Does the stock prices of oil companies affected by the announcement of a corporate name changes? This paper investigates the North American oil firms undergo name changes from 2000 to 2005. We report a significantly positive abcdrmal return (12.5%) and abcdrmal trading volume on the event day for the overall 125 companies in our sample. During the period of crude oil price surges after 2004, we find a tendency of increasing number of firms add oil to their corporate names to signal their links with the oil markets. In the U.S., the CARs of firms add oil in their corporate names show positive effects on their stock prices. Their pre-event excess returns are not offset by post-event drift, especially in the oil hot period. Interestingly, we find that firms delete oil names in the oil hot period suffer a significant negative CAR in the post-event period. We provide evidence that major name changes are more beneficial than minor name changes in the North America oil companies, and name changes affect stock prices more positively for smaller companies than for big firms on event day. Between the U.S. and Canada, we show that there are the different CAR trends for each country. The information leakage period is longer in Canada than the U.S. It is seen that a firm with a resource unrelated activities adds an oil name, it would earn a permanent CAR. The overall results in our study suggest that the announcement of corporate name changes of oil companies convey important information to the stock market regarding their corporate images and identifies. Investors appear to respond enthusiastically to the word “oil” in corporate names because of the relationship with a glamorously lucrative and potentially growing oil prices.

本文包含兩篇文章，分別探討國際市場公司改名對企業股價與借款成本的影響。從本文的實證分析結果得知，國際市場公司改名對公司股票價格與其貸款成本有截然不同的影響。 Cooper, Dimitrov and Rau (2001)與Cooper et al. (2005)發現當網際網路興盛時，不論公司業務主體是否與網際網路有關，於公司名稱加入與網路有關文字之公司其股價報酬上升且維持一段時間；然而，當網際網路衰弱時，將公司名稱刪除網路字樣之公司，其股價出現顯著異常報酬，使得股東財富增加。鑒於近年來國際石油價格急遽上升，之後又逢美國次級房貸風暴因而暴跌，國際石油價格的波動走勢提供本文第一篇文章之研究動機。本文第一篇文章的研究目的在於探討當國際石油價格持續上升時，國際市場公司是否傾向變更其公司名稱，將其公司名稱加入「石油」或「原油」等相關之文字，透過公司名稱的變更提高企業價值；而當國際石油價格急速下降時，國際市場公司是否反而傾向將其公司名稱刪除「石油」或「原油」等相關之文字，以防止股價下跌。此外，由於美國與加拿大地理位置與文化相近，過去文獻常將兩者作比較。顧此，本文進一步探討美國公司與加拿大公司更名對企業股價的影響是否有顯著地差異。 本文發現當國際石油價格上漲時，美國公司傾向將其公司名稱加入「石油」或「原油」等相關之文字且其股價報酬上升，企業價值增加。然而，當美國次級房貸風暴時期，投資人深恐石油產業將受美國次級房貸危機影響，因此變更公司名稱之公司其股價下跌。另外，本文發現由於近年來加拿大為世界主要石油輸出國之一，投資人對石油產業公司的了解度較佳，因此美國與加拿大公司更名對企業股價有不同的影響。 過去文獻主要以股東角度探討公司更名議題，本文第二篇文章主要從銀行貸款者的角度來探討公司更名的影響。本文認為公司更名提高貸款者與借款者之間的資訊不對稱，增加銀行貸款者評估借款者未來還款能力的不確定性。為了要降低不確定性帶來的財務風險，銀行貸款者傾向提高借款利息或增加要求抵押擔保品。本文發現在公司更名後，公司須負擔較高的借款成本、較多的抵押品擔保與合約限制。此外，公司更名後，願意加入聯合貸款的銀行數目降低。 這些實證結果支持本文的推論。在股票市場上，公司變更公司名稱對企業價值有顯著地影響，管理階層藉由變更公司名稱影響投資人對其的看法(investor sentiment)，進而提高股票價值。然而，在借貸市場上，公司變更名稱提高公司與貸款者間之資訊不對稱，公司更名須償付較高的借款成本和較多的抵押品擔保。本文的實證結果說明金融機構對公司治理具有監督和管理的重要角色。 / Two essays are comprised in this dissertation to examine the benefits and costs of corporate name changes. The empirical investigation on corporate name changes in stock market and loan market provide the entirely different insights on the effect of corporate name changes. With the recent oil price in surge and then crash, I have the opportunity to examine whether firms have the incentives to changes their names when oil price surge. In the first essay, I examine the wealth effect of corporate name changes involving oil-related terms. Following Cooper, Dimitrov and Rau (2001) and Cooper et al. (2005), I argue that firms tend to change their name by adding the words “oil” or “petroleum” to names when oil price in surge, while deleting the words “oil” or “petroleum” to names when oil price in a crash. I also compare the effect of corporate name changes between U.S. and Canadian stock market. Consistent with the prediction, I provide the evidence that there exists valuation effect of corporate name changes involving oil-related terms in U.S. stock market when the recent oil price surge. When financial crisis exploded U.S. stock market reacts significant negatively to corporate name changes. This is perhaps because investors expect economic difficulty caused by the financial