Corporate Finance Commons^™

Corporate Governance And Ethics, Samir K Barua

IIMB Management Review

Will a model ever be found that would guarantee ethical corporate behaviour? Samir Barua, Professor, IIM Ahmedabad, traces the efforts of governments worldwide, including the setting up of the Treadway Commission (USA), the Cadbury Committee (UK), the King Committee (South Africa) and the National Task Force on Corporate Governance (India) in the last decade and a half, to ensure corporate governance. The improvements in the 90s in the accounting and reporting standards, the regulatory and supervision framework, the composition and functioning of boards and the apparent efficiency of the capital markets led to a sense of complacency that at last …

Measuring Roi: Is It Worth It? Interview By Richard K Thomas, David Marlowe, Daniel Fell, Sheb L. True, Chuck Mcleester

Faculty Articles

Return on investment (ROI) for healthcare marketing is a hot topic among healthcare professionals. It has been discussed off and on in the past, but recent financial developments in healthcare have brought it to the forefront. Today, because of financial pressures, all operational efforts (including marketing) are under intense scrutiny, making the bottom line more important than ever.

The Capital Investment Economics Of Mobile Wireless, Hemant Kumar Sabat

IIMB Management Review

A series of technological leaps in mobile wireless devices, networks, and applications is setting the stage today for mobile wireless to transform itself from mobile voice to the ultimate communication medium by ushering in radical new applications and business models. However, to capitalise on the opportunity, stakeholders investing in mobile wireless need to assess a wide range of issues. The impact of a mobile wireless network operator’s capital investments on the industry is best understood by looking at the fundamental business drivers, the value propositions, the value chain, the components of capital investments, and the impact on operator’s cash flows …

Amar Bhide : A New Take On New Businesses In Conversation With N Balasubramanian, Rishikesha T Krishnan, Mathew Manimala, S Raghunath And Douglas Stoddart., Amar Bhide

IIMB Management Review

In the beginning there was the traditional rags-to-riches myth. The myth now prevalent in the business world is about the business school style startup – the well planned, well financed, well managed startup, where an experienced manager from Microsoft or Intel has a big idea, comes up with a plan, raises millions of dollars from a venture capital fund, recruits a top notch team, puts it all together using the kind of business management techniques taught at business schools, and in fairly short order turns it into a successful business. Amar Bhide, whose book, The Origin and Evolution of New …

Appearances Are Important: Outsourced Internal Audit Services And The Perception Of Auditor Independence, Marshall A. Geiger, D. Jordan Lowe, Kurt J. Pany

Accounting Faculty Publications

The appearance of independence is an important facet of the regulation of auditor independence. The authors conducted a research study to gauge how some financial statement users—loan officers—view and make decisions based on loan proposals that present various types of relationships between the applicant, the auditor that performs the external audit, and the auditor that performs the internal audit function (whether performed in-house or outsourced to the hypothetical loan applicant's external auditor).

The results are insightful: The closer the relationship between the external auditor and the audit client, the higher the perception of inappropriateness, and the less likely the loan …

Venture Capital And It Firms In India - Vital Issues, G Sabarinathan

IIMB Management Review

The Information Technology (IT) industry in India achieved a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 39.4 % from 1995-96 to 2000-01 in US dollar terms, increasing from $1224 million to $8260 million. Predictably, much of this growth came from exports which increased from $734 million to $6200 million, representing a CAGR of 42.7%. Software services accounted for 8.1 % of the exports during 1999-2001. During the previous years services accounted for an even higher proportion of exports.

Venture Capital Investment Trends In It Businesses In India, G Sabarinathan

IIMB Management Review

How  are  venture  capitalists  reacting  to  the  boom-and-bustIT  business  scenario?  Has  there  been  a  shift  in  entrepreneurial  activity  from  the  traditional  software  services  toproducts?  Is  Intellectual  Property  creation  possible  out  of  Indiaand  what  do  Indian  companies  have  to  offer  to  the  global  market?How  would  ‘Silicon  Valley  Angels’  affect  the  competitive  paradigmfor  Indian  VC  funds?  What  is  the  possibility  of  germinating  a  ven-ture  in  India  and  transplanting  it  overseas?    How  can  Indian  busi-ness  schools  and  institutes  of  technology  contribute  in  the  vitalfield  of  R&D?  Entrepreneurs,  venture  capitalists  and  academicsparticipated  in  a  round  table  discussion  on  VC  investment  trendsin  IT  businesses  in …

Venture Capitalism : A Close-Up, Anand Sudarshan

IIMB Management Review

The subject of venture capital and venture capitalists has captured the imagination of the public at large over the last five years. VCs have been both deified and pilloried, and have probably deserved their share of bouquets and brickbats. Undoubtedly, this exposure was in large measured fuelled by the high tech boom, the Silicon Valley, and our own obsession with all things IT.

