Once mediation has started, the issue of leverage (sticks and carrots) as a specific tool of mediation often comes into play. There appears to be two divergent views on the use of leverage in the mediation process. One school of thought, although not actually propagating leverage, does concede that it might be necessary and useful under certain circumstances. The other disagrees and expresses caution in using leverage in the mediation process. This study will focus on the issue of leverage in the Namibian mediation process, culminating in the independence of Namibia on 21 March 1990. It specifically deals with the following questions: To what extent was leverage used in the mediation process? How did the mediator(s)employ leverage, what leveraging resources were brought to bear on the conflicting parties, and at what point in the process did this leveraging happen? The purpose is to determine whether, in the light of theoretical arguments for and against the use of leverage, one could conclude that, under certain conditions, leverage is both necessary and effective in ensuring a successful outcome to the mediation process. The research study is structured as follows: Chapter 1 introduces the topic, the purpose and the nature of the study. An in-depth analysis of mediation theories, focusing specifically on the issue of leverage, is provided in Chapter 2, the purpose being to develop a framework for analysis in determining the extent to which leverage was utilised in the Namibian mediation process. An historical background to the conflict in Namibia is presented in Chapter 3 in order to contextualise the focus in the following chapters, dealing specifically with the Namibian mediation process. In Chapter 4, data analyses and findings are summarised, and aspects that might provide lessons for mediation, particularly as far as the use of leverage is concerned, are identified; and where applicable, further avenues for research are suggested. In conclusion, Chapter 5 presents a summary and critical look at all the mediation processes, both multilateral and bilateral, and the challenges that were encountered during these processes, leading up to the signing of Tripartite and Bilateral Agreements in New York on 22 December 1988. / Mini-dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / tm2015 / Political Sciences / MA / Unrestricted

This research project set out to determine whether there is a relationship between the observed leverage levels of South African companies, their profitability, earnings volatility and the probability of financial distress. The relevant body of knowledge against which to execute this research project is known as capital structure theory. Capital structure theory deals with the way in which firms finance themselves. It is concerned with the relationship between the structure of debt, equity and hybrid securities found on the right hand side of the firm’s balance sheet. It is believed that the 2007/8 global financial crisis offers researchers a unique opportunity to gain insight into how the observed leverage levels of firms and their earnings volatility interact to form their probability of financial distress. This area of research is of particular interest since it is commonly believed and frequently stated that South African firms are underleveraged and secondly because there is contrarian research beginning to be published indicating that firms with very little or no debt (commonly referred to as lazy balance sheets) are outperforming their more indebted peers and are being rewarded by investors for their prudence. Copyright / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

Law and Macro-Finance is a theoretical framework explaining the relationship between law and the macro-financial variables of liquidity and leverage. The framework's central theoretical claim is that strong creditor rights exacerbate the procyclicality of liquidity and leverage. Strong creditor rights have that effect because they create different incentives in different parts of the economic cycle. Strong creditor rights encourage creditors to lend in a credit boom, thereby increasing leverage and making the economy vulnerable to shocks through various leveraged-related channels. However, in a credit bust, the enforcement of strong creditors' rights can trigger an economic downturn or make it more difficult for the economy to recover from the shocks. The normative part of the Law and Macro-Finance framework revolves around regulating liquidity primarily through a countercyclical design of the strength of creditors' rights in bankruptcy and collateral law to ensure adequate levels of leverage in different parts of the economic cycle. The key elements of bankruptcy and collateral law that could be used for that purpose are the rules establishing the strength of money market investors' rights, including bankruptcy safe harbors, true sales doctrine, and rules around collateral rehypothecation.

