Business Commons^™

Three Essays On Cross-Listings From Emerging Markets, Omar Alejandro Esqueda

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

During the last two decades, the number of cross-listed firms has been rising steadily. Recently, exchange-traded cross-listings from emerging markets have outnumbered those from developed countries. Chapter I shows an introduction to cross-listings. Chapter II analyzes the implications of ownership structure on the cross-listing premium of emerging-market firms that cross-list on U.S exchanges. Insider ownership is an important determinant of the value of cross-listed firms. The spike and fall in excess-value around the cross-listing year described in the extant cross-listing literature is substantially higher if the firm has insider ownership. In fact, investors are worse-off in the long-run when they …

Organizational Citizenship Behavior, Collectivism, And Job Satisfaction: Evidence From Mexico, Miguel Angel Baeza

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The purpose of this dissertation was to conduct a field study in a Mexican company in several Mexican regions. This study considered administrative professionals as a continuation to assess the validity of a recently developed Mexican Border OCB (MBOCB) scale by Ortiz (2000). This validation/refinement of an MBOCB scale was accomplished by comparing and contrasting results of this investigation, given the name of Mexican OCB (MOCB), with other OCB dimensions studies in other regions in order to evaluate criterion validity (e.g., convergent and discriminat) through factor loadings. Furthermore, this dissertation categorized these MOCB dimensions into more conceptualized terms utilized by …

An Analysis Of The Dynamic Properties Of The American Depositary Receipt Cross Market Premium, Jorge Vidal

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The American Depositary Receipt (ADR) cross-market premium is studied over a 20 year period. The dynamic properties of the cross-market premium are studied for the first time in a nonlinear smooth error correction framework using a smooth transition error correction model (STECM) and compared against a linear model and two other nonlinear model specifications. The results indicate the ADR cross-market premium is more appropriately estimated when the nonlinearity, smooth transition, and cointegration properties present in the premium are estimated simultaneously with a STECM. The estimates of the STECM indicate arbitrage opportunities in the ADR market are rare and dissipate quickly. …

Use Of Preventative Health Care Services In Hispanic Workers In Manufacturing Sector In South Texas, Pooja Chopra

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This study analyses the factors that determine the intensity of use of preventive health care services for a sample of Hispanic manufacturing workers in South Texas (RGV). Logistic regression is used to estimate the effect of health insurance, age, income level and education on the use of preventive health care of Hispanic workers in the manufacturing sector in South Texas (RGV). The outcome variables are vaccinations, tests and screening for women and men. The sample includes 228 manufacturing workers from the RGV. People with health insurance were more likely to use preventive care services such as vaccination for flu, hepatitis, …

Style Investing: International Evidence, Daniel Rafael Perez

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This dissertation studies the impact of investor sentiment on a portfolio formed of sin stocks—publicly traded companies in the alcohol, tobacco, and gaming industries. It also investigates the returns of a new type of sin stock in the UK—online gambling. Chapter 3 first uses a vector autogressive model to study the impact of both rational and irrational investor sentiments on pure sin returns. Next, making use of a variety of sentiments-augmented asset pricing models, this research examines whether investor sentiment is a risk factor for sin stock returns and if the abnormal returns of sin stocks persist after controlling for …

Evidence On Banking Efficiency: An Analysis Of Financial Intermediation In Mexico, Violeta Diaz Avilez

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

In the last two decades, financial systems in many developing countries became globalized. Mexico presents a clear example of how globalization can change the financial structure of a country. The banking sector in Mexico, as in many other developing countries, experienced periods of expropriation by the Federal government, privatization of banks without foreign intervention, and liberalization of foreign participation in bank ownership during this period. However, only in a few other cases has the rise in foreign participation been more dramatic than in Mexico.

These changes undoubtedly impacted the banking sector’s development and performance. The purpose of this dissertation is …

Two Essays On The Impact Of Rational And Irrational Investor Sentiments On Equity Market Return And Volatility: Evidence From The U.S. And Brazil, Pablo Javier Calafiore

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This dissertation consists of two essays on how investor sentiments affect the returns and volatility of the Brazilian stock market. Both essays share a similar methodological approach. The first one analyzes the effect of investor sentiments on the returns and volatility of the Brazilian stock market using a model that accounts for fundamentals (rational) and noise components (irrational) of investor sentiments on the Sao Paulo leading index Bovespa. This research finds a statistically significant positive (negative) impact of rational (irrational) sentiments on market returns. Moreover, there are statistically significant impacts of irrational components of the sentiment indexes on Bovespa volatility …

The Impact Of Exchange Rate Movements On Firm Value In Emerging Markets: The Case Of Mexico, Chrystell Flota

