Business Law, Public Responsibility, and Ethics Commons^™

An Analysis Of Impacts Of Covid-19 On Salary Cap Allocation And Performance In The National Football League, Abai Houser

CMC Senior Theses

Professional sports are one of the most successful industries in the world. The live spectacle and in-person nature make sporting events a unique and individual experience. COVID-19 shifted how athletic events were operated, financed, and viewed, thereby changing leagues as well. The National Football League was one of the last sports to start its season during 2019 and 2020, setting the stage as the only league to not isolate its players in a safe operating space. This paper studies the effects of COVID-19 on the salary cap management of teams after the pandemic. The findings suggest that financial metrics analyzed …

Navigating The Impact Of Covid-19 On Small Commercial Businesses And Insurance Companies, And A Call To Action For Future Communicable Disease Outbreaks, Natalie Peña

Honors Program Theses and Research Projects

The short-term and long-term effects of Covid-19 have caused many small commercial businesses to face financial hardships, loss of employees, and even closures for entities that were already experiencing low profit margins. Distraught with their businesses suffering, owners turned to their primary insurance companies to receive compensation through their business interruption policies. However, most insureds were upset when they discovered that their insurance plans did not include communicable diseases and pandemics as a covered peril. This led to many small businesses battling these issues in the courts and fighting for insurance companies to provide financial assistance to them during this …

B Corps’ Social Media Communications During The Covid-19 Pandemic: Through The Lens Of The Triple Bottom Line, Manveer Mann, Sang-Eun Byun, Whitney Ginder

Department of Marketing Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

The COVID-19 pandemic and rising demand for transparency has heightened the importance of sustainability communications on social media to generate deeper stakeholder engagement. Although B Corporations (B Corps), businesses committed to the triple bottom line (TBL), could serve as a catalyst for sustainable development, little is known about how they communicate on social media during a crisis. Therefore, we examined social media communications of B Corps to (1) identify salient topics and themes, (2) analyze how these themes align with the TBL, and (3) evaluate social media performance against industry benchmarks. We focused on the apparel, footwear, and accessories (AFA) …

The New Space Policy Regime And Its Financial Foundation, Tamara Campbell

Helm's School of Government Conference - 2021-2024

Post the global financial crisis of 2008, the National Aeronautical and Space Administration (NASA) sought to expand the space economy through a public policy of commercialization. This has brought major changes to the composition of space mission funding strategies, now repositioned as public private partnerships (P3s). Formed to fund space missions with private finance in lieu of public funding, P3s are investment and risk-sharing vehicles evaluated by financial intermediary institutions, insurers, and at times, the courts in the case where there is foreign direct investment (FDI) agreement. For this reason, it is arguable P3s have exceptional influence on the scope …

A Sweet Future For Sugar Makery: A Deeper Dive Into Small Business Consulting, Samuel Lauritsen

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

This case study investigates a local candy store in Glenwood and Council Bluffs Iowa. Processes, consistency and concise planning promoted the rapid growth of Sugar Makery into two locations in three short years. Results from the analyses indicate that the main problem facing Sugar Makery is sustaining its differentiated strategy from new industry entrants, key recommendations to sustain its success are presented. Every company has its own strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The key is identifying each to be able to capitalize on competitive advantages, mitigate the damage done by weaknesses, take advantage of opportunities and create plans to avoid …

Arbor Day Foundation Programs: Analysis And Recommendations, Justin Myers, Emily Alston, Cameron Claborn, Charles Erker, Braelyn Isernhagen, Jonathan Jameson

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

We are proposing the enhancement of the current Tree City USA program to include a special recognition program for high-achieving communities. These “Golden Oak” tree cities will be recognized each year based on a variety of metrics detailed in a new and more comprehensive program application. Recommendations:

● Updated application to include more information about both quantitative and qualitative insights

● Special recognition program awarding “Golden Oak” status to communities in village, town, city, and metropolis categories based on either percentile or benchmarking system

