In the beginning stage of economic development in Taiwan, the market was lack of funding and the capital market is immature. The majority of financial institutions are public banks. With the development of financial liberalization, Taiwan government lifted the restrictions on establishing private commercial banks on 1991. Following that, public banks face challenges of the fierce competition with private banks, comply with policy of the authorities to authorize special policy loans or generally take over insolvent banks. The public banks were under such severe challenges and the under performing problems were expected to be solved only by privatization. Consequently, following the Act Governing the Conversion of State Owned Enterprises into Private Enterprises entered into effect in 1992, the Privatization of public banks in Taiwan began. Since the Asia finance turmoil occurred, the operation of financial institution significantly deteriorates. The overall Non-Performing Loan Ratio is high due to low financial institution loan quality. In addition, Taiwan banks face a severe problem that whether the current overall domestic financial market is too small for all the current financial institutions? Is the operation scale of Taiwan banks competitive internationally? Presuming the current operation scale of Taiwan banks is weak among international competition, what are the development alternatives for Taiwan banks? The research scope of this study is based on the current general operations, merger cases, and the development strategies applied in the second stage financial reform of Taiwan banks. In the case study, the merger case targeted is the most successful merger in the second stage financial reform, where the financial product development is improved by the merger synergy. In addition, the policy goals to reduce the number of government-owned banks by half and facilitate introduction of foreign funding are realized, which contributes to Taiwan economic development. This study first introduces the overall development of public banks, followed by case studies of operating performance and financial data on Taiwan Cooperative Bank and the Farmers Bank of China. This study is conducted through the operating performance analysis on two targeted banks and overall banks. The analysis includes return on assets, return on equity, earning per share. Also the analysis includes the comparison analysis of market competition status with financial holding companies, which is critical reference to evaluate the development potential when the Taiwan Cooperative Banks establishes a financial holding company in the future. The analysis further includes combined market analysis, and SWOT analysis to compare the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of these two public banks.

Financial statement quality can directly affect investor confidence. Financial fraud is most through misstated financial reports, and even fraudulent misstatement may result from financial restatement. Well-functioning mechanisms can improve financial statement quality. In this study, the financial restatements from 2002 to 2008 were investigated to discuss the influences of operating performance, degree of earnings management and corporate governance mechanisms. The results reveal that the worse the operating performance, the more probability the financial restatements. It indicates that increasing earnings can cover up bad operation. It is further found that the financial restatements with worse operating performance will probably increase their restatement amounts. In the aspect of earnings management, the results show that the higher the degree of earnings management by discretionary accruals, the more probability the financial restatements. It is indicative of the manager use discretionary accruals to operate the earnings management in order to cover up their worse financial performance. But the verified result is not outstanding. It is also found that the financial restatements with higher degree of earnings management by discretionary accruals will probably increase their restatement amounts. Finally, the results can not prove whether the corporate governance mechanisms show that the financial restatements probably occur in the companies with CEO duality. Moreover, the results also can not prove whether the larger the board of directors, the higher their restatement amounts.

This dissertation consists of three essays. In the first essay, we attempt to answer the following three questions about the new capital raised in IPOs: Why do some IPO companies raise a lot of new capital while some others don’t? Where do the IPO companies use the new capital they raise in IPOs? How does the use of new capital affect the operating performance of IPO companies? We find that companies with higher R&D spending, higher capital expenditure, lower working capital and more long term debt tend to raise more capital in IPOs. These firms also spend more on R&D and capital expenditure. The more new capital firms raise in IPOs, the lower sales growth rate they have. However, firms spending a higher proportion of new capital on R&D seem to have higher sales growth rate. In the second essay, we examine the relation between IPO valuation and offering size. Using a sample of 3,885 IPOs from the US, we find that IPO firms with larger offering size have lower valuation. Both primary share offering and secondary share offering are negatively related to IPO firm valuation. The valuation measures are positively related to the levels of capital expenditure and R&D before IPO, lending support to explanations based on Jensen (1986)’s free cash flow hypothesis. We also find evidence consistent with negative signals from larger secondary share offering size. Results of tests about long run IPO stock performance do not support the hypothesis that IPO stock demand curve is downward sloping. In the third essay, we examine how analysts react to IPO offering size. We find that analysts predict lower long-term growth rates for IPOs with larger offering size. The sizes of both primary and secondary offering are negatively related to long-term growth rate forecasts. We find evidence that the free cash flow effect may be related to the negative relation between primary offering size and growth forecast.

