Business Commons^™

Modeling The Financial Signaling Of Zero-Default Debt: Empirical Study On The Firms Listed In Djia30 And Nasdaq100, Ahmed Salah Zaki Saeed

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the financial factors that corporate planners must consider to reach a zero-default debt. The thesis examines the financial fundamentals associated with zero-default debt along with the size and industry effects. The data includes quarterly financial indicators for the non-financial firms listed in DJIA30 and NASDAQ100 for the period 1990-2018. The results conclude that the fixed assets turnover is the only robust variable that can be optimized to reach zero-default debt and has positive and significant signaling effect.

The Effect Of Bilateral Investment Treaties On The Correlation Between International Stock Markets, Nourhan Elshenawy

Theses and Dissertations

The main objective of this paper is to assess the effect of the Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs) on the correlation between international stock markets on a sectorial level. The paper attempts to identify the most affected sectors, besides highlighting the highly impacted countries by BITs signing, to compare the intensity of the effect based on the nature of the business operation. Analyzing the synchronization between international stock markets has been a crucial topic in the literature due to its criticality in grasping the benefits of international portfolio diversification. The extensive historical literature demonstrated and reviewed the co-movements between multiple global …

The Rise Of Text Analysis: Using Machine Learning To Explain The Variation In Going Concern Accuracy, Yimei Zhang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Auditors are required to issue modified audit opinions if they have sufficient doubts about the client’s ability to continue as a going concern. These going concern opinions represent an important information resource for financial statement users to evaluate client performance, and are associated with a number of negative capital market outcomes (e.g. negative returns, increased cost of capital, etc.). Despite being used by capital market participants, going concern opinions are commonly plagued with Type I errors (false positive) and Type II errors (false negative), making them a particularly noisy measure. The purpose of this study is to determine whether machine …

An On-Ramp To Financial Inclusion: Measuring The Impact Of Mercy Corps' Community Investment Trust Program On Minority Investors, Lexi Yokote

University Honors Theses

Mercy Corps' Community Investment Trust (CIT) was launched in 2017 as a low-risk real estate investment and education initiative. The program is now working to replicate this in cities across the United States. However, it has not been able to collect much feedback from existing investors about their experiences and needs. This paper will use primary and secondary research in the form of a literature review and original surveys to collect information about investor demographics, attitudes toward the CIT and investing, risk perceptions, and future investment plans. The results show that U.S.-born versus foreign-born status, ethnicity, and gender affect the …

Traits Of Leadership, Alinta Magdalene Ali

University Honors Theses

The objective of this thesis is to analyze the correlation between leadership styles, introverted and extroverted traits, and their impact on effective leadership within the workplace. The first section defines leadership and introduces leadership styles: servant, transformational, identity, autocratic, democratic, and coaching. The discussion delves into the distinctive characteristics, advantages, and obstacles associated with each leadership style, highlighting how each style prioritizes personalized guidance and assistance for team members. The second section explores the introvert and extrovert aspects and how they complement each other in the workplace. Effective leaders possess the ability to adjust their personality traits, exhibiting both social …

The Psychometric Evaluation Of Decent Work In India, Jadvir K. Gill

Industrial-Organizational Psychology Dissertations

Work has a high impact on an individual’s well-being, health, and the lives of their loved ones who depend on them (Ford et al., 2013). The Decent Work Scale, constructed by Duffy et. al. (2017), measures what it means to have access to decent work (safe conditions, time for leisure and rest, support for family and social values, adequate compensation, and access to adequate health care) in the United States. However, a gap in the social sciences is the lack of external validity. Psychological research has mainly focused its attention on western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic nations and then …

The Factors Contributing To The Resilience Of Thailand's Social Welfare Nonprofit Organizations Since The Onset Of The Country's Prolonged Political Crisis In 2005, Narttana Sakolvittayanon

Dissertations and Theses

Since 2005, nonprofit organizations in Thailand, a transitive country, have experienced survival challenges due to social, economic, and political changes. This study aims to explore the organizational attributes of nonprofit organizations in Thailand that contribute to resilient capacity, which is an ability to survive and continue providing goods and services to fulfill missions when facing challenges. The research questions of this study are what factors have affected the resilience of social welfare nonprofit organizations in Thailand since the onset of the country’s prolonged political crisis in 2005? And to what extent do theories of nonprofit resilience in advanced liberal democracies …

