Capacity planning is an area in which engineers can affect business performance. The size of the expansions and the timing in which they take place are the most important variables in capacity planning. The Economic Investment Time (EIT) Model is a tool that enables planners to accurately determine the investment time in which profits resulting from the proposed expansion can be maximized. This thesis presents the results yielded by the EIT. Validation is performed using the utilization results yielded by the Newsboy Model. This paper explains the methodology used and the conclusions that can be drawn. / Master of Science

In this study seventeen various relationships between yields of three-month, six-month, and twelve-month maturity negotiable CD's and U.S. Government T-Bills were analyzed to find a leading indicator of short-term interest rates. Each of the seventeen relationships was tested for correlation with actual three-, six-, and twelve-month yields from zero to twenty-six weeks in the future. Only one relationship was found to be significant as a leading indicator. This was the twelve-month yield minus the six-month yield adjusted for scale and accumulated where the result was positive. This indicator (variable nineteen in the study) was further tested for usefulness as a trend indicator by transforming it into a function consisting of +1 (when its slope was positive), 0 (when its slope was zero), and -1 (when its slope was negative). Stage II of the study consisted of constructing a computer-aided model employing variable nineteen as a forecasting device. The model accepts a week-by-week minimum cash balance forecast, and the past thirteen weeks' yields of three-, six-, and twelve-month CD's as input. The output of the model consists of a cash time availability schedule, a numerical listing of variable nineteen values, the thirteen-week history of three-, six-, and twelve-month CD yields, a plot of variable nineteen for the next thirteen weeks, and a suggested investment strategy for cash available for investment in the current period.

Fads models for stocks under asymmetric information in a purely continuous(GBM) market were first studied by P. Guasoni (2006), where optimal portfolios and maximum expected logarithmic utilities, including asymptotic utilities for the informed and uninformed investors, were presented. We generalized this theory to Lâevy markets, where stock prices and the process modeling the fads are allowed to include a jump component, in addition to the usual continuous component. We employ the methods of stochastic calculus and optimization to obtain analogous results to those obtained in the purely continuous market. We approximate optimal portfolios and utilities using the instantaneous centralized and quasi-centralized moments of the stocks percentage returns. We also link the random portfolios of the investors, under asymmetric information to the purely deterministic optimal portfolio, under symmetric information. / by Winston S. Buckley. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2009. / Bibliography: leaves 268-272.

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Alfred P. Sloan School of Management; and, (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 1980. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHVES AND DEWEY. / Includes bibliographical references. / by Ko Sekiguchi. / M.S.

Cheung, Pok Yu. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2011. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 39-40). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Chapter Section 1: --- Introduction --- p.P.1-P.11 / Chapter Section 2: --- "Empirical Matter in ""Allocation Puzzle""" --- p.P.11-P.18 / Chapter Section 3: --- "Methodology, Data, and the Relation" --- p.P.18-P.23 / Chapter Section 4: --- Panel Analysis / Chapter 4.1 --- One-factor Regression --- p.P.23-P.28 / Chapter 4.2 --- Multi-factor Regression --- p.P.28-P.30 / Chapter 4.3 --- Arellano-Bond Dynamic Panel GMM Estimation --- p.P.30-P.33 / Chapter 4.4 --- Robustness Check for Western Development --- p.P.33-P.35 / Chapter Section 5: --- Decomposition --- p.P.35-P.37 / Chapter Section 6: --- Conclusion --- p.P.37-P.38 / Reference --- p.P.39-P.40

This thesis investigates the impact of applying different covariance modelling techniques on the efficiency of asset portfolio performance. The scope of this thesis is limited to the exploration of theoretical aspects of portfolio optimisation rather than developing a useful tool for portfolio managers. Future work may entail taking the results from this work further and producing a more practical tool from a fund management perspective. The contributions made by this thesis to the knowledge of the subject are that it extends literature by applying a number of different covariance models to a unique dataset that focuses on the 2007 global financial crisis. The thesis also contributes to the literature as the methodology applied also enables a distinction to be made in respect to developed and emerging/frontier regional markets. This has resulted in the following findings: First, it identifies the impact of the 2007–2009 financial crisis on time-varying correlations and volatilities as measured by the dynamic conditional correlation model (Engle 2002). This is examined from the perspective of a United States (US) investor given that the crisis had its origin in the US market. Prima facie evidence is found that economic structural adjustment has resulted in long-term increases in the correlation between the US and other markets. In addition, the magnitude of the increase in correlation is found to be greater in respect to emerging/frontier markets than in respect to developed markets. Second, the long-term impact of the 2007–2009 financial crisis on time-varying correlations and volatilities is further examined by comparing estimates produced by different covariance models. The selected time-varying models (DCC, copula DCC, GO-GARCH: MM, ICA, NLS, ML; EWMA and SMA) produce statistically significantly different correlation and volatility estimates. This finding has potential implication for the estimation of efficient portfolios. Third, the different estimates derived using the selected covariance models are found to have a significant impact on the calculated weights and turnovers of efficient portfolios. Interestingly, however, there was no significant difference between their respective returns. This is the main finding of the thesis, which has potentially very important implications for portfolio management.

