Business Commons^™

Essays On Corporate Finance, Shuyu Xue Shuyu

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This dissertation has two essays on corporate finance. In the first chapter, I investigate the dual-class structure. The dual-class structure is often regarded as poor corporate governance and the source of agency problems. However, I find that, for companies with high information asymmetry and long investment horizon, dual-class structure delivers higher operating performance and valuation ratios. These performing dual-class companies tend to have a higher investment in intangibles, more innovations, less pay-out, and less CEO compensation. The findings suggest that dual-class structure could be optimal in empowering information-advantageous inside shareholders and ensuring corporate long-term goals.

In the second chapter of …

Corporate Governance Of Innovation In Singapore Chinese Family Business, Geok Chwee Ong

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Despite the large number of research publications on innovation management matters, there is still a gap in the understanding of effective innovation governance at corporate levels. The mechanisms that drive effective governance at firm level to ensure the “alignment of goals, allocation of resources and assignment of decision-making authority for innovation across the company, and with external parties” (Deschamps, 2013) remain unclear. Given the importance of family firms in Asia (and beyond), there is an urgent need to examine those family factors that influence the effectiveness of corporate governance of innovation in Asian enterprise. Against this background, this study attempts …

Essays In Corporate Finance, Meng Gao

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This dissertation studies the impact of credit rating on firms’ financing behavior and investigates insider trading activities.

The first essay documents how firms’ concerns about credit rating change affect their choice between the use of debt and lease. Firms approaching a credit rating change tend to use less debt relative to operating leases to finance their new projects. In this paper, I propose a new method of measuring the potential of a credit rating change. Using the new measures, I find that not only the concerns about being downgraded but also the at- tempts to get upgraded have significant impacts. …