This thesis consists of empirical studies on various aspects of international corporate finance, a series of long-run event studies examining the abnormal stock return performance of Initial Public Offerings (IPOs), American Depositary Receipts (ADRs), and stock analyst recommendations. The first two of these, presented in Chapters 2 and 3, investigate the key issues relating to Initial Public Offerings (IPOs). The next, in Chapter 4, examines the performance of new American Depositary Receipt issues from emerging markets and its determinants. The final study, presented in Chapter 5, assesses the value of stock analysts? recommendations in emerging markets. It is essentially a series of empirical studies adopting a tried and tested methodology, involving benchmarks, for measuring returns over time in emerging markets, a subject that has not been sufficiently investigated. The long-run event study approach is designed to identify anomalies in these markets, which may be much more pronounced than in developed markets. This thesis makes substantive contributions to the existing knowledge on measuring, documenting and determining various issues in international corporate finance, and provides methodological improvements over previous studies. Chapter 2 presents an examination of the stock return performance of the IPO stocks listed on the Growth Enterprise Market (GEM) in Hong Kong, finding that the return performance is sensitive to the benchmark employed. Two main factors contributing to the underperformance of GEM stocks are the ?technology boom? and ?IPO effects?. Moreover, the results of cross-sectional analyses suggest that the Hong Kong GEM is a unique market; since at least 70 percent of the IPO stocks listed on the GEM are technology stocks, the ?technology? factor outweighs previous hypotheses advocated by previous researchers to explain the poor performance of newly listed stocks. Chapter 3 extends this analysis by turning attention to the post-issue stock price performance of Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) in Asian markets, using a comparative assessment of the stock performance of Asian IPOs motivated by the ongoing discovery of biases in event studies involving long horizon returns. Various methods were used to remove such biases, while examining the robustness of the long run performance of the IPOs. The results of this examination show that the existence of long run underperformance for the Asian IPOs depends on the methodology used. The study also assesses the ?Market Timing? theory with regard to Initial Public Offerings (IPOs), adding to the growing literature that suggests that Asian firms time their issuance of equity securities. Chapter 4 presents a comparative study of the post-issue stock performance and operating performance of the Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) of American Depositary Receipts (ADR) in emerging markets. The results of this study suggest that ADR IPOs are underpriced, though not to the same extent as regular IPOs. In the aftermarket, ADR IPOs underperform the Emerging Market Index. However, after controlling for differences in size and industry, underperformance of ADR IPOs compared with both home market IPOs and US IPOs could not be demonstrated. The analysis of stock and operating performance yields consistent results; aside from the ?window dressing? effect, this also demonstrates that stock price performance is a reflection of operating performance over the long run. Chapter 5 presents the first study to examine post-recommendation abnormal returns in emerging markets, based on the Emerging Market Index adjusted model and the Controlling Firm approach, demonstrating that stock prices react significantly to recommendation revisions, both on the revision day and subsequently. In this cross-sectional analysis, it appears that the Market-to-Book ratio is the primary indicator for Buy and Strong Buy recommendations. This indicates that stock analysts in emerging markets prefer high growth stocks with their attractive characteristics.

This thesis explores the occupational health and safety risks facing labour hire employees (also known as temporary agency workers) in the Australian state of Victoria. Three questions are considered. First do labour hire employees face greater risk of injury and disease than direct hire employees? Second, if so, which characteristics of labour hire employment contribute to a higher rate of injury? Third, what characteristics of labour hire employment reduce the likelihood of injured employees returning to work and being rehabilitated? The first question is answered by an aggregate analysis of data drawn from all workers' compensation claim files in Victoria between 1994/5 and 2000/1 contrasting the frequency of injury for both temporary agency employees and direct hire employees. Second a unique sub sample of individual investigated claim files was then examined to test employment factors that could account for the higher frequency of injury amongst agency workers. A third data source involved a survey and focus groups of temporary agency workers. This provided supplementary data on the work experiences of labour hire employees. A number of conclusions are drawn. Labour hire employees are more likely to be injured at work than their direct hire counterparts. Factors explaining this include economic pressures, disorganisation at the host workplace, and regulatory failure for agency employees. Several of these factors are uniquely related to the triangular nature of labour hire arrangements. Once injured at work, labour hire employees are especially disadvantaged relative to direct hire employees through the reluctance of many labour hire employers to offer further employment. This reduces the capacity of labour hire workers to return to meaningful employment. Regulatory failure stemming from both employment and occupational health and safety legislation underpins the greater likelihood of agency workers being injured at work and then dispensed with by employers. Until the uniqueness of their triangular relationship with employers and hosts is recognised through appropriate regulatory intervention, their greater occupational health and safety risks will not be overcome.