Institutional Investors And Corporate Governance, Jinesh Panchali

IIMB Management Review

The challenge of promoting enterprise and accountability is common to all markets. What degree of freedom is right for corporate boards and how to make them accountable is a major concern in the realm of corporate governance. Even where market forces are expected to take care of the utilisation of available resources, there has to be a system which ensures that owners of these resources are made accountable for their use in the larger interests of the economy. This paper examines the rationale for institutional investors’1 activism in general and for the Indian capital market in particular, discusses empirical evidences …

Social Entrepreneurship In Singapore (German Version), Wee Liang Tan, Teck Meng Tan

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

No abstract provided.

Sampling Concepts, Paul Boyd, Ph.D.

MBA Faculty Conference Papers & Journal Articles

The usefulness of any research is dependent upon how well the group studied represents the group about which decisions are to be made or conclusions drawn. That is, it depends upon how well the sample reflects relevant characteristics of the population. When it is possible to study every member of that group there is no problem, for on these occasions we can easily calculate the exact attribute (parameter) of interest for our population.

For example, if we were interested in determining the average number of gallons of gasoline sold to customers at our service station yesterday, we …

Proposal For A Centralized And Integrated Registry For Security Interests In Intellectual Property, William J. Murphy

Law Faculty Scholarship

As the world economy enters the twenty-first century, job and wealth creation is increasingly based on innovation and creativity that, in turn, can give rise to important intellectual property rights. For many companies and individuals these intellectual property rights may represent their most valuable assets, or in some cases, their only valuable assets. As a result, intellectual property rights increasingly play a critical the role in financing.

Unlocking the job and wealth creating potential of intellectual property assets requires putting these assets into use, and that often requires a capital investment. Unfortunately, many entrepreneurs and innovators lack the capital necessary …

Audit Committee Effectiveness: A Synthesis Of The Empirical Audit Committee Literature, F. Todd Dezoort, Dana R. Hermanson, Deborah S. Archambeault, Scott A. Reed

Accounting Faculty Publications

The empirical audit committee literature is both diverse and expansive, with rapid growth in recent years based on increased concerns about corporate governance and the quality of financial reporting. Our objective in this paper is to synthesize empirical literature on audit committee effectiveness to guide future thinking and research on audit committees. To organize our review, we focus on four components that we believe contribute to audit committee effectiveness (ACE) - audit committee composition, authority, resources, and diligence.

Journal Of Actuarial Practice, Volume 10, 2002, Colin Ramsay , Editor

Journal of Actuarial Practice (1993–2006)

ARTICLES

Communicating Effectively with Words, Numbers, and Pictures: Drawing on Experience • Karolina Duklan and Michael A. Martin

Unearned Premiums and Deferred Policy Acquisition Expenses in Automobile Extended Warranty Insurance • Joseph Cheng

Can Utility Maximization Models Assist With Retirement Planning? • Zaki Khorasanee

Dynamic Funding and Investment Strategy for Defined Benefit Pension Schemes: A Model Incorporating Asset-Liability Matching Criteria • Shih-Chieh Chang, Cheng-Hsien Tsai, Chia-Jung Tien, and Chang- Ye Tu

Model Risk and Surplus Management Under a Stochastic Interest Rate Process •Jennifer L. Wang and Rachel J. Huang

Some Comments on the Pricing of an Exotic Excess of …

Improving Mortality: A Rule Of Thumb And Regulatory Tool, John H. Pollard

Journal of Actuarial Practice (1993–2006)

We develop a simple exact formula for determining cohort life expectancies under constant continuous uniform improvement in mortality using only a cross-sectional (period) Gompertz life table for the lives concerned and a simple approximation applicable to all life tables. The present values of annuities for such lives can be determined simply and accurately across the whole age span.

Modeling Size-Of-Loss Distributions For Exact Data In Winbugs, David P.M. Scollnik

Journal of Actuarial Practice (1993–2006)

This paper discusses how the statistical software WinBUGS can be used to implement a Bayesian analysis of several popular severity models applied to exact size-of-Ioss data. The particular models targeted are the gamma, inverse gamma, loggamma, lognormal, (two-parameter) Pareto, inverse (two-parameter) Pareto, Weibull, and inverse Weibull distributions. It is possible to implement additional size-of-Ioss models (including those for truncated data) using methods analogous to those described herein.