The capital structure of leveraged buyout (LBO) companies often differs dramatically from that of other companies. What factors drive the amount of leverage in LBO transactions are often contrasted by two different views in previous research. The first view, based on the trade-off theory and the pecking order theory, states that leverage is driven by traditional firm characteristics. The second view, based on the market timing theory, instead states that leverage in LBOs foremost is driven by whether or not conditions in the credit market are favorable. Previous research that has investigated LBO companies' leverage in particular has voiced concerns that the first view that stems from classic capital structure theories may not be completely applicable on LBO companies.  The purpose of this paper is to examine what drives leverage in Swedish LBOs between the years of 2001 and 2021. To do this, a univariate analysis has been conducted to investigate patterns in leverage in different states of the credit market. Furthermore, an econometric approach was taken in a multivariate analysis to analyze which factors drive leverage in Swedish LBOs. The results contradict previous LBO research to some extent as leverage in Swedish LBOs is not driven by credit market conditions nor firm specific characteristics, except for tangibility which has a positive impact on leverage in one setting.

This thesis investigates the relationship between product market competition and zero leverage behavior within firms, aiming to uncover how these dynamics interact. Additionally, it explores whether firms characterized by higher earnings volatility exhibit a more pronounced positive relationship between product market competition and the likelihood of adopting a zero-leverage strategy. To carry out this investigation, we employed product market competition data (Fluidity) from the Hoberg-Phillips Data Library and financial data from the Compustat (North America) database, spanning from 1989 to 2019. As product market competition intensifies, the probability of firms adopting a zero leverage policy increases. Furthermore, our research illuminates that the positive impact of heightened product market competition on the likelihood of zero leverage policies is accentuated in firms characterized by elevated levels of earnings volatility. This finding corroborates our initial hypothesis, substantiating the notion that increased competition significantly influences a company's earnings volatility. We also strengthened our analysis with insights from existing literature, underscoring how heightened earnings volatility intensifies the propensity to embrace a zero leverage policy. This study contributes insights to the literature, notably as the first to employ the interaction term between product market competition and earnings volatility in exploring these financial dynamics.

