Economic and Financial Dynamics in Luxury Fashion

Qadar Naeem, Verrazzano Class of 2024, completed major Economics and Finance, and minor in Business Data Analytics

My capstone project combined my fascination for both fashion and finance. I explored the luxury fashion industry, which has a global market valued at $1.6 trillion.
The project’s purpose was to understand the economic and financial structure of the industry, how companies navigate economic challenges and optimize their financial performance during recessions, and adapt to changing consumer behaviors. Moreover, how strategies like a merger or an acquisition (M&A) help firms adapt to downturns and enhance performance.
My methodology involved analyzing financial data such as the stock market, economic indicators, and corporate reports to understand the trends within the industry, while also examining recent mergers and acquisitions activity in the sector to assess their impact on the company's performance. My main focus was to identify trends or patterns in major conglomerates such as LVMH, Kering, and Richemont, and analyze the array of brands that fall under these companies.
When researching these corporations, it was really interesting to discover a steady linear growth pattern in their financial data, which demonstrates their stability and adaptability. Despite the volatile nature of economic markets, these companies have shown an extraordinary propensity for long-term success.
Companies within the industry with a beta less than 1 demonstrate low market risk, as a beta value of 1 implies that the stock moves in line with the market. When it's below 1, it means the stock tends to be less volatile than the overall market, indicating lower risk since it's not as affected by market fluctuations. This has been proven by their response to the COVID-19 recession and the Great Recession. The way they have managed to withstand downturns and emerge stronger demonstrates their strategic competence.
It was intriguing to learn how closely these luxury brands are linked, and how most of them are owned by the same parent companies. When we see names like Loro Piana, Christian Dior, Givenchy, Celine, and Fendi, they appear to be completely unrelated. However, they are all owned by the same parent company, LVMH. This usually happens when subsidiaries are split off by a merger or an acquisition, such as Tiffany and Co. being acquired by LVMH in 2021 and Bulgari in 2011.
My journey into research in the luxury fashion industry has been filled with profound discoveries and insight. Through comprehensive research and monitoring of financial data, I gained a greater understanding of the industry's corporate functions, and structural complexities while also observing extraordinary resilience and adaptability.

Conducting Research Online During Covid-19

Mohamed Beyruti, Verrazzano Class of 2022, completed majors in Accounting and Business Management, and minor in Business Finance

 

During my semester taking ACC 414, I experienced the comeback of the traditional world from the virtual world and it was insane to see how many students wanted to come back from isolation. I learned that different parts of my research (especially the video) need to be prepared and thorough for all students to understand the interview process for my research. Creating a step-by-step process made the process smoother, and when writing the results of the paper I learned what went right, what went wrong, and A LOT has changed.

Originally the research for my capstone was going to completely different. I wanted to work on how COVID-19 impacted people’s work-life balance, but then my professor took it a step further, and the goal was to understand how people/students were impacted by the virtual world with COVID-19.

Developing my research paper helped me strengthen my writing skills, taught me different methods of writing for a specific topic, and increased my research skills. The research on this paper was insane; the number of articles about COVID-19, work-life balance, working from home, there was just so much to talk about.

In the beginning I was adding to much information and not drawing the reader into my research, so that’s where my professor came in. Luckily, he slowed me down and helped me with bits and pieces of research to add for my essay. This helped me understand not to hone in on every single detail, and I learned that they were many different methods about making my research paper both intriguing and convincing to my audience. The main idea of my topic is something that is familiar, considering that almost everyone stayed home during COVID.

I did not want my paper to seem informative to the point where it would not keep the audience’s attention (hence the graphs), and although I didn’t use a lot of vocabulary, I attempted to keep my ideas relatable and easy to follow. When writing my research paper, I used both similarities and differences from the main topic, so my audience would understand the difference between the virtual and traditional workplace. The tone of my essay is also very generalized, so the audience reading it will be able to form their own opinion from my paper.

There were many stages writing this paper, from the professor being a guide, the staff keeping me on the right track, to making sure I followed the steps needed to complete the paper, and I learned so much from each stage. I’ve got to say that everyone pulled through till the end to help make this thesis my masterpiece.

Celebrity Influence in Politics

Nastacha Dumay, Verrazzano Class of 2020, Completed Major in Political Science with Minors in Legal Studies and Spanish

          The capstone project was an important project because it helped to prepare me for my future. I originally thought the capstone project was going to be a difficult task, but it wasn’t because I knew immediately what I wanted to do my topic on, which was “Celebrities In Politics.”

When I first told both Cheryl and my mentor Irini that I wanted to conduct research on celebrities influences in politics, they both thought that it was a great idea and an interesting topic. My mentor was an important person who supervised me with this research because not only is she very involved in politics, but she also knew that celebrities could be very influential on my generation. She gave me a list of celebrities who I should conduct research on, such as Kim Kardashian and the work she does with prison reform, Leonardo DiCaprio and his humanitarian work, as well as Oprah Winfrey and her endorsements in presidential campaigns. At one point, I was overwhelmed with the research because there was so much I could say, so I had to condense everything.

Overall, the capstone project was a great experience and opportunity because I learned so much about this topic, and was able to share what I learned with my peers. The research allowed me to examine the advancement of United States politics based on celebrities political decisions that can affect the voting system for all political parties.