Following trade liberalisation, shipping has been further affected by the world economic environment. Despite arguments as to whether the nature of the shipping industry is a liberalised one or not, it is now clearly seen as the case by the shipping industry itself. The primary goal of this thesis is to examine the attitudes within Korean shipping circles. An empirical study was carried out to evaluate how shipping is being influenced by liberalisation under the new rules, established by the World Trade Organisation and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The null hypothesis was that there would be no substantial changes in Korean Shipping following liberalisation. The null hypothesis was rejected, which means that it was recognised by Korean shipping practitioners that there were significant changes after liberalisation. A further study was undertaken to test for relationships between the perspectives of four groups~ financial managers of shipping companies, bankers, government policy makers and sales managers from shipbuilding companies. It transpired that there was unity in their perceptions of shipping investment. A hypothesised seven-factor strategic model of the shipping industry was initially proposed and re-interpreted following the empirical results. To cope with the new competitive market, strategic options are likely to include tax and registry considerations. Finally, following the financial crisis in Korea last year, which occurred before this research was completed, interviews and a survey were conducted, based on a random selection of previous respondents. This was to establish whether their views had changed. The results revealed that they were now very hesitant to make any new investment decisions given the present situation. However, respondents are sure that there will be no further measures to impede the current liberalisation moves in Korea. Rather they regard this financial crisis as a mechanism to accelerate liberalisation, following the International Monetary Fund's options to dismantle the Korean protectionist barriers.

No description available.

In the course of the 1980s, Turkey came to recognize the need to change its attitude towards foreign investment, assigning a significant role to direct foreign investment. Hence, after the 1980s, there was a significant increase in the number of foreign firms operating in Turkey and the inf low of foreign capital to Turkey. Although the importance of foreign direct investment in the Turkish economy has been increasing, a variety of questions are far from being resolved. The important obstacle is that the available data do not let us analyze the extent and performance of foreign firms. In this study a considerable effort was made in collecting new data from foreign firms operating in the Turkish manufacturing industry. The main purpose of this study is to analyze and evaluate the economic effects of direct foreign investment on Turkish manufacturing. At the centre of our analysis has been the role of foreign firms in industrial concentration, technological choice and trade behaviour. In the first chapter we outline the main issues to be analyzed in this study and explain the method of collecting and processing data from foreign firms operating in the Turkish manufacturing industry. The second chapter discusses the theories and empirical evidence concerning the determinants of foreign direct investment. We also analyse the industrial distribution of direct foreign investment in Turkish manufacturing. In the third chapter we undertake an overview to the historical background of foreign firms and the legislation covering foreign investment in Turkey. At the beginning of the following three main chapters we analyze the performance of foreign firms in terms of those basic issues in the literature, according to the market imperfection approach, and later on we investigate the performance of foreign firms in Turkish manufacturing using our own data, supplemented by public sources of information.

No description available.

Business Angels (BAs) are wealthy individuals whose investments in entrepreneurial ventures enable them to increase the likelihood of both attracting subsequent Venture Capital (VC) and achieving long-term venture success. Unfortunately more than 95% of entrepreneurs seeking funds from BAs are unable to do so, raising questions about whether this high failure rate might be reduced. Scholars suggest the answer lies in gaining a better understanding of the investment decision process itself and identifying why opportunities are rejected at each stage of the decision process. However, the private nature of the interaction between BA and fund-seeking entrepreneur constrains our ability to observe the multistage nature of the interaction and how rejection reasons change at each stage. As a consequence, much research relies on BA’s biased post-decision recollections, which limits our ability to understand the decision process and identify opportunities for improvement. In this research we overcome these constraints by observing interactions from the reality TV show Dragons’ Den, where fund-seeking entrepreneurs pitch their early stage businesses to five BAs. During the interaction, each BA must either make an offer to invest or provide a reason for rejection. We develop hypotheses about why this complex decision evolves over several stages, and why rejection reasons change at each stage, which we then test by coding observations and decision outcomes. We draw on research in behavioral economics and decision making to propose that BAs use heuristics to reduce their decision making effort at each stage and initially examine the criteria that are easiest to retrieve. They then assesses each opportunity based on the most easily retrieved criteria and reject those they believe unlikely to achieve their aspiration level for required return, or because the risk of failure exceeds the BA’s own risk aspiration level. We propose that during subsequent stages of the interaction, each BA audits the entrepreneur’s behaviors to assess performance and relationship risk, rejecting those where the risk level exceeds their aspiration level. We use trained observers to code the information exchanges and behavioral cues provided by the entrepreneur to find support for our hypotheses. We observe that, during the venture assessment stage, BAs do reject opportunities that fail to reach aspiration levels for investment return or investment risk, however, contrary to normative assumptions we find BAs do not trade off investment risk for investment return. For opportunities not rejected, we observe BAs assess how the entrepreneur’s behaviors and decisions inform their assessment of managerial risk and increase the likelihood of venture failure. We note BAs are more likely to reject entrepreneurs whose behaviors indicate low level of capabilities, experiences or traits, while excess traits can also increase this likelihood. For opportunities not rejected at this stage, we observe BAs audit the entrepreneur’s trust behaviors to inform their assessment of the relationship risk. We find BAs more likely to reject entrepreneurs who damage or violate trust in comparison to those who build trust. We also observe that BAs invest in entrepreneurs who damage trust, but only if they can introduce appropriate behavioral controls. Our observations help explain the multistage nature of the decision process and why opportunities are rejected at each stage. We suggest that better prepared entrepreneurs who display appropriate behaviors are less likely to be rejected. Increased understanding of the decision process enables BAs to improve their decision-making, while knowledgeable policy makers will be better able to cost-effectively deploy appropriate resources to enhance funding activities. Our observations should encourage academics to further explore entrepreneurial behaviors, perhaps adapting our research method and coding schema in future research.