No resulta novedoso afirmar que vamos a pasos agigantados hacia una sociedad donde el conocimiento será el factor determinante de su desarrollo. Esto no implica una ruptura con los principios económicos tradicionales, sino un énfasis en la utilización del conocimiento en todas sus vertientes: información, investigación e innovación, como factor de la producción y variable determinante del crecimiento. Nunca como hasta ahora, los fundamentos centrales de las actividadeshumanas se sustentan en un recurso clave y único como es el producto de nuestra capacidad de innovación y de procesamiento de la información. Antes se discutía sobre cual, entre varios factores de producción, era el que contaba con un peso relativo mayor. Hoy tal discusión ha desaparecido y solo resta entender cómo afrontar los desafíos que nuestras necesidades nos imponen, a partir de lo que la mente humana puede desarrollar en función de los nuevos sistemas de información. En el ámbito de la empresa, esta situación ha generado una revolución sin precedentes. La mayoría de los activos que crean valor, carecen de sustancia física y por ende, de reconocimiento contable y con crecientes dificultades para su detección, control y gestión. Es por ello, que surgen vías de información complementaria a los estados financieros, como los Informes de Capital Intelectual (ICI), herramienta de suma importancia a pesar de la falta de uniformidad en sus contenidos, producto de barreras originadas en la ausencia de una normativa de aplicación general, como lo constituyen para otros aspectos aquellos requerimientos exigidos por la International AccountingStandardsCommittee (I.A.S.C.). La importancia de los activos intangibles en la generación de rentabilidad, afecta los conceptos básicos de la estructura de capital de las empresas y de las distintas teorías que surgieron posteriormente para mejorar el esqueleto intelectual propuesto por Modigliani y Miller. El tratamiento contable del valor intelectual (o sin sustancia física) generado internamente, ya sea como erogaciones o como inversiones, arroja un reconocimiento diferente en los balances, alterando drásticamente la generación de resultados y modificando la predicción de la información financiera. Existen fuertes discrepancias a la hora de decidir la capitalización de los intangibles. El paradigma consistirá en lograr que los sistemas de información, identifiquen, valoricen y permitan gestionar a los intangibles. Hoy sabemos de su peso en la determinación de la rentabilidad y con los sistemas rudimentarios actuales, no podemos asumir esa tarea. La primera parte contiene una descripción de la importancia que ha sido para la disciplina, la tarea impuesta ante la necesidad de detectar, medir y gestionar los Activos Intangibles. Se plantean aquí los objetivos de la investigación y los caminos a recorrer. En la segunda parte analizamos relación entre ventajas competitivas e información. La capacidad del sistema de información contable para suministrar datos para toma de decisiones. Las ventajas y limitaciones del uso de los ratios y las diferencias entre la contabilidad básica y la gerencial. En la tercera parte, desde la mirada de la Teoría de Recursos y Capacidades, estudiamos el impacto de los intangibles en la rentabilidad de las empresas, su detección, valoración y gestión y como inciden en los sistemas de información los problemas de información asimétrica. En la cuarta parte hacemos referencia a las dificultades inherentes a la formulación de la propuesta, teniendo en cuenta que se investiga sobre elementos intangibles, que requieren detección, valoración y gestión. El Informe del Capital Intelectual (ICI) aparece como un primer intento para proponer caminos a seguir. En la quinta parte se trabaja con regresión múltiple, en series de tiempo, donde la variable dependiente (ROE) se compara con una combinación de variables estructurales y de resultado (ROA). Solo exponemos los resultados de las investigaciones. En este mismo apartado, aplicando las mismas herramientas estadísticas, y también en series de tiempo, comparamos nuevamente una variable dependiente (ROA), con variables estructurales y de resultados (ROE). También se exponen casos, donde se toma como variable dependiente a una variable de resultado (ROA), frente a las independientes exclusivamente estructurales (AC/AT; Liquidez y Solvencia). Se exponen los resultados de las investigaciones estadísticas. Finalmente, a través de las mismas herramientas, intentamos poner a prueba la nueva teoría de la firma, denominada “Recursos y Capacidades de la Empresa” “ResourceBased View”, sostenida -entre otros argumentos- en la idea de que todas las empresas son diferentes entre sí, resultado de rutinas propias de cada una de ellas. Una comprobación vital de este argumento, ha sido afirmar que la varianza en las rentabilidades de las empresas de un sector, es mucho mayor que la varianza de ese ratio entre las empresas de distintos sectores económicos. Por último, se vuelcan las conclusiones a las que se arriban en este trabajo. Palabras Clave: Activos Intangibles, valuación, estructura financiera, conocimiento, sistemas informativos contables, teoría de Recursos y Capacidades. / The information systems of the companies are overflowed, by the increase of uncertainty in the markets, caused by their own instability and the increasing weight of the intangible denominated ones in the generation of the competitive advantages. The importance of the intangibles assets in the yield generation, affects the basic concepts of the structure of capital of the companies and the different theories that arose later to improve the intellectual skeleton proposed by Modigliani and Miller. The countable treatment of the intellectual value (or without physical substance) generated internally , or like costs or investments, drastically throws a different recognition in the balance, altering the generation of results and modifying the prediction of the financial information. Strong discrepancies at the time of deciding their capitalization of the intangible ones exit. This dilemma has put to the corporative finances in its greater challenge the last year. In addition, the central study of this investigation puts en doubt an idea that has been one of the paradigms of the analysts – as much financiers as of the administration, consisting of the importance of the analysis of the countable states like predicting –with some degree of certainty future behaviors of an organization. The challenge consist at the same time of a transformation of the informative systems, inasmuch as the yield rests mostly on intangible not entered- with probabilities future behaviors of the market in general, but no sustainable application for a company in individual. Key Words: Intangibles assets, valuation, Leverage, Financial Structure, the know- ledge, forecast errors, accounting informative systems, the Resource- Based View of the Firm.

