Finance and Financial Management Commons^™

Structural Identification Of Pair Trades, Yi Liu

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines the structural identification of pair trades based on company fundamentals, stock price paths, and company’s capacity to transform fundamentals into value. The dissertation consists of four chapters. Chapter 1 lays the foundation for the study of pair identification. It designs the pair trading procedure and defines the trading performance measure. It also reviews and compares the performance of commonly used pair identification metrics in the literature, including normalized price squared distance, return correlation, and co-integration tests. Among the three metrics, the squared price distance represents the most effective metric and generates the best pair trading performance. The …

Option Market Maker Hedging And Stock Market Liquidity, James O′Donovan, Gloria Yang Yu, Jinyuan Zhang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This paper demonstrates that option market maker hedging impacts the liquidity of underlying stocks. Options contracts have zero net supply, and option market makers engage in delta hedging to manage the risk of their net imbalances, unlike option end-users. Consequently, when option market makers hold a net short (long) position, their dynamic hedging demands liquidity from (or supplies liquidity to) the underlying stock, leading to market destabilization (or stabilization). Leveraging proprietary option exchange data that categorizes option trading by trader type, we document this effect and show that it is stronger for stocks where liquidity supply is expected to be …

The Cost Of Cheap Talk: How Campaign Promises And Default Contributions Affect Donation-Based Crowd Funding Success, Tianci Leon Qiu

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Non-profit organisations (NPOs) find it increasingly harder to engage donors and raise funds from the public. Post-pandemic: the emphasis on tactics to raise funds online through donation-based crowdfunding (DCF) platforms has surged in importance for both NPO survival and continued beneficiary aid. However, unlike equity-based crowdfunding platforms where campaign organisers are obligated to provide investors with tangible returns based on funding milestones, NPOs on DCF platforms do not have to adhere to any funding milestones or are beholden to any tangible obligations towards donors. Consequently, NPOs are greatly incentivised to deploy cheap talk – non-binding, unverifiable messages and claims to …

Does Abstract Thinking Facilitate Information Processing? Evidence From Financial Analysts, Frank Weikai Li, Rong Wang, Yang Yu, Gloria Yang Yu

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We study whether abstract thinking – an essential cognitive trait established by psychological and neuroscientific studies – facilitates analysts’ information processing. Exploiting analysts’ questions during earnings calls, we construct an Abstract Thinking Index (ATI) that measures their tendency to involve abstract words, logical reasoning, broader topics, and future outlooks. We find that abstract thinking improves analysts’ forecast accuracy and recommendation informativeness. Consistent with abstract thinking featuring identifying central characteristics and comprehending intangible things, ATI has stronger effects for firms with fundamentals co-moving more with peers and less tangible information. Additional analyses suggest that ATI captures analysts’ cognitive traits rather than …

What Drives The Value Of Financial Analysts’ Advice? The Role Of Earnings And Growth Forecasts, Ohad Kadan, Leonardo Madureira, Rong Wang, Tzachi Zach

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We offer a parsimonious index at the individual analyst level to measure the extent to which an analyst relies on earnings and long-term growth forecasts in producing her advice. Using this index, we evaluate the contribution of earnings and growth forecasts to the investment value of analysts’ stock recommendations. We find that the fraction of analysts’ advice attributed to forecasts varies considerably across analysts and sectors. The investment value of recommendations is higher for analysts who rely less on their forecasts and more on other sources of information when forming investment advice. Investors recognize the superiority of recommendations from analysts …

Shrinking Factor Dimension: A Reduced-Rank Approach, Ai He, Dashan Huang, Jiaen Li, Guofu Zhou

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We propose a reduced-rank approach (RRA) to reduce a large number of factors to a few parsimonious ones. In contrast to PCA and PLS, the RRA factors are designed to explain the cross section of stock returns, not to maximize factor variations or factor covariances with returns. Out of 70 factor proxies, we find that five RRA factors outperform the Fama-French (2015) five factors for pricing target portfolios, but performs similarly for pricing individual stocks. Our results suggest that existing factor proxies do not provide enough new information at the stock level beyond the Fama-French (2015) five factors.

