The fast and easy global movement of capital throughout the financial system, from lenders to borrowers and through intermediaries and financial market participants, has been recognized as a source of instability associated with illiquidity and financial crises. The purpose of this research was to better understand how regulation either enables or constrains capital movement. The theoretical framework comprised 2 contrasting public policymaking models, Arrow's rational-comprehensive model and Kingdon's garbage can model, which were used to derive opposing hypotheses. The research question addressed the nature of the relationship between Credit Default Swaps (CDSs) regulations and the flow of capital into Collateralized Mortgage Obligations (CMOs) when lenders share their borrower-related loan risks through intermediaries with other market participants. This quantitative study was a quasiexperimental time series design incorporating an autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) model using secondary data published by the U.S. government. The 2 independent variables were regulatory periods involving 2 CDSs regulations and the dependent variable was capital in the U.S. financial system that is deployed to CMOs. The Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000's ARIMA model (1,2,1) was significant at p < .05 and was negatively correlated to the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008's ARIMA model (1,1,0), r = -.91, n = 18, p < .001. These results suggest that regulations cannot be relaxed and then reinstated with predictable results. The potential for positive social change is from stable financial institutions that mutually benefit depositors and borrowers.

Most companies listed on the S&P 500 index have reported smoothed earnings since the 1990s inspiring questions from regulators about the accuracy of financial statements. In 1998, the Financial Accounting Standards Board issued SFAS No. 133 (Accounting for Derivative Instruments and Hedging Activities) to establish accounting and reporting standards for derivative instruments. In 2002, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) was issued to eradicate earnings management activities and improve transparency in financial reporting. Although many studies have been conducted to evaluate changes in reporting requirements, much less is known about the effectiveness of these regulations on earning smoothing with discretionary accruals (DA) and derivative hedge reporting (DHR). Accordingly, this study was an investigation of the effectiveness of SOX and SFAS No. 133 on DA, and DHR. The research questions were used to examine DA, and to evaluate the transparency of DHR for the years 1997 through 2007. This study is a quasi-experimental research design where 30 companies from the high technology industry segment were randomly drawn to form 330 observations. The modified Jones model was used to separate DA and repeated measures analyses of variance were used to assess differences in levels before and after the issuance of SOX. A Quality Disclosure Index (QDI) was used to assess the transparency of DHR and repeated measures of variance were used to evaluate the QDI scores before and after the issuance of SFAS No. 133. The findings suggest DA activities are decreasing but represent over 50% of total net accruals for all years and the QDI for DHR is decreasing. Improved financial regulation is needed. The study contributes to positive social change by providing regulators and investors with new information about accruals for income conservative firms by segmenting DA and investigating the level of transparency in DHR that could be used to formulate appropriate financial regulation and improve the quality of our financial reporting system.

Most owners of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Nigeria are inadequately prepared to perform the financial management tasks required for business sustainability. This case study, guided by institutional theory, was conducted to explore how SME owners can be prepared to implement financial management effectively for business sustainability in Edo state, Nigeria. The research question addressed the understanding of experienced SME owners regarding how they can develop necessary financial management skills for sustaining a business in Edo state. Data were collected using semistructured interview, and field notes from 15 SME owners in Edo state who had prior knowledge of, experience with, and education on financial management and had been managing an SME for at least 3 years. Through Yin's 5-step data analysis process, member checking, and triangulation, the themes that emerged were strategic accounting practice, knowledge of financial planning, hiring an accountant, record keeping, obtaining accounting education, and embracing technology and financial management software. The study findings have the potential to contribute to positive social change by indicating how SMEs can be more effective in generating employment, ensuring sustainability, and improving the standard of living.