Doctorat en sciences sociales, politiques et économiques / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

This thesis focuses on a central behavioral paradox in the asset management community. Recent decades have brought an upsurge in initiatives throughout the investment community to voluntarily integrate sustainability issues into investment decisions. The financial crisis has however revealed behavioral inconsistency and deepening irresponsibility. Today, sustainable investments represent USD 10.7 trillion, or 7% of the entire market, of assets under management and it is growing steadily. <p>One important driver of this growth was the emergence of specialized research agencies that standardized measurement of companies’ environment, social, and governance (ESG) performance and sold such information as a tool to evaluate or pressure corporate conducts. More recently, sell-side research, financial news, and market-index providers joined the ESG information market, where they aim to support more mainstream asset managers in integrating ESG information into investment decisions. <p>A dominant assumption has taken hold in a large part of the investment and regulatory circles: asset managers’ use of ESG information will induce a behavioral change so that they automatically integrate companies’ sustainability to investment return concerns. Understandings of what constitutes sustainable investment have been largely practitioner-driven. The academic community took little interest to challenge the assumption. Remarkably, more scholars have come to assume that conformance to institutional pressures to add ESG information to investment strategies will induce more sustainable and long-term behavior of investors and companies. ESG information integration is believed to be a behavioral enabler for mainstream investors to systematically embed sustainability in investment strategies. Because of the assumption, theory building of asset manager intrinsic motivations to engage in sustainable investment remains unexplored. Main contribution of this research is to generate a deep theoretical understanding of asset manager non-conformance to the ESG pressure to engage in sustainable investment. <p>The research starts by questioning the dominant assumptions made in the sustainable investment field. While working in the industry, I witnessed some asset managers’ practices of replacing the externally defined ESG information with their own research based on narratives to better understand investee companies. The research question came out of this experience: why do some asset managers use ESG information to engage in sustainable investment while others do not? Do pressures to integrate ESG information really induce more sustainable behaviors on the part of asset managers? These self-inquiries led to a wide array of literature review to search for conformance and non-conformance drivers. Surprisingly, non-conformance was an under-researched theme. Given the scarcity of the research, I sought a method that would enable grounded theorizing based on asset managers’ own experience and interpretations. <p> Grounded theory research draws on asset manager interviews, archival documents, expert and practitioner consultations and feedback during 2007 and mid-2011. To reflect the global nature of sustainability, I focused on global equity asset managers working in thirteen institutions in three lead markets with most geographically diversified sustainable investment, UK, the Netherlands and Belgium. <p>Theory building from the ground up does not happen in vacuum. I developed a framework to study conformance and non-conformance drivers to facilitate the concept elicitation. The question of conformance and non-conformance has been studied by institutional, resource-based view of the firm, behavioral finance, cognitive and sensemaking theorists but in a disintegrated manner. I enhanced insights by way of aggregating and exploring the drivers. The framework illuminates the viability of both conformers and non-conformers in sustainable investment practices. Both are leadership activities of asset managers based respectively on explicit and implicit motivations. It illustrates short-term and opportunistic motivations of conforming managers, as opposed to long-term and substantial motivations of non-conforming managers to integrate sustainability and return-making in their investment decisions. <p>The research results presented hereafter provide a significant theoretical and empirical contribution. Drawing from insights and perspectives from the practitioners, a grounded theory model of asset manager conformance and non-conformance highlights a pivotal concept of sensemaking capacities. It reveals a counter intuitive pattern of asset manager learning. Non-conforming asset managers have developed a distinctive capacity to integrate sustainability and investment return concerns regardless of public pressures to do so. This distinctive sensemaking capacity, founded on behavioral integration of external expectations with own motivation, goal, competence and know-how, was the strategic resource for the organization. Their