financing.
Student(s):
Jonathan Breshears

Faculty Mentor:
Dr. Mary Jo Shane
Structuring Organizations to Manage Risk
Risk is a difficult concept to understand, and it becomes more difficult to manage as organizations become larger and more complex. People have varying conceptions of the nature of risk, influenced by their own personal experience, assumptions and appetite for risk. These become particularly profound when considering hazard risk events (e.g., fire, natural hazard, explosion, equipment breakdown, etc.) and their consequences (e.g., property damage, business interruption, and loss of reputation, market share, or human life). This lack of consistency can make it challenging for an organization to fully recognize its exposure to potentially damaging events and make informed decisions to help mitigate or avoid loss. This paper reviews literature on risk and safety management methodology and practices to highlight the qualities of an effective risk management operation within a larger organization. The result is a consideration of the functions, communication and responsibilities involved, with implications regarding organizational structure and culture.
Student(s):
Brian Camarillo
and Vito Truglio, Omar Ochoa

Faculty Mentor:
Mr. Bernard Merkle
Agromin's Implementation of Communication Technology
Agromin, one of the largest organics recyclers in California, recycles green materials collected from local jurisdictions within Southern California, making it one of the state’s leading organics recyclers. Agromin helps save valuable landfill space which reduces Greenhouse Gas Emissions that contribute to global warming by transforming recycled green waste into mulch and soil products. Challenges of inventory control and employee time management have emerged, but the implementation of technology will minimize challenges. An automated scale house system would increase location efficiency saving time/labor while providing an up-to-date look at each location’s current inventory through a company’s virtual private network (VPN). Also with the implementation of Verizon’s Field Force Manager and smartphones, Agromin can improve their Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and productivity. With the implementation of these technologies, Agromin will maintain a competitive advantage by increasing its ability to manage data and labor, while simultaneously increasing its CRM.
Student(s):
Melissa Dimalanta

Faculty Mentor:
Ms. Renee Rock
Make a Difference in the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program
An economist, Martin A. Sullivan, once said, "There may be liberty and justice for all, but there are tax breaks only for some." The problem at hand is that most people who qualify for these tax breaks are unaware that they even exist. The purpose of this presentation is to serve the needs of the Ventura County community by offering free tax preparation services for those with incomes below $50,000. As a V.I.T.A. volunteer, not only do you contribute to the local community, you also contribute to your future. You will gain many useful skills and a rewarding experience that you will never forget.
Student(s):
Rakesh Dudhia

Faculty Mentor:
Dr. Nanette Metz
Impact on Business Intelligence (BI) on Organization Design
Business Intelligence makes necessary information available at all levels in an organization, from CEO, Executives, and Managers to “front line” staff. How well information is shared and utilized for decision making is critical for the success of an organization. A quantitative analysis was carried out on building blocks of Business Intelligence i.e. data warehouse, data integration tools, reporting and analytical environment. The implementation of a business intelligence system positively affects organization to deliver meaning full decision power at all level of management i.e. transcription of organization data into information that sustains an optimum decision-making environment Business intelligence brings medium to communicate corporate strategy across the organization. It aligns individual objective with organization goals and empowers employee with information needed to male decision. It also helps managers to run their business unit more efficiently and effectively. Business intelligence provides single version of truth if implemented correctly.
Student(s):
Whitney Fajnor

Faculty Mentor:
Mr. Joseph Huggins
Hispanic Consumers: Marketing to a Growing Demographic
One of the major trends for the advertising and marketing industry is the Hispanic market. Hispanic consumers are growing at the highest rate of any ethnic majority and have massive buying power. Hispanics spent $646 billion in 2002, while Asian Americans spent $581 billion and African Americans spent $296 billion. Hispanic buying patterns can be attested to their ‘fiscal optimism’ about their own personal financial situation and about the future of the American economy. This information is important to marketers as Caucasian consumer spending and market share has been down over the last few years. The goal of this research was to determine what steps companies could take to further reach Hispanic consumers. This research illustrates that understanding Hispanic consumer behavior is hugely important in order to create an effective and profitable marketing plan for companies and businesses looking to reach these important customers.
Student(s):
Pamela Forrest
and Leslie Katz