● A cumulative “Golden Oak” award given to the State that achieves the highest percentage of …

Insider Trading As A Precursor To Modern Business Ethics, Robyn Coleman

Finance Undergraduate Honors Theses

There has been a recent change in business that there is more focus on the “stakeholder approach” than shareholder primacy. This can be attributed to the early actions and illegality of insider trading that expected a step beyond a solely economic approach. This attitude was then replicated to become what we see as the modern business approach. Business now includes ethical investing, environmental focus, corporate citizenship, and emphasis on multiple stakeholders that was not always there. Companies have embraced this position while others have been criticized for not doing so. As this approach develops and changes, it will be enlightening …

Uri And Its Students: A Contract For The Provision Of A Safe Environment, Danielle Joan Beatrice

Senior Honors Projects

DANIELLE BEATRICE (English; Philosophy; Business) URI and Its Students: A Contract for the Provision of a Safe Environment

Sponsor: Judith Swift (Communication Studies, Coastal Institute)

When students begin to attend college, they expect to be consumed with busy schedules, heavy workloads, and an exciting social life. Students do not anticipate being in dangerous situations. However, this does not mean that such situations do not occur. Therefore, it is essential to teach students to be active participants in educating themselves and their peers regarding prevention and response to emergency situations. My Honors Project aims to increase the awareness of safety-related issues …

The Rescue Of American International Group Module B: The Securities Borrowing Facility, Lily S. Engbith, Alec Buchholtz, Devyn Jeffereis

Journal of Financial Crises

In 2008, American International Group (AIG) was among the largest insurance corporations in the world and maintained a profitable securities lending program. However, AIG invested much of the cash collateral received from counterparties in residential mortgage-backed securities, whose value began to collapse rapidly and unexpectedly, creating liquidity strain for AIG when borrowers returned their securities. Because of these strains, credit downgrades, and losses, in September, the company sought assistance from the Federal Reserve which, on October 6, 2008, approved the establishment of the Securities Borrowing Facility by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (FRBNY). The FRBNY agreed to loan …

The Rescue Of American International Group Module A: The Revolving Credit Facility, Alec Buchholtz, Aidan Lawson

Journal of Financial Crises

On September 15, 2008, the big three rating agencies downgraded AIG’s credit ratings multiple levels, exacerbating liquidity strains that the company was experiencing due to increasing cash demands by securities borrowers and collateral calls by credit default swap (CDS) customers. To prevent AIG from filing for bankruptcy, the Federal Reserve (the Fed) announced on the following day that, pursuant to its emergency powers, it would provide the company with an $85 billion Revolving Credit Facility (RCF). The RCF was secured by AIG assets and interests in its subsidiaries and required AIG to grant the US Department of the Treasury a …

J Mich Dent Assoc March 2021

The Journal of the Michigan Dental Association

Every month, The Journal of the Michigan Dental Association brings news, information, and features about Michigan dentistry to our state's oral health community and the MDA's 6,200+ members. No publication reaches more Michigan dentists!

In this issue, the reader will find the following original content:

• A cover story, “Vaccination by Dentists: Integrating Vaccination into Dental Practice”.
• A feature article on “Creating Opportunities for HPV Awareness and Prevention in Dental Health Care Settings”.
• The feature article, “MDA Legislative Advocacy 2021: What We’ve Done and What’s to Come”.
• “How COVID-19 Has Impacted Michigan Dentists”, a feature article.
• News you need, Editorial and …

Don’T Get Screwed: What Factors Determine The Inclusion Of J. Crew Blockers?, Michael Sill

CMC Senior Theses

A “J. Crew Maneuver” is a type of collateral-stripping event that transfers the value of a nearly insolvent company from the lender to the borrower. This concept matters to lenders because it exposes them to significant downside risk through the loss of hundreds of millions of pledged collateral. While credit analysts and debt lawyers have commented on the importance of preserving creditor value ex ante through lender-protective clauses embedded within debt documents, this paper breaks ground on empirically studying the determinants of these protective clauses known as “J. Crew Blockers”. I hypothesize that private equity backing, a contractionary credit environment, …

