Corporate Finance Commons^™

Estimation Of Cost Efficiency Without Cost Data, Levent Kutlu, Ran Wang

School of Economics and Finance Faculty Publications

One of the advantages of conduct parameter games is that they enable estimation of market power without total cost data. In line with this, we develop a conduct parameter based model to estimate the firm specific “marginal cost efficiency” and conduct without using total cost data. The marginal cost efficiency is an alternative measure of efficiency that is based on deadweight loss. We illustrate our methodology by estimating firm-route-quarter specific conducts and marginal cost efficiencies of U.S. airlines for Chicago based routes without using route-level total cost data.

2018 Private Capital Markets Report, Craig R. Everett

Pepperdine Private Capital Markets Report

The Pepperdine private cost of capital survey was originally launched in 2007 and is the first comprehensive and simultaneous investigation of the major private capital market segments. This year’s survey specifically examined the behavior of senior lenders, asset‐based lenders, mezzanine funds, private equity groups, venture capital firms, angel investors, privately‐held businesses, investment bankers, business brokers, limited partners, and business appraisers. The Pepperdine survey investigated, for each private capital market segment, the important benchmarks that must be met in order to qualify for capital, how much capital is typically accessible, what the required returns are for extending capital in today’s economic …

2018 March Parkview Signature Care Thought Leader Forum, Mike Packnett, Jeanne Wickens, Raymond Dusman Md, Greg Johnson Do

Presentations and Events

The agenda and supplemental documents can be accessed at this site.

Base Erosion And Profit Shifting (Beps) And The Digital Economy: Challenges And Issues, Marianne Ojo, James A. Digabriele

Department of Accounting and Finance Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

The digital economy, undoubtedly, has contributed to the immense task of clearly identifying, ascertaining, and accounting for sources, rationales, and audit trails relating to tax transactions. This is not only evident owing to difficulties associated with cross-border transaction regulations which govern different jurisdictions as well as the enforcement of such regulations, but also in respect of risks associated with the present global financial environment - all having generated from the rise in automation, increased and improved sophisticated technologies, globalization, and conglomeration. This chapter not only seeks to highlight the extent, contribution, and significance of the digital economy in respect of …

Are Corporate Codes Of Ethics And Risk Assessment By Internal Auditors Associated With Sustainability Audits By Internal Auditors?, Steven M. Desimone, Mohammad Abdolmohammadi

Economics Department Working Papers

An increasing number of organizations engage in sustainability reporting to the public. However, assurance of this disclosure is relatively new. In this study we investigate corporate codes of ethics and risk assessment by internal auditors as correlates of organizations’ engaging their internal audit functions (IAFs) in sustainability audits. Using data from a large sample of chief audit executives (CAEs) we find significant and positive associations between code of conduct and risk assessment and sustainability audits by IAFs. Also, we find positive and significant association between industry (environmentally sensitive vs. others), CAE experience, and CAE major (accounting vs. others) and sustainability …

Financial Reporting Changes And Internal Information Environment: Evidence From Sfas 142, Qiang Cheng, Young Jun Cho, Holly I. Yang

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Using the adoption of SFAS 142 as an exogenous shock, we examine the effect of changes in financial reporting on firms’ internal information environment. SFAS 142 removed goodwill amortization and required firms to perform a two-step impairment test. We argue that complying with SFAS 142 induces managers to acquire new information and, therefore, improves managers’ information sets. Interviews with executives and auditors confirm this argument. Using a difference-in-differences design, we find that firms affected by SFAS 142 (i.e., treatment firms) experience an improvement in management forecast accuracy in the post-SFAS 142 period compared with those not affected. The increase is …

Trade Secrets Law And Corporate Disclosure: Causal Evidence On The Proprietary Cost Hypothesis, Yinghua Li, Yupeng Lin, Liandong Zhang

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

This study exploits the staggered adoption of the inevitable disclosure doctrine (IDD) by U.S. state courts as an exogenous shock that generates variations in the proprietary costs of disclosure. We find that firms respond to IDD adoption by reducing the level of disclosure regarding their customers’ identities, supporting the proprietary cost hypothesis. Our results are stronger for firms in industries with a higher degree of entry threats, for firms in more volatile industries, and for firms with a lower degree of external financing dependence. Overall, this study represents one of the first efforts in identifying the causal effect of proprietary …