Faculty Mentor:
Dr. Frederick Elias
Patagonia: An Intimate Look at a Unique Organizational Culture
Patagonia, a successful outdoor apparel company headquartered in Ventura, has a culture that distinguishes it from other companies. At the heart of Patagonia’s culture is their mission to “build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.” This mission is the foundation for Patagonia’s environmental initiatives, one of the main reasons for their uniqueness, and our motivation for learning more about this company. In addition, while Patagonia is in business to turn a profit, we were inspired by their sustainable approach to business, operating with a higher purpose and a great regard for the needs of their staff. Based on personal interviews and a guided tour, we found that Patagonia’s distinctive culture is based on a strong belief in the preservation of the earth’s natural resources and a desire to create a positive work environment for its dedicated staff.
Student(s):
Kaylin Garcia
and Tearssa Ramirez, Kathleen Corcoran

Faculty Mentor:
Dr. Veronica Guerrero
"PLAY" Marketing Campaign for the Oxnard Gang Prevention Unit
At 4D Marketing Solutions we have partnered with the Oxnard Police Department Gang Prevention Unit to create a marketing campaign that reaches out to the Oxnard middle school students, helping them stay on the right track and keeping them out of gangs. We have created PLAY: Press Play on Your Future to appeal to our target market with the understanding that they enjoy playing music, playing video games, and playing sports. In order to understand our target market, we held a focus group of Oxnard junior high students and developed a questionnaire. We also informally interviewed former gang members, members of the Oxnard PD Gang Prevention Unit, and Oxnard community members. After developing a thorough understanding of our target markets we created a campaign based on family values, positive influences, and the different ways that youth can “Press Play” on their future and avoid the negative influences of gangs.
Student(s):
Alina Gromova

Faculty Mentor:
Mr. Michael Miller
Apple: What's Next?
This poster is based on Apple, Inc.’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats analysis. It advocates the channeling of Apple's current strengths and leading position in the marketplace into creation of a unified personal productivity, communication and entertainment suite by combining its sleek devices and enticing interfaces with cloud offerings into a one-stop integrated solution for person’s work and play. The strategy includes buying Research in Motion, or partnering with it to make Apple based solutions attractive to the enterprises' IT, and to port the complete Office Productivity suite to the iPad, perhaps as a cloud solution. This will remove the key obstacles to leverage the current consumer demand for Apple devices into enterprise sales, and draw both enterprises and consumers into Apple's cloud, consolidating its leadership in the digital space for the decades to come.
Student(s):
Robert Ham
and Dena Yebernetsky, Colin Castagnola, Bob Ham

Faculty Mentor:
Dr. Valeria Makarova
BCD Marketing Plan (Hypothetical Start-up Organization)
Within financial services, the 403b market is a specialized field focused on retirement plans for employees of non-profit institutions (i.e. hospitals, healthcare providers, education, churches, etc.). Recent changes have resulted in fewer vendors focused on the needs of this market. Those remaining are generally larger vendors which may employ a more "one size fits all", generic marketing approach. As such, we created a marketing plan for a hypothetical start-up organization which would specifically address the needs of the education segment within the 403b marketplace. By using a single-segment targeting approach, and gaining greater depth of knowledge regarding the customer's needs, our goal was to position ourselves as a boutique financial firm providing individualized service and solutions to our customer audience. Core elements of our marketing plan included: situation analysis, internal environment, customer environment, external environment, SWOT matrix, goals, objectives, marketing strategies, and market segmentation.
Student(s):
Rachel Heagy
and Max Zappas, Kyle Burk, Kelsey Botwinick, Maren Asbjornsen, Dejan Novakovic

Faculty Mentor:
Dr. Bruce Gillies
DreamWorks Animation
This research project examined the organizational behavior topics of job satisfaction, motivation, and justice within a Fortune 500 company. The DreamWorks organization is ranked 10th on Forbes Magazine Top 100 companies to work for. The company based out of Glendale, California was founded in 1994, and has quickly become a leader in job satisfaction. The study collected data from a variety of sources including empirical studies, organizational websites, interviews with employees, and archival data. Our project shows several recommendations to improve the companies organizational behavior practices that we have researched. We also show the cost savings if your recommendations were to be implemented.
Student(s):
Andrew Horan