crisis, which in turn, would hurt the oil industry and high oil price is not expected to be sustainable. On the contrary, relative to U.S. market, Canadian stock market has little reaction on the corporate name changes regardless of the type of name changes or market condition. This opposite results can be attributed to the different economic structure between U.S. and Canadian market. In the second essay, I focus on the effect of corporate name changes from the perspective of bank loan holders. I examine the cost of corporate name changes in the loan contracting. A corporate name changes creates information asymmetry and uncertainty about the future cash flow of a firms. To reduce the increase of credit risk, bank loan holders would attempt to enhance the efficient monitoring by tighter contracting terms and more concentrated lending structure. Consistent with this argument, the empirical results show that loan after name changes have significantly higher loan spread, higher probability of being secured, more general covenant restrictions and fewer lenders participate in a syndicated loan. Following Wu (2010), I categorize corporate name changes into different types of name changes and examine whether there is different effect among different types of name changes. I find that firms experiencing radical name changes are more likely to bear more financing costs. Lastly, I provide the evidence that firms pay higher borrowing costs when investors experience a significantly positive reaction from stock market through cosmetic name changes, which illustrate the importance of banks playing the role of monitoring and controlling borrowers.

本文研究自1997年至2007年，dotcom公司更名之長期與短期宣告效應，樣本包括名稱增加dotcom或剔除dotcom的兩類公司。過去文獻指出dotcom公司更名在-30天到+30天期具有顯著為正的累積超額報酬。與以往文獻不同，我們關心dotcom公司更名帶來的正報酬是否能持續，抑或宣告後的效果終將轉為負報酬，減損股東財富。實證結果顯示，雖然在事件日出現顯著3.14%的正累積超額報酬，但120天與360天事件窗口累積超額報酬均為顯著負值，分別為-55.52%與 -156.09%，所以dotcom公司更名的妝飾效果(cosmetic effect)為暫時的現象。故在長期，投資人若在網路熱潮時期買進新增dotcom於其名稱的公司的股票，損失很可能會隨著時間而擴大。此外，我們也發現更名公司的基本價值(fundamental values)在更名的前後兩年並無顯著差異，因此投資人對於股價的反應僅基於情緒(sentiment)，而非出於他們對基本價值的觀察。另一方面，研究樣本公司在 I/B/E/S資料庫中的一致性分析師盈餘預測，發現分析師對此類更名公司的下一季盈餘預測往下修正，但此下修應屬系統性現象。在預測誤差方面，分別探討網路熱潮期與冷卻期的預測誤差後，發現後者為-$0.2650，具有10%顯著水準。故可推論此時期分析師所掌握的資訊較為不足，或是來自世界各地的分析師意見不一致。此外，由於分析師盈餘預測可代表投資人對市場的預期，故在網路冷卻期，投資人對更名公司股價的反應是不理性的。 / This paper investigates long-term versus short-term effects of dotcom corporate name changes from 1997 to 2007. The sample contains a combination of name change events on which firms add dotcom to, or remove dotcom from their names. We attempt to examine whether announcement effects of dotcom name changes last long, or are prevailed by post-announcement negative drift eventually. On the announcement date, we find firms earn significant abnormal returns on the order of 3.14%. However, firms yield negative CARs over the 120- and 360- day window, which are -55.52% and -156.09%, respectively. These results suggest that firms can create shareholder’s wealth by dotcom name changes, but cosmetic effects of their name changes are simply transitory. Due to this finding, we suggest investors who experienced loss on stocks of dotcom addition firms should aware that their loss continues growing as time goes by. Next, the fact that fundamental value of our sample firms does not change significantly indicates that investors are affected by market sentiment, rather than driven by changes of fundamental value. Furthermore, we examine consensus analysts’ EPS forecasts from I/B/E/S database. EPS forecasts are used as proxies of investors’ expectations. We find analysts revise downwards in EPS forecast changes of name change firms. However, there is no significant difference between the sample and the benchmark group, in terms of forecast changes. Accordingly, we conclude that analysts systematically revise their estimates downward. Moreover, forecast errors in the Internet-cold period is $-0.2650 and significant at 10 percent level. We infer that analysts do have sufficient information or consensus. Thus, investors are irrational in response to dotcom name change announcements in the Internet-cold period.

