<p>This study examines the impact of working capital management on cash holdings of small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises in Sweden. The aim of this work is to theoretically derive significant factors related to working capital management which have an influence on the cash level of SMEs and test these in a large sample of Swedish manufacturing SMEs. The theoretical framework for this study consists of a treatise of motives for holding cash, working capital management and cash level. From these theoretical findings, two hypotheses are deduced:</p><p>• H1: Cash holdings are negatively related to the presence of cash substitutes</p><p>• H2: Cash holdings are positively related to working capital management efficiency</p><p>The quantitative investigation consists of the statistical analysis – namely comparison of means and correlation analysis – of key figures which are calculated from the financial statements of a large sample of firms. The dataset contains 13,287 Swedish manufacturing SMEs of the legal form ‘Aktiebolag’. Both hypotheses are confirmed by the results. Empirical evidence is presented which substantiates the supposition that the presence of cash substitutes – namely inventory and accounts receivable – entails lower cash holdings. Furthermore, it is confirmed that working capital management efficiency – measured by the cash conversion cycle – is positively related to cash level. The discussion of the empirical findings pays regard to the different subordinate components of both cash substitutes and working capital management efficiency. Implications of the detected findings are highlighted with respect to their potential utility for the achievement and maintenance of a firm’s target cash level.</p>

This study examines the impact of working capital management on cash holdings of small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises in Sweden. The aim of this work is to theoretically derive significant factors related to working capital management which have an influence on the cash level of SMEs and test these in a large sample of Swedish manufacturing SMEs. The theoretical framework for this study consists of a treatise of motives for holding cash, working capital management and cash level. From these theoretical findings, two hypotheses are deduced: • H1: Cash holdings are negatively related to the presence of cash substitutes • H2: Cash holdings are positively related to working capital management efficiency The quantitative investigation consists of the statistical analysis – namely comparison of means and correlation analysis – of key figures which are calculated from the financial statements of a large sample of firms. The dataset contains 13,287 Swedish manufacturing SMEs of the legal form ‘Aktiebolag’. Both hypotheses are confirmed by the results. Empirical evidence is presented which substantiates the supposition that the presence of cash substitutes – namely inventory and accounts receivable – entails lower cash holdings. Furthermore, it is confirmed that working capital management efficiency – measured by the cash conversion cycle – is positively related to cash level. The discussion of the empirical findings pays regard to the different subordinate components of both cash substitutes and working capital management efficiency. Implications of the detected findings are highlighted with respect to their potential utility for the achievement and maintenance of a firm’s target cash level.

In the first essay, "Why Won't You Forgive Me? Evidence of a Financial Misreporting Stigma in Bank Loan Pricing," we examine the relation between bank loan pricing and intentional financial misreporting. Firms that misreport financial information pay greater spreads on their bank loans for five years following their restatements, whether benchmarked against their pre-restatement loans or similar loans made to matched non-misreporting firms. Misreporting firms that promptly replace certain parties who are potentially related to the misreporting see their spreads fall to benchmark levels within three years following restatement. Large fractions of firms, however, do not promptly replace the potentially related parties and continue to pay premiums over benchmark spread levels for five years following restatement. The results suggest that misreporting creates a long-lasting and costly stigma, but that certain actions can reduce the duration of the stigma. In the second essay, "Can Shareholder-Creditor Conflicts Explain Weak Governance? Evidence from the Value of Cash Holdings," we look into whether shareholder-creditor conflicts generate costs large enough to prevent improvements in governance. If firms choose to remain weakly governed, some cost must prevent improvements. We address our research question by estimating the value of cash as a function of governance, leverage, and the interaction of the two. We find that governance increases the value of cash, but that leverage reduces the gain from strong governance. However, the magnitudes are far too small to explain why weak governance firms remain weakly governed. Our estimates suggest more than 80 percent of weakly governed firms would increase the value of their cash by improving governance. In fact, half of weakly governed firms would increase the value of their cash holdings by $0.35 or more per dollar held by improving governance. Our focus on cash holdings does not seem to drive our results, nor do endogenous governance choices or nonlinearities reverse our conclusions.

English Abstract Drawing on agency theory and the institutional perspective, this paper aims to examine the relationship between corporate governance and cash holdings for the business group-affiliated firms listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange and in the Over-The-Counter market. The empirical results reveal that the group-affiliated firms hold more cash than non-affiliated firms. The findings show that the entrenched business group effects dominate the institutional network group¡¦s effects and indicate that the presence of a pyramidal group ownership structure in the group-affiliated firms leads to a principal-principal conflict and therefore an increase in agency problems. To avoid the confounding effect by which the different corporate governance mechanisms would lead to different predictions regarding corporate governance effectiveness, this paper constructs a corporate governance index by aggregating the six characteristics related to corporate governance effectiveness: the cash flow rights, the control-cash flow rights deviation, the control-affiliated directors, the control-affiliated supervisors, board independence, and the ITDRS rankings. The results show that good governance mechanisms are effective in mitigating the principal-principal agency costs and moderating the effect of group affiliation in affiliated firms¡¦ cash holdings. Keywords: Business Group-Affiliated Firms, Cash Holdings, Corporate Governance, Board Structure, Group Diversity