This dissertation comprises two essays in financial economics. They study how firms finance and invest in innovative and intangible assets. The first essay examines the impact of technology spillovers on corporate financing decisions for innovative firms. I find that greater technology spillovers lead to higher leverage in innovative firms. Furthermore, in firms with greater technology spillovers, equity is more costly relative to debt. I find that these financing effects are generated by at least three related mechanisms: information asymmetry, asset redeployability, and equity undervaluation. All three mechanisms lead firms to substitute away from equity and toward debt. The results are robust to exploiting variation in RandD tax credits to identify the causal effect of technology spillovers. The second essay is coauthored with Ambrus Kecskés at York University and Sattar Mansi at Virginia Tech. My coauthors and I enter the long-lived debate about whether stakeholder capital investment increases shareholder value. We argue that long-term investors are natural monitors that can ensure that managers choose stakeholder capital investment to maximize shareholder value. We find that long-term investors increase the value to shareholders of stakeholder capital investment, not as a result of higher cash flow but rather of lower cash flow risk. Also following prior work, we use indexing by investors and the staggered adoption of state laws on stakeholder orientation for identification. Our findings suggest that firms can create value for shareholders by investing in stakeholder capital as long as managers are properly monitored by long-term investors. / Ph. D.

Uppsatsen, Från sponsorskap till Partnerskap, grundar sig i relationen mellan rättshavare och sponsor. Den berör de motiv och faktorer som kan göra ett sponsorskap mer attraktivt, både ur rättshavare och sponsors perspektiv, samt hur man kan öka effekten av relationen.Idrottsrelaterade sponsorinvesteringar har ökat markant i Sverige under senare år. Samtidigt har sponsorskapet blivit allt mer komplext och kommit till en punkt där rättshavare har svårt att möta sponsorns behov. Allt fler företag ställer högre krav på avkastning och efterfrågar också andra värden i sponsorskapet. Transaktionen, pengar mot exponering, som tidigare definierat sponsring har förändrats och är nu inne i ett paradigmskifte. Företag har identifierat andra värden, motiv och potential i sponsorskapet vilket har medfört ett allt mer relationsbaserat fokus där engagemang, förtroende och kommunikation blivit centrala delar för att skapa en starkare attraktionskraft. Denna förändring har också medfört att rättshavarens medvetenhet och förståelse kring företagens sponsormotiv samt effektkrav ställts på prov. Organisatoriska och verktygsmässiga förändringar hos rättshavare krävs för att kunna stärka attraktionskraften gentemot andra rättshavare, idrotter och marknadskanaler, detta genom en övergång från renodlat sponsorskap till en partnerverksamhet.Denna uppsats syftar därför till att undersöka vilka behov företag har av sponsring samt identifiera en struktur för partnerskapet. Uppsatsen syftar även till att skapa en djupare förståelse för företags behov samt vikten av att rättshavare paketerar och profilerar sin verksamhet på ett gynnsamt sätt. Utifrån litteraturen och empirin har vi definierat sponsorskapets fundament vilket också kan appliceras som grunden i ett partnerskap. Uppsatsen tar upp de grundläggande motiv för sponsring samt de parametrar och värden som särskiljer begreppen sponsorskap och partnerskap. En annan central del som har identifierats i denna uppsats, och som stöds både i litteraturen och empirin, är vikten av ett ökat samhällsengagemang. CSR-arbetet (corporate social responsibility) har blivit ett starkt växande verksamhetsområde hos de Allsvenska fotbollsklubbarna och är i många fall direkt avgörande för verksamhetens sponsorintäkter. / Whilst sport sponsorship investments has increased rapidly in Sweden over the past years, it has also reached a point of where the right holders have difficulties to meet the sponsors demand for more articulated outcomes. More and more companies view the sponsorship as more than a mere communication platform of mixed communication activities such as PR, direct on-sales and exposure. Sponsors now start to see the true potential of sponsorship, whereas the relationship could bring more to the company than the sponsorship offer; money in exchange for commercial access. In order to meet this demand the property organizations (in this paper, mostly referred to as the football clubs) have to look for reconstruction of their operations. A turn from the expression “sponsor”, to “partner” can be seen throughout the Swedish football world, though has little actual operational change been set to practice. This paper seeks to examine the new demands set from sponsors as well as identify the true nature of the partnership structure. We believe that with a deeper understanding of sponsor demands the property organizations can create a conceptualized and attractive profile, as well as add structural change into the operations, which could be beneficial for both parties.With help from literature we define sponsorship, which will be viewed as the fundamentals of partnership. Relevant B2B-relationship theories, such as commitment, trust and communication will be applied as cornerstones to a successful partner relationship. The empirical studies, showing that there is a demand for more communicative CSR-activities in the clubs, will be combined with earlier research on the subject of CRSS, cause-related sport sponsorship to highlight the importance of profiling.

