Business Commons^™

Essays On External Forces In Capital Markets, Marcus Painter

Theses and Dissertations--Finance and Quantitative Methods

In the first chapter, I find counties more likely to be affected by climate change pay more in underwriting fees and initial yields to issue long-term municipal bonds compared to counties unlikely to be affected by climate change. This difference disappears when comparing short-term municipal bonds, implying the market prices climate change risks for long-term securities only. Higher issuance costs for climate risk counties are driven by bonds with lower credit ratings. Investor attention is a driving factor, as the difference in issuance costs on bonds issued by climate and non-climate affected counties increases after the release of the 2006 …

Summary, Initial Observations, And Getting To A Tentative Theory Of Public Investment Behavior, Arwiphawee Srithongrung, Juita-Elena (Wie) Yusuf

School of Public Service Faculty Publications

This chapter evaluates the 12 countries' capital management practices according to the systematic public capital management and budgeting process described in Chapter 1. The chapter characterizes and classifies the management practices of the twelve countries based on the authors' evaluation using the case study descriptions. The authors offer some initial observations based on comparisons across the case study countries and analysis of relationships between capital management and budgeting practices and political, economic, and public sector variables. The chapter proposes a tentative theory of public investment behavior and offers five propositions regarding the factors driving different practices across the case study …

Financial Strategies For Long-Term Success In Women-Owned Small Businesses, Melissa Renee Dyer

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In the United States, many small businesses fail within the first 5 years due to poor implementation of long term financial strategies. Researchers and business practitioners indicated that women small business owners face challenges in financing their small businesses beyond 5 years due to a lack of long-term financial strategies. The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore long term financial strategies women use to sustain their small businesses beyond 5 years. The general theory of entrepreneurship was the conceptual framework for this study. Data were collected from semistructured interviews with 11 women small business owners in …

Veterans Affairs Employees’ Perceptions Of Financial Incentives, Organizational Justice, Satisfaction, And Performance, Kingsley Chigbo Ihekwoaba

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Veterans Affairs (VA) inconsistently distributes financial incentives, which might affect how VA employees perceived organizational justice, affecting employees’ job satisfaction and performance. The purpose of this qualitative transcendental phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of VA employees that informed their perceptions of their workplaces’ levels of organizational justice, their job satisfaction, and their performances due to inconsistent distribution of financial incentives by gathering data through interviews with 13 VA employees from the Southeastern United States. The research question concentrated on the lived experiences of VA employees with respect to the inconsistent distribution of financial incentives, and how these …

Strategies For Increasing Employee Morale And Mitigating Turnover In The Banking Industry, Deniqua Arshay Ladson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Bank leaders who fail to implement effective leadership strategies experience low employee morale and high employee turnover. The estimated failure rate of bank industry leadership to attain some organizational targets such as desired levels of employee morale, employee retention, and profitability is as high as 60%. The purpose of this single case study was to explore strategies bank leaders implemented to improve employee morale and mitigate employee turnover. The population for this study included 4 bank leaders in the United States who successfully applied effective leadership to improve morale and mitigate employee turnover for more than 5 years. Data were …

Effective Revenue Diversification Strategies In Nonprofit Organizations, Jennifer R. Niswonger

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Nonprofit organization leaders increasingly encounter social burdens and financial difficulties, jeopardizing ongoing success and organizational sustainability. The purpose of this single-case study was to explore revenue diversification strategies used by 3 leaders of a small nonprofit organization in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States through the conceptual lens of modern portfolio theory. Data were collected via in-depth semistructured interviews, and member checking was used to facilitate accuracy, consistency, and integrity. Methodological triangulation included a document review and analysis of financial statements, tax returns, strategy objectives, the organizational website, social media, and nonprofit data reports. Data from documents and interviews …

An Empirical Examination Of Economic Determinants Of Financial Ceo Compensation: A Comparative Study On Pre And Post Financial Crisis Periods, Mahfuja Malik, Eunsup Daniel Shim

WCBT Faculty Publications

Inadequate risk monitoring and the executive incentive system of US financial institutions are considered to be significant factors in exacerbating the 2008 financial crisis, and regulators attempted to reform the executive compensation system in the post-crisis period. In this study, we conduct a comparative analysis of the economic determinants of the compensation for chief executive officers (CEOs) between the pre- and post-financial crisis periods, using data from US financial service institutions, since this is the sector that has been most affected by the financial crisis. We find that the mean values of total compensation and its incentive components, including cash …

Evaluating Kentucky State Pension Plans In The 2000s And Best Practices Moving Forward, Sarah Alegria

