The regimes of today that regulate and protect Intellectual Property Rights are based on Western cultural and philosophical values. This realization leads to the supposition that culture may influence the notion of patents. This raised the question of whether patent valuation would underlie a cultural bias. If patents are important in international business it is evident that a cultural impact on patent valuation would have significant implications and necessitate dedicated investigation. A literature review confirmed a knowledge gap in this area. This work, therefore, aims to investigate cultural impact on patent valuation. A distinction is made between a valuation from an ethical point of view and an economic valuation. Following a mixed methods approach, this research applies semi-structured interviews to create survey items for a questionnaire that then provides data that can be analyzed statistically and qualitatively. For quality assurance, a pre-questionnaire is used as an intermediate step. The results of the quantitative and qualitative analyses are subject to a between-method triangulation, which is interpreted in the following discussion in the light of relevant theory. The findings of this investigation confirm that there is indeed a cultural impact on the notion of patents. Two cultural dimensions, “Uncertainty Avoidance” and “Institutional Collectivism” correlate significantly with ethical patent valuation. Furthermore, it is not the complete cultural dimension, “Future Orientation”, but a specific aspect of it that correlates with economic patent valuation. A relationship between standpoints towards the ethical valuation of patents and economic patent valuation could not be proven. The research questions of what cultural dimensions have an impact on patent valuation and how and why they impact are answered. In addition, this work provides a model that represents cultural impact on patent valuation.

Venture capital (VC) is widely perceived by UK policymakers to be a key requirement for the growth and development of successful and innovative early stage firms. This thesis examines how government policy has impacted the emergence of VC sectors in the UK and US. Using historical, qualitative and quantitative methods it argues that the public rationale behind UK policy has been largely framed in ways that underestimate the importance of capabilities, demand for capital, and institutional differences. The thesis examines venture capitalists' key supply‐demand relationships: with funded firms; with limited partners; and with the markets that allow exit via IPO. It argues that the US VC sector has developed unique capabilities enabling the assembly of complementary assets to bring firms to successful IPO. In the UK, policy aimed at addressing the ‘equity gap' has focused on the provision of capital rather than developing the capabilities that have characterised the US sector. We perform quantitative analysis examining the effectiveness of recent UK schemes at providing VC funding to small firms. Drawing upon two proprietary datasets, including one new hand‐collected dataset of all investments made under the Venture Capital Trust scheme, the thesis provides new quantitative evidence on the success of government policy interventions, demand for capital by firms, and investment exit opportunities. The thesis then compares principal‐agent and evolutionary framing perspectives of the VC sector, arguing the evolutionary view explains some nuances more readily than a pure principal‐agent view. It concludes by discussing the theoretical and policy implications of the research.

Thesis (MBA.) -- Unversity of Limpopo, 2016 / The researcher using Quantitative process is aimed to appraise Corporate Social Investment (CSI) in relation to Corporate Financial Performance (CFP). This research addressed theoretical paradigms of CSI, leadership strategies applied to implement CSI and stakeholder theory is presented. The study area was Johannesburg Stock Exchange FTSE/JSE Responsible Investment Index. The top 35 recorded companies were chosen, and then from top 35, only 5 companies were used (25 observations). Data from 2011 to 2015 were obtained from audited integrated financial statements, websites, publications and annual reports. CSI indexes and financial presentation measures of companies were taken from the annual reports to be analysed using simple regression equation to examine the link between corporate social investments to company’s fiscal presentation. This study revealed a strong positive linkage among company’s social investment strategy implementation and share price, turnover, and return on equity. Companies that implemented social investment strategy noticed increase in profit because of factors such customer awareness, good firm reputation and competitive advantage.

