Business Commons^™

Does Regulatory Scrutiny Change Investment Behavior? Evidence Of Suboptimal Portfolio Rebalancing After The Financial Crisis, Willie Dion Reddic

Business Administration - Dissertations

Insurers that show losses are expected to sell tax-free securities and replace them with taxable securities since they can no longer benefit from tax savings. However, rebalancing these portfolios after the financial crisis would entail recognizing additional losses during a time period when their financial performance was under stress and their industry was under increased scrutiny. I examine portfolio rebalancing behavior using the period after the financial crisis as a proxy for increased regulatory scrutiny. I predict and find that insurers with losses subsequent to the financial crisis were less likely to increase their ratio of taxable/nontaxable securities. Insurers may …

The Struggle For Power And Pay: Implications Of Board Of Directors' Power On Monitoring Effectiveness And Pay For Performance Sensitivity, Mariana Judith Lebron

Business Administration - Dissertations

Boards of directors monitor and incentivize CEOs to make decisions that maximize shareholder value; however, research has been inconsistent in identifying the relationship between board composition and monitoring effectiveness (Daily, Johnson, Ellstrand, & Dalton, 1998). Integrating an economic perspective (agency theory) with a socio-psychological perspective (upper echelon theory), this paper examines how outsiders' and insiders' power bases relate to pay-for-performance by proposing and empirically examining a multi-dimensional model of board power bases: ownership, prestige, and structural. I argue that board structural and composition characteristics can be used as proxy indicators of board power. Using data from 37, 066 directors of …

Entrepreneurship As A Process Of Self-Fulfillment: Well-Being, Affect, And Behavioral Strategies, Shoko Kato

Business Administration - Dissertations

This study unravels the underlying mechanisms that influence entrepreneurs' behavior during the startup process. Theories of entrepreneurial behavior have assumed that entrepreneurs try to achieve goals--profit, sales, job satisfaction, autonomy, to name a few. Yet, past studies are silent about how entrepreneurs keep making efforts toward business startups while not achieving goals for a prolonged period of time. If goals are hard to reach and entrepreneurs are unable to assess their achievement level toward their goals, how do they manage to keep making efforts during the business startup process? What factors influence their effort level during the startup? Based on …

Essays On Operational Flexibilities In Production Planning Under Supply And Quality Uncertainty, Tim Noparumpa

Business Administration - Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the use of operational flexibilities in production planning in order to mitigate the negative effects of supply and quality uncertainty. Uncertainties in supply and quality are commonly experienced among agro-businesses, and in particular, in the wine industry. The goal of the dissertation is to provide prescriptive solutions in mitigating such risks from the lives of agricultural businesses.

The first essay of the dissertation examines the impact of supply and quality uncertainty on the investment decisions made by winemakers who lease vineyard space to grow their own fruit. At the end of the growing season, the winemaker receives …

Essays On Risk Mitigation Methods In Global Supply Chain Management, John Hyung Il Park

Business Administration - Dissertations

In this dissertation, we study risk mitigation methods in the area of global supply chain management. Recent economic uncertainties such as the U.S. credit and the Greek debt crises, and natural disasters such as the Japanese tsunami create a greater amount of uncertainty and risk for global supply chain operations. The goal of the dissertation is to develop new prescriptive policies for multinational corporations and global relief organizations in order to assist them in mitigating the risks present in their operating environment in an effective manner.

The first essay of the dissertation investigates how a multinational corporation can effectively hedge …

Small Audit Firms And Earnings Manipulations, Huichi Huang

Business Administration - Dissertations

This paper examines the monitoring role of small audit firms (i.e., those with 100 or fewer clients who are subject to different levels of oversight by the PCAOB) on earnings management. Specifically, I examine the relationship between earnings manipulations and the use of small audit firms. I find that small audit firms are less able to constrain managers' opportunistic use of discretionary accruals. However I find no evidence that small audit firms are associated with real activities manipulation. By investigating a specific group of audit firms that are the smallest in the audit market, this study extends our understanding of …

Does Corporate Governance Influence Misstatement Disclosure Timeliness?, Rapheal Joseph Hamilton

Business Administration - Dissertations

The relationship between corporate governance and firm disclosure for firms in crisis, specifically firms in violation of GAAP, may differ from the relationship demonstrated in prior literature between governance and voluntary disclosure. An emerging stream of disclosure literature assumes that the relationship between corporate governance and misstatement disclosure choices mirror that found in prior voluntary disclosure literature though no study has empirically demonstrated that a similar relationship exists. Using a sample of 302 accounting irregularities disclosed between 2000 and 2006, I investigate the role of corporate governance, including both internal and external mechanisms, in influencing misstatement disclosure timeliness. I provide …

Essays On Product Acquisition For Value Recovery, Dwayne D. Cole

Business Administration - Dissertations

This dissertation studies decision problems facing the manufacturer that offers cash incentive to encourage a fraction of its install base to return end-of-use devices. Marketing managers often use such tactics as a promotion tool to motivate sales of new products. Supply chain managers often use such tactics to obtain used products for profitable recovery operations. The first essay, "Product Acquisition for Remanufacturing: A Dynamic Analysis," analyzes the performance of buyback and trade-in policies for acquiring products to be remanufactured. A key distinguishing feature of this analysis is the consideration of time dynamics. In particular, both the quantity-condition profile of used …

An Examination Of The Relationship Between Large Shareholders And Commitment Human Resource Systems, Frank Mullins

Business Administration - Dissertations

Commitment human resource systems (CHRS) are used to elicit an employee's long-term commitment to the firm, and research has shown that CHRS are positively associated with firm performance. Yet, firms appear reluctant to use these HR systems. Large shareholders such as institutional investors and founding family owners have been found to influence the strategic decision making of the firm, yet they have been largely absent from the strategic human resource management literature. This is unfortunate given the strong influence that large shareholders can exert on firms. Thus, this study examines the relationship between large shareholders such as institutional investors and …