Business Administration, Management, and Operations Commons^™

Vulnerability And Resistance: An Evaluation Of Hostile Takeover Defenses Proposed By: Carissa Wilson, International Business & Business Economics, Carissa Laurel Wilson

Senior Theses

Within the context of mergers and acquisitions (“M&A”), hostile takeovers comprise a complex and pivotal area of study. It is hostile takeovers, rather than friendly ones, that give rise to the need for most buy- and sell-side tactics related to strategic M&A. This paper focuses primarily on sell-side tactics, or “target defenses,” used to deflect undesired takeover attempts and prevent changes in corporate control. It will attempt to present a high level, comprehensible, and comprehensive listing of defensive tactics in the target arsenal, with references to related case law.

Target defenses developed preemptively, or before an official takeover offer has …

The Image Of Insurance, Nathalie Dail

Senior Theses

This paper discusses the concept of brand management. The purpose is to give a brief introductory understanding of brand management and how it relates to the insurance industry. The benefits associated with brand management are detailed and analyzed in order to produce a variation of a SWOT analysis and a lean canvas. Meanwhile, Generation Y is explored as a market segment, along with challenges insurers face. This thesis seeks to explore the effects of branding on the insurance industry, with this market in mind. Consumer base fluctuations and revenue are factors considered when evaluating the effects of branding. Two well …

Three Essays On Corporate Governance And Corporate Social Responsibility, He Wang

Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities, which are firms actions that go above and beyond the interests of the firm to further the social good, have become common practice. While extant literature on CSR largely investigates the consequences of CSR activities, only a few studies identify the determinants of CSR. This dissertation extends a growing literature on the determinants of CSR by exploring the impact of corporate governance on CSR activities in three related essays. The first essay investigates the impact of family control on CSR performance. Using newly collected data on the ultimate ownership structure of publicly …

Examining The Impact Of Offshoring And Level Of Preparer Judgment On The Audit Review Process, Kristen Kelli Saunders

Theses and Dissertations

Offshoring audit tasks is becoming common among international accounting firms. Although tasks currently performed offshore require preparers to exercise little or no professional judgment, firms are poised to expand the volume and scope of procedures performed offshore. While critics argue that offshoring results in reduced audit quality, advocates maintain that offshored procedures are reviewed and supervised by U.S. auditors, and that offshoring may actually improve audit quality. However, little is known about how offshoring impacts reviewers and the review process. This study explores how offshoring interacts with varying levels of preparer judgment to influence reviewers’ judgments. Because firms plan to …

Three Essays In Banking: Corporate Governance, Internationalization, And Government Bailouts, Raluca A. Roman

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation extends a growing literature on banking and finance by investigating bank corporate governance, internationalization, and bailouts. The first essay conducts the first assessment of shareholder activism in banking and its effects on risk and performance. Activism can create value and be an effective monitoring mechanism for banks, but it may also be a destabilizing mechanism, as maximizing shareholder value may cause financial instability. We focus on the conflicts among bank shareholders, managers, and creditors (e.g., regulators, deposit insurers, taxpayers, depositors). We find activism may generally be a destabilizing force, increasing bank risk-taking, but creating market value for shareholders, …

Three Essays In Finance, Liying Wang

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is composed of three essays on corporate credit markets and corpo- rate finance. The first essay examines the impact of unconventional monetary policies (UMPs), including Quantitative Easing (QE), Operation Twist (OT), and Forward Guidance (FG), on corporate credit markets. These policies were expected to reduce credit spreads by decreasing credit risk premium and/or liquidity premium, and to further lengthen borrowing maturity. During the crisis, Quantitative Easing (QE) 1 reduced these risk premia as expected. However, after the crisis, QE 2 and Oper- ation Twist announcements increased fears of a weaker economy and, consequently, widened credit spreads. In contrast, …

When Do Political Ideologies Affect Brand Extension Evaluation? The Role Of Analytic Versus Holistic Mindsets, Cristobal Barra

Theses and Dissertations

Political ideologies are becoming an important focus of attention in the marketing literature. This research examines the impact of political ideologies on consumers’ evaluation of brand extensions. In a series of six studies, this work shows how, and under what conditions, liberals evaluate brand extensions differently than conservatives. Because liberals are more open to new experiences, and tend to seek novelty, while conservatives show stronger preferences for order, structure, and conventional things, liberals are expected to react more favorably to new stimuli, as in the case of dissimilar brand extensions. However, the effects of political ideologies are dependent on some …

