Mergers and acquisitions are staples of the business landscape. On a global basis, companies engage in tens of thousands of deals each year, collectively valued in the trillions of dollars. At the same time, decades of research, predominantly grounded in the finance literature, predicts most deals will fail. These competing ideas of high transaction volume and high failure rate lead researchers to wonder why managers would continue to engage in these deals knowing most are predicted to fail. While some might argue agency theory issues are the answer, the problem is the commonly used assessment measures (e.g., CAR and ROA) are unreliable when trying to determine the success or failure of individual transactions. M&A are complex transactions that may take years to develop value and require a multi-faceted approach for assessment. Using an inductive, theory-building, case study methodology the overarching focus of this study asks, “How does the use of multiple acquisition success measures help to identify M&A success.” This research develops a random sampling of 50 completed Cisco Systems acquisitions and determines and then compares the CAR, ROA, and managers’ subjective assessment outcomes for each transaction. Primary and secondary objectives and insights concerning cultural fit and talent retention are also found. An additional sample of 600 acquisitions from twelve highly acquisitive firms is developed and CAR results for each transaction, each firm, and the whole sample are determined. I organize this research effort into two studies. The first considers limitations of the commonly used academic measures of acquisition assessment and the second considers how a strategy-focused, multi-faceted or holistic approach to acquisition performance assessment might produce a more reliable measure of acquisition success. During the second study I obtain due diligence checklists and primary data through practitioner interviews. The research produces several important findings. The CAR results are not statistically significant and cannot be used to provide an assessment of the sample acquisitions. CAR, which is often used to predict the effect or influence of a piece of information on stock price, is not an effective measure of the success or failure of an individual acquisition transaction and the oft-cited statistics are not an accurate representation of M&A success rates. ROA has limitations in highly acquisitive firms, especially when the acquiring company is larger than the target firm. These findings support the argument by other researchers that suggest the need for another measure and that overreliance on a single success measure produces unreliable results. Additionally, this research offers new insights regarding practitioner assessment criteria, when assessment criteria are developed, and how practitioners assess these deals. More specifically, practitioners determine acquisition assessment criteria during corporate strategy discussions or when developing the business case for a deal. These new insights reinforce the need for a holistic, ex-post assessment to effectively determine M&A success or failure. / Business Administration/Strategic Management

This study examines the affect of winning an Academy Award on the stock price of parent companies. On average, receiving an Oscar has no significant impact on the stock of parent companies during the few days surrounding the broadcast of the Academy Awards. The findings of this study introduce questions of external interference and possible limitations on this type of research. However, my study sheds light on future topics of investigation for analyzing the effects of televised award shows on the stock market.

Background: Mergers and acquisitions (M&A’s) are common ways for businesses to expand, compete, and maintain in competitive business environments. A strongly debated question in literature is whether or not these M&A’s provide measurable benefits, as factors such as industry, geographic location, and regulations play key roles in the impacts of the M&A’s. In this paper, we investigate the short-term effects of M&A’s based on stock returns of acquiring companies, with a focus on finance industries in the British Isles. Purpose: The purpose is to study whether or not there are significant short-term abnormal returns for acquiring companies when M&As of financial services target enterprises take place. Further, the study examines factors which can affect the impact of M&A’s, such as size of transaction, whether it is domestic or cross-border, whether or not the acquiring company is in a finance industry, and whether there is evidence of merger waves related to finance M&A’s in the British Isles. Method: An event study methodology is applied and focused on calculating the cumulative abnormal returns, as well as verifying whether those are statistically significant. The study analyses 100 M&A’s conducted on target companies from the UK and Ireland between the years 2000 and 2019. The event study is performed using the STATA statistical software, which is used to analyse the stock return performance in comparison to the domestic market index for each acquiring company. Conclusion: The study finds statistically insignificant results, concluding that M&A events do not generate significant abnormal returns for acquiring companies. This is in line with majority of previous research done, showing that M&A deals are not deemed significantly value creating nor value destroying. M&A’s within finance industry where the acquiring companies were domestic, in a finance industry, where the deals were smaller, were all shown to have less negative, albeit still insignificant results. This study also presents evidence for merger waves. Moreover, this thesis adds a clear geographic and industry component which is often missing in previous research, showing that within finance industry in the British Isles the impacts of M&A deals are unlikely to be statistically significant in causing abnormal returns.

