Prior research on market reactions to bankruptcy filings has treated bankrupt firms as a uniform group with respect to the timing and manner of the bankruptcy filing disclosure. This view is limiting because important differences exist in the timing and manner of bankruptcy filing disclosure. For example, some firms never experience disclosure of their filing via the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) (absent disclosure firms). Other firms experience immediate disclosure of their filing in the WSJ (immediate disclosure firms), while the remaining firms experience a delay in disclosure of their filing (delayed disclosure firms). This study partitions firms into the three groups to investigate market reactions to bankruptcy filings and their relation to financial distress indicators. / Research question one assesses when the reach group's bankruptcy filings have information content, whether differences exist in the information content of each group's bankruptcy filings, and whether a directional relationship exists between groups with respect to the information content of their bankruptcy filings. Research question two assesses the strength of the relationship between market reactions to bankruptcy filings and the richness of firms' predisclosure information environment by examining the relationship between market reactions and WSJ attention measures. Research question three assesses whether a relationship exists between auditors' issuing or failing to issue going-concern modifications, subsequent bankruptcy filings, and the resulting market reactions for absent disclosure, immediate disclosure, and delayed disclosure firms. / Results for research question one indicate that bankruptcy filings appear to have information content, that the information content of the bankruptcy filings differs across groups, and that a directional relationship exists between groups with respect to the information content of their bankruptcy filings. Results for research question two indicate that an inverse relationship exists between abnormal price reactions to bankruptcy filings and WSJ attention measures, whereas a direct relationship exists between abnormal volume reactions to bankruptcy filings and WSJ attention measures. Results for research question three support the existence of a relationship between auditors' issuing or failing to issue going-concern modifications, subsequent bankruptcy filings, and the resulting abnormal volume reactions for absent disclosure and delayed disclosure firms. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-01, Section: A, page: 0258. / Major Professor: Thomas F. Schaefer. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1994.

The primary objective of this dissertation is to examine the role of corporate governance in the performance of publicly listed corporations. The normative research suggests that stronger corporate governance should lead to better market performance and a firm’s governance practice should have a positive effect on its market value. This research focuses on Chinese capital markets because of their unique characteristics with respect to elements of corporate governance.

This single qualitative case study examined the co-evolution of the Star Alliance from 1997 through 2010. Data consisted of historical documentation and in-depth interviews of nine individuals connected with the Star Alliance and the commercial aviation industry. Validation methods, including member checks, triangulation, and peer review, were used to ensure trustworthiness. / Four main findings were revealed. (1) The Star Alliance co-evolved as a complex adaptive system. Both the alliance and its airline members were in constant evolution and had to self-organize and adapt to their complex environment. As complex adaptive systems, the Star Alliance and its members created ways to collaborate, survive the industry cycles, and adapt to a very competitive, dynamic, unpredictable, and globalized world environment marked by uncertainty. (2) The Star Alliance transformed the competitive landscape in the commercial aviation industry, paving the way for increasing competition between global airline alliances rather than between individual airlines. (3) The Star Alliance allowed for expanding global outreach and cooperation. (4) The Star Alliance offered numerous benefits to both passengers and airline members. Two factors appeared to be especially important motivators for joining an alliance: the strict regulatory restrictions in several countries that limit foreign ownership and the ability to access new markets at a low risk and minimum investment. Throughout its co-evolution, the Star Alliance expanded its global reach by serving more destinations as well as responding to global demands by providing more benefits for travelers and its airline members. / This empirical case study contributes to the current literature by (1) adding to the limited research on how strategic alliances in the form of constellations co-evolve and on what exogenous and endogenous factors affect their co-evolution; (2) drawing upon complexity theory to consider the Star Alliance as a complex adaptive system; and (3) applying a multilevel analysis at both the meso level (i.e., the Star Alliance) and macro level (i.e., the commercial aviation industry). This approach adds to the emerging research on the co-evolution of strategic alliances and the need for multiple levels of analysis in organizational and strategic management theories.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Kelley School of Business, 2009. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on Feb. 10, 2010). Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 70-06, Section: A, page: . Adviser: Alan R. Dennis.

