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- Creators: Barrett, The Honors College
- Creators: Orpurt, Steven
- Creators: Dennis, Lauren Nicole
- Member of: Theses and Dissertations
Description
The main goal of this study was to understand the awareness of small business owners regarding occupational fraud, meaning fraud committed from within an organization. A survey/questionnaire was used to gather insight into the knowledge and perceptions of small business owners, while also obtaining information about the history of fraud and the internal controls within their business. Twenty-four owners of businesses with less than 100 employees participated in the study. The results suggest that small business owners overestimate their knowledge regarding internal controls and occupational fraud, while also underestimating the risk of fraud within their own business. In fact, 92% of participants were not at all familiar with the popular Internal Control \u2014 Integrated Framework published by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission. The results also show that small business owners tend to overestimate the protection provided by their currently implemented controls in regard to their risk of fraud. Overall, through continued knowledge of internal controls and occupational fraud, business owners can better protect their businesses from the risk of occupational fraud by increasing their awareness of fraud.
ContributorsDennis, Lauren Nicole (Author) / Orpurt, Steven (Thesis director) / Munshi, Perseus (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Information Systems (Contributor) / School of Accountancy (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
Within this paper I summarize the key features, and results, of research conducted to support the development, design, and implementation of an internal control system at a startup small business. These efforts were conducted for an Honors Thesis/Creative Project for Barrett, the Honors College at Arizona State University. The research revolved around deciding which financial policies, procedures, and safeguards could be useful in creating an internal control system for small businesses. In addition to academic research, I developed an “Internal Control Questionnaire” for use as a ‘jumping off point’ in conversations about a business’ existing accounting system. This questionnaire is applicable across many industries, covering the major topics which every small business/startup should consider.
The questionnaire was then used in conjunction with two interviews of small business owners. The interviews covered both the overall financial status of their business and their business’ pre-existing accounting system. The feedback received during these interviews was subsequently used to provide the business owners with eleven recommendations ranging from the implementation of new policies to verification of existing internal controls.
Finally, I summarize my findings, both academic and real-world, conveying that many small business owners do not implement formal internal control systems. I also discuss why the business owners, in this specific circumstance, did not yet implement the aforementioned eleven suggestions.
The questionnaire was then used in conjunction with two interviews of small business owners. The interviews covered both the overall financial status of their business and their business’ pre-existing accounting system. The feedback received during these interviews was subsequently used to provide the business owners with eleven recommendations ranging from the implementation of new policies to verification of existing internal controls.
Finally, I summarize my findings, both academic and real-world, conveying that many small business owners do not implement formal internal control systems. I also discuss why the business owners, in this specific circumstance, did not yet implement the aforementioned eleven suggestions.
ContributorsDuncan, Spencer James (Author) / Garverick, Michael (Thesis director) / Casas Arce, Pablo (Committee member) / School of Accountancy (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
‘Institutional voids’ is a concept used to describe institutional effectiveness in developing economies. Namely as they relate to business environments and the market gaps the produce. Initially meant to describe how developing countries tend to lack effective institutional mechanisms such as adequate contract-enforcement that are commonplace in the West. However, since their introduction to academic literature in 1997, (Khanna & Palepeu, 1997) the scope of the idea has been expanded to describe problems such as a general absence of law enforcement and limited government support for social programs.
The primary question this thesis seeks to resolve is whether institutional voids have any practical use informing managers about business environments in the Global South. The hypothesis is that the concept is now so diffuse that it has become effectively meaningless and that managers in the real world use more sophisticated methods of assessing potential host countries. The telecommunications industry is particularly vulnerable to the institutional capabilities of host governments is because of its reliance on the host government to provide effective capital markets and appropriate legal mechanisms needed for investment in infrastructure and technology. For this reason, this research will focus on what role, if any, Institutional Voids play in corporate decision making.
After performing a comparative case analysis, the researcher found that after examining the cases the outcomes diverged from what the institutional voids hypothesis would have suggested, suggesting that the hypothesis is insufficient at predicting outcomes. Researcher then suggests using statistically proven models from development research to better analyze government capacity across countries.
The primary question this thesis seeks to resolve is whether institutional voids have any practical use informing managers about business environments in the Global South. The hypothesis is that the concept is now so diffuse that it has become effectively meaningless and that managers in the real world use more sophisticated methods of assessing potential host countries. The telecommunications industry is particularly vulnerable to the institutional capabilities of host governments is because of its reliance on the host government to provide effective capital markets and appropriate legal mechanisms needed for investment in infrastructure and technology. For this reason, this research will focus on what role, if any, Institutional Voids play in corporate decision making.
After performing a comparative case analysis, the researcher found that after examining the cases the outcomes diverged from what the institutional voids hypothesis would have suggested, suggesting that the hypothesis is insufficient at predicting outcomes. Researcher then suggests using statistically proven models from development research to better analyze government capacity across countries.
ContributorsCullen, Andrew Thomas (Author) / Ault, Joshua (Thesis director) / Gamso, Jonas (Committee member) / Thunderbird School of Global Management (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-12
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