Business leaders remain exposed to financial and accounting fraud as well as loss of profitability, despite the dictates of the SOX Act of 2002. The most challenging aspect of corporate management is the unexpected nature of an emerging, existing, or an inherent financial risk. Guided by the evolution of fraud theory, this exploratory case study's purpose was to identify and explore the financial management strategies that corporate financial managers need to adequately protect investors. Twenty participants from a population group of corporate auditors of Fortune 1000 corporations within 70 miles of Columbus, Ohio provided input for this study. Data from the interviews were analyzed through coding, reviewing, categorizing, and combining common statements. The research findings included themes of knowledge and types of risks; the impact of financial fraud and risks on investment; the impact of accounting, auditing, and financial reporting standards; as well as financial management training to minimize audit expectations. These themes formed the focus of exploring the financial management strategies that corporate financial managers need to adequately protect investors and investments. In addition to the antifraud measures, financial managers may detect and control inherent risks in emerging opportunities for positive social change that includes enhanced knowledge in diversification of investments, an increase in economic resources, economic growth, and greater employment in the United States.

<p>This thesis explores the following three important issues in the field of corporate finance: window dressing in corporate cash holdings, market effects of SEC regulation of short-term borrowing disclosure and market response to dividend change announcements by unregulated versus regulated firms.</p> <p>First, I find strong evidence of upward window dressing in cash holdings by U.S. industrial firms during the fourth fiscal quarter. This behavior is robust to several controls and a December year-end dummy. Further cross-sectional analysis reveals that the window dressing is sensitive to firm size and level of information asymmetry. I also find that firms manipulate discretionary accruals to dress up fourth quarter cash, perhaps to gain favourable credit terms on issuing short-term debt.</p> <p>Second, I use portfolios of financial and non-financial SEC registrants to examine the market reaction to proposed SEC short-term borrowing disclosure regulation. Using event study methodology, I find that the market reaction is positive and significant at the announcement date and negative and significant at the voting date. Overall, I observe a positive market reaction, indicating the usefulness of the disclosure from the vantage point of users. The results for various subsets confirm the expectations and suggest that a “one-size-fits-all” approach to regulation is undesirable.</p> <p>Finally, I use large samples of dividend increase and decrease announcements for the period 1960 to 2010 in order to compare stock price reactions of unregulated and regulated firms. I observe a stronger market reaction to the dividend increase announcements of unregulated firms compared to those of regulated firms after controlling for firm characteristics, market factors and contemporaneous earnings announcements, a result consistent with the dividend signaling hypothesis and uniqueness argument for regulated firms. However, I find that the market reaction to dividend decrease announcements is similar for unregulated and regulated firms. The cross-sectional analysis further confirms that the stronger stock price reaction to dividend increase announcements of unregulated firms is associated with the level of information asymmetry.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This paper studies the price fluctuation from 2010 to 2016 of two major assets in China: real estate and stock. Equity price is found to Granger cause stock price while the reverse relationship is significant but less strong. The paper then studies whether the nature of the correlation depends on the type of city under consideration. This is achieved by grouping 25 cities into four city tiers based on their level of economic developments and conducting a linear causality test on each city tier. Housing price in first tier cities is found to be much more significantly correlated with stock price. Larger and more developed cities tend to have a stronger correlation with stock than smaller and less developed ones. In addition, the paper also studies the impact of the Chinese government’s recent home purchase restriction on the relationship between the two asset classes. However, the results are contradictory and are not consistent with expectation. The lack of significant results could be contributed to the inherent limitation of our data, as well as the complicated and sometimes confusing policy announcement mechanisms in China.

3 pp. / Promoting the health and well-being of families during difficult times.

Intangible assets have been the increasingly dominant primary source of market value creation. This paper investigates the relationship between leverage and various intangibles related ratios. An empirical analysis is conducted to quantitatively understand the impact that these ratios have on leverage. The results show that intangible assets have a clear significant positive relationship with leverage. Accounting based principles are used to provide reasoning behind the results, which include the difference in impact that internally generated intangible assets and acquired intangibles have on leverage.

