This study examines the determinants of the use of uncertain and weak modal words in 10-K filings and the effect of these words on analyst forecast attributes. I find that the use of uncertain and weak modal words in 10-K filings is positively (negatively) associated with firm size, volatility of business and operations (firm age and number of business segments). More importantly, after controlling for readability and management tone, I find that the use of uncertain and weak modal words in 10-K filings is associated with greater analyst following, lower forecast dispersion, greater forecast accuracy, and lower uncertainty in analysts’ overall and common information environment. The results of this study provide more insights into why management uses uncertain and weak modal words in 10-K filings and how these words in 10-K filings affect analysts’ behavior and their forecast outcomes.

La falta de energía eléctrica en zonas rurales y vulnerables del Perú es un problema que genera limitaciones en el desarrollo social y económico de sus habitantes. La Organización de las Naciones Unidas (ONU) en su Objetivo de Desarrollo Sostenible nro. 7 indica que los estados deben garantizar el acceso a una energía asequible, segura, sostenible y moderna. También hace hincapié en prestar mayor atención a las mejoras para el acceso a combustibles de cocina limpios y seguros. Según datos de la ONU y el Banco Mundial el acceso a electricidad en el país llega al 95% en general, sin embargo, es importante señalar que en zonas rurales esta cifra disminuye hasta un 82%. Estas zonas del país se caracterizan por tener como actividades primarias a la ganadería y la agricultura, las cuales generan una importante cantidad de residuos que pueden ser aprovechados mediante su transformación y/o utilización como fuentes de energía. En este contexto se ha demostrado que el estiércol de ganado (recurso orgánico) puede generar energía térmica como eléctrica. Por lo expuesto, el objetivo principal del proyecto es desarrollar un sistema automático de producción de biogás a partir de desechos de ganado vacuno. El biogás producido será utilizado para generar energía eléctrica mediante un generador. Este sistema debe ser de operación autónoma y fácil implementación, permitiendo que cualquier persona pueda operarlo. Además, se plantea el desarrollo de un sistema de filtrado en dos etapas para la eliminación del sulfuro de hidrógeno generado junto con el biogás, con el fin de evitar posibles daños de corrosión a los equipos, peligro para los usuarios y al ambiente. / The lack of electrical energy in rural and vulnerable areas of Peru is a problem that generates limitations in the social and economic development of its inhabitants. The United Nations (UN) in its Sustainable Development Goal nro. 7 indicates that states must guarantee access to affordable, safe, sustainable and modern energy. It also emphasizes that greater attention should be into improvements in access to clean and safe cooking fuels. According to data from the UN and the World Bank, access to electricity in the country reaches 95% overall, however, it is important to note that in rural areas this figure drops to 82%. These areas of the country are characterized by having as their primary activities livestock and agriculture, which generate a significant amount of waste that can be harnessed through their transformation and/or use as energy sources. In this context, it has been demonstrated that cattle manure (an organic resource) can generate both thermal and electrical energy. Therefore, the main objective of the project is to develop an automatic system for the production of biogas from cattle waste. The biogas produced will be used to generate electrical energy by means of a generator. This system must be of autonomous operation, easy implementation and use allowing any person to operate it. In addition, the development of a two-stage filtering system for the elimination of hydrogen sulfide generated along with the biogas is proposed, in order to avoid possible corrosion damage to the equipment, danger to users and the environment. / Tesis

<p>Resilience is studied as a systemic property in several disciplines such as engineering, psychology, systems biology, and ecological sciences. Yet, the system view on resilience is not pervasive in management science. This dissertation is on Enterprise Resilience, which is an emerging topic within the fields of organization and management science. Corporate enterprises are viewed as type 1 complex adaptive systems (CAS) operating within an external business environment. Thus, perturbations occurring in the environment affect enterprises, whose resilience then depends on their adaptive response to them. Therefore, the focus is on system perturbances and on investigating drivers of the enterprises’ adaptive response. As a result, enterprise resilience is more granularly defined as an enterprise’s ability to continually remain valuable to stakeholders by simultaneously managing short-term shocks and long-term stressors. This re-definition brings forth an actionable pathway to enterprise resilience- the pursuit of improved management of the enterprise’s risk and growth management functions.</p><p>Two challenging issues plaguing the risk and growth functions are the lack of a comprehensive understanding of risks (especially of unknowns) and their inter-connections, and a weak link between risk management and the enterprise’s growth strategy intended to continually and increasingly generate value. This work addresses both issues via the development of an enterprise-agnostic comprehensive risk typology, and by building a conceptual link between risk and growth strategy through the business model construct and its use in the study of repeatable patterns of innovation. Therefore, this work develops one pathway toward enterprise resilience i.e., via improved risk management and systematic growth management. Furthermore, it advances knowledge by bridging the theoretical conceptualization of an enterprise as a CAS1 into actionable methods for practice in the form of risk management tools and systematic innovation frameworks that aid the enterprise’s adaptive response.</p><p>The interdisciplinary dissertation develops hypotheses and employs appropriate qualitative and quantitative methods to test them. Overall, a theory building process is undertaken using the constructionist school of thought and using methods based in inductive logic such as the scholarship of integration, thematic analysis, and case studies. Additionally, to achieve wide and comprehensive coverage, data-driven quantitative methods using advanced computing such as data mining, machine learning, and natural language processing are employed.</p>