This critical hermeneutic study explored what it is like to re-enter the workforce following long-term forensic hospitalisation. An in-depth analysis of the phenomenon was completed, with the aim of evoking insights and developing understandings about the lived return-to-work experience. As this research was situated within the critical paradigm, the process of seeking, securing and sustaining employment was viewed in terms of power relationships, and through the multiple positionings of psychiatric disability, employment status and social capital.An unstructured interview process was used to explore the return-to-work experiences of eight purposefully selected informants with a history of mental illness and prior illness-related offending. They were living in the community and had returned to part or full-time employment, which they had sustained for at least six months. The gathered data was interpreted using hermeneutic analysis. This process revealed a number of themes, which were clustered into related groups, under eleven essential overarching themes. Freire's (1972) critical social theory was used to add critical depth to the findings.The findings reveal that returning to work exposes people who are affected by mental illness to an array of challenges and personal opportunities. People who have a forensic psychiatric history can encounter complex employment barriers related to stigma and misunderstanding. Therefore, the selected critical hermeneutic design provided a congruent framework with which to view the informants' quest to seek, secure and sustain employment. Despite significant obstacles, securing employment provides opportunities for individuals to test their skills while engaged in meaningful work activity. The acquisition of work skills can result in individuals' experiencing a strong sense of self-satisfaction. The experience of being bolstered by personal accomplishment often co-exists with, but is not necessarily negated by, difficulties that arise on-the-job.As there is scant reference to forensic rehabilitation within the mental health vocational literature, this study may be a timely contribution. It may also be used to add depth to the knowledge base within the field of mental health rehabilitation, in particular the specialised areas of forensic rehabilitation and vocational practise. Therefore, it may be a positive precursor to further discussion and analysis regarding work and education outcomes from the unique forensic psychiatric perspective.

The focus of this inquiry is “New Zealand small business employers’ perspectives of the important factors in return-to-work (RTW) of an employee following a musculoskeletal injury or an illness”. Whilst worldwide there is an increasing amount of attention focused on the RTW process in large organisations, there continues to be little understanding of this phenomenon in small businesses. I chose to use a social constructivist theoretical framework drawing on grounded theory methodology to construct some understanding of the employers’ perspectives of the RTW process. Eight small business employers from Auckland and Christchurch participated in this research. Data were gathered using semi-structured interviews. Constant comparative analysis, theoretical sampling and thematic analysis were used to construct two themes from the data. The findings showed that small business employers prefer informal organisational approaches, rely on close working relationships with their staff, are generally wary of bureaucracy and often must run their businesses with limited staff and financial resources. Having an employee off work for a prolonged period of time creates a sizable gap in the staff resources that keep the business running. The employer has responsibility to fill this gap while maintaining a productive business. In the absence of formal injury management practices an ad hoc approach was taken to the RTW process. A number of the employers felt undervalued by key stakeholders, such as doctors, treatment providers, Accident Compensation Corporation and in some cases RTW co-ordinators. Health and safety was a risk all employers appeared to take seriously whereas injury management information and support seemed less of a focus. This research suggests there may be little focus on injury management in small businesses by employers and, that employers perceive greater government emphasis on injury prevention. The extent and associated costs of work disability in small businesses is as yet unknown, but it is likely to be significant. How to support and encourage the uptake of injury management in small businesses in the long term warrants further investigation. Understanding that employers may well lack injury management expertise, experience and resources requires stakeholders to make specific effort with the employer, at the workplace, to facilitate the RTW process.

Diss. Uppsala : Uppsala universitet, 2007.

Univ., Diss.--St. Gallen, 2004.

University, Diss.--St. Gallen, 2007.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2004. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 144-154).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1998. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 79-81). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1998. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 79-81). Also available on the Internet.