Finance and Financial Management Commons^™

An Examination Of U.S. Restaurant Firms' Internationalization In A Risk Context, Soyeon Jung

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The purpose of this dissertation is to advance the theoretical and practical understanding

of the relationship between publicly traded U.S. restaurant firms’ internationalization as a

corporate strategy and risks using a comprehensive set of risk measures: 1) market-based risk (i.e., systematic and unsystematic risk) and 2) accounting-based risk (i.e., standard deviation of return on assets (ROA), return on equity (ROE), and earnings per share (EPS) during the period of 2000-2013. This dissertation further investigates linear, nonlinear, and lagged effects of internationalization on restaurant firms’ risks. In summary, the findings of this dissertation reveal that internationalization tends to mitigate systematic risk, …

2015 Q3 Market Pulse Report, Craig R. Everett

Pepperdine Market Pulse Report

The quarterly IBBA and M&A Source Market Pulse Survey was created to gain an accurate understanding of the market conditions for businesses being sold in Main Street (values $0-$2MM) and the lower middle market (values $2MM -$50MM). The national survey was conducted with the intent of providing a valuable resource to business owners and their advisors. The IBBA and M&A Source present the Market Pulse Survey with the support of the Pepperdine Private Capital Markets Project and the Graziado School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University.

2015 Q4 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 mediumsized businesses for financing needs, the level of accessibility of private capital, and the transparency and efficiency of private financing markets.

Behavioral Finance: Its History And Its Future, Robert Christopher Hammond

Selected Honors Theses

The field of behavioral finance has attempted to explain a litany of biases, heuristics, and

inefficiencies present in financial markets since its creation in the 1980’s. This paper is structured as a comprehensive literature review of behavioral finance, and includes both the seminal works as well as more recent papers. The various subtopics of behavioral finance will also be analyzed, which include loss aversion, corporate finance, and momentum/contrarian investing. Finally, this paper will draw unique conclusions across behavioral finance and hypothesize about what topics within behavioral finance are likely to yield the most interesting research in the near future.

The Bright Side Of Political Uncertainty: The Case Of R&D, Julian Atanassov, Brandon Julio, Tiecheng Leng

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We examine the relationship between political uncertainty and R&D investment by exploiting the timing of U.S. gubernatorial elections as a source of plausibly exogenous variation in uncertainty. In contrast to the literature documenting negative effects of political uncertainty on real investment, we find that uncertainty over government policy encourages firm-level R&D. Firms increase R&D investments by an average of 4.6% in election years relative to non-election years. The uncertainty effect is stronger in hotly contested elections, in politically sensitive and hard-to-innovate industries, and in firms subject to higher growth options and greater product market competition. Our findings suggest that, as …

Local Business Cycles And Local Liquidity, Gennaro Bernile, George Korniotis, Alok Kumar, Qin Wang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This study examines whether state-level economic conditions affect the liquidity of local firms. We find that liquidity levels of local stocks are higher (lower) when the local economy has performed well (poorly). This relation is stronger when local financing constraints are more binding, the local information environment is more opaque, and local institutional ownership levels and trading intensity are higher. Overall the evidence supports the notion that the geographical segmentation of U.S. capital markets generates predictable patterns in local liquidity.

Perceived Risk Reduction In E-Commerce Environments, C. Michael Powell, Chris Conca

Atlantic Marketing Association Proceedings

During the past three decades, the growth of e-commerce has presented marketers with many new arenas for research and application. Certainly e-commerce has become a significant portion of the world economy and in particular the consumer sector. As previous literature has consistently considered perceived risk as a major factor consumer purchase decisions, this research identifies several major components of consumer perceived risk (PR) and their normative implications in the e-commerce environment

National Culture Dimensions And Consumer Digital Piracy: A European Perspective, Irena Vida, Monika Kukar-Kinney, Mateja Kos Kokli, James Reardon