This thesis provides empirical evidence on the relation between concentrated ownership and the long term operating performance of acquiring firms. Large shareholders are generally viewed as beneficial monitors of corporate performance but high levels of concentration can lead to potential expropriation from minority shareholders via managerial entrenchment, tunneling, or sub-optimal investment decisions. This problem is potentially greater in firms with separation of voting and ownership rights. This thesis investigates the performance around takeovers in English origin countries other than the US by following the classification of La Porta, Lopez-de-Silanes, Shleifer and Vishny (1998). While generally considered similar to the US, these countries vary with respect to ownership concentration and investor protection. This thesis controls a broad set of corporate governance mechanisms including first generation governance measures like CEO positions, board characteristics, and other blockholders. Furthermore, this thesis also examines whether different degrees of second generation governance mechanisms such as anti-director rights, accounting standards, legal enforcement, and extra-legal institutions lead to different levels of M&A performance. In addition, this thesis includes the new legal indexes recently developed by Djankov, La Porta, Lopez-de-Silanes and Shleifer (2006); these measures have yet to be examined through empirical research. By using an accounting based methodology, this thesis presents Healy, Palepu and Ruback (1992) abnormal post cash flow return regression-based results and results of a change model (Ghosh 2001). Moreover, this thesis refers to the sample matching techniques in Barber and Lyon (1996) and develops the industry, size, and pre performance benchmark. The principal finding of this thesis is that M&A transactions should improve the long-term financial and operating performance of merging firms to reflect that accounting performance can capture real economic creations. After controlling for well documented governance mechanisms and deal characteristics, the relationship between concentrated ownership and the level and change in operating cash flow returns after takeovers is non-linear. Value creating deals are associated with higher levels of concentration consistent with decreasing agency costs as the large shareholder’s wealth invested in the acquiring firm increases. Further, separation of ownership and voting rights leads to greater value destruction; acquiring firms with controlling CEO make significant improvements in post acquisition performance after controlling pre-performance; and the presence of CEO-Chairman duality and board size are both significantly negatively associated with acquisition operating performance. This thesis also finds, although all acquiring firms are from English origin countries, that the greater investor protection, as measured by the initial anti-director right index in La Porta et al. (1998) and revised anti-director rights index in Djankov et al. (2006) has a positive impact on operating cash flow returns from acquisitions. However, this thesis does not document any differential performance with respect to the extra- legal systems of Dyck and Zingales (2004) and the anti-self-dealing index of Djankov et al. (2006).

高等教育在全世界任何國家中都是備受關注的重要議題，對於深度學術研究和未來的就業市場皆有牽一髮而動全身之影響力，而大學生素質及教授教學品質正面臨急需改善的轉折點。當近年大學生人數呈倍數大幅增加時，如何強化大學的營運績效成為炙手可熱的議題。隨著出生率的降低，年增的大學間數削弱了高教的品質，依賴學生收入較重的私立大學之經營情形更是岌岌可危。 本文特別針對二十四家私立大專院校作出實證結果，利用各校84年到94年的財務報表以及有關經營面的數字，以當期餘絀作為應變數，包含流動比率、固定資產比率、平均每單位學生支出、生師比、平均每學生數之學費等變數作為自變數，採用財務及非財務比率分析法進行營運資產面、收益面、支出面、教學品質面的實證分析，探討此統計結果與私立大專院校的營運績效之相依性。 結論顯示出，當期餘絀與固定資產比率、固定資產年增率、總資產、捐贈佔總收入比率、平均每單位學生支出、大學部學生比率有顯著正相關關係；且長庚大學與慈濟大學對學費收入的依賴性最小。利用營運績效之評比建立未來私校的退場機制，提供給相關單位作為日後的參考依據。 / Higher education system has developed for a long time all round the world. It is the most factors for fostering talents for employment and advanced research. The quality of teaching and student at universities are facing challenges that needed to improve urgently. While the enrollment population of students in higher education grows rapidly, it is very necessary urgently to clarify the mounting controversy: how to improve the operating performance of a university according to its financial statement, quantity data, and the information related to the operating performance. With the decreasing birth rate in recent years, the quantity of universities and colleges has enlarged rapidly, added to the other factors, private universities will be in a terrible situation that no sufficient students to stand their business sooner or later. We intend in the thesis to find out ways to enhance the quality of higher education by integrating educational resources and testifying the statistical methods. This paper emphasize on the magnitude of operating those private universities with efficient performance. Chapter 1 is the introduction including the background, motives, and objectives of the research. Chapter 2 deals with the review of literature, whereby related the literatures overseas were be discussed. Chapter 3 focuses on the research methods adopted. Chapter 4 is the analysis of the empirical results, and conducted for the establishment of the model. Chapter 5 presents the conclusion and suggestions for further research. The study based on the disclosed financial information of the 24 private universities. The conducted variables used to test the relation can be divided into four categories: the operating assets approach, the revenue approach, the expenditure approach, the teaching-quality approach. There are financial ratio and non financial independent variables selected for consideration in this field. There are 19 explained variables in details, and current surplus (SUR) is the only dependent variable as a whole. This study yielded limited information about the operating performances of higher education. The objective of this research is to seek and find out the explanatory power of the independent variables for financial performance indicators. To the conclusion, the roads to improve the operating performance of these private universities still have taken time. It is better to eliminate the lower-quality universities from the assessment of operating performance