本研究旨在以投資大眾的角度出發，研究正、負面企業社會責任事件宣告如何影響投資者的投資決策，進而影響股價產生異常報酬。實證結果發現，正面企業社會責任事件宣告將產生顯著為正的股價異常報酬；負面企業社會責任事件宣告則將產生顯著為負的股價異常報酬。另外，本研究針對負面企業社會責任事件所產生的累積異常報酬建立了複迴歸模型，探討企業規模、企業所屬產業及負面企業社會責任事件宣告之消息種類與該累積異常報酬是否存有關聯性，實證結果發現，大型企業、宣告之消息種類屬於資訊公告問題者，與該累積異常報酬呈現顯著負相關；企業屬於高汙染產業者與該累積異常報酬呈現顯著正相關。本研究除了瞭解企業社會責任資訊如何影響投資者的投資決策外，更希望能提供企業經營者作為經營策略之參考。 / Abstract The purpose of this study is to investigate the market reaction of positive and negative CSR announcements. The empirical results show that there is a significant positive (negative) relationship between positive (negative) CSR announcements and abnormal stock returns. Furthermore, this study establish a regression, trying to find whether company size, business industry, type of negative CSR announcements will have a relationship with negative CSR announcement’s abnormal returns. The author of this research hopes that the findings in this study can not only understand how CSR announcements effect the investors but also help managers develop a CSR strategy.

Objective: Our purpose with this study is to demonstrate the impact of natural disasters on banks' share prices. Method: Quantitative survey method, an event study. Conclusion: There is no association or a very weak correlation in this study between natural disasters and the Swedish banks' share prices.

Denna eventstudie syftar till att undersöka hur ett byte av noteringslista påverkar kumulativ onormal avkastning (CAR) 1 till och med 12 månader efter genomfört byte. I studien undersöks därför utförda byten av noteringsplats på den svenska aktiemarknaden under tidsperioden 1995-2009. I studien beräknas onormal avkastning delvis med marknadsmodellen (MM) som grund, men också med Fama & French tre-faktormodell (FF) för att öka reliabiliteten. Vidare undersöks om skillnader i CAR föreligger under olika tidsintervall samt om olikheter förekommer efter att berörda företag delats in i undergrupper baserade på typ av byte, industri samt storlek. Slutligen testas utifall den eventuella kumulativa onormala avkastningen är signifikant skild från noll med student t-test samt om det föreligger skillnader i medelvärde i de olika undergrupperna. Resultatet visar att den genomsnittliga kumulativa onormala avkastningen (CAR) uppgår till – 4,57 % (MM), - 3,74 % (FF) en månad efter bytet, vilket är signifikant på 1 % - nivån. Denna negativa tendens håller i sig och efter 12 månader uppvisas CAR på – 20,20 % (MM), -16,99 % (FF) även dessa statistisk säkerställda på 1 % - nivån. Detta resultat är i linje med liknade studier på andra aktiemarknader. Vi kan alltså dra slutsatsen att detta fenomen även föreligger på den svenska aktiemarknaden samt konstatera att händelsen listbyte är något både företag och aktieägare bör beakta mer varsamt.

There are plenty of things said about the financial industry, an always ongoing debate, to say the least. We have identified a complex situation with three dimensions: Initial public offerings, Venture capital, and Lockup agreements. IPOs are generally difficult to put a price on because the market is not united yet, which creates uncertainties. Venture capital firms invest into startups, often with the incentive of bringing them to an IPO and then make a fast cash out exit. Lockup agreements are contracts that prevent insiders from dumping their shares during a set period in the beginning of the IPO. Additionally, based on the market efficiency theory, a market should always be efficient. But does it play out when these characteristics are affecting each other? The purpose of this research was to investigate whether there are abnormal returns in the financial performance for publicly listed companies on the London Stock Exchange at the end of their lockup period. We sorted on venture capital backed companies and sought to explore differences between VC backed, Non-VC backed firms, and the entire market. The research question for this study is: ‘Does The theoretical aspects of this research’s ontological and epistemological views were set in positivism and objectivism with a deductive approach. The financial performance was key in this research, and it was essential to get ample and appropriate data, therefore a quantitative research method was used with an archival research strategy and explanatory research design. We explored a big research gap in this area after the financial crisis 2008, which made us look at IPOs from 2009 to 2012 with an event window as our time horizon. To answer the research question and fulfill our purpose, four hypotheses were developed with focus on VC backed firms, Non-VC backed firms, the entire market, and one shorter event window. Our results prove that the market efficiency theory does not hold. To answer the research question, we found negative abnormal returns after the lockup expiration date for both Non- VC backed firms and the entire market. However, we were unable to provide a statistically significant result for VC backed firms. There was an extra clear trend during the middle 20 days, and we suggest and encourage to further research with a longer time horizon than [- 20, +20] days.