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

It is a widely held belief among financial theorists, economic analysts, empirical researchers, and even the financial press, that exchange rate fluctuations ought to affect a firm's cash flow expectations and thus the value of the firm. Previous research has examined the relationship between currency exposure and firm value by focusing primarily on developed economies and on various variables regarding the firm's assets and revenues. The empirical evidence has not fully established what the link is between currency exposure and firm value; however, the evidence suggests that the relationship could be firm-specific, depending on the geographical distribution of the firm's …

Two Essays On Financial Sector Performance In Latin America, Omar M. Al Nassar

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This dissertation consists of two essays on financial sector performance in Latin America. These two essays complement each other so that, when placed together, they are expected to provide policymakers with guidelines on how to design appropriate financial sector reform strategies in an attempt to promote long-term economic development, and thus to attract more foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows not only for Latin American countries, but also for developing countries in general.

Chapter one investigates the extent to which the short and the long-run relationship between financial development and economic growth exists in Latin America. It focuses on two major …

A Qualitative Study Of The Hispanic Gender Role And Social-Cultural Factors Influencing The Attraction Process: The Recruitment Of The Latina To Meet 21st Century Labor Shortage Challenges In America, Olga Chapa

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Approximately one-fourth of the 303,824,640 individuals representing the labor workforce in the United States (U.S.) are part of the baby boom cohort (Toossi, 2004). Seventy eight million individuals are credited for the shifting demographics in the U.S. The largest gap in the labor force will be seen in the professional arena (Hilton, 2008). In order to proactively meet the challenge of a future labor shortage, organizations will need to focus their recruitment effort on the remaining replacement pool of qualified individuals. For a variety of reasons, the recruitment of the Hispanic as a sustainable and growing replacement pool offers many …

Culture Effects In The Ethical Decision-Making Process Of Latin American Accountants, Silvia Lopez Palau

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Despite the amount of accounting ethics research conducted over many years, two significant problems remain unsolved. First, there is a need to create accurate measurement instruments capable of predicting behavior within a theoretical framework of ethical decision-making. Second, it is important to develop ways to make measurements appropriate for application in other cultures or countries. Thus, the purpose of this study is twofold. The first objective is to develop a scale to measure the ethical evaluations, judgments, and intentions of Latin American accountants. The second goal is to determine the effects of national culture and gender on the results posited …

Market Orientation And Order Of Entry Strategies: An Empirical Analysis, Anshu Saran

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

While the relationship between market orientation and business performance has been extensively investigated, the mechanisms by which market orientation contributes to performance are still not well understood. To fill this gap in knowledge of how order of entry would affect the relationship between market orientation and performance, this research provides a conceptual framework to link two disparate concepts, or research streams in the marketing/business strategy literature, market orientation and order of entry.

Timing of entry has generated great attention (Green, Barclay, and Ryans 1995). Pioneering new markets is expensive and risky, but also potentially very rewarding. If pioneers have advantages …

The Impact Of Cultural And Religious Values On Television And Newspaper Advertising Content And Appeal: A Cross-Cultural Study Of The United States And The Arab World, Morris A. Kalliny

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Standardization versus adaptation of advertising has been a subject of great controversy that has been debated for more than 50 years. Scholars have pointed out the increasing demand for more cross-cultural research on advertising content that can contribute to the standardization versus adaptation debate. Scholars have also pointed out that although the Arab world offers great opportunities for multinational corporations, the Arab world has been severely neglected in academic research. To comply with this demand, this study investigates the similarities and differences of the manifestation of cultural and religious values in the U.S. and the Arab world (Egypt, Lebanon, Kuwait, …

Three Essays On International Transmission Mechanism, Volatility And Spillovers On American Depositary Receipt Returns, Priti Verma

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This dissertation is a collection of three inter-related essays that examine spillovers from interest rates, exchange rates, regional markets, and the U.S. market to the American Depositary Receipt (ADR) returns. The ADRs investigated in this study are from Brazil, Chile, Mexico (Latin America), U.K., Germany, France, Italy (Europe), and Japan, Hong Kong, and Taiwan (Asia).

Essay 1 investigates the price and volatility spillovers as well as the asymmetric impact of positive and negative innovations from interest and exchange rates to ADR returns. Unlike previous studies which use bivariate statistics, the multivariate extension of Nelson's (1991) Exponential Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroscedasticity …

Bilingual Consumer Memory In The Advergaming Context: A Cross-Script Comparison, Monica D. Hernandez

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Written language is the core of culture and central to marketing communications. The differences in language processing exhibited by Eastern/Western bilingual consumers are of great concern for global and multinational companies wishing to effectively promote their products through the Internet. Advergaming is a promotional method consisting of the delivery of advertising messages through electronic games. Despite recent scholarly interest, no previous research has compared brand memory across groups of bilinguals of different writing systems or scripts in the advergaming context.