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

The Commonwealth of Kentucky sponsors three different pension retirement systems. This includes Kentucky Employee Retirement System, Teacher’s Retirement System, and Kentucky’s Judicial Form of Retirement System. Kentucky has one of the worst funded pension retirement plans and is currently facing shortfalls of about $43 billion (PEW, 2013). Between 1998-2008, Commonwealth of Kentucky’s legislators made many detrimental policy decisions that negatively affected its Pension Retirement System. The most impacting includes:

• Enhancements of Benefits in the Nineties
• Changing Final Compensation from the average of five-years to the average of three-years
• Mandated Yearly Cost of Living Adjustments (COLA)
• Not requiring the State to …

Uni Finance Newsletter, 2019, University Of Northern Iowa. Department Of Finance.

Department of Finance Newsletter

News about the activities of the Department of Finance.

Regulatory Changes, Board Monitoring And Earnings Management In Nigerian Financial Institutions, Ishaq Ahmed Ishaq Ahmed Mohammed, Ayoib Che-Ahmad, Mazrah Malek

DLSU Business & Economics Review

This paper explores the heterogeneity of board of directors and shareholders involvement in the audit committee in addressing the question of whether the board of directors and audit committee shareholders are effective in suppressing earnings management after the implementation of 2011 revised Code of Corporate Governance in Nigeria. The paper utilized data generated after the implementation of the new Code. It examines explicitly board effectiveness and audit committee shareholder chairman on earnings management in Nigerian financial institutions. The study utilizes a dynamic panel data model of the generalized method of moment (GMM) in analyzing the data. The empirical results suggest …

Dark Trading At The Midpoint: Does Sec Enforcement Policy Encourage Direct Feed Arbitrage?, Robert P. Bartlett Iii, Justin Mccrary

Faculty Scholarship

Prevailing research in market microstructure posits that liquidity providers bypass queue lines on exchanges by offering liquidity in dark venues with de minimis sub-penny price improvement, thus exploiting an exception to the penny quote rule. We show that (a) the SEC enforces the quote rule to prevent sub-penny queuejumping in dark pools unless trades are “pegged” to the NBBO midpoint and (b) the documented increase in dark trading due to investor queue-jumping stems from increased midpoint trading. Although encouraging pegged midpoint orders can subject traders to direct feed arbitrage, we estimate that less than 2% of shares traded per year …

Regression Tree Construction For Reinforcement Learning Problems With A General Action Space, Anthony S. Bush Jr

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Part of the implementation of Reinforcement Learning is constructing a regression of values against states and actions and using that regression model to optimize over actions for a given state. One such common regression technique is that of a decision tree; or in the case of continuous input, a regression tree. In such a case, we fix the states and optimize over actions; however, standard regression trees do not easily optimize over a subset of the input variables\cite{Card1993}. The technique we propose in this thesis is a hybrid of regression trees and kernel regression. First, a regression tree splits over …

M&A Performance: Market’S Initial Reaction As An Unbiased Indicator Of Post-Acquisition Performance, Nikolaos Papageorgiou

CMC Senior Theses

This paper investigates the reliability of the stock market’s initial reaction to M&A announcements as a predictor of actual post-acquisition performance. The two prevailing methods for evaluating M&A performance are event studies (stock market-based measures) and accounting-based measures. The present study combines these two performance evaluation approaches in a single empirical examination. Both the post-merger buy-and-hold abnormal returns and changes in ROA are used as actual post-acquisition performance variables. The acquirer’s cumulative abnormal return (CAR) around the announcement is used as the market predictor variable. An econometric model is employed to test the predictive power of the announcement-period CAR on …

Investor Trading Volume, Stock Market Return And Volatility, Tossapon Wilaiprapakorn

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

This research studies the impact of trading volumes from each investor group on the return of the stock market return and volatility of the Thai stock market. It is considered in terms of economic factor and trading behavior of investor that affect to trading volume. It can be addressed as the following four main questions 1) Effect of trading volume due to economic factors to market return. 2) Effect of trading volume due to economic factors to market volatility. 3) Effect of trading volume from investor behavior to market return. 4) Effect of trading volume from investor behavior to market …

Mutual Fund Performance Attribution Using Portfolio Holdings: Case Of Thai Equity Mutual Fund, Noppawan Amornsri

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

Selection skill and timing skill are two fundamental abilities which have been discussed to determine fund performance. This paper extends understanding of these two skills of Thai equity mutual fund. This paper is distinguished from prior study by using different method which is the Brinson model and based on the portfolio holdings. The model is decomposed the excess return into “allocation effect” and “selection effect”. Thailand SET industry group and sector classification which composed of 28 sectors is applied in order to examine both effects in the sector level. For the mutual fund returns, Jensen Alpha and Treynor-Mazuy are subsequently …