Is Carbon Risk Priced In The Cross-Section Of Corporate Bond Returns?, Tinghua Duan, Frank Weikai Li, Quan Wen

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This paper examines the pricing of a firm's carbon risk, measured by its carbon emissions intensity, in the cross-section of corporate bond returns. Contrary to the "carbon risk premium" hypothesis, we find bonds of firms with higher carbon emissions intensity earn significantly lower returns. This effect cannot be explained by a comprehensive list of bond characteristics and exposure to known risk factors. Investigating sources of the low carbon premium, we find the underperformance of bonds issued by carbon-intensive firms cannot be fully explained by divestment from institutional investors. Instead, our evidence is most consistent with investor underreaction to carbon risk, …

The Information In Asset Fire Sales, Sheng Huang, Matthew C. Ringgenberg, Zhe Zhang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Asset prices remain depressed for years following mutual fund fire sales, but little is known about the causes of these price drops. We show that asymmetric information generates price pressure during fire sales. We separate trades into expected trades, which assume fund managers scale down their portfolio, and discretionary trades. We find that discretionary trades contain fundamental information, whereas expected trades do not. Moreover, other traders cannot distinguish between discretionary and expected trades. Our findings help explain the magnitude and persistence of fire sale discounts: fund managers choose which assets to sell, and information asymmetries make it difficult for arbitrageurs …

Macroeconomic Determinants Of Non-Performing Loans In Malaysia, Hui Ying Tan, Tuck Cheong Tang

International Journal of Management, Finance and Accounting

This study re-examines the macroeconomic variables those explaining the outstanding balance of non-performing loans (NPL) in Malaysia, namely interest rate, unemployment rate, output, and price level. It covers 11 financing sectors between commercial and Islamic banks, for examples, primary agriculture, electricity, gas and water supply, manufacturing, household sectors, and so on. The data covers monthly observations for the period 2019-2021. Given non-stationarity property in nature for the variables, the ordinary least square (OLS) estimator applies for the first-differenced variables. The empirical results show that higher output reduces overall NPL including of Islamic banks but is inelastic. The past NPL explains …

A Systematic Review: Risk Management Of Cloud Computing Projects In Healthcare, Muhammad Afif Fathullah, Anusuyah Subbarao, Saravanan Muthaiyah

International Journal of Management, Finance and Accounting

Cloud computing has become a major driver for innovation in this technological age. All sectors around the world have increasingly moved towards cloud adoption including the healthcare sector. However, cloud computing projects with other IT projects come with their own set of risks that could be costly for organizations if they materialized. This study aims to provide an understanding of the risks of cloud computing projects in healthcare by using a systematic literature review augmented by the constant comparison method.63 articles from five major databases written from the year 2010 to 2022 were reviewed as they are related to cloud …

Factors Affecting Customer Satisfaction On Online Shopping: An Empirical Study, Fong Yok Yan, Tan Booi Chen, Lau Teck Chai

International Journal of Management, Finance and Accounting

This paper examines the effect of website layout, privacy and security, customer experience, customer service, and product delivery service on online shopping satisfaction in Malaysia. With swift economic development and advanced digital technology infrastructure, online shopping in Malaysia is undergoing transformation. Businesses are advised to change their business operation towards digitalization. In this study, the survey link containing the questionnaire was sent to 300 respondents randomly via several online social media platforms. As a result, 257 responses were received with 85.67% of the response rate. Based on the findings from the multiple regression analysis, website design, customer experience, and product …

The Necessity Of Financial Literacy For Women Business Triumph: A Qualitative Study, Nur Iylia Syafiqah Binti Abdul Malik, Mohd Rizal Bin Abdul Razak, Al-Mansor Bin Abu Said

International Journal of Management, Finance and Accounting

Women entrepreneurs continue to be the torchbearers of society and nations in their pursuit of economic growth and social development through employment creation, innovation and poverty reduction. Nonetheless, financial literacy is an intangible resource that is required for growth, success, and long-term competitive advantage. However, a notable hindrance to the progress of women entrepreneurs is the absence of adequate financial literacy. The objective of this research was to ascertain the importance of financial literacy concerning the achievement of women entrepreneurs. In order to achieve the research objectives, a qualitative investigation was conducted, wherein interview data was gathered according to the …

