During their careers, managers see and hear many new propositions and ideas (theories, models, and concepts) touted as solutions to business and organizational problems. One management task is to sort through and evaluate the claims, to understand their context relative to what is personally known, and determine what has been learned by others. Questions that must be answered include: What is the concept? Does the concept do what it claims? Is it a valid concept? If so, does it apply to my organization? How? To what extent? In what ways does it not?

In Foundations of Business 2, students were given an individual research project assignment. The objective was for the student to become an expert (or at least well informed practitioner) on a business subject, going beyond the text and class readings. The theory, model, or concept (topic) chosen was be something in which the student had a high interest level. It was a topic, which they planned to, or thought they might, use in their career. The project was an opportunity to explore a topic they might not otherwise get a chance to cover to that depth in class at SU. Thus, the project required research in academic journals and books, as well as research on a particular company.

That is the background on the projects, and those are the questions addressed in the individual research projects listed below. You may click on links to the students home pages as well as directly to their project papers. We hope you find them as interesting as we have.