In recent years, the number of Chinese companies going public has grown significantly. Some of these companies have listed their shares locally in Shanghai and Shenzhen, while others have chosen a stock exchange with better access to international capital (e.g., Hong Kong). This thesis examines 1) the determinants of the firms’ choice regarding initial public offering (IPO) locations and 2) whether IPO locations might affect their subsequent performance. Our study focuses solely on firms in the real estate sector in which pre-IPO attributes as well as the underlying asset value can be identified and measured. Our dataset includes 29 Chinese real estate firms that have issued shares in Shanghai or Shenzhen and 28 Chinese firms with IPOs in Hong Kong during the period of 1992-2008. To explain their IPO location choice, the self-selection or signaling theory suggests that firms with higher quality would signal this information by issuing shares in Hong Kong. Given the more stringent listing requirements and better informational disclosure schemes in the Hong Kong market, if a firm has low quality, such information is more likely and quickly to be discovered in Hong Kong than in Mainland China. Therefore, it is costly for such firms to imitate good firms’ IPO location choice. Once the firms have been listed, the corporate governance literature suggests that firms listed in Hong Kong would demonstrate a greater performance increase than those listed in Mainland China, because Hong Kong has a mature system of information disclosure, analyst coverage, and law enforcement. We found that firms listed in Hong Kong achieved higher Return on Asset (ROA) than those listed in Mainland China. We then construct four proxies for firms’ unobserved quality based on ex post abnormal stock or profit returns after IPOs. We obtained support for the signaling and self-selection effects: firms having higher quality, non-state ownership, and larger leverage ratio were more likely to conduct IPOs in Hong Kong instead of in Mainland China. Also consistent with the signaling theory, we found that firms listed in Mainland China were more likely to use IPO underpricing as a signal for firm quality than firms listed in Hong Kong were. / published_or_final_version / Real Estate and Construction / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Corporate diversification has received much attention from academics and management practitioners for over 30 years. Major work has been dedicated to determining if diversification creates or destroys a firm’s value across industries. This study examines the effect of corporate diversification on firm performance using a relatively homogenous sample of 70 publicly listed real estate companies in Hong Kong. Previous studies on the diversification of real estate companies or REITs mainly focused on diversification within real estate holdings across countries or asset types. This study contributes to the literature by examining real estate companies diversifying into other industries and assessing their performance from 2005 through 2010. The empirical findings indicated that Hong Kong real estate firms that chose to diversify into other industries performed better than those solely focused in real estate. Since the decision to diversify may be endogenous, the author used a number of estimation procedures to control for potential endogeneity. The results were robust in that the diversification effect remained positive and significant. Another contribution of this thesis is that it examined the impact of cash holdings on firm value and analyzed the value of cash for real estate companies and how corporate diversification affects the level of cash holdings. The author found that firms with larger cash reserves experienced decreases in their value. This result was consistent with the agency costs of free cash flows in that greater shareholder rights are associated with lower cash holdings. In addition, the author found that diversified firms hold less cash than their focused competitors. The findings supported the prediction of the internal capital market hypothesis that diversified firms are more efficient in allocating resources through internal capital markets and, therefore, reduce their need for large cash holdings. / published_or_final_version / Real Estate and Construction / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

M.Tech. Business Administration. Business School. / The purpose and scope of the study is defined by the objectives of the study, which are:  To determine the skills level of TUT Programme managers on the financial management system, Integrated Tertiary Software (ITS).  To determine the extent of the use of financial management system (ITS).  To determine to what extend policies and procedures at TUT are complied with by Programme managers.  To determine whether Programme managers understand and can interpret the general ledger content and where and how all the transactions are generated.  To determine the interventions needed to developed and assist Programme managers to improve their management and control of financial activities in their departments and cost centres. A thorough literature study was and quantitative techniques employed. The questionnaire was developed based on the identifying of shortcomings at TUT relating to financial management by programme managers. These areas include the knowledge and ability to use and interpret the financial information system at TUT. Respondents in the survey were programme managers which can be defined as staff members at TUT that has the responsibility to manage and control cost centre (fund allocations) according to the policies and procedures supplied by TUT. All campuses were included in the survey. Respondents in the survey completed the questionnaire where there were several results obtained regarding biographic variables, variable in respect to the ITS General Ledger system, financial training and variables with respect to policies and procedures at TUT. The objectives of the study were attained, and resulted in several recommendations to extend the knowledge, management and control of finances in academic and administrative departments at TUT. Furthermore it was recommended that training sessions on financial management and awareness campaigns regarding policies and procedures should be launched for staff to attend which will enhance reliable financial governance.

