This study provides empirical evidence on the role of ultimate ownership structure in explaining the variations in firms' cost of equity capital across 21 countries. Using four implied cost of equity proxies, the results show that the large discrepancy between ownership and control rights of the ultimate owner has a positive and significant impact on the firm's cost of equity capital, after controlling for traditional risk factors known in empirical literature. The finding lends support to the entrenchment effect in that the expropriation of the minority investors by the controlling owners increases the systematic risk of the company thereby increases the firm's external financing cost. Further analyses demonstrate that both the legal and extra-legal institutions play an important tank in constraining the higher equity cost as induced by the concentrated ownership structure. In particular, in countries with broad disclosure requirements, strong securities regulations enforcement, keen market competition and high tax compliance, the positive relation between the cost of equity capital and the ownership-control divergence of the ultimate owner is less pronounced. The findings suggest that the institutional factors are effective corporate governance mechanisms and are significant in explaining the international variations in the cost of equity capital. / Chu, Sin Yan Teresa. / Adviser: Woody Wu. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 70-06, Section: A, page: 2121. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 67-73). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / School code: 1307.

The forward march of biobanking creates the need for an alternative approach to biobank governance. Biobanking encourages medical advancement by making the conduct of health-related research more efficient, by minimising physical harms to participants, and by facilitating personalised medicine and greater understandings of disease. Nonetheless, its characteristics that distinguish it from general health-related research often give rise to many ethical and social issues. For example, multiple and unexpected uses of biobank resources can render conventional informed consent inadequate for safeguarding participants and maintaining public trust and confidence. Also, because the size of a biobank cohort is normally large, biobanking usually requires considerable management resources and this can mean that biobanks can likely be financially dependent upon for-profit entities. This dependency can cause concern among participants and publics about commercial exploitation. These issues suggest that a new approach to biobank governance is required to address them. Indeed, their complexity and the sheer longevity of biobanking itself also suggest that it is relatively feasible and coherent to address them by focusing on a relationship between participants and biobankers. This involves many aspects of interaction and reflects an element of continuity, which is crucial to biobanking success, as opposed to one-off measures. Consequently, with the aim of addressing issues that arise from biobanking, this thesis offers an analysis of the participant-biobanker relationship that can deal with these issues. Such a relationship constitutes an authentic research relationship in biobanking (“ARR”). Based on this premise, the main research question of my thesis is to ask: What form of research relationship is appropriate for effective and ethical biobanking practices? Three sub-questions are raised to solve this top-level research question. They start with a normative question of why the ARR proposed in this thesis is desirable for biobanking. The next sub-question asks what this ARR should look like from a conceptual perspective. For a practical respect on my proposals, the last sub-question concerns the ways in which the ARR can be fostered in practice. To address these research questions, my thesis first establishes the main characteristics of the proposed ARR as the fundamental notion thereof. These main characteristics are used to answer the first sub-question. For the second sub-question, the thesis suggests that the ARR should be based on the concept of partnership, as opposed to solidarity, mainly because partnership can exhibit the main characteristics of the ARR – as argued – and can also be prescribed in a governance manner. The thesis then uses partnership as a basis for proposing the key features of the ARR, which are deemed to be a conceptual framework for the ARR. To answer the last sub-question, the thesis uses this conceptual framework to propose a partnership model for biobank governance that can be used to develop the ARR in practice. My original contribution is to propose a novel approach to an ARR, and this ARR is based on the concept of partnership. In other words, my thesis argues that the pursuit of the ARR, which looks like a partnership relationship, is an important element of biobanking success. In this respect, my thesis is about a sociologically informed role for partnership in biobank governance. It also provides a nuanced epistemological grounding for a participant-biobanker relationship in both conceptual and practical ways. From a philosophical perspective, my thesis proposes an ethical framework for biobank governance that perceives partnership as a virtuous trait for biobankers and provides rules for acquiring this trait through biobanking practices. Notably, it is argued that this partnership is not – nor need it be – the legal paradigm of partnership, which fundamentally refers to for-profit business association. While law might have a role to play in facilitating the development of the ARR, it cannot prescribe the ARR nor should it attempt to do so.

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This dissertation is an examination of the incentives, opportunities and disincentives for earnings management. The research was conducted for the listed, commercial banks in Cyprus. The period examined includes the years 2002-2011, for which the required information was available. After having considered the literature review, the regulations that affect banks’ financial reporting and the results from interviews conducted the research hypotheses were formulated and tested with regressions. The conclusions drawn from this empirical analysis are as follows. The existence of a cash bonus and leverage did not create incentives for earnings management through the use of discretionary accruals. This finding was observed because the bottom line profit was not considered in cash bonus decisions. In addition, most of the banks’ debt was in the form of deposits; deposit schemes do not include covenants that have to be met like other debt contracts. Discretionary accruals were therefore saved so that they could be used to manage earnings and increase regulatory capital. The evidence suggests that when the capital adequacy ratio was low, earnings were managed in order to artificially boost the capital base. The empirical results confirm that regulators perceived banks as being adequately capitalized and hence did not scrutinize bank practices. Banks were then able to grow and to grant loans very generously. Recognition of more interest revenue helped to cover higher interest paid to depositors and also helped executives to earn their bonus. The evidence also suggests that when the CEO was also the chairman of the board, the quality of earnings deteriorated. However, when directors owned shares and as board independence increased, the quality of earnings was improved. Considering the recent financial crisis and that one of the largest banks has collapsed, the results of this thesis should be of great importance to boards and their audit and remuneration committees, shareholders, depositors, auditors and the supervisory authorities.