Atlantic Marketing Association Proceedings

Digital piracy as a ubiquitous phenomenon affects a number of stakeholders, such as consumers, enterprises, and governments. Considering its global nature, it has been of particular interest to consumer researchers. Hence, a large body of digital piracy literature sheds light on the demand side and illuminates various predictors of digital piracy behavior (Harris & Daunt, 2011). Despite these efforts, very little attention has been devoted to applying international perspective in investigating digital piracy across different countries (Ki, Chang, & Khang, 2006). This study aims to fill this void by examining the digital piracy behavior in three EU countries. In addition, …

2015 Q2 Market Pulse Report, Craig R. Everett

Pepperdine Market Pulse Report

The quarterly IBBA and M&A Source Market Pulse Survey was created to gain an accurate understanding of the market conditions for businesses being sold in Main Street (values $0-$2MM) and the lower middle market (values $2MM -$50MM). The national survey was conducted with the intent of providing a valuable resource to business owners and their advisors. The IBBA and M&A Source present the Market Pulse Survey with the support of the Pepperdine Private Capital Markets Project and the Graziado School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University.

The Effect Of Florida’S Timeshare Resale Accountability Act And Securitization Announcements On Vacation Ownership Shareholder Wealth, James R. Drake, Iii

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The focus of this study deals with the vacation ownership, or timeshare, industry, and is two-fold. First, it examines the passage of a criminal law in Florida that deals with the resale of timeshare properties and measures the law’s effects on the timeshare industry in terms of shareholder wealth. Second, the study examines the effect of the announcement of the sale of asset-backed securities in the timeshare industry, also in terms of shareholder wealth. The cumulative abnormal returns of publicly traded lodging corporations that operate in the timeshare industry are calculated and analyzed for both studies.

The passage of Florida’s …

2015 Q3 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 mediumsized businesses for financing needs, the level of accessibility of private capital, and the transparency and efficiency of private financing markets.

Pass-Through Valuation, Robert M. Hull, David P. Price

The Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance

Noted scholars argue that (1) economic models of capital taxation have been inadequately adapted to owner-managed enterprises and (2) capital structure researchers have used the wrong models while also improperly measuring key variables. Thus, a model that can overcome these problems should be of interest to academics when teaching capital structure theory and practitioners when determining optimal debt levels. This paper contributes to capital structure practice by using a model that is adaptable to owner-managed enterprises like pass-throughs while also containing relevant variables that are measurable. This paper should be valuable to academics and practitioners in the following ways. First, …

Why Do U.S. Firms Invest Less Over Time?, Fangjian Fu, Sheng Huang, Rong Wang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The ratio of capital expenditure to total assets of U.S. firms decreases by more than half from 1980 to 2012. The decline in capital investment is pervasive; it has occurred for firms in most industries and is robust to firms of different sizes, investment opportunities, profitability, accesses to external financing, and expenses on R&D or acquisitions. Existing theories of corporate investment fall short in explaining the decline trend. The decline is also not explained by time variation in firm characteristics, industry composition, and public listing cohorts, or by corporate lifecycle. Our further evidence suggests that it is related to the …

The Persistence Of Long-Run Abnormal Returns Following Stock Repurchases And Offerings, Fangjian Fu, Sheng Huang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The long-run abnormal returns following both stock repurchases and seasoned equity offerings disappear for the events in 2003–2012. The disappearance is associated with the changing market environment: increased institutional investment, decreased trading costs, improved liquidity, and enhanced regulations on corporate governance and information disclosure. In response to the more efficient pricing of stocks, firms become less opportunistic in stock repurchases and offerings. Recent events of stock repurchases and offerings are motivated more by business-operating reasons than to exploit mispricing. Both external market factors and internal firm factors contribute to the disappearance of the postevent abnormal returns. Our findings on the …

Density Forecast Evaluation For Dependent Financial Data: Theory And Applications, Aurobindo Ghosh, Anil K. Bera

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

In this paper, we propose a formal test for density forecast evaluation in presence of dependent data. Apart from accepting or rejecting the tested model, our smooth test identifies the possible sources (such as the location, scale and shape of the distribution) of rejection, thereby helping in revising the initial model. We also propose how to augment the smooth test to investigate explicit forms of dependence in the data within the same test framework. An extensive application to S&P 500 returns indicate capturing time-varying volatility and non-gaussianity significantly improve the performance of the model. Although we are dealing with index …