The dissertation investigated differences in brand memory of bilinguals of languages based on different scripts. Specifically, a logographic-based language (Chinese), …

Corporate Governance And Expropriation Of Minority Shareholders' Rights: Evidence From Latin America, Marisela Santiago-Castro

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The dissertation empirically examines whether the internal corporate governance mechanisms of the firms represented in Latin American equity markets lead to the expropriation of minority shareholders' rights; and whether such expropriation leads to economic underperformance. Specifically, the dissertation answers the following: Is there a relationship between the board of director's characteristics and the expropriation of minority shareholders rights in Latin American firms? Is there a relationship between the ownership structure of Latin American firms and the expropriation of minority shareholders rights? Moreover, does the expropriation of minority shareholders rights lead to economic underperformance among Latin American firms?

Several hypotheses were …

Stock Returns And Noise Trading: Domestic And International Evidence, Rahul Verma

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

In recent years there has been a growing debate on the possible linkages between the behavioral aspects of investors and stock prices. The financial economics have become more receptive to imperfect rational explanations and in this regard, investor psychology has emerged as a major determinant of stock prices. Under this approach, the central task is to examine how stock prices are related not only to risks, but also to the noise (Hirshleifer, 2001). After decades of study, the sources of risk premium in purely rational dynamic models are well understood; while, dynamic psychology based asset pricing theories are still in …

The Effect Of Mergers And Acquisitions On The Wealth, Risk, And Efficiency Of Latin American Banks, Felice Policastro-Caccavale

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Over the last few years, mergers and acquisitions within Latin America's banking sector have significantly increased. From 1995 to 2003, Latin American countries experienced more than one thousand bank merger and acquisition deals. The majority of these mergers and acquisitions have occurred between domestic and foreign banks and, as a result, foreign banks now control more than fifty percent of the banking assets of Latin America's largest economies. In addition to the increased presence of foreign banks in Latin America, the process of mergers and acquisitions has reduced the number of banks in most Latin American countries and this has …

Three Essays On The Use Of Financial Derivatives By Latin American Banks In Brazil, Chile And Mexico, Andres E. Rivas-Chavez

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

During the 1990s, Latin American countries implemented policies aimed at liberalizing their financial markets. Latin American countries deregulated the domestic financial and banking industries, removed controls on international capital flows, and promoted development of their domestic stock market. These countries implemented financial liberalization policies and programs in order to stimulate domestic savings and growth. Through financial liberalization they also attempted to reduce the direct intervention of the state in the economy and improve their financial infrastructure.

The implementation of such policies has led to an increase in capital flows to Latin America, an increase in the number of foreign banks, …

The Mediating Role Of Organizational Learning Between Absorptive Capacity And Performance In Companies Employing Enterprise Resource Planning Software, Edith Galy

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This dissertation focuses on the acquisition of information systems technology and how the acquisition of information systems (IS) can improve the performance of a firm. The central purpose of this dissertation is to contribute to the literature that explains the success of IS projects. It addresses the organizational processes that contribute to the successful implementation of IS, and explains why some organizations achieve financial returns and strategic advantages from their IS efforts while others do not.

The population in this dissertation consists of top level IS executives in the US or Canada employed in firms who have implemented enterprise resource …

The Effect Of Web Interface Features On Consumer Online Shopping Intentions, Jeffrey Sam Siekpe

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Amid the storm of hype over Internet adoption, it is observed that during the past years, organizations have taken considerable interest in eagerly acquiring computer hardware and software to implement electronic commerce (e-commerce) applications mostly to the detriment of human aspects of the information technology (IT) solutions (Freemantle, 2002; Lockwood & Lamp, 2000). Various Internet technologies, mostly the Web, have been implemented to offer online goods and services. Many credible estimates suggest that Internet buying and selling will account for close to $2 trillion of annual economic activity by 2004 (Citrin et al., 2003; Fry, 2000). While the promise of …

The Drivers And Antecedents Of Satisfaction, Trust, Commitment, And Loyalty Among Chinese Customers, Yun Chu

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This dissertation explores the relationship between satisfaction, trust, commitment, and loyalty among Chinese customers. The selection of China as the location for this study is due to a number of factors. China's economic expansion and recent ascension to full membership within the World Trade Association (WTO) has generated “excitement, uncertainty, and fear” (Ghoshal, 2003). In the recent past trade with China has grown at on average of 15 percent a year and foreign direct investment (FDI) into the country has grown even faster (Ghoshal, 2003). This growth may result in an interesting paradox. If China maintains just two thirds of …

The Effect Of Personal And Managerial Capitalism On Firms' Capabilities In Colombia's Grupos Económicos, Carmen Leonor Martinez-Lopez

