This dissertation offers and tests a theory regarding the source of asymmetric cross-correlation in size-based portfolio returns and variances. This 'information transfer' theory states that large firm portfolio returns may 'lead' those of small firm portfolios because large firm stock prices contain 'better quality' information versus small firm stocks, and are thus used as information signals by investors in smaller firm stocks. The theory is contrasted against the transaction cost theory, as offered by Cohen, et al. (1980, 1983) and Mech (1990), which states that cross-correlations in portfolio returns obtain because of differential transaction costs among size-based portfolios. / These competing theories are tested by studying the cross-correlation characteristics of portfolios formed by proxies for information content of securities (size and relative trading volume) and transaction costs (share price and bid/ask spread). Tests performed include studies of simple cross-correlation patterns of portfolios formed controlling alternately for information quality and transaction cost proxies in weekly and daily returns, cross-mean and cross-variance influence tests using univariate and multivariate GARCH-M models and tests regarding theory implications for large magnitude returns. / Results support the conclusion that information quality and transaction costs both play a role in the cross-correlation patterns of size-based portfolios. Both simple cross-correlation patterns and multivariate parameter estimates support this conclusion. However, no evidence was found that return variances are consistently predictable among portfolios nor that large magnitude returns for leading portfolios are followed by quicker price adjustments by lagging portfolios than small magnitude returns. The finding that the quality of information available for securities plays a role in the asymmetric predictability of stock returns is the unique contribution of this work. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 55-09, Section: A, page: 2933. / Major Professor: David R. Peterson. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1994.

This study examines whether there are contagion effects and shifts in systematic risk for life insurance industry co-members regarding information releases and subsequent failures of First Executive Corporation, First Capital Holdings Corporation, Monarch Capital Corporation, and Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Company. During the Spring and Summer of 1991, each of these companies either asked for voluntary protection or was involuntarily taken over by state insurance regulators. / The capital market response regarding financial instability and subsequent failures of the four subject life insurers is analyzed for three portfolios of life insurance industry co-members. The three portfolios consist of New York and American Stock Exchange life insurance companies, National Association of Security Dealers' Automated Quotation System life insurance companies, and New York and American Stock Exchange multi-line insurance companies. / A dummy variable technique is used to calculate unexpected security returns for specified event days. The event days correspond to the information releases for the four failed life insurers. / The results support the general conclusion that contagion effects and shifts in systematic risk were not found for the three portfolios of life insurance industry co-members. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-11, Section: A, page: 4199. / Major Professor: Richard B. Corbett. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1993.

This dissertation focuses on the cross-sectional effects of option listing on the return variance of the underlying securities and makes two primary contributions. First, unlike previous literature, this dissertation develops a set of hypotheses to explain cross-sectional differences in variance changes associated with option listings. Second, this dissertation decomposes transactions variance into three components, that due to the bid-ask spread, return autocorrelations, and intrinsic variance, and theoretically links the change in each component to firm-specific factors. Empirical models are developed to test the thirteen derived theoretical relationships. / The results of the estimation of the first set of models, which use the change in the bid-ask spread as a dependent variable, suggest that changes in dealer holding risk, dealer transactions costs, and the value to dealers of new demand information are significant factors in explaining cross-sectional variation in changes in the bid-ask spread. / Estimation of the second set of models, which use changes in the values of specific autocorrelation lags as dependent variables, suggest that changes in the quantity of information produced by analysts on the underlying firm and the value to dealers of new information on future demand are significant in explaining differences in changes in the return autocorrelation structure observed following option listing. / Finally, estimation of the third set of models, which use changes in intrinsic variance as a dependent variable, suggest that changes in the clientele that trade the underlying security, information quality, and the average time between trades play a significant role in explaining the changes in intrinsic variance that follow option listings. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 55-03, Section: A, page: 0630. / Major Professor: David R. Peterson. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1994.