Faculty Mentor:
Mr. Joseph Huggins
The Qualities of Successful Online Retailers
The internet is full of online retailers, but not all are created equal. These businesses have grown over the last decade and have begun to push out traditional, brick and mortar stores. The purpose of this research was to determine what factors have set apart successful online retailers from both traditional stores and other online competitors. This is especially true in the case of Amazon. Customers have changed their buying behavior, helping Amazon grow over the last five years while traditional bookstores such as Barnes and Noble and Borders are closing stores and liquidating assets. Online retailers have been successful at meeting customer needs by offering products at lower prices, having a wider range of products, establishing trust, improving the shopping experience, providing product research, offering hassle free returns and reaching more customers.
Student(s):
Nicole Horn

Faculty Mentor:
Dr. Frederick Elias
Women's Presence in the Workplace: Striving For Improved Gender Equality in the Financial Sector
This study examines the impact of women in the financial sector along with their male counterparts. Women's presence in the workplace was not welcome until the late 19th century and since approximately 1968, the number of women working in the financial sector has increased to new heights. This literature review will examine women's increasing impact on the financial sector, looking at the benefits and potential mishaps. Women and men are different and tend to have different investing strategies, and it is the combination of these two genders that will produce a more successful financial strategy. The hypothesis of this review is that the presence of women in the workplace will positively influence the financial sector.
Student(s):
Caroline Jerejian
and Cheng, Tsung-ChunFarid, MahyarJereijan, CarolineLee, Yen-TingLin, Wen-Ting

Faculty Mentor:
Dr. Bruce Gillies
Textbook Tendencies of MBA Students : “A Statistical Study to Explore Students Buying Behavior.”
This study is about consumer behavior of MBA students at California Lutheran University. The aim of the study was to find significant differences in consumer preferences when related to textbooks. Research found that due to the tremendous shifts in consumer-trends in the marketplace, online bookstores have been forced to reduce prices in order to continuously stay in business. Campus bookstores however, often charge more for their books due to business overhead.
Information was gathered from academic sources to gain knowledge about textbook tendencies. After, a survey was conducted for a group of twenty-one CLU students consisting of eighteen questions. The results showed that over 90 percent of the respondents purchased their textbooks online because of the competitive prices and time efficiency. The majority of bookstore consumers purchased out of convenience. If the bookstore wishes to attract more customers, the store needs to reduce their prices and make it more accessible.
Student(s):
Vedran Kaluderovic

Faculty Mentor:
Dr. William Watkins
Croatia
As a 20 year old country, it has embraced a market economy, a democracy and opened its borders to trade. It has made significant investments in physical and technological infrastructure. It also has a strategic location, and it is surrounded by with navigable rivers and the Adriatic Sea. Croatia has an abundance of natural beauty which is a massive draw for the foreign tourists.
This small, homogenous country of approximately 4,500,000 people has a diverse geology and decent energy resources. The education level of the population is improving; however, Croatia is facing a negative natural population change and negative net migration. Brain drain is considered a major problem in the business world. Some of the reasons for the brain drain could be the government's interference in business, corruption, inefficient regulation and favoritism. The government does not provide any incentives to stay.
Student(s):
Masaru Kuroko

Faculty Mentor:
Dr. Mary Jo. Shane
Customer Satisfaction and its Relevance When Motivating Employees
In any business, customer satisfaction is an essential factor which every business person considers. To obtain higher customer satisfaction, one of the most important factors is the motivation of employees. Through 11 scholarly articles and 2 online resources, I found that customer satisfaction and motivation of employees are strongly connected. There are many ways to motivate employees, such as incentives, feedback, and a stress free zone. Motivation comes from two factors: intrinsic and extrinsic. Understanding the logic of motivation is crucial for motivating employees. Based on my research, there are some psychological elements affecting the reasons motivated employees create better customer satisfaction: Emotional contagion, Service profit chain, and Self-awareness. As I researched this topic, I realized successful companies recognize how important it is to motivate their workers and unsuccessful companies, contrarily, underestimate it and fail.
Student(s):
Jordan Leckness
and Anne Zanussi