Insider Trading Enforcement And The Private Information Environment: Evidence From The Newman Ruling, Andrew T. Pierce

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

I exploit a shock to U.S. insider trading law to investigate whether a reduction in the enforceability of tipper-tippee insider trading restrictions leads to changes in information parity among investors and the efficiency of price discovery. The December 2014 Federal Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in US v. Newman constrained enforcement by restricting the types of exchanges between managers and investors that trigger tipper-tippee insider trading liability. Following Newman, I find that Second Circuit hedge funds experienced a significant increase in their stock picking ability of Second Circuit stocks in terms of preempting future earnings announcement returns and future …

Investors’ Reaction To Fund’S Performance: A Study On Fund Flow-Performance Relationship In Islamic Equity Funds - An International Evidence, Maimunah Johari

Student Works (2020-2029)

For many Islamic fund investors, in particular, the Muslims, the aim of their investment is not solely for financial rewards. Spiritual merits accrued through the observance of the Islamic principles brought forth another form of satisfaction. The compulsion to any investment, which involves any prohibited elements and businesses as prescribed by Shari’ah law, becomes an unidentified persuasion. These were despite theories, which expound that Islamic investment is a unique category of ethical investment invites a myriad of issues of investment inefficiencies. Investors who choose to invest with Islamic funds are considered irrational as they are ignoring the profitability and performance …

المحاسبة والافصاح عن تكاليف الاقتراض في ضوء معيار المحاسبة الدولي 23 في الشركات المساهمة العامة الأردنية, Mohammad Bachayra

Al Jinan الجنان

هدفت هذه الدراسة إلى تقييم كيفية تطبيق ومدى التزام الشركات المساهمة العامة الأردنية بمتطلبات معيار المحاسبة الدولي رقم 23( تكاليف الاقتراض) المتعلّقة بمتطلبات المحاسبية ومتطلبات الإفصاح، وقد تمّ إعداد وتوزيع استبانة على عيّنة الدراسة وهم محاسبي أو معدي القوائم المالية في هذه الشركات وعددها ستون شركة فقد تم توزيع مائة وعشرون استبانة تم استرداد مائة حيث تم قبولها للتحليل بواسطة برنامج الرزم الإحصائية وكان أهم نتائج الدراسة ما يلي :

إن الشركات المساهمة العامة تلتزم بالمحاسبة عن تكاليف الاقتراض وفقا لمتطلبات معيار المحاسبة.

تفصح الشركات المساهمة العامة عن تكاليف الاقتراض حسب متطلبات معيار المحاسبة الدولي23( تكاليف الاقتراض) حتى لا يكون …

Corporate Social Responsibility And Ceo Risk-Taking Incentives, Zhichuan Li

Business Publications

We examine how firms adjust CEO risk-taking incentives in response to risk environments associated with their corporate social responsibility (CSR) standing. We find strong evidence that as a firm's CSR status improves (declines), increasing (decreasing) its risk-taking capacity, the firm responds by adjusting compensation contracts to increase (decrease) CEO risk-taking incentives (Vega). One channel of the adjustment is through stock option grants. Further analyses indicate that the positive CSR-Vega association is stronger in firms with better corporate governance and in industries where riskiness is more important. Our evidence indicates that firms are not passive in response to changes in CSR …

J Mich Dent Assoc September 2020

The Journal of the Michigan Dental Association

Every month, The Journal of the Michigan Dental Association brings news, information, and features about Michigan dentistry to our state's oral health community and the MDA's 6,200+ members. No publication reaches more Michigan dentists!