This dissertation studies the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) and its effects on foreign exchange markets and corporate cash holdings. These two potential effects are examined in the dissertation in two separate essays. The first essay examines the validity of the purchasing power parity (PPP) condition during three distinct exchange rate regimes (floating-rate, target-zone arrangement, and fixed-rate or common currency) from January 1973 through January 2004. My results support PPP, but I find that PPP during the common currency regime holds in fewer EMU countries than during the alternative exchange rate regimes. In addition, PPP between currency blocs holds for all countries examined during the first two regimes, but deteriorates after the introduction of the euro for the EMU countries as opposed to the non-EMU countries. I do not obtain strong evidence supporting PPP for the EMU countries since the euro adoption, but the faster mean reversion I observe in the few EMU countries where PPP does hold, may signal higher market efficiency and economic integration in the future. The second essay investigates corporate liquidity (cash holdings of firms) from 15 European Union (EU) countries [12 Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) countriesthat adopted the euro, and 3 non-EMU countries] from 1993 to 2002 using a dynamic panel data model. My main contributions to the corporate liquidity literature are fourfold. First, I provide evidence that creditor rights also affect corporate liquidity and their effect is more consistent than that of shareholder rights. Second, I show that the recent formation of EMU affects corporate liquidity. Debt and net working capital are better substitutes for cash in EMU countries than non-EMU countries. The adoption of a common currency reduces cash holdings in EMU countries. Third, my results suggest that agency theory plays an important role in explaining corporate liquidity. In particular, the agency view explains corporate liquidity better for EMU firms, probably because of an enhanced capital market integration that weakens the transaction and precautionary motives of holding cash. Fourth, I show that dealing with the endogeneity problem in corporate liquidity studies is important.

The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the development of financial holdings companies in china. As china joined WTO, it gradually has to open its domestic financial market. As a result, for financial holdings companies in china to compete with large foreign financial groups, their business modal has to change. We will discuss how chinese local financial holdings were reacting towards the presence of large foreign financial groups and the outcome of this reaction , taking all factors that account. This thesis will also explore and compare the strengths and weaknesses as well as advantages and disadvantages between local chinese companies and large foreign companies.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 173-180).

Thesis (M.B.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1986.

Substansrabatt för investmentbolag har sedan länge diskuterats inom företagsvärlden och forskningsvärlden. Substansrabattens bakomliggande faktorer är väldokumenterade och omdiskuterade men forskare är inte eniga om exakt vilka faktorer det är som driver investmentbolagets substansrabatt. En av de faktorer som visat sig ha en effekt på substansrabatten för investmentbolag är onoterat innehav och det är onoterat innehav som ligger till grund för vår uppsatts. Syftet med studien är att analyser sambandet mellan svenska investmentbolags substansrabatt och dess onoterade innehav genom att studera ekonomiska egenskaper för de onoterade bolagen som ingår i respektive investmentbolags innehav. Studien baserades på kvartalsvisa observationer för svenska investmentbolags nivå av substansrabatt, andel onoterat innehav, diversifiering av onoterat innehav och värdedrivande parametrar i respektive investmentbolags onoterade innehav. För att besvara studiens frågeställning använde vi oss av Pearson`s korrelationstest och linjära regressioner. Resultatet av studien påvisade att det finns ett positivt samband mellan investmentbolagens substansrabatt och andelen tillväxtbolag i det onoterade innehavet och att det finns ett negativt samband mellan lönsamhet i det onoterade innehavet och investmentbolagets substansrabatt. / The discount to NAV has been a debatable topic in the corporate world and the scientific field for a long period of time. Even though the underlying factors associated with the discount to NAV has been well documented and widely discussed, scientist remains divided on the topic. A factor that has been determined to have an effect on the discount to NAV is unquoted holdings which also is the starting point for this thesis. The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the relationship between Swedish investment companies discount to NAV and the companies’ unquoted holdings by studying key performance indicators regarding the companies ‘unquoted holdings. The thesis was based on quarterly observations of the discount to NAV, the quota of unquoted holdings, level of diversification and financial key figures. To answer the hypothesis of the thesis we used Pearson`s test of correlation and linear regression. The thesis result indicates that there is a positive relationship between the discount to NAV and the quota of unquoted growth companies. The results also showed a negative relationship between profitability in unquoted holdings and the discount to NAV.

The role of information is central to the study of corporate finance. In the real world where one party usually has more and better information, information asymmetry forms the basis of analysis in many key aspects of modern economics including contract theory and principle-agent problems. Although technology facilitates information flow, information continues to play an important role because we live in an environment in which there is more information and information that is more complex. Moreover, we are experiencing a fundamental shift towards a knowledge-based economy in which ideas and concepts, both in the form of information, gain importance. This thesis examines the role of information as we make this transition in two separate settings: First in a “real impact” setting where knowledge generated at leading research universities spills over into firms nearby, and second, in a "traditional market" setting where analysts help disseminate information. In the post-industrial economy of the 21st century, innovation is the engine of economic growth. As a result, we increasingly value human capital and knowledge. Chapter 2 looks at the location of firms relative to knowledge centers and its impact on stock volatility. I argue that knowledge spillovers foster firm R&D and find supporting evidence. My evidence is consistent with the classic models on the impact of human capital on economic growth (Nelson and Phelps, 1966). Chapter 3 examines the impact of knowledge and innovation on firms’ cash management policies. Bates, Kahle, and Stulz (2009) find that the average cash-to-assets ratio for firms more than doubles in the past decades and attribute it to changing firm characteristics. I identify innovation as a driving force behind these changes, resulting in firms holding more cash as a precaution. In Chapter 4, I study the investment value of information from analysts, or more specifically, analyst target prices. Due to potential conflicts of interest problems, the value that analysts provide to investors remains controversial. Moreover, since the information age is characterized by information overload, it is harder for investors to identify relevant information. I find that institutions trade in the same direction as the consensus target price movement. / Thesis (Ph.D, Management) -- Queen's University, 2012-03-07 14:20:20.178