Faculty Mentor:
Dr. Paul Witman
Roaring Lion Energy Drink Marketing and Manufacturing
Roaring Lion Energy Drink currently thrives with an account base of over 4,000 on-premise accounts, making Roaring Lion Energy Drink the #2 energy drink on bar guns across the US. More than 200 energy drinks have attempted to earn a place of the industry’s growing market share. Roaring Lion has specific individuals in place to make the product grow with roaring success. The most successful form of marketing is through word of mouth. Roaring Lion's management team believes in hiring individuals capable of using interactive skills to connect with our customers on a more personable level. Our company’s strategy involves international contract manufacturing, mainly in China. Using analytical skills and negotiation experience we develop and execute a global contract manufacturing strategy. Our marketing approaches incorporate customer driven strategies allowing us to relate on a personable level within all of our business relations domestically and internationally.
Student(s):
Ya-Chu Lu

Faculty Mentor:
Dr. Mary Jo Shane
Building Trust In the Workplace
Workplaces have become more complicated because of changing structure, information overload, globalization, and technology. These changes directly impact our society and workplace. Communication and teamwork become more important. This research paper indicates that “trust” is the most important factor of teamwork and in the workplace; however, trust is on the decline and is usually not steady in the workplace. Through research, this research paper shows the importance of and the need for trust in the workplace, and also offers some suggestions for leaders who want to build a trusting workplace to increase work efficiency and productivity. Finally, the research paper demonstrates how to build trust from a cultural perspective, and what benefits trust will bring to the organization.
Student(s):
Sean Miller
and Tristan Baer, Edward Bedigian

Faculty Mentor:
Dr. Veronica Guerrero
Our class was tasked with developing a marketing campaign to help encourage students living in the Oxnard area to either abandon a gang lifestyle or never accept it. We did survey research as well as held a focus group with our target market which was a major factor in the development of our campaign. Through our research we determined that "Do What's Right, Join the Fight" and an army theme would resonate the most with our market. We also found that radio was an important medium through which we could reach our market. This project opened our eyes to why kids feel drawn to a gang lifestyle, scare tactics are not successful long term, and all these kids want is to feel like they belong.
Student(s):
Michael Minervini
and Matt Lewis, Brandon Delgado, Jordan Leckness, Matt Heirsch

Faculty Mentor:
Dr. Veronica Guerrero
Gang Awareness
The Police Dept for the City of Oxnard, California has been working to prevent gang involvement among the youth in the community. The Gang Prevention Unit requested help to develop a communication and promotional program aimed at Middle School youth in the community. The purpose of the campaign is to attract students to non-gang related activities within the community. Our team conducted primary and secondary research to understand the demographics and psychographic characteristics of our target market. A focus group of 15 Oxnard middle school students was conducted to test a preliminary campaign proposal. Finally, a comprehensive campaign was developed to attract these students into positive, community supported activities and organizations in order to prevent gang involvement.
Student(s):
Phillip Minton
and Phillip A. Minton, Stephanie M. Folster, Howarth Rowe, III, Sergio Milas

Faculty Mentor:
Mr. Chris Denove
WaazApp™ Inc.”An Integrated App Broker-Development Company
The mobile Application market is growing at a phenomenal pace. In fiscal 2011, mobile App’s generated $7.5 Billion. By the end of FY '12 sales are projected to exceed $14.1B. By 2015, Apps are expected to be a $36 Billion business segment. Apple, with shipments of over twenty million iPhones (19% market share-Q2 '11,) is the world’s leading individual smart phone vendor. Our story began with four MBA students working on a marketing project for Cal Lutheran University’s School of Management. After developing an innovative human-technology centric concept to continuously improve the condition of humans, our extensive research exposed the exponential growth opportunity of an enabling business model—A broker-developer approach. With forethought in design that pushed elegant simplicity, networking as the guiding principal and a unique marketing approach for B2B & B2C platforms, a revolutionary App development and marketing company was formed.
Student(s):
Krishanne Nishi

