Thesis (M. Com. (Accountancy))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, School of Accountancy, 2014 / Academic and commercial interest in the corporate governance practices of publicly listed companies has increased significantly in recent years (Rossouw, 2005). With high-profile corporate failures such as Enron and WorldCom heightening the interest in corporate governance practices (Rashid, 2011). It has become evident that the performance of well governed firms is superior to that of less well governed firms (Kyereboah-Coleman & Biekpe, 2005). Despite the fact that corporate governance is multi-dimensional (Kyereboah-Coleman & Biekpe, 2005), this study focused on the impact of board composition (defined by the percentage representation of independent non-executive directors on the board) and board size on the firm performance measures namely; Tobin’s Q (TOB), return on assets (ROA), and return on equity (ROE) of firms listed on the Johannesburg Securities Exchange (JSE). Annual data, from the period 2006 to 2012 was used while the analysis of data was done using the Multiple Regression Analysis Model. After having analysed the research results, it was found that no significant relationship exists between the proportion of independent non-executive directors on the board and board size, and firm performance measures. Thus, this research study suggests that performance of South African companies listed on the JSE Securities Exchange is not influenced by board composition and board size.

Research report (M.Com. (Information Systems))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, School of Economic and Business Sciences, 2013. / Using the resource based view of the firm theory, a research model is proposed that explains how IT governance capability results in improved firm performance by improving a firm’s IT Infrastructure capabilities and business processes. The research model is explored by means of case study where a survey is undertaken with the key stakeholders of a global Corporate and Investment Bank. Data was collected and analysed from 140 respondents using an online survey. The model hypotheses were not tested. The respondents’ characteristics (role, region, business area and length of experience) were explored providing greater insight and confirmation of the general relationship between the variables. The case study confirmed the general relationships of the model except the training capability - firm performance relationship. The IT governance process formality moderator provided results that were in contradiction to expectations. The IT intensity moderator confirmed the general relationship. The strength or weaknesses of the relationships when analysing the respondent characteristics are insightful and would not normally have been available if a multi-site survey had been performed.

Thesis advisor: Thomas Chemmanur / My dissertation is comprised of three chapters. The first chapter studies the impact of government spending on corporate innovation output. By exploiting the changes in Senate committee chairmanships as a source of exogenous variation in state-level federal government expenditures, I find that firms headquartered in states with increases in government spending significantly reduce their innovation output, as measured both by patent count and patent citations. These reductions are mostly concentrated in industries that need more labor input for innovative activities and firms headquartered in states with lower unemployment rates. I also analyze three possible channels through which an increase in government spending may affect innovation output: resource reallocation by corporations and individuals from innovative to non-innovative activities; partial movement of innovative activities from the corporate to the government sector; and a reduction in inventor productivity due to a labor-leisure trade-off. My evidence provides the strongest support for the resource reallocation channel. In the second chapter, co-authored with Thomas Chemmanur and Karthik Krishnan, we analyze the relationship between the human capital or “management quality” of firms and their long-run performance, using panel data from the BoardEx database on firms' top management characteristics and a management quality index constructed using common factor analysis on individual proxies for various aspects of management quality. We control for the potential endogenous matching between firm and management quality using a plausibly exogenous shock to the supply of new managers as an instrument. Using this instrument, we find a causal relationship between firms' management quality and future operating performance, market valuations, and stock returns. In the third chapter, co-authored with Thomas Chemmanur, Karthik Krishnan, and Qianqian Yu, using panel data on top management characteristics and a management quality factor constructed using common factor analysis on individual management quality proxies, we analyze the relation between the human capital or “quality” of firm management and its innovation inputs and outputs. We control for the endogenous matching between firm and management quality using a plausibly exogenous shock to the supply of new managers as an instrument, thereby finding a causal relationship between management quality and innovation activities. We show that higher management quality firms achieve greater innovation output by hiring more and higher quality inventors. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2016. / Submitted to: Boston College. Carroll School of Management. / Discipline: Finance.

Narcissism refers to persistent feelings of grandiosity, a need for admiration, and a lack of empathy (American Psychiatric Association 2013). The literature has found narcissism to be associated with individuals making decisions for a firm that fulfill their egos rather than maximize firm value. The literature in psychology, however, suggests that when firms face financial distress, narcissism could be a desirable trait in an individual, enabling the CEO to take the necessary risks and make the necessary decisions for the firm to recover. I study the context under which a firm may benefit from a narcissistic CEO. In this study, I use two measures from prior literature (CEO photo prominence in the annual report and a CEO’s use of first-person personal pronouns) to form a combination measure to investigate whether firms in financial distress are more likely to appoint a CEO with more narcissistic traits. I find some evidence to support this hypothesis. I also examine whether the association between narcissism and future firm performance is affected by the economic conditions of a firm and the visibility of the firm. I find results consistent with firm financial distress increasing a narcissistic CEO’s effect on firm performance in low-visibility firms.

