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Thesis (M.B.A.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / 2031-01-01

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According to the existing literatures, there are few directly discussions about the relations of cash flow volatility on firm value and the issues of cash flow volatility are relatively disadvantage to those of earning volatility, arousing the interest of this study.Therefore, this study verifies the effect of cash flow volatility on firm value by using data of listed companies in Taiwan and the method of Pooled Regression. Also, the number of companies are divided up based on the median of cash flow¡Bdebt ratio and total asset, and examine which circumstances are more significant statistically. Finally, this study verifies the effect of earning volatility and earning management on firm value to explain that cash flow volatility is more effective on firm value. The empirical results show that cash flow volatility is negatively on firm value, and the effects are more significant statistically in small asset firms¡Blow debt ratio firms and high cash flow firms. But earning volatility is not significant statistically on firm value, and earning management is ineffective on firm value. The results indirectly explain that cash flow volatility is a more effective indicator on firm value and explain that managers managing earning to increase firm value are useless. According to the empirical results, there is no benefit when managers continue stabilizing earnings based on earning management. If investors continue selecting companies to invest based on earning volatility, the effects could be less than the ones of cash flow volatility. Therefore, the empirical results provide one indicator of the evaluations of firm value with managers and investors.

There are a large number of investors and companies reliant upon analyst earnings forecasts. Missing analyst forecasts can have a massive impact on share price and investors often look to these values to make decisions regarding future investment decisions. However, there has been a great deal of speculation about these forecasts and especially the error associated with them. With the threat of an impending recession, it is important to know the reliability of forecasts during times leading up to recessions. More specifically, this study aims to see how the level of error associated with analyst earnings forecasts change leading up to recessions and whether or not they should be relied upon as heavily during these times.

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Achieving work-family balance is a challenge for many families in Canada, especially for dual-earner families with children in the household. Prior research regarding the predictors of work-family balance has mainly focused on work characteristics; therefore, the current study aimed to assess the predictive effect of a key family characteristic -- quality time with children -- on work-family balance. The two objectives of this study were: (a) to describe the association between time with children and parents’ work-family balance among Canadian dual-earner parents, and (b) to understand the effects of age of the youngest child, parent’s gender, and parent’s age on the association between work-family balance and quality time with children. This study used cross-sectional national time-use data from the General Social Survey (GSS) 2010, Cycle 24. T-test and logistic regression analyses were used to address the two research objectives, and all analyses were weighted. Findings indicated that work-family balance was negatively associated with quality time with children. Age of the youngest child, parent’s gender, and parent’s age were found to moderate the effect of quality time with children on work-family balance: The negative effect of quality time with children on work-family balance was stronger for parents who had a youngest child of an older age than for those who had a youngest child of a younger age, for parents who were older than for those who were younger, and for mothers more than for fathers. Findings of this study can add strength to the understanding of work-family balance of Canadian parents and have implications for helping Canadians balance their paid work and family life demands. As well, the findings indicate a more nuanced exploration of how parents’ relationships with their children affect their experience of work-family balance is needed in future research. / October 2016

Agency theory, which discusses the conflict between agent and principle, was developed by Jensen and Meckling in 1976. Owing to the separation of ownership and management, shareholders and management authority have agency relationship. The one reason that shareholder hand in company affairs to management authority is that management authority has better management ability. Another reason is that shareholder cannot handle by himself for some reasons and must hand in to other people. Management authority has the advantage of information and they also seek for their own interest. But these behaviors may damage shareholder¡¦s right and agency problems occur in the situation. Agency problems occur not only between shareholder and management authority but also between management authority and lender in a company with debt. Shareholders often supervise management authority more strictly and make more rules to confine management authority in order to reduce agency problem or protect their own interest. But these actions disturb management authority when management authority is full of ambitions and endeavor. If agency problems between shareholder and management authority cannot be solved properly, it will make company operate abnormally and damage the nation¡¦s economic further. On the contrary earning forecast can reduce information asymmetry. If management authority can disclose earning forecast voluntarily, it is helpful to reduce the agency problem and the information asymmetry between shareholder and management authority. The article assumes management authority disclose earning forecast voluntarily in order to get shareholder and debtor¡¦s trust in this point of view and use firm size¡Bfree cash flow¡Bleverage as the proxy of agency cost. In this research we find that the more debt the company have, the higher voluntarily the company discloses earning forecast. It is the same as we expect. But free cast flow is not significant. When firm size is bigger, the management authority is less voluntary to disclose earning forecast. The result is contrary to the view of agency problem.

Financial Accounting Standard Committee modified the Statement of Financial Accounting Standards (SFAS) No.7 ¡§Consolidated Financial Statement¡¨ in 2004. The new standard was conducted in 2006. This study is to discuss the influence of the modified Standard on earnings management of Business Groups. The test samples include 178 companies, which belong to 69 business groups. The test window is from 2005 June to 2007 June. We, using Modified Jones Model, compared the discriminate accruals generated from both consolidated financial statements and financial statements of parent companies. The findings of this study are presented as follows: 1. The modification of SFAS No.7 conducted no influence on earnings management and related party transactions of business groups. 2. After modified SFAS No.7 was conducted, the discriminate accruals generated from consolidated financial statements differ from those of financial statements of parent companies. However, no such difference exists before SFAS No.7 was modified. The findings reveal that the modification of SFAS No.7 helps fully disclose the financial information of business groups. The stakeholders, therefore, should consider both consolidated financial information and financial statements of single parent companies.