企業名稱是企業重要的無形資產，但是在1925年至2000年間名列美國證券市場資料庫的企業中，卻有超過三成的比率在公開上市後曾經更改過企業的名稱，因此本研究基於管理者及投資者的門檻心理，使用實證模型，探討企業更名後，管理者為了吸引投資者的注意，是否較可能去迎合各個盈餘門檻。 本研究以1994~2006年在美國三大證券交易所交易之具更名事件的企業為觀察樣本（實驗組），並依企業規模大小、產業及年度配對出非更名企業（對照組），比較更名企業與非更名企業在門檻心理之下的盈餘管理程度差異，探討企業更名後擊敗或達到盈餘門檻的機率是否大於更名前，研究方法兼採獨立樣本t檢定、綜和橫斷面分配法、分群樣本之羅吉斯多變量迴歸及差異中之差異法。實證結果發現獨立樣本t檢定下，企業更名後會迎合前期盈餘門檻；在綜和橫斷面分配法下則沒有發現迎合盈餘門檻的跡象；多變量迴歸及差異中之差異法則發現企業更名後會迎合前期盈餘門檻及分析師預測盈餘門檻。 / The name is an important intangible asset of the corporate. But over the 1924~2000 period, on the CRSP tapes, over 30% corporates had changed corporate names. Based on the earning thresholds behavior, I examine whether executives would try to meet or beat different earning thresholds in order to attract investors’ attention. In order to investigate the effects of name change, I use the corporates which had changed names over the 1994~2006 period to be the target groups, and then pair comparison groups by the same firm size, industry, and name-changed year. The results indicate that corporates would try to sustain recent performance when using t test. On the other hand, there is no evidence for executives to exceed thresholds under pooled cross-sectional distribution approach. Finally, corporates would sustain recent performance and meet analyst’s expectations when using multivavariate logit regression and difference - in - difference methods.

公司名稱不僅僅是識別的代號，還具有深切的意義存在，且更名還需花費很大的成本、面對原有客戶流失的風險，故企業更名背後的真正涵義是值得深入探討的。 本研究旨在探討在CRSP有更名紀錄之美國上市公司，是否會透過實質交易或裁決性應計之方式進行盈餘管理。除了比較更名前後盈餘管理程度之差異，同時也以更名公司為實驗組，並選取未更名公司作為對照組，檢測在更名後，更名公司與未更名公司之盈餘管理程度是否有顯著差異。另外，為額外分析不同類型的更名原因，是否會採取不同的盈餘管理方式，依不同標準選取以下二類之更名公司：第一類為因業務範圍改變而更名；第二類為無原因之更名。 實證結果發現，更名公司在更名後，比起更名前及未更名公司，可能有以操縱銷貨來壓低現金流量、透過過量生產以降低銷貨成本的實質交易行為，進行裁決性應計項目之盈餘管理也較為嚴重。額外分析不同原因的更名公司之實證結果則發現，無原因之更名公司在更名後，進行實質交易之情形較業務範圍改變之更名公司嚴重。 / This study investigates the impact of corporate name changes on earnings management. We examine earnings management behavior in the period leading to the passage of name change effective year and in the period following the passage of name change effective year, focusing on both real earnings management and accrual-based earnings management. To make further investigations, we conduct analysis of firms that change name because of broader or narrower focus the firm’s scope of business versus firms that change name with no reason. The empirical results show that name change firms use more accruals and real earnings management after name changes when compared to similar firms. Furthermore, we also find that firms change name with no reason tend to adopt real earnings management when compared to the firms that change name because of broader or narrow focus.