Transfer between community colleges and four-year institutions has become more common as student mobility increases. Accordingly, the higher education system has coped with the fluidity by establishing articulation agreements that facilitate pathways from one institution to another. The forward-facing policies and guides to inform students on those pathways are known to be complicated, leading to the development of web-based tools like Transferology to help students navigate the system. Still, credit loss is common, whether through misunderstandings, lack of awareness, or changing degree plans. A proliferation of literature examines the experiences of transfer students and other agents in the process like community college advisors, but few pieces interrogate the underlying website structures that facilitate those experiences as the unit of analysis. Information related to facilitating transfer from one institution to another is often fragmented across multiple webpages or policies and uses language not optimal for communicating with students – creating what are called "information asymmetries" between the students and institutions. The premise of an exchange having information asymmetries is that one or more parties in the exchange have more or better information than the others, leading to an imbalance in power. In the case of higher education, transfer students – and their advisors by extension – can be subjected to manipulation by the invisible hands of the four-year institutions through language gaps and scattered sources of information. Accordingly, this dissertation explored four-year university websites, a major point of contact students have with information on transfer, to address the following main research question: "How are information asymmetries in curricular policies/procedures apparent for engineering students on institutional webpages in terms of language and fragmentation?" The subsequent research question synthesized the results of the first question: "Looking across information asymmetry measures, what are the different narratives of information asymmetry that integrate themes of language and fragmentation across institutions?" A fully integrated mixed methods design using all existing data was employed to address the two research questions. A stratified random sample was taken with respect to institution size based on their Carnegie classifications (n = 38). The collection of relevant public webpages based on a set of keywords from the sampled institutions was transformed into three network measures - hierarchy, centrality, and nonlinear – that were used in cluster analyses to group the institutions based on their information structures. Sequential mixed methods sampling was used to choose institutions purposefully from each cluster based on notable features recorded during the first stage of data collection. Two-cycle coding followed the cluster analysis by elaborating on the networks formed during data collection. I used joint displays to organize the networks and In-Vivo codes in the same picture and develop themes related to fragmentation and language simultaneously. K-means and K-medoids cluster methods both produced the same four cluster solution illustrating one aspect of information asymmetries through fragmentation. The clustering solution highlighted four major network patterns, plus one cluster mixing two of the patterns: 1) linear browsing, 2) centralized expansive browsing, 3) branched browsing, and 4) mixed browsing. Further qualitative analysis of the sampled institutions revealed several types of missteps where information is obscured through language or dispersed in the network. I explored a subset of 16 institutions and identified four themes related to fragmentation (unlinked divergence, progressive disclosure, lack of uniformity, and neighborhood linking) and six themes related to language (hedging transferability and applicability, legalese handwaving, building rapport, exclusivity, deviance from common practice, and defining terms). The missteps were contextualized further using six narratives with institutional examples. This work characterized the information design for transfer students as a messy web of loosely connected structures with language that complicates understanding. Integrated narratives illustrate a landscape of loosely coupled information structures that become more expansive as state initiatives interact with already existing local agreements. Moreover, institutional websites describing transfer processes use communication strategies similar to private companies writing online privacy policies. In light of the themes of information asymmetries, opportunities for supporting transfer were highlighted. For example, institutions are encouraged to create visual representations of the transfer credit process, ensure terms are defined upfront while minimizing jargon, and avoid linking to information that is easily summarizable on the current page. This research would be of interest to institutions looking to improve the presentation of their transfer information by critically examining their designs for the missteps described here. In addition, engineering education practitioners and researchers studying transfer student pathways and experiences will find the results of interest – especially in considering how to support the students despite the large information gaps. Finally, those looking to implement a fully integrated mixed methods design or use existing/archival data in their own context will find the use of mixing strategies of interest. / Doctor of Philosophy / Transfer between community colleges and four-year institutions has become more common as student mobility increases, especially for engineering. Institutions have coped with this inter-institutional movement by establishing agreements with each other that facilitate pathways between programs. The forward-facing policies and guides to inform students on such pathways are known to be complicated, leading to the development of web-based tools like Transferology to help students navigate the system. Despite these advances, transfer students continue to struggle in their information search. The purpose of this dissertation was to describe the extent to which information for engineering transfer students is scattered across multiple web-based sources and written in a manner not conducive to understanding. I used a fully integrated mixed methods design to create narratives capturing the interactions between the more quantitative idea of scatter using network analysis and the more qualitative aspect of language-use using visually based two-cycle coding across 38 U.S. four-year institutions. All data was readily available online, which were transformed and combined using several mixing strategies to form integrated stories of information asymmetries. The resulting narratives characterized the information design for transfer students as a messy web of loosely connected structures with language that complicates understanding. Moreover, institutional websites describing transfer processes use communication strategies similar to private companies writing online privacy policies. In light of the themes of information asymmetries, opportunities for supporting transfer were highlighted. This work will be of interest to those interested in engineering transfer student experiences and pathways. Also, those looking to implement fully integrated mixed methods approaches or make extensive use of existing data, especially mixing during analysis, will see strategies applicable in their own work.

