A 50% dissertation presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Commerce at the University of Witwatersrand. / Information asymmetry creates a gap between management’s perception of the firm’s value and the market value of the firm. It is thought that management engage in information signalling activities in order to close the gap created by information asymmetry. There is a need to understand why management engage in their chosen transactions as this will provide investors with insight into market activities, as well as allow for more accurate investment strategies. While research is available on the market’s reactions to signalling events, the problem is whether management’s intentions have been correctly interpreted by the market. The starting point to gaining this understanding is to ask the question: What signals do management send when they issue and repurchase shares? This study attempts to answer this question by investigating whether companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) issue shares because management perceive their market values to be overvalued and repurchase shares because their market values are undervalued. For the period 1 January 2003 to 31 December 2012, a total of 295 share issue announcements are considered for 102 companies; and a total of 183 share repurchase announcements are considered for 83 companies. The results of this study reveal that managerial equity market timing may exist in the presence of excess returns, where management are better able to predict returns in advance than the market. However, there is also evidence suggesting share repurchases are made to return excess cash to shareholders and issues and repurchases decisions are linked to capital structure planning. The fact that there are other potential reasons for share issues and repurchases, means that the market must be able to determine what the real intentions of management are when shares are issued and repurchased; and hence determine whether their intentions suggest equity market mispricing.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the long-term share price effects for Swedish companies that employed repurchases programs during 2000 - 2012. This paper applies a trading strategy where the investor invests in stocks of compa-nies that engage in repurchase of their own equity. We test buy-and-hold abnormal returns versus two different proxies for the control firm, using small sample t-statistics. Abnormal returns for one to five years are insignificant under sta-tistic tests, using the supersector indices. In contrast, they are significant using a proxy for the market index as control firm. Factors hypothesized to contribute to this result are incon-clusive using our method of comparison. As a whole, we suggest that investing in companies that repurchase stock is a solid strategy: It is on par or better than index.

Thesis (M.Phil.)--Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 31-32). Also available in electronic version.

Despite the large volume of research in the area of loyalty-repurchase-satisfaction, the findings on the relationship between these variables are conflicting. It seems that links between loyalty, repurchase, and satisfaction are not fully understood yet. The study provided the theoretical background on loyalty, repurchase, satisfaction, and their interrelationships. The Theory of Planned Behavior and the Expectation Confirmation Theory were discussed. The loyalty-repurchase differentiation with five contributing factors was addressed. From the literature review nine hypotheses were proposed. The study was conducted in three phases. The purpose of the first phase was to statistically identify the magnitude and the direction of relationships: loyalty-satisfaction, repurchase-satisfaction, and loyalty-repurchase by providing a quantitative review. A Hunter and Schmidt (1990) meta-analysis technique was employed. The results demonstrated that those three constructs have positive, strong relationships. However, the relationships were moderated by a number of factors, including the geographic region of the collected sample, the category (products versus service), and the business setting (B2B versus B2C). The purpose of the second phase was to statistically identify relationships between the research constructs, such as loyalty dimensions (commitment, trust, involvement, and word of mouth), repurchase/repurchase intent, and satisfaction, by conducting a field study with customers of apparel products. A structural equation modeling technique was employed to test the proposed hypotheses. Eight hypotheses were supported. The results indicated that although positive relationships between the research constructs exist, not all relationships are significantly strong. The purpose of the third phase was to compare the meta-analysis results, obtained from the large number of independent empirical studies, with the field study results, obtained from surveying consumers of apparel products. The overall findings of this research indicated that while meta-analysis and the field study results agree on positive relationships between the research constructs, the differences lay within the strength of the investigated relationships. The possible explanation was provided based on the theoretical foundation from the literature review. The study contributes to the growing knowledge of the relationships between loyalty, repurchase, and satisfaction by assessing the current state of the empirical research on those three variables. This research addresses the existing gap in the literature, and attempts to resolve the existing mixed views on the studied concepts. The mixed results of meta-analysis and the field study in terms of the strength of the investigated relationships indicate the need to expand this area of research further.

