ABSTRACT “Almost all places are in trouble, but some are in more trouble than others" Kotler, Haider & Rein (1993) Kotler, Haider & Rein (1993) contend that all places are in trouble now, or will be in the near future. The onset of globalisation of the world's economy, country political dynamics and the accelerating pace of technological changes are some of the forces that require all places to learn how to compete on the world arena. Porter (1990) states that the framework for understanding a company’s sources of competitive advantage can be extended to the level of nations. It is basically concerned with the question as to why some nations succeed in global competition when others fail. Nations must learn how to think more like businesses if they are to survive and should begin by identifying their competitive advantages and building on them. As countries compete for inward investment, tourism and export of goods and services- success or failure can accurately be chartered, and questions of reputation, image, identity and hence marketing and branding become central to the competitive edge (Olins, 1999). Faced with the challenge of a negative image, a country must adopt a proactive stance to correct this image. This is where the question of country branding comes in. Branding a country for many is misconstrued and interpreted to simply mean designing a new logo for their country and possibly a slogan to go underneath it. However country-banding proponents highlight that there is a difference between nation branding and tourism promotion. It helps even less that there are so many communications agencies that perhaps frustrated by lack of pure strategy capacity to sell to governments, have fallen into the habit of i Sibonokuhle GUMPO - 34462481 pandering to this misconception and simply selling logos and slogans to any government prepared to buy them (Anholt, 2003). However faced with the urgent need to address the crippling impact of a negative image, countries like Zimbabwe cannot simply wait and expect things to turn out for the better. Kotler et al (1993) stress that places are not able to respond to negative images concerning their nations as quickly as negative perceptions are built, be it through media, word of mouth or other channels. As a result the importance of a pro-active response cannot be overemphasized. This study explores the current negative image of Zimbabwe and tries to define the root or source of this negative image. Having defined or spelt out what is thought to be the problem, the researcher than explores possible ways of how the stakeholders of Zimbabwe can rebrand their country reflecting on known success stories. Kotler et al (1993) contend that the central tenet of marketing places is that in spite of the powerful internal and external forces that buffet them, places have within their collective resources and people the capacity to improve their relative competitive positions. Zimbabweans in general believe that their situation has been sensationalised by the media and is not a reflection of what is on the ground. By adopting a proactive stance in rebranding their country, Zimbabweans will perhaps finally realise that when it comes to image, “being in possession of the truth is not enough, the truth has to be sold” (Anholt,all places are in trouble now, or will be in the near future. The onset of globalisation of the world's economy, country political dynamics and the accelerating pace of technological changes are some of the forces that require all places to learn how to compete on the world arena. Porter (1990) states that the framework for understanding a company’s sources of competitive advantage can be extended to the level of nations. It is basically concerned with the question as to why some nations succeed in global competition when others fail. Nations must learn how to think more like businesses if they are to survive and should begin by identifying their competitive advantages and building on them. As countries compete for inward investment, tourism and export of goods and services- success or failure can accurately be chartered, and questions of reputation, image, identity and hence marketing and branding become central to the competitive edge (Olins, 1999). Faced with the challenge of a negative image, a country must adopt a proactive stance to correct this image. This is where the question of country branding comes in. Branding a country for many is misconstrued and interpreted to simply mean designing a new logo for their country and possibly a slogan to go underneath it. However country-banding proponents highlight that there is a difference between nation branding and tourism promotion. It helps even less that there are so many communications agencies ABSTRACT “Almost all places are in trouble, but some are in more trouble than others" Kotler, Haider & Rein (1993) Kotler, Haider & Rein (1993) contend that all places are in trouble now, or will be in the near future. The onset of globalisation of the world's economy, country political dynamics and the accelerating pace of technological changes are some of the forces that require all places to learn how to compete on the world arena. Porter (1990) states that the framework for understanding a company’s sources of competitive advantage can be extended to the level of nations. It is basically concerned with the question as to why some nations succeed in global competition when others fail. Nations must learn how to think more like businesses if they are to survive and should begin by identifying their competitive advantages and building on them. As countries compete for inward investment, tourism and export of goods and services- success or failure can accurately be chartered, and questions of reputation, image, identity and hence marketing and branding become central to the competitive edge (Olins, 1999). Faced with the challenge of a negative image, a country must adopt a proactive stance to correct this image. This is where the question of country branding comes in. Branding a country for many is misconstrued and interpreted to simply mean designing a new logo for their country and possibly a slogan to go underneath it. However country-banding proponents highlight that there is a difference between nation branding and tourism promotion. It helps even less that there are so many communications agencies that perhaps frustrated by lack of pure strategy capacity to sell to governments, have fallen into the habit of i Sibonokuhle GUMPO - 34462481 pandering to this misconception and simply selling logos and slogans to any government prepared to buy them (Anholt, 2003). However faced with the urgent need to address the crippling impact of a negative image, countries like Zimbabwe cannot simply wait and expect things to turn out for the better. Kotler et al (1993) stress that places are not able to respond to negative images concerning their nations as quickly as negative perceptions are built, be it through media, word of mouth or other channels. As a result the importance of a pro-active response cannot be overemphasized. This study explores the current negative image of Zimbabwe and tries to define the root or source of this negative image. Having defined or spelt out what is thought to be the problem, the researcher than explores possible ways of how the stakeholders of Zimbabwe can rebrand their country reflecting on known success stories. Kotler et al (1993) contend that the central tenet of marketing places is that in spite of the powerful internal and external forces that buffet them, places have within their collective resources and people the capacity to improve their relative competitive positions. Zimbabweans in general believe that their situation has been sensationalised by the media and is not a reflection of what is on the ground. By adopting a proactive stance in rebranding their country, Zimbabweans will perhaps finally realise that when it comes to image, “being in possession of the truth is not enough, the truth has to be sold” (Anholt, / Graduate School of Business Leadership / MBL

