Business Commons^™

Thinking Finance - The Comic Book, Dimitrios V. Siskos

Dimitrios V. Siskos

Thinking financially results in the best possible outcome and establishes a secure foundation for the future as an independent man. In contrast, thinking emotionally leads to short-sighted financial decisions and usually, deep regrets. However, thinking financially is not pleasant for the people around us. This comic book presents a guy, whose dream is to become an accountant. When he finally succeeds in this, he realizes that thinking financially may be effective for his boss but it is irritating for everyone else, even for his family.

Tax Abatement Disclosures: An Exploratory Study Of Professional's Perceptions And Early Disclosures Of Gasb Statement No. 77, M. Fischer, Amy Foshee Holmes

Amy Holmes

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) adopted Statement No. 77 requiring government disclosure of tax abatements in audited financial reports for years beginning after December 15, 2015. This paper reports survey findings provided by accounting and finance professionals (practitioners) regarding their tax abatement reporting perceptions. We then review early implementation of the abatement disclosure and find the disclosed information does not meet the practitioner’s expectations. Our findings fill a gap in state and local financial reports as it appears the new disclosure requirement does not fulfill the Board’s reporting transparency expectation goals.

Financial Institutions And The Taxi-Cab Industry: An Exploratory Study In Canada, John D. Obradovich, Amarjit Gill, Nahum Biger, Leo-Paul Dana, Ansari Mohamed

John Obradovich

A current challenge taxicab owner/operators face in Canada is the lack of financing for taxicabs. This article examines business opportunities and lending risk; it also provides risk management strategies for financial institutions to manage the risk of lending to the taxi-cab industry. Members of the boards of directors and shareholders from the Canadian taxicab industry, and lenders from financial institutions that do not provide financing to taxicab owner/operators, were interviewed. Board members and shareholders were asked about their perceptions regarding business opportunity, risk, and their willingness to provide collateral for taxicab loans. Lenders of financial institutions were asked about their …

Applying The Concept Of Alignment In A Finance Class., Martina K. Schmidt

Martina K. Schmidt

The assessment of learning goals and objectives in business courses is important for business schools. However, not all business educators are necessarily knowledgeable and trained in designing appropriate learning objectives and matching all aspects of a course around these learning objectives. This paper helps to fill this gap of knowledge by describing the concept of alignment or how to design appropriate learning objectives and matching course materials and student engagement as well as assessment methods and the course technology to these objectives. This paper also applies the concept of alignment to the specific learning module of capital budgeting analysis in …

Lessons From Teaching Undergraduate Finance Online., Martina K. Schmidt

Martina K. Schmidt

With the continuing growth of student enrollment in online courses, teaching classes in an online format is becoming part of life for many educators. Teaching courses online is a challenging task and educators can benefit from the experiences of other educators when preparing for this challenge. The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, it lists some important observations that can help an educator create effective online courses. Second, it describes some insights from teaching online finance courses, specifically. As most academic leaders feel that student learning in online classes is inferior to face-to-face classes, the author also investigates the …

Amp Bridging Finance And Behavioral Scholarship On Agent Risk Sharing And Risk Taking, Geoffrey P. Martin, Luis R. Gomez-Mejia Prof, Robert M. Wiseman

Geoffrey P Martin

Rethinking Financial Reporting: Standards, Norms And Institutions, Shyam Sunder

Shyam Sunder

No abstract provided.

The Ghana National Economic Forum In May 2014, Another Implementation Curse?, George E. Ekeha

George E Ekeha

More than one year after the above consensus was developed and read to the whole world, which was subsequently followed by the full report, many are of the view that little efforts have been done to implement the consensus. In this article, I decided to choose just about five of the Senchi Consensus that in my opinion can change the country very much and place her on the international radar for reckoning when implemented with the seriousness that they deserve. It is my strongest belief that many Ghanaians and other development partners are aware of many issues raised in this …

Crm In Russia And U.S. -- Case Study From American Financial Service Industry, Tamilla Curtis, Tom Griffin, Donald Barrere

