Business Commons^™

The Effects Of Stock Distributions On Returns, Volatility, And Price, Jason Heavilin

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This Dissertation investigates three issues regarding the effects of stock distributions on returns, volatility, and prices in an attempt to answer the questions why firms execute stock distributions and why the market appears to favor them. These questions have occupied academicians for at least 40 years (i.e., Fama et al (1969), Ohlson and Penman (1985), Rankine and Stice (1997), Angel (1997), and Crawford et al (2005) among many others).

Chapter 1 studies the notion that the stock market reacts more positive to stock dividends than to stock splits (Rankine and Stice, 1997). However, I find that the stock market does …

A Stochastic Approach For Pavement Condition Projections And Budget Needs For The Mtc Pavement Management System, Rafael Arturo Ramirez Flores

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Pavement management decision-making is the most important task for officials in transportation agencies, who develop maintenance and rehabilitation programs. Information about historical pavement network performance is needed for decision-making; pavement management systems (PMS) provide means to organize road network data to improve the pavement network condition. PMS have prediction performance models to forecast the future condition of the pavement networks with information required for decision-making; these models can be deterministic or probabilistic. Pavement performance deterministic models are commonly used in PMS, but they do not consider the uncertainty in forecasting pavement performance. Pavement performance depends on many random factors like …

Market Reactions To Businesses' Actions Towards People With Disabilities: Making The Business Case In The International Context, Claudia Araceli Hernández González

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

From the business point of view, people with disabilities still suffer discrimination in employment and lack of accessibility as customers. Opposing, as recipients of philanthropic efforts many individuals and firms donate resources to improve the life of people with disabilities. These actions demonstrate how the majority of the population is still fixed in a medical model of disability by trying to repair the person to conform to the social norm, instead of accepting that many disabilities do not undermine other abilities. However, there is little evidence of how these actions impact the financial performance of the organization. This study attempts …

Creative Based Entrepreneurship: The Impact Of Acculturation On Opportunity Engagement, The Case Of Recent Mexican Immigrants To The United States, Michelle Ruiz

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Opportunity recognition is a fundamental process of entrepreneurship. It is a continuum creative product that goes from the conception of an idea to its transformation into a process of starting and operating a business (Dimov 2007). Its importance comes from the consideration not only of the entrepreneur, but also of the context where he or she operates, the social context where the individual discusses, and evaluates his/her ideas. One of the more neglected aspects of research regarding creative opportunity recognition is the context, both cultural and social, where this opportunity is created and recognized. Among several studies that have examined …

Waiting For The Confidence Fairy: An Analysis Of European Sovereign Bond Spreads Before And After The Financial Crisis, David Uresti

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The 2008 Financial Crisis that began in the United States caused widespread panic throughout the financial sector which resulted in the collapse of some companies and large losses for others. The availability of credit declined even as investor confidence continued to deteriorate. The European periphery concluded that the Financial Crisis would be relegated to the American economy. However, in 2009 Greece suffered a credit downgrade that signaled that the financial shock entered European shores. Shortly thereafter Spain suffered a credit downgrade followed by Italy in 2010. Suddenly the threat of default by a number of European countries became very real. …

Beneath The Kiss: Unearthing The Ideological Underpinnings Of Kay Jewelers Advertisements, Chelsea Nedlyn Hill

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Advertising is a frequently used influential and persuasive means of communication, such as Kay Jewelers, a corporation whose advertising methods have been superficially appealing to a female audience. However, this study sought to investigate the ideological underpinnings associated with Kay Jewelers advertisements, employing an ideological criticism to argue through feminist theory that Kay Jewelers utilizes key elements of heteronormative love as a means to persuade and influence men to purchase their jewelry products. Through this underpinning of heteronormative romance, Kay Jewelers emphasizes the notion that an artifact, like a piece of jewelry, is necessary in order to properly express …