Faculty Mentor:
Dr. Per-Olov Pettersson
Correlation Between Adult literacy Rates and Adolescent Fertility Rates
We all ask ourselves at one point in our lives what we can do to make a difference - how can we bridge cultural differences and build a sustainable world? Are war and an unsustainable population explosion a reality of humanity or is there something that we can do that may impact the view and actions of future generations? This paper uses standard statistical tools to analyze the concept that many others have started to explore – that the more educated an individual, the better informed and worldlier decisions they make. This paper shows the indirect correlation between adult literacy rates and adolescent fertility rates – as literacy rates increase, fertility rates decrease. If we want to make a difference, education may improve many social indicators. However, it is clear that any population control effort should have an educational component to be successful.
Student(s):
Delbart Poindexter

Faculty Mentor:
Dr. Frederick Elias
Reward Systems: Effects on Workplace Motivation
This paper investigates the efficacy of performance based reward systems as well as the receptiveness by workers to different types of performance based reward systems. Through an online survey, respondents answered questions regarding the effectiveness of their current incentives in motivating them. The respondents also answered questions regarding their perception of how effective other types of incentives not currently offered would be to them. The research here indicates that in general, while people believe that individual performance-based cash incentives would be the most motivating for them, people who have individual performance based non-cash incentives value those the greatest. The research also indicates that group performance based rewards are both highly sought and effective, while organization performance based incentives are perceived as ineffective in motivating employees.
Student(s):
Michael Poutre

Faculty Mentor:
Dr. Mary Jo Shane
The Effects of Changes in Securities Laws on Micro-Cap Companies
Small to mid size companies used to be able to access the capital markets via Initial Public Offerings from regional securities firms. The unintended consequences of changes in securities laws over the last 40 years have eliminated this option for these companies, leaving dangerous alternatives in its place. The smaller brokerage firms that focused on these companies proved to be a easier mark for the SEC and NASD (now FINRA) than the larger firms did. While auditors focused their efforts on a market segment that had an average of 2 billions dollars of fraudulent activity annually, companies such as Enron and Worldcom were not targeted until after they blew up - costing the investing public over 100 billion dollars. Laws that were designed to bring about transparency in stock markets ended up making the markets more perilous.
This is an analysis of the evolution of the changes in this field.
Student(s):
Allison Rakun
and Ken Sugai, Courtney Minton, Michelle Dimalanta, Stasya Kharitidi

Faculty Mentor:
Dr. Veronica Guerrero
Marketing Campaign prepared for the Oxnard Police Department Gang Prevention Unit
The Positive Respect campaign was created for the Oxnard Police Department Gang Prevention Unit to encourage the youth in Oxnard, ages 11-14, to sign up, and participate in after school programs in an effort to deter gang involvement. To determine the most efficient way to market to this demographic group, we participated in a focus group, as well as researched previous gang prevention campaigns. Our marketing firm Evolutions Inc., was able to directly interact, distribute surveys, as well as engage with Oxnard students, gaining powerful insights into their personalities and desires. Through understanding the students’ needs and wants, we proposed a comprehensive marketing plan for the Oxnard youth, which includes various actives and incentives programs. By involving the schools and community, we are certain that our marketing plan will increase participation in after school programs and decrease youth gang involvement.
Student(s):
Randy Renk
and Thuy Houng Le, Steven Zaiderman

Faculty Mentor:
Dr. Valeria Makarova
D’Artagnan Enterprises: The Marketing Plan
What if you could be led easily through the preparation of a comprehensive life-long financial plan, have a unbiased community evaluate your plan, get advice on its strengths and weaknesses, have no salesmen call on you, remain in the privacy of your own home and it cost at most a nickel a day? Such a for-profit business model was conceived. This project developed a marketing plan that would successfully launch D’Artagnan Enterprises. This project systematically stepped through six steps in developing a marketing plan. A thorough situational analysis on the internal, external and customer environments were recorded. Goals, objectives and strategies were established. But most importantly, a realistic, measureable and time-phased action plan was prepared. The plan remains flexible enough to allow the control mechanisms to kick in during the real-world exigencies as they occur. D’Artagnan is at the right place, at the right time, with the right product.
Student(s):
Lauren Roady

