Business Commons^™

Essays On Earnings Quality: Evidence From Net Share Issue, Put Option Sales, And Hedging, Jagadish Dandu

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

There are three essays in this research. The main objective of the research is to extend the literature in corporate finance by investigating the quality of earnings around corporate events like net share issues, put option sales by firms on their own stock, and hedging commodities by high input cost group of firms.

The first paper is "Does Earnings Quality predicts Net Share Issuance". This paper investigates whether quality of earnings predicts net share issuance by corporations. Pontiff and Woodgate (2008) show that annual share issuance (ISSUE) measure is a better predictor of future cross-sectional returns and we use this …

Potential Influences Of Compliance For Short-Term Recovery From Sports-Related Concussion, Erin R. Ewing

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Currently, treatment of sports-related concussion dictates the prescription of physical and cognitive rest to allow the injured brain to recover and for concussion-related symptoms to subside. However, clinicians who prescribe rest are often met with resistance from athletes who do not recognize its therapeutic value in the recovery process. Research has shown that athletes often fail to comply with rest recommendations, resulting in protracted recovery and the persistence of symptoms. Method: This study employed a three-group pretest-posttest experimental design to compare the effects of three different concussion management protocols. Participants were recently concussed athletes ages 18-25 seen in the UTEP …

The Big [Motion] Picture: Analyzing The Factors Affecting The International Motion Picture Industry, Dalila Salazar

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The motion picture industry is one of the largest private sector employers in the United States, supporting 1.9 million jobs, and providing its workforce approximately $104 billion in total wages in 2011 (Motion Picture Association of America, 2012b). With U.S. films distributed in over 140 countries, not only is the industry successful domestically, it is one of the country's leading exports, reaping more than $23.9 billion in 2012 (Motion Picture Association of America, 2012a). Despite the importance of the global marketplace, we know very little about the factors that influence the success of movies internationally. My study partially addresses this …

Three Essays On Auditor Industry Specialization, Ankita Singhvi

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This Dissertation consists of three separate but related essays examining auditor changes, auditor industry specialization and audit fee premiums.

The first essay investigates whether audit committee characteristics affect the types of auditor changes from an industry specialist auditor to a non-industry specialist auditor or the reverse. I examine whether selection of an external auditor is affected by audit committee characteristics such as: 1) number of meetings, 2) number of members on the audit committee, 3) proportion of auditing experts and, 4) proportion of financial experts. The findings show that a greater proportion of auditing experts on the audit committee positively …

Essays On Authorized Shares, Stock Splits, And Top-Up Options, Hilmi Songur

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This Dissertation consists of two separate but broadly related essays investigating the role of authorized shares in corporate events. In the first essay, I examine the relation between management's power to issue new shares of stock and stock split abnormal announcement returns. I posit that the mechanical reduction in excess authorized shares (EAS) caused by a stock split, decreases management's power to issue stock. I argue that this results in lower agency costs and thereby increases shareholder's value. After controlling for other factors, and consistent with my hypothesis, I find that the pre-split ratio of unissued authorized shares to total …

The Role Of Social Norms In Consumers' Evaluations Of Brands From Emerging Countries, Shuang Yang

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

In prior studies, the effects of country of origin (COO) on purchase intention have been explained by signaling theory, the elaboration likelihood model and categorization theory. However, none of these theories explains the role social norms play in COO effects. Applying the theory of reasoned action (TRA), this study proposes that COO influences purchase intention through attitudes and social norms. This proposed model explains the joint effect of quality perceptions, consumer animosity, and perceived social pressure on purchase intention. The moderation effect of collectivism/individualism culture is also tested.