Thesis (DBusinessAdministration)--University of South Australia, 2003.

This dissertation considers two important issues relevant to the efficiency of institutional investment managers. It examines the trading behaviour of institutional equity funds in relation to investment style drift and dividend payments to assess whether trading is beneficial to investors in these funds. The analysis of investment style is relevant because of the prominence of multiple manager funds in Australia, while institutional investor preferences for dividend income will impact the after-tax return of fund investors. Firstly, monthly equity fund portfolio holdings are used to examine the magnitude of investment style drift. Institutional investor style tilts are consistent with their self-stated investment objective. Decomposing style drift into active and passive components reveals that institutions retain a desired portfolio tilt by actively adjusting their portfolio holdings in response to passive style drift. Furthermore, funds are most responsive to changes in book-to-market and momentum drift, with style drift affecting portfolio turnover. Secondly, the dissertation presents an equilibrium framework of dividend valuation and ex-dividend trading under Australia??s imputation tax system. An examination of returns, volume, and order imbalance in the Australian equity market shows that investors value dividends. The results are consistent with long-term investors accelerating trades to the cum-dividend period and short-term traders targeting fully franked, high yielding dividends with a small bid-ask spread. Franking credits possess a positive value for the majority of the sample while transaction costs impede the efficient adjustment of prices on the ex-dividend day. The results show that a 45-day holding period rule reduces the amount of short-term trading from July 1999. Thirdly, the dissertation places the ex-dividend trading behaviour of institutional equity funds in the context of the findings for the Australian equity market. Institutions accelerate their sales of long-term holdings to the cum-dividend period, and delay purchases until the ex-dividend period to avoid dividends. Institutional trading is consistent with the provision of liquidity to short-term traders that are attempting to capture both dividends and franking credits. The introduction of a long-term capital gains tax discount in 1999 entices institutions to trade in a more tax-efficient manner by selling long-term holdings prior to the ex-dividend day.

Chinese migrants play a serious role in their destination countries, and through demand, support high values in destination property and financial markets. Therefore, Chinese investors’ investment motivations, preferences and behaviours have a significant impact on the New Zealand economy. The objectives of this research are: to investigate the preferences (what kind of investment assets they prefer) and the motivations (why they chose New Zealand as their investment destination) of Chinese migrant investors. The findings will be a useful element in explaining New Zealand’s economic development, and in making financial decisions. It also will be important for the development of New Zealand’s growing finance industry and equity market. The researcher collected data from 20 respondents who are Chinese migrant investors who have made New Zealand their home. The collected data examines investors’ preferences and motivations, such as what kind of investment assets they prefer and the motivations which drive them to invest in New Zealand or elsewhere. Using a grounded theory methodology, the researcher draws some findings from the data analysis. Furthermore, using a constant comparative method, the researcher develops some preferred choices which explain Chinese migrant investors’ investment preferences and motivations. The core findings (called phenomena or categories) of Chinese migrant investors’ preferences and motivations in this study are listed below:  Home-bias investment behaviour – that is mainly China and New Zealand  Following past performance / herding behaviour  Seeking speculative opportunities – high return, high risk  Over confidence  Taxation evasion  Financial privacy Considering these core categories, the researcher re-tested and re-analysed all interview data. Two refined themes are drawn: 1. Chinese investors don’t understand investment; they seek speculative investment opportunities exemplifying non-professional opportunistic behaviours. 2. Chinese investors don’t take New Zealand as their preferred investment destination until they arrive in New Zealand. Finally, the researcher reconsiders both themes and other inferences, to develop a theory from the ground – exaggerated Chinese financial investment experiences are relayed to other Chinese, and influence investment preferences and motivations.