This research focuses on improving distributed, collaborative writing (CW) over the Internet through new CW technologies, process improvements, proximity choices, and synchronicity choices. The research methodology that is followed iteratively builds theory using design and development of CW tools, surveys, requirements analysis, laboratory and field experiments. The primary empirical work consists of two laboratory experiments and two fields experiments. The two laboratory experiments compare a newly built CW tool, Collaboratus to Microsoft Word(TM). The first experiment found 3-member CW groups using Collaboratus produce higher document lengths with higher quality, but less satisfaction than similar Word(TM) groups. The second experiment found 3-member distributed, synchronous CW groups using Collaboratus with NetMeeting(TM), working over 5 weeks, produce higher document lengths and quality, and have more effective coordination, communication, and socialization than similar Word(TM) groups. The two field experiments further validate that certain processes should be followed for most effective use of Collaboratus. The first experiment compares 3-member groups working in mixed work modes (part F2F part distributed, asynchronous) to similar groups conducting all work asynchronously. The only differences is that all-asynchronous groups spend less time brainstorming and more time converging on brainstormed output. The lack of process gains for the mixed-mode groups can be attributed to the difficulty of scheduling F2F meetings---an insight gained by performing this research in a field setting. The second experiment compares non-facilitated, 3-member groups using three different levels of scripted process structure to guide their distributed, asynchronous CW. Highest structure groups have the highest levels of performance (in terms of quality, productivity, satisfaction, communication, and relationships), while lowest structure groups have the lowest levels of performance. It is believed the process differences can be directly attributed to the nature of the academic writing task and the fact the groups were nearly formed, non-cohesive groups. These findings point to the importance of properly matching technology, task, tool, proximity, synchronicity, and people choices in distributed CW to maximize the outcomes. This also provides a useful foundation for agent-based CW processes to support self-sustaining, distributed CW teams who work without professional facilitation.

This dissertation addresses one of the most academically intriguing issues in MIS, so-called "IT productivity paradox" which describes the failure of detecting positive contribution in productivity statistics by Information Technology investment while our economy has voraciously and restlessly spent money on them for the last few decades. Recent studies are showing startling contrast with the previous ones and there seems big discrepancy between firm level and national economy analyses. In order to unravel the paradox and the discrepancy observed. The author provides theoretical and methodological discussion and the empirical investigation on the methodologies used by previous research and conducted both firm-level and macro-economic analysis. The background investigation above shows that the recent studies defying the decades-old IT paradox do not pass rigorous methodological test based microeconomic production theories. The firm level analysis confirms our conjectures that the highly positive contributions reported by the recent studies are not reliable and thus shall not be read without caution. Our claim is supplemented by simulation studies as well. In addition to the microeconomic analysis, macroeconomic level study on major developed countries has been conducted. An emphasis is placed at the impact of information technology on the structural change of employment, and at the impact of the structural change on productivity. The potential contribution of this dissertation includes: (i) Using the same data set the prior studies used, we contrasts findings and methodologies with those in the previous studies. It calls for very careful attention to the methodology before we applaud for "positive" findings. (ii) It also provides a rare study in MIS on economic value of IT investment in macroeconomics and international contexts.

This project clarifies previous ambiguity about the role of tax and financial reporting concerns in lessee firms' lease-type decisions. A private data set provided by anonymous lessor firms is used to accurately identify for the first time the lessee's lease-type and its use of related tax deductions. This project also considers for the first time the role of hybrid lease products such as the synthetic lease in managers' ability to balance firms' tax versus financial reporting concerns. Prior research even in the period after synthetic leases were introduced to the market relied on noisy public data that was unable to parse out lease-types and tax deduction use with unambiguous tax versus financial incentives. Contrary to prior studies, consistent strong evidence is provided indicating that lease choice varies with proxies for lessee firms' marginal tax rates (MTR's). Also contrary to previous research, only weak evidence is found for the role of financial reporting concerns as proxied by leverage measures. The strong results on the MTR variable, taken with the weak results on the leverage variable suggest that tax costs are a stronger influence on leasing choice than financial incentives. This general conclusion about the stronger role of tax incentives in comparison to financial reporting incentives is not consistent with the summary findings of previous research. However, these results support widely held expectations by leasing industry experts. This evidence is also consistent with beliefs about the relative efficiency of the financial market to appropriately value disclosed accounting information.

