Abstract Date:  31 May 2023 Level: Bachelor theses in Business Administration, 15 cr Institution: School of Business, Society and Engineering, Mälardalen University Authors: Aliza Butt (020130), Muhammad Abdul Rehman (001115) Title: Social Responsibility Engagement At Times Of  Crisis  Supervisor: Dr Stylianos Papaioannou Keywords: CSR, CSR Engagement, Market crisis, Impact, Ethical, Philanthropic  Research Questions: How are CSR engagements of companies impacted in times of market crisis? Purpose: The purpose of this research study is to conduct an analysis of how CSR engagements within companies are impacted by a market crisis. The main objective will be to ensure there is enough data which will fulfill this purpose of the study.  Method: The study’s method approach is a qualitative approach in which there have been interviews conducted to gather primary data. After gathering the empirical data the authors used thematic analysis to analyze the data accordingly. The themes were made up from coding the data and finding similar patterns. Ethical considerations were of importance due to there being different respondents within the research, their choice to remain anonymous was considered, which is why the interviewees are anonymized in the research study. To ensure the highest quality of the study, the researchers ensured they collected and presented reliable and valid data, for the reader to read a trustworthy and interesting study.  Conclusion: Overall, companies tend to prioritize their CSR engagements, even during times of crisis, to maintain their reputation and contribute to society. But companies look to find new ways of engaging in CSR and continue their efforts but they prioritize their economic responsibility, which made them change focus on some aspects regarding their engagements. The focus was found to be shifted even though the CSR engagements were continued mostly. The most obvious impact was that prioritization of companies changed from the crisis, and reduced new CSR engagements by companies was a consequence.

Research has shown that the selection criteria, so-called screens, of socially responsible funds (SRF) affect their financial performance. The difference is particularly distinguishable during market crisis, where the exclusion of unethical industries (negative screening) has proven to be an inferior strategy compared to selecting companies with good social performance (positive screening). Few academic papers compare SRF with different screens to each other under market turmoil, instead comparing them to conventional funds. We examined the Swedish fund market during crisis and non-crisis by dividing SRF according to their screens. The results indicated that the financial performance between SRF with positive and negative screening was not significantly different during neither the crisis nor non-crisis period. In contrast to previous literature, SRF did not exhibit any risk reducing characteristics during market crisis. / Forskning som utvärderat socialt ansvarsfulla fonder (SRF) har sett indikationer på att deras investeringsstrategier som berör sociala och miljömässiga aspekter, så kallade screens, påverkar deras finansiella prestanda. Skillnaden mellan SRF med olika screeningstrategier har visat sig extra tydligt under marknadskriser, där exkluderingen av oetiska branscher (negativ screening) har visat sig vara en sämre strategi än att välja in företag med god social prestanda (positiv screening). Studier som undersöker SRF under olika marknadsstadier jämför sällan screeningstrategierna mot varandra, utan drar istället paralleller mot konventionella fonder. För att belysa hur olika screeningstrategier påverkar den finansiella prestationen undersöktes den svenska fondmarknaden under kris samt icke-kris genom att dela in svenskförvaltade SRF efter vilken typ av screening de tillämpade. Fonderna utvärderades genom regressionsanalyser för att kalkylera alpha. Resultatet indikerade att den finansiella prestationen mellan SRF med positiv och negativ screening inte var signifikant skild under varken kris eller icke-kris. I kontrast till tidigare studier uppvisade SRF inte riskreducerande egenskaper under dåliga ekonomiska tider.

No description available.

The efficient market hypothesis has been around since 1962, the theory based on a simple rule that states the price of any asset must fully reflect all available information. Yet there is empirical evidence suggesting that markets are too volatile to be efficient. In essence, this evidence seems to suggest that the reaction of the market participants to the information or events that is the crucial factor, rather than the actual information. This highlights the need to include the behavioural finance theory in the pricing of assets. Essentially, the research aims to analyse the efficiency of six key sovereign debt markets during a period of changing volatility including the recent global financial and sovereign debt crises. We analyse the markets in the pre-crisis period and during the financial and sovereign debt crises to determine the impact of the crises on the efficiency of these financial markets. We use two GARCH-based variance bound tests to test the null hypothesis of the market being too volatile to be efficient. Proposing a GJR-GARCH variant of the variance bound test to account for variation in the asymmetrical effect. This leads to an analysis of the changing behaviour of price volatility to identify what makes the market efficient or inefficient. In general, our EMH tests resulted in mixed results, hinting at the acceptance of the null hypothesis of the market being too volatile to be efficient. However, interestingly a number of 2017 observations under both models seem to be hinting at the rejection of the null hypothesis. Furthermore, our proposed GJR-GARCH variant of the variance bound test seems to be more likely to accept the EMH than the GARCH variant of the test.

