Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection
Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University proudly showcases the work of undergraduate honors students by sharing this collection exclusively with the ASU community.
Barrett accepts high performing, academically engaged undergraduate students and works with them in collaboration with all of the other academic units at Arizona State University. All Barrett students complete a thesis or creative project which is an opportunity to explore an intellectual interest and produce an original piece of scholarly research. The thesis or creative project is supervised and defended in front of a faculty committee. Students are able to engage with professors who are nationally recognized in their fields and committed to working with honors students. Completing a Barrett thesis or creative project is an opportunity for undergraduate honors students to contribute to the ASU academic community in a meaningful way.
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- All Subjects: Accounting
Description
The goal of this study is to assess differences that still exist in International Financial Reporting Standards based financial statements between otherwise similar firms. We undertake this study because one primary goal of IFRS is to enhance comparability of financial statements world-wide, but it is unclear to what extent that has happened. First, we assess whether different countries adopt different versions of IFRS. We find, adopting countries fully adopt IFRS with only minor alterations to IFRS as promulgated by the International Accounting Standards Board. We then test whether otherwise similar firms, but from different countries, interpret IFRS differently. IFRS is a principles-based set of accounting standards, and thus offers a wide array of options for companies to choose from in their reporting. The latitude of options in reporting inherently creates room for differences when firms interpret IFRS for their own financial statements. Building on prior studies (e.g., Ball (2016), Nobes (2011)), we find that historical country GAAP is influential, and in documented instances constrains comparability of otherwise similar firms located in different IFRS adopting countries. Based on our findings, we then offer suggestions to preparers and users of these financial statements, and the IASB, to address financial statement comparability issues (see appendix C).
ContributorsWalker, Brooke (Co-author) / Espinosa Jenkins, Lucas (Co-author) / Orpurt, Steven (Thesis director) / Rykaczewski, Maria (Committee member) / School of Accountancy (Contributor) / Department of Economics (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
Inclusion of diverse talent in the field of public accounting has been highly prioritized by the profession since the late 1960s. In seeking to acquire racially/ethnically diverse talent in addition to an expanding set of identities (e.g. veterans, people with disabilities, LGTBQ+, and various backgrounds contributing to “diversity of thought”), Big Four Public Accounting firms have taken on more operational ownership of their Diversity and Inclusion programming. We conducted interviews with D&I program facilitators and surveyed Accounting and Finance students at Arizona State University to assess whether these programs align with students’ outlooks and are being properly presented to enhance awareness. The uniformity across the Big Four’s D&I program structures, the persistence in competition among them in relation to talent acquisition and retention, and students’ lack of awareness relating to program timing and existence lead us to conclude that efforts in improving diversity and inclusion in Big Four Public Accounting are most effective when the Big Four act collectively
ContributorsAlaniz, Leslie M (Co-author) / Quintana, Jacob (Co-author) / Samuels, Janet (Thesis director) / Dawson, Gregory (Committee member) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / School of Accountancy (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
This paper consists of a literature review, wherein four papers surrounding Motivation Crowding Theory (MCT) were read and analyzed. The paper then goes into an analysis of a survey I conducted. The survey consisted of three main questions with three sub-questions for each, and all attempted to find a "limit" to MCT. However, results for the survey were ultimately inconclusive. The paper concludes with lessons learned in conducting research and surveys in particular, as well as a nod to the relevancy of MCT in business and personal applications.
ContributorsSmith, Mallory Anne (Author) / Reckers, Phil (Thesis director) / Samuelson, Melissa (Committee member) / Lowe, Jordan (Committee member) / School of Accountancy (Contributor) / Department of Information Systems (Contributor) / WPC Graduate Programs (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
The purpose of this thesis was to create a valuation of Spotify (Ticker: SPOT) and estimate a share price for the company. Spotify is one of the largest music streaming services in the world, currently operating in 79 markets globally with a subscriber base of over 100 million people. Spotify initially offered April 3, 2018 at $132 per share and sees a huge amount of financial assets on their balance sheet due to continued investment. As a newly established high-growth company, Spotify has enjoyed a 30% average revenue growth year over year from 2014 to 2019. Although Spotify’s reach is quite large, the company is dwarfed by competitors such as Apple, Google, and Amazon in the extremely competitive music streaming industry. Within this paper, we first analyze the competitive landscape that makes up the music streaming industry. Once a baseline understanding of the music streaming industry has been reached, we turn the focus more directly onto Spotify through examining Spotify’s position within the market as well as the company’s current strategic goals and objectives. We then forecasted Spotify’s financial statements forward and created a residual income model (RIM) based on Spotify’s financial statements. As was previously stated, the purpose of this model was to arrive at a share price for Spotify that we believe accurately reflects its value and compare that with its current market trading price. After successfully accomplishing this goal, we conducted a comprehensive final analysis and offered Spotify recommendations based on the model as well and its output.
ContributorsRice, Ian (Co-author) / Nagele, Benjamin (Co-author) / Samuels, Janet (Thesis director) / Orpurt, Steven (Committee member) / School of Accountancy (Contributor) / WPC Graduate Programs (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
The goal of this study was to explore the relationship between locus of control and the influence of an unethical authority figure. This research is a preliminary, exploratory study given research design limits. It was hypothesized that subjects oriented towards internal locus of control are better able to resist pressure from an unethical authority figure. Subjects oriented towards the powerful others and chance orientations were hypothesized to be less able to resist pressure from an unethical authority figure. The results found that the presence of an unethical authority figure had little to no influence on self-perceived unethical decision-making; the difference in unethical behavior between cases with an authority figure present and without one present was not statistically significant. Further, no support was found for the hypotheses as no statistically significant relationship between locus of control orientations and the difference between the control case and test case was found (R2 = 0.02, model P-value > 0.05). Further analysis confirmed the results of Detert et al. (2008), finding no relationship between survey subjects’ locus of control orientations and unethical decision-making. Additional analysis indicates a relationship between unethical decision-making and gender (B = -5.14, P = 0.03, P < 0.05), providing some interesting avenues for future research.
ContributorsAmorosi, Kaitlin (Author) / Samuelson, Melissa (Thesis director) / Orpurt, Steven (Committee member) / Department of Finance (Contributor) / School of Accountancy (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05