The focus of the thesis is how football clubs can increase their revenues through brand equity and different marketing activities. The purpose is to develop a professional attitude towards football brands among the Swedish clubs and to increase the awareness of aspects possible to improve. Due to current regulations the Swedish league differs in some aspects from other leagues in Europe. Therefore this thesis will provide guidelines of how Swedish football clubs could increase their revenues. The theoretical framework includes concepts such as brand equity, stakeholders and the European revenue model. In addition to this a general discussion about sport marketing and its differences from regular marketing will be provided. In order to answer the main research question; "How can Swedish football clubs increase their revenues through marketing activities in order to keep a competitive squad?" interviews with people associated to Swedish football have been conducted. Different aspects have been identified that will provide the Swedish football clubs with important insights of how to improve their revenue stream. Recommendations will be given of how to proceed with increasing the clubs revenues.

Although finance has been studied for thousands years, behavioral finance which considers the human behaviors in finance is a quite new area. Behavioral finance theories, which are based on the psychology, attempt to understand how emotions and cognitive errors influence individual investors’ behaviors (investors mentioned in this study are refered to individual investors). The main objective of this study is exploring the behavioral factors influencing individual investors’ decisions at the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange. Furthermore, the relations between these factors and investment performance are also examined. As there are limited studies about behavioral finance in Vietnam, this study is  expected to contribute significantly to the development of this field in Vietnam.  The study begins with the existing theories in behavioral  finance, based on which, hypotheses are proposed. Then, these hypotheses are tested  through the questionnaires distributed to individual investors at the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange. The collected data are analyzed by using SPSS and AMOS soft wares. Semi-structured interviews with some managers of the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange are conducted to have deeper understanding of these behaviors. The result shows that there are five behavioral factors affecting the investment decisions of individual investors at the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange: Herding, Market, Prospect, Overconfidence-gamble’s fallacy, and Anchoring-ability bias. Most of these factors have moderate impacts whereas Market factor has high influence.  This study also tries to find out the correlation between these behavioral factors and investment performance. Among the behavioral factors mentioned above, only three factors are found to influence the Investment Performance: Herding (including buying and selling; choice of trading stocks; volume of trading stocks; speed of herding), Prospect (including loss aversion, regret aversion, and mental accounting), and Heuristic (including overconfidence and gamble’s fallacy). The heuristic behaviors are found to have the highest positive impact on the investment performance while the herding behaviors are reported to influence positively the investment performance at the lower level. In contrast, the prospect behaviors give the negative impact on the investment performance.

This study investigates the long-term and short-term dynamic relationships among the variables of stock returns and institutional investors' buy-sell difference in Taiwan's stock market for the sample periods from Jan., 2000 through May, 2009. Some econometrical methodologies are used in this study, such as unit test, vector autoregressive model, cointegration test, vector error correction model, impulse response function. The major empirical results are shown as follows: 1. Cointegration test For the sample periods, one long-term equilibrium relationship is found from the Johansen's cointegration test, significantly with 5% confidence level between stock year returns and the buy-sell difference for the foreign investment institutions, the domestic investment institutions, and the dealers. The long-term equilibrium relationship is Ry=1.65*QFII+4.28*FUND+35.22*DLR-1142.6. 2. VECM estimation (1)With the vector error correction model (VECM) being applied to the sample periods, the findings indicate that the changes of stock returns are not influenced among the short-term dynamic relationships by the changes of institutional investors' buy-sell difference, but only affected by one-period-lag of itself. (2) Among the short-term dynamic relationships, the changes of foreign investment institutions' buy-sell difference are affected by one-period-lag of institutional investors that positively affected by one-period-lag of the dealers, and inversely affected by one-period-lag of itself and one-period-lag of the domestic investment institutions. However, it is positively affected by one-period-lag of long-term equilibrium, which indicates foreign investment institutions follow positive feedback trading strategies. (3)The changes of the domestic investment institutions' buy-sell difference are only affected by one-period-lag of itself among the short-term dynamic relationships. (4)The changes of the dealers' buy-sell difference are positively affected among the short-term dynamic relationships by one-period-lag of the foreign investment institutions. As for the long-term relationships, it is affected by one-period-lag of long-term equilibrium, which also indicates the dealers follow positive feedback trading strategies. (5)The foreign investment institutions and the dealers have the mutual feedback relationship.

The Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) is a voluntary investor-led initiative, backed by the United Nations. Together, the six principles are meant to provide a ‘best practice’ code of conduct for institutional investors seeking to adopt responsible investment practices with a secondary goal of contributing to improved corporate performance on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues. Launched in 2006, the PRI has grown to be the single largest global investor initiative with over 700 signatory financial institutions representing assets under management in excess of $US20 trillion. Contributing to the broader literature on plausible explanations for why firms participate in voluntary initiatives, the thesis is primarily concerned with the question of what has motivated institutional investors to create and publicly commit to the PRI. A review of the broader trends behind the growth of responsible investment and the emergence of the PRI indicates the dominant utilitarian, cost-benefit logic is not wholly persuasive in understanding investor motivations. The research findings indicate that decisions to integrate ESG issues and publicly commit to adopting the PRI should be primarily viewed as a response to formal pressures by external stakeholders and actors in an investor’s institutional environment. Regulatory and stakeholder influences in the form of NGO advocacy campaigns have established normative standards directed towards the conduct of investors. As public opinion has shifted to put greater emphasis on sustainable development, the image and reputation of a pension scheme in relation to these trends have come under increasing scrutiny such that being perceived as a ‘responsible’ investor – sometimes even in the absence of a direct market rationale – has become a central driver behind the growth of responsible investment. The decision to adopt the PRI and establish beyond-compliance commitments to integrate ESG issues into investment decision-making should principally be seen as embedded in broader reputational risk management strategies. These findings support complex market rationalism explanations for firm participation in voluntary initiatives which suggest that firms commit to such principles or codes of conduct as a means of assuring stakeholders that their concerns are being internalized into corporate practices. A secondary focus of the thesis is to examine signatory implementation to-date, assessing the adequacy and effectiveness of the voluntary measure for the promotion of more socially-responsible and environmentally-sustainable investments. While substantial progress has been shown by a small group of PRI signatories, it remains unclear whether the PRI has generated significant improvement across the broader signatory base. The PRI suffers from several weaknesses commonly identified in the literature on voluntary initiatives. First, a lack of accountability measures limits incentives for investors to go beyond business-as-usual. Second, less stringent voluntary standards like the PRI are likely to suffer from adverse selection and free riding, therefore threatening the credibility of the initiative’s reputation over the longer-term. Ironically, weaknesses in the institutional design of the PRI may undermine the very reputational benefit sought after by signatories.

The current international monetary system is very different from that of a few decades ago. Many of the old restrictions that had been placed on currency and capital movements between countries have fallen away in favour of a much more liberal international payment and investment system. The global financial arena is now characterized by greater currency instability, volatility and heightened financial risks. Exchange Rate risk is one of the complex topics in the economic world. Since there are so many factors in the financial market that influence a country's currency value, it becomes very risky for importers, exporters and portfolio investors to be involved in the international trade and financial markets. The purpose of this study is to gain an understanding on how the major economic indicators have an impact on the decision-making of the importers, the exporters and investors, to further influence the volatility of the Rand; and to provide various hedging and arbitraging strategies to reduce foreign exchange rate risks. The layout of the study is based on six chapters. Chapter 1 focuses on the background and scope of the study, mainly explaining the reasons, objectives and methodology of this study. An historical overview takes place in chapter 2, where a number of different exchange rate systems will be discussed. Chapter 3 reviews different exchange rate theories in order to support the empirical study in the next chapter. Chapter 4 focuses on an investigation and comparative study on how foreign investments and trade with developed countries have an impact on currency values and visa-versa. A number of management strategies for reducing exchange rate risks are introduced in chapter 5. Chapter 6 is the summary and conclusion of the research. / Thesis (M.Com. (Economics))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2009.

The current international monetary system is very different from that of a few decades ago. Many of the old restrictions that had been placed on currency and capital movements between countries have fallen away in favour of a much more liberal international payment and investment system. The global financial arena is now characterized by greater currency instability, volatility and heightened financial risks. Exchange Rate risk is one of the complex topics in the economic world. Since there are so many factors in the financial market that influence a country's currency value, it becomes very risky for importers, exporters and portfolio investors to be involved in the international trade and financial markets. The purpose of this study is to gain an understanding on how the major economic indicators have an impact on the decision-making of the importers, the exporters and investors, to further influence the volatility of the Rand; and to provide various hedging and arbitraging strategies to reduce foreign exchange rate risks. The layout of the study is based on six chapters. Chapter 1 focuses on the background and scope of the study, mainly explaining the reasons, objectives and methodology of this study. An historical overview takes place in chapter 2, where a number of different exchange rate systems will be discussed. Chapter 3 reviews different exchange rate theories in order to support the empirical study in the next chapter. Chapter 4 focuses on an investigation and comparative study on how foreign investments and trade with developed countries have an impact on currency values and visa-versa. A number of management strategies for reducing exchange rate risks are introduced in chapter 5. Chapter 6 is the summary and conclusion of the research. / Thesis (M.Com. (Economics))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2009.