Employees Expectation From Leaders' Ethics In Decision Making, Shirley Easter

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The presence of unethical behavior continues to plague the global business community, however, and its impact in the finance industry is widely thought to be having an even more devastating impact than ever before. Scholarly literature provides little understanding of what drives ethical decision making, or the processes involved and a little evidence that ethical standards have been developed as part of leadership decision making training in finance. The purpose of this qualitative single case study was to explore the drivers and processes in the development of training that supports ethical choices that leaders make in their decision-making role within …

Strategies To Implement Efficient Closing Cycles, Mary Christine Scott

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Many financial leaders lack strategies to make the timely fiscal reporting needed for business to obtain profitability, competitive advantage, and sustainability. The purpose of this single case study was to explore successful strategies used to complete efficient closing cycles to evaluate performance and support business decisions. The conceptual framework for this study was process improvement and the theory of constraints. Data were collected from semistructured interviews with 5 purposively selected leaders; data were supplemented with information from the organization's website and print materials. Financial leaders who had developed successful strategies to complete timely financial statements were selected to participate in …

Fore Your Information: A Financial Analysis Of The Golf Industry, Emily Trolia

Honors Theses

This paper is an analysis of the leisure industry and more specifically, the golf industry. The paper examines the state of today’s economy through GDP, wages, and unemployment. During these discussions, the paper touches on how these factors affect the leisure and golf industries. The paper examines the performance of the golf industry over the past several years and discusses how the golf industry is working to grow the game despite the recent departure of some businesses and brands from the market. Further, alternative golf trends are discussed, as these trends are rapidly gaining popularity and exposing more people to …

There She Evolves: The Financial, Marketing And Journalistic Sustainability Of The Miss America Organization, Blair Wortsmith

Honors Theses

Adrian Phillips, a Pageant President and volunteer in the Miss America Organization for more than seven decades, stated that, “Things evolve. The press likes to refer to ‘changes,’ but most everything that has happened has been a precedent of something evolving. It comes by evolving and it disappears by evolving. And that has been the history of the Miss America Pageant” (Bivans). With the centennial anniversary quickly approaching and drastic changes made recently within the Miss America Organization, my Thesis examines the program’s evolution and evaluates its sustainability through finance, marketing and journalism perspectives. To do this, I drew information …

Information Sources That Influence The Financial Literacy Of Puerto Rican College Students, Enid Alvarez

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Researchers agree that Puerto Ricans lack basic financial knowledge that would allow them to participate in the financial system actively. However, the literature did not provide any data about the knowledge transmission practices that Puerto Ricans use to gather and transmit financial knowledge. As a result, there was a limited understanding of the social learning processes used by Puerto Rican college students to make financial decisions. Using consumer socialization and family financial socialization models as the theoretical framework, the purpose of this quantitative, nonexperimental study was to identify the information sources that Puerto Ricans use to gather financial knowledge. A …

Human Resources Management Professionals' Experience With Online Degree Holders In Recruitment, Dominic Ugochukwu Isaac

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Online degree holders in Nigeria have poor acceptability during recruitment and promotion decisions because of reliability and legality perceptions of online degrees. There is little knowledge about how human resource (HR) managers identify employability skills in online degree holders. Guided by Bills's screening conceptual framework, the purpose of this case study was to explore how Nigerian recruiters identify employability skills in online degree holders. The participants for this study consisted of 2 participants from each of 10 sectors covering the government and nongovernmental organizations; participants had at least 5 years' experience in working with online degree holders. Data were collected …

Organizational Decision-Making Through Employee Diversity, Kehinde Olayinka Taiwo

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The global nature of today's business environment, coupled with technological advances, compels managers to work with an increasingly diverse workforce worldwide. The purpose of this multiple-case study was to explore how bank managers used employee diversity effectively in the organizational decision-making process. Participants were 10 frontline management staff (middle and executive managers) with the required employee engagement skills involved in the decision-making process of a Nigerian bank. The conceptual framework for this study was rational choice theory, also called rational action theory or choice theory. Participants responded to 8 open-ended semistructured interview questions. The data collection process included validating and …

Strategies For Ensuring The Timeliness Of Small Business Financial Reporting In Nigeria, Nanzing Nangil Nden

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Small business owners in Nigeria submit financial reports to regulators and stakeholders, and they often lack strategies to ensure timeliness in the Nigeria report rendition. Lack of accounting competence and audit lag in the preparation, rendition, and submission of financial statements and reports are some of the contributors to this lack of timeliness. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore strategies that owners of small businesses used to ensure timeliness of financial reporting. The population for this study was 5 owners of small businesses in Nigeria. Management by objectives and Hoshin Kanri were the conceptual framework for …

