Three MCOB Students awarded Summer Research Grants

This year three MCOB undergraduate students were awarded Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships by the Office of Undergraduate Research for their research projects.  The purpose of the summer research grant program is to involve undergraduate students in meaningful research in their disciplines.

Alexander Theodore will perform data extraction via the Bloomberg terminals, assist in the creation of a larger database, and analyze data related to the relative volatility of stock returns for the 30 equities that make up the Dow Jones Industrial Average.  The goal of the project is to both introduce the student to financial services research in the business world, and to extend current research in this area to a broader array of data.  The bulk of current research in this area focuses on volatility of indexes or for small numbers of equities over both long and short time periods.  Primary mentor for Mr. Theodore will be Dr. Chow, with Dr. Lahtinen serving as secondary mentor.

Andrew Knapp will assist in the extraction of data using the Bloomberg terminals, participate in the development of a larger database by compiling data files extracted from Bloomberg into a much larger data set, and assist in the analysis of the data related to the high-frequency trading for the equities that make up the S&P 500.  The goal of the project is to both introduce the student to financial services research in the business world, and to create a data structure that will take smaller (250MB) files and compile them into a single, workable database.  Primary mentor for Mr. Knapp will be Dr. Lahtinen, with Dr. Chow serving as secondary mentor.

Emma Fairbanks’ project is titled, “Franchisor, Franchisee, and Family Restaurant Employer-Employee Relations.”  As part of her research, Ms. Fairbanks will interview family business owners, franchisees, franchisors, and managers from the restaurant industry to learn of their HR practices. The goal of the study is to determine the differences and similarity of the human resource activities between various types of businesses within a single industry.  Her mentor is Dr. William Gillis.