Šis magistro baigiamasis darbas skirtas investicijų apsaugos užsienio valstybėse analizei. Klasikinėje tarptautinėje teisėje visiškas subjektiškumas buvo suprantamas kaip būdingas tik valstybėms, todėl visi tarptautiniai santykiai, tarp jų ir ginčų sprendimas buvo valstybių tarpusavio reikalas. Dėl to, jei reikėdavo ginti asmenį užsienyje patyrusį žalą, tai galima buvo padaryti tik remiantis fikcija – kad žala padaryta asmeniui yra žala padaryta jo valstybei. Jei asmuo investavęs į užsienio valstybę patirdavo žalą dėl neteisėtų investicijas priimančios valstybės veiksmų, jis pats galėdavo kreiptis dėl kompensacijos į vietinius valstybės teismus arba į savo pilietybės ar nacionalinės priklausomybės valstybę, kad ši imtųsi diplomatinių priemonių. Šiuolaikinė tarptautinė teisė subjektų klausimu, galima sakyti, žengia toliau. Šiuo metu fiziniai asmenys yra įgiję dalinį tarptautinį teisinį subjektiškumą žmogaus teisių srityje. Nuosavybės apsauga (tame tarpe ir investicijų apsauga) yra viena iš svarbiausių žmogaus teisių, deklaruojamų tiek valstybių konstitucijose, tiek tarptautiniuose dokumentuose, todėl investuotojai gali patys, be savo valstybės įtraukimo ar įsikišimo, išspręsti investicinį ginčą su investicijas priimančia valstybe. Įvairių instrumentų pagalba šiuolaikinėje tarptautinėje teisėje yra sukurta nemažai pažeistų teisių gynimo mechanizmų, kuriais gali pasinaudoti investuotojai tiek fiziniai, tiek juridiniai asmenys. Jei investuotojas siekia investicinį ginčą... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The analysis of the protection of foreign investment is the key object of this master thesis. States were recognized as the only subjects in the classical international law. Therefore all international relationships and disputes where settled between the states themselves. In case of a breach of the rights of a foreign investor it was the state of his nationality to bring any kind of claims in regards to another state. Contemporary international law goes way further in regard to international legal personality of natural persons or legal entities. Partial personality, in particular in the field of human rights, is recognized for the natural/legal persons. Protection of property, as well as investment, is considered to be one of the most fundamental human rights embedded in constitutions and international treaties. Therefore, investors have a right to protect their injured rights by bringing claims in international tribunals. There are quite a few mechanisms for the protection of investors’ rights in the domain of international law. Such as international institutional arbitration, ad hoc arbitration, ECHR, ICSID and diplomatic protection by investor’s state of nationality. The analysis of the investment protection mechanisms wouldn’t be completed without the analysis of the notion of investor itself. There is no universal definition of the notion of investor. In most BIT this notion differs because of the different interests of capital exporting and capital importing countries... [to full text]

Using paired tests of high and low minimum investment group funds on several performance measures for hedge funds and funds-of-funds from 1991-2005, we find that funds imposing a higher entry fee requirement on their investors produce significantly better performance both on a raw basis and a risk-adjusted basis. Differences in the performance of the high and low entry fee funds are found to be less significant economically and statistically in later years, suggesting a diminishing gap in performance differences. We also find that there is considerably more cross-sectional dispersion in investing in funds with lower minimum investment levels, which indicates a much higher level of fund selection risk for undiversified investors desiring investment in funds with low entry fee barriers. / Thesis (Ph.D, Management) -- Queen's University, 2008-12-21 23:57:11.475

Through empirical research, this paper studies the impact of Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) on European football clubs and whether transitioning to public ownership is a desirable path for football clubs to follow. Research was carried out using a unique panel dataset of 19 publicly listed European football clubs from 9 national leagues. The study finds that IPOs do not lead to positive returns for a football club in terms of on-field performance and is not the best path to follow in order to assure the future success of a football club financially.