Purpose: The purpose of this work is to analyze investors as well as analysts' views on the development of technology in Automated Trading recommendations in the stock market. Theoretical framework: The study is based on The Efficient Market Hypothesis. Method: The methodological framework of this thesis have included both a quantitative and qualitative approach. A deductive approach has been used. Empirical framework: Data was obtained from 206 members of the Swedish share savers association (Aktiespararna) plus 4 semi-structured interviews with advisers and analysts. Analysis: Data shows average investors do not trust, and are reluctant to take advice, from Robo-advisors but higher percentage of technically savvy traders rely on Robo-advisors. Most analysts perceive no threat to robo-advisor replacing their job. In fact they believed it could replace advisors job. Advisors believed the opposite. Conclusion: 67 % of the investors surveyed believed that in five years Roboadvisors will completely replace human advisors despite the fact that 82 % still liked and trusted recommendations made by humans more. Financial operators see Robo-advisors as a tool rather than threat and plan to integrate it in their own business.

Overconfidence and its relationship to investor market participation is well established in the finance literature. The research into investors and social networks is only in its infancy, however. This thesis extends the literature by expanding on both subjects individually, then bringing them together. Empirical work on individual investors in the existing literature links overconfidence and excess trading, resulting in impaired returns. The preferred activity metric, monthly account turnover, encapsulates two separate elements, though. One is trade frequency. The other is leverage use. Chapter 4 of this thesis theorizes based on the existing literature that in fact trade frequency is not a good measure of overconfidence. It then demonstrates through empirical analysis of a group of individual non-professional foreign exchange traders that leverage is much more suitable to that role. Chapter 5 turns the focus to social networks, particularly with respect to information transfer. The literature in finance anticipates that network members benefit from their membership. Further, network position (social capital) enhances that benefit. This thesis challenges that expectation with respect to non-professional investors. Findings based on analysis of members of an online retail foreign exchange trader social network indicate that while there may be an educational benefit accruing to unsophisticated members, for more sophisticated ones membership appears to have a negative effect on returns. One potential explanation for the negative impact of network membership is explored in Chapter 6 in the form of impression management. It is hypothesized that sophisticated investors are influenced in their behaviour by the realization they are being observed, and also the size of their audience. Analysis of foreign exchange traders indicates an increase in leverage use among sophisticated investors as their audience size increases, coinciding with a decline in trade excess returns, making the case for an observation-based rise in overconfidence.

This paper focuses on understanding the higher than average punishment to Greek stocks and bonds and the overall investor reactions to the worsening economic situation in Greece from 2000 to 2014. Were Greek stock and bond values driven by fiscal and financial conditions, macroeconomic indicators and event shocks to the economy? Time series regressions, Granger Causality Wald tests and impulse response functions are used to answer the question. The proxies for Greek stock and bond market performance include the Athens Stock Exchange Index growth rate and the short run and long run interest rate spreads between Greece and Germany. The macroeconomic variables include debt to GDP ratio, the National Bank of Greece return on equity growth rate, real GDP growth rate, inflation rate, and M1 and M2 money supply growth rates. The significant events include Greece joining the Euro in 2001, the Greek government admitting to lying about budget deficits in 2004, Greece’s first bailout in 2010 and the resignation of Prime Minister George Papandreou in 2011. Results show that most variables are significant and stock and bond market performance are dependent on macroeconomic indicators and event shocks.