Model Risks And Surplus Management Under A Stochastic Interest Rate Process, Jennifer L. Wang, Rachel J. Huang

Journal of Actuarial Practice (1993–2006)

This paper uses simulations to explore the effects of incorrectly identifying the underlying interest rate process on assets, liabilities, and surplus levels. We show that mismodeling the interest rate (called model risk) could not only lead to a misstatement of the company's surplus, but could also cause a mismatch between the company's assets and liabilities. Our simulations demonstrate that three aspects of interest rates affect model risk: (i) volatility, (ii) level of long-term interest rate, and (iii) the speed at which the drift rate adjusts. We conclude that asset-liability managers should not ignore the impact of the model risks, regardless …

Unearned Premiums And Deferred Policy Acquisition Expenses In Automobile Extended Warranty Insurance, Joseph Cheng

Journal of Actuarial Practice (1993–2006)

A prorata formula is commonly used to calculate unearned premium reserves in property-casualty insurance. I believe, however, that an exposure-adjusted formula is more appropriate in automobile extended warranties. This paper describes the exposure-adjusted approach to calculate the unearned premium reserves of an automobile extended warranty insurance program, to test the adequacy of the calculated reserves, and to determine the allowable deferred policy acquisition expenses from an insurance company's perspective.

Journal Of Actuarial Practice Volume 10 (2002) -- Contents And Masthead

Journal of Actuarial Practice (1993–2006)

Contents

Editorial Policy: Topics suitable for this journal include AIDS, annuity products, asset-liability matching, cash-flow testing, casualty rate making, credibility theory, credit insurance, disability insurance, expense analysis, experience studies, FASB issues, financial reporting, group insurance, health insurance, individual risk taking, insurance regulations, international issues, investments, liability insurance, loss reserves, marketing, pensions, pricing issues, product development, reinsurance, reserving issues, risk-based capital, risk theory, social insurance, solvency issues, taxation, valuation issues, and workers' compensation

Review Process

Editor - Colin Ramsay, University of Nebraska

Associate Editors: Robert Brown, University of Waterloo ○ Cecil Bykerk, Mutual of Omaha ○ Ruy Cardoso, …

Can Utility-Maximization Models Assist With Retirement Planning?, Zaki Khorasanee

Journal of Actuarial Practice (1993–2006)

Utility-maximization models for optimizing portfolio choices can be subdivided into two classes: those based on maximizing the expected utility of lifetime consumption and those based on maximizing the expected utility of retirement wealth. It is argued that the first type of model, which optimizes both saving and investment decisions, is difficult to apply in practice because of inadequate (or unreliable) information about individual preferences. Although the second type of model only optimizes investment decisions, it is of greater practical value because fewer data on individual preferences are required. The second type of model is used to derive formulae for the …

Some Comments On The Pricing Of An Exotic Excess Of Loss Treaty, Jean-Francois Walhin

Journal of Actuarial Practice (1993–2006)

This paper uses a multivariate analog of Panjer's algorithm to develop a method for pricing a complex excess of loss treaty. The treaty is such that some layers inure to the benefit of other layers. The structure of this treaty is discussed. Numerical examples are provided.

Communicating Effectively With Words, Numbers, And Pictures: Drawing On Experience, Karolina Duklan, Michael A. Martin

Journal of Actuarial Practice (1993–2006)

In this paper, we discuss techniques for developing effective communication skills, focusing in particular on technical writing, the use of graphics, and presentation. The key principles of effective communication that we propose to actuaries are as follows:

• Identify your audience and consider their needs and abilities;

• Focus on substantive content;

• Choose appropriate communication tools;

• Use language that is simple, concrete, and familiar;

• Integrate text, numbers, and graphics;

• Respond to information complexity creatively.

We focus in particular on the use of graphics as a communications tool as they are an efficient and potentially highly effective …

Further Remarks On Risk Sources Measuring: The Case Of A Life Annuity Portfolio, Mariarosaria Coppola, Emilia Di Lorenzo, Marilena Sibillo

Journal of Actuarial Practice (1993–2006)

The paper considers a model that allows the actuary to measure the riskiness connected to the randomness of projected mortality tables in evaluating a portfolio of life annuities, obtaining a measure to reflect the risk associated with the randomness of the projection. The coherence of the risk parameters with the specific nature of the considered risk sources is also discussed. Numerical examples illustrate the results, showing the importance of the risk components in terms of the number of policies and comparing measure tools obtained by means of two procedures.