Business angels fulfil an important economic role in society by getting involved in early-stage ventures. This dissertation aspires to advance our knowledge of the governance strategies used by business angels in the venture relationship, based on the idea that the choice of governance strategies depends on the individual venture but is also shaped by the strategies adopted by any business angel network (BAN) the business angel is part of. Major findings are twofold. First, the analysis suggests that governance strategies are role-contingent. The role of the business angel vis-a-vis the venture changes, typically from outsider to insider, as the relationship transitions through different stages. Business angels should only use governance strategies that are perceived as legitimate for their role. Moreover, all strategies do not mix well and some may even neutralize each other when used together. The impact of the BAN on the action of the individual business angel is not straightforward: the formalization of a BAN will certainly restrict individual action, but, on the other hand, it seems that the BAN can also be useful for managing conflicts. Second, results indicate that conceptualizing the long-term dynamic of the investor-venture relationship in terms of any single theoretical perspective, be it agency theory, procedural justice, or norm-based influence, is too simplistic. The utility of each theoretical perspective is role-contingent: a business angel in the outsider role is better understood with agency theory, whereas a business angel in the insider role is better understood with norm-based influence theory. The empirical data on individual business angels comes mainly from 30 interviews with 21 business angels, and some supplementary data. The analysis of BANs is made differently and based on a different data set consisting of approximately 150 interviews with BAN members, civil servants, politicians, banks, accountants, and entrepreneurs. / <p>QC 20141104</p>

The purpose of this essay is to examine the Swedish people’s level of knowledge about crowdfunding and their incentives and deterrents to crowdfunding investments. Early on crowdfunding was divided into two objectives: reward based and equity based crowdfunding. The division of objectives is logical due to the differencing conditions of the motivation for investors to invest. Supported by theories in crowdfunding incentives, commitment-trust, the prospect theory, and the diffusion of innovations, we aim to establish a comprehensive line of reasoning to support our model of motivation in the conclusive chapter. The results of this essay were achieved by a combined method. A quantitative survey tended to give us a sense of how well known the crowdfunding phenomenon is amongst the Swedish people. It was followed by a qualitative study consisting of interviews with crowdfunding investors with aim to understand their incentives and deterrents. The interviews served as the basis for our analysis. Our analysis reveals that the incentives to invest differ between equity based and reward based crowdfunding. The major common incitement was trusting the entrepreneur behind the project, rather than a neat investment prospectus. The seminal crowdfunding deterrent is ignorance. Today, the Swedish people are unknowing of the phenomenon and its significance.

Denna studie är av kvalitativ art och syftar till att undersöka huruvida crowdfunding kan överbrygga ett eventuellt finansiellt gap för svenska företag och entreprenörer. Undersökningen fokuserar på tre typer av respondenter, vilka är representerade av företag som brukar crowdfunding som finansieringsform, bolag som fungerar likt ombud för att förmedla kapital med hjälp av finansieringsformen samt respondenter vilka opererar likt investerare i projekten. Studien teoretiska referensram är uppdelad i två sektioner, varav den första avser att beskriva crowdfunding utifrån generiska teorier, vilka utgörs av the Pecking Order Theory samt the Agency Principal Theory. Den andra sektionen ämnar mer specifikt beskriva crowdfunding samt belysa dess revenyer och brister och utgörs av tidigare forskning inom området. Studien mynnar ut i en slutsats att crowdfunding, genom dess tre former, kan utgöra en lösning i form av att metoden kan fungera likt ett komplement för att åter balansera det finansiella vakuum nyföretagare upplever i samband med erhållande av kapital. / This is a qualitative study which aims to investigate whether crowdfunding can fill up a financial gap for Swedish companies. The survey focuses on three types of respondents, which are represented by companies who uses crowdfunding as financing, companies that acts like an agent for providing capital through crowdfunding and respondents which operates as investors in crowdfunding projects. The study’s theoretical framework is divided into two sections, the first of which relates to describe crowdfunding based on generic theories, which consists of the Pecking Order Theory and the Agency Principal Theory. The second section intends to, more specifically, describe crowdfunding and highlight its shortcomings as well as its advantages and consists of previous research within the field. The study culminates in a conclusion that crowdfunding, through its three forms, can be a solution in sense that the method can be used as a complement to rebalance the financial vacuum new enterprises experience in relation to obtaining capital.

Participants in the NFL gambling market can largely be divided into two distinct groups: informed bettors (“Sharps”) and uninformed bettors (“Squares”). Empirical and anecdotal evidence suggest that the dynamic between Sharp and Square bettors is very similar to that between institutional and retail investors. Professionals tend to be far better informed and utilize rational betting/investing strategies while individuals exhibit biases which perpetuate irrational strategies and therefore pricing inefficiencies. This study finds that uninformed participants in financial markets and the NFL betting market do share similar biases, and that these biases can be exploited by informed participants to generate positive excess returns. The ability of Sharp bettors to generate excess returns, much like professional investors, is well covered in academic research. This study adds to the existing literature by analyzing whether “Follower” bettors can achieve statistically significant excess returns and higher than expected winning percentages by identifying reverse line movements and imitating the bets of Sharp gamblers.

