Finance and Financial Management Commons^™

Quarterly Meeting Information Packet, Wku Board Of Regents

Board of Regents Documents

Meeting agenda and information packet

• Local Government Administration Graduate Certificate
• Deaf Studies Undergraduate Certificate
• Early Childhood Education Director Undergraduate Certificate
• User Experience Undergraduate Certificate
• Emeriti appointments
• Personnel actions
• 2018-2019 Audit Plan
• Internal Audit Charter Amendment
• Named rooms
• Amy Tudor Contract Addendum

2018 Q3 Private Capital Access Index Report, Craig R. Everett

Pepperdine Private Capital Access Report

The Pepperdine Private Capital Access Index (PCA) is a quarterly indicator produced by the Pepperdine Graziadio Business School, in partnership with Dun & Bradstreet. The index is designed to measure the demand for, activity, and health of the private capital markets. The purpose of the PCA Index is to gauge the demand of small and medium sized businesses for financing needs, the level of accessibility of private capital, and the transparency and efficiency of private financing markets.

Downside Risk And Stock Returns In The G7 Countries: An Empirical Analysis Of Their Long-Run And Short-Run Dynamics, Cathy Yi-Hsuan Chen, Thomas C. Chiang, Wolfgang Karl Härdle

Sim Kee Boon Institute for Financial Economics

Any risk-return tradeoff analysis in aggregate equity markets relies on appropriate measures of risk, in most studies based on (co-)variance relations. Consequently, in integrated global markets, country-specific expected return is priced with a world price of covariance risk. This study relates domestic excess stock returns to the world downside risk. Evidence shows that downside tail risk (as a multiplier of volatility) has long memory cointegration properties; hence, the underlying risk aversion behavior in an integrated market is associated with the conditional quantile ratio, the correlation of stock returns, and the cointegrating coefficient of downside risk. Our empirical results based on …

Boards Of Directors And Firm Leverage: Evidence From Real Estate Investment Trusts, Trang Doan, Nga Nguyen

Finance Faculty Research and Publications

We re-examine the negative association between leverage and returns while also focusing on the role of boards of directors. To do so, we utilize the unique setting of real estate investment trusts (REITs), their high leverage, and the volatility that the industry experienced during the recent financial crisis. We find that during the financial crisis REIT board activity increased, especially among firms with high leverage. We also find that board activity helps mitigate the previously reported negative effect of leverage on returns during this time period. Post-crisis, we find evidence suggesting that firms with more active boards reduce …

Eqm Investment Research Report, Kaitlyn Berg

Honors Projects

The piece includes both an investment research and industry analysis report on EQM, a midstream oil company. Based on the industry environment, valuation metrics, and financial statement analysis, EQM holds a buy recommendation and demonstrates a large potential for growth and strong cash flow returns. The following analysis provides evidence to support this recommendation.

The Informational Role Of Overconfident Ceos, Chi Shen Wei, Lei Zhang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We study how overconfident CEOs communicate with the market and whether this has implications on the firm’s information environment. Textual analysis reveals that overconfident CEOs communicate using less negative tone in their 10K/Q filings. Our evidence suggests that overconfident CEOs provide market participants with more value-relevant information as sell-side analysts make more accurate forecasts of their firm’s future earnings. Consistent with a reduction in asymmetric information, implied cost of equity capital is lower. However, not all investors benefit as the information advantage of short sellers disappears in the stocks of overconfident CEOs.

A Signaling Theory Of Institutional Activism: How Norway’S Sovereign Wealth Fund Investments Affect Firms’ Foreign Acquisitions, Gurneeta Vasudeva, Lilac Nachum, Gui-Deng Say

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Combining perspectives from institutional activism and signaling theory literatures, we suggest that an activist sovereign wealth fund (SWF) can serve as an intermediary signaler, providing cues about host countries’ institutional environment to internationalizing firms. By publicizing its investments and engaging in institutional activism, a SWF can signal the institutional quality of host countries to internationalizing firms, thus allowing them to overcome the well-known “lemons problem” in international decision-making. We examine the impact of a SWF’s signals on firms’ ownership choices in their foreign acquisitions. Our empirical analysis of Norway’s socially responsible SWF and firms from Norway and Sweden during 1998–2011 …