Interstice, Shravan Rao

Masters Theses

When I was about three years old, I distinctly remember being too small to see what was on top of the table. A couple of years later, when I could see those objects, I thought the world around me had grown smaller. In a way, it did, as I experienced, lived, captured, remembered, and shared the space repeatedly. This sense of the world shrinking was exaggerated during the Covid-19 pandemic, allowing new behaviours and modes of interaction to emerge. Continually shaping our modern lives, virtual technologies redefine how we access and share information and stories or even explore new places. …

The Root Of Culture: Human Ritual And The Soils Of West Virginia, Aleece Mount

Masters Theses

The Cumberland Mountains of Southern West Virginia are home to mountaintop removal, with the Guyandotte River watershed exhibiting some of the most extreme examples. The strip-mining practices have removed fertile soil, altered water courses, deeply polluted the land, and stripped people of their wealth – prosperity in happiness and abundance of possessions and resources. This has resulted in some of the nation’s worst health, education, and economic conditions. The communities of this watershed live at the heart of the economic and political forces that undermine community and ecological well-being.

Southern West Virginia has a deep and continued history of living …

Making Then Meaning, Ben Denzer

Masters Theses

This is an artist talk contained within a book. It is 816 pages and 49 minutes long. Closed captions run across the spreads. A video of this talk can be watched on bendenzer.com/making-then-meaning

At RISD, I’ve been prompted to expand the scope and tools of my practice and to reflect on questions of meaning in my work.

I spend my days making things, but I’ve never really had good answers to questions of why I make the things I make, or what their meaning is. I don’t think there are simple answers to these questions.

I think meaning comes from …

The Role And Impact Of The Communications Department And Investor Relations Functions On The Process Of Privatization, Iulia Erhan

Student Theses and Dissertations

Current market conditions, and the heavy responsibilities placed on publicly traded companies by investors and regulators alike, have led many publicly traded companies to consider going private. The going-private decision, however, involves a complex set of actions and strategies. This paper analyzes the privatization process and the role that the Communication and Investor Relations departments play throughout the transaction. Its initial focus will be on communication with employees, including communication that facilitates the executive team’s decision-making activity related to employee retention. It will be followed by a review of the range of external communications, such as the going-private transaction announcement, …

How To Grow Blurry: Poems, Nathaniel Metz

Canterbury Scholars

In this collection of poems, Nathan D. Metz explores the distance between the word for a thing and the touch or feeling of a thing. Using a variety of forms both established and innovative, as well as free verse and ekphrastic response, these poems are a celebration of art, color, and the sounds of words. After the collection is a series of poems translated both from the original Japanese and Haitian Creole.

The Barriers To Active And Experiential Learning In Accounting Education, Elizabeth Holbrook

Doctor of Business Administration (DBA)

This qualitative phenomenological study explored the barriers accounting faculty face to incorporating more active and experiential learning into accounting education. Twelve accounting faculty from a variety of universities throughout the United States were interviewed, including those who are part of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU) and whose business schools are accredited by the Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP) or the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB). These interviews revealed six significant barriers and 23 sub-barriers that prevent accounting faculty from incorporating more active and experiential learning into their classes. The significant barriers …

Overreaction At The Time Of Regulatory Policy Adjustment: Evidence From The A-Share Market In China, Jian Huang

Fordham Dissertations and Theses

The stock market is a significant place for capital allocation where paternalistic securities regulation is a necessary choice to hedge against risks in a growth-oriented capital market and enhance efficiency of capital market. However, paternalistic regulation can also lead to behavioral failure and amplify market failure, thus resulting in a decline in market efficiency. This dissertation attempts to empirically reveal that it is one of the objectives of securities regulation to increase the stock direct financing ratio (DFR), but policy adjustments can cause increased market volatility, and a stock market with increased volatility may exhibit overreactions, a phenomenon …

Essays On Corporate Social (Ir)Responsiblity, Alliance Formation And Stock Market Reaction, Qiwen Yu

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This dissertation consists of two essays related to corporate social (ir) responsibility (CSR/ CSI), alliance formation, and stock market reaction. The first essay examines how a potential partner’s performances in CSR and CSI may play distinct signaling roles in influencing alliance formation. I argue that partner CSR primarily serves as a signal of the partner’s trustworthiness, increasing a focal firm’s willingness to collaborate with a high-CSR partner. In contrast, partner CSI primarily signals the risks of negative spillover of a partner’s reputation for social irresponsibility to a focal firm, reducing the focal firm’s propensity to ally with a high-CSI partner. …

E-Commerce In Saudi Arabia: An Analysis Of The Law And Practical Challenges For Businesses And Consumers, Sultan Abdulhadi Alqahtani

Maurer Theses and Dissertations

E-commerce between businesses and consumers has developed tremendously in recent years, which led to the need to develop legislation to keep up with technical, infrastructural and legal changes. Therefore, countries have issued the necessary legislation to help regulate e-commerce activity and provide legal protection for the contracting parties.

