The importance of small firms in a country’s development cannot be over-emphasized. In particular, it is important for them to grow in order to sustain their contributions to a country’s economy. Studies have shown how firms achieve growth using the traditional model of decision making (causation) in which planning, market research and forecasting are used to gain relevant information about the firm’s market/industry. This planning enables the firms to compete favourably with other existing firms in the market. Effectuation as an alternative theory involves decision-making processes under conditions of uncertainty where there is no adequate knowledge of the market due to its latent and emerging nature. Effectuation has been used to examine various concepts in entrepreneurship, but there has been no real effort to apply it to the growth of small knowledge-intensive firms (SKIFs). This study, based on in-depth interviews with six SKIFs, highlights how effectuation can be applied to the growth of SKIFs and it examines how the four underlying principles of contingencies, affordable loss, strategic relationships and adaptation contribute to SKIF growth. In addition, elements of causation are also shown to be relevant, leading to the conclusion that the two models can be used jointly to achieve growth of SKIFs.

In this thesis, our aim is to study a Cournot tatonnement system which exhibits destabilisation of the Cournot equilibrium as the number of firms increase. Our approach is to first consider the special case of firms behaving identically in a market share attraction model in two different adjustment process: Cournot tatonnement and bounded rationality adjustment. Results from the Cournot tatonnement system shows a superstable equilibrium in two firms model and an unstable equilibrium in a five firms model. In the five firms model, we show that introducing heterogeneity stabilises the Cournot equilibrium. For both two and five firms model, the differences of costs between firms are critical for the convergence of the system to the Cournot equilibrium. Lastly, we study the effect of entries and exits of firms on the number of active firms in the market. We discover that the market can sustain between two to four firms, and the factors are differences of costs and initial outputs between firms, and barriers to entries.

This research investigates 202 data breach events occurring between 2015 and 2019 and the related financial effects on the USA's impacted private firms. From examining previous research, it is obvious that no known studies evaluate the financial impacts of cybercrimes on private firms. Prior studies mostly focus on public firms and stock market reactions even though there is the increasing number of cyberattacks on private firms too. This study seeks to fill the gap by providing the empirical evidence of the impacts on those firms' cash holding after experiencing a cybersecurity attack. Overall, the results of this research show if the private firms that have been cyberattacked face the connate aftermath and follow the similar precautions as public firms with data breaches or not. I find that the firms that experienced an attack two years ago increase their cash holdings significantly, while an attack that happened a year ago can only impact cash holdings while interacting with tangibility and ROA of a firm. These results are essential as the private firms draw up a budget and reform strategies for coping with cyber incidents.

In this dissertation I study ways in which regulatory institutions affect firms in India. The first chapter (coauthored with Michael Gechter) investigates the effects of an important but little-researched set of Indian labor regulations which only apply to establishments that hire 10 or more employees. Using data from India's 2005 Economic Census, we observe that the distribution of establishments by size closely follows a power law, but with a significant drop in the distribution for establishments with 10 or more workers. By fitting this distribution to a model of firm size choice in the presence of size-based regulations, we use this break in the observed distribution to estimate the implied costs of the regulation. In the second chapter I examine whether the speed of courts contributes to economic growth. I do this by making the assumption - following Nunn (2007) - that fast courts should be more beneficial to firms in contract-intensive industries, where contract intensity is measured by the proportion of inputs in an industry that cannot be bought on an organized exchange. Using data on Indian firms covering the period 1999-2008 I find that firms profits and value-added grew faster in contract-intensive industries that were located in states with faster courts. The third chapter (also coauthored with Michael Gechter) examines the effects of removal of regulations between 2001-06 that had previously reserved certain products for exclusive production by firms with capital below a certain threshold. Our main finding is that de-reservation led to an increase in firm investment and output by certain groups of firms.

The purpose of this paper is to provide interest ed rural Utah parties with a description of the financial structure and impacts of rural Utah manufacturing firms on t he local and state economies . Direct interviews with plant managers were used to gather the necessary data. Rural Utah manufacturing firms were grouped into nine different categories according to the type of product produced . Mean financial statements of each group were presented, with a breakdown of where each type of expenditure was made, whether locally , in-state, or out of state. Regression analysis was used to generate predictive equations for the propensity to consume locally and in state, and for the propensity to sell out of the local area and out of state. Discussions of the location and make up of rural Utah manufacturing were also included along with a discussion of the factors influencing manufacturing firms to locate i n rural Utah.

