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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- Creators: Department of Management
- Creators: O'Flaherty, Katherine
Description
Recon International Adventures is an online adventure travel community that provides guide operators and adventure seekers a central communication platform. This platform gives adventure seekers all the tools they need to plan their trips and allows guide operators to better communicate the value that they can provide by creating a virtual preview of their trips. This platform will serve as an ideal place for endemic advertising thus increasing bookings for guide operators listed on the site and giving outdoor gear and clothing companies exposure to their target market. Recon will operate on a lean business model and test our minimal viable product with consumers before scaling.
ContributorsTsonis, Nicholas Ramsey (Author) / Miller, Duane (Thesis director) / Ostrom, Lonnie (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Marketing (Contributor) / W. P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / Department of Management (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
Zoraida Ladrón de Guevarra was born in 1936 in Coyula, Mexico, a small village in the state of Oaxaca. Her father’s passing required Zoraida to find a job at age fourteen to support her family. Her story, a 200-page memoir entitled “After Papa Died,” follows Zoraida’s time as a servant and eventual nanny in Veracruz. Flashing back to memories of her hometown and the people living in it, the story ends before she enters America first as a visitor in 1954, and later on a working Visa in 1957—the first woman in her village to leave to the United States. Hers is a story relevant today, evident with the paradoxes explored between poverty and riches, patriarchy and matriarchy, freedom and captivity. Assimilation impacts the reading of this memoir, as Zoraida began writing the memoir in her 80s (around fifty years after gaining American citizenship). This detailed family history is about the nature of memory, community, and in particular, the experience of being an immigrant. This thesis project centers on this text and includes three components: an edited memoir, informational interviews, and an introduction. Beginning as a diary steeped in the tradition of oral history, the memoir required a “translation” into a written form; chapters and chronological continuity helped with organization. Topics of interest from the story, such as identity, domestic violence, and religion, are further explored in a series of interviews with Zoraida. The inclusion of an introduction to the text contextualizes the stories documented in the memoir with supplemental information. The contents of the project are housed on a website: alongwaybabyproject.net.
ContributorsVan Slyke, Shea Elizabeth (Author) / Meloy, Elizabeth (Thesis director) / O'Flaherty, Katherine (Committee member) / Department of Supply Chain Management (Contributor) / Department of English (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
The following creative project was a two part study regarding the wedding and event planning industry. Part one consisted of planning and executing an event followed by an analysis of the event in terms of strengths, weaknesses, and customer feedback. Part two consisted of evaluating a potential wedding planning company by the standards of the Business Model Canvas Method. The overall goal of this project was to determine if I would be pursuing a career as an independent wedding and event consultant or exploring other career options based on the research conducted and which option would be best aligned with my desires and career aspirations.
ContributorsHawbaker, Christina Elizabeth (Author) / Peck, Sidnee (Thesis director) / LePine, Marcie (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Marketing (Contributor) / W. P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / Department of Management (Contributor)
Created2013-12
Description
The beautiful game is unpredictable. Arguably half of soccer is entirely out of our control, instead being determined by a simple concept: luck. But what of the other 50%? Ultimately, the goal of the rapidly-advancing technologies and analytics in on-field sports performance is to maximize the elements that we \u2014 the coaches, players, decision-makers, and analysts \u2014 truly control. Once perceived as too mathematical and systemized, contradicting coaches' intuitions, sports sciences are burgeoning in the sports arena both in applied and mainstream popularity. While the industry has its critics and is far shy of its pinnacle, its advancements and successes cannot be ignored. From the training ground to match day decision-making, analytics are embedded in soccer and sport. Technology and analytics are vastly utilized throughout sporting organizations across a myriad of sports and purposes: scouting and drafting, fan experience, ticketing, etc. However, while these areas must be addressed in discussing the success of analytics in assessing situations and reducing uncertainty, my central thesis relates to the technological capabilities and corresponding analytical tools utilized to identify, assess, and improve on-field soccer performance: match analysis. This paper's core focuses on optimizing performance in soccer players in three specific areas of performance: technical abilities and tactics, physiology, and neuroscience.
ContributorsHeckendorn, Jason Farrell (Author) / Eaton, John (Thesis director) / Ostrom, Amy (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Marketing (Contributor) / W. P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / Department of Management (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
The focus shift towards Silicon Valley and similar ecosystems in the past decade, the recent boom in startups and entrepreneurship, and the resurgence of venture capital funding is fueling rapid advancement of modern technologies, such as software, biotechnology, and renewable energy. One facet of the growing entrepreneurial landscape features healthcare technology—a field of research centered upon various technical advances in medicine, software, and hardware. Trends in healthcare technology commercialization represent a promising opportunity for disruption in the healthcare industry. The integration of rapidly iterating software with medical research, timed perfectly with the passage of the Affordable Care Act and the boom of venture capital investment in both Big Data and mobile technology, has the healthcare technology primed for explosive growth over the next decade. Investment data indicates that strong public market activity in the past year will continue to fuel venture capital growth in both the biotechnology and digital health sectors, with the potential for multiple large exits by life sciences companies, more than even software, in the coming year.