Faculty Mentor:
Dr. Nanette Metz
Changing Organizational Structure for a Small Printing Business
For PhotoLab, the opportunity to restructure the organization came with the departure of a critical staff member. PhotoLab assessed the current structure, analyzed possible alternatives, and selected the best option. The company’s before and after organizational structures will be reviewed, as well as recommendations for structural improvement. After years of rapid growth, deficiencies in the existing divisional structure affected several aspects of the company. The goals of the restructure were to survive future losses in critical personnel, create organizational hierarchy, and detach owners from daily operations. To explore alternative structures, the personnel and operations of PhotoLab are molded into several organizational models. The final structure design is a vertical, divisional hybrid with horizontal linkages. Leadership should be open to further restructure as the company grows, the market changes, or the external environment shifts. Organizations struggling to succeed must recognize the importance of personalization and customization in organizational structure.
Student(s):
Brittany Ruiz

Faculty Mentor:
Ms. Renee Rock
The Volunteer Income Tax Assistant Program for U.S Military Members Wants You!
The purpose of this presentation is to inform the CLU community of a highly rewarding volunteer opportunity. As members of California Lutheran University, we stand for the distinguishing values of the school, especially those of community service. To uphold our identity and work towards becoming professional leaders of a global society, we should participate in the Volunteer Income Tax Assistant (VITA) Program for U. S. military members in Ventura County. Unquestionably, it is an exceptional cause because it supports our local military. Participation enriches the volunteers’ career as well as teaches them how to prepare tax returns. The VITA program provides tax services to various community members; however, this office in Ventura County is sponsored by Navy commands at Port Hueneme Navy Base and serves both active duty and retired members. It has been nationally recognized as one of the most successful military volunteer income tax offices in the nation.
Student(s):
Thomas Scurrah
and Tony Avila, Eric Bunker, Boyu Cai, and Shao-An Su

Faculty Mentor:
Dr. Bruce Gillies
The Impact of Social Media On MBA Students
What is the impact of social media on MBA students? Given the difference in demographics found in the California Lutheran University School of Management Program, this study sought to demonstrate the value in exploring how these differences might impact the social media experience of MBA students. The hypothesis is pretty simple: The use of social media is significantly higher among the younger generation than the older generation. To help support this hypothesis, a survey was conducted on a small sample of MBA students at California Lutheran University. The survey results largely bore out what the project set out to demonstrate as can be seen in this study. For MBA students and future business leaders, the current research shows that there is ample opportunity to leverage the study’s findings to incorporate into future business plans.
Student(s):
Jenna Snyder

Faculty Mentor:
Dr. Carla Walter
CornerOrganics™ Business Plan
We live in a world with more crowded streets, busier workloads, overweight people and increasing unhealthy food choices. So how do we maintain healthy living in this environment? In congruence with the rise in organic foods sales, CornerOrganics™ can provide one solution.
CornerOrganics™ mission is providing fresh, locally grown organic foods at reasonable prices through urban farms. In addition, our mission includes educating community members on how to grow organic produce themselves.
This business plan demonstrates CornerOrganics™ ability to build communities and provides the means for healthy living. Startup funds require $250,000 of which $150,000 coming from investors. Year 1 Revenue is $179,920; year 2, $372,340; year 3, $418,087. Breakeven for crop beds sold at $250 is 1,179units; $300, 2,495units; $350, 82units. With seed money and minimal operational costs, breakeven will be established in year 2. Gross profits are expected to reach $195,466 in year 3.
Student(s):
Liuning Wang

Faculty Mentor:
Dr. Mary Jo Shane
Organization Start-Ups: Opening a Snack Store in China
Many people want to be their own bosses, but few have the courage to do so. Starting your own business can be difficult and the failure rate for start-ups is high. The research conducted for this paper provides useful ideas and several indispensable steps to start a small retail business, from mental preparation to actual business issues. Various theories were tailored to take into account cultural differences and were then applied to my own idea for a new business, opening an oyster snack store in China.
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