This thesis examines the link between mergers and acquisitions (M&As) and corporate financial leverage. The thesis proposes and tests various hypotheses regarding: (1) the relationship between the probability of firms undertaking M&As and corporate financial leverage; and (2) the changes in financial leverage prior to firms' decision to initiate M&As. The empirical evidence on the proposed hypotheses is based on a large sample of firms in the UK during the period 1996 and 2006. The empirical analysis presented in this study contributes to the large and growing body of literature on the interdependence of corporate financing and investment decisions. Specifically, this study contributes to the literature in two ways. First, the thesis investigates the link between firms leverage deviations (i.e. the deviations of firms observed leverage ratios from target leverage ratios) and the probability of undertaking M&As in the future. Building upon the earlier literature, it is argued that extreme leverage deviations lower the probability of undertaking M&As by impairing firms ability to raise capital to finance these deals. The study s empirical analyses suggest that extremely overleveraged firms have lower probability of undertaking M&As. Moreover, the link between extreme overleverage and the probability of undertaking M&As is weaker for diversification-increasing acquisitions (i.e. deals in which the acquirer and the target firm operate in different industries); for domestic acquisitions (i.e. deals in which the acquirer and the target firm are domiciled in the same country); and for focused (i.e. single-segment) firms undertaking acquisitions. Thus, the leverage deviation effect is not symmetric for all types of acquisitions and for all firms. Second, the thesis examines how the pre-acquisition changes in corporate financial leverage may be influenced by: (1) the extent to which firms deviate from their target leverage ratios; and (2) firms intentions to initiate M&As. Key empirical findings in this section suggest that firms that have higher leverage deviations adjust their leverage at a higher rate than those with lower deviations. More importantly, the empirical evidence suggests that firms that undertake M&As adjust their pre-acquisition leverage at a higher rate than those that do not. These findings suggest that, when making adjustments to corporate capital structure, managers tend to consider their firms leverage deviations and their future acquisition plans. Furthermore, the study s findings partly explain the differences in the speeds of financial leverage adjustments reported in the existing literature.

This thesis demonstrates that consumer leverage can contribute to financial crises such as the subprime mortgage crisis characterised by increased bankruptcy prospects and tightened credit access. A recession may follow even when the leveraged sector is not a production sector and can be triggered by seeming positive events such as a technological innovation and a relaxation of borrowing conditions. The first preliminary chapter updates the Bernanke, Gertler and Gilchrist (1999) approach with financial frictions in the production sector to a two-sector model with consumption and housing. It shows that credit frictions in the capital financing decisions of housing firms are not sufficient to capture the negative consumer experience with falling housing prices and relaxed credit access during the recession. The second chapter brings the model closer to the subprime mortgage crisis by shifting credit constraints to the consumer mortgage market. Increased supply of houses lowers asset prices and reduces the value of the real estate collateral used in the mortgage which in turn worsens the leverage of indebted consumers. A relaxation of borrowing conditions turns credit-constrained households into a potential source of disturbances themselves when market optimism allows them to raise their leverage with little downpayment. Both cases demonstrate that although households are not production agents, their worsening debt levels can trigger a lasting financial downturn. The third chapter develops a chained mortgage contracts model where both homeowner consumers and the financial institutions that securitize their mortgage loan are credit-constrained. Adding credit constraints to the financial sector that provides housing mortgages creates opportunities for risk sharing where banks shift some of the downturn onto indebted consumers in order to hasten their own recovery. This consequence is especially evident in the case of relaxed credit access for banks. Financial institutions repair their debt position relatively fast at the expense of consumers whose borrowing ability is squeezed for a long period despite the fact that they may not be the source of the disturbance. The result mirrors the recent subprime mortgage crisis characterised by a sharp but brief decline for banks and a protracted recovery for mortgaged households.