By Joergen Ostensen

Students from the Gabelli School of Business (GSB) Honors Thesis Program and Global Business Honors Program presented their independent research at the Gabelli Undergraduate Research Business Conference.

There were 20 presentations that showcased the work of GSB seniors. Brian Dunn, GSB’s assistant dean for Honors Opportunities and Dual Degree Programs, said the event was meant to help enrich the community by giving students the chance to share their work.

“[The event was] a way for them to share their research findings and the new knowledge that they’ve developed in a way that goes beyond them sitting with their thesis advisor,” he said.

He said the students were given the freedom to study a wide berth of topics in order to give them the opportunity to study something that mattered to them. That made the presentations more compelling, according to Dunn.

“They’re doing some really great and interesting things,” he said.

Dunn said the presentations are challenging for students because they require them to take the work they have been doing over the course of three semesters and condense it into a 12 – 15 minute presentation.

Dunn said he was impressed with the range of topics at this year’s event, which extended beyond the scope of Wall Street and Madison Avenue.

This was the seventh annual symposium. Dunn said they continue to be a testament to the hard work of GSB students.

“Each year, the quality of the work and the relevancy is top notch,” he said.

This year, the event extended beyond GSB and included a student from New York University (NYU). Raghav Saraogi of NYU presented on how mortgages are given out in the aftermath of the financial crisis.

William Cheng, GSB ’18, presented on Hollywood accounting. He said the term refers to the inflation of expenses by film studios to limit the reported net profits so they can avoid fulfilling royalty and net profit agreements tied to production.

Cheng said he is interested in creative accounting and wanted to study its application to the entertainment industry because the focus is on people instead of companies. He said Hollywood accounting is something that can be advantageous to actors on all levels.

Cheng said this presentation gave him the opportunity to explore something he really cared about.

“The entertainment industry is something I’ve always just been fascinated by,” he said.

Shannon Coffey, GSB ’19, said the election of Donald Trump and his campaign promise to put America first and bring companies back to the United States influenced her choice of topic.

Coffey examined the question of what makes a brand American, whether it is the country where the brand is based or where its products are manufactured. As an example, she compared Ford cars built in Mexico to Toyota cars built in Detroit to highlight the distinction of these two types of brands.

In her study of 376 responses, Coffey differentiated between integrity beliefs, which represent the relationship between the moral values of the customer and company, and ability beliefs, which indicate the level of trust the customer has in the brand’s ability to create quality products.

She found that ability belief has a moderating effect on country of manufacturing and integrity belief has a moderating effect on country of origin. Coffey said this distinction could potentially be useful to advertisers who are trying to decide what to emphasize about a particular brand.

Cheng said he was impressed by the work the other students presented because it extended beyond what gets discussed in class.

“It’s interesting to see what your classmates can come up with,” he said. “It shows what Fordham students are capable of.”

Coffey said the event is representative of GSB’s commitment to providing resources to students.

“It’s really great that they give students the resources to study things that are not only interesting to them, but timely and relevant and what’s going on in the world today,” she said.

Dunn said he hopes that some of the work presented is submitted to research journals, so that topics can be peer reviewed, further engaged with by students and enriching to the community.