Ko, Iat Meng. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 53-55). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Abstract --- p.i / Acknowledgement --- p.iii / Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 2 --- Research Method --- p.6 / Chapter 2.1 --- Corporate Real Estate Holding Measures --- p.6 / Chapter 2.2 --- Free Cash Flow Measure --- p.6 / Chapter 2.3 --- Corporate Governance Measures --- p.9 / Chapter 2.3.1 --- Outside Blockholder Ownership --- p.10 / Chapter 2.3.2 --- CEO Compensation --- p.10 / Chapter 2.4 --- Merger and Acquisition Effect --- p.11 / Chapter 2.5 --- The Endogeneity Problem of Acquisition --- p.13 / Chapter 3 --- The Data --- p.16 / Chapter 4 --- Empirical Results --- p.19 / Chapter 4.1 --- Free Cash Flow and Corporate Governance --- p.19 / Chapter 4.2 --- M&A Effect --- p.20 / Chapter 4.3 --- Self-Selection Correction --- p.21 / Chapter 4.3.1 --- Estimating the Probability of Acquisition´ؤ Probit Estimation --- p.22 / Chapter 4.3.2 --- Self-Selection Model --- p.23 / Chapter 4.4 --- Effects of Target Firms --- p.24 / Chapter 4.5 --- Changes in Profitability Around Acquisition --- p.25 / Chapter 4.6 --- Sub-samples --- p.26 / Chapter 4.6.1 --- Free Cash Flow and Corporate Governance --- p.27 / Chapter 4.6.2 --- M&A Effect --- p.28 / Chapter 4.6.3 --- Self-Selection Correction --- p.28 / Chapter 4.6.4 --- Effects of Target Firms --- p.29 / Chapter 4.6.5 --- Changes in Profitability Around Acquisition --- p.29 / Chapter 5 --- Conclusion --- p.51 / Bibliography --- p.53

Yang, Bin. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 60-63). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Acknowledgements --- p.iv / Chapter 1. --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 2. --- Literature Review and Some Discussions --- p.6 / Chapter 3. --- Measuring Corporate Governance --- p.11 / Chapter 3.1. --- Overview --- p.11 / Chapter 3.2. --- Ownership Concentration --- p.14 / Chapter 3.2.1. --- Overview --- p.14 / Chapter 3.2.2. --- Herfindahl Index --- p.15 / Chapter 3.2.3. --- Controlling Largest Shareholder's Ownership --- p.16 / Chapter 3.3. --- Check-and-balance of Ownership --- p.17 / Chapter 3.3.1. --- Overview --- p.17 / Chapter 3.3.2. --- Balance Index --- p.18 / Chapter 3.4. --- Controlling owner alone --- p.18 / Chapter 3.5. --- Separation of Cash Flow Rights and Control Rights --- p.19 / Chapter 3.6. --- Principal-Agent Problem between the largest shareholders and managers --- p.20 / Chapter 3.6.1. --- Duality --- p.20 / Chapter 3.6.2. --- Managerial Ownership..........................................................Error! Bookmark not defined / Chapter 3.7. --- Board Composition --- p.21 / Chapter 4. --- Measuring Public Governance --- p.23 / Chapter 5. --- Determinants of Real Estate Holdings --- p.27 / Chapter 6. --- Data and Empirical Methodology --- p.29 / Chapter 6.1. --- Data Summary --- p.29 / Chapter 6.2. --- Empirical Examination --- p.31 / Chapter 7. --- Statistics and Regression Results --- p.36 / Chapter 7.1. --- Summary Statistics --- p.36 / Chapter 7.2. --- Regression Result --- p.38 / Chapter 7.2.1. --- Univariate results and multivariate results of 22 countries in the Panel A --- p.38 / Chapter 7.2.2. --- Univariate results and multivariate results of 42 countries in the Panel B --- p.45 / Chapter 7.2.3. --- Univariate results and multivariate results of 13 Western European countries and 9 Eastern Asian countries --- p.47 / Chapter 7.2.4. --- Interaction Effects --- p.51 / Chapter 8. --- Robustness Check --- p.52 / Chapter 9. --- Conclusions --- p.58 / References --- p.60