Essays In Leveraged Capital Markets, Kenneth D. Ford

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The debt capital markets for leveraged borrowers are ripe with information asymmetry, lender specialization, and borrower segmentation. In this dissertation, I explore how these factors manifest themselves and the economic consequences thereof. Essay 1 shows that adverse selection and moral hazard concerns are inherent in underwriting syndicates that differ in size and number of lead underwriters. Using a nested double selection probit model of syndicate choice, I examine the matching of issuers and underwriters and find that matches of issuer quality and underwriter reputation are positive assortative. Further, switching regressions show that yield spreads reflect uncertainty about the intrinsic values …

The Evolution Of The French Cfos' Role Since The Introduction Of The Financial Market Logic, Redon Marie, Toru Yoshikawa, Berland Nicolas

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This paper highlights the changes of the Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) role since the introduction of the financial market logic in France. Through an analysis of thirty-seven interviews with CFOs and observations during events organized by the professional association of CFOs, we show that the CFOs’ role evolved in different pathways depending on the relationships between logics. We contribute to the literature that studies professions from an institutional perspective by responding to the question of whether professionals change their role when the logic to which they adhere and from which they derive their role is being challenged, or whether institutional …

Choosing The Precision Of Performance Metrics, Alan D. Crane, Andrew Koch, Chi Shen Wei

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

There is a standard trade-off in contracts between the provision of incentives and insurance. We hypothesize that this trade-off influences the precision with which firm performance is measured. We find that firm outcomes are measured less precisely when chance plays a large role in these outcomes. Further, this precision is determined through the choice of shares outstanding. This has several novel implications. Nominal stock prices can remain constant over time, and firms with unpredictable cash flows should have more shares and lower stock price levels, all else equal. We find evidence consistent with these implications.

Public Hedge Funds, Lin Sun, Melvyn Teo

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Hedge funds managed by listed firms significantly under-perform funds managed by unlisted firms. The under-performance is more severe for funds with low manager deltas, poor governance, and no manager co-investment, or managed by firms whose prices are sensitive to earnings news. Notwithstanding the under-performance, listed asset management firms raise more capital, by growing existing funds and launching new funds post listing, and harvest greater fee revenues than do comparable unlisted firms. The results are consistent with the view that, for asset management firms, going public weakens the alignment between ownership, control, and investment capital, thereby engendering conflicts of interest.

Marking To Market And Inefficient Investment Decisions, Clemens A. Otto, Paolo F. Volpin

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We examine how mark-to-market accounting affects the investment decisions of managers with reputation concerns. Reporting the current market value of a firm’s assets can help mitigate agency problems because it provides outsiders (e.g., shareholders) with new information against which the management’s decisions can be evaluated. However, the fact that the assets’ market value is informative can also have a negative side effect: managers may shy away from investments that indicate conflicting private information and would damage their reputation. This effect can lead to inefficient investment decisions and make marking to market less desirable when market prices are more informative.

Place, Space, And Foreign Direct Investment Into Peripheral Cities, Conor Mcdonald, Peter J. Buckley, Hinrich Voss, Adam R. Cross, Liang Chen

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Perspectives drawn from the economic geography literature are increasingly used to generate insights into locational issues in international business. In this paper, we seek to integrate these literatures further by investigating the locational determinants of foreign direct investment (FDI) into peripheral cities within an emerging economy. Peripheral cities in emerging economies are attracting a growing proportion of global FDI flows, but the international business literature lacks a framework for understanding subnational determinants of FDI, particularly into non-core locations. We draw on the core-periphery model to build and test theory on how spatial interdependencies between subnational locations impact on the distribution …

Esg And Corporate Financial Performance: Empirical Evidence From China's Listed Power Generation Companies, Changhong Zhao, Yu Guo, Jiahai Yuan, Mengya Wu, Daiyu Li, Yiou Zhou, Jiangang Kang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Nowadays, listed companies around the world are shifting from short-term goals of maximizing profits to long-term sustainable environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals. People have come to realize that ESG has become an important source of the corporate risk and may affect the company's financial performance and profitability. Recent research shows that good ESG performance could improve the financial performance in some countries. Yet, the question of how does ESG affect financial performance has not been thoroughly discussed and studied in China. In this article, we study China's listed power generation groups to explore the relationship between ESG performance and …