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Researchers have investigated business groups or grupos económicos and personal and managerial capitalism as separate topics. This dissertation integrates these concepts in order to study the effect of personal and managerial capitalism on firms' performance in Colombia's grupos económicos. Colombian grupos económicos were selected as the sample for this study for a number of reasons. For example, Colombian is ranked first in Latin America in the overall ranking for world competitiveness for countries with a population greater than 20 million (The World Competitiveness Year book, 2003). Although small by international standards (Reinhardt and Peres, 2000), since at least the …

Breaking Up Is Hard To Do: The Dissolution Of Business Relationships In The Global Market Place, Jennifer A. Pope

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Richard Caves (1998) states that “dead business units tell no tales” (p. 8), and by extension one could argue that dead business relationships also tell no tales. However, it is the purpose of this dissertation to tell the tales of multiple dead business relationships in hope that other businesses can learn from their mistakes. Business relationships have been and continue to be a vital part of business. With the globalization of the economy, most, if not all, businesses will have some form of international contact. For businesses with limited resources or no experience often the most efficient means to expand …

Ownership Variables And Capital Structure: Evidence From Chile, Suad Ghaddar

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The relationship between ownership structure and capital structure is one of the less understood areas within the corporate finance literature. This study attempts to address this issue within a unique; organizational and institutional framework that may help explain the intricacies of such a relationship. The Chilean corporate scene with its high ownership concentration levels, industrial group structure, and familial control provides a rich testing ground to analyze how ownership variables define a firm's leverage policy.

Research has supported both a positive and a negative relationship between ownership concentration and leverage levels. On the one hand, firms characterized by high levels …

Exploring The Managerial Intuition And Knowledge Of Managers In Mexico's Maquiladora Industry, Jose Castillo

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Decision-making has been a subject of interest for management scholars since the scientific management era (Wren, 1994). Brockmann and Simmonds (1997) and Guinipero, Dawley and Anthony (1999) studied the link between managerial decision-making and tacit knowledge in the effort to identify important cognitive elements in the day-to-day decision-making processes of firm managers. Despite their bold and innovative aims, however, Brockmann et al. (1997) and Guinipero et al. (1999) were weakened by their fundamental assumption that tacit knowledge is synonymous to intuition, and by inconsistencies in their research goals and methods. This dissertation addresses these shortcomings.

The contributions of this research …

An Evaluation Of Lawlike Generalizations In Relationship Marketing: Method And Application, Wolfgang Hinck

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The purpose of this dissertation is to evaluate lawlike generalizations in relationship marketing (RM) and their contribution to the scholarly advancement of the marketing discipline. The current lack of such systematic evaluation is of significance not only because the contribution to progress constitutes a general requirement for all research streams in marketing, but also because an evaluation would solve the ongoing discussion about the substance and role of RM.

As a requirement for the evaluation, necessary and collectively sufficient criteria for lawlike generalizations have to be identified and operationalized. Because the marketing discipline lacks both a commonly agreed-upon set of …

Community, Fortitude, Satisfaction, And Loyalty: Tests Of Oliver's Proposed Frameworks, J. Martin Fraering

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This paper discusses tests of two competing loyalty frameworks proposed by Richard L. Oliver. The cognition to action (CTA) loyalty model specifies four phases: cognitive loyalty, affective loyalty, conative loyalty, and action loyalty, a framework originally discussed by Oliver. The fortitude-community (F-C) loyalty model argues that loyalty is a function of the degree of personal fortitude and the extent to which customers feel that they are members of a community of consumers. In both of these models loyalty is posited to arise from customer satisfaction. Research hypotheses are formulated that assert positive relationships between satisfaction and various loyalty constructs. The …

Stock Return Volatility In Emerging Equity Markets: The Relative Effects Of Country And Global Factors, Benjamin Adam Abugri

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The rapid growth of capital markets in developing countries has come as a major event in recent financial history. According to the International Finance Corporation (IFC), portfolio flows to emerging countries has kept rising since the early 1980s and the trend has continued even after a number of financial crises (IFC, 2000). Probably one of the most commonly known characteristics of these markets is their high volatility compared to the more developed markets. But results of studies on volatilities in these markets are often based on estimates of the variance of market indexes or asset returns over relatively long periods …

R&D, Advertising And The Market Value Of Internet Firms, Damir Tokic

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The purpose of this study is to explain the valuation of Internet firms during the valuation “bubble” period from 1996 to 2000. The theoretical foundation of the study is the investment opportunities approach to the valuation of growth shares. Consistent with predictions of the investment opportunities approach, the results show a positive and statistically significant relationship between the market value of Internet firms and investments in R&D and advertising in each year of the sample period. These findings strongly support the view that R&D and advertising are intangible assets. The investment opportunities approach also predicts a positive relationship between market …