Dr. Tamilla Curtis

This paper discusses Customer Relationship Management in two sharply contrasting business cultures: the United States and Russia. Included in the present work is a case study of a midsized American financial services firm that illustrates a common path to the decision to have a CRM system: the planning, selection, and the implementation of the CRM program, including a discussion of the likelihood of success. The clients in this case are Financial Advisors, who in turn sell the investment products to the end user individual investors. CRM in Russia is yet in its infancy as the economy emerges from 200 years …

Credit Rationing In The U.S. Mortgage Market: Evidence From Variation In Fha Market Shares, Brent W. Ambrose, Anthony Pennington-Cross, Anthony M. Yezer

Anthony Pennington-Cross

This paper examines the nature of mortgage credit rationing across geographic markets and time. Particular attention is paid to the response of conventional mortgage supply to higher risk conditions associated with regional recessions. We develop a series of four indirect tests based on the spatial variation of the FHA share of mortgages, both endorsements and applications, as well as FHA and conventional rejection rates. Results of these four tests indicate that conventional mortgage underwriting criteria do not become more flexible and may even become more demanding when local economic conditions deteriorate. This result indicates the use of non-price credit rationing …

Finance, Fear, And Family: Issues Of Trust And The Common Ground With Terrorist Funding, David M. Cook, Timothy Smith

Dr. David M Cook

In the immediate aftermath of al-Qaeda’s September 11 attacks on the United States of America, examinations of terrorist funding focused on the Middle Eastern and South Asian use of Hawala and non-traceable financial transactions. However, whilst the cloaking of identity is certainly a part of criminal activity for funds transfer, there are other factors. South Asia’s community banking norms align far more closely with informal systems that follow centuries-old customs of familial trust rather than reportable record keeping. Tightened restrictions on money movement in the form of identity checks and statements of purpose have coerced more than two hundred million …

Building Research Culture, Shyam Sunder

Shyam Sunder

No abstract provided.

Remic Tax Enforecement As Financial-Market Regulator, Bradley T. Borden, David J. Reiss

Bradley T. Borden

Lawmakers, prosecutors, homeowners, policymakers, investors, news media, scholars and other commentators have examined, litigated, and reported on numerous aspects of the 2008 Financial Crisis and the role that residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) played in that crisis. Big banks create RMBS by pooling mortgage notes into trusts and selling interests in those trusts as RMBS. Absent from prior work related to RMBS securitization is the tax treatment of RMBS mortgage-note pools and the critical role tax enforcement should play in ensuring the integrity of mortgage-note securitization.

This Article is the first to examine federal tax aspects of RMBS mortgage-note pools formed …

Assessing Risk, Liability And Asset Management Investments Among U.S. And Foreign Banks: Bank Of America, Wells Fargo, And Wachovia, Valencia Tamir Johnson Dr.

Valencia T Johnson

In recent years, banks have had a positive and negative impact on assessing risk, liability and asset management from other competitors such as Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Wachovia. There have been many recent discussions about the U.S. and International banking management and investments. The Federal Reserve and the U.S. Exchange Commission are finding ways to evaluate the negative and positive behaviors exhibited by other financial institutions, which has an impact on the global economy, and in regards to financial management and investments. This article explains the important of assessing the risk and compliance management in financial banking and …

Restoring Transparency To Automated Authority, Frank Pasquale

Frank A. Pasquale

Leading finance, health care, and internet firms shroud key operations in secrecy. Our markets, research, and life online are increasingly mediated by institutions that suffer serious transparency deficits. When a private entity grows important enough, it should be subject to transparency requirements that reflect its centrality. The increasing intertwining of governmental, business, and academic entities should provide some leverage for public-spirited appropriators and policymakers to insist on more general openness. However well an "invisible hand" coordinates economic activity generally, markets depend on reliable information about the practices of core firms that finance, rank, and rate entities in the rest of …

Assessing The Financial Failure Using Z-Score And Current Ratio: A Case Of Sugar Sector Listed Companies Of Kse, Muhammad Shahzad Ijaz, Ahmed Imran Hunjra, Rauf I. Azam

Ahmed Imran Hunjra (PhD)

