Business Projects

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Track 3A - Oral Presentations

There is no doubt that men visit barber shops consistently, according to Modern Salon, men visit their barbers about once a month stating, Stylists/barbers predict that the average time between haircuts for their male clients is 3.8 weeks, with the largest percentage (47%) getting their haircut every four weeks (Soble, 2015, p. 7). Customers need a stylish haircut and create a bond with the barbers. In the city of Grand Junction, there are approximately 21 barbershop locations. Additionally, there has been an increase presence of locally independent- barbershops. Due to the increased competition, it‚ critical for local barbershops to be able to compete with the established chains like Supercuts and Sports Clips. Therefore, this study investigated how a barbershop's atmosphere, product quality, and service quality influenced consumers‚ overall satisfaction. The primary goal was to analyze and test the hypothesizes, to research the relationship of technical and functional quality with customer satisfaction. In this study, thirty reviews were analyzed on Sharp Image Barbershop. The results reported that technical and functional qualities both impacted customer satisfaction.

This presentation focuses on a business model. Over the course of the semester the students go through how to start a business, how to find early adopters also known as target customers and the reasons why most start ups fail. The idea and process behind choosing a business will be discussed based on personal experience. All interviews and marketing tools utilized for this class will also be discussed extensively, the benefits and what was learned. The audience gets firsthand knowledge on idea development, and tips on how to developing a successful business model.

A group of four students majoring in hospitality, developed a resort concept that will be pitched to a group of investors. The project is a major component of Hospitality Resort and Recreation course, allowing for a full range of creativity and operating with an unlimited budget anywhere in the United States. The creation of the resort will include resort concepts, location, site plans, development plans, and competitive markets in the surrounding area. The main goal for the project is to connect what was learned in class and apply those concepts to a practical application on how every aspect of the development process ties together. Some of the departments that are included are management, financial, and operational departments. The project will be split into five phases: Resort Concepts, Resort Offerings, Space Design, Human Resource Management and Operations Management. The group will be developing a resort located at the base of the Colorado National Monument. The resort will be targeting vacationers who are looking for relaxation and adventure in the vast outdoors. The resort will incorporate the surrounding natural environment to blend with the resort‚ main concept.

A group of four students that come from different backgrounds and majors, have planned, organized and designed a resort including a comprehensive marketing plan. This project allowed groups to create a resort anywhere in the western United States, with an unlimited budget, to ensure the uniqueness and liveliness of this resort. The key focal points of this project are to highlight topics learned in class and the ability to apply to a full developed sales and marketing plan. The development of this resort's sales and marketing plan include full concepts, amenities, size, location, target market, and layout design. This fully concentrated project will be considered in the resort’s organization operations and management section. Each of the six phases will be categorized as the following: resort concepts, resorts offerings, space design, Human Resource management, Operations Management, Sales and Marketing plan. The group has carefully considered all options and has decided to locate their new luxurious resort and spa on top of Vail mountain in Colorado. The resort will cater to families, couples, and business groups from all different income classes, to create fulfillment to enjoy this luxurious resort for memories to live on.

What’s the point of The Point?‚ The Point is a student-run pub on campus catering to students and faculty alike. The business is intertwined with the Experiential Management course which provides students with the opportunity to engage in an immersive working environment to give them the opportunity to gain the skills and knowledge necessary to run a successful business. This is a one of a kind course that combines experience and credit. The curriculum allows every individual to experience specific aspects of running a business. Bi-weekly rotation of work responsibilities include: product movement, inventory, financials and human resources. Our primary goal this semester is to increase overall sales and gain a larger presence that appeals to the ever changing demographic of the campus. Over the course of the semester, our class has surveyed the CMU community. This data was analyzed and used to develop and implement projects in hopes of achieving our goals. We have coordinated events and entertainment marketing them in order to grow the influx of possible patrons as well as providing an improved atmosphere. Through successful implementation, we will continue to provide a safe place for students to come and enjoy some brews, food, and fun.