In the first essay, I examine the association between auditor industry specialization and earnings management choices. Prior research suggests that industry specialist auditors constrain accounting-based earnings management. But such actions may cause client companies to seek alternative means to manage earnings. Specifically, companies that hire industry specialist auditors may alter operating decisions to meet earnings targets, referred to as real activities manipulation. This essay investigates whether clients of industry specialist auditors that have an incentive to manage earnings are constrained from managing earnings through accruals manipulation and, therefore, are more likely to engage in real activities manipulation. Further, I examine whether operating performance declines for firms suspected of real activities manipulation. My findings indicate that clients of industry specialist auditors with incentives to manage earnings have lower absolute value of accruals relative to firms with incentives to manage earnings that do not hire industry specialist auditors. These clients of industry specialist auditors are also more likely to engage in real activities manipulation, suggesting this is a possible unintended consequence of hiring an industry specialist auditor. I also document evidence that firms suspected of real activities manipulation have lower future operating performance relative to firms not suspected of real activities manipulation. In the second essay, I examine the association between the tightness of accounting standards and earnings management choices. Prior studies suggest that managers switch from accounting-based earnings management to real activities manipulation in response to tightening accounting standards. My study investigates this line of reasoning. I develop an analytical model and conduct an experimental examination of the effect of flexibility of accounting standards under different institutional environments. I find that managers switch from accounting-based earnings management to real activities manipulation with tightening accounting standards only when the institutional investors have a short-term investment horizon. In contrast, when managers are monitored by institutional investors with a long-term investment horizon, they do not engage in such behavior.

This thesis is an effort to advance our knowledge and understanding of the role that labor plays in shaping corporate financial policies and how it is in turn affected by considerations related to firms' financing. I present three essays on the interaction between finance and labor. First, I provide two examples of how labor affects financial decisions, in which I investigate the impacts that commitment to employee welfare and reliance on skilled labor have on cash management policies. Next, I examine the effect of ownership structure on labor investment decisions as an example of how finance affects human capital. In the first essay, I examine the relation between employee welfare practices and corporate cash holdings. Consistent with the predictions of the stakeholder theory, I find firms that are strongly committed to employee welfare, measured by ratings on employee relations, to hold more cash. The effect of employee welfare standards on cash holdings is stronger for firms in human-capital-intensive, competitive, and low turnover industries in which employees are more important to their businesses. The findings highlight the importance of human capital and employee-friendly practices as an overlooked determinant of cash holdings and suggest that managers can use cash to signal their financial health to current and potential employees, thereby increasing their competitiveness in labor markets. The second essay examines whether a firm's dependence on skilled labor affects its cash holdings. Consistent with a precautionary motive to accumulate cash when higher labor adjustment costs slow a firm's labor demand reaction to cash flow shocks, I find robust evidence that companies with higher shares of skilled labor hold more cash. The effect of skilled labor on cash holdings is more pronounced for firms that are financially constrained, attach higher values to their human capital, operate in competitive product markets, and belong to industries characterized by high labor mobility. The findings suggest that labor heterogeneity, and in particular the skill level of workers is an important determinant of corporate cash policies. The results provide managers of firms, particularly those that are financially constrained, with insights on how to minimize their labor adjustment costs and reduce the risk of losing their valuable human capital. In my third essay, I examine whether the presence of long-term institutional investors, who typically have strong monitoring incentives, can help mitigate agency conflicts associated with firms' employment choices. I find that abnormal net hiring, measured as the absolute deviation from net hiring predicted by economic fundamentals, decreases in the presence of institutional investors with longer investment horizons. Firms dominated by long-term shareholders reduce both over-investment (over-hiring and under-firing) and under-investment in labor (under-hiring).The monitoring role of long-term investors is more pronounced for firms facing higher labor adjustment costs. These findings suggest that institutional investors play an important role in firm-level employment decisions.