Since 1968, after the development of multivariate model, financial health of the corporate sector to predict their financial failure is heavily studied. Altman Z-Score is the most efficient model to judge the financial failure of the companies. This study uses Altman’s Z-Score and current ratio to assess the financial status of sugar sector companies listed at Karachi stock exchange. Sugar sector is the second largest slice among all sectors listed at Karachi stock exchange. Total population sampling technique was used in this study and all thirty five sugar sector listed companies at KSE were included in this study to get …

A Comparison Of Curriculum In Banking And Finance Departments, Hasmet Sarigul

Hasmet Sarigul

This descriptive study was conducted to assess banking and finance education curriculum by identifying and comparing the bachelors degree courses being taught at the banking and finance schools. We used a quantitative approach to content analysis. The data of the study have been gathered from the web pages, handbooks and the catalogs of the schools. The study contains all of the bachelors degree banking and finance departments of the universities in Turkey. In the first survey, we identified seven core competency areas for the courses in these schools. In the second survey, six more categories were identified accompanying the competency …

Impact Of Affect Heuristic, Fear And Anger On Decision Making Of Individual Investor: A Conceptual Study, Ehsan Ul Hassan, Fahad Shahzeb, Maryum Shaheen, Qamar Abbas, Zahid Hameed, Ahmed Imran Hunjra

Ahmed Imran Hunjra (PhD)

Financial theories support the efficient market hypothesis, which assumes that prices are fair in the market and investors behave rationally while taking any investment decision. Individual Investors of the stock market are therefore thought to take rational decisions while making judgments and investment decisions. However, a lot of studies on behavioral finance have criticized the phenomenon of market efficiency and investor’s rationality. The empirical evidences of these studies conclude the involvement of behavioral biases and psychological impacts on investor’s judgments and decision making. Keeping this in mind the present study has focused on studying the impact of affect heuristic, fear …

An Examination Of The Financial Challenges Of Entrepreneurship Centers Throughout The World, Todd A. Finkle, Teresa Menzies, Donald F. Kuratko, Michael G. Goldsby

Todd A Finkle

Impact Of Psychological Factors On Investment Decision Making Mediating By Risk Perception: A Conceptual Study, Lubna Riaz, Ahmed Imran Hunjra, Rauf I. Azam

Ahmed Imran Hunjra (PhD)

Every individual is different from others due to various factors which include demographic factors, age, race and sex, education level, social and economic background; same is the situation with the investors. The most critical challenge faced by them is the investment decision; they act in a rational manner and usually follow their instincts and emotional biases while making investment decisions. The investigation of previous studies reveals the importance of various psychological factors which affect their investment decision. Keeping this in view, a study model has been developed to describe the impact of risk propensity, asymmetric information and problem framing on …

Factors Affecting Investment Decision Making Of Equity Fund Managers, Salman Ali Qureshi, Kashif Ur Rehman, Ahmed Imran Hunjra

Ahmed Imran Hunjra (PhD)

Traditional theories of finance assume that investors use all available information and make rational investment decision but in reality the scenario is different. Based upon the growing importance of behavioral finance the present study is an attempt to investigate the effect of behavioral factors such as heuristics, risk aversion, use of financial tools and firm level corporate governance on the decision making of equity fund managers of Pakistan. The study collected response from 327 equity fund managers of insurance companies, commercial banks, and equity investment companies applying stratified random sampling technique. The results of the study demonstrate that a positive …

Factoring As A Financing Option In Turkey : A Comparative Study, Hasmet Sarigul

Hasmet Sarigul

Factoring is a form of short-term commercial finance based on the selling of trade debts at a discount from one party to another. Factoring is one of the oldest methods of business financing in developed countries. The Factoring operations in Turkey began in late 1980s as a product of commercial banks and started to become the activity of separately established factoring companies in the early 1990s. The basic frame of this study constitutes an empirical comparison of factoring companies in Turkey as bank subsidiaries and independent factoring companies in terms of some selected financial ratios in 2009 and 2010 years. …

Individual Investors Perception Of Dividends: Pakistan's Perspective, Muhammad Naeem Akhtar

Muhammad Naeem Akhtar

This research paper argue that there exists a strong preference for dividends among investors. The main purpose is to find the factors that lead individual investors to reveal their preference for either cash or stock dividends. The most important dividend theories are employed to test the behavior of Pakistani individual investors towards dividends. The results reveal strong evidence that individual investors in Pakistan want dividends either in the form of cash or stocks. They also have a strong preference for dividend even if a company has to pay it by borrowing.