Internal Control And Operational Efficiency, Qiang Cheng, Beng Wee Goh, Jae Bum Kim

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

We examine whether effective internal control over financial reporting has implications beyond that of financial reporting to firm operational efficiency. We predict and find that operational efficiency, derived from frontier analysis, is significantly lower among firms disclosing material weaknesses in internal control relative to firms with effective control. This result exists even in the years leading up to the disclosure of material weaknesses, but disappears after remediation of the internal control problems, suggesting that the remediation of material weaknesses improves operational efficiency. Overall, our study extends the literature on the reporting effects of strong versus weak internal control, and helps …

Return Predictability And The Real Option Value Of Segments, Pingui Rao, Heng Yue, Xin Zhou

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Theory suggests that firm value should include the value of real options; that is, firms have the option to expand more profitable businesses and liquidate less profitable businesses. In a diversified firm, each segment has its own real options. Applying real options theory to a diversified firm at the firm level neglects the value of segment-level options. If investors overlook segment-level options, mispricing will occur. Using data from 1981 to 2013, we find that a hedge portfolio buying diversified firms in the highest decile of the estimated real option value of segments (RVS) and selling those in the lowest RVS …

Essays In Corporate Finance, Meng Gao

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This dissertation studies the impact of credit rating on firms’ financing behavior and investigates insider trading activities.

The first essay documents how firms’ concerns about credit rating change affect their choice between the use of debt and lease. Firms approaching a credit rating change tend to use less debt relative to operating leases to finance their new projects. In this paper, I propose a new method of measuring the potential of a credit rating change. Using the new measures, I find that not only the concerns about being downgraded but also the at- tempts to get upgraded have significant impacts. …

Using Data Analytics To Raise Productivity And Profitability: 4 Key Steps For Smes, Gary Pan, Poh Sun Seow

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

It is widely believed that effective data analysis may create newbusiness opportunities as technological advancement may offercompanies greater ability to predict what their customers want.

Are Overconfident Ceos Better Leaders? Evidence From Stakeholder Commitments, Kenny Phua, T. Mandy Tham, Chi Shen Wei

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We find evidence that the leadership of overconfident chief executive officers (CEOs) induces stakeholders to take actions that contribute to the leader's vision. By being intentionally overexposed to the idiosyncratic risk of their firms, overconfident CEOs exhibit a strong belief in their firms’ prospects. This belief attracts suppliers beyond the firm's observable expansionary corporate activities. Overconfident CEOs induce more supplier commitments including greater relationship-specific investment and longer relationship duration. Overconfident CEOs also induce stronger labor commitments as employees exhibit lower turnover rates and greater ownership of company stock in benefit plans.

Managerial Conservatism, Board Independence And Corporate Innovation, Jun Lu, Wei Wang

Business Faculty Publications

Using panel data on U.S. public firms, we document a positive effect of board independence on corporate innovation. This effect is concentrated in firms that are larger in size, in the non-technical industries, facing less product market competition, and using more debt, where managers are more likely to be excessively risk averse. We establish causality of board independence on innovation using a difference-in-difference approach that exploits an exogenous shock to board composition, namely, the mandate of a majority of outside directors on company boards by NYSE and NASDAQ in response to the passage of Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002. We further …

2018 Q1 Private Capital Access Index Report, Craig R. Everett

Pepperdine Private Capital Access Report

The Pepperdine Private Capital Access Index (PCA) is a quarterly indicator produced by the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University, and with the support of Dun & Bradstreet. The index is designed to measure the demand for, activity, and health of the private capital markets. The purpose of the PCA Index is to gauge the demand of small and medium sized businesses for financing needs, the level of accessibility of private capital, and the transparency and efficiency of private financing markets.

Reframing The Board Diversity Issue: Set 25 By 25 Target, Themin Suwardy, Surianarayanan Gopalakrishnan

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Studies have shown there is clear association between aboard's gender diversity and company performance. Yet Singapore has been softerthan usual in pushing the agenda. In this commentary, the authors discussed theimportance of setting an explicit hard target with a fixed deadline to reframeboard diversity in Singapore.