In this issue, the reader will find the following original content:

• A cover story, “Perspectives from the Deans: Michigan’s Dental Schools in the Time of COVID-19"
• Five feature stories: “There’s a New CDA-to-RDA Pathway in West Michigan”, “We Can Do Something to Meet the Need for More RDAs”, “Coronavirus in the Workplace: Frequently Asked Questions and Answers”, “Statistics Tutorial Part IV: Common Statistical Errors”, and “Preparing …

Corporate Social Responsibility And Sustainable Finance: A Review Of The Literature, Hao Liang, Luc Renneboog

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) refers to the incorporation of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) considerations into corporate management, financial decision making, and investors’ portfolio decisions. Socially responsible firms are expected to internalize the externalities (e.g. pollution) they create, and are willing to be accountable to shareholders as well as a broader group of stakeholders (employees, customers, suppliers, local communities,…). Over the past two decades, various rating agencies developed firm-level measures of ESG performance, which are widely used in the literature. A problem for past and a challenge for future research is that these ratings show inconsistencies, which depend on the …

College Of Business Dean's Report: 2019-2020, Ryan Butt

College of Business Dean’s Reports

No abstract provided.

Cryptocurrencies: An Overview, Investment Investigation, Comparative Analysis, And Regulatory Proposals, Jacob Franzen

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

With cryptocurrencies moving out of obscurity and into the public eye, the initial purpose of this research paper is to provide the history of cryptocurrencies, to explain the complex workings in and around cryptocurrencies, investigate their investment potential, and to draw attention to their potential for misuse. To follow, the primary purpose is to create a platform on which to compare cryptocurrencies with more common mediums of exchange, analyze their current international regulatory climate, highlight their trends within influential nations, discuss their pending and future regulation, and provide personal proposals for additional regulation. Due to the complex nature of the …

An Examination Of How Environmental, Social, Governance (Esg) Investing Influences A Company's Stock Return, Sam Marty

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Projects

Using a random sample of 184 companies traded on the New York Stock Exchange in 2019, this paper investigates the impact of Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) investing on a company’s stock return. The results show that ESG investing has a positive and statistically significant impact on a company’s stock return. An increase in one ESG rating leads to an increase between 0.4% and 3.6% in the return of a company’s stock. Additionally, the results show that individual ESG factors are each statistically insignificant. This indicates that the three ESG factors need to be viewed together rather than individually. Lastly, the …

Why Is Las Vegas Busy Everyday? A Behavioural Analysis Of Impact Investors’ Attitude And Decision-Making Process, Isha Shah

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Remarking a discrepancy in the statistics of a growing influence of impact investment and yet its restrictive inclusion in the financial market has encouraged this inductive research to take an alternative approach to address the impact investment market. In an emic perspective, this study aims to assess the factors motivating individuals and institutions to pursue impact investment. Further, it also investigates some elements that guide the decision making of the investors in this field. The qualitative nature of the research demands exceptional secondary sources and it is rendered more credible with the inclusion of three relevant primary sources. The analysis …

Dbs Impact Measurement Project: Technical Review, Hao Liang, Phuong Tran Bao Nguyen, David Fernandez, Jun Ho Park

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The measurement of ESG and its impact is becoming one of the more important and debated issues in sustainable business practice, with the significant challenges being the subjectivity of scope, criteria, as well as lack of consistency across different rating agencies and data providers

Impact measurement goes beyond ESG measurement. Apart from qualitative and input-based approach, it encapsulates a more outcome/impact-based approach, supported with quantitative methods

Impact measurement and valuation are still at the infant stage, with limited research and guidelines, thus [Impact Institute] II’s approach has significant novelty and is among the first to measure and value impact

II …

Session 12 - Finance: Bias In, Bias Out? How To Fight Biases In Ai And Create Trust, Gerald Fahner

SDSU Data Science Symposium

Alarming headlines appear at an increasing rate about ‘biased AI’ leading to nontransparent decisions, discrimination and lack of trust.

