Creditworthiness is a quality that is important to all stakeholders of an organisation, especially bondholders. It is posited that good corporate governance practices assist the confidence that stakeholders have in an organization’s ability to generate the strong cash flows that are needed to meet financial obligations, which in turn should enhance credit risk assessments. Much research has been conducted into rating assessments, but these have largely been directed at developed markets and they have not generally been focused on the impact of good corporate governance practices and procedures. The primary focus of this research is to address this issue through an investigation into the impact of key factors upon the credit risk assessments of listed companies on the Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) in Jordan, as assessed by World'vest Base Inc. (WVB) credit risk assessment scores for Jordanian companies between 2005 and 2007 inclusively. Drawing upon insights from agency (including management disciplining and wealth redistribution hypotheses), stewardship, stakeholder, signalling, legitimacy and the diffusion of innovation theories, this thesis investigates the determinants of WVB credit risk assessments of Jordanian firms under five headings: accounting and financial aspects, market and regulatory perspectives, influence of ownership structure, financial transparency/disclosure and corporate governance factors. To achieve this, an array of modelling techniques is used in order to provide a more comprehensive picture. They include bivariate analysis, one-way analysis of variance, ordinary least square regressions for numerical scores, binary logistic regressions, and ordinal logistic regression. The results demonstrate that accounting and financial factors have a significant impact on credit risk assessments but not capital intensity. Profitability is positively associated with credit risk assessments, while leverage and loss propensity have a negative association. With respect to market and regulatory factors, size and Tobin’s Q are positively associated with credit risk assessments. By contrast type of sector and audit are not related to credit risk assessments. Foreign ownership enhances ratings, whilst institutional ownership has a negative impact. Also, insider ownership and family ownership have some importance. It was surprising to find that whilst financial transparency and disclosure variables are significantly associated positively with credit risk assessments in some models, they were generally not significant across other models. Nevertheless, the study finds empirical evidence to support a degree of association between credit risk assessments and corporate governance factors. There is also a positive association between board size and credit risk assessments, but the most important aspect of corporate governance for Jordanian firms is board expertise. The originality of this thesis also embraces the inclusion not only of externally published WVB risk assessments in the Jordanian context, but also internal numerical ratings that were made available with kind permission from the WVB agency for the purposes of this research. The question is whether there are insights that can be gained from such internal ratings that have not hitherto been made available to other researchers. The answer is in the affirmative, for role duality on the board of directors is evidently more important to WVB’s own internal numerical rating assessments than is evidenced by the WVB externally published credit risk assessments. Specifically, the significance of corporate governance (role duality) is missed by multivariate models that are based solely on externally published data. Furthermore, financial transparency and disclosure variables reveal more (albeit moderate) support for the more refined internal scores of WVB than for the external assessment ratings. Finally, family ownership is also important to WVB’s internal scores. Thus, this research has enabled deeper insights to be gained into credit risk assessment determinants within the Jordanian context.

The purpose of this analytical study is to determine the degree of application of Total Quality Management (TQM) philosophy and practices in the industrial corporations in Jordan. Through detailed examination of primary and secondary empirical data from these corporations, the study examines the link between TQM and labour productivity. The population of the study consists of all Jordanian shareholding corporations listed under the industrial category in Amman Stock Exchange. In late 1998, this consisted of a total of 90 companies. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected and analysed in investigating the relationship between TQM implementation and labour productivity. Detailed survey responses from 76 participating companies were classified into two groups: high-level TQM implementation and low-level TQM implementation. About 60% of these companies were classified as companies with high-level TQM. Descriptive analysis of the survey responses plus company report data found that mean labour productivity measurements for companies with high-level TQM were significantly higher than for those with low-level TQM over the years (1993-1998). Also mean growth rates of labour productivity measurements for companies with high-level TQM were higher than for those with low-level of TQM during this period. Regression analysis demonstrated a statistically significant positive relationship between TQM and labour productivity. This relationship showed a high positive slope in companies with ISO 9000 certification, and considerably lower (but still positive) slope in companies without ISO 9000 certification. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Using a panel data analysis of a sample of 80 listed non-financial Jordanian firms during the period from 2000 to 2011, we investigated the corporate cash-holding decision. The firm’s decision to hold cash has come to the fore in last two or three years as a result of the recent global financial crisis, and the impact that this has had on the firms’ ability to raise funds from external sources. There is evidence in the US, for example, that firms have increased their holdings of cash as a result of increasing constraints from external sources. This current study therefore examines this issue from the point of view of a developing economy. We started by investigating the empirical determinants of corporate cash holdings; the results showed that firm size and growth opportunities have no significant effect on corporate cash-holding decisions, while firm’s cash flow, leverage, and liquid assets substitute have a significant negative effect on cash-holding decisions, and profitability and cash dividends have a positive effect on cash-holding decisions. Then we investigated empirically how cash-holding affects the value of corporate firms. Based on Fama and French’s (1998) valuation model and Faulkender and Wang’s (2006) model, the results showed that the marginal value of each Jordanian Dinar (JD) is valued at a discounted value of 0.41 JD; with higher leverage the marginal value of cash is declining, with a higher level of cash the marginal value of cash is increasing and, finally, cash dividends have no significant effect on shareholders’ value. We also investigated empirically how a group of explanatory variables affect a firm’s debt ratio by focusing on the liquidity variable. Results showed that the total debt ratio is positively affected by firm size and is negatively affected by growth opportunities, profitability, assets tangibility and total liquidity, cash, and non-cash liquidity. The long-term debt ratio is positively affected by firm size, non-debt tax shield, asset tangibility, total liquidity, cash, and non-cash liquidity, while the long-term debt ratio is negatively affected by growth opportunities and profitability. For the short-term debt models, the debt ratio is negatively affected by firm size, asset tangibility, and liquidity in its different forms. An investigation into the speed of adjustment showed that Jordanian firms quickly adjusted the total and long-term debt ratio, while they do not have an optimal or target short-term debt ratio.

The research undertaken aims to contribute to the debate about market efficiency and market volatility in an Islamic context. The research relates to the Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) and covers the period 1992 to 2007. It undertakes quantitative analysis involving two key elements: first, testing for random walk and calendar anomaly effects in market returns and, second, modelling volatility in market returns. The thesis applies a series of standard econometric and statistical techniques to this issue. The key ‘novel’ contributions of this study relate to the focus on Islamic religious holiday effects and also the application of behavioural finance theoretical models to explain the findings in terms of the influence of social mood (mood misattribution) effects. These are approaches that have not been previously applied in the literature within an Islamic context. The author argues that the econometric and statistical techniques applied are ‘fit for purpose’. Standard methods are applied; however, these are applied in ‘novel’ ways in parts of the thesis. For example, moving-date calendar effects are modelled for the first time and the modelling of volatility makes use of interaction effects to explore the impact of interactions between different mood-influencing variables. The study begins by identifying that the ASE index returns do not follow a Random Walk. It then goes on to identify day-of-the-week effects. First trading day of the week effects found in relation to the first trading day that follows the Muslim holy day of Friday. Monthly calendar effects were also found. January or turn-of-the-year effects were found in the ASE similar to those found previously in some Western markets. However, the largest monthly effects were found in relation to the holy month of Ramadan. Most significantly, Ramadan was found to be the only month where the average daily returns were both statistically different from the other months in the year and also positive. This, it is argued in the thesis, is due to social mood (or mood misattribution) effects. The research looks beyond informational efficiency and develops a number of ‘novel’ contributions to research in this area in terms of both the empirical findings and the behavioural finance-related interpretation of these findings, as well as the influence of Islamic ethics in Amman’s stock market returns. The thesis also examines the relationship between seven behavioural mood-proxy variables and stock market returns. Fama (1991) argues that efficiency and volatility are unrelated. In this thesis, however, evidence is uncovered which suggests that this may not be the case. High levels of volatility were found at the start and at the end of the Ramadan holy festival; this volatility, it is argued, is related to social mood. This issue is examined further by exploring previously unstudied interactions between mood-related Ramadan effects and mood-related weather and biorhythmic effects. The results of this thesis, the author believes, provide strong evidence for the existence of Muslim religion investment decision biases associated with social mood effects (mood misattribution). It is argued that these social mood effects in the case of Jordan relate mainly to Islamic ethics and cultural issues, as they are found predominantly during the Ramadan religious holiday. Despite the existence of decision biases within the ASE, no profitable trading anomaly opportunities were identified. This may be due, in part, to Jordan having high trading transaction costs. It is possible, however, that profitable trading opportunities related to Islamic holidays may exist in countries that follow stricter religious observance. The author believes that there is an opportunity to extend this research to countries such as Bahrain.