This study investigates tax and non-tax determinants of corporate acquisition structure. In contrast to previous research, this study analyzes acquisitions from an investment financing perspective and investigates the tax implications of transaction structure for all three contracting parties--acquiring firm, target firm and target firm shareholders. Results indicate that the probability of an equity-financed tax-free transaction structure is an increasing function of the acquiring firm's likelihood of tax exhaustion. The probability of a debt-financed taxable transaction is a decreasing function of the percentage of the acquiring firm's value represented by growth opportunities (market to book ratio), and an increasing function of acquiring firm leverage and size. The results provide mixed support for the notion that target firm tax attributes and potential target firm shareholder capital gains tax liabilities influence acquisition structure. The Tax Reform Act of 1986 was expected to increase the likelihood that corporate acquisitions would be completed as tax-free transactions. Evidence in this study fails to support the conclusion that TRA86 impacted the way in which corporate acquisitions are consummated in the aggregate. Furthermore, results indicate that TRA86 did not modify the impact, on acquisition structure, of target firm tax attributes or shareholder capital gains tax liabilities. Overall, this study provides new evidence that tax and non-tax characteristics of acquiring firms are important determinants of the structure of corporate acquisitions.

<p> Prompted by frequent media reports of school fraud and a lack of relevant K-12 literature, this research study was designed to investigate current fraud prevention practices in public school districts in New York State. Using a "fraud triangle" model, an analysis of existing legislation and professional practice guidelines reveals that an integral element is being overlooked in current fraud prevention efforts, namely employee attitudes (more formally rationalization). </p><p> In an effort to fill this gap, management and accounting literature is used to identify ten specific practices associated with a decreased likelihood of fraud rationalization in the business setting. Primary research is then used to ascertain the extent to which these business practices have been implemented in New York State public schools. HLM is used to examine the nature of the relationship between the presence of these practices within a school district and employee attitudes about rationalization, as a proxy measure of fraud risk. </p><p> Data concerning both district practices and employee attitudes about fraud were collected using an online survey of 938 employees from 56 randomly selected K-12 school districts in New York State. Findings reveal low or non-existent levels of district implementation for eight of the ten suggested fraud prevention strategies. However, where strategies have been implemented, employees are less likely to report rationalization about fraud. (As the number of strategies increases, rationalization tends to decrease.) The effect of individual strategies is examined. Several district and employee demographic factors are also found to have mitigating effects. </p><p> Based on the results of this research and analysis, specific recommendations are presented in an attempt to improve school district fraud prevention efforts. The analysis also suggests areas where follow-up research studies are warranted in light of this new base-line data.</p>

<p> Entering into joint ventures for the purpose of addressing resource scarcity and maximizing resources with the goal of increasing competitive advantage has long been an effective strategy for companies in the United States. The question arises as to the value of such an arrangement on the long-term results of joint venture participation, specifically if this alliance strategy influences sustained competitive advantage. This dissertation examined joint ventures for firms involved in defense, technology and aerospace industries using post hoc quantitative analysis of secondary data between 1997 and 2006. This study sought to answer specific research questions to determine if firm performance, research and development intensity, and incremental innovation influences sustained competitive advantage. Results indicated that firm performance was not influenced by joint venture participation. Research and development intensity was influenced; however, results were in the opposite direction of those hypothesized. Incremental innovation among joint venture participants was highly significant for joint venture participation compared to non-participants. </p>