In 2011, Korea ratified the Korea-US Free Trade Agreement (KORUS-FTA). This treaty remains controversial in Korean society, particularly because many Koreans claim that the indirect expropriation doctrine under investor-state arbitration in the investment chapter will allow global investors to challenge governmental regulation justified by the Korean constitution. Despite such criticism, the KORUS-FTA indirect expropriation doctrine and the Korean constitutional property doctrine share more than might be expected in practice. However, this substantive doctrinal convergence between national and global legal systems does not eliminate all risks of conflict between the nation-state and global investors; conflicts can occur whenever two actors interpret the same text differently. Once an investment dispute happens, independent investor-state arbitration reviews governmental action according to independent interpretative rules. Systems theory suggests that nation-states can turn such global challenges into opportunities by taking contextual control over global investment in relying on the global investment legal system of the global investment regime. The nation-state can convince global investors that the nation-state respects transnational investment mechanisms, whilst indirectly imbuing norm-making with minimum national interest without incurring serious damage to its reputation. To be specific, the nation-state can attract more foreign investors by accepting the indirect expropriation doctrine and the investor-state arbitration respected by global investors. Simultaneously, the nation-state can secure minimum control over global investment under legitimate regulatory power reflected in the same indirect expropriation clause. In addition, the nation-state can guide the investment tribunal to secure a balance between investment protection and the regulatory power of the host state by prescribing the proportionality principle. Contextual control can be a sub-optimal choice for the nation-state in the sense that it avoids a worst-case scenario by securing proportionality and predictability. In order to make this measure more effective, the current global investment legal system needs to secure more commensurate autonomy or autopoiesis by furthering simultaneous and balanced structural coupling with a greater variety of social powers. In this context, global constitutionalism provides national constitutional tools for the nation-state; specifically, democratic participation in national treaty-making procedures and autopoietic structuralisation of the investment arbitration mechanism can make the substantive contents and application of global investment law fairer and more acceptable, not only to global investors and strong states, but also to social movements and smaller countries. In the context of the KORUS-FTA, the Korean government needs to make the treaty terms of indirect expropriation clearer through democratic participation. At the same time, the Korea should pay attention to making arbitration process reflexive to more various social interests, whilst protecting its operation from inappropriate influences. Such measures can prevent KORUSFTA tribunals from making extremely unacceptable decisions to actors of the global investment regime, including the Korean government, although they could not guarantee ideal decisions that stratify all actors perfectly.

Antalet kvinnliga styrelseledamöter i bolag har ökat de senaste åren och studier visar att bolag med könsdiversifierade styrelser redovisar högre lönsamhet än andra företag. Flera av dessa studier är baserade på data från små, medelstora och stora börsnoterade bolag. Regeringen föreslog nyligen en kvoteringslag där kvinnor skall utgöra 40 procent av antalet styrelseledamöter i bolag med syfte att få mer jämlika styrelser. Intressant är då att studera om fördelarna med könsdiversifierade styrelser beaktas av investerare och hur marknadsaktörer agerar. I studien visas att när nominering av kvinnliga styrelseledamöter offentliggörs har det en negativ påverkan på företagets marknadsvärde, men denna påverkan är inte statistiskt signifikant. Vidare påverkas inte nomineringens inverkan på aktiekursförändringen av ett bolags branschtillhörighet. / The number of female directors of companies has increased in recent years and studies show that companies with diverse boards report higher profitability than other companies. Several of these studies are based on data from small, medium and large listed companies. The government recently proposed a quota law where women will constitute 40 per cent of the directors of companies to push for more equal boards. Hence, studying the benefits of diverse boards and its investor reactions and how the market is moving is of interest. The study shows that when the nomination of female board members is published, it has a negative impact on the company's market, but this effect is not statistically significant. Furthermore, the nomination affect does not have an impact on the stock price change regarding the company's industry affiliation.

