Thesis (M.S.)--Boston University

Augmented Insurance Solutions Limited, hereinafter referred to AISL will be an Insurance Brokerage firm that will provide insurance products and services. The owner has worked in the Insurance Industry in Belize for 13 plus years and did extensive market research that has led to being able to identify a key area of opportunity and thus AISL was created. The opportunity we identified was the fact that the insurance market of the world has experienced a form of positive disruption whereby insurance products and services that were formerly offered by an individual agent is now being offered by a Broker; in insurance this transition is referred to as a Broker Market. This business plan discusses the differences, advantages and disadvantages between an Agent and a Broker in upcoming chapters. So far, one Broker attempted and failed due to limited financing and not understanding clear the market environment. At the moment there are two Brokers in Belize and we know from being involved in the insurance industry that others are considering entering. Consequently, we will enter the industry ahead and create first mover advantage as we hope to be recognize as premier provider of insurance products with an all-inclusive approach to satisfying our customer needs. Our aim is to is offer insurance products and services to everyone. But such begs the question, how will we differentiate? We will differentiate in two principal ways discussed in detail in this plan under differentiation strategy. Briefly, we will differentiate by offering an encounter to those customers that visit our office. An encounter in this context is offering warm and sincere customer service. Unlike most companies that often treat the customer like another person in the line and often suggest products or service without first understanding the customers need(s). Another differentiation method that we will use is maximizing the power of technology. At the moment none of the companies in Belize are maximizing the power of technology. We will therefore be the first company to offer delivery of products and services in a technologically friendly manner. Using technology also create a synergistic link Millennials and Generation Z , a primary segment of our target market. Because very frequent customers especially among our target market are unable to access products and services as it either requires physically going to an office. Which is very difficult because of employment hour or is filled with manual applications. These limitations have created need/opportunity which AISL will now fill and leverage from using technology. We take a very proactive approach to business and as such have already identified our office location. The location we chose is a strategic location as it is very near to our sector of our target market, it is currently being developed to become the commercial capital of the city as well as 60% of the vehicular traffic and pedestrian transit this area. On the property chosen already has a building that was a small office and is being leased furnished. The owner of the property has also offered to us first refusal of acquiring the property after our lease expires in 3 years. AISL is in its start-up stages and still have very fluid plans and monitor the market very carefully to spot opportunities, trends and respond accordingly. The business will become operational in January 2018. AISL will be a privately owned Limited Liability Company. The Company will be financed jointly by the owner and a loan from a credit institution. The financing secured will be used to pay for acquiring a Broker’s License and other initial business startup cost. A portion of the financing will also be allocated to provide financial assistance during our initial month during which we may have low sales etc. The loan will be amortized over a five-year period and is provided for in our financials. We firmly believe that AISL will be a successful company because our focus is not only all encompassing but we also have a specific target market unlike any other Company in Belize. It is our belief, which is also supported by researched statistical data that our target population forms a part of the population with the most buying power. So if we are able to first acknowledge, then attract them ahead of our competition we will have a significant advantage. In addition, we are offering bespoke methods to satisfy the need of not only our target but others as well. Worthy of mentioning is that although the statistics reveal a market growth rate of 1.5%, we would like to point out that we are not seeking entry into the overall insurance market but rather as a Broker. Therefore, our competitors are direct Agents and the Insurance Companies themselves. Simply expressed, we are interested in acquiring a portion of the existing market currently being serviced by the aforementioned.