Perceptions Of Islamic Banking Among Post Millennials: A Study On Muslim Students, Aysa Siddika, Abdullah Sarwar, Fouzia Khan

International Journal of Management, Finance and Accounting

This study aimed to understand the perception of Islamic banking among post millennials Muslim students and explore their expectations towards Islamic Shariah compliant banking. The study uses qualitative method to understand respondents’ subjective views. Semi-structured interviews are used among the Muslim students studying at public and private universities in Malaysia. Twelve students were selected using purposive sampling. The analysis revealed that religious motives, efficient services, and convenience in terms of online banking and ATM services are factors in bank selection. The study found that the students’ perceptions of their understanding of Islamic banking are not sufficient, and there is a …

Exploring The Role Of Technology In Brunei Darussalam's Public Sector During Strategy Implementation, Afiqah Amin

International Journal of Management, Finance and Accounting

The paper explores and isolates factors related to the role of technology during strategy implementation in the public sector. In pursuit of the objective, the actor-network theory (ANT) is used to explore the relationship between the entities in the public sector in using technology to implement strategy, which does not just involve the technical aspect but also the behavioural and organizational aspects. A qualitative exploratory study can better understand the role of technology infrastructure in the public sector by analysing the conceptions of organizational players that require technology to implement the strategy. Technology infrastructure in the public sector was perceived …

Managing The Nigerian Economy Through Fiscal Deficit, Umar Bala, Badamasi Salihu Uba, Adamu Yahuza Haruna

International Journal of Management, Finance and Accounting

This study examined how fiscal deficit, exchange rate, and inflation rate impacted the economic growth of the Nigerian economy from 1980 to 2019. The cointegration connection in the study was discovered using the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bound test. The analysis found that, while inflation and the exchange rate have a positive and significant relationship with the Nigerian economy, the fiscal deficit has a negative but relatively insignificant effect on the country's GDP. The Nigerian government should stabilise the currency's external value and prevent it from falling in value in the short term. Such policies should be developed to encourage …

Organizational Fear: Barriers To Effective Performance Among Malaysian Fresh Graduates’ Employees, Leong Ling Ling, Chong Chin Wei, Muhammad Sabbir Rahman, Gan Geok Chew

International Journal of Management, Finance and Accounting

The aim of this research study is to determine the factors, i.e., childhood socialization, institutional socialization, cultural socialization, fear of workplace penalty and afraid of getting terminated from work of organizational fear that influence the effective performance among the Malaysian fresh graduate employees. Data were collected from 119 fresh graduate employees who have their jobs in their first year in organization and data was analysed by using statistical analyses. The findings show that all the factors (childhood socialization, institutional socialization, cultural socialization, fear of workplace penalty and afraid of getting terminated from work) have significant relationships with effective performance. Among …

Knowledge Mapping Of Board Governance Research: A Visual Analysis Using Citespace, Yawei He, Sunita Lylia Hamdan, Sellywati Mohd Faizal

International Journal of Management, Finance and Accounting

Based on the bibliometric and visualization analysis of relevant board governance research literature from 2003 to 2022, this study summarizes and outlines the knowledge structure, hot topics, and future research directions in the field of board governance. The research findings indicate that the publication volume in the field of board governance has shown an exponential growth trend, which highlights the increasing importance and research demand in this area. Company performance has become a critical topic in the field of board governance research. Furthermore, collaboration and communication among research institutions promote knowledge sharing and enhance the quality of board governance research. …

Mastering Consumer Conversion: Unveiling The Management Of E-Commerce Purchase Intentions, Anusuyah Subbarao, Nasreen Khan, Nirmaladevi A/P Suppiah

International Journal of Management, Finance and Accounting

The global market structure has undergone significant transformations due to the widespread integration of information technology. As a result, electronic commerce has emerged, propelled by technological advancements, and has established itself as a fundamental pillar of the digital economy. This research paper aims to provide a thorough analysis and evaluation of various scholarly works and studies concerning digital shopping and explore the factors that impact consumers' purchasing behaviour on e-commerce sites. The quantitative method was used to analyse the connection between price consciousness, trustworthiness, business competency with customer buying inclination, perceived convenience and effectiveness. The findings reveal that trustworthiness and …