Given the increasing interest in international entrepreneurship and an increasing reliance of emerging economies on exporting to reach global markets, an investigation into internationalising firms in emerging economies is vital. Not only do these firms face pressures arising from the liability of smallness, foreignness, and resource limitations, but they also need compensating advantages in order to viably compete on the international stage. This study contributes to the international entrepreneurship literature by analysing the relationship between entrepreneurial intensity and capability, taken as independent variables, and their effect on international performance, taken as a multi-item dependent variable. The study uses a sample of 117 South African exporting firms of any size, industry, and/or age. Furthermore foreign environmental conditions within which these firms operate are measured in terms of their impact/moderation on the relationship between the independent variables and international performance. The study examines entrepreneurial intensity, which is a measure of the level of entrepreneurship in a firm that looks at both the degree and frequency of events with respect to innovativeness, proactiveness and risk-taking. The study also examines three entrepreneurial capabilities – namely social capital, human capital, and technology - that can enhance a firm’s international performance. Performance consists of two dimensions – namely economic performance and export intensity. Export intensity is a proxy of international intensity, measured as a ratio of foreign sales as a percentage of total sales. In this study, the dimensions of social capital that are measured are social interaction, relationship quality and network ties. Social capital is analysed in relationships among firms and their foreign actors/contacts. Social capital is also analysed as a multidimensional asset inside the business relationships comprising of both strong and weak ties, and implemented by the firms with their international partners or contacts. Social interaction and relationship quality corresponds to inter-organisational strong ties whereas network ties correspond to weak ties. iii Human capital consists of three dimensions – namely foreign institutional knowledge, foreign business knowledge, and internationalisation knowledge – based on the conception of foreign market knowledge. The two aspects of technology that are measured are technology distinctiveness and technology acquisition. The study also offers insights into key firm-level factors that influence international performance under foreign environmental conditions characterised by hostility and dynamism. Hypotheses were put forward to be tested in order to facilitate the study. To test the hypothesised bivariate relationship between entrepreneurial intensity and performance, correlation analysis was performed to examine the relationship between the predictors and the performance variables. Similarly, the tests were performed to examine the hypothesised bivariate relationship between entrepreneurial capabilities and performance variables. To test the impact of the environmental moderators on the efficacy of entrepreneurial intensity (EI) and entrepreneurial capability (EC), multiple regression analysis was performed. Overall the results show that EI and EC had a significant effect on both performance measures, with EC predicting stronger than EI. The results showed that different aspects of EI were associated with performance depending on the performance outcomes desired. Frequency of entrepreneurship was related to economic performance whereas entrepreneurial orientation (EO) was related to export intensity. Furthermore EI had a weakening impact under moderating conditions of increasing hostility on both performance measures. Dynamism did not moderate the relationship between EI and performance. EC had a positive impact under all moderating conditions on both performance measures. Social capital played an important role in hostile foreign environments whereas human capital was more important in dynamic foreign environments. In hostile foreign iv business environments, strongly embedded relationships did not provide benefits for advancing business whereas weak ties did. In dynamic foreign environments, internationalisation knowledge (prior internationalisation experience) was associated with both performance variables whereas foreign institutional knowledge (FIK) and foreign business knowledge (FBK) were not found to be important. The overall comparison revealed that in the foreign market environment, entrepreneurial capabilities were more important predictors of performance than entrepreneurial intensity. This suggests that entrepreneurial firms must possess compensating advantages in order to compete viably in unfamiliar markets abroad if they are not strong on innovation, proactiveness, and taking risks. Knowledge-based factors encourage initiative and flexibility among managers to gain influence over vital resources. However the challenge remains for the firms in emerging economies to adopt technology and act entrepreneurially. The results suggest that exporting firms in emerging market countries should pursue an entrepreneurial posture in order to achieve higher export intensity and engage in frequent product, process, and service enhancement activities if the objective is to achieve economic performance. Furthermore, the study found that entrepreneurial capability among South African exporting firms is positively related to performance. The study found that in order to improve their export intensity, human capital and social capital are among the most essential capabilities for organisational perfomance, whereas technology was not. The purpose of this research was to perform an empirical investigation on three main constructs - namely: entrepreneurial intensity, entrepreneurial capabilities, and the environmental dimensions - among South African exporting firms and the relationship of these factors with international performance. This study integrates the role of entrepreneurial intensity and capability in international entrepreneurship and their effects on performance of exporting firms within an emerging market context. v In line with theoretical studies in international entrepreneurship, this study reinforces the strategic role of entrepreneurial capabilities such as social capital and human capital in enhancing international performance. The role of EO and technology acquisition is also acknowledged.