Both revenues and earnings of diversified firms are increasingly being reported, to the government and the public, on a subentity basis. Adequate criterial foundations do not exist to permit the effective general prescription of specific segment delineations, nor is it known whether such criterial assists can be usefully developed.Demands for segmentation in financial reports are currently intense. Actual reporting practices are largely nonstandardized as to either the definition of segments employed or, the disclosure modes used to present them. Neither conceptual nor theoretical supports are now adequate in guidance to the forms and levels of segmentation activity now required. Prerequisite to effective development of such supports is an-adequate understanding of the corporate diversification phenomenon itself. This dissertation project investigates and analyzes the nature of corporate diversification, as manifested in (1) its historical evolution; (2) general comprehensions of the phenomenon, as evidenced in published opinions and conceptual reasoning schemes of both authoritative experts and lay investors; and (3) formal research by others. Additionally, the results of these investigations and analyses are developed into conceptual schemes and theoretical frameworks, at moderate levels of abstraction.

The objectives of this thesis are: first, to investigate the impact of investor sentiment in UK financial markets in different investment intervals through the construction of separate sentiment measures for UK investors and UK institutional investors; second, to examine institutional herding behaviour by studying UK mutual fund data; third, to explore the causal relation between institutional herding and investor sentiment. The study uses US, German and UK financial market data and investor sentiment survey data from 1st January 1996 to 30th June 2011. The impact of investor sentiment on UK equity returns is studied both in general, and more specifically by distinguishing between tranquil and financial crisis periods. It is found that UK equity returns are significantly influenced by US individual and institutional sentiment and hardly at all by local UK investor sentiment. The sentiment contagion across borders is more pronounced in the shorter investment interval. The investigation of institutional herding behaviour is conducted by examining return dispersions and the Beta dispersions of UK mutual funds. Little evidence of herding in return is found, however strong evidence of Beta herding is presented. The study also suggests that beta herding is not caused by market fundamental and macroeconomic factors, instead, it perhaps arises from investor sentiment. This is consistent between closed-end and open-ended funds. The relation between institutional herding and investor sentiment is investigated by examining the measures of herding against the measures of investor sentiment in the UK and US. It suggests that UK institutional herding is influenced by investor sentiment, and UK institutional sentiment has a greater impact as compared to UK market sentiment. Open-end fund managers are more likely to be affected by individual investor sentiment, whereas closed-end fund managers herd on institutional sentiment.

This dissertation addresses issues concerning liquidity and its volatility. It consists of two essays. The first essay, "Liquidity, Macro Factors and the U.S. Equity Flows to Emerging Markets", examines the role of liquidity on equity flows from the U.S. to fifteen emerging markets around the world. Since liquidity has many dimensions, an emphasis is placed on utilizing various measures of liquidity. Moreover, both static and dynamic analyses, as well as short and long-horizon regressions, are performed to investigate the research questions. The results suggest that a liquid market attracts flows, after controlling for market size, political openness, exchange rate and other macro factors. Additionally, evidence indicates that the importance of liquidity varies across regions. For instance in the Asian region, the relation between equity flows and volume-related liquidity is weak while that between flows and price impacts of trading is strong. Evidence also supports the relevance of macro factors such as a country's economic freedom. The second essay, "Liquidity Risk Premium Puzzle and Possible Explanations", attempts to resolve the liquidity risk puzzle: a negative relation between returns and liquidity risk, documented by Chordia, Subrahmanyam, and Anshuman (2001b), by employing alternative liquidity measures and by incorporating factors that might potentially affect the relation. The main findings are as follows. The relation between stock returns and volatility of liquidity depends on the measure of liquidity. When liquidity measures are based on trading volume, the results are largely mixed, but when liquidity is measured based on price impact of trading, the relation between returns and volatility of price impacts is positive, as expected. The results are sensitive to time periods examined. Moreover, during extreme down markets, the aversion to liquidity volatility is lower, suggesting behavioral bias might potentially address the puzzle. Empirical findings also suggest that liquidity risk premium tends to be greater for small stocks. Finally, when the VIX index is included as a proxy for investor sentiment, the results indicate that the relation between returns and liquidity risk is significantly positive in four out of five liquidity measures. In sum, the empirical analysis partially but not completely addresses the puzzle.