Consumers are spending more time online and their involvement in social media is also growing. Furthermore, consumers truly trust the information they find online. Therefore, I expect that positive social media mentions of a given brand will influence a consumer’s awareness, attitudes, affection, etc. towards that brand. The brand value chain model suggests that such a change in consumer mindset should translate into improved marketplace performance and, ultimately, better firm financial performance. Previous researchers have studied the relationship between online user generated content and firm performance. They find that various metrics, (e.g. user ratings, comment volume or valence) impact firm performance. However, the extant research focuses on a single online platform (e.g., CNET), type of online posting (e.g., blog posts), or industry. In this study, I focus on social media sentiment expressed across multiple platforms for 180 monobrand firms spanning 10+ industries. I use total comments, total positive comments, total negative comments, proportion of positive comments, and proportion of negative comments as my social media variables. First, I use the portfolio sort method to determine if firms with higher social media comment volume or higher positive (negative) comments generate higher (lower) abnormal returns, as determined by the Fama French 4 factor model. Using monthly and daily returns data over a period of more than 2 years, I find no significance differences between the returns earned by the top and bottom 20% of the firms as ranked by various social media metrics. Contrary to prior research, this result suggests that social media sentiment is already fully priced into stock returns. I then examine the possible relationship between social media metrics and firm financial performance by analyzing whether social media sentiment improves forecasts of a firm’s quarterly cash flow. I modify the Lorek & Willinger (1996) multivariate time-series regression model to include social media comment volume and sentiment information to predict future cash flow. Using the Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE) a guide to forecast accuracy I find that utilizing social media information does not provide any improvement in the prediction of future quarterly cash flow forecast. I further analyze the relationship between social media comment volume & sentiment metrics, and firm quarterly cash flow by utilizing a cross sectional regression model. I find no significant effect of social media comment volume and sentiment information on the ability to predict future firm quarterly cash flow. Panel data estimation of both the cash flow model also does not find any significant effect of the social media metrics on quarterly cash flows.

With the decreasing labor forces throughout the United States, if leadership of the ship repair industry does not incorporate knowledge sharing and innovation into their daily business practices, knowledge will be lost during employee departures and turnover of teams from project-to-project, resulting in decreasing firm performance within their organizations. This was a correlation study to determine if there was a correlation between knowledge management, innovation, and firm performance. Data were collected from 69 CEO/Presidents, Human Resource personnel, or members in leadership positions of the Virginia Ship Repair Association in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States. The theoretical framework for this study was the unified model of dynamic knowledge creation with the key constructs of the socialization, externalization, combination, and internalization process; places of knowledge sharing, whether they are virtual, physical, or mental; and leadership. Data collection occurred through an online survey. Multiple linear regression analyses significantly predicted the dependent variable, F(2, 66) = 17.33, p = .000, R2 = .344. Increasing knowledge sharing and innovation practices provides for positive social change for the personnel of these organizations, since the skills they learn within their organizations are immediately usable in their personal endeavors in their churches, neighborhoods, and family relationships and are transferrable to those they interact with outside of their organizations.

The results obtained from this research indicates that there is no statistical relation between the chosen financial variables and the total compensation to the CEO, except sales. CEO compensation is a highly debated subject in Sweden. The debate concerns whether or not CEOs are paid too much in relation to their results. This research investigates what decides the CEO compensation. Can the CEO compensation be explained by the financial variables ROA, ROE, Sales, Tobin’s q, and the size of the largest shareholder? In this paper companies listed on the Swedish Stock Exchange OMX Stockholm large and mid cap during the years 2003 to 2008 are analyzed by empirically and theoretically adapted models.

To be able to understand future firm performance it is important to recognize and correctly evaluate what constitutes a signal. This study investigates if provisions contain signalling value regarding future firm performance. The study is conducted on firms listed on the Nasdaq OMX Stockholm from 2001 to 2010, constituting a sample of 2173 firm years. All the provision data has been manually collected from each of the firm’s annual reports. By using both univariate and multivariate analyses, the study provides new evidence regarding the association between provisions and firm performance. The findings indicate that firms who recognise restructuring provisions experience a performance improvement. The performance improvement is tied to the size of the restructuring provision i.e. the signal. Warranty and litigation provisions show no indications of having any relation to future firm performance. Thus, large restructuring provisions contain a signal of performance improvement, whereas warranty and litigation provisions do not. The thesis contributes to existing literature by providing new insight of how provisions functions as signals of firm performance

Capital structure and companies’ performance are important to corporate finance. Therefore, firms take different strategies to adjust capital structure to get a better firm performance. However still the studies mostly conducted in one country setting or neglect the angle from listed companies across countries. This thesis encompasses 2 developed countries (Germany and Sweden) and a developing country (China) to test the impact from capital structure to firm performance of period 2003-2012 with more than 1200 listed companies in Germany and Sweden and more than 1000 listed companies in China. The result shows capital structure has a significant negative effect to firm performance in China, whereas, significant positive effect in 2 European countries before financial crisis happened in 2008. I also find institutional factors and economic crisis will affect this relationship too.

Corporate governance is usually related to corporate performance. Corporate governance means company should be controlled and monitored to protect the stakeholder¡¦s rights, and keeps creating profit by making company run well. Usually there are some companies run well during the financial crisis. This essay separates the companies into good corporate governance companies and bad corporate governance companies. First it shows the relationship between performance and corporate governance. Second, it proves companies which have good corporate governance actually perform better during the financial crisis. It classes three industries to discuss, which are financial industry, traditional industry, and electronic industry. It uses 8 corporate governance indexes to identify the relationship between performances. The samples are from 2000 to 2009, and it defines 2008 and 2009 as the span of financial tsunami in the research. In this research it use ROA, ROE , and Tobin¡¦Q to represent the company¡¦s performance.