Forecasting Stock Indices With The Covid-19 Infection Rate As An Exogenous Variable, Mohammad Saha A. Patwary

School of Computing and Informatics

Forecasting stock market indices is challenging because stock prices are usually nonlinear and non- stationary. COVID-19 has had a significant impact on stock market volatility, which makes forecasting more challenging. Since the number of confirmed cases significantly impacted the stock price index; hence, it has been considered a covariate in this analysis. The primary focus of this study is to address the challenge of forecasting volatile stock indices during Covid-19 by employing time series analysis. In particular, the goal is to find the best method to predict future stock price indices in relation to the number of COVID-19 infection rates. …

Cultural Distance And Momentum Effect—The Case Of Cross-Listed Companies In The United States, Ling Liu

Doctoral Dissertations (DBA)

This paper examines the momentum effect in U.S. cross-listed companies, exploring the relationship between cultural distance and momentum portfolio formation, and how cultural distance affects momentum portfolio returns for US cross-listed firms. The study selects cross-listed companies from January 2001 to December 2022 and create momentum portfolios (Chui, Timan, & Wei, 2010) to test the momentum effect of cross-listed companies in the United States. The cultural distance for cross-listed companies is then calculated using the within-group cultural diversity method (Frijns, Dodd, & Cimerova, 2016) and the Hofstede (2001) dimensional method to find the momentum effect in cultural distance sorted groups. …

Exploring Occupational Therapy’S Role In Foster Care: A Mixed Methods Study On Financial Literacy Education For Foster Youth, Ashley Carmichael, Karen Park

Summer 2023 Virtual OTD Capstone Symposium

Background: Foster youth are children under 21 years old who have been removed from their homes due to neglect or abuse and are susceptible to early adversity and trauma (Alternative Family Services, n.d.; AOTA, 2017). Financial literacy is the knowledge and skills to take control of finances (National Financial Educators Council, n.d.). In the foster care setting, occupational therapists (OTs) provide client-centered care that traditionally focuses on transitional life skills, such as seeking employment (American Occupational Therapy Association [AOTA], 2017).

Problem/Purpose: The lack of resources for foster youth to gain financial literacy skills leads to a disadvantage in …

Determinants Of Net Interest Margin For Banks Operating In Pales-Tine, Islam Abdeljawad, Ajyad Bahlaq

An-Najah University Journal for Research - B (Humanities)

The goal of this research is to identify the factors that influence the net interest margin (NIM) for Palestinian conventional banks. Palestine is a unique country with poor governance, political uncertainty, and regulatory insufficiency, adding higher information asymmetry to the decision-making process. The sample is comprised of unbalanced panel data from 15 commercial banks for the period 2011–2020. The research used a pooled OLS, a fixed-effect model, a random effect model, a robust pooled OLS, a difference GMM, and a system GMM estimators. Evidence collected supports that net interest margin is positively influenced by risk aversion, operating costs, and loan-to-deposit, …

E-Dsge Model With Endogenous Capital Utilization Rate, Ying Tung Chan, Maria Teresa Punzi

Sim Kee Boon Institute for Financial Economics

Environmental policy research has increased due to stricter policies aligned with climate goals. However, to achieve the goal of net-zero emissions, the adoption of even stronger policies and increased carbon taxes is necessary, with transition risk becoming a major concern for companies. Even though governments worldwide have been employing a range of methods such as carbon tax, cap-and-trade, and intensity targets to mitigate the impact of climate change, a pivotal debate around determining the optimal policy that reduces emissions without harming the economy continues. Our paper delves into the environmental policy assessment emphasizing the role of endogenous capital utilization rates, …

Dynamics Of Mining Markets: Equilibrium Implications For Professional And Casual Miners, Luca Pezzo, Lei Wang, Seungho Shin, Duygu Zirek

Department of Accounting and Finance Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

We design a simple equilibrium model to analyze the dynamics of the mining market in the presence of professional and casual miners. The model endogenously recovers two major unobservable drivers: the supply of computing power, and the dynamics of the fixed costs of mining. We calibrate the model to the market of Bitcoin and Ethereum and find that positive shocks to the supply of computing power (technological enhancements) translate into positive price shocks, and the benefits of these hikes are creamed off by professional miners. We also find that fixed costs are inversely related to technological enhancements, decrease at an …