The thesis is divided in two different parts. In the theoretical one we can find information about golf, its history, evolution and an opinion about it. This part also deals with the operating principles of a golf resort, an ownership structure and an existence of a golf club. At the end of theoretical part is described the structure of a business plan in detail. The business plan is based on a real project of a low-cost golf course. It respects the investor's requirements and is meant to be used as a manual for operating of this golf course. We can also find the procedure for establishing a golf club, the applied methods of segment analysis and the prediction of activities connected to the club in the future that respect the factor of risk.

The listing of firms on stock exchanges does not only provide these firms with the opportunity to raise long-term equity capital, it also allows for investors to participate in the primary and secondary equity markets. Traditionally executed through Initial Public Offerings (IPOs), listings were previously reserved for large firms due to the requirements and costs involved. In response, the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) introduced the JSE Alternative Exchange (AltX) in 2003 as a parallel exchange market in order to also provide South African small and medium sized entities with an opportunity to access equity capital. This also allowed for investors to invest in small high-growth companies with the expectation of higher returns. The aim of this research was to analyse the IPO performances of JSE AltX listings in order to establish the returns achieved by the initial IPO and the subsequent aftermarket participants. This research analysed the initial IPO returns attributable to the initial investors and the 1, 2 and 3 year aftermarket returns attributable to the aftermarket participants. Although various studies have been concluded on the investor returns for IPOs listing on the JSE, this report focused specifically on the AltX which has not been as extensively studied. IPOs listing on the JSE AltX from April 2006 to December 2011 were analysed. It was found that during this period, the average initial market-adjusted return offered to the initial invertors was 21 per cent after the first day of trade. The average 1, 2 and 3 year aftermarket market-adjusted returns were -0.08, -0.33 and 3.36 per cent respectively. An analysis of the combined aftermarket market-adjusted returns for the same 1, 2 and 3 year post IPO periods yielded returns of 25.17, 20.03 and 25.67 per cent respectively. From the conducted study, the results indicate that there is existence of average positive abnormal initial returns on the JSE AtlX, and returns underperformance for the two years following that. The aftermarket returns are then positive 3 years post IPO date. Combined returns were found to be abnormal and positive throughout the 1,2 and 3 year periods post IPO.

Comportement de l'investisseur et impact sur les prix du marché. / Sir Isaac Newton, who is one of the most influential physicist and mathematician of all time, after he suffered huge losses in tulip market said: “I can calculate the motions of heavenly bodies, but not the madness of people.” Financial markets are full of uncertainties. The movement and volatility in stock prices has been the focus of attention for scholars all the time. Over the last decades, financial markets gain influence both at people’s life and country’s economics as a result of technological advances, financial liberalization, and ongoing international trade. On one hand, participant’s property and investor’s market performance are impacted by price fluctuation. On the other hand, the development of national economic is closely interrelated to the stability of financial markets. In this effect, the understanding of investors’ designing making and how it affect the market price movement is of vital interest to both researchers and economic policy market. Experimental Finance has already become a well-established field, a fact that was recognized by the attribution of the Nobel Prize in Economics to Vernon Smith in 2002 who’s most significant work was concerned with market mechanisms and tests of different auction forms. However so far the major part of experimental work in Finance has considered (including Vernon Smith) human rationality and the ability of markets to find the proper price close to an equilibrium setting. [...]