在台灣現金增資已成為企業集資主要手段之一，尤以電子業之現金增資案例居各產業之首。關於現金增資與營運績效之議題，不論是學術界或實務領域皆受到相當程度關注。本研究以台灣上市公司現金增資為例，探討1995年1月1日至2003年12月31日共九年資料，分析現金增資後過度投資(overinvestment)對於營運績效之影響。本研究結論及實證結果如下： (1)使用營運資產報酬率、資產報酬率、每股盈餘、股票報酬率等績效衡量指標衡量現金增資前後之營運績效表現，發現增資後營運績效顯著下降。 (2)現金增資後現金收益(proceeds)主要用於投資。 (3)過度投資造成營運績效下降，而電子業之適度投資將使得營運績效上升，投資機會低且過度投資將使得營運績效嚴重下降。 / In Taiwan, Seasoned Equity Offerings (SEOs) has become an important source of corporate financing. It is especially the case for the semiconductor and electronic industries. Previous studies have documented that firms’ operating performance deteriorates after SEOs. In this research, the emphasis is on how overinvesting affects firms’ operating performances after SEOs. The sample of this research consists of SEOs of listed companies during 1995 through 2003 in the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE). The results and conclusions of this research are as followings: (1)The performance indicators, such as operating ROA, ROA, EPS, and stock return performance indexes, decline after SEOs. (2)The primary purpose of SEO proceeds is for investment. (3)Firms’ performance improves with optimal investment in the electronic industry while onverinvestment explains poor firms’ performance after SEOs. The adverse effect of overinvestment on performance is more severe in firms with fewer investment opportunities.

This research analyzes the operating performance of two commercially available passive infrared counters (PICs) of pedestrians as a function of site, summer, fall and winter seasons in terms of counter sensitivity. Three sites were selected for field analysis in Winnipeg, Canada. Based on a sample of 24,690 people counted by the two PICs from July 2014 to February 2015, this research found that with a 95 percent confidence, Eco-Counter’s sensitivity ranged from 73 to 97 percent while TRAFCO’s ranged from 57 to 97 percent related to people occlusion. On weekdays, Eco-Counter’s absolute error was 16 percent and TRAFCO’s was 18 percent. On weekends, Eco-Counter’s absolute error was 18 percent and TRAFCO’s was 21 percent. In addition to people occlusion, site, seasons, and time of week (weekday and weekend) were found to affect the operating performance of the PICs. Correction factors were also calculated per counter, site, and seasons. / May 2016