In a world increasingly driven by environmentally conscious consumer behaviour, the effects of product labelling on sustainable purchase intentions remain a critical area of marketing research. In order to understand the complex relationship between labels and consumer decisions, this research explores the interesting dynamics of label influence using theories including Goal-framing Theory, Reasoned Action Theory, the SHIFT model, and Information Asymmetry. This research reveals, by using a thorough method that combines quantitative surveys with experimental methods, that even environmentally conscious consumers find it difficult to distinguish between legitimate and copycat certificates. The results strongly imply that consumers are much more likely to purchase goods with legitimate certificates than those with copycat certificates or none at all, when information asymmetry doesn’t exist. This realisation creates new opportunities for NGOs, government departments, and marketers to create better and more knowledgeable labelling plans, which will increase consumer trust and promote more environmentally friendly purchase behaviours.

No / Trade credit terms offer firms contractual solutions to informational asymmetries between buyers and sellers. The credit period permits buyers to reduce uncertainty concerning product quality prior to payment, while the seller can reduce uncertainty concerning buyer payment intentions by prescribing payment before/on delivery or through two¿part payment terms and other mechanisms. Variation in trade credit terms also offers firms price discriminating opportunities. This study, drawing on the responses of 700 large firms in the US, UK and Australia, explores trade credit terms through the twin objectives of reducing information asymmetries and discriminatory pricing. Support is found for both theories.

Yes / Motivated by excessive managerial pressure and sackings, together with associated questions over the inefficient use of scarce resources, we explore realistic performance expectations in association football. Our aim is to improve management quality by accounting for information asymmetry. Results highlight uncertainty caused both by football’s low-scoring nature and the intensity of the competition. At a deeper level we show that fans and journalists are prone to under-estimate uncertainties associated with individual matches. Further, we quantify reasonable expectations in the face of unevenly distributed resources. In line with the statactivist approach we call for more rounded assessments to be made once the underlying uncertainties are adequately accounted for. Managing fan expectations is probably impossible though the potential for constructive dialogue remains.

Yes / This study examines the effect of carbon price uncertainty on stock price crash risk. Utilizing the dynamic panel model on the data of Chinese listed firms from 2011 to 2018, we find that high carbon price uncertainty increases stock price crash risk. The impact of carbon price uncertainty is more prominent in the heavily polluting industries and during the post-period of the Paris agreement. The two underlying channels through which carbon price uncertainty induces stock price crashes are managers' hoarding of bad news and investors' heterogeneity. Furthermore, reducing information asymmetry inside and outside the firms can mitigate the influence of carbon price uncertainty on stock price crash risk. Our findings demonstrate that carbon price uncertainty as a newly underexplored factor induced by the prevailing curb of catastrophe risks has unintended but important implications on stock prices. / This study was supported by the Project of Social Science Achievement Evaluation Committee of Hunan Province (Grant No. XSP22YBZ160), Hunan Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 2022JJ40644 and No. 2022JJ40647). / The full-text of this article will be released for public view at the end of the publisher embargo on 24th Oct 2024.