Two different aspects of insider trading are explored in two separate essays. / The first essay empirically tests the effectiveness of alternative mechanisms for controlling the agency costs of insider trading. Empirical research related to agency conflicts is often limited by difficulty in obtaining direct measures of agency costs. This study uses excess profits and trading volume of corporate insiders as a more direct measure of one aspect of agency cost between outside shareholders and insiders. Cross-sectional differences in the utilization of various monitoring and bonding mechanisms are examined to determine the relative effectiveness of alternative strategies. Of eight mechanisms examined, only the level of institutional ownership appears effective in reducing the agency cost related to insider trading. Additionally, this study finds, for the two-year period examined, a much lower level of abnormal profitability from insider trading than that found in most prior studies. / The second essay examines the role of corporate insiders, as informed traders, in recognizing and reacting to instances of stock price overreaction. The extent and timing of insider trading is examined around instances of potential overreaction to determine their role in facilitating price reversals. Findings from this study indicate that insiders are active traders around instances of extreme price swings in their company's stock. Their trading behavior is consistent with a contrarian strategy, but is not consistent with informed trading. Insider trading is similar for price swings that are reversed and those that do not reverse. There is no evidence of a link between the extent and direction of insider trading at the time of an extreme price change and succeeding period stock returns. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 55-03, Section: A, page: 0670. / Major Professor: James S. Ang. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1993.

Studies in the area of social facilitation have attempted to explain the changes in an individual's behavior in an isolated setting compared to when the individual is being observed. This study incorporates social facilitation as a basis for explaining differences in conflict for isolated and colocated groups. Although colocated groups experienced higher levels of objective conflict, isolated groups perceived higher levels of conflict. Gender and group process also had a significant effect upon objective conflict. Groups resolving conflict through open discussion achieved higher levels of post-meeting consensus. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 57-03, Section: A, page: 1208. / Major Professor: Joey F. George. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1996.

An Iterated-Nonlinear-Seemingly-Unrelated-Regression Model with derived-macroeconomic factors was used to test the Arbitrage Pricing Theory. These derived macroeconomic factors (exogenous variables) were estimated by applying Principal-Components Analysis to a set of ten macroeconomic time-series residuals and five sets of residual portfolio returns (constructed to be orthogonal to the macroeconomic residuals). This specification reduces errors-in-variables that result when macroeconomic factors are estimated through the factor structure of security returns or defined by macroeconomic variables. / The Arbitrage Pricing Theory was tested over the three periods 1972-1987, 1972-1979, and 1980-1987. The results of these tests were consistent with the Arbitrage Pricing Theory over the subperiods 1972-1979 and 1980-1987, and less conclusive over the period 1972-1987, suggesting that the macroeconomic factor structure may be unstable over long time periods. In all three time periods, the sensitivity of a security to the macroeconomic factors was a significant determinant of security returns; in addition, security returns were not significantly affected by nonlinear factor risk. The implication of the Arbitrage Pricing Theory, that security returns are a linear combination of a security's sensitivity to a small set of macroeconomic factors, was strongly supported by the results of this study. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 51-07, Section: A, page: 2442. / Major Professor: Elton Scott. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1990.

Information systems delivery (ISD), the process of designing, developing and implementing new information systems (IS) is a process that is familiar to most practitioners and academics. This process, however, has been an area of frustration and mystery to both groups for neither can definitively determine why some ISD processes are soundly successful while others are unforgettable failures. This research suggested that ISD should be viewed as a process that is surrounded by change, conflict and complexity. This interactionists perspective further suggests that primary stakeholders addressed the interaction of these contexts by using a negotiated order process to establish visions and expectations for the IS and ISD process. The visions and expectations also can serve to guide the management of the ISD process as it unfolds. / A case study at two selected sites observed and studied two retrospective projects, one more successful, one less successful, at each site. Eight of twelve propositions were partially supported, while four were not supported by one project. Only one proposition was not supported by two projects. The obtained evidence indicated that stakeholders should be formally identified and have some motivation to participate in negotiating visions and expectations. These negotiations and their outputs when formally conducted and documented produced better outcomes than those which did not. Formal visions and expectations provided stakeholders the opportunity to address and resolve areas of potential conflict early in the process as well as providing the project teams with greater support and flexibility in executing the ISD process. Learning during the actual ISD process, provided stakeholders and team members the opportunity to continually evaluate and enhance, if needed, the vision and expectations to achieve better end-results. The evidence indicated that such processes, as encountered, can provide a more complete approach to both the initial stages of the ISD as well as the on-going management of the project. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-07, Section: A, page: 2754. / Major Professor: Robert W. Zmud. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1995.