The research findings support the proposed model. Specifically, the results suggest that …

A Social Exchange Perspective: The Mediating Effect Of Customers' Perceived Overall Justice And Affect In The Relationship Between Employee Performance And Customer Satisfaction, Si Hyun Kim

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Drawing from social exchange theory (Blau, 1964) and affective event theory (Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996), this paper provides insight into how customers' perceived overall justice and customers' affect mediate the relationship between employee performance and customer satisfaction. The primary research question of the study was how employees' performance (task performance and organizational citizenship behaviors) indirectly influences customers' satisfaction. In addition, this study examined the moderating effect of types of exchange in the relationship between employee performance and customers' perceived overall justice. 151 dyadic surveys were collected from both customers and stylists in 5 beauty/hair salons. As expected, customers' positive affect …

Political Rights And Reported Accounting Numbers: An International Study, Chu Chen

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

I examine how managers' behaviors, including earnings management and conservatism, are influenced by the political environments in 38 countries. The results indicate that greater political rights are associated with better earnings quality and more conservative reporting. I find that political institutions substitute for legal institutions in terms of managers' discretional behaviors. Specifically, a marginal increase in political rights will produce a smaller reduction in earnings management behaviors in a country with better investor protection. Similarly, a marginal increase in political rights will encourage a less improvement on accounting conservatism in a country with better investor protection.

Subordinate Accountants' Perceptions Of Their Superiors' Leadership And Performance: The Study Of Moderating Variables In The Accounting Profession, Raul Tapia, Jr.

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this Dissertation was to examine whether or not the self-monitoring component of adaptive self-regulation and perceptions of organizational politics moderate an accountant's interpersonal traits (interpersonal power and interpersonal trust) of how they perceived their superiors' performance and leadership ability. Accounting is a very diverse field in which individuals must work closely with their superiors to accomplish given tasks. With regulations and high principles that must be followed in daily work, accountants must act in large part to the expectations of others to complete their tasks correctly. Accountants who trust their superiors and have more confidence in his/her …

Public Social Network Sites And Social Recruiting, Abby Peters

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Social network sites (SNSs) are an increasingly popular form of social media used by individuals and organizations. As these platforms continue to transform the way people communicate with one another, they are simultaneously revolutionizing the way individuals interact with organizations. Part of this dramatic change is apparent in the processes by which organizations are recruiting employees and job seekers are pursuing employment. To investigate these phenomena, I employed the diffusion of innovations theory in a SNS context to examine the relationship between organizations' use of their corporate career website and their use of SNSs as recruiting sources. Subsequently, I used …

Turnaround Response To Performance Decline In Family- Controlled Publicly-Traded Firms: A Three-Essay Investigation, Giacomo Laffranchini

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This Dissertation investigates the first strategic response to performance decline (i.e., the retrenchment stage in the turnaround process) in family-owned businesses (FOBs). Specifically, I study how the interplay between financial and non-financial objectives in FOBs affects the strategic preferences of family-owners when circumstances put the wealth (financial and non-financial) of the family at stake. In this three-essay Dissertation, I employ the behavioral agency model (BAM) or the socioemotional wealth (SEW) preservation perspective to explain and predict the effect of SEW on an FOB's retrenchment strategies. While the SEW construct was used by previous studies, its direct measurement and the methodologies …

Firm Growth Around The World: Financial Constraints, Corruption, And Privatization, Sk. Md. Barkat Ullah

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This Dissertation consists of three separate essays that are broadly related to firm-level financial constraints, corruption, and privatization and their relation to firm performance and growth across the globe. I employ World Bank Enterprise Survey data collected from 2006-2011 for over one hundred countries. In my first Dissertation essay, I study the effects of accounting information disclosure through auditing on firm level financial constraints and corruption obstacles. I find that audited firms exhibit significantly lower level of financial constraints than unaudited firms. Audited firms also encounter higher level of corruption obstacles than unaudited firms. The second essay examines three firm-level …

Essays On Financial Constraints, Export, And Entrepreneur Gender In Latin America, Maria Barulina

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This research focuses on financial constraints faced by firms in Latin America and the Caribbean and their financing patterns. Unique firm level survey data from World Bank Enterprise Survey (WBES) is leveraged for this study. The sample used in this research consists of over 22,000 firms from 31 Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries for the period between 2006 and 2010.