Playing has been part of people's lives since the beginning of time. However, play does not take place in silence (isolated from speech and sound). The games people play allow them to interact and to learn through experiences. Speech often forms an integral part of playing games. Video games also allow players to interact with a virtual world and learn through those experiences. Speech input has previously been explored as a way of interacting with a game, as talking is a natural way of communicating. By talking to a game, the experiences created during gameplay become more valuable, which in turn facilitates effective learning. In order to enable a game to “hear", some issues need to be considered. A game, that will serve as a platform for speech input, has to be developed. If the game will contain learning elements, expert knowledge regarding the learning content needs to be obtained. The game needs to communicate with a speech recognition system, which will recognise players' speech inputs. To understand the role of speech recognition in a game, players need to be tested while playing the game. The players' experiences and opinions can then be fed back into the development of speech recognition in educational games. This process was followed with six Financial Management students on the NWU Vaal Triangle campus. The students played FinMan, a game which teaches the fundamental concepts of the “Time value of money" principle. They played the game with the keyboard and mouse, as well as via speech commands. The students shared their experiences through a focus group discussion and by completing a questionnaire. Quantitative data was collected to back the students' experiences. The results show that, although the recognition accuracies and response times are important issues, speech recognition can play an essential part in educational games. By freeing learners to focus on the game content, speech recognition can make games more accessible and engaging, and consequently lead to more effective learning experiences. / MSc (Computer Science), North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2014

Bakgrund: Controller är ett yrke som kom till Sverige på 1970-talet och det har sedan dess varit svårt att hitta en generell definition på vad en controllers huvudsakliga arbetsuppgifter är. Undersökningar med controllers har visat att yrket är i ständig utveckling. Litteratur inom området hävdar att en controller bör vara utbildad inom ekonomi och generellt sett arbeta med ekonomistyrning. Arbetsuppgifterna som controllers har varierar dock stort och problemet är att företag idag använder titeln controller som en fin titel och för att kunna forma rollen själva då den är så pass svårdefinierad. Syfte: Uppsatsens syfte är att definiera den typiska controllerns bakgrund samt dennes främsta arbetsuppgifter. Uppsatsen syftar även till att skapa förståelse för hur utvecklingen har sett ut inom yrket hittills samt skapa en bild av vilka arbetsområden controllers tror kommer kräva mer av deras tid i framtiden. Metod: För att uppfylla uppsatsens syfte har en kvantitativ studie gjorts där insamling av data har gjorts via en enkät. Vidare har en abduktiv forskningsansats använts samt ett hermeneutiskt synsätt. Enkäten skickades till cirka 70 olika organisationer i Sverige och totalt medverkade 148 respondenter. Slutsats: I slutsatsen framkom det att en controller idag oftast har någon form av ekonomisk bakgrund och att deras främsta arbetsuppgifter har utvecklats mot en mer klassisk controllers arbetsuppgifter. Respondenterna tror att arbetsområden som kommer ta mer av deras tid i framtiden är sådana som kan kopplas till den klassiska controllerrollen. I undersökningen framgick att en controller gör väldigt många olika saker och vi, precis som många innan, kom fram till att yrkesrollen är svårdefinierad. / Background: The Controller is a profession which came to Sweden in the 1970s and it has since then been difficult to find a general definition of what the main duties of a controller are. Studies about controllers have shown that the profession is in constant development. Literature in the field claim that a controller should be trained in economics and generally work with financial management. The tasks of controllers vary greatly and the problem is that companies today are using the title controller as a exclusive title and to be able to shape the role themselves since it is so difficult to define. Objective: The purpose of this study is to define the typical controller's background and his or her primary duties. The paper also aims to create an understanding of how the profession has developed to date and to see which duties the controllers belive will occupy more of their time in the future. Method: To meet the purpose of the paper a quantitative study were performed where data collection has been done through a survey. The survey was sent to approximately 70 different organizations in Sweden and involved a total of 148 respondents. Conclusion: This study shows that a controller today usually have some sort of financial background and that their primary duties have evolved towards the duties of a classical controller. Respondents believe that the duties that will take more of their time in the future are those that can be linked to the classic controller role. The study revealed that a controller does many different things, and we, like many before, concluded that the professional role is hard to define.