Feedback on successful or unsuccessful actions is essential for goal pursuit as it allows individuals to direct their efforts to match the challenges they face (Bandura, 1991; Locke & Latham, 1990). Consequently, there are many social roles associated with providing feedback on goal pursuit. For instance, educators, coaches, employers, and marketers all provide feedback on accomplishments or lack thereof. This feedback allows students, athletes, employees, and consumers to allocate their efforts to ensure they meet their goals. In addition, people often seek feedback from social agents, such as friends, family members, and colleagues. This research examines how expertise (perceived or actual) influences the feedback people seek from others as well as how they respond to such feedback. While there are many different motives that influence feedback seeking and responding (Swann & Read, 1981; Tesser, 1988), I focus on the desire to have a realistic self-assessment. When people are focused on accurately assessing their accomplishments or lack thereof, negative feedback is beneficial as it provides information on how people can improve without necessarily damaging their self-esteem (Trope & Neter, 1994). / The first set of studies investigates the feedback people seek and how they respond to feedback on their own actions as a function of their expertise. In this paper ("Chapter 1"), I test whether novices focus on assessing their commitment to a goal while experts focus on monitoring their progress on a goal. Consequently, novices are more likely to seek and respond to positive feedback as it signals that the goal is important or valuable, and thus increases one's commitment. In contrast, experts are more likely to seek and respond to negative feedback because this feedback signals that one's pace of pursuing the goal is insufficient. / The second set of studies investigates attitudinal and behavioral change in response to feedback in persuasive messages. Persuasive appeals can include a wide variety of media messages, including messages that do not contain feedback (e.g., positive or negative advertising) and messages that do include feedback. In this paper, I focus on feedback in persuasive appeals and propose a set of studies that investigate how people respond to positive or negative feedback on a group's action as a function of their expertise level. Feedback in persuasive appeals can be provided at two levels -- at the individual level (e.g., ways an individual performs well or can improve) and the group level (society's action are effective or ineffective). In this chapter, I further focus on feedback provided at the group, rather than at the individual level, because providing feedback at this level is less likely to arouse defensive concerns and allows me to shed light on when negative feedback can be useful for promoting attitudinal and behavioral change. I propose that because experts focus on monitoring their effort investment, they will be more likely to exhibit behavioral and attitudinal change in response to negative feedback on their group's actions. In contrast, because novices focus on assessing their commitment, they will be more likely to exhibit behavioral change in response to positive feedback on their group's actions.

In the first essay, we extend the research of Grinstein and Michaely (2005) on the relation between institutional ownership and payout policy by focusing on the institutions most likely to vote their shares. We account for heterogeneity among institutional investors as well as for firms. This paper accounts for heterogeneity among institutional investors based on their portfolio concentration and investment horizon and firms are differentiated based on their importance for institutional investors (based on percentage of total portfolio invested in the firm), free cash flow and debt-to-equity ratio. We examine the institutional holding data from 1980 to 2006. Like Grinstein and Michaely (2005) we don't find evidence that institutional investors influence dividend payouts even after controlling for heterogeneity among institutional investors and firms. Our results indicate that institutional investors increase their holding prior to increase in repurchases in firms where they are long-term institutional investors. We also find similar relation between firm importance and repurchases. Our results do not support the notion that institutional investors are attracted to high dividend paying firms or firms with higher repurchases. / In the second essay, we investigate relation between institutional holding and firm value. We examine whether institutional investor influence firm performance or they just follow momentum strategies. This paper takes into account the heterogeneity among institutional investors in that firm, firm importance for an institutional investor and institutional focus on a particular firm. We analyze annual data from 1980 to 2006. We don't find statistically significant evidence that institutional investors monitor and influence firm decisions to increasing firm value. In addition, our results suggest that firms that increase their firm value attract investment from institutional investors. We also find that this relationship is stronger for institutional investors with long-term investment horizon.

In Chapter One of this dissertation we present evidence consistent with the hypothesis that firms select a price range for their shares that appeals to a particular ownership clientele. We find a statistically significant relationship between three proxies for the ownership clientele and firms' share prices. We also find that firms with larger investors, as measured by the dollar investment of the average shareholder, have higher share prices. Because it is costly for firms to attract a different ownership clientele, they take actions, such as stock splits, which keep their share prices within a particular range. We show that firms are more likely to split, the further their share price deviates from it's optimal range. Chapter Two examines the role of the underwriter's reputation and certification in seasoned equity offerings. Our findings indicate that the portfolio of securities underwritten by high-quality underwriters outperforms the portfolio of securities underwritten by low-quality underwriters. However, we also find that portfolios formed solely on the basis of publicly available information match or better the performance of the portfolio of securities underwritten by high-quality underwriters. The implication of this latter result is that investors do not need underwriters to identify high-quality firms when buying SEO's. This finding adds to the puzzle of why public firms that issue equity use underwriters.