Exploring The Presence Of Nonlinear Deterministic Dynamics In Commodity Prices, Sagar Dahal

Department of Agricultural Economics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Determining whether commodity prices (and volatility) are driven by linear stochastic processes or low-dimensional nonlinear deterministic dynamics (“chaos”) is crucial for policymaking, forecasting, production, storage, investment, risk management, and hedging decisions. Previous studies that used Lyapunov exponents and correlation dimensions to identify chaotic structures in price series may be unreliable in practical applications because these methods rely on asymptotic properties that require large, noiseless data which is often not available. We applied nonlinear time series analysis approaches to empirically detect the underlying market dynamics using the daily futures prices of ten agricultural commodities. We used phase space reconstruction to reconstruct …

Supply Chain Finance: Exploring The State Of Adoption With Small Business Suppliers In U.S. Defense Procurement Contracts, James C. Phelps Iii

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Innovative supply chain finance (SCF) practices offer alternative approaches to relief of cash flow distress for suppliers in an extended enterprise by enhancing access to and affordability of working capital. Adopting optional SCF instruments can be especially beneficial for small–medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which are more acutely affected when credit conditions tighten. This explorative research described the state of buyer-led SCF adoption in defense procurement contracts used to produce highly technical weapons systems. A case study research design with embedded units across four groups of intermediaries was employed to compare the state of SCF adoption between a defense and a commercial …

Does Herding Behavior Exist In The Cryptocurrency Market?, Anis Mnif

Doctoral Dissertations (DBA)

This paper examines herd behavior in the cryptocurrency market using data of the top 15 large cryptocurrencies and the CCi30 Index as a proxy for market return. The idea that investors mimic and follow the behavior of others in the cryptocurrency market rather than conducting their own research has received attention in the finance literature. The CSAD results in the static model detected herding but given the existence of structural breakdowns and nonlinearities in the data series, we opted to conduct a rolling window analysis. The results indicate strong herding behavior that fluctuates over time. Furthermore, results from the logistic …

Two Essays On Retail Trading, Qiqi Liang

Theses and Dissertations in Business Administration

Essay 1: Retail investors from the discount broker Robinhood swarm into stocks with pending earnings announcements and stay away from them immediately after the announcements. We study four competing explanations for this phenomenon: liquidity provision, informed trading, lottery preference, and attention-induced herding by noise traders. We find strong evidence that, immediately around earnings announcements, Robinhood investors’ behavior is primarily driven by attention-induced noise trading. Our results offer new insights into retail traders’ motivation for trading when they face heightened uncertainty from earnings announcements. Our study also goes beyond Barber et al.’s (2022) limited focus on the top 0.5% of the …

Two Essays On Investor Sentiment, Amin Amoulashkarian

Theses and Dissertations in Business Administration

The body of literature on investor sentiment underlines its impact on future stock returns, with general consensus that investor sentiments and future returns are negatively correlated (Baker and Wurgler, 2006; Brown and Cliff, 2004). This extends to the notion that a bullish investor would expect returns to be above average, while a bearish investor anticipates below-average returns (Brown and Cliff, 2004).

The first essay proposes a model to examine the influence of unexpected volatility of investor sentiment on the equity risk premium. Assumptions underpinning the model include risk-averse investors, homogeneous expectations regarding asset returns and price changes, and sentiment-influenced expectations …

Competition And Innovation In The Financial Sector: Evidence From The Rise Of Fintech Start-Ups, Doina Caragea, Theodor Florian Cojoianu, Mihai Dobri, Andreas Hoepner, Oana Peia, Davide Romelli

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

This paper provides new evidence on the effects of entry on incumbents’ incentives to innovate by examining the rise of FinTech innovations over the period 2000-2016. We employ machine learning algorithms to classify a large sample of patent applications into five types of FinTech innovations. We then show that greater competition from innovators outside the financial sector increases the probability that incumbent financial firms will innovate. Our identification strategy exploits the variation over time in the share of FinTech patent applications by non-financial start-ups relative to incumbent financial firms, as a proxy for competitive pressures from outside the financial industry. …