Debt crisis is seen as a spiral which has been launched by failure of American financial market and which final stage is global economic depression. But we can not speak only about financial market crisis. Current world crisis is at the same time political crisis and social crisis; it is a multi-sector crisis. Actors which try to manage the crisis, their abilities, possibilities to act and their strategies in each sector will be identified and described in the thesis. Complexity of current crisis demands global solutions involving cooperation of different actors throughout all three mentioned sectors.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-26T20:48:48Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Cristiano Serrao.pdf: 265704 bytes, checksum: ddff2ca9e6d556d812ab50127beca2f2 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2005-05-10 / This paper s objective is to study the Brazilian crisis of the year of 2002. We believe that, as this is a recent event, there is room to new perceptions and interpretations. This paper will propose a new view on this crisis, based on the Credit Rationing Theory. Initially, we will do a brief review of the Credit Rationing Theory. We will focus on the key aspects of that theory, specially the ones that will allow us to apply such theory in the case study that we are working on. After that, we will analyze the historical context that led Brazil to that crisis. Initially, this study will be focused on the increase of the size of the flows that transited through Brazilian Financial Account in the period that precedes the crisis. We will also take a look in the historical context itself, and analyze the external influence in this crisis. Afterwards, this paper will study the Mark-to-Market crisis, which was the starting point of the Brazilian crisis of 2002. This event was responsible to raise doubts about the sustaintability of Brazilian public debt. Additionally we will study the dynamics of Brazilian public debt in the crisis period, which, in our opinion, had a highly relevant role in such event. / Essa dissertação pretende lançar um olhar mais detalhado à crise brasileira de 2002. Acredito que esse evento, por ser ainda recente, ainda não foi compreendido em toda a sua magnitude, e esse trabalho tem o objetivo de lançar uma interpretação plausível para o mesmo. Para isso, utilizaremos o instrumental teórico da Teoria do Racionamento de Crédito. Inicialmente, iremos fazer uma revisão da Teoria do Racionamento de Crédito, nos atendo aos pontos que serão úteis na aplicação dessa teoria ao caso prático. Em seguida, iremos expor os principais condicionantes da crise brasileira de 2002, nos atendo inicialmente ao movimento de flexibilização da conta Financeira brasileira nos anos que antecedem a crise. É dada especial ênfase à Conta de Investimento em Carteira. É também analisado o contexto histórico no qual a crise está inserida. O passo seguinte foi investigar em que medida essa crise foi originada também por motivos externos, ao comparar a piora dos indicadores de risco-país não só do Brasil, mas dos demais países emergentes também. A dissertação, por fim, irá se deter no período de crise em si. Iremos analisar a Crise da Marcação a Mercado , que foi o ponto inicial da crise brasileira de 2002, estudando suas origens e impactos na credibilidade da dívida pública brasileira. Segue-se a análise da dinâmica da dívida pública brasileira no período de crise, o que na nossa opinião possui um poder explicativo muito forte com relação ao evento em questão.

The objective of this diploma thesis is to process an analysis of financial supervision in the Czech Republic, Germany, Switzerland, Spain and Italy with special attention to banking industry which is the most influent part of the financial market in all countries. Besides this major analysis, the economic growth analysis for years 2000 to 2014 (2015) is made in every country. The very last step is a comparison of supervision systems and their connection to economic performance of countries. Conclusions bring the answer for my question: whether the economic condition (since 2000 until now) depends on the system of financial supervision in European countries. The theoretical part consists of chapters about the theory of national economy, financial markets, where there are basic theoretical concepts explained, market functions and market division. Last but not least, the theory of financial supervision is analyzed: what is the essence, legal framework, what is the supervision purpose and what are the goals of supervisors. Firstly, there should also be the theory of central banking but it does not make any sense to explain this theory here since central banks are not the main supervisor authorities of financial markets (except the Czech Republic, but also here the policies are separated). The practical part involves six subchapters, everyone is devoted to one state (the Czech Republic, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Italy), the very last subchapter is about the comparison and analysis of results. In every state the history of financial market is processed together with institutional areas after 2000, legal framework and the analysis of supervision activity with special attention to capital, liquidity and resilience to shocks. European growth is analyzed according to GDP, inflation rate, unemployment, wage growth and GDP per capita in comparison with EU (28) and EA (19). The research brings the results that there is a connection between financial supervision and economic growth.