First, this author empirically estimates the effect of financial constraints on a firm's export behavior in terms of probability to export and export intensity. The analysis shows that older, larger firms with a share of foreign ownership, and those …

Essays In Corporate Finance, Shofiqur Rahman

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This doctoral Dissertation examines the impact of firms' geographic location and labor market friction, both based on the states in which firms are headquartered, on corporate policies. The first essay examines the impact of the geographical location of the firm on the use of operating leases. The main idea of this essay is that, because obtaining information and monitoring is costly for potential lessors, especially when a lessee is relatively far away from financial centers, rural firms are less likely to use operating leases in comparison to their urban counterparts. Consistent with this hypothesis, I show that rural firms tend …

Institutional Context And Entrepreneurial Dynamism: Corruption, Distance To Frontier, Perceived Opportunity And Entrepreneurial Activity, Thaung Han

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This Dissertation hypothesizes that corruption has both beneficial and detrimental effects on the entrepreneurial opportunity, and that such relationships is contingent on different levels of overall regulatory condition in ease of doing business. Beneficial effects and positive relationship can be seen in countries with poor regulatory procedures and the opposite is true for the countries with well-established ones, a complex relationship which could be visualized as a U-shaped relationship. This Dissertation further proposes that entrepreneurial perceived opportunity in turn positively relates to entrepreneurial intention, and this relationship is moderated by the facilitating effects of corruption to overcome the uncertainties and …

Too Much Of A Good Thing? The Effect Of Internal Control Monitoring System Alerts On User Perceptions Of Task-Technology Fit, Julia Kokina

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Anecdotal and field study evidence points to both positive and negative effects of alerts produced by technology-enabled internal control monitoring systems (ICMS) (Alles et al. 2006, 2008; Debreceny et al. 2003, 2005; Perols and Murthy 2012). An important unanswered question is how those alerts impact users who process them and decide whether any corrective action should be taken. In this study I surveyed financial executives and accounting professionals to examine the impact of alerts on user perceptions of task-technology fit (TTF) (Goodhue and Thompson 1995). Alerts generated by ICMS can bring to the attention of company leadership indications of errors, …

Idiosyncratic Deals To Employee Outcomes: Mediating Role Of Social Exchange Relationships And Social Comparison And Moderating Role Of Unit Climate, Satvir Singh

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The individualized work related agreements known as idiosyncratic deals (i-deals), that are negotiated between the employee and the employer has been shown to affect employee outcomes. Researchers have used social exchange theory to explain the relationship between i-deals and outcomes. In this study, I suggest that social comparison theory, in addition to social exchange theory, can be used to explain the effect of i-deals on employee outcomes. Because i-deals are different for each employee, the social comparisons employees make, affect their work attitudes and behaviors. This study explains the process through which i-deals lead to positive employee outcomes in the …

An Ever Closer Union: An Investigation Of Accounting Measurement And Timing In The European Union, Elizabeth Marie Devos

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This paper explores whether the implementation of a unified set of accounting standards, International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) is able to overcome prior reporting behaviors by using multiple measures of accounting conservatism, both conditional and unconditional, to proxy for changes in accounting outcomes. Conservatism makes a good proxy for changes in accounting outcomes because it is used as a mechanism to protect key stakeholders and the level of conservatism differs in an international context (Gray, 1988). Countries from different legal systems have different institutional structures and different reporting incentives. Therefore, the sample is bifurcated and regressions are also run based …

Using Fair Division Methods For Allocating Transportation Funds, Edith Montes

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Current transportation funding allocation methods are very complex due to limited budgets and conflicting interests. In order to maintain an efficient infrastructure transportation system, agencies must balance the allocation of funds required either to increase the roadway capacity or to preserve the existing roads in service. Depending on the target objectives and specific constraints, the funding allocation process is approached using different methods. The funding allocation process is usually addressed using expert judgment which involves subjective criteria, weighted formulas with pre-established priorities, or a combination of both. However, formula-based funding allocation methods may lead to the public's disagreement if final …

Tax Compliance Determinants: A Proposed Model For Cross-Country Analysis, Denise Bowen O'Shaughnessy

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The issue of tax compliance has been identified world-wide as a significant problem. The importance of understanding tax compliance behavior is essential to government policy makers, tax enforcement agents, citizens, and businesses (Hite & McGill, 1992; Joulfaian and Rider, 1998; Internal Revenue Service, 2008; Chau and Leung, 2009). Insight into the decision making process of taxpayers is crucial to researchers in assisting governments as they struggle to meet new challenges of a growing global economy while trying to balance increasing deficits and infrastructure demands. This Dissertation investigates the determinants of tax compliance behavior at an international level in an attempt …