For the purposes of this study I have adopted a case study approach, based on a Multinational company in the UK, with business units geographically spread throughout the world, including South Africa. I intend to provide a detailed analysis of all aspects of the Capital Budgeting process. The dissertation will cover the follow ing areas : • The capital appraisal techniques used to evaluate capital projects. • The determination of a cost of capital. • Adjustments to the cost of capital in a multinational context. The approach in this study will be to divide Capital Budgeting into the three specific areas as detailed above, discuss the theory associated with the subject, analyse empirical research on the topic and critically evaluate the findings of the practices at the Multinational chosen for this study. Due to confidentiality reasons I shall refer to the company as "PLC" for the purposes of this study. 1.3. Objectives of the Study The objective of the study is to evaluate the capital investment appraisal process of "PLC", in the light of theoretical and empirical literature on the subject, leading either to suggestions for improvement or acknowledging the merit of the current practice. It is expected that "PLC" utilises sophisticated methods for investment appraisal but does allow room for improvement. / Thesis (MBA)-University of Natal, Durban, 2001.

Economic factors are a major constraint to quality health care in Africa. One of the aims of the Department of Health in South Africa is to increase availability and affordability of medicine. One way of reducing the cost of drugs is by introducing legislation to control the price of drugs and by the promotion of generics (interchangeable multisource medicines which are cheaper copies of the original brand name drug). Protocols for the Prescribed Minimum Benefits (PMBs) for the 27 conditions on the Chronic Disease List as published in the Government Gazette in 2003, were legally binding from 1 January 2004 and these conditions must be covered by all medical schemes. Medication prescribed for these conditions may have one or more generic substitutes and Government has allowed certain measures to be introduced by the medical schemes in order to contain costs. This study investigates the potential savings if generics are extensively used for these chronic conditions. A census was conducted on the 25 chronic diseases for which algorithms are available. The empirical quantitative data collected was calculated to quantify potential costs savings in respect of each algorithm. The major findings show that there are large cost differentials between originator drugs and their generic equivalents (97% in the case of prednisone) and smaller cost differentials between generics themselves (54.6% in the case of formoterol). This study also shows that there is a correlation between the number of generic equivalents an originator drug has and the percentage cost differential. A total of 67.5% of all cost differentials between originator and generics are greater than the Department of Health's proposed 40% benchmark pricing. The results support the recommendations that government needs to implement various measures to encourage increased use of generics in this country and to look at realistic benchmark price controls. / Thesis (M B A)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2006.

<p> There is much debate over the efficacy of corporate governance in mitigating agency costs and improving the correlation between firm performance and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) pay. Research on this topic ranges from theories which maintain that CEO compensation in the U.S. is commensurate with CEO ability, and is therefore justified, to theories which maintain that CEOs are little more than overpaid rent extractors. </p><p> I investigate the above dichotomy in the executive compensation literature by examining the impact of corporate governance on excess CEO compensation and firm performance during recessions. Business cycle contractions are challenging times for firms, and arguably a period when stronger corporate governance and CEO ability is significant to the success of the firm. I posit that better governed firms with lower levels of excess compensation outperform their peers in subsequent challenging recessionary periods. </p><p> Stock option grants, a frequently used component of CEO pay packages, are thought to better align CEO and shareholder interests. However, with recent financial scandals there is much concern over this form of equity compensation. I examine the use of employee stock option grants in CEO compensation packages and whether such stock option compensation improves the relationship between CEO compensation and firm performance. </p><p> My research achieves several aims: it extends the literature on the impact of corporate governance on firm performance by using a recessionary period metric, it examines the effectiveness of corporate governance in mitigating agency costs, it examines excess CEO compensation and this excess compensation connection with CEO ability or CEO rent extraction during recessionary periods, and it examines the impact of stock option grants in CEO pay packages on firm performance during recessionary periods. I find support for a decrease in abnormal return associated with trading on stronger corporate governance and support for rent extraction in the CEO compensation process during the 2001 recession. </p>

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2008. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-11, Section: A, page: 4405. Advisers: Joseph Mahoney; Paul Vaaler. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 146-154) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.