Till följd av marknadens reaktion på viruset covid-19 föll aktieindexet OMXS30 i början av år 2020 med cirka 32 procent på en månad, för att sedan återhämta sig och uppnå värderingsnivåer som OMXS30 aldrig tidigare varit på. Vi har valt att studera coronapandemins effekt på företagsvärderingarna av de noterade företagen på OMXS30. Syftet med uppsatsen är att bredda förståelsen för hur svenska företagsvärderingar i noterade företag kan bete sig under pågående börs- och samhällskriser. Genom att uppnå syftet kommer vi kunna öka kunskapen om övervärderade tillgångspriser kan leda till att stora värden går förlorade för investerare vid en eventuell börskris. Vi jämför företagens värderingar vid den högsta punkten innan coronapandemins utbrott (2020-02-19; indexkurs 1900.28) med värdet av samma företag ett år in i coronapandemin (2021-02-19; indexkurs 2036.97). Genom medelvärdesberäkningar och Paired Sample t-Test undersöker vi variationer i medelvärdet i sex nyckeltal och fyra värderingsmultiplar. Vi finner ingen statistiskt signifikant förändring i de undersökta nyckeltalen och värderingsmultiplarna, med undantag för en statistisk signifikant reducering av företagens totala omsättning. Vårt resultat talar för att värdeökningen i OMXS30 under den studerade perioden till stor del varit driven av de större företagen i indexet med högre viktning, snarare än en bred genomgående värdeökning för alla företagen i indexet. Vidare finner vi även att företagen verkar ha reducerat kostnader och/eller erhållit coronastöd från svenska staten för att kunna bibehålla vinstnivåerna på grund av den minskade omsättningen som coronapandemin medfört. / As a result of the market’s reaction to the virus COVID-19, OMXS30 fell 32 percent at the beginning of 2020 and was able to recover itself and reach new higher levels in which OMXS30 had never been before. We have chosen to study the corona pandemic’s effect on the company valuations of the listed companies on OMXS30. The purpose of the essay is to broaden the understanding of how Swedish company valuations in listed companies can behave during a stock market crisis and crisis in society. Through the purpose, we can increase the knowledge if overvalued asset prices can lead to large values being lost to investors in the event of a stock market crisis. We compare the valuations of the companies on the highest point before the corona pandemic (2020-02-19; index point: 1900.28) with the valuations of the same companies one year into the corona pandemic (2021-02-19; index point: 2036.97). Through calculations of averages and Paired Sample t-Test, we study whether there occurred any changes in the mean of six key figures and four valuation multiples. We find no statistical significance in neither the studied key figures nor the valuation multiples except for a statistically significant decrease in the companies’ total revenues. Our result points in a direction that suggests that the increase in value of OMXS30 during the studied period was mainly driven by an increase in value of the bigger companies with higher weights in the index rather than a broader increase in value of all companies in the index. We also find that companies might have reduced their overall cost and/or received financial support from the Swedish government to be able to maintain the previous earnings levels because of the decrease in total revenue that the corona pandemic has caused.

