Business Commons^™

The Image Of Insurance, Nathalie Dail

Senior Theses

This paper discusses the concept of brand management. The purpose is to give a brief introductory understanding of brand management and how it relates to the insurance industry. The benefits associated with brand management are detailed and analyzed in order to produce a variation of a SWOT analysis and a lean canvas. Meanwhile, Generation Y is explored as a market segment, along with challenges insurers face. This thesis seeks to explore the effects of branding on the insurance industry, with this market in mind. Consumer base fluctuations and revenue are factors considered when evaluating the effects of branding. Two well …

Vulnerability And Resistance: An Evaluation Of Hostile Takeover Defenses Proposed By: Carissa Wilson, International Business & Business Economics, Carissa Laurel Wilson

Senior Theses

Within the context of mergers and acquisitions (“M&A”), hostile takeovers comprise a complex and pivotal area of study. It is hostile takeovers, rather than friendly ones, that give rise to the need for most buy- and sell-side tactics related to strategic M&A. This paper focuses primarily on sell-side tactics, or “target defenses,” used to deflect undesired takeover attempts and prevent changes in corporate control. It will attempt to present a high level, comprehensible, and comprehensive listing of defensive tactics in the target arsenal, with references to related case law.

Target defenses developed preemptively, or before an official takeover offer has …

Three Essays On Corporate Governance And Corporate Social Responsibility, He Wang

Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities, which are firms actions that go above and beyond the interests of the firm to further the social good, have become common practice. While extant literature on CSR largely investigates the consequences of CSR activities, only a few studies identify the determinants of CSR. This dissertation extends a growing literature on the determinants of CSR by exploring the impact of corporate governance on CSR activities in three related essays. The first essay investigates the impact of family control on CSR performance. Using newly collected data on the ultimate ownership structure of publicly …

Examining The Impact Of Offshoring And Level Of Preparer Judgment On The Audit Review Process, Kristen Kelli Saunders

Theses and Dissertations

Offshoring audit tasks is becoming common among international accounting firms. Although tasks currently performed offshore require preparers to exercise little or no professional judgment, firms are poised to expand the volume and scope of procedures performed offshore. While critics argue that offshoring results in reduced audit quality, advocates maintain that offshored procedures are reviewed and supervised by U.S. auditors, and that offshoring may actually improve audit quality. However, little is known about how offshoring impacts reviewers and the review process. This study explores how offshoring interacts with varying levels of preparer judgment to influence reviewers’ judgments. Because firms plan to …

Three Essays In Banking: Corporate Governance, Internationalization, And Government Bailouts, Raluca A. Roman

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation extends a growing literature on banking and finance by investigating bank corporate governance, internationalization, and bailouts. The first essay conducts the first assessment of shareholder activism in banking and its effects on risk and performance. Activism can create value and be an effective monitoring mechanism for banks, but it may also be a destabilizing mechanism, as maximizing shareholder value may cause financial instability. We focus on the conflicts among bank shareholders, managers, and creditors (e.g., regulators, deposit insurers, taxpayers, depositors). We find activism may generally be a destabilizing force, increasing bank risk-taking, but creating market value for shareholders, …

Three Essays In Finance, Liying Wang

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is composed of three essays on corporate credit markets and corpo- rate finance. The first essay examines the impact of unconventional monetary policies (UMPs), including Quantitative Easing (QE), Operation Twist (OT), and Forward Guidance (FG), on corporate credit markets. These policies were expected to reduce credit spreads by decreasing credit risk premium and/or liquidity premium, and to further lengthen borrowing maturity. During the crisis, Quantitative Easing (QE) 1 reduced these risk premia as expected. However, after the crisis, QE 2 and Oper- ation Twist announcements increased fears of a weaker economy and, consequently, widened credit spreads. In contrast, …