Noting this significance, the Saudi Arabian legislature issued the E-Commerce Law in 2019 as the first e-commerce law in Saudi Arabia that regulates the contractual relationship between a service provider and a consumer in Saudi Arabia. This dissertation is one of the first to complete an in-depth, comprehensive analysis of the many …

An Empirical Research On The Financial Distress Risk In The Garden And Construction Industry, Jianlin Guan

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

In recent years, the garden and construction industry has faced significant financial distressdue to the downward pressure on the macro economy. This financial distress not onlyposesrisks to the financial stability and management of enterprises but also has far-reachingimpactson society.

This paper utilizes various analytical methods such as case analysis, empirical analysis, andevent analysis to derive the following conclusions:(1)The participation of garden constructionindustry enterprises in public-private partnership (PPP) projects leads to increased financial distress.(2)The higher the debt ratio of the local government where listed gardenandconstruction enterprises are located, the greater the financial distress theyexperience.(3)Enterprises in the garden and construction industry, whose …

Reducing Scope 3 Emissions By Investing In Regenerative Agriculture In Supply Chains, Stephanie Cain

Master's Theses

The agricultural industry has an opportunity to shift to a more sustainable practice that helps restore vital topsoil, improve water quality, reduce environmental impact, and sequester atmospheric carbon into the vast soil carbon pool. However, to implement these practices at considerable scale, agricultural producers require access to resources and capital they rarely have and can be difficult to acquire. As a company, investing in regenerative agriculture in supply chains can lead to reduced Scope 3 emissions, more resilient supply chains, and better marketability as an investment fund, an employer, and a brand. Insetting regenerative agriculture can protect supply chains against …

Portfolio Optimization Using Value Focused Thinking, Tyler Martin

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the application of Value Focused Thinking (VFT) and multi-objective portfolio optimization to create a well-aligned portfolio for an organization faced with over 50 alternatives and limited funding. A novel technique is proposed to develop an optimized portfolio based on VFT scores, utilizing heuristic approaches like evolutionary algorithms. The research outcomes include an optimized portfolio, the total value evaluation of alternatives, and a sensitivity analysis. The new approach outperforms the organization’s previous method, resulting in a portfolio that better addresses the organization’s core values and objectives, scoring 21.21% higher.

The Evolution Of The Nba’S Culture, Trey Jones

Theses

This project focuses on the National Basketball Association’s dress code problems from 2004-2005 to the 2022-2023 NBA season. Highlighting how a predominantly black athletes' association, run by white men, changed in multiple ways to respect the fashion and culture of its community over this 20-year period. The community that was most represented on the court, and those who support the league at home. Doing so through the influence of the media, player opinions, race, fashion, time, and executives. Showcasing how a prominent business, such as the NBA, can change it its brand to be acceptable and successful.

Career Shock And Voluntary Turnover Intention Among Current Employees In The Public Sector, Charlena Miller

Doctor of Business Administration (DBA)

Attracting and retaining talent was identified as the most critical growth driver for 77% of U.S. executives in 2022, and they plan to increase investment in talent attraction and retention in the coming years (PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2022). The problem in supporting and guiding leaders’ investments in retention through existing turnover research and findings is two-fold. First, past research has primarily used data collection with “leavers” who have already left the organization, sometimes long after the turnover was experienced. Secondly, studies have focused on attitudes, satisfaction levels, employee attributes, and job features, which have shown poor predictive ability for voluntary turnover (Hom …

Capital Structure Decision And Separating Risk From Optionality, Yang Xu

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Chapter 1 This paper treats a firm’s capital structure decision as an optimal risk-taking decision based on its risk-return tradeoff prospect. The paper proposes to construct mean-variance ratio forecasts based on return-on-asset histories and shows that the forecasts can explain a large proportion of the cross-sectional company leverage variation. The leverage predicted by the mean-variance ratio forecast maximizes a firm’s relative value. Once the mean-variance ratio forecast is accounted for, contributions from other commonly identified variables become small. Furthermore, some of the additional explained variations do not constitute value-maximizing leverage target variations, but rather variations away from the target.