Yes / This study investigates peer effects in the online peer-to-peer (P2P) lending market using data from a Chinese online lending platform, Renrendai. The empirical results indicate that both the borrowers' success rate in obtaining loans and the default rate after loans are deemed non-coercive among their peers, referred to as the peer effects of lending and peer effects of default, respectively. The peer effect of lending is more pronounced in high-risk cities, whereas the peer effect of defaulting is more pronounced for borrowers with more difficulty obtaining loans, indicating ex-ante selection and ex-post learning mechanisms, respectively. The peer effects of lending promote P2P lending market efficiency, and the peer effects of defaulting inhibit market efficiency. Collectively, our results suggest that both lenders and borrowers follow peer effects to reduce information asymmetry in P2P lending markets. / The full-text of this article will be released for public view at the end of the publisher embargo on 22 June 2025.

The recent financial crisis has raised serious questions about the effectiveness of corporate governance (CG) in monitoring management and protecting investors’ interests. There is concern that ‘poor’ CG was, to a certain extent, a major cause of the current financial crisis. This thesis, therefore, investigates the crucial policy question of whether the quality of CG has any effect on financial performance, information asymmetry and on block shareholders’ investment decisions. This is achieved and presented in the form of three essays on CG practices in UK with a particular focus on the periods before and during the 2007/2008 financial crisis. The first essay aims to investigate the impact of firm-level CG on block shareholders’ investment decisions for a large sample of UK non-financial firms over the period 2005 to 2009. Using a panel data analysis, the results revealed the importance of CG for block shareholders’ investment decisions. Furthermore, the study results indicated that only institutional block shareholders consider CG to be important criteria for their investment decisions. Moreover, when the effect of CG on block shareholdings in both periods before and during crisis was examined, a significant difference in results appeared: an insignificant positive relationship in the pre-crisis period turned out to be significant during crisis. The result thus indicates that block shareholders viewed CG as particularly important during the crisis period. The second essay aims to examine the effect of CG on firm performance before and during the financial crisis. It also investigates the mediating effect of agency costs on the association between CG and firm performance. The results revealed that CG affects firm performance only in the period before the crisis, but no significant effect was found during the crisis period. Moreover, agency cost was proved to fully mediate the relationship between CG and performance in the pre-crisis period. The results point to an important issue, which is the need to re-evaluate CG not only in stable periods but also during turbulent times, and to evaluate its ability to perform effectively in such different conditions. The third essay investigates the effect of both CG and block ownership on information asymmetry. Further, the effects of CG in lessening the positive association between block ownership and information asymmetry is considered. The results revealed that CG affects information asymmetry only in the pre-crisis. In addition, block ownership was shown to have a significant and positive effect on information asymmetry during crisis periods suggesting that block shareholders benefit from their information advantage during crisis period which in turn worsens the information asymmetry problem. This suggests that block shareholders engage more in their private benefits rather than in efficient monitoring. The results also proved that CG is insignificant during turbulent period in lessening the negative effect of block ownership.