Exploring Financial Management Practices Of Small And Medium-Sized Enterprises In Nigeria, Alero Theodora Obazee

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Most owners of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Nigeria are inadequately prepared to perform the financial management tasks required for business sustainability. This case study, guided by institutional theory, was conducted to explore how SME owners can be prepared to implement financial management effectively for business sustainability in Edo state, Nigeria. The research question addressed the understanding of experienced SME owners regarding how they can develop necessary financial management skills for sustaining a business in Edo state. Data were collected using semistructured interview, and field notes from 15 SME owners in Edo state who had prior knowledge of, experience …

Financing Post-2015 Development Goals: Shaping A New Policy Framework For Aid In Liberia, Apollos Ikechukwu Nwafor

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Liberia, Africa's oldest democracy, has made several efforts in becoming a developed economy and ending poverty, but these efforts have been hampered by lack of appropriate financing mechanisms to achieve this goal. The most recent challenge which was the purpose of this study was to understand how Liberia can finance and achieve the sustainable development goals adopted by the United Nations in September 2015. Despite substantial external aid, Liberia was only able to meet 3 out of the 8 Millennium Development Goals, and more than 60% of the population remain extremely poor. The main research question was to understand what …

Factors Leading Corporations To Continue To Engage In Corporate Social Responsibility Initiatives, Radu-Marius Gavrila

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Accountability for corporate social responsibility (CSR) and its societal challenges is undetermined, and it is unclear whether business or society should carry these responsibilities. Despite severe criticism from some, many organizations continue to invest in and promote CSR. The purpose of this multiple-case study was to increase the understanding of the phenomenon from the perspective of a purposeful sample of participants who contribute to CSR execution and who were representatives of the 10 organizations identified as active promoters. The participant corporations (case studies), in Europe and North America, were mainly in the telecommunications industry. Study data came from 11 face-to-face, …

Searching: On The Cultural And Sociopolitical Implication Of Social Media, Siamak Javadi

Finance Faculty Publications

This is a review of the film Searching (2018), a multilayered thriller co-written and directed by Aneesh Chaganty. This film is a cinematic reflection of the profound impact of social media networks on our lives. The movies continuously navigates between the pros and cons of social media platforms. In this review, I focus on cultural and sociopolitical implications of social media platforms in relation to the film.

Empirical Asset Pricing With Equity Tail Risk, Jingrui Li

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This dissertation comprises three separate chapters on both risk-neutral and physical probability spaced equity tail risk for both the market index and in the cross-section of individual stocks.

The first chapter is titled “Does VIX Truly Measure Return Volatility?” This chapter studies the bias of the VIX index as a volatility measure. Particularly, VIX undervalues (overvalues) volatility when market return is expected to be negatively (positively) skewed. Alternatively, we develop a model-free generalized volatility index (GVIX). This chapter further derives the risk-neutral tail risk estimated from the VIX index.

The second chapter is titled “Decomposing the VIX: Implications for the …

Investors Trading And Return Patterns After Earnings Announcements||รูปแบบการซื้อขายของนักลงทุน และพฤติกรรมของผลตอบแทนภายหลังการประกาศผลประกอบการ, Teerawat Vaccharasiritham

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

This study examines the difference in trading behaviors around earnings announcement period across three types of investors in Thailand stock market; Individual, institutional and foreign investors, and also the relationship between their trading behaviors and the stock return patterns before and after announcement periods. The results using trading data of stocks in SET100 during 2013-2017 show that there is persistence of stock price after earnings announcements in the same direction of earnings surprise. In term of trading behavior, before earnings announcement, we find that there is no trading pattern for all investor types and the pre-announcement trading flows has no …

Do Repurchasing Firms Shave Capital Expenditures When Signaling?, Bishal Bc, Yatin N. Bhagwat, Marinus De Bruine

Open Access Publishing Support Funded Articles

This paper studies the extent of firm level over- and under-investment in capital projects among firms with excess cash flows. Whereas most prior research looks for either the signaling or free cash flow hypothesis, we find that the motives for share repurchases differ depending on the firm’s concurrent investments in capital projects. Our initial sample contains 3,417 firm-year observations from 1998 through 2014 where we match share repurchasing firm-year observations with non-repurchasing counterparts by 8-digit GICS industry code, by fiscal year, and by size. Using two sample t-tests, we find evidence that consistent with free cash flow explanations over-investment is …