Luxury and premium brand affiliation have been and likely always will be about quality and status. Extant studies in marketing consumer behavior aim to explain the effects of hedonic drivers and how these shape consumer behavioral choices when choosing a brand. A consumer's subconscious hedonic motivations are thought to result in buying decisions. Their purchase decision may thus satisfy their emotional needs as explained in hedonic theory. With respect to the distinction between tangible products as “goods” and intangible products as “services,” it appears that luxury branding has always been seen as one characteristic of goods. Many consumers will purchase a luxury brand good for the pleasure of holding that good and the social status that it represents. But luxury branding in the service industry is a bit harder to grasp. Little research exists dealing with luxury branding in the service industry and, especially, in the real estate industry. Using this contradistinction once again, a luxury consumer will purchase either a good or service. A good is tangible and may be held by the consumer indefinitely, but a service is generally time restricted and might only be a one-time purchase transaction. To probe this issue in greater depth, luxury retail marketing research and consumer behavior will inform this study. Luxury branding, that is, perceived value versus actual value in real estate sales, will be analyzed. In that the real estate industry is specifically characterized by brokers at many brand levels, this study uses this characterization of brand level to determine if luxury branding of real estate brokers impact homes sale price (and/or other components of value) by returning a premium to one or more stakeholders in the value chain. With little extant literature in the luxury branding service sector and residential real estate brokerage activities, this research, in particular, considers empirical results from previous real estate and luxury branding research in other markets to set forth a framework for brokerage branding level in real estate. The resulting framework categorizes this as real estate brokerage firm “level,” typing brand into three levels based on service and price (for the purposes of the current work, the delineation will be binary, that is to say, either luxury brand representation or not). These brokerage brand levels are: (1) low, i.e., flat fee or discount firms; (2) middle, i.e., traditional, commission-based firms; and (3) high, i.e., luxury brokerage firms. Each category appeals to a different social class of consumers in that purchasing power is highly related to home listing and final sales pricing. Given that all firms have the same resources available for listing, marketing, and syndicating a home on the market, consumer perception, which is a key component in the branding research, also becomes central in the current study when considering residential real estate brokerage and brand levels, when studying the luxury home market and the high-end brokerage firms targeting the luxury class, an interesting question arises: Do these brokers add value? Or is it an inaccurate, but common perception? These questions are addressed in the research by analyzing the marketing characteristic of luxury real estate brokerage branding in one particular market in the Dallas-Fort Worth region of the US. Specifically it asks whether branding impacts a home's value. The study follows prior scholarly suggestions to derive quality and comparable data and to focus on geographically targeted luxury real estate markets. The research builds on prior research frameworks exploring the hedonic pricing model, an established research stream that has looked into the effect of home hedonic characteristics on its ultimate valuing. To date, little research has been conducted analyzing the impact of market branding on the final sales price of a home and other features of perceived value. In the empirical results of Study 1 and Study 2 of stable, affluent communities in the Dallas-Fort Worth area of the US, we analyze the outcome of the two studies indicate that buyers may not perceive a high value related to the brand of the listing and/or selling broker. This may appear to counter the general marketing branding literature, but the strength of brand in goods could be quite different than the strength of brand in services such as real estate and we formulate null hypotheses to test this possibility. Brand loyalty to a class of brokers, for example, could be less likely given that most buyers only engage in home buying on an infrequent basis. Indeed, in the two studies conducted, the hedonic factors are overwhelmingly powerful predictors of value and these hedonic and tangible physical characteristics of a home could well be responsible for allaying or undermining any real effect of brand. This research consists of two studies conducted separately in different locations of a single county within the Dallas-Fort Worth Texas area. By studying two separate but similar communities in the same geographical area, external validity was thus enhanced, assuring that the results here were not a one-off empirical finding in only one setting. The two studies were coded for brand and hedonics and used as predictors of buyer perceptions of value, as represented in the final, agreed-to sales price and other forms of valuing. Based on the research findings, these two independent studies overall strengthen statistical power and allow for possible generalization to other unstudied populations, which, presumably, would be other real estate markets. Utilizing the current methodological approach, for example, would permit future researchers to see if the findings generalize to communities in other metropolitan areas in the US and beyond. In all such studies, it might be possible that the effect of brand becomes statistically significant, for instance, but this could be, strictly speaking, merely a function of the larger N. In this thesis, however, branding was not statistically significant and, moreover, the branding effect was minimal in terms of explained variance of the DVs such as final sales price. If these finding should hold across settings, the predictive power of brand would continue to have a very small value component and hedonic characteristics would likely dominate, rendering branding to be a far distant, minor effect. The implications of this study can be seen with respect to both academic thinking and practice. There is a theoretical contribution in showing that a brand in real estate may not impact buyer value, admitting the limitation of the dataset having been gathered from one North Texas market. These results run counter to some marketing research to date and certainly contend the thinking of many brokers and home buyers and sellers. Based on the results of this study, branding might be considered in future studies as a control variable that is not expected to affect outcomes to any marked degree. Alternatively, scholars might continue to introduce branding as a direct effect on value and compare their findings to this thesis. Challenges to the hedonic pricing model might also emerge from future empirical results, but, given the persuasiveness of prior studies of the hedonic model in real estate, we expect that such hedonic factors will continue to reign supreme. For practitioners, non-luxury brokers have some evidence that luxury branding of a home might not result in value for the buyer and this could be an effective marketing tool for them (with the caveat that scientific findings thus far are limited to a study drawn only from the Dallas-Fort Worth region). Claims that sellers should choose a luxury brokerage to list their homes may not stand the empirical test of real-world data and analysis and luxury brokers can be cautioned not to overstep in arguing that they can definitely produce economic premiums for sellers. Hedonic characteristics continue to be the most important predictor of home sales prices, as is likely, all brand levels will likely be even better informed of the relative importance of hedonic factors in the presence of branding effects in future studies. By holding brand constant, variance associated with brand can be patriated out and the resultant weights of hedonic factors can be more clearly seen and understood. / Business Administration/Finance

92 Abstract and keywords The audit of financial institutions The purpose of my thesis is to provide a comprehensive view on the issue of the audit of financial institutions. The main reason for my research is my personal interest in this area stemming from my contemporary occupation. Secondly, I would like to broaden a range of a few existing theses dealing with related topics by complex and especially legal point of view. The thesis is composed of four chapters, each of them dealing with the issue on different level of generalization and specialization. Chapter One is introductory and defines basic terminology used in the thesis: "audit" and "financial institutions". The chapter is subdivided into three parts. Part One describes audit, its aims and functions and explains important concept of materiality. Part Two deals with various understandings of the term "financial institutions". Part Three determines scope of the thesis and its structure. Chapter Two examines relevant Czech legislation, International Standards on Auditing and Code of Ethics. The chapter consists of eleven parts which focus on respective elements of audit regulation. Namely it investigates requirements for compulsory audit, eligibility of an auditor, rights and duties of an auditor with deeper focus on ethical imperatives (especially...