[pt] Texto Dados sobre as carteiras de investidores institucionais em ações agora estão disponíveis em vários países e portanto podem ser usados em modelos para prever os futuros retornos de ações. Recentemente, vários produtos comerciais de investimento foram lançados que explicitamente usam tal tipo de dados na construção da carteira de investimentos. O intuito deste estudo é aplicar algoritmos de aprendizado de máquina em cima de dados das carteiras de ações de investidores institucionais nos Estados Unidos, a fim de avaliar se tais dados podem ser usados para prever futuros retornos de ações. Nosso trabalho mostra que um modelo usando um support vector machine conseguiu separar ações em três classes de futuro retorno com acurácia acima da esperada se um modelo aleatório fosse usado. / [en] Data on institutional ownership of securities is nowadays publicly available in a number of jurisdictions and can thus be used in models for the prediction of security returns. A number of recently launched investment products explicitly use such institutional ownership data in security selection. The purpose of the current study is to apply statistical learning algorithms to institutional ownership data from the United States, in order to evaluate the predictive validity of features based on such institutional ownership data with regard to future security returns. Our analysis identified that a support vector machine managed to classify securities, with regard to their four-quarter forward returns, into three bins with significantly higher accuracy than pure chance would predict. Even higher accuracy was achieved when predicting realized, i.e. past, fourquarter returns.

Bakgrund: Tidigare forskning har visat att det finns en signifikant könsskillnad gällande finansiellt risktagande, där kvinnor generellt sett har visat sig vara mindre risktagande än män. Dessutom visar teorier att en investerares risktagande bland annat varierar beroende på dennes tidigare erfarenheter samt en mängd olika karaktärsdrag. Samtidigt har tidigare studier funnit samband mellan olika variabler, så som finansiell förmåga samt övertro på sin egen förmåga, och nivå av risktagande. Idag äger kvinnor bara en tredjedel av hushållens totala aktier i Sverige men enligt Nordnets försäljningssiffror från januari 2017 har antalet kvinnliga aktieägare ökat i en snabbare takt än antalet manliga aktieägare under samma period, vilket vittnar om ett ökat kvinnligt intresse för investeringar. Syfte: Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka huruvida det finns något samband mellan faktorerna bakgrund, finansiell förmåga, övertro samt investeringsvana och kvinnors riskprofiler vid investeringsbeslut av finansiell karaktär. Vidare ämnar studien analysera den erhållna empirin i relation till tidigare studier inom området, för att öka förståelsen för vad som styr kvinnligt risktagande. Genomförande: Studien genomfördes via en kvantitativ forskningsmetod, där empirisk data samlades in genom en enkätundersökning som besvarades av totalt 487 kvinnor. Insamlad data analyserades via en multipel regressionsanalys i SPSS, varpå utfallet jämfördes med tidigare forskning. Slutsats: Studiens resultat visade att civilstånd, övertro, investeringsvana och finansiell förmåga har en signifikant inverkan på vilken riskprofil en kvinnlig investerare har. De tre förstnämnda förhåller sig positivt till risktagande, där en ökning i variablerna leder till ett större risktagande. Utfallet visade däremot att en ökning i finansiell förmåga leder till ett lägre risktagande, vilket gick emot tidigare forskning. Studien har således genererat både empiriskt stöd inom området och nytt bidrag kring vad som styr kvinnligt risktagande. / Background: Previous studies, within the field of behavioural finance and women ́s risk- taking, have all recognized the gender difference when evaluating risk in financial decision- making. In general, women investors tend to be more risk-averse than men, and gender differences seem to be influenced by many aspects and investor-characteristics. Earlier studies have validated the correlation between risk-taking and financial literacy and over- confidence. According to statistical data from Nordnet (2017), the number of women stock- market participants have grown in a faster pace compared to male investors, under the same period. This states that interest for investing have become a popular theme among women. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate whether the factors background, financial literacy, over-confidence and investing experience can explain the risk profile of a woman financial investor. Based on the empirical results, the authors intended to analyze the output in relation to reference studies, in order to deepen the understanding and knowledge of which factors influence women ́s risk-taking in financial decision-making. Completion: The study was conducted by a quantitative method, where the empirical data was collected through a survey with a total of 487 respondents. The data was then analysed in the statistical program SPSS, using a multiple regression analysis, upon which the results were compared to previous studies. Conclusion: The results of the study disclosed that the variables of civil status, over- confidence, investing experience and financial literacy all validated a significant correlation with the risk profile of a female investor. Based on the statistical outcome, civil status, over- confidence and investing experience, demonstrated a positive correlation with the women ́s risk profile. Contrariwise, the output of financial literacy revealed a negative correlation, in which a high financial literacy determines a lower risk-taking. The empirical results can support earlier reference studies, in addition to a contribution of what influence women ́s risk profile in financial decision-making.