ContributorsPatel, Nisarg (Co-author) / Yun, Kwanho (Co-author) / Wang, Xiao (Thesis director) / Marchant, Gary (Committee member) / Peck, Sidnee (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Management (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
With many recent events, such as the 2008 Financial Crisis, still under heavy scrutiny from the public, the payment received by executives at some of the major US banking institutions has been at the center of a major debate: are bank executives overpaid? While many people have attempted to answer this question, it is important to look at historical data and determine whether banks tie executive pay to the performance of the firm. The authors gathered historical 10-K data on firm performance at five major banks (Bank of America, Citigroup, JP Morgan, US Bancorp, and Wells Fargo), as well as Proxy Statement data on how top-5 executives were being paid at these banks. Correlations between how the firm performed during a given year and what the executive officers of the bank were paid were calculated, to see whether the two subjects correlated with one another. Results were mixed-certain banks drew large correlations between the pay of executives and firm performance, while other banks did not. Interpretation of such data leads to a belief that some banks rely on overall firm performance when setting pay packages for executives, while other banks do not, perhaps using internal measures of performance unknown to the public. Extensive further research could be conducted on this issue to determine what other measures might play a more prominent role when it comes to deciding pay for executives at big banks.
ContributorsScheven, Tyler (Co-author) / Mayer, Robert (Co-author) / LePine, Marcie (Thesis director) / Budolfson, Arthur (Committee member) / Sampedro, Louie (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Finance (Contributor) / Department of Management (Contributor)
Created2013-05
Description
I currently run a used off-road shop that buys, sells, trades, and repairs off-road vehicles such as dirtbikes, ATVs, and UTVs. Given the success of our current location in Mesa, Arizona, I have decided to explore the possibility of expaning the business. There are a plethora of ways I could expand the business, but I chose to research opening a new location in California. After looking at many different criteria for franchising a business, I narrowed my criteria down to the six most important factors: Number of riding locations, number of repair shops, pricing, cost of real estate, taxes, and cost of labor. After thorough research, I have concluded that opening another location in California would not be a viable option. My next area of research will be regarding opening a location in Colorado, Texas, or even another location here in Arizona.
ContributorsJarvis, Nick bruce (Author) / Peck, Sidnee (Thesis director) / Faris, Kay (Committee member) / Sebold, Brent (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Management (Contributor)
Created2013-12
Description
This project is a business analysis of Corner Archery, a Glendale, AZ Archery shop. It addresses the various roles of the different employee positions within the company with a focus on the owner's responsibilities in particular. It also analyzes the business from an operations and revenue driver standpoint, making proposals to improve each of these areas.
ContributorsBecwar, Alea Louise (Author) / Peck, Sidnee (Thesis director) / LePine, Marcie (Committee member) / Ostrom, Lonnie (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Management (Contributor) / Department of Marketing (Contributor)
Created2013-12
Description
A new honors class created at Arizona State University utilizes a new "thinking" paradigm. The new paradigm is a problem solution using deductive logic and natural laws to replace the traditional acquisition and usage of detailed knowledge. When utilizing deductive logic, less time is required for students to learn, and students are able to resolve unique issues with minimal amounts of information. Students use their logic and processing skills to replace the traditional need of collecting large amounts of detailed information. The concepts taught in the class have come from the industry success of the Best Value (BV) approach developed by a leading research group at Arizona State University over the last 17 years. The research group identified the source of the industry's problem is due to the traditional business approach of management, direction and control (MDC). With over 1500 tests conducted, delivering $5.7B of services, with results showing: 30% decrease in cost, 30% increase in value, and customer satisfaction improvement by up to 140%, the Best Value (BV) approach has been identified as more efficient and can deliver better quality services than the traditional MDC approach. Through the research group's implementation of the new paradigm in higher education, the author identified a windfall effect that was able to give students understanding and an increased ability to cope with stressful situations, disease and extraordinary complications. It also exposed students to potentially harmful practices in their lives and has helped them to change. The study tested in K-12 proved potential value in exposing the paradigm to K-12 students, and what impact it may have on future professionals. The author's results include satisfaction rating of 9.5 (out of 10), increased career alignment by up to 113%, increased understanding of self by up to 70%, and a reduction of stress by up to 71%. The author's K-12 case studies aligned with the successful results shown in the industry and college classes run by the leading research group. The pattern of the new paradigm shows as resistance to it decreases, productivity, efficiency, processing speed, understanding, and effectiveness all increase.
ContributorsRivera, Alfredo (Author) / Kashiwagi, Dean (Thesis director) / Collofello, James (Committee member) / Nelson, Margaret (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Management (Contributor) / Del E. Webb Construction (Contributor)
Created2013-12
GAME (NOT) OVER: AN INVESTIGATION OF ATHLETE REPRESENTATION FROM PLAYING CAREER TO LIFE AFTER SPORTS
Description
The amount of professional athletes, who declare bankruptcy after retiring from the sport they love, is now occurring at an epidemic level. The amount of income athletes earn in America, the fame they achieve and the relationships they establish, should provide them with all the resources they need so this problem never plagues their lives. The single greatest influencer in an athlete's life could be their agent. This presents the agent an opportunity to guide their client, and friend, to a future of financial security for the rest of their lives. Game (NOT) Over, will discuss what is required to prepare for and represent an athlete in a professional sports league by always preserving the athletes best interest. In order to achieve a desirable outcome for an athlete, the agent will consistently focus on their own and their client's unique qualities, while paying close attention to the cost and rules within the industry. Ultimately, the agent must proactively pursue ways to derive alternative income streams for a life after sports. The guidance and support should not end when the athlete receives their last paycheck; they need an agent for life.
ContributorsLofrisco, Jonathan (Author) / Eaton, John (Thesis director) / Mokwa, Michael (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / W. P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / Department of Management (Contributor)
Created2013-12