In recent years, nonprofit scholars have increasingly studied the phenomenon of social enterprises which has become a generic term describing a wider reorientation among third sector organizations. The emergence of social enterprises has also led to a dynamic of hybridization and broadening in the cooperative sector, similar to an earlier dynamic of "economization", but this time on the other end of the organizational spectrum. This paper aims at developing a fine-grained conceptual understanding of how this organizational dynamic is shaped in terms of member coordination, thus contributing to a more comprehensive theoretical understanding of different organizational forms of cooperatives. Specifically, to highlight the difference to traditional member-focused cooperatives, the paper introduces the term third-party-focused cooperatives for those social enterprises which emphasize economic goals as well as control and ownership by a particular community (typically place-based). The key result of the paper is that with the shift from member- to community-focus in cooperatives, the main coordination mechanism becomes one of norm-based trust on the basis of generalized reciprocity. In contrast to traditional maxim-based trust member coordination on the basis of relation-specific reciprocity, this enables third-party-focused cooperatives to mobilize bridging and linking social capital, facilitating collective action aimed towards the community interest. The findings suggest that this identity shift requires a mutual re-positioning between the cooperative and the nonprofit sector, in terms of umbrellas as well as regulatory and legislative bodies.

Situation faced: Raiffeisen Bank Kosovo, as a subsidiary of Raiffeisen BankInternational AG, providesa wide range of banking products and services to all categories of customers in the private individual and business segments. In the first six months of 2018, the profit of the Bank was 11 Million Euro, being the highest in the banking market. The on-line banking channels has increased significantly and today the customers chose to do more than 80% of transactions through E-Banking, mobile phone,or ATMs. Raiffeisen Bank has started to adopt BPM since 2006 as a systemic and structured approach to analyze, improve, control, and manage processes with the aim to improve the quality of products and services. But, how well is BPM adapted and implemented in the bank, and what is the impact of BPM to the strategic goals? b)Action taken: This paper tackles the problem from two angles. First, a literature review is used to clarify the concept of BPM its scope. Second, semistructured interviews were used to collect data from nine participants covering high positions in Raiffeisen Bank Kosovo. In addition, the Research ffered both an evaluation of the significant aspects of the implementation process, and examinedthe key factors effects on alignment of BPM with organization strategy. c)Results achieved: his study unveils that BPM is well understood and is con-sidered an important practice within the bank. Its implementation is familiar to the top management. Especially, process visualization is a considered a core element within BPM projects. Existing project can further benefit from BPM by applying process ownership and defining responsibilities within the end to end processes in every department were these processes are performed. Moreover, this study collects evidence that strategy objectives can be led by BPM. d)Lessons learned: Experience has taught that there are many challenges whenapplying BPM initiatives. However, once these are applied, they help achieving strategic objectives. Two main challenges of implementing BPM were related to lack of proper IT support and budget needed to cover staff training. This paper recommends that BPM initiatives be strategy driven. It should be treated in a holistic way, including several methodologies like Six Sigma, Lean, and Agile. In this way, the Bank is lead towards thinking how its product or services are delivered to the customers.

Based on the institutional logic that enterprises will conform with the immediate cultural values and settings in a nation, the important influence of culture on corporate governance has been acknowledged in recent research. It has been shown that the quality of corporate governance varies strongly within regions and globally. Therefore, tests of cultural influences on single components of corporate governance or surrogates thereof have been conducted and their outcomes discussed. This research investigates the influence of culture on corporate governance using all 6 Hofstede cultural dimensions and a uniquely broad set of corporate governance factors that are present in reality. Using 565,787 year observations relating to 18,344 companies in 41 countries for the years 2010-2015, the results of cross-sectional regression analysis with appropriate control variables is presented. The ensuing results further enhance our understanding of culture's influence on the composition of the board of directors and will help regulators and lawmakers in their endeavors to improve relevant legislation as well as allow multinational companies to design effective and reliable corporate governance structures in their enterprises. In my analysis, I find a substantial influence of cultural dimensions on the structural elements of the composition of the board of directors around the globe. In particular board independence, time on the board, gender diversity, and absolute size of the board are impacted by the surrounding cultural environment of the enterprise. These results also hold true in a robustness test with alternative cultural dimensions. A final moderating test gives some evidence of the moderating influence the cultural environment has on the relationship between board structural elements and the quality of corporate governance.

The need for governance institutions in Ghana to focus on policy results that impact directly on citizen's wellbeing rather than results that are achieved immediately after implementing program of activities has become more relevant than ever before due to widening policy gaps (the difference between policy intention and policy outcome) in Ghana. Defective policy implementation by the Ghanaian Civil Service is widening policy gaps in Ghana. With the aid of the institutional analysis and development framework, this quantitative study examined the relationship between policy gaps and governance in Ghana. Empirical data were collected from 539 Civil Servants in Ghana using a web-based survey. The 539 Civil Service participants in this study were chosen from a list of all Civil Servants obtained from the Office of the Head of Civil Service in Ghana. Multiple linear regression was employed to test the extent to which 6 governance indicators affected policy gaps. Findings showed a significant negative relationship between the regulatory quality governance indicator and policy gaps. The study also found no significant relationship between policy gaps and other governance indicators, namely voice and accountability, political stability, regulatory quality, rule of law, governance effectiveness, and control of corruption. These results suggest that implementing public policies relating to trade and investment, taxes, tariffs, and other regulatory issues that seek to enhance the development of the private sector significantly reduces policy gaps. This study leads to positive social change by helping the civil service improve policies and procedures to services for the citizens it serves.