Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 74-77).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Texas at Dallas, 2009. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 59-61)

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 1996. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [82]-85).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1996. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [101]-104).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1992. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [159]-163).

Thesis (M.Phil.)--City University of Hong Kong, 2005. / "Submitted to Department of Accountancy in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy" Includes bibliographical references (leaves 95-100)

Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 63-65). Also available online in Scholars' Bank; and in ProQuest, free to University of Oregon users.

The research aimed at broadly exploring whether there is a relationship between brand equity and shareholder returns amongst South African companies. More specifically, the research sought to establish whether there was a correlation between strong brand equity, represented by the Markinor brand relationship score and shareholder returns, represented by headline earnings per share of selected South African companies. The research also sought to establish whether South African financial markets were inclined to react to brand-related market announcements. The study utilised secondary quantitative data from various marketing and financial sources and used various statistical techniques to answer the research questions. The study was able to establish a relationship between brand equity and shareholder returns for some sectors of the South African market. Although there was evidence that there was movement of the share prices of the shares under investigation, the study was unable to conclusively prove that the share price movements on the days after the brand announcement were directly attributable to the brand-related announcement. There is growing pressure on the marketing fraternity to demonstrate the impact of brand investments on company financial performance. It is hoped that this research will contribute to the knowledge base and encourage more research into the subject. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Business / Master / Master of Philosophy

A research report submitted to the SCHOOL OF ACCOUNTING Faculty of commerce, law and management University of the Witwatersrand In partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Commerce / This study assesses the ability of Jansen, Ramnath & Yohn (2012) diagnostic, which is based on the relationship between the change in the asset turnover ratio and profit margin ratio, to distinguish between those firms suspected of manipulating reported financial figures by means of earnings management (EM) and firms that have not attempted earnings management. The study aims to determine whether, as suggested by Jansen et al (2012), the change in the asset turnover ratio and profit margin ratio as well as the direction of the change, can potentially indicate EM. In addition, the study aims to determine whether this new, simplistic diagnostic is incrementally useful to discretionary accruals in identifying EM. The sample of suspected EM firms was obtained from a study conducted by Rabin & Negash (2012), using kernel density estimation (Lahr, 2014). The results of this research suggest that Jansen et al.’s (2012) diagnostic is a useful indicator for identifying firms that might have manipulated reported financial figures through the use of earnings management. The study however shows that, due to weaknesses in either the diagnostic, in that it is limited in its ability to identify EM through sales, or in the method used to obtain the sample, this diagnostic is not incrementally useful to discretionary accruals models in identifying EM. Instead it should be used in conjunction with other models. / MT2017