Home Away From Home: Geography Of Information And Local Investors, Gennaro Bernile, Alok Kumar, Johan Sulaeman

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We develop a 10K-based measure of spatial variation in the availability of value-relevant information that reflects the multi-dimensional nature of firm location. Spatially distributed information generates location-based information asymmetries that affect institutional portfolio decisions and performance. Institutions overweigh firms with greater local economic exposure and earn superior returns on corresponding trades, even for firms not headquartered locally. These patterns are stronger among harder-to-value stocks. Consistent with local informational advantage, local investor performance increases with the local exposure of individual stock holdings and her portfolio as a whole, and more so when her portfolio is more heavily tilted toward local stocks.

The Relevance Of Economic, Institutional And Cultural Determinants For Venture Capital Investments. A Us-Europe Comparison., Nadja Benes

Master's Theses

This study analyzes the determinants of early-stage VC investments by identifying characteristics in the economic, institutional, as well as cultural framework that could explain the diverging levels of early-stage VC investments across countries. Data was assembled for 16 countries during the period from 1995 until 2013. The results indicate that countries that are more open to trade are associated with higher levels in early-stage venture capital. A higher unemployment rate negatively affects a country’s level of early-stage VC funds. Higher R&D expenditures as a proxy for the technological and innovation capacity in a country as well as a higher value …

2015 Q1 Market Pulse Report, Craig R. Everett

Pepperdine Market Pulse Report

The quarterly IBBA and M&A Source Market Pulse Survey was created to gain an accurate understanding of the market conditions for businesses being sold in Main Street (values $0-$2MM) and the lower middle market (values $2MM -$50MM). The national survey was conducted with the intent of providing a valuable resource to business owners and their advisors. The IBBA and M&A Source present the Market Pulse Survey with the support of the Pepperdine Private Capital Markets Project and the Graziado School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University.

What Happens When A Stock Is Added To The Nasdaq-100 Index? What Doesn’T Happen?, Susana Yu, Gwendolyn Webb, Kishore Tandon

Department of Accounting and Finance Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Purpose – Prior research on additions to the S&P 500 and the smaller MidCap 400 and SmallCap 600 indexes reach different conclusions regarding the key variables that explain the cross-section of announcement period abnormal returns. Most notable in this regard is that liquidity measures, long thought to be of importance, do not appear to explain abnormal returns of the S&P 500 when other factors are controlled for. By contrast, they do appear to matter for additions to the smaller stock indexes. To explore this difference, the purpose of this paper is to analyze the abnormal returns upon announcement that a …

2015 Q2 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 mediumsized businesses for financing needs, the level of accessibility of private capital, and the transparency and efficiency of private financing markets.

Two Essays On Managerial Horizon, Cash Holdings And Earnings Management, Sanjib Guha

Theses and Dissertations in Business Administration

U.S. corporations are now sitting on an enormous stockpile of cash. Academicians and practitioners alike have tried to understand the reasons why companies are holding on to so much cash. Numerous studies have explored the various motives for holding cash. Many researchers have tried to correlate excess cash holding with particular firm characteristics. This dissertation analyzes the correlations that exist between excess cash holding and some measurable managerial characteristics. This dissertation examines if managerial horizon has any impact on excess cash holding. It also examines if managerial horizon and excess cash has any impact on firm value. Four different measures …

International Venture Capital Firms Syndication And Performance: A Social Network Perspective, Amir Pezeshkan

Theses and Dissertations in Business Administration

Despite a growing body of research on venture capital firms, the process by which venture capital firms invest across borders remains unclear. This three-essay dissertation integrates the literature on venture capital firms, social network theory, and international alliances to examine following research questions: 1) How do network characteristics (i.e., structure and composition) of the international venture capital firms and their potential partners impact their syndication behavior? 2) What configurations of the ventures' and the international venture capital firms' attributes is associated with syndication in emerging markets? and 3) Does the host country influence the international venture capital firms' syndication behavior …

Financial Health And Corporate Performance Of Listed Manufacturing Companies In Hong Kong And Singapore – A Comparative Study Of The Two Asian Tigers, Foo S.L.