Product And Consumer Characteristics As Moderators Of Consumer Response To Sustainable Products, Kealy Carter

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation consists of two essays. In both, product sustainability is broadly focused on the environmental and social performance (Luchs et al. 2010) of a product. The first essay explores the role of firm sustainability reputation in behavioral intentions for sustainable products. Additionally, this essay applies construal level theory (Liberman and Trope 1998; Vallacher and Wegner 1985, 1987) and addresses the situation that exists wherein sales of sustainable products produced by firms founded under sustainability principles are more stable than those produced by traditional firms (Clifford and Martin 2011). The second essay introduces a measure of consumer perceived product sustainability …

Two Essays On Time Perceptions And Patience, Frank May

Theses and Dissertations

My dissertation examines how the properties inherent to time can affect perception of wait time and, consequently, patience. Patience, or the willingness to forgo a smaller reward in the present in order to obtain a larger reward in the future, is an important construct in the consumer behavior literature. I focus on how consumers perceive wait time when faced with an intertemporal choice between a smaller-sooner option and a larger-later one (e.g., receive less money earlier vs. more money later). In this type of situation, wait time is standing between the individual and a better option. I argue that the …

Three Essays On Consumer Product Returns, Guangzhi Shang

Theses and Dissertations

Return policies (aka. money-back-guarantee policies) are frequently offered by retailers such that consumers can bring back the purchased products that do not fit their needs. On the benefit side, consumers perceive these policies as a risk-mitigation service and are willing to pay more for an otherwise identical product. All else being equal, being lenient in its return policy should allow a retailer to enjoy higher sales, which leads to increased revenue. On the cost side, a generous return policy will induce more returns and possibly also late returns. In 2007 alone, U.S. manufacturers and retailers paid more than $100 billion …

Functional Space Management In The Hospitality Industry And Its Future Outlook, Katherine Dail

Senior Theses

In recent years, profit made from ancillary revenues has become more vital to the success of service companies. This phenomenon is very pronounced in the airline industry, but is also beginning to become more relevant to hotels as it is applied to functional space and meetings. Most of these ancillary revenues, including meetings, are typically not considered an important source of revenue for hotels, but rather as tools to draw in primary activities. This thesis seeks to delve into the importance of the meetings industry to the economy and to the hospitality industry by considering underutilized functional space and customer …

Executive Compensation In The Banking Industry And Systemic Risk, Seungho Choi

Theses and Dissertations

In this paper, I investigate empirically whether executive compensation structure contributes to the entire systemic risk among 92 firms that highly contribute to systemic risk from 2000 to 2012. Based on Brownlees and Engle (2011) and Acharya, Pedersen, Philippon, and Richardson (2010), I use SRISK and MES as systemic risk measures. Firstly, I find that the ratio of stock options has a positively significant influence on systemic risk. Also, I find weak evidence that the ratio of cash bonus in compensation structure positively related to systemic risk. However, I find no significant evidence that the ratio of stock grants has …

An Experimental Investigation Of Reciprocity And Formal Controls With Labor Market Competition, Michael John Majerczyk

Theses and Dissertations

DISS_abstract> Most experimental research related to agency settings, such as participative budgeting, has examined how formal controls, such as audits and reviews, influence the behavior of managers. Alternatively, a growing literature in managerial accounting examines the effects of using informal social controls. Some of these studies have examined the ability of the gift-exchange model from economics, founded on reciprocity, to function as a suitable control. Within the social context of an experimental labor market, I examine the relationship between the type of control employers implement (i.e., reviews, a formal control versus reciprocity, an informal control) and the amount of budget …

An Analysis Of Convertible Bond Issuance: Design Features, Market Conditions And Private Placement, Ashleigh Poindexter

Theses and Dissertations

DISS_abstract> Over the last two decades convertible debt issues have been steadily increasing in both frequency and magnitude and several high volume issuance periods. Although convertible debt issuance is inherently influenced by debt and equity market volatilities, the convertible market has been shown to have an independent presence in terms of issuance volume, issue design and market participants.Are concerns of asset substitution, risk uncertainty, or asymmetric information the primary factors in convertible debt design, timing and placement? This paper aims to examine how the design of convertible bonds and the characteristics of convertible issuers shift over time and under different …