Reframing The Board Diversity Issue: Set 25 By 25 Target, Themin Suwardy, Surianarayanan Surianarayanan Gopalakrishnan

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Studies have shown there is clear association between aboard's gender diversity and company performance. Yet Singapore has been softerthan usual in pushing the agenda. In this commentary, the authors discussed theimportance of setting an explicit hard target with a fixed deadline to reframeboard diversity in Singapore.

Productivity And The California Global Warming Solutions Act: An Examination Of Cost Of Compliance Utilizing Plant Level Data In The Portland Cement And Manufacturing Industry, Richard Ardito

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This dissertation examined the effect of California environmental regulation, AB32 on the Portland Cement Mining and Manufacturing industry which was directly targeted by the legislation. The researcher examined the effect of productivity on the Portland Cement industry operating within California by comparing changes specific labor and fuel use productivity measures to changes in the same measures for organizations operating outside of California. These differences were examined using an independent sample t-test to determine if any changes were statistically significant. The results showed statistically significant increases in productivity for direct labor, total employee labor, and combustible fuel use when analyzed to …

Do Underwriters Compete In Ipo Pricing?, Evgeny Lyandres, Fangjian Fu, Erica X. N. Li

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We propose and implement a direct test of the hypothesis of oligopolistic competition in the U.S. underwriting market against the alternative of implicit collusion among underwriters. We construct a simple model of interaction between heterogenous underwriters and heterogenous firms and solve it under two alternative assumptions: oligopolistic competition among underwriters and implicit collusion among them. The two solutions lead to different equilibrium relations between the compensation of underwriters of different quality on one hand and the time-varying demand for public incorporation on the other hand. Our empirical results, obtained using 39 years of IPO data, are generally consistent with the …

Thinking Finance - The Comic Book, Dimitrios V. Siskos

Publications

Thinking financially results in the best possible outcome and establishes a secure foundation for the future as an independent man. In contrast, thinking emotionally leads to short-sighted financial decisions and usually, deep regrets. However, thinking financially is not pleasant for the people around us. This comic book presents a guy, whose dream is to become an accountant. When he finally succeeds in this, he realizes that thinking financially may be effective for his boss but it is irritating for everyone else, even for his family.

The Impact Of Sustainability Reporting On Firm Profitability, Lancee L. Whetman

Undergraduate Economic Review

Using a hand-collected representative sample of 95 publicly traded American firms from various sectors in 2015-2016, I examine how corporate sustainability reporting affects the financial performance of firms. I find a positive and significant effect of sustainability reporting on a firm’s return on equity, return on assets, and profit margin in the subsequent year. However, this relationship is found only for firms with low institutional ownership. These results suggest that sustainability reporting would be a worthwhile use of corporate resources for this subset of firms. Further, corporate sustainability reporting is shown to be an effective substitute for monitoring by institutional …

Cracking Shells: The Panama Papers & Looking To The European Union's Anti-Money Laundering Directive As A Framework For Implementing A Multilateral Agreement To Combat The Harmful Effects Of Shell Companies, Nicholas Vail

Texas A&M Law Review

In early 2016, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists released a report detailing thousands of leaked documents demonstrating how a Panamanian law firm had, for years, helped wealthy clients conceal their financial activities through the use of offshore shell companies. The Panama Papers, as the leaked documents came to be known, directed renewed attention at the use of shell companies. Shell companies are used by the world’s wealthy and powerful to lower their taxes, but are also used by tax evaders, criminal organizations, and terrorists. While much of the renewed attention has been directed at offshore tax havens such as …

Future-Time Framing: The Effect Of Language On Corporate Future Orientation, Hao Liang, Christopher Marquis, Luc Renneboog, Sunny Li Sun

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We examine how international variation in corporate future-oriented behavior, such as corporate social responsibility and research and development investment, could partially stem from characteristics of the languages spoken at firms. We develop a future-time framing perspective rooted in the literatures on organizational categorization and framing. Our theory and hypotheses focus on how companies with working languages that obligatorily separate the future tense and the present tense engage less in future-oriented behaviors, and this effect is attenuated by exposure to multilingual environments. The results based on a large global sample of firms from 39 countries support our theory, highlighting the importance …