Thesis advisor: Thomas J. Chemmanur / My dissertation is comprised of three chapters. In the first chapter, I analyze the effect of top management changes on subsequent corporate innovation in venture capital-backed private firms using a hand-collected dataset. I find that top management changes are associated with significantly more and higher quality corporate innovation (as measured by their patenting activity). I show that top management changes are likely to be venture-driven and that the effect of top management changes on corporate innovation is stronger for firms where venture capitalists have greater power. An instrumental variable analysis using an exogenous shock to the supply of outside managers available for hire implies a causal effect of top management changes on corporate innovation. I establish that one mechanism through which top management changes enhance corporate innovation is through new management teams hiring more inventors for a given investment size. I also show that both top management changes and corporate innovation have a positive impact on firms' successful exits. In the second chapter, co-authored with Thomas Chemmanur and Karthik Krishnan, we hypothesize that VC-backing garners greater “investor attention” (Merton (1987)) for IPOs, allowing IPO underwriters to perform two information-related roles more efficiently during the book-building and road-show process: information dissemination, where the lead underwriter disseminates noisy information about various aspects of the IPO firm to institutional investors; and information extraction, where the lead underwriter extracts information useful in pricing the IPO firm equity from institutional investors. Using pre-IPO media coverage as a proxy, we show empirically that VC-backed firm IPOs indeed obtain greater investor attention, causally yielding them more favorable IPO characteristics such as higher IPO and secondary market valuations. In the third chapter, co-authored with Thomas Chemmanur, Lei Kong, and Karthik Krishnan, 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, 2017. / Submitted to: Boston College. Carroll School of Management. / Discipline: Finance.

Thesis advisor: William B. Stevenson / Thesis advisor: Sandra Waddock / The main purpose of this dissertation research is to understand the collaborative interactions among actors engaging in change efforts in the existing institutional arrangements. Specifically, this dissertation research sheds light on the collaboration networks of social investors who desire both their own financial benefits and stakeholder welfare, by filing shareholder resolutions to bring environmental or stakeholder concerns to the attention of corporate managers. My research strategy in this dissertation is to propose and write a theoretical study and two empirical studies. I propose in chapter 2 a conceptual and theoretical framework for inquiring into social investors' collaboration strategies to develop the field of shareholder resolutions on social issues. The key argument is researchers pay attention to focal actors, multiple actors, and the relationships among them to understand the social mechanisms which integrate active shareholders with the field of social resolutions. In order to determine social investors' strategies to initiate and mobilize their filing activities, based on the social movement perspectives and a social network approach, I propose four conceptual dimensions from the social movement perspectives: identity, social relationships, target identification, and issue framing. In two empirical studies, I test my propositions by analyzing 1650 shareholder resolutions filed by 267 social investors from 2002 to 2007. The first study presented in chapter 4 addresses who initiate social resolution filings, by examining determinants of social investors' proactive initiating activities. When religious investors have brokerage positions, their initiating activity of filing social resolutions are very proactive. However, social investors' range of stock ownership does not go along with their brokerage positions. These findings imply that leading social investors need to have brokerage positions when they have faith-based identity, but that they don't need social resources when they have enough financial resources, a wide range of stocks. The second study presented in chapter 5 explains how leading social investors attract to mobilize their potential followers. Interestingly, the reciprocation hypothesis, "give and take of co-filing support," is negatively supported, indicating a division of labor in the field of social resolutions. In addition, lead-filing social investors who successfully attract and mobilize other investors aim at target companies that are well known among other social investors, and frame issues in wide angles in their social resolutions. These empirical studies demonstrate that active social investors developed their collaboration networks dependent upon their faith-based identity, social relations, targets identification and issue framing strategies. In this dissertation, I assert the necessity and importance of studies on the activities of shareholders by demonstrating that some active investors have strategically led the socially responsible investment movement. This dissertation provides counter-evidence to the conventional assumption that corporate managers should ignore stakeholder welfare if they pursue shareholder value. It also demonstrates that the network-based movements can be a good platform for social change agents to develop their own fields. Strategically, as they interact with each other, small and weak actors can build their own field to collectively influence corporate management. In this sense, the network-based movements underscore the way the infrastructure of a field emerges. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2009. / Submitted to: Boston College. Carroll School of Management. / Discipline: Organization Studies and Corporate Responsibility.