A generous amount of research on payout policies has reported that the trends of payout policies have changed overtime. The common pattern in most of these studies is that fifty years ago cash dividend was the most dominant and favourable form of payout, but this pattern was not maintained and saw some changes in the 1980s. The 1980s was a period where the use of repurchases increased significantly in both the US and the UK and this increment was paired with a declining propensity to pay dividends. It is this observation that impelled researchers to suggest that share repurchases were substitutes for cash dividends as they were being finance with reductions in cash dividends. Share repurchases are a new concept in South Africa compared to other international capital markets. The implementation of the Companies Amendment Act 37 of 1999 has made it possible for companies to carry out open market stock repurchase programmes in South Africa and since then, share repurchases have become an intricate part of payout policy for South African firms. This study tests whether indeed the declining propensity to pay dividends and the increasing propensity to repurchase patternsare observable in South Africa and whether share repurchases are indeed substitutes for cash dividends in today’s markets. This study examines the payout policies of 116 companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE henceforth) between 2002 and 2009. Overall, this study finds that the use of share repurchases has increased substantially in South Africa during the sample period. Dividends have also increased significantly and the total payout ratio exhibited an upward trend between 2002 and 2009. This implies that the increase in repurchase activity was not financed by the decrease in dividends, as dividends had also followed an upward trend. There is sufficient evidence that repurchases and dividends are certainly not substitutes in South Africa.In addition to the observation thatdividend and repurchase payout ratios moved in the same direction for most parts of the sample period, a iii positive relationship between the dividend forecasting error and repurchase activity was realized, thus, dividends and repurchases weredeclared complements.

Thesis advisor: Thomas Chemmanur / Thesis advisor: David Solomon / This document comprises three essays regarding actual share repurchases. In Chapter 1, I show that external pressure in the form of equity analysts asking questions about a firm's actual repurchases can lead firms to more extensively follow through on their recently announced open market share repurchase programs. Such a phenomenon cannot be explained by mere firm characteristics. Instead, only analysts' questions that are shorter, more focused on share repurchases, and blunter in language appear to drive firms for greater follow-throughs. The second essay, detailed in Chapter 2, presents another motivation for firms to actually buy back shares under their active open market share repurchase programs. Specifically, firms with higher accounting quality will likely repurchase more shares to signal their accounting superiority after another firm operating in the same product market issues a financial restatement. As a result, the repurchasing firms separate from the pooling equilibrium with lower accounting quality firms and thus incur lower accounting-related litigation risks. Finally, in the third essay, located in Chapter 3, we compare cash dividends with share repurchases. Firms with greater heterogeneity in beliefs between insiders and outsiders, and among outside equity holders more likely prefer share repurchases to cash dividends for payout. Importantly, this finding can partially explain the disappearing dividend puzzle where rising heterogeneity in beliefs in the economy may have contributed to the substitution of cash dividends with share repurchases in the past two decades. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2023. / Submitted to: Boston College. Carroll School of Management. / Discipline: Finance.

Over the last two decades, share repurchases have emerged as the dominant payout channel, offering a more flexible means of returning excess cash to investors. However, little is known about the costs associated with payout-related financial flexibility. Using a unique identification strategy, we document a significant cost. We find that actual repurchase investments underperform hypothetical investments that mechanically smooth repurchase dollars through time by approximately two percentage points per year on average. This cost of financial flexibility is correlated with earnings management, managerial entrenchment, and less institutional monitoring. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Consumer brand preference is an essential step to understand consumer choice behaviour, and has therefore always received great attention from marketers. Brand preferences reveal the type of attributes a brand possesses, to strengthen its position and increase its market share. Moreover, it forms a critical input in developing a company’s successful brand strategy, and gives insight for product development. However, the shift to experiential marketing broadens the role of the brand from a bundle of attributes to experiences. Experiential marketing also considers both, the rational and irrational assumptions of consumer behaviour. The technological advancement helped increasing the similarities between the brands attributes and product commoditisation. Consequently, consumers cannot shape their preferences among brands using rational attributes only. They seek the brand that creates experience; intrigue them in a sensorial, emotional, and creative way. Companies’ competitiveness in such market has, therefore become increasingly difficult. Their survival requires building their competitive advantage by delivering memorable experiences, which would influence consumers’ brand preferences, and consequently stimulate consumers’ purchase decisions. In the marketing literature, the traditional models are uni-dimensional, and addressing the brand preferences by consumers’ cognitive judgement of brand attributes on a rational basis. The role of experience is limited to the impact of its type on shifting preference level. Most of prior studies are partial and focusing on one or two antecedents of brand preferences. In addition to these drawbacks, the studies also ignore consequences determining the consumer purchase decisions. Based on these limitations in the literature, a lack of understanding of how consumers develop their brand preferences was identified. Accordingly, the aim of this study is to develop a model that provides an understanding of how brand knowledge and brand experiences determine brand preferences and to investigate its impact on brand repurchase intentions. In this model, the brand knowledge is defined by attribute-based beliefs, referring to consumers’ salient beliefs about the brand intrinsic cues, and non-attribute beliefs, reflected in the price, appearance, brand personality, and self-congruity. Therefore, the relative importance of brand knowledge factors contributing to brand preference is determined. Furthermore, the model addresses the interactions between the brand knowledge and brand experience in shaping brand preference. Thus, addressing how the experiences reflect embedded value in the brand offerings influencing consumer preferences. To achieve the aim of this study, a sequential mixed-method methodology combining both qualitative and quantitative research was adopted. The aim of the first qualitative phase is exploratory, using focus groups, to refine the proposed model and generate items for questionnaire development. The second phase, quantitative research, is the survey conducted using self-administrated questionnaires. The structural equation modelling (AMOS) software is used to analyse the data. The findings confirm that brand knowledge and brand experience are key sources of brand preferences. In addition, all the factors of brand knowledge have a direct positive impact on brand preferences. However, the role of brand personality on brand preference is realised through brand experience. The findings also support that the impacts of the general brand attributes and appearance on brand preference are partially mediated by brand experience. Furthermore, brand preference positively impacts repurchase intentions. The ultimate contribution of this study stems from revealing that both cognitive information processing and experiential responses form the bases of developing brand preferences, which form the link to future psychological reactions. Methodologically, the study measures the multi-dimensional constructs, brand experience and brand personality, at the aggregate level. In addition, it validates the “big-five personality” as a measure of brand personality. Pragmatically, the study suggests three levels for building brands of technological products to win consumer preferences. At the first level lies the brand functional attributes, at the second level, are the brand symbolic attributes reflected in the imagery associations and aesthetic appearance while at the third level is the brand experience. Noteworthy, these experiences are private in nature and cannot be commoditised. This model extends the notion of brand experience on preference development and can be extended in future research to build long-term consumer-brand relationship.