Track 3B - Oral Presentations

As members of the community, it is very important to be aware of crime in the community. The data that has been collected shows the type of crime including violent, property, and drug related crimes and is classified by counties and zip codes in Colorado. The data is used to show the relationship between crime and the different counties in Colorado, including whether crime is higher in large populated cities versus urban areas, whether there is a relationship between crime rates and total police officers employed in the area, and whether crime is higher in high income areas versus low income areas. The data will also be used to show the trend of crime rates by county to predict whether the crime rates will likely increase or decrease over time. The data and related analysis is intended to inform the Colorado community of the crime in their area to assist individuals in making better informed decisions like where to live, ensuring to lock their cars, and in general how to better protect themselves, their families, and their community.

Rent prices in Colorado have been increasing. Data from the Colorado Information Marketplace will be analyzed on a county level to determine if there are any correlations between population and rent prices. Trend analysis as well as graphical (geospatial) analysis will be presented to analyze the relationships between county population and rent prices. Forecasting rent prices will be attempted to predict future housing needs.

Non-profit organizations are firms that are dedicated to using their resources (funds, donations, relief aid) to further a particular social cause and assist in providing services to others. Whether the organization is considered a for-profit or non-profit firm, the requirements for gathering and storing essential information in a systematic way is important. As technology has improved tremendously in the last decade, it has become much less efficient to use paper-based methods to gather and store information. However, building databases has proven to be a challenging and costly affair for most firms, and lack of funds can sometimes put non-profit firms at a disadvantage. As seniors in Computer Information Systems, we were given the opportunity to build a functional database for a local non-profit organization. We focused on creating an easy-to-use interface that caters to different levels of computer literacy and seamlessly manages daily business processes. This offered our group the opportunity to gain experience in designing a database and provided the non-profit organization with a functioning database. This presentation will address the design process and the team‚ experience during the process.

The purpose of this project is to update and modify the CMU Forensic Investigation Research Station's (FIRS) database. This database enables tracking of FIRS activities from intake of donors to reports for grants and scholarship activities. Utilizing recommendations from employees that currently work on the system, the team is working to simplify the current database in order to produce a finalized version that focuses on ease of use, security, and relational integrity. Using the fundamentals and methodologies of the Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC), we are taking an agile approach which allows us to make changes to the project throughout the process. Our student showcase will display the structure and relationships between tables used in Microsoft Access, forms and reports generated by the team, and illustrate the use of the database for operational activities. The team will redesign the forms and tables so that data entry and retrieval will be simplified for future employees and interns of FIRS.

The Colorado Information Marketplace includes sought after data that will be cleansed, mined, and visualized in order to provide insight into the state of Coloradans health future and health infrastructure. Based on a data set containing all health facilities registered with the Colorado Department of Public Health (CDPH) obtained from the Colorado Information Marketplace, data analysis on the infrastructure available to the public based on specific health concerns in the state will be performed. Specifically, one type of health facility will be selected and filtered to determine where facilities are needed. Colorado Information Marketplace also provides a data set containing population predictions per county that will be used to help predict infrastructure needs. This information is extremely important to the state of Colorado, which strives to provide the best healthcare to its citizens.

With the increasing population in the Denver metro area, are we planting enough trees, at the correct locations, as well as the appropriate species of trees to ensure enough oxygen is converted to offset human carbon emissions? Denver has grown incredibly over the years with growth spurts as big as 50,000 new residents from July 2017 to July 2018. Using data from the Colorado Information Marketplace we set out to answer this question and follow up with another question. What trees need to be replaced or added in the following years to ensure the balance between human emissions and oxygen production? It's without a doubt a fact that Denver is going to continue to grow over the following years so it should be very heavily considered how we are going to maintain this balance.

This showcase project will remediate greenhouse gases emitted by natural gas production facilities. Implementing a tree tax‚ program, where operators are required to plant trees in accordance to how much carbon they emit, will ensure a carbon neutral production facility. The tree tax program will calculate the total amount of carbon emitted from a production facility on a yearly basis and equate that to the number of planted trees needed to absorb said carbon from the atmosphere. The program will be voluntarily adopted and will allow oil and gas companies to demonstrate that they are taking climate change seriously.