The Emerging International Taxation Problems, James G. Yang, Victor N.A. Metallo

Department of Accounting and Finance Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

The problems of tax evasion and tax avoidance are as old as taxes themselves. Between 2015 and 2016 alone, many U.S. multinational corporations were involved in tax disputes with the European Commission. From a historical perspective, these disputes are unprecedented as they have resulted in tremendous amount of tax penalties. The most notable case was Apple for €13 billion of unpaid tax. This article discusses what tax strategies these corporations used that caused such disputes. It specifically investigates seven corporations: Apple Inc., McDonald’s, Starbucks, Fiat, Amazon, Google, and Ikea, and elaborates on the following tax strategies: high royalties, intercompany transfer …

The Relationship Between Sports Sponsorship And Corporate Financial Returns In South Africa, Michael Goldman, Julian Blake, Sonja Fourie

Sport Management

Purpose

Sponsorship is a major contributor to income in the South African sports arena, and is a critical component allowing sports unions to remain financially viable and sustainable. Sports sponsoring companies, however, have long questioned the financial returns generated from these ventures. The purpose of this paper is to understand whether financial returns of companies with sports sponsorship in South Africa are significantly different to those without. This research was conducted on Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) listed companies that sponsored sport consistently between 2000 and 2015 for a period of two years. A quantitative methodology was employed whereby share price, …

Ua1b Climbing To Greater Heights, The Wku Strategic Plan 2018-2028, Wku Strategic Planning Committee

WKU Administration Documents

WKU strategic plan for 2018 through 2028.

Ua25/2 Memoranda, Wku Human Resources

WKU Administration Documents

Memoranda issued by WKU Human Resources to faculty & staff via email.

• Employee Benefits Cost Chart, 1/1/2019
• Salary Increases, Employee Benefits Cost, 1/1/2019

Measuring Firm Size In Empirical Corporate Finance, Zhichuan Li, Chongyu Dang, Chen Yang

Business Publications

In empirical corporate finance, firm size is commonly used as an important, fundamental firm characteristic. However, no research comprehensively assesses the sensitivity of empirical results in corporate finance to different measures of firm size. This paper fills this hole by providing empirical evidence for a “measurement effect” in the “size effect”. In particular, we examine the influences of employing different proxies (total assets, total sales, and market capitalization) of firm size in 20 prominent areas in empirical corporate finance research. We highlight several empirical implications. First, in most areas of corporate finance the coefficients of firm size measures are robust …

Duratable Enterprises Inc., Spencer D. Evans, Hal B. Heaton

The Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance

In late 2017, DuraTable received a number of unsolicited inquiries regarding its interest in selling out in a going private transaction, mostly from private equity firms. Since the chairman of the board and founder, Gary Reynolds, was approaching retirement age and the largest single shareholder who had provided the seed capital to start the company was over 80 years old, Mr. Reynolds was willing to consider a sale and provided information to four or five of them to prepare bids. DuraTable was a closely held company with relatively few individuals holding the vast majority of shares. As such, DuraTable’s shares …

Is The Accruals Anomaly More Persistent In Firms With Weak Internal Controls?, Kanishk Kapur

CMC Senior Theses

In 1996, Sloan identified the accruals anomaly, in which the negative relationship between the accruals component of current earnings and subsequent stock returns can be exploited to generate excess returns. One would expect the accruals anomaly to dissipate and ultimately disappear as investors take advantage of the now-public information. However, nearly two decades later, it persists as one of the most prominent and contentious anomalies; its magnitude of current and future excess returns still remain controversial. The main reason for its persistence is that extreme accrual firms possess characteristics that are unappealing to most investors. These characteristics, which include insufficient …

You Can Run But You Can’T Hide: The Advance Of Shareholder Activism, Kendall Greenberg

CMC Senior Theses

Shareholder activism has exploded in popularity since the turn of the century, due in large part to impressive relative returns generated by its major participants. The result has thus been a surge in assets invested in the category, to in excess of $170 billion today up from less than $3 billion in 2000 (Inglis 2015; Romito 2015). This influx of capital, in absolute dollars and pace of growth, has caused many to wonder whether activists truly create shareholder value and, if so, if the value generated is sustainable. Numerous studies of activist interventions prior to 2009 reveal significant stock price …