The financing phenomenon equity crowdfunding, which is the smallest of the four crowdfunding types, has in recent years expanded quickly. This has led to companies and entrepreneurs that possess limited knowledge about business and are unable to get financed in any other way making their way to this financing type. Their lack of knowledge regarding valuation for businesses has not previously been studied. Researchers has however voiced their concerns regarding valuation for companies on this market, since it has significant implications for the future of the company and the chance for a crowdfunding campaign to succeed. These concerns led to the purpose of the thesis, to study how valuation is conducted in companies that has run equity crowdfunding campaigns in Sweden. To answer this a case study was conducted where seven entrepreneurs, that previously had such a campaign on the swedish platform FundedByMe, was interviewed. This was also complemented with an expert interview with a representative from a Swedish crowdfunding intermediary. During these interviews the entrepreneurs explained why they chose equity crowdfunding, why they chose to offer the amount of equity they did and the valuation process. From this study we can conclude that some of the concerns may be unjustified, even if most of the companies could not get financing in any other way they seem to have a high awareness of the importance of a thorough valuation and in several cases sought external help for this process. Further it can be concluded that the amount of equity offered is closely linked to the amount of capital that the entrepreneur believe they need, but also to keep as many shares as possible to themselves. Another important insight is that the current laws that regulate the area in Sweden is too unspecified and that further regulation is needed to reduce the amount of asymmetric information on the market and to protect investors to a higher degree than today. / Den nya finansieringsformen equity crowdfunding, den minsta av de fyra crowdfundingmodellerna, har under de senaste åren haft en snabb framfart. Detta har dock lett till attföretag och entreprenörer som är ekonomiskt okunniga och ej kan finansiera sig på annat sättsökt sig till equity crowdfunding. Deras okunskap kring värdering har inte tidigare studeratsmen forskare har uttryckt oro kring värderingen av företag inom denna marknad då den harstora implikationer för företagets framtid samt om kampanjen lyckas. Oron kringvärderingsförfarandet ledde till att syftet i denna studie utformades för att undersöka hur dettagår till i företag som tillämpat equity crowdfunding i Sverige. Det har skett genom enfallstudie där sju företag som haft en sådan kampanj hos den svenska plattformenFundedByMe intervjuades. Detta kompletterades även med en expertintervju från enrepresentant för denna intermediär. Under dessa intervjuer förklarade entreprenörerna varförde sökt sig till equity crowdfunding, varför de valde att bjuda ut den del av bolaget som devalde samt värderingsprocessen. Från resultatet av denna studie konstateras att viss oro kandämpas, då förvisso de flesta bolagen inte hade möjlighet att få finansiering på annat sätt,men de hade ändå en god uppfattning kring värderingens betydelse och hade i flera fall tagitin extern kompetens för att assistera med denna. Det går även att konstatera att andelenutbjudet kapital främst är kopplat till det kapitalbehov entreprenörerna upplever att de harsamt en önskan att behålla så många andelar som möjligt i bolaget. En viktig insikt är även attden lagstiftning som finns inom området, i Sverige, idag är alldeles för otydlig och equitycrowdfunding kommer behöva en mycket mer specificerad reglering för att åtgärda denasymmetriska informationen som finns på marknaden samt för att öka det i nulägetbristfälliga investerarskyddet.

Syfte: Den 9:e september föregående år uppdagade Sveriges Television att den socialdemokratiska regeringen har lagt fram en proposition till Riksdagen gällande kvotering i börsbolagsstyrelser. I propositionen föreslås att svenska börsbolagsstyrelser ska bestå av minst 40 procent kvinnor. • Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka om det finns ett statistiskt samband mellan andelen kvinnor i svenska börsbolagsstyrelser och kapitalstrukturen, samt om det finns ett statistiskt samband mellan kapitalstrukturen och om bolagets VD är kvinna. Metod: En kvantitativ metod med en deduktiv ansats har tillämpats. Data har samlats in från svenska börsbolags årsredovisningar från bokslutsåret 2015. Datan har använts för att bygga upp relevanta variabler som sedan har testats i en multivariat regressionsanalys. Resultat & slutsats: På frågan om kvinnor påverkar kapitalstrukturen vill vi mena att resultatet av denna studie tyder på att svaret är nej. Resultatet ger belägg för att det inte finns något samband mellan andelen kvinnor i styrelsen och kapitalstrukturen men att det råder ett mycket svagt positivt samband mellan en kvinnlig VD och kapitalstrukturen. Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Den främsta begränsningen för denna undersökning är att hänsyn endast har tagits till ett bokslutsår, till skillnad från många tidigare vetenskapliga studier som har baserat undersökningarna på flera bokslutsår. Förslag till vidare forskning är således att genomföra denna undersökning över flera bokslutsår för att ta hänsyn till eventuella mönster i finansieringsbeslut. Den kvantitativa metoden bidrar med data som kan användas för att påvisa ett statistiskt samband. Ett annat förslag till fortsatt forskning är att genomföra samma studie fast tillämpa en kvalitativ metod för att analysera skillnader i finansieringsbeslut av män och kvinnor som verkställande direktörer och styrelsemedlemmar. Uppsatsens bidrag: Denna undersökning har bidragit med teoretisk kunskap om faktorer som påverkar kapitalstrukturen samt med praktisk kunskap om hur en eventuell kvoteringslag kan komma att påverka kapitalstrukturen. / Title: Does women in the boardroom affect the capital structure? – An analysis if there is a correlation between the proportion of women in the boardroom and the capital structure and between a female CEO and the capital structure. Aim: On September 9 last year, Sveriges Television revealed that the socialistic government has presented a proposition to the parliament concerning quotas in listed companies’ boards. The proposition proposes that boards in Swedish listed firms’ should consist of at least 40 percent women. • The purpose of this study is to investigate if there is a statistical correlation between the proportion of women on the boards of Swedish listed companies and the capital structure, and if there is a statistical correlation between the capital structure and if the company’s CEO is a woman. Method: A quantitative method with a deductive approach has been applied. Data has been collected from the Swedish listed companies’ annual financial reports from the year 2015. The data has been used to build up relevant variables, which has then been tested in a multivariate regression analysis. Result & Conclusions: On the question if women affect the capital structure, we would like to think that the result of this study indicates the answer is no. The result provides evidence that there is no statistical correlation between the proportion of women on the board and the capital structure but that there is a marginal positive correlation between a female CEO and the capital structure. Suggestions for future research: The main limitation for this study is that consideration has only been given to one fiscal year, unlike many previous studies that have based the surveys on several fiscal years. Suggestion for further research is to implement this study on several fiscal years to account for any potential patterns in the financing decisions. The quantitative method contributes with data that can be used to detect a statistical relationship. Another suggestion for further research is to accomplish the same study, but apply a qualitative method to analyze the differences in financing decisions by men and women as CEOs and board members. Contribution of the thesis: This study has provided theoretical knowledge of factors affecting the capital structure as well as practical knowledge about how a possible quota law may affect the capital structure.