A Note On The Parallelogram Method For Computing The On-Level Premium, David P.M. Scollnik, Wai Man Sara Lau

Journal of Actuarial Practice (1993–2006)

This paper discusses the differences appearing in the descriptions of the parallelogram method for the determination of earned premium at current rate levels given by McClenahan (1996) and Brown and Gottlieb (2001). It observes that the former is consistent with the method of extending exposures while the latter is not. An illustration is provided. This paper also discusses two other approaches to the determination of the earned premium.

Dynamic Funding And Investment Strategy For Defined Benefit Pension Schemes: A Model Incorporating Asset-Liability Matching Criteria, Shih-Chieh Chang, Cheng-Hsien Tsai, Chia-Jung Tien, Chang-Ye Tu

Journal of Actuarial Practice (1993–2006)

This paper studies the dynamic funding policy and investment strategy for defined benefit pension plans using one of the most comprehensive dynamic pension models to date. The model includes three investable assets: one risk free and two risky. The optimal plan decisions are formulated as a stochastic control problem that is solved using dynamic programming. The objective function uses performance measures to take into account the stability and solvency of the plan. The model is then applied to a Taiwanese pension.

Adr Risk Characteristics And Measurement, Tom Arnold, Lance Nail, Terry D. Nixon

Finance Faculty Publications

While a healthy empirical literature exists on international diversification and its benefits, surprisingly few studies have examined the risk characteristics and efficacy of asset pricing models for one avenue of international diversification – investments in American Depository Receipts (ADRs). Originating in approximately 1927, ADRs provide an opportunity for investors to indirectly purchase shares of foreign firms. ADRs represent a claim to a given number of shares of a foreign firm held by a U.S. financial institution (e.g., Bank of New York). With the increasingly significant presence of ADR trading in the American stock markets – increasing six-fold between 1990 and …

Cash Flow Statement : An Empirical Study Of Voluntary Disclosure Practices Of Malaysian Companies, K. Ranchethamalar K.

Student Works (2000-2009)

Cash flow is a critical business solvency measure. The mandatory disclosures on cash flow statements do not provide all the necessary information to evaluate an entity's performance, liquidity and solvency. No prior studies so far, have thoroughly discussed the merits of providing additional information and relating it to firm specific variables. This study has two purposes. The first purpose is to provide empirical evidence on direct and indirect method of presenting operating cash flows. The second part of the study provides empirical evidence on the voluntary disclosure practices of Malaysian companies as encouraged by MASS 5 and relating it to …

Bond Rating Of Upgrades And Downgrades : The Impact On Stock Returns, C. Thaneswary Chelliah

Student Works (2000-2009)

This paper examines the share market reactions to bond rating changes of upgrades and downgrades. In term of analysis the upgrade and the downgrade category has been divided into changes based on the investment and speculative groups. The market model was used in determining abnormal returns for the study. This research provides the relation of changes taken place within the group and across the group. In addition, this paper is also examining the impact of rating changes due to financial prospect and the companies' leverage. All the analysis is based in Malaysian scenario . The result suggests that there were …

Persistence Of Profits : Intra-And Inter-Sector Comparisons, Liew Toh Peng

Student Works (2000-2009)

The dynamics of the competition in a market economy is expected to function continuously to eliminate the profit differentials among different firms or industries in the· long run. The persistence of profit rates differentials was estimated with an autoregressive model for a sample of firms listed in 9 sectors of the Main Board of Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange (KLSE). We applied the methodology proposed by lm et al. ( I 997) to test for the persistence of profits in a panel data structure. A few specifications were considered and the autoregressive model without a lagged difference term was the best …

Risk-Based Audit Approach In The Internal Audit Department Of A Financial Institution : A Qualitative Study, Jans Mei Lin Lim

Student Works (2000-2009)

Traditionally, the internal auditing approach has been very procedures or process driven. Lately, however, there is greater emphasis on the risk-driven approach in an attempt to achieve greater effectiveness and efficiency in internal auditing. This new approach which is risk-driven is called Risk Based Auditing. A risk­based audit focuses on the organization's business risks, that is, risks which can affect a company's profitability and which hold the key to its survival. To analyze this risk, the internal auditor has to look into the working of the company to understand how it operates, and the short and long term business risks …