The Effects Of Sharing The Consequences Of Tax Evasion And Regret Salience On Taxpayer Compliance, William Douglas Brink

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines whether sharing the potential tax savings and risk of penalties associated with tax evasion with another individual and the anticipation of potential regret from an adverse IRS audit affect an individual decision maker's propensity to evade taxes. Research on risky decision making suggests that individuals will be less likely to evade taxes when the benefits and costs of evasion are shared, while research on ethical decision making suggests that individuals will be more likely to evade taxes when the benefits of evasion are shared with another individual. Using experimental data obtained from 147 experienced taxpayers throughout the …

The Implications Of Solvency Ii To Insurance Companies, Lu Wang

Theses and Dissertations

Solvency II is a new regulatory standard for European insurance companies. It aims to establish a revised set of capital requirements and risk management standards that will replace the current solvency requirements within the European Union market and will take effect in 2014. The directive will impact companies located in countries beyond the European Union.

Voicing Across Cultures: The Role Of Communication Style And Relationships In Employee Voice And Subsequent Influence, Anna-Katherine Ward

Theses and Dissertations

Constructive input from a diverse workforce can enhance firm performance. However, cultural norms and differences in communication behavior expectations may prevent concerns and suggestions from being expressed, or from being implemented when they are expressed. The purpose of the current study is to bridge the Human Resources, Organizational Behavior, Communications, and International Management literatures in an attempt to understand how subordinates with different communicaton norms voice and how (or whether) managers use the content of the voiced messages. Two models are presented examining prohibitive and promotive voice as central variables in the relationship between subordinate communication style and subordinate influence …

Diffusion Of Csr In Global Business Networks: An Embeddedness Perspective, Valentina Marano

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the role of firm embeddedness in its global business network, relative to the adoption of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practices. Global business networks refer to the nexus of inter-firm and intra-firm relationships, in which focal actors are engaged. These networks are focal firm specific, span multiple countries and involve different types of economic relationships between the focal actor and its business partners. This study argues that global business networks affect a focal organization's CSR adoption decisions, since they provide access to resources and information and also channel CSR-related institutional influences from the various countries where the focal …

Egocentric Biases In Consumer Judgment Of Products With And Without Target Market Labels, David Norton

Theses and Dissertations

Consumer research to date has posited that if we are cued to think of others, then we are likely to be influenced by the type of others we consider. Thus, research on product evaluations has focused on motivational accounts of either favoring or disfavoring a product contingent upon which specific reference group the product is associated with. In this dissertation I advance the theory that product evaluations are also cognitive in nature. Due to egocentric biases of self availability and self positivity I propose that the cueing of an 'other' lowers the valence of thoughts available (relative to thoughts of …

When Less Is More: The Effect Of Reducing Auditor Liability On Auditor Judgments In Principles-Based And Rules-Based Environments, Linda Quick

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the joint effects of accounting guidance type (principles-based versus rules-based) and legal liability regime (unlimited versus limited) on auditor decisions. Both the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) believe that moving to more principles-based standards in the United States will allow companies and auditors to more appropriately reflect the economic substance of transactions in the financial statements. However, very little attention has been paid to the possibility that principles-based standards will be applied differently in the United States than in other countries due to a different …

The Effects Of Social Costs And Internal Quality Reviews On Auditor Consultation Strategies, Tammie Janell Schaefer

Theses and Dissertations

Seeking advice from knowledgeable individuals within the firm is an essential feature of firms' quality control systems and is intended to improve auditor decision making. It is important to understand factors that encourage or discourage auditors from proactively seeking out help and relying on the 'right' people because advice can influence audit judgments. Existing studies in accounting focus on factors that affect how auditors use the advice they obtain during informal consultations. In this study, I examine factors that affect when auditors seek advice, to whom auditors go for advice, and how they present audit issues to the advisor, which …

Brand Reputation And Product Recall, Anne Meike Eilert

Theses and Dissertations

Every year, firms make numerous announcements to recall products that are deemed unsafe or defective. These recalls pose a significant threat to a firm's brand reputation. The strong, negative reactions of consumers and the media to the recalls initiated by Toyota in 2010 show how fragile brands are in the wake of a recall. Firms spend a great amount of resources on building strong brands and it is unclear how such brands influence the firm's decision to announce a recall and the consumer's decision to return the recalled product. The objective of this dissertation is to shed some light on …