Cette thèse vise à analyser les pratiques des entreprises françaises en matière d'offre d'information volontaire par Internet. Nous étudions dans un premier temps les déterminants de la stratégie de communication par voie électronique en fonction de la gouvernance des entreprises. Les résultats prouvent que l'offre d'information s'accroît lorsque la propriété de l'entreprise est plus dispersée. De plus, les entreprises à directoire et à conseil de surveillance diffusent moins d'informations sur leur site que celles dotées d'un conseil d'administration. Pour ces dernières, le cumul des fonctions de président et de directeur général a une influence négative sur l'offre d'information en ligne. D'ailleurs, la création des comités de surveillance au sein du conseil permet d'améliorer la transparence de l'information. Dans un deuxième temps, nous analysons l'influence de la publication d'information volontaire par Internet sur le marché financier français. Les résultats montrent l'existence d'un lien négatif entre la publication d'information en ligne et la fourchette de prix. Nous observons également qu'un niveau plus élevé de transparence par voie électronique réduit la volatilité des titres. Ces résultats ont pour signification économique que les entreprises peuvent réduire le degré d'asymétrie d'information et les risques sur les marchés financiers en renforçant la diffusion d'information en ligne. Dans un troisième temps, nous étudions la « tonalité » des publications financières trimestrielles pour avoir une vision plus complète des pratiques de communication par Internet. Nos résultats montrent d'abord que le degré d'optimisme d'une annonce financière s'avère être un bon indicateur de la performance future de l'entreprise. En outre, les annonces présentées sous un angle favorable conduisent les investisseurs à former de meilleures anticipations sur la valeur de l'entreprise. / The objective of this doctoral research is to study Internet-based disclosure practices in France. First, we examine the impact of corporate governance on Internet-based disclosure strategy. The results indicate that firms with more dispersed ownership disclose more information on the Internet; companies with a two-tier board system disseminate less information on their website than firms with a one-tier board; for companies in the one-tier system, we found that the level of Internet-based disclosure is negatively related to CEO-Chairman duality. Moreover, the creation of monitoring committees inside the board can improve online information transparency. Second, we examine the economic impact of Internet-based disclosure in the French capital market. The results show a negative relation between the amount of discretionary information published via Internet and the relative spread. We also observe that enhanced Internet-based disclosure can reduce the stock's volatility. These results indicate that quoted companies can reduce information asymmetry and investor uncertainty by enhancing information transparency via Internet. Third, we study the tone of financial announcements in order to complete our analysis of discretionary disclosure. Results from a content analysis show that the level of optimism in the tone of a financial announcement can be an indicator of future firm performance. Moreover, framing the financial announcement in a more optimistic angle causes investors to think positively about the future outlook of a firm.