Newcomers to AI application development are confronted with (and often struggle with) multiple traps that can inadvertently lead to biased and unreasonable automated decisions. By comparison, credit score developers have decades of experience in the “art and science” of mitigating biases through transparent and credible models and decisions that provide benefits to all stakeholders while complying with fair lending regulations.

In this presentation you will learn about traps to be avoided and get our unique perspective on how to achieve comprehension …

J Mich Dent Assoc February 2020

The Journal of the Michigan Dental Association

Every month,The Journal of the Michigan Dental Association brings news, information, and features about Michigan dentistry to our state's oral health community and the MDA's 6,200+ members. No publication reaches more Michigan dentists!

In this issue, the reader will find the following original content:

• A cover story on the 2020 MDA Annual Session
• A feature covering student perspectives on the Opioid Crisis
• News you need, Editorial and regular department articles on MDA Foundation activities, Dentistry and the Law, Staff Matters, Headquarters Report, and component news

This issue also includes articles reprinted with permission:

• “Muscle Deprogramming: A Source of Confusion”, …

The Role Of Mutual Funds In Corporate Social Responsibility, Zhichuan Li, Saurin Patel, Srikanth Ramani

Business Publications

This paper examines the role of mutual funds in corporate social responsibility (CSR). Using a fund-level, holdings-based CSR score, we find that CSR-friendly mutual funds improve firms’ CSR standings. This effect is more pronounced for firms with higher mutual fund ownership and stronger corporate governance. We further show that while CSR-friendly mutual funds have influence on almost all CSR categories, they focus on increasing CSR strengths rather than reducing CSR concerns. We also discover that CSR-friendly funds are more likely to vote in favor of CSR proposals, and that firms owned by CSR-friendly funds are more likely to link their …

Buyer Beware: Variation And Opacity In Esg And Esg Index Funds, Dana Brakman Reiser, Anne Tucker

Faculty Publications By Year

Evidence of the tremendous rise in the significance of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing is coming from all quarters. Fund flows into ESG investment vehicles are growing at a sustained and sometimes exponential pace. Fund complexes are rushing to design products, creating and rebranding scores of mutual funds and exchange traded funds (ETFs), including lower-cost indexed options. Industry leaders, critics, and commentators are all heralding the sea change as a shift in investing - and corporate governance - to more broadly consider environmental and social factors.

This Article provides vital context for this conversation. Its descriptive account of the …

The Layers Of Digital Financial Innovation: Charting A Regulatory Response, Teresa Rodriguez De Las Heras Ballell

Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law

The increasing penetration of digital technologies in financial markets is evidenced by promising adoption rates among users, expanding presence of fintech firms and bigtech providing techfin services, and the growing use of fintech solutions by incumbents. The increasingly popular term "fintech" captures the accelerated transformation of contemporary financial markets driven and enabled by technology, and encapsulates its multifarious potential impact on services, market structures, and business models. This Article first aims to devise and propose an analytical framework to understand the digital challenges to financial regulation based on the "layers of digital financial innovation" theory. Accordingly, digital innovation (fintech) is …

How Access To Finances Affects Gender Inequality Across Cultures, Allison Muntin

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

While many studies of financial inclusion have been undertaken, very few discuss the inclusion of women. Financial inclusion plays a large role in unlocking resources for the disadvantaged, resulting in higher economic growth and development. The economic opportunity allows individuals and businesses to have a greater contribution to society as a whole, enhancing all aspects of the economy. This paper furthers the conversation of women’s access to financial institution accounts across cultures and what underlying factors play a key role. The results indicate that the female demographic has fewer financial institution accounts in comparison to men when: (i) a country’s …

A Business Plan For The Fitzgerald Institute, Elaine M. King, Matthew G. Deibel, Matthew J. Bulgrin, Alex Skeen, Stephanie N. Kieke

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This piece seeks to develop a business strategy for the University of Akron's Fitzgerald Institute for Entrepreneurship. The recommendations given were developed utilizing research on entrepreneurial education and the desires of students at the university.