Social Media, A New Revolution In The Field Of Marketing: The Effect Of Information Sharing, Peer Pressure, Entertainment And Emotional Connection On The Attitude Towards The Brand And In Turn The Purchase Intention From The Brand, Sradha Narendra Sheth

Theses and Dissertations

Social Media has today become one of the fastest and strongest networking and communication tools. Companies realizing the importance of this new marketing revolution have also ventured into the world of social media. Thus, the purpose of this study is to examine the effect of social media marketing on user's attitude towards the brand present on social media and their purchase intentions from the brand. The relevance of this study will provide great insights to retailers with regard to using multiple social media sites and their features to successfully market their products, retain and grow their customer base.

Unintended Consequences Of Regulated Contract Structure, Bryan W. Stewart

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the effect of contract structure (fixed versus contingent) and a contextual factor (positive versus negative benefit surprise) on tax professionals' behavior. Regulatory restrictions on contract structure are based on the belief that contingent fee contracts "encourage tax return preparers to take unsupported positions on the taxpayers' returns" (Murphy 1989, p. 2). Experienced tax professionals participated in an experiment investigating the effect of contract structure and benefit surprise on their judgments and decisions. Contrary to regulators' beliefs about the effect of contingent fee structures, I do not find a main effect of contract structure. Rather, results show that …

Evaluating The Intentionality Of Identified Misstatements: How Perspective Can Help Auditors In Distinguishing Errors From Fraud, Erin L. Hamilton

Theses and Dissertations

According to Auditing Standard No. 14, fraud is an intentional act. Thus, when a misstatement is identified during the audit, auditors should consider whether the misstatement might have been caused intentionally (PCAOB 2010a). The objective of the present study is to investigate whether considering the perspective of the manager responsible for a misstatement's occurrence impacts auditors' beliefs concerning the misstatement's intentionality. Using an experiment with 82 audit manager and senior manager participants, I find that auditors who actively consider the perspective of the manager who caused a misstatement assess the likelihood that the misstatement is intentional higher when the circumstances …

Essays In The Airline Industry, Mariana Luminita Nicolae

Theses and Dissertations

In 2008, most U.S. airlines implemented checked baggage fee policies to generate additional revenue to help with their financial distress caused by abnormally high fuel prices. Since this time, the fees have provided a steady revenue stream and often are the difference between a profit and a loss. Recently, some literature in the operations management field has postulated that altering consumer behavior in a manner that is beneficial to both the firm and customers is an additional purpose of these fees. In Essay 1, we empirically investigate the airline perspective of this hypothesis by considering the operational impact of airline …

Essays On Market Dominance And Price Discovery, James Michael Lockwood

Theses and Dissertations

In the first essay, I examine the burden of cross-listing prices to adjust to changes in exchange rates. Using a 3-system vector moving average model, I measure the effects of exchange rate shocks on cross-listing stock prices in the home and U.S. markets. My sample consists of 46 cross-listings on the NYSE from Canada, Brazil, and Mexico. Findings indicate that New York prices bear roughly 60% of the adjustment to exchange rates for Canadian and Mexican securities, and roughly 45% for Brazilian securities. The NYSE burden of adjustment varies considerably across firms, ranging from 7% to 100% for Canada, 10% …

Vertical Versus Horizontal Line Extension Strategies: When Do Brands Prosper?, Helena F. Allman

Theses and Dissertations

The results from prior research regarding the effectiveness of product line extension strategies on market-level brand performance are equivocal. Some studies show that brands benefit from horizontal line extensions while other studies show vertical line extensions as being a preferable approach to brand leveraging within a product category. This research proposes that the brand assortment size at time t, can moderate the effectiveness of vertical versus horizontal extensions in time t on quarterly market-level brand performance. Aggregated scanner data of twelve toothpaste brands sold for six years at a major Midwestern U.S. retailer were used as input to a panel …

Economic Development Incentives And The Legal And Economic Issues Of Open Versus Sealed Bids, Sherry L. Jarrell, J. Neal Robbins, Gary L. Shoesmith, Brendan A. Fox

South Carolina Journal of International Law and Business

No abstract provided.