In the U.S., clean energy goals and the move towards a clean energy economy are causing the electric power sector to add emerging and innovative renewable energy resources into their generation mix. Electric utilities (EU) face a monumental challenge to create, deliver, and capture value from emerging and disruptive technologies. This study seeks to address the impact of solar photovoltaics on the EU market by investigating the role of business model changes within the domain of urban and rural U.S. electric utility organizations. By integrating the evolving EU business model with the Competing Values Framework (CVF), a new lens is created to assess the changing and evolving business behavior within the EU industry. Furthermore, a predictive and prescriptive tool emerges associated with organizational ambidexterity (OA). Finally, four lessons are presented that will help EU leaders become more anticipatory, adaptable, and responsive in this changing renewable environment.

I investigate the stock market's reaction to events related to the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board's (PCAOB) development and enactment of Auditing Standard No. 5 (AS 5). The change from Auditing Standard No. 2 (AS 2) to AS 5 was debated in the business press at length. The PCAOB stated that the goal of AS 5 was to reduce the prohibitive costs of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 - Section 404 and AS 2 (Krishnan et al. 2008) while maintaining the effectiveness of the internal control audits required by those policies. However, there was concern that internal control audit quality would decrease under AS 5. My study examines how investors perceived this change by considering stock market reaction around 10 event dates related to PCAOB and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) actions with regard to the development and enactment of AS 5. I find evidence that the market's reaction to key AS 5 events was significantly negative, which is consistent with investors perceiving AS 5 as a significant decrease in internal control audit quality. I also study these investor reactions cross-sectionally to further examine the two potential effects of AS 5 (decrease in compliance costs and decrease in internal control audit quality) and how they relate to firm characteristics (size, complexity, litigation risk, and fraud risk). I find evidence consistent with my main finding: investors' perceived increase in information risk under AS 5 is apparent when considering firm characteristics. Finally, I consider ex-post financial reporting quality under AS 5 and find no significant change in financial reporting quality compared to under AS 2. This study contributes to accounting research by being the first to study the stock market's perception of this significant policy change archivally and the first to consider the effectiveness of AS 5 with regard to financial reporting quality.

本研究探討私募對企業經營績效之影響，分別檢驗五種類型應募人之私募，其企業經營績效是否因私募而獲得顯著改善。本文採用配對t檢定，檢驗當應募人分別為策略投資人、內部人、積極投資人、消極投資人及單一投資人時，公司之經營績效於私募前後一年是否有顯著差異，並以營運現金流量報酬率、資產報酬率、股東權益報酬率及公司價值作為績效指標進行迴歸分析，探討不同類型應募人之私募，對經營績效之影響有何不同。 實證結果發現，私募會因應募人之不同，而對經營績效產生不同的影響。當應募人為策略投資人、內部人、積極投資人或單一投資人時，公司私募後一年的經營績效比私募前一年的績效好，表示當應募人為該四類投資人時，四項經營績效衡量指標皆顯示，私募會正面影響公司之經營績效；而當應募人為消極投資人時，私募對公司營運現金流量會造成負面的影響。 / This study classifies private placement investors into five types including strategic investors, insiders, active investors, passive investors, and single investors to investigate whether firm performance has been improved after issuing private placement. I use two-sample paired t-test to examine whether the performance is different between pre-placement and post-placement under each type of private placement investors, and use regression approach to analyze the impact of private placement investors on firm performance measured by operating cash flow returns, returns on assets, returns on equity, and Tobin’s Q. The evidence shows that the impact on performance varies with private placement investors. Firms have better performance after issuing private placement when the private placement investors are strategic investors, insiders, active investors, and single investors. On the contrary, when the private placement investors are passive investors, firms have poorer operating cash flow returns.