I investigate how the presence of outsiders in the senior management team is related to the financing decision of Chinese listed family firms. For a sample of listed family firms from 2008 to 2017, I find that family firms with more outsiders in their senior management team (including the CEO, vice general manager, CFO, secretary of the board of directors, and other persons specified in the articles of Association) have higher leverage and take on more debt. Further, from the aspect of different financing choices, my empirical analysis shows that family firms with a higher proportion of outsiders take on fewer bank loans but issue more bonds. I use the proportion of outsiders in the firm's senior management team to measure the presence of outsiders in family firms. Besides, for the robustness test, I also use two dummy variables to measure the presence of outsiders in family firms. One indicates whether the family members fully exit from the senior executive team (including board chair, CEO, and CFO), and the other indicates whether the family members fully exit from the senior management team (including CEO, vice general manager, CFO, secretary of the board of directors, and other persons specified in the articles of Association). The results are consistent. To deal with the potential endogeneity issues, I use the outsiders’ full control of the senior executive team of the family firms as an exogenous shock to conduct PSM-DID analysis, and the results still hold. To conduct a heterogeneity analysis, I investigate factors that could moderate the relation between the presence of outsiders and financing policy in family firms from the perspective of family firms’ expropriation risks. The results show that the positive relationship between the presence of outsiders and the issue of bonds are both more pronounced for family firms with a higher amount of related party transactions, and for family firms with higher other receivables. My study shows that the presence of outsiders in family firms has a significant impact on firms’ financing decisions. In specific, the presence of outsiders leads to significantly higher leverage in family firms, fewer bank loans, and a larger amount of bond issuance. Considering the superiority of bonds to bank loans in the issuance procedure, amount, maturity, and cost, the positive impact of the presence of outsiders on bond issuance indicates that outsiders help to alleviate family firms’ financing constraints and improve financing structure. In addition, the strengthening role of expropriation risks in the positive relation of the presence of outsiders and bonds issuance also provides some implication that the introduction of outsiders in family firms helps to improve family firms’ governance structure, alleviate the concerns of creditors, and thus reduce agency conflicts between family shareholders and creditors. / Business Administration/Finance

The dissertation analyzes three issues related to corporate environmental performance. In the first essay, I analyze the stock price reactions of the defendant firms and their peer firms to environmental lawsuits. Empirical evidence finds that the defendant and their peer firms experience negative and significant cumulative abnormal returns to the announcement of environmental lawsuits. Additionally, cross-sectional analyses find certain firm characteristics, such as profitability, growth opportunities and leverage can influence the market reaction. Furthermore, if the plaintiffs are government agencies or corporations instead of individual citizens, the defendant and peer firms experience higher negative market reactions. The second essay examines if a firm's environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance can moderate the negative market response to environmental lawsuits. The results are mixed. The overall sample of the defendant and their peer firms show that ESG performance is not a significant factor in mitigating the negative market response. However, an interesting finding shows, for defendant and peer firms in the environmentally sensitive industries, better ESG ratings help reduce the adverse market reactions. The final essay investigates whether the defendant and peer firms improve their ESG performance in the next two years following the lawsuits. The results indicates that firms generally experience a drop in their ESG ratings in the year the lawsuits are filed. However, post-lawsuit filing years, there is a general trend for the defendant and peer firms in the environmentally sensitive industries to improve their environmental performance.

This dissertation follows extant scale development practices to propose, develop, and validate a measurement instrument for the family legacy orientation construct. Family legacy orientation (FLO) is understood to be the shared intentions and preferences a family has regarding the biological, social, and material components of the family legacy. The context of the family firm is of specific interest to the dissertation. The dissertation builds and extends our theoretical understanding of family legacy within the field of family business research. In doing so, the dissertation explores many ideas presented by Hammond et al. (2016; p. 1209) who emphasized the importance of the topic by stating “interest in the family’s pursuit of a legacy has grown along with the widespread acknowledgment that controlling families value many noninancial and family-related outcomes, suggesting that family legacy can be a unique source of motivation similar to socioemotional wealth (Chrisman, Chua, & Sharma, 2003; Miller, Steier, & Le Breton-Miller, 2003; Jaffe & Lane, 2004; Zahra, 2005)”. In this dissertation, FLO is proposed to influence intergenerational decision making and strategies.

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