The objectives of this study are: to identify the factors which influence the use of quantitative methods to test the presence of those factors in South Africa's listed companies, and to survey the opinions regarding those factors among various categories of people. The factors may thus be evaluated as to the influence they have on the use of quantitative methods. This insight should be of use to people and organisations wishing to use quantitative methods. The identification of the factors was undertaken in the first part of the study and were found to fall within four broad educations, attributes. categories, organisation nature of application, and structure, personal in the second part these factors were. subjected to two questionnaire surveys. The first was directed at the managing directors of South Africa's listed companies who were asked to provide two answers to each question. Firstly, what the position regarding the particular factor is in their companies, and secondly what they would like the position to be. The results showed that by and large the factors identified in the literature are present in the companies surveyed. Furthermore, where there are differences, the desired position showed a tendency towards that suggested in the literature. One of the more ·important features identified by this survey was the difference shown in the desires among the international companies as opposed to the local and national companies. This showed that the influence from overseas had some bearing on the use of quantitative methods. The second questionnaire tested the opinions of people working in quantitative methods and of their managers. The opinions are mostly consistent between· the two groups. The major differences were found regarding the use of interactive models and the position of the quantitative methods person in the organisation. Managers wanted more use of interactive models and considered them to be more important than did the quantitative methods people. This difference· may be due to a lack of understanding of technical skills involved or simple a communication gap between the parties. The quantitative methods person is seen to be lower in the organisation structure and to have less potential for achieving top managerial positions by the managers than by the quantitative methods people themselves. The findings of this survey were generally compatible with those of that first survey. An important aspect to emerge from both surveys was the need for a masters level of education, and for a broader education. To place the factors in. their organisational context three post survey interviews were reported on in the third part of this thesis. Three companies were chosen which were different in size, industry, stage of development etc. The most important aspect to emerge from the interviews was the impact the use of computers had had on the permeation of quantitative methods within these companies.

Microfinance has been around since the 1970s to help alleviate financial burden for the underprivileged by issuing microloans and credit programs to promote business activity. Microfinance institutions have helped multiple people around the world start their own businesses and become entrepreneurs through the process of microloans and offering credit at lower rates. The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of microloan on the very poor low income borrowers in Punjab, Pakistan. Although this study was not conducted, the research is based on empirical investigation of interviews taken around the area.

In the thesis “Analysis of Capabilities Attributed to the Fraud Diamond” research was conducted on fraud and what it takes for a person to commit fraud. The focus of this study was on one aspect of the person committing fraud, the capabilities aspect. This aspect is rather new in the accounting world, being first introduced in 2004. There was an analysis conducted on the six attributes of capabilities. The six attributes went through statistical testing. This testing was to determine whether there are significant differences between the attributes. Based on the results of the testing, recommendations were given. These recommendations were directed towards companies and managers of the companies based on the attributes.

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This dissertation contains three studies relating to executive equity compensation. In the first study (Chapter 2), I investigate whether firms adjust CEO’s equity incentives in response to the firms’ prior earnings management. I find that the risk-taking incentives from new equity grants are lower for firms with higher prior real earnings management (REM), but not for firms with higher accruals-based earnings management (AEM). My finding suggests that boards perceive the consequences of REM are more value-reducing than AEM and that they take stronger actions against REM by reducing the CEO’s risk-taking incentives arising from equity incentives. In addition, I this result is driven by firms with higher institutional ownership, suggesting that institutional investors play an important monitoring role in structuring executive compensation contracts to limit the CEOs’ value-reducing behaviors. In the second study (Chapter 3), I investigate how the firm’s downside risk and upside potential differentially affect the choice between cash and equity compensation and the choice between stock options and restricted stock compensation. First, I find that, as downside risk (upside potential) increases, boards grant more cash compensation (more equity compensation) and less equity compensation (less cash compensation). This is consistent with the idea that, when downside risk increases, a CEO requires a higher risk premium for equity compensation and, thus, the board shifts compensation away from equity compensation to cash compensation. The reverse is true for the increased upside potential. When upside potential increases, the observed compensation contract will contain less cash and more equity compensation. Second, I find that the proportion of CEO option compensation increases with downside risk and decreases with upside potential. This is because, when downside risk increases, the probability of a stock option finishing out of the money (i.e., zero intrinsic value) increases but restricted stock has positive value as long as the stock price is positive. In contrast, when upside potential increases, because of stock options’ leverage effect, a CEO will prefer stock options to restricted stock. In the third study (Chapter 4), I study how executive stock options differentially affect the firm’s systematic and idiosyncratic risk by exploiting the passage of Financial Accounting Standard (FAS) 123R as an exogenous shock to CEO option compensation. I find that option-based compensation and the proportion of idiosyncratic risk in total risk is negatively associated. This is consistent with the idea that since, unlike risk-neutral investors, risk-averse CEOs have limited ability to eliminate firm specific idiosyncratic, idiosyncratic risk is unwanted by under-diversified CEOs. Thus, CEO option compensation creates incentives to increase the firm’s systematic risk relative to the firm’s idiosyncratic risk. / Business Administration/Accounting