Investment Appraisal Techniques And Constraints On Capital Investment, Ahmed Imran Hunjra, Iram Batool, Ghulam Shabbir Khan Niazi, Ijaz Ur Rehman

Ahmed Imran Hunjra (PhD)

The objective of this study is to determine the level of application and perception of finance executives and analysts regarding the investment appraisal techniques in Pakistani corporate sector in the light of theory. This study also investigates the major constraints on capital investment. Total 63 questionnaires were distributed in different cities of Pakistan (Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Multan and Faisalabad) but only 37 properly filled questionnaires were processed; the potential respondents were the finance executives and Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) of the companies. The companies listed at KSE related to ten leading sectors were the population of this study. It is …

Individual Investors Perception Of Dividends: Pakistan's Perspective, Muhammad Naeem Akhtar, Ahmed Imran Hunjra, Arifa Andleeb, Babar Zaheer Butt

Ahmed Imran Hunjra (PhD)

This research paper argue that there exists a strong preference for dividends among investors. The main purpose is to find the factors that lead individual investors to reveal their preference for either cash or stock dividends. The most important dividend theories are employed to test the behavior of Pakistani individual investors towards dividends. The results reveal strong evidence that individual investors in Pakistan want dividends either in the form of cash or stocks. They also have a strong preference for dividend even if a company has to pay it by borrowing.

Long Run Relationship Between Poverty And Macro-Economic Variables In Pakistan, Muhammad Naeem Akhtar, Ahmed Imran Hunjra, Nadeem Safwan, Abrar Ahmad

Ahmed Imran Hunjra (PhD)

This research study examines the long run relationship between poverty and economic indicators in Pakistan. Data from 1972 to 2010 is used to analyze the relationship between various economic variables and poverty. The economic indicators include; consumer price index, literacy rate and population growth. Head count rate is used to measure poverty. The statistical techniques used include unit root Augmented Dickey Fuller test (for checking the stationary data) & Johansen’s co-integration test for long run relationship. The study found co-integration between all the economic factors and poverty, which means that economic performance indicators are pertinent predictors of poverty. This can …

Determinants Of Financial Management Practices: A Conceptual Study, Ahmed Imran Hunjra, Jamshed Iqbal

Ahmed Imran Hunjra (PhD)

The purpose of this study is to investigate various factors (uncertainty, corporate social disclosure and stakeholder) that impact the selection of financial management practices. Further, this study attempts to explore the impact of financial management practices and earnings management on firm performance. In order to achieve the objective, a conceptual model has been developed based on previous theories and empirical literature. The findings of the study would be quite beneficial for capital providers – lenders and shareholders – who would like to use their funds for financial practices. On the other hand, capital providers will be hesitant to provide capital …

Reit White Paper, Frederic Juillet

Frederic Juillet

Subject: Resulting from the recent financial crisis, this white paper discusses how to better defend shareholders’ investments in Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) for the long-term and how to reduce volatility in the REITs market.

Wisdom From Warren Buffett, Todd A. Finkle

Todd A Finkle

Patterns Of Capital Structure And Dividend Policy In Pakistani Corporate Sector And Their Impact On Organization Performance, Ahmed Imran Hunjra, Muhammad Bilal, Haroon Shafi, Ikram Ullah, Kashif Ur Rehman

Ahmed Imran Hunjra (PhD)

The purpose of this study is to determine the patterns of capital structure decisions and dividend policy as well as their level of application in Pakistani corporate sector and also to check the impact of capital structure and dividend policy on organization performance. A total of ninety one questionnaires were distributed in different companies but seventy three filled were received and sixty one were processed for analysis. The potential respondents were finance executives and financial analysts of the companies. The study concludes that capital structure decisions are being properly practiced while dividend policy is a major concern in most of …