This thesis examines whether mergers and acquisitions (M&A), ranging from 2009 to 2020, are value-generating for acquiring shareholders in the short-term and long-term of companies listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange. A cohesive and integrated theoretical framework is formed in which six firm-specific and deal-specific variables are hypothesized to have varying impacts on both short- and long-term stock performance for acquiring shareholders. An event study was conducted to measure the short-term stock performance, i.e. cumulative abnormal returns (CAR), and long-term stock performance, i.e. buy-and-hold abnormal returns (BHAR). We find that M&A transactions are, on average, value-generating for acquiring shareholders in both the short term and the long term. Among the significant findings of the variables examined, firm size was negatively related to short-term stock performance but positively related to BHAR. The relative size of the transaction was found to be positively related to CAR. Furthermore, transactions mediated with cash were found to be positively related to BHAR. Lastly, related transactions were found to be positively related to CAR, although not when accounting for robust standard errors.

本研究以1980年至2015年美國及加拿大上市公司為研究對象，探討具有會計專長之執行長（CEO）與外界反應的關係。在探討外界反應之前，本文先檢視具有會計專長之CEO對於盈餘品質的影響，透過此結果，推論專業人士（包含會計師與分析師）與市場投資人之反應。本研究預期，當CEO具有會計專長時，會使盈餘品質降低，故審計風險隨之提高，導致審計公費增加，且分析師的追隨意願降低，同時也將影響市場投資人的反應。 研究結果發現，具會計專長CEO與盈餘管理、審計公費、公司累積異常報酬呈現顯著正相關，與分析師追隨數則為顯著負相關，顯示當CEO具有會計專長時，因有盈餘操控的情況，所以審計公費提高、分析師追隨數減少；但市場投資人或許無法體認盈餘操控的事實，故仍相信具有會計專長之CEO，有可能為公司帶來正面的影響。 / This study investigates the relationship between CEOs with accounting expertise and external reactions of investors, auditors and analysts. The sample firms used in this study are all the stock-listed companies in America and Canada during 1980-2015. Before examining such external reactions, this paper explores the association between CEOs with accounting expertise and earnings quality, which help us to obtain an explanation why auditors, analysts and investors have such reactions. The empirical results show that CEOs with accounting expertise manage earnings more aggressively than CEOs without such expertise. As a consequence, the firms with such CEOs will be charged higher audit fees and have less analyst following. However, investors might not recognize this fact; they still believe that CEOs with accounting expertise will have a positive influence on firms. Our findings could offer a reference for a company looking for a CEO that could bring accounting quality.

本研究蒐集經濟日報、聯合報及聯合晚報的新聞文章，以中研院的中文斷詞系統進行結構性的處理，研究企業社會責任新聞，對於股價的報酬率是否有正面、負面的影響，而以台灣掛牌的企業為研究的標的(以台灣50為例)。 本研究利用新聞文字，去判斷這個新聞是否與企業社會責任有關，而這次所利用的新聞，是台灣報章媒體的新聞，我們用這些新聞來測試新聞對投資人的投資行為、財富有沒有影響。 本研究發現，正面的企業社會責任新聞帶來不顯著的累積超額負報酬，而負面的企業社會責任新聞，則會帶來顯著的股價宣告效果。這個現象是由於負面的企業社會責任新聞通常較正面的企業社會責任新聞難以被投資人所預期，因此相對正面的企業社會責任新聞，負面的企業責任新聞對於股價宣告效果有較顯著的影響。 接著，本研究依據Michael Porter(2006)的研究，將企業社會責任新聞分為三類(一般、價值維護、價值創造)，我們發現企業社會責任新聞在其中一類，也就是「價值創造」，正面新聞對於股票的報酬有顯著正面影響。在調整了市場報酬並調整交易成本之後，我們發現投資人能利用以下的交易策略獲得超額正報酬。 1. 買入有「價值創造」正面企業社會責任新聞的個股 2. 放空有負面企業社會責任相關新聞、負面企業治理新聞的個股。 綜合以上發現，本論文得到，企業社會責任新聞的傳播，確實影響了股票的報酬率，而投資人也可以因應企業社會責任新聞，來獲得超額正報酬。 / This study is to investigate whether CSR Media coverage has positive and negative impacts on corporate stock returns using Taiwan listed company sample data (0050.TT Taiwan Top 50). We use a simple text-analysis approach to quantify CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) Chinese news at newspapers to test if CSR news influences investor behavior and shareholder wealth changes. This study discovers that, while positive CSR news bring in insignificant negative cumulative abnormal return, negative CSR news have significant impacts on stock announcement returns. The evidence supports the argument that corporate negative CSR news (compare with positive CSR news) is unexpected by investors and have significant impacts on investor risk concern and results in negative announcement returns. Secondly, we follow Michael Porter (2006), we decompose CSR good news into three categories, and we discover that CSR news related to value creation activities has significant positive stock returns. After we control well-known systematic risk and adjust transaction cost, this study discovers that Investors can earn significant positive returns using either long-only trading strategy for stocks with value-creation CSR good news and short-only trading strategy for bad news on corporate governance issues. Our findings suggest that the CSR information dissemination affects stock returns.