nÃo hà / The globalization process and the brazilian economic growth have contributed to the increased demand for freight transportation in many sectors. Faced with an increasingly competitive market, companies concentrate their focus on their core activities and start to outsource some other activities. So, freight transportation has been the target of increased outsourcing, presenting himself as a business opportunity for many transportation companies. The evaluation of the operational performance of those companies is obtained by various indicators, which isolated help managers to monitor and control their activities. It is also through those indicators that the bottlenecks are identified, supporting the decision making process to promote improvements and increased customer satisfaction. This study proposes the use of Multicriteria Decision Support - Constructivist (MCDA - C) to subsidize the construction of a model for evaluating the operating performance of freight transportation companies. The choice of methodology is grounded on two main points: i) it takes into account the views of decision makers and , ii ) it aggregates many relevant aspects for the good operating performance in a single model. A constructivist methodology allows the decision makers development of knowledge about the problem, and so, to make better decisions for achieving their objectives. At the end of this search it is intended to have a multicriteria model for evaluating the operating performance of the freight transportation companies able to support the decision making of managers , and also enable the understanding of the consequences of their decisions in the context under investigation. / O crescente processo de globalizaÃÃo e o ritmo acelerado de crescimento econÃmico do Brasil vÃm contribuindo para o aumento da demanda por transporte rodoviÃrio de cargas nos mais diversos setores. Diante de um mercado cada vez mais competitivo as empresas concentram seu foco em suas atividades principais e passam a terceirizar algumas atividades. Nesse cenÃrio, o transporte da carga tem sido alvo de crescente terceirizaÃÃo, se apresentando como oportunidade de negÃcio para diversas empresas que atuam na prestaÃÃo de serviÃos logÃsticos e de transporte da carga. A avaliaÃÃo do desempenho operacional das Empresas de Transporte RodoviÃrio de Cargas â ETRC à realizada atravÃs de diversos indicadores, que isoladamente ajudam os gestores no acompanhamento e controle de suas atividades. à tambÃm atravÃs desses indicadores que sÃo identificados os gargalos operacionais que impedem um melhor desempenho do serviÃo prestado. O presente estudo propÃe a utilizaÃÃo da Metodologia MulticritÃrio de Apoio à DecisÃo â Construtivista (MCDA-C) na construÃÃo de um modelo de avaliaÃÃo do desempenho operacional de empresas transportadoras. A escolha da metodologia se alicerÃa em dois pontos principais: i) a de levar em consideraÃÃo a visÃo dos tomadores de decisÃo e, ii) a de conseguir agregar os aspectos relevantes para o bom desempenho operacional em um Ãnico modelo. O enfoque construtivista da metodologia possibilita o desenvolvimento nos decisores do conhecimento acerca da problemÃtica, o que permite, num estÃgio mais avanÃado, tomar decisÃes mais acertadas para alcance dos seus objetivos estratÃgicos. O trabalho possibilitou a elaboraÃÃo de modelo multicritÃrio de avaliaÃÃo do desempenho operacional das ETRC capaz de apoiar a tomada de decisÃo dos gestores, e ainda, possibilitar a compreensÃo das consequÃncias de suas possÃveis decisÃes no contexto em investigaÃÃo.

Yes / This paper examines how deviation from firms’ target leverage influences their decisions on undertaking foreign acquisitions. Using a sample of 5746 completed bids by UK acquirers from 1987 to 2012, we observe that over-deviated firms are more likely to acquire foreign targets. Consistent with co-insurance theory, we find that over-deviated firms engage in foreign acquisition deals to relieve their financial constraints and to mitigate their financial distress risk. We also note that foreign acquisitions enhance over-deviated firms’ value and performance, measured by Tobin’s q and return on assets (ROA) respectively. These findings support the view that over-deviated firms pursue the most value-enhancing acquisitions. Overall, this paper suggests that co-insurance effects, value creation and performance improvements are the main incentives for over-deviated firms’ involvement in foreign acquisitions. / Financial support of Zagazig University in Egypt / The full-text of this article will be released for public view at the end of the publisher embargo on 02 Mar 2019.

The regulatory framework of many countries allows the upward revaluation of assets. Previous studies on the association of asset revaluation and future performance in Australia (Barth and Clinch, 1998), U.K. (Aboody, Barth and Kasznik, 1999) and Hong Kong (Jaggi and Tsui, 2001) have shown that upward asset revaluations are positively associated with the firm’s operating performance, suggesting that asset revaluations are value relevant. This study extends the previous research by focusing on the New Zealand environment with recent data to examine the association of upward asset revaluation and future operating performance. There is no obvious evidence indicating that upward revaluations are associated with operating performance in New Zealand. Our market assessments show that current year asset revaluations are related to share prices and returns, but are not statistically significant.