Track 3C - Posters/Presentations

Previous research indicates a gap in the literature regarding entrepreneurial intentions among business students. The aim of this study is to compare entrepreneurial propensity and independent entrepreneurial orientation among students within different business concentrations. The study hopes to determine which business concentrations are more propense to become entrepreneurs. The study results from a questionnaire administered via. e-mail to the business students of Colorado Mesa University. The questionnaire also contains questions on demographic factors to determine trends in entrepreneurial intentions within business concentrations. Using the theory of reasoned action, we expect students studying mathematical and quantitative concentrations to be less propense for entrepreneurship compared to those studying person-oriented concentrations. The findings from our study can be applied to educators who wish to better identify, teach, and cultivate future entrepreneurs.

Executive search recruiters or ‘headhunters’ started in the 1960’s when people started to realize their knowledge of employees and networking abilities valuable to others. The research in this topic followed shortly after and has been recently gaining more attention in the academic world. However, there has yet to be a study tracking the development of this topic over the years. This study aims to explore where academic research of the topic started, where it’s gone, where it could possibly be going, the journals published with most, who the main authors have been, what countries and universities are involved, how many papers have been published each year, and what keywords have been used. 99 publications from a systematic literature review, were analyzed using the program ‘R’ and ‘bibliometrix’ package. The earliest publications were done by headhunters themselves, or periodical articles about them. The first academic paper coming out in 1965. A small group of researchers have been giving interest to this area however, the impact of this industry (executive search firms) make it an attractive field of research with ample future research opportunities.

In Colorado there are those who believe we should be relying entirely on fossil fuels and those who believe renewable energy sources are the answer. Nuclear energy is the critical missing energy source in Colorado today. Nuclear energy has the ability to satisfy the renewable side by reducing emissions; while also appealing to the fossil fuel advocates because of the ability to produce reliable and affordable energy in Colorado. Colorado has the capability to extract large amounts of Uranium to produce nuclear energy. These Uranium deposits are plentiful and will provide the materials necessary for Colorado to start producing the nuclear energy. For Colorado to be the power behind this nuclear energy movement an infrastructure must be instilled to create this energy. The creation of nuclear power plants are the necessary step to provide this overseen energy source. Growing up in Colorado has given me a unique perspective of the energy industry here in the state and this perspective has allowed me to show proof of why we need to invest our time and effort into nuclear energy.

Politics have a bigger impact on the development of federal lands than science. A careful assessment of energy development in the North Fork Valley will show how largely a political influence has delayed its progress. This thesis will show research consisting of local and federal government records, media reports, public comments, and local policy.

Numerous attempts have been made to re-permit and reopen the Red Lady mine in Crested Butte Colorado. The red Lady mine holds 132,448,972 metric tons of Molybdenum which makes it one of the largest reserve in the world. Activists successfully prohibited the reopening of the Red Lady mine and claimed it as an environmental victory. Molybdenum is a critical component of solar panels and batteries. This allows China the to create a Monopoly on Molybdenum production and distribution. The US is moving towards 100 renewable energy mandates which will in turn create a 100% reliance on a communist country. Reopening mines like the Red Lady will secure the electrical future for the USA.

Executive Search Firms or Head Hunters, are in part responsible for finding and placing high ranking and exceptional candidates for specialized positions around the United States as well as around the world. Although there is extensive literature on this service industry, this literature is mainly grounded on anecdotal evidence and practitioners' documents. Understanding how these firms operate and their strategies are essential to appreciate their contribution to business society. An approach to understanding this sector is analyzing these companies these companies‚ mission statements. Statements from 39 firms were analyzed using Voyant tools. The most common words in the statements were compared through a content analysis and through social network theory assumptions, to argue links between company founders. This research presents preliminary findings on commonalities and differences between Executive Search Firm‚ mission statements and the founder‚ background.

Colorado is both blessed and marred by extremes and water is no exception. The western slope has been described by George Bancroft as a world of water and a moonscape of land, whereas the front range is a world of land and a moonscape of water. This divide in environments hasn't changed through the years, but the needs of its population and economy have. With both sides vying for control of Colorado’s water, often at each other’s expense. This project aims to determine the relationship between where and how the water is used as Colorado has developed. With the goal of this information being used to better allocate and prepare for the future of both the land and people.