The Effects Of Economic Policy Uncertainty On Common Stock And American Depository Receipts, Bradley David Zynda Ii

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Uncertainty can have profound implications on both firms and individuals who hope to optimally make decisions in their best interest. In this research, I seek to examine the impact that economic policy uncertainty has on domestic and foreign stock. In particular, I take a market microstructure perspective focused on stock liquidity and volatility measures in response to changes in economic policy uncertainty. Understanding the directional flow of economic policy uncertainty and the magnitude of the consequences at home and abroad can both help prepare agents to make good decisions about the future and exhort policy makers to be more efficient …

Relationship Banking And Loan Syndicate Structure: The Role Of Private Equity Sponsors, Rongbing Huang, Donghang Zhang, Yija (Eddie) Zhao

Faculty Articles

Using a sample of syndicated loans to private equity (PE)-backed IPO companies, we examine how a third-party bank relationship influences the syndicate structure of a loan. We find that a stronger relationship between the lead bank and the borrower’s PE firm enables the lead bank to retain a smaller share of the loan and form a larger and less concentrated syndicate, especially when the borrower is less transparent. A stronger PE-bank relationship also attracts greater foreign bank participation. Our findings suggest that the lead bank’s relationship with a large equity holder of the borrower facilitates information production in lending.

Toward A Model Of Strategic Human Capital Management Using The Balanced Scorecard - An Exploratory Case Study, Jeffrey A. Risinger

Human Resource Development Theses and Dissertations

The issue of strategic human capital management has been studied and written about extensively over the last 20 years. Much of the focus of this work has addressed the need for internal human resources organizations to transition from transactional, processing organizations to more strategic partner functions addressing the key business needs of the organization. The vast majority of the research addressing this transition has focused on the professional characteristics of senior human resource executives. Whereas the literature presents anecdotal evidence of progress, there also exists consensus support for the idea that very little systemic movement has occurred at the organizational …

Political Risk Effect On Financial Market Returns; Between Magnification And Neglection: Evidence From Egyptian Stock Market, Salma Mohamed Alaaeldin

Theses and Dissertations

There is extensive debate on whether political risk is an important factor that influences financial markets and investment decision, especially in developing economies. The main aim of this thesis is to analyze the effect of political risk on stock market returns while controlling for financial risk, economic risk, interest rates and foreign exchange rates. The main methodology involves estimating the model using a regime switching model to account for changes in volatility. The sample period starts from January 2007 to August 2017. The data includes: EGX30 returns over the period, Political risk as proxied by International Country Risk Guide (ICRG) …

Cryptovisor: A Cryptocurrency Advisor Tool, Matthew Baldree, Paul Widhalm, Brandon Hill, Matteo Ortisi

SMU Data Science Review

In this paper, we present a tool that provides trading recommendations for cryptocurrency using a stochastic gradient boost classifier trained from a model labeled by technical indicators. The cryptocurrency market is volatile due to its infancy and limited size making it difficult for investors to know when to enter, exit, or stay in the market. Therefore, a tool is needed to provide investment recommendations for investors. We developed such a tool to support one cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, based on its historical price and volume data to recommend a trading decision for today or past days. This tool is 95.50% accurate with …

The Path Of Least Resistance: How Strict Chinese Stock Market Regulation Incentivizes Chinese Companies To List In Foreign Stock Exchanges, Chenyu Yin

Business and Economics Summer Fellows

Despite the recent trade dispute, decades of increased trade between the U.S. and China have given Chinese companies more opportunities to list on foreign stock markets, so they can find better financing opportunities in foreign markets. With the rapid development of the Chinese financial industry and the continuous spread of news on various company listings, why is it that many Chinese companies choose to list overseas, especially in the U.S. and Hong Kong, but not in China? In addition, what is the difference between the U.S. and Hong Kong exchanges, and how does that difference affect Chinese companies’ choice of …