Der tatsächliche Erfolg einer Immobilieninvestition wird maßgeblich von der zukünftigen Entwicklung des wirtschaftlichen Umfeldes bestimmt. Im Rahmen einer Immobilieninvestition sind für Investoren z. B. die zukünftigen Mieteinnahmen oder die allgemeine Wertentwicklung der Immobilie entscheidend. Da jedoch Entscheidungen in der Immobilienwirtschaft langfristiger Natur sind, kommt der Zukunftsorientiertheit und des damit verbundenen Risikos eine große Bedeutung zu. Die Entstehung von Immobilienzyklen kann nicht nur mit realen und monetären Fundamentaldaten (z. B. Bruttoinlandsprodukt, Zinsentwicklung) erklärt werden, sondern auch mit psychologischen Faktoren, wie beispielsweise Erwartungen und Einstellungen der Marktteilnehmer. Da mathematisch-statistische Prognoseverfahren diese Komponente nur unzureichend abbilden können, soll die Dissertation einen Beitrag zur Erforschung der Expertenbefragung als Prognoseinstrument darstellen. Ein weiterer Grund besteht darin, dass in der bisher veröffentlichten Fachliteratur der Expertenbefragung als Prognoseverfahren nur eine geringe oder gar keine Bedeutung beigemessen wurde. Ziel ist es herauszustellen, ob und unter welchen Voraussetzungen und Bedingungen Expertenbefragungen zur Prognose von Immobilienwerten geeignet sind und ob die Kombination der Ergebnisse der Expertenbefragungen mit den Ergebnissen mathematisch-statistischer Prognoseverfahren eine Erhöhung der Prognosegenauigkeit ermöglicht. Hierzu wird die zukünftige Entwicklung verschiedener Immobilienwerte für 2 bis 3 Jahre und für 5 Jahre durch Expertenumfragen und mit Hilfe ausgewählter mathematisch-statistischer Prognoseverfahren prognostiziert. Um die Güte der Expertenschätzungen beurteilen zu können, werden die Prognoseergebnisse mit der tatsächlichen Entwicklung und mit den Ergebnissen der mathematisch-statistischen Prognoseverfahren verglichen. In einer abschließenden Gegenüberstellung sollen Aussagen darüber getroffen werden, ob Expertenbefragungen für Prognosezwecke geeignet sind. Ein besonderer Schwerpunkt liegt dabei auch auf psychologischen Aspekten bzw. endogenen und exogenen Einflussgrößen, welche sich auf das Antwortverhalten der Experten auswirken können. Ziel ist es deshalb weiterhin, eine Handlungsempfehlung für die Durchführung von Expertenbefragungen - speziell für die Abgabe von mehrjährigen Trends und auch für Zwecke der Verkehrswertermittlung - zu geben.

Der tatsächliche Erfolg einer Immobilieninvestition wird maßgeblich von der zukünftigen Entwicklung des wirtschaftlichen Umfeldes bestimmt. Im Rahmen einer Immobilieninvestition sind für Investoren z. B. die zukünftigen Mieteinnahmen oder die allgemeine Wertentwicklung der Immobilie entscheidend. Da jedoch Entscheidungen in der Immobilienwirtschaft langfristiger Natur sind, kommt der Zukunftsorientiertheit und des damit verbundenen Risikos eine große Bedeutung zu. Die Entstehung von Immobilienzyklen kann nicht nur mit realen und monetären Fundamentaldaten (z. B. Bruttoinlandsprodukt, Zinsentwicklung) erklärt werden, sondern auch mit psychologischen Faktoren, wie beispielsweise Erwartungen und Einstellungen der Marktteilnehmer. Da mathematisch-statistische Prognoseverfahren diese Komponente nur unzureichend abbilden können, soll die Dissertation einen Beitrag zur Erforschung der Expertenbefragung als Prognoseinstrument darstellen. Ein weiterer Grund besteht darin, dass in der bisher veröffentlichten Fachliteratur der Expertenbefragung als Prognoseverfahren nur eine geringe oder gar keine Bedeutung beigemessen wurde. Ziel ist es herauszustellen, ob und unter welchen Voraussetzungen und Bedingungen Expertenbefragungen zur Prognose von Immobilienwerten geeignet sind und ob die Kombination der Ergebnisse der Expertenbefragungen mit den Ergebnissen mathematisch-statistischer Prognoseverfahren eine Erhöhung der Prognosegenauigkeit ermöglicht. Hierzu wird die zukünftige Entwicklung verschiedener Immobilienwerte für 2 bis 3 Jahre und für 5 Jahre durch Expertenumfragen und mit Hilfe ausgewählter mathematisch-statistischer Prognoseverfahren prognostiziert. Um die Güte der Expertenschätzungen beurteilen zu können, werden die Prognoseergebnisse mit der tatsächlichen Entwicklung und mit den Ergebnissen der mathematisch-statistischen Prognoseverfahren verglichen. In einer abschließenden Gegenüberstellung sollen Aussagen darüber getroffen werden, ob Expertenbefragungen für Prognosezwecke geeignet sind. Ein besonderer Schwerpunkt liegt dabei auch auf psychologischen Aspekten bzw. endogenen und exogenen Einflussgrößen, welche sich auf das Antwortverhalten der Experten auswirken können. Ziel ist es deshalb weiterhin, eine Handlungsempfehlung für die Durchführung von Expertenbefragungen - speziell für die Abgabe von mehrjährigen Trends und auch für Zwecke der Verkehrswertermittlung - zu geben.