behavioral integration of sustainability and return generation is so highly developed, that adding the ESG information in their investment strategy would actually impair their capacity to make sense of sustainability. Indeed, I find that non-conforming asset manager teams have sustained consistent returns and increased client assets throughout the financial crisis. In absence of such behavioral integration and sensemaking capacities, conforming managers failed to sustain consistency or suffered from under-funding. To stay competitive, the latter managers have fervently demonstrated the ESG information use in their investment strategies. However, such explicit demonstration of leadership has not been accompanied by distinctive sensemaking capacities. I find that conforming managers were less capable of integrating sustainability and return-generation, which subsequently reinforced their short-termism and opportunism. <p>The finding of this thesis points to the importance of ‘behavioral integration’ instead of ‘explicit conformance’ of asset managers. The academic community may need to shed a more critical eye on ESG integration by asset managers. Institutional pressures to adopt such information may not induce more sustainable behavior, as ESG know-how is likely to deprive a chance to develop distinctive sensemaking capacities. Furthermore, it may even hurt the sensemaking capacities of managers who have behaviorally integrated sustainability and return-generation. While I hope to trigger a re-think amongst academics how to promote sustainable investment, my findings has theoretical and empirical contributions. The most important theoretical contribution is identification of non-conformance variables to engage intrinsically in sustainable investment. Empirical evidence on non-conformers, corroborated with resource-based view of the firm, also enhances the understanding of non-conformers’ motivation to sustain competitive advantage. <p>Findings also lead to managerial and policy implications. I carried out this research in the midst of the financial crisis, a time of mounting European policy debates how to build investor capacity to induce long-term and sustainable behaviors. The European Commission’s Internal Market Directorate-General is set to publish a directive proposal that mandate ESG information disclosure to companies and ESG reporting by investors. This adds weight to already published procedural measures to strengthen corporate governance at financial institutions. These policy initiatives emerged largely because of expert consultation and anecdotal evidences. In addition to recommendations to specific pieces of legislative proposals, this research makes an overarching policy proposal. The EU Commission needs to reexamine if the current policy measures lead to further symbolic demonstrations of ESG usage without accompanying sustainable behavior at the cost of real economy. EU equally needs to pay more attention to non-conforming asset managers’ distinctive capacities and enabling mechanisms. Reporting burdens may inadvertently impair non-conforming managers’ capacities to sustain long-term performance and may induce a contradictory policy consequence of increased public distrust. <p> / Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Monthly returns on twenty-seven Eurobonds from July 1982 to June 1986 were examined. There were no consistent differences in returns based on the country in which a firm is located. There were consistent differences due to industry classification, with energy-related firms exhibiting higher average returns and variances. Excess returns were calculated using the capital asset pricing model and arbitrage pricing theory. The results from calculation of mean average deviation, root mean square, and R2 all indicate that the arbitrage pricing theory was a better descriptor of the Eurobond market. The excess returns were also examined using stochastic dominance. Arbitrage pricing theory never dominated the capital asset pricing model using first-order criteria, but consistently dominated using second-order criteria. The results were discussed in terms of the implications for investors and portfolio managers.

by Chan Wai Wong, Cheung Che Yan Vivian. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 39-40). / ABSTRACT --- p.ii / ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS --- p.iv / TABLE OF CONTENTS / LIST OF TABLES --- p.vi / LIST OF FIGURE --- p.vi / Chapter / Chapter I. --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / """Blue Chip"" Companies" --- p.3 / """Red Chip"" Companies" --- p.4 / Chapter II. --- LITERATURE REVIEW --- p.6 / Optimal Capital Structure --- p.6 / Pecking Order Theory --- p.8 / Study on Capital Structure of Hong Kong Companies --- p.11 / Chapter III. --- DATA AND METHODOLOGY --- p.13 / Chapter IV. --- RESULTS AND FINDINGS --- p.17 / Pattern and Trend of Debt / Equity Ratios --- p.17 / Empirical Test of Pecking Order Application in Hong Kong --- p.23 / Blue Chip Companies --- p.23 / Red Chip Companies --- p.28 / Chapter V. --- CONCLUSION --- p.34 / APPENDIX --- p.36 / BIBLIOGRAPHY --- p.39