With the recent financial crisis that have happened and the global move towards fair value accounting financial institutions such as the IASB saw fit to increase the mandatory disclosure requirements by implementing IFRS 13 to regulated fair value accounting in IFRS. The implementation of IFRS 13 means that many of the old standards in regards to fair value will be replaced, for example investment properties reporting under IAS 40. Furthermore IFRS 13 redefines the classification system for assets and liabilities.   The purpose of this study is to investigate whether these changes have any influence on investment decisions. This has been done by adopting a qualitative abductive descripto-explanatory approach to our research, and our empirical data was gathered through semi-structured interviews with academics and audit professionals.   The analysis of our empirical data suggests that the implementation of IFRS 13 and its increased disclosure requirements have been useful to investor’s decision making. IFRS 13 accomplishes this through its increased clarity in financial reporting. However investors should be mindful whilst investing in companies utilizing Level 3 valuation techniques because they use estimates of unobservable inputs and because such estimates are hard to control they are prone to bias, error, and manipulation.

近年，投資人對資訊反應不足與反應過度，是行為財務學側重的一塊。許多文獻與實證研究皆探討投資人的投資決策與其對資訊反應不足與反應過度之間的關連性，以及究竟投資人是否有設定投資定錨的傾向。而本研究為了實證台灣股市存在之反應不足或過度反應的現象，且投資人具有限注意力並有設定投資定錨的傾向，在博覽眾多相關文獻與研究後，決定依循Li and Yu（2012）的理論基礎，使用週價比與歷價作為反應不足與過度反應的代理變數，並將模型改建成適用於台灣股市的迴歸模型。 本研究以台灣股價加權指數作為主要迴歸樣本，將模型分為週資料迴歸模型與月資料迴歸模型，檢視兩個代理變數在控制景氣循環以及沒有台灣經濟泡沫樣本下可否用於台灣股市反映投資行為，並作為預測未來市場報酬的指標。最後，為實證投資人有限注意力與心理定錨設置之理論成立，本研究將台灣50指數與摩根台股指數作為樣本分別進行迴歸，以探討是否有比台灣加權股價指數更具顯著預測能力的指數存在。 研究結果顯示，假說一「週/歷價比與未來市場報酬成正/負相關」與假說二「選用能見度高的指數作為樣本應使週價比與歷價比更具顯著的預測能力」皆成立。即台灣股市確實存在反應不足或過度反應的現象，且投資人具有限注意力並有設定投資定錨的傾向，而台灣市場中最具顯著預測能力的指數為摩根台股指數。此外，週資料迴歸模型比月資料迴歸模型更適用於台灣股票市場。 / Currently, much academic research is concerned about investor underreaction & overreaction in behavioral finance. It mainly discusses the relationship between investment strategies and underreaction & overreaction and whether investors have tendency to utilize investment anchor. This study determined to follow basis of Li and Yu（2012） in order to examine the existence of underreaction & overreaction, investor limited attention and the tendency to set anchor in Taiwan stock market. We use nearness to the 52-week high and nearness to the historical high as proxies capturing the degree of investor underreaction and overreaction to news. In this study, we adopt TAIEX as main data and run two different types of regression model based on weekly and monthly data. Except under normal condition, we further examine these two proxies with controlling business cycle and without Taiwan economic bubble. Finally, we compare the predictive ability to forecast future aggregate market returns among TAIEX, TW 50 and MSCI Taiwan index. Our empirical results support the hypothesis 1, “nearness to the 52-week high positively predicts future market returns and nearness to the historical high negatively predicts future market returns” and hypothesis 2, “using index with higher visibility results in significantly predictive ability for nearness to the 52-week high and nearness to the historical high,” while MSCI Taiwan Index is the most significant. Besides, weekly regression is more suited to Taiwan stock market than monthly regression. These findings are consistent with the limited investor attention and anchoring research.

Problem: The increasing interest in academic, and general, entrepreneurship increases the need for venture capital. The venture capital is provided to the inventor by an external investor who gains financial or societal benefits from his investment. The increasing interest in entrepreneurship makes is interesting to understand the sources of power that influence the relationship between the investor and the inventor. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to indicate how different sources of power influence the relationship between inventors and investors in academic start-ups. Methodology: This study has been carried out with a qualitative approach. Data has mainly been collected from four interviews at three different companies. The interviews were complemented with previous research findings and laws from the book of laws. Findings: The empirical findings indicate that the investigated relation mainly is influenced by the expertise from the inventor during the early stages of the start-­up. This indicates that the expert power is the most significant source of power. KeyWords: Entrepreneurship, Academic Entrepreneurship, Start-­ups, Academic Start-ups, Investor relationship, Venture Capital, New Ventures, Spin-­off