Business Commons^™

Women Directors On Public Company Boards: Does A Critical Mass Affect Leverage?, Cindy K. Harris

Business and Economics Faculty Publications

This study examines the relationship between corporate leverage (the ratio of total debt to total assets) and gender diversity on US public company boards, with particular focus on boards that have at least 25% women directors. Using this critical mass of women eliminates from consideration boards with lesser female representation, whose female directors may be marginalized in their contributions to board functioning and decision-making. I hypothesize that when boards have this minimum threshold of gender diversity, the influence of risk-averse female directors will impact board decisions related to financing, resulting in lower debt ratios when compared to boards with no …

Interpreting, Stephanie Jo Kent

Doctoral Dissertations

What do community interpreting for the Deaf in western societies, conference interpreting for the European Parliament, and language brokering in international management have in common? Academic research and professional training have historically emphasized the linguistic and cognitive challenges of interpreting, neglecting or ignoring the social aspects that structure communication. All forms of interpreting are inherently social; they involve relationships among at least three people and two languages. The contexts explored here, American Sign Language/English interpreting and spoken language interpreting within the European Parliament, show that simultaneous interpreting involves attitudes, norms and values about intercultural communication that overemphasize information and discount …

Multinational Enterprise Parent-Foreign Subsidiary Governance, Bassam Elias Farah

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation investigates how a multinational enterprise’s (MNE) corporate headquarters governs its foreign subsidiaries. It draws on agency theory, prospect theory, and corporate governance literatures to develop a framework that describes select MNE parent-foreign subsidiary governance mechanisms expected to predict foreign subsidiary performance, measured as foreign subsidiary survival and profitability.

To test this framework, I first conducted a pilot Canadian study. It was followed by the main multi-country study. The Canadian study used mixed methods. It analyzed quantitative data, compiled from different sources, and qualitative data, collected through personal interviews with subsidiary managers. The main multi-country study used survival analysis …

Project Finance: Transactional Evidence From Australia, Michael Regan

Michael Regan

The international project finance market is experiencing a period of significant change. The new Basel III capital adequacy rules will make it harder for banks to provide long-term project finance, and alternative sources of finance such as the shadow banking sector, fund managers, sovereign wealth funds, and institutional investors will take time to bridge the financing gap. In the meantime, it is difficult to source project finance for tenors beyond seven years, risk premiums are higher, and finance is difficult to source. Recent innovations in the form of the European Investment Bank’s Project Bond Initiative, and the ASEAN Infrastructure Fund …

Essays On Failure Management Of Nonprofit Organizations, Junesoo Lee

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

No matter how well an organization is managed, we face some inevitable failures such as deficient volunteers, excess demands for service, unstable grants, etc. Paradoxically however, successful organizations have been using their failures creatively. Beyond such successful use of failure, can benefits of failure be systematically described? What would be the generic ways to benefit from failure? In order to answer that question, three essays were written with the following details.