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Hong Kong and Singapore are two leading economies in Asia Pacific. This study examines the relationship between the financial health, as measured by the Altman Z-Score, and corporate performance, as measured by the Return on Equity (ROE), of listed manufacturing companies in these two markets. A linear regression was conducted between these variables to determine the magnitude and direction of their relationships. The trends of Z-Scores over a fourteen-year period are also analyzed. The analysis covers the period from 2000 to 2013(inclusive) and yielded a statistically positive correlation between ROE and the Z-Score for both markets. Singapore and Hong Kong …

Investor Sentiment Aligned: A Powerful Predictor Of Stock Returns, Dashan Huang, Fuwei Jiang, Jun Tu, Guofu Zhou

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We propose a new investor sentiment index that is aligned with the purpose of predicting the aggregate stock market. By eliminating a common noise component in sentiment proxies, the new index has much greater predictive power than existing sentiment indices have both in and out of sample, and the predictability becomes both statistically and economically significant. In addition, it outperforms well-recognized macroeconomic variables and can also predict cross-sectional stock returns sorted by industry, size, value, and momentum. The driving force of the predictive power appears to stem from investors' biased beliefs about future cash flows.

2015 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 mediumsized businesses for financing needs, the level of accessibility of private capital, and the transparency and efficiency of private financing markets.

Momentum Life Cycle Around The World, Frank Weikai Li, K. C. John Wei

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The momentum life cycle (MLC) hypothesis first proposed by Lee and Swaminathan (2000) applies also to global markets. Early-stage strategies significantly outperform the late-stage and conventional strategies in most countries. Individualism culture is positively associated with late-stage but unrelated to early-stage momentum profitability, suggesting that early- and late-stage momentums are driven by different underlying mechanisms. Consistent with Stein’s (2009) model that arbitrageurs could amplify mispricing, we find that late-stage momentum profits are more pronounced in countries with lower limits to arbitrage. Furthermore, we find that the MLC also applies to exchange traded funds in the United States.

2015 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 deployed in October 2014, 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 …

Are The Parents To Blame? Predicting Franchisee Failure, Ilan Alon, Michèle Boulanger, Everlyne Misati, Melih Madanoglu

Faculty Publications

The Small Business Administration (SBA) supports franchising by backing up loans issued by regular lending organizations. However, the SBA does not directly consider firm strategies as part of its lending process. To appreciate how franchisor characteristics influence franchisee failure, we developed a heuristic model using the methodology and power of predictive analytics. We use multi-year data from the World Franchising Council’s surveys on franchisors’ characteristics and from the SBA on franchisee loan defaults. The data cover 271 diverse US franchise chains that are present in both databases. Our model predicts potential defaults of SBA-backed loans issued to American franchisees and …

What Do Institutional Investors Know And Act On Before Almost Everyone Else: Evidence From Corporate Bankruptcies, Elena Precourt, Henry Oppenheimer

Accounting Department Faculty Journal Articles

We analyze investment behavior of institutional managers who hold and trade shares of firms that file for bankruptcy. We find that during the five-year period preceding a bankruptcy filing, institutional investors (except those managing investment companies) are net buyers with a positive abnormal net number of shares traded during the period. Institutional managers start to sell shares of bankrupt firms sooner in some firms than in others; these earlier sales are of smaller firms with weaker operating performance, and lower equity risk. We do not find evidence that institutional stockholders trade strategically and avoid material price declines before they occur.

Financial Resources And Technology To Transition To 450mm Semiconductor Wafer, Thomas Earl Pastore

2010-2016 Archived Posters

Financial models that can be applied by management to build giant wafer foundries to manufacture low cost semiconductor products are demonstrated. This advanced semiconductor technology will likely drive a new frontier called the Internet of Everything, an expected $14 trillion market that will likely contribute to global positive social change.