Chinese migrants play a serious role in their destination countries, and through demand, support high values in destination property and financial markets. Therefore, Chinese investors’ investment motivations, preferences and behaviours have a significant impact on the New Zealand economy. The objectives of this research are: to investigate the preferences (what kind of investment assets they prefer) and the motivations (why they chose New Zealand as their investment destination) of Chinese migrant investors. The findings will be a useful element in explaining New Zealand’s economic development, and in making financial decisions. It also will be important for the development of New Zealand’s growing finance industry and equity market. The researcher collected data from 20 respondents who are Chinese migrant investors who have made New Zealand their home. The collected data examines investors’ preferences and motivations, such as what kind of investment assets they prefer and the motivations which drive them to invest in New Zealand or elsewhere. Using a grounded theory methodology, the researcher draws some findings from the data analysis. Furthermore, using a constant comparative method, the researcher develops some preferred choices which explain Chinese migrant investors’ investment preferences and motivations. The core findings (called phenomena or categories) of Chinese migrant investors’ preferences and motivations in this study are listed below:  Home-bias investment behaviour – that is mainly China and New Zealand  Following past performance / herding behaviour  Seeking speculative opportunities – high return, high risk  Over confidence  Taxation evasion  Financial privacy Considering these core categories, the researcher re-tested and re-analysed all interview data. Two refined themes are drawn: 1. Chinese investors don’t understand investment; they seek speculative investment opportunities exemplifying non-professional opportunistic behaviours. 2. Chinese investors don’t take New Zealand as their preferred investment destination until they arrive in New Zealand. Finally, the researcher reconsiders both themes and other inferences, to develop a theory from the ground – exaggerated Chinese financial investment experiences are relayed to other Chinese, and influence investment preferences and motivations.

This dissertation considers two important issues relevant to the efficiency of institutional investment managers. It examines the trading behaviour of institutional equity funds in relation to investment style drift and dividend payments to assess whether trading is beneficial to investors in these funds. The analysis of investment style is relevant because of the prominence of multiple manager funds in Australia, while institutional investor preferences for dividend income will impact the after-tax return of fund investors. Firstly, monthly equity fund portfolio holdings are used to examine the magnitude of investment style drift. Institutional investor style tilts are consistent with their self-stated investment objective. Decomposing style drift into active and passive components reveals that institutions retain a desired portfolio tilt by actively adjusting their portfolio holdings in response to passive style drift. Furthermore, funds are most responsive to changes in book-to-market and momentum drift, with style drift affecting portfolio turnover. Secondly, the dissertation presents an equilibrium framework of dividend valuation and ex-dividend trading under Australia??s imputation tax system. An examination of returns, volume, and order imbalance in the Australian equity market shows that investors value dividends. The results are consistent with long-term investors accelerating trades to the cum-dividend period and short-term traders targeting fully franked, high yielding dividends with a small bid-ask spread. Franking credits possess a positive value for the majority of the sample while transaction costs impede the efficient adjustment of prices on the ex-dividend day. The results show that a 45-day holding period rule reduces the amount of short-term trading from July 1999. Thirdly, the dissertation places the ex-dividend trading behaviour of institutional equity funds in the context of the findings for the Australian equity market. Institutions accelerate their sales of long-term holdings to the cum-dividend period, and delay purchases until the ex-dividend period to avoid dividends. Institutional trading is consistent with the provision of liquidity to short-term traders that are attempting to capture both dividends and franking credits. The introduction of a long-term capital gains tax discount in 1999 entices institutions to trade in a more tax-efficient manner by selling long-term holdings prior to the ex-dividend day.