本研究利用1992年至2006年間台灣證券交易所的逐筆成交資料，探討機構投資人的投資偏好。將法人分為外資、自營商、投信及其他法人四類，依Ng和Wu(2006)年提出的研究方法，利用投資者投入資金的比重做為偏好強度的衡量，以各種股票特性因子作為偏好的替代變數，分別進行迴歸分析。研究結果發現四類法人皆偏好市值占總市值較高、流動性較高、高價、低報酬波動性的股票，在報酬率方面，外資、自營商及投信皆偏好資產報酬率、股票報酬率以及現金股利率的股票。此外，觀察不同年度，四類法人對於高流動性、高報酬率及低報酬率波動度的股票有較穩定的偏好，但對於其他變數的偏好則會隨著時間及環境發生改變。

Šis magistro baigiamasis darbas skirtas investuotojų apsaugos mechanizmų analizei valstybės nemokumo atveju. Remiamasi klasikine valstybės imuniteto sąvoka, kuri teigia, kad valstybė turi suvereną ir negali būti patraukta teisminiams procesams. Tačiau Lietuva, kaip ir kitos užsienio valstybės, atsisako valstybės imuniteto ir dalyvauja finansų rinkoje, kaip lygiateisis subjektas. Investuotojas, kuris investuoja į valstybės vertybinius popierius ir dalyvauja finansų rinkoje, turi būti ypatingai ginamas, nes bet kuriuo atveju, jis išlieka silpnoji santykių šalis. Pasaulio praktika parodė, kad valstybei tapus nemokiai, ji negalinti įvykdyti prisiimtų finansinių įsipareigojimų kreditoriams, t.y. stambiems užsienio ir vietiniams bankams ir investuotojams, turtintiems šios šalies obligacijų ar kitų skolos vertybinių popierių. Pagrindiniai veiksniai, lemiantys valstybės sprendimą pasiskelbti nemokia, yra per didelis valstybės įsiskolinimas, lėtas ekonomikos augimas. Susidarius tokiai situacijai, valstybė teikia skolos restruktūrizavimo pasiūlymą investuotojams, siekdama pakeisti obligacijų sąlygas arba atidėti išpirkimo terminus. Magistriniame darbe plačiai analizuojama investuotojų teisės, kai valstybė siekia restruktūrizuoti skolą. Taigi, kai valstybė negali išmokėti obligacijų turėtojams nominalios jų turimų obligacijų vertės, ji teikia pasiūlymą pakeisti turimas obligacijas į naujas restruktūrizuotąsias obligacijas ir kitos rūšies kompensacijas. Lietuvai, kaip Europos Sąjungos... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / This Master‘s thesis is dedicated to the analysis of investor protection mechanisms in case of state insolvency. The classic notion of state immunity provides that a state is the sovereign that is immune from judicial proceedings. However, Lithuania as well as other states waive the sovereign immunity and participate in financial markets as equal entities. Contractual relationship forms between a state and an investor who has purchased debt securities issued by the state. An investor who invests into the state securities and participates in the financial market shall be entitled to special protection, as he remains the weaker party to the relations in any case. The thesis has analysed interpretation of the notion of sovereign insolvency in international law; however, no such notion has been found. The research has shown that this notion is construed as a state’s incapacity to comply with its financial liabilities. Thus, according to the world’s practice, if a state has become insolvent, it is incapable of complying with the assumed financial liabilities to its creditors, i.e. high profile foreign and local banks and investors holding bonds or other debt securities of the state. Key factors determining a state’s resolution to proclaim own insolvency are excessive indebtedness of the state, slow economic growth. State’s insolvency and incapacity to comply with the assumed liabilities as well as debt restructuring have negative effects on financial markets, given that the... [to full text]

This thesis addresses asset pricing in Chinese A-share stock markets using a dataset consisting of all shares listed in Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges from January 1997 to December 2007. The empirical work is carried out based on two theoretical foundations: the efficient market hypothesis and behavioural finance. It examines and compares the validity of two traditional asset pricing models and two behavioural asset pricing models. The investigation is initially performed within a traditional asset pricing framework. The three-factor Fama-French model is estimated and then augmented by additional macroeconomic and bond market variables. The results suggest that these traditional asset pricing models fail to explain fully the time-variation of stock returns in Chinese stock markets, leaving non-normally distributed and heteroskedastic residuals, calling for further explanatory variables and suggesting the existence of a structure break. Indeed, the macroeconomic and bond market factors provide little help to the asset pricing model. Using the Fama-French model as the benchmark, further research is done by investigating investor sentiment as the third dimension beside returns and risks. Investor sentiment helps explain the mis-pricing component of returns in the Fama-French model and the time-variation in the factors themselves. Incorporating investor sentiment into the asset pricing model improves the model performance, lessening the importance of the Fama-French factors, and suggesting that in China, sentiment affects both the way in which investors judge risks as well as portfolio returns directly. The sentiment effect on asset pricing is also examined under a nonlinear Markov-switching framework. The stochastic regime-dependent model reveals that stock returns in China are driven by fundamental factors in bear and low volatility markets but are prone to sentiment and become uncoupled from fundamental risks in bull and high volatility markets.