BAB ’19 Graduates’ Honors Thesis Projects

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YEREVAN, Armenia ‒ In June 2019, five graduating students from the Bachelor of Arts in Business (BAB) program of the Manoogian Simone College of Business and Economics (CBE), American University of Armenia (AUA), received awards for their Capstone – honors thesis projects 2019. These scholarly research projects provide students with the opportunity to synthesize data into meaningful content and analyze specific business or economic issues through the use of theories relevant to the research topic.

This year, BAB Capstone thesis projects were supervised by four CBE faculty members: Dr. Vardan Baghdasaryan, Dr. Gayane Barseghyan, Dr. Aleksandr Grigoryan and Dr. Knar Khachatryan. They underscored the importance of the project, as it helps students transform the knowledge they have acquired into practice. 

Neli Davtyan, one of the awardees, considers that the experience they gain at AUA and have applied in their capstone projects were invaluable. “As a recent graduate from AUA’s BA in Business Administration program, I can surely state that the Capstone thesis course has had a major impact on my academic career. Thanks to that experience, I was able to use the knowledge and skills I had acquired throughout the previous four years in my real-world capstone thesis project and I also learned new research tools that enabled me to create a valuable scientific output that aims to bring high efficiency and productivity into the workplace,” she states. 

Karen Gishyan, in turn, thanked AUA instructors for their efforts in mentoring them and supervising their projects. “Way before the start of my capstone thesis project, I had made the decision to strictly address an Armenian socio economic issue in my research, and use methodology that would incorporate my knowledge from both data science and econometric analysis as a culmination of my AUA learning experience. Machine learning is gaining more popularity in economic research, and my goal was to get results that would be innovative and insightful in the field of economy and help better understand the factors that affect Armenian Household Poverty.”

BAB honors thesis projects undergo blind reviews by second readers and are meant to demonstrate the students’ analytical and interpretive skills in their individual studies. These projects involve substantial research through reviews of existing literature, data collection, and analysis. As such, Vani Mardirossian considers that “it [Capstone project] was a hands-on experience in research, overall, that taught us the limitations that are inherent to research in Armenia, in particular, and the creativity that is needed to overcome those limitations. Overall, the process was a testament to the fact that the right amount of drive and hard work in anything ultimately pays off.”

The annual honors thesis award is granted to students with the best papers selected on a comparative basis. Spring 2019 projects are available in the AUA Digital Repository. The award-winning projects are listed below:

Karen Gishyan

“Determinants of the Armenian Household Poverty: An Econometric and a Machine Learning Approach”

Supervisor: Dr. Aleksandr Grigoryan

Diana Gasparyan

“Credit Market. Advertising Effects”

Supervisor: Dr. Knar Khachatryan

Areg Safaryan

“Personal Remittances and the Real Exchange Rate”

Supervisor: Dr. Gayane Barseghyan

Neli Davtyan

“The Glass Ceiling Obstacle and Company’s Performance: Panel Study Analysis”

Supervisor: Dr. Vardan Baghdasaryan

Vani Mardirossian

“Do Armenian Voters Make Policy-Based Decisions in Elections?”

Supervisor: Dr. Vardan Baghdasaryan

Founded in 1991, the American University of Armenia (AUA) is a private, independent university located in Yerevan, Armenia, affiliated with the University of California, and accredited by the WASC Senior College and University Commission in the United States. AUA provides local and international students with Western-style education through top-quality undergraduate, graduate, and certificate programs, promotes research and innovation, encourages civic engagement and community service, and fosters democratic values.