Chapter …

Disclosure Harmonization And R&D Investment Efficiency, Lu Tong

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study examines the effect of harmonized patent disclosure on the efficiency of firms’ research and development (R&D) investment. Patent disclosure harmonization reduces uncertainty about patent validity and the costs of processing patent information, resulting in better R&D investment decisions than before. Leveraging the introduction of the Global Dossier portal, an initiative to harmonize patent disclosure across multiple jurisdictions, as a natural experiment, this study finds consistent evidence. Results also show that firms reporting in non-English languages benefit more than those reporting in English due to reduced processing costs. Further analysis reveals that the Global Dossier leads to an increased …

Phantom Shootings, Allan Ambris

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This capstone is a website designed to critique NYC Open Data reporting with respect to shootings through a series of visualizations and discoveries. The NYPD Shooting Incidents datasets (Historic and Year to Date) introduce themselves to the user by claiming to be a “list of every shooting incident that occurred in NYC.” The supplied documentation reveals that this is not the case.

After understanding the supporting materials, there are still undisclosed truths. My exploration of the data revealed that a single victim may be represented across multiple entries. Additionally, multiple victims may be represented by a single entry. It is …

Essays On Tax Impacts On Corporate Finance, Corporate Governance And Regional Disparity, Mei Li

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation consists of three chapters that cover topics on tax impacts on corporate finance, regional disparity and corporate governance.

Chapter 1 - How Do Net Operating Loss Carryforwards Affect Tax Impact on Corporate Capital Structure? This paper examines the impact of net operating loss (NOL) carryforwards on the tax implications of corporate capital structure. Leveraging the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA), the largest tax reform in four decades, this paper investigates the effect of NOL carryforwards on firms' sensitivity to tax reforms. As NOL carryforwards have become increasingly significant since 2000, but not widely researched due …

Two Essays In Real Estate Dynamics, Navid Safari

Theses and Dissertations in Business Administration

Real estate dynamics encompass a multifaceted interplay of various factors that shape the market. This dissertation presents two distinct essays that delve into critical aspects of real estate dynamics.

In the first essay, we investigate the influence of short-term rentals, specifically Airbnb activity, on neighboring house prices in Hampton Roads, Virginia. By employing robust measures such as active listings, reservations, and their cumulative impact over different periods, we uncover a positive association between prior Airbnb rental activity and housing sales prices. Moreover, we observe a spatial decay effect, where the localized impact diminishes with increasing geographic distance, particularly beyond 500 …

The Impact Of User-Generated Content On Consumer Purchase Intention, Alyssa Anderson

Theses

This project investigates how various forms of user-generated content impacts consumer purchasing decisions. Primary and secondary research is executed for a broader understanding of UGC implications on modern consumers. The final deliverable is a website that offers an in-depth analysis of the culture of creators and how the dynamic has shifted in recent years. Additionally, UGC cases are studied to determine the impact they have on consumers, and guides are offered to director brands on how ensure consistency and alignment with their brand identity and implement UGC into their marketing strategy.

Small Business Marketing In The Sports Industry, Cheyenne L. Abbett

University Honors Theses

This thesis explores how small sports businesses can avoid high failure rates by establishing a strategic marketing plan that makes the most of their constrained resources. The current literature on sports marketing strategy examines social media, relationship, and influencer marketing, but is limited in its application to small businesses. The purpose of this thesis is to address and fill that gap. This thesis consists of a literature review of the previously stated topics, best practices that incorporate the findings of this research, and a brief case study of these recommendations in action. Best practices include establishing a greater purpose for …

Leading For Success: Leader-Member Exchange Relationships And Employee Creative Self-Efficacy, Mary Joy Wytsma

University Honors Theses

In today's competitive and ever-evolving business landscape, creativity has become a major focus for managers, leaders, and organizations. However, there are downsides to making creative employees the end-all goal. Instead, managers and leaders should focus on fostering employee creative self-efficacy via high-quality Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) relationships. Within team settings, LMX works in tandem with Team-Member Exchange (TMX), and these relationships allow employees to experience positive physiological state, social persuasion, vicarious experience, and mastery experience, the four drivers of self-efficacy. Employees with high levels of creative self-efficacy experience increased creativity, job satisfaction, and motivation, making them major assets to teams and …

The Interaction Of Loyalty Status And Need For Status On Rewards Donations Through Perceived Social Exclusion, Clancy Slay

Honors Theses

Rewards programs are commonplace with companies seeking a competitive advantage and creating consumer loyalty. A newer development in rewards programs allows consumers to donate points rather than personally receiving these benefits. With more than $48 billion moving through these programs annually, understanding how to encourage consumers to donate rewards points has tremendous implications for reallocating funds to support worthy causes (Dorotic et al., 2017). Research on consumer donations within rewards programs is virtually absent, and many unique factors to these programs suggest prior findings on charitable giving may not generalize. One of these factors is the prevalence of hierarchical or …