Bulk food exist in various kind of food, can be purchased by individual needs and quantities required, customer in Taiwan still stick to bulk food and the way sales. Recent year, many problems have revealed the bulk food safety issue. Therefore, Department of Health enacted bulk food labeling regulation in 2009 to clarify what information to be revealed, and has advocating the information to consumer about how to choose bulk food. The government hopes to increase the consumer knowledge and avoid food hazard. We can tell that knowledge must be an important part in decision procedure of food purchasing, but a few of research concern this issue. Hence, in this research product knowledge and other variables are discussed and selected to form research model. This research also discovered the bulk food safety situation unprecedentedly, gives an overview to readers. The goals of this research are find the mediator effect within involvement, perceived quality and repurchase intention and the moderator effect of product knowledge between the relationships of perceived quality and repurchase intention. Samples of 973 collected through questionnaire survey, tested the hypotheses by regression analysis. The result showed the three variables did have partial mediator effect. And the moderator effect was confirmed, product knowledge will weakened the relationship, implied the bulk food safety information advocacy would help to change the customer decision. Based on the result, suggestions are as followed: government should keep on educating consumer to establish proper food decision criteria; bulk food producer and distributor should improve the information reveal and food quality control spontaneously, to win customers¡¦ perceived quality and increase purchase.

This study aims at movie theaters in Kaohsiung to explore the relationship between marketing mix strategy and repurchase intention. single screen, miniplex, multiplex and megaplex. Our three targeted movie theaters are in the form of multiplex (holding 8 to 15 screens): Vieshow Cinemas in MegaA, Cinemark in Dream Mall and 3.Ambassdor Theatres in E-Da World. The audiences who have tickets to the three movie theaters are the researched samples. This study adopts structured questionnaires and qualitative method to analyze diverse variables. The formal questionnaire includes three sections: marketing mix strategy scale, repurchase intention scale and the consumer¡¦s basic profile. The questionnaires are made with reference to literatures and previous surveys in order to revise to conform to the purpose of the study. For the pilot study, the number of the questionnaires is 100 copies. Then, the number of the samples amounts to 1200 persons by means of convenience sampling. From survey participants, 1012 respondents were collected, and invalid ones were excluded, at the rate of recollection of 84.3%. Two hypotheses are proposed: 1¡GDifferent customers-one variable of population- has significant impact on marketing mix strategy. 2¡GMarketing mix strategy has significant impact on repurchase intention. The statistic tool SPSS17.0 are used for analysis of data and test of hypotheses covering multi analysis in terms of description, reliability, factor, T test, single-factor ANOVA, correlation and regression. The following are the findings: 1¡GDifferent consumers, the variable of population, significantly impact on marketing mix strategy. 2¡GMarketing mix strategy has significant impact on repurchase intention. Our suggestions are made as follows: 1¡GDesign specific network communication for youngsters and adults. 2¡GConvey more advertisement messages on popular networks and papers toward students and employees 3¡GStrengthen the diversity, accessibility and popularity with respect to the contents of network marketing. 4¡GImplement diversified marketing mix strategy for different customers. 5¡GExtend other dimensions (e.g., customer¡¦s satisfaction) for study. 6¡GStudy more movie theaters in different areas (such as Tainan, Taichung, New Taipei City and Taipei) or non-premier theaters by expanding our scales. 7¡GCollaborate and cooperate with the authority.