In the past two decades, significant changes have been shaping and transforming the banking sectors worldwide. Among these trends we find an intensive surge in foreign bank ownership which is especially remarkable in the countries of the Central, Eastern and South-Eastern European region. Using the sample of 17 countries and filtering out more than 140 domestically-operating foreign-owned banks, we examine the determinants of their performance in relation to host country conditions and home country banking sector performance over the period of seven years between 2005 and 2011. Due to the topic's currency, we additionally provide an insight into the link between sovereign debt and bank ownership. By means of system GMM model, or fixed effects model, we reveal that macroeconomic fundamentals of the host country affect the foreign-owned banks' performance but do not suffice in explaining it fully. Moreover, the depth of the current crisis as demonstrated in the home country impacts negatively on the host-country-operating foreign-owned banks. We did not find any convincing evidence of the host sovereign debt and bank ownership nature of relationship.

The main objective of the thesis with the topic "Ownership of land and its transfer from the perspective of tax legislation" is to describe the essential forms of ownership of land and its transfers from the view of different legal branches, with respect to financial lawfrom the perspective of property taxes and with respect to civil law from the perspective of ownership and transfers of real estates. The thesis overviews tax responsibilities relating to ownership and land transfers in the Czech Republic and it also explains general notions relating to this matter. The thesis is divided into five chapters. The first chapter defines basic notions. The second chapter describes and overviews forms of transfers of real estates and the respective taxes imposed. The third chapter is the crucial one with respect to the whole thesis. In this part I deal with the individual taxes applied to the ownership and transfers of real estates. The fourth chapter describes the differences between the notions tax resident and tax non-resident and points out the discrepancies between them. Finally, the last chapter assesses the taxes mentioned in this thesis and points out the current inconveniences connected therewith and the possible solutions.

The land are for society irreplaceable and limited estate. For this reason legal order requires planty of requests for their conveyancing, which consist two phases. In the first phase is concluded the assignment of real estate contract, for which are required tightened formal and contentual elements. Second phase take place in Land Register, alternatively in Regional Court and consist in the record of property rights in the Land Register. During the process of transfer of title to land collide the law of obligations with propriety rights, just as private with public law, which produce plenty of specific charactersitics for this process.

In the aftermath of the 1997/1998 Asian financial crisis, there are signs that in Malaysia, corporate governance practices are gradually converging towards the Anglo-American model. Drawing on three key theoretical lenses, namely agency theory, institutional theory and resource dependence theory, this study investigates an unexplored phenomenon in corporate governance reformation, at least in the context of Malaysia. The study examines the relationship between corporate governance elements and the level of foreign equity ownership (FEO) in Malaysian public listed companies (PLCs). More specifically, the aim of this study is to answer the following research question - Does corporate governance influence the level of FEO in Malaysian companies? In the context of this study, corporate governance is taken to be the aggregate of board of directors characteristics, directors attributes and ownership structure. On the other side of the equation is FEO, which is taken to be the proportion of equity owned by foreigners. The majority of foreign investors who are making investments in Malaysia originate from Western countries, and are accustomed to the Anglo-American corporate governance system. Thus, this study examines the influence of governance mechanisms in attracting foreign investors in a unique governance context following a major economic event i.e. the Asian financial crisis of 1997/1998. Accompanied by institutional theory and resource dependence theory, agency theory is used as the key lens to explain the hypothesised relationships. The study's hypotheses are tested using the panel data derived from 1,836 observations over a 12 year period, from 2000 through 2011. By considering the existence of heteroscedasticity and the serial correlation problems, the generalised least square (GLS) method was employed to estimate the model. To enrich the findings, logistic regression analysis was further applied and the potential endogeneity issue was resolved with a GMM test. The findings indicate that the level of FEO in Malaysian PLCs is significantly related to foreign directorships, the Western educational background of directors, professional directors, and multiple-directorships. However, the results defy the significant relationships of board size and outside directors, as generally proposed in the extant literature. In addition, the role of ownership structure is important in foreign investors behaviour, since it is found that foreign investors avoid investing in family-controlled companies and in companies with high institutional ownership. Therefore, from the overall results of this study, it can be concluded that there is evidence that corporate governance mechanisms do influence foreign investors decision making, at least in Malaysian PLCs. The implications of this study are discussed in terms of the relevant literature, theory, methodology and practice. In brief, this study has great potential impact in many respects including its relevance for policymakers in setting up new policies, designing new rules and strengthening existing regulations, both at country and firm levels.

The study was conducted at an organization that experienced a change of corporate ownership. The organization that underwent the change was part of an international company. After the buy-out, the organization became a part of another company, which also is established on the international market. This study aims to explain what composes the socialization process of employees during an organizational change of this kind. During organizational change employees undergo a process of socialization to create an understanding of the new structure that the change brings. The study aims to identify the key elements that compose employee’s socialization process. To identify the key elements a method based on interviews with nine employees was applied. The theoretical perspectives applied on the study were Internalization, Objectification & Externalization (Berger & Luckmann 1966), Sensemaking (Omar, Davis-Sramek, Fugate och Mentzer 2012, & Van Maanen, 1978 & Whelan- Berry, Gordon & Hinings, 2003) and two of the theoretical findings, Hangover and Group Exit (Ebaugh, 1988). The findings reveal five key elements, which make up the socialization process. The key elements are: Information, Expectation, Encouragement, Method of work and Conversation. Employees need explicit and accurate information about what the change entails. They also need to know what is expected of them and the kind of behavior that the organization promotes. Employees are also in need of knowing the specific method of work the organization advocates. The last key element employee’s need is various forms of interaction with colleagues.

Master of Arts / Department of Communications Studies / Soo-Hye Han / The rise of partisan political news over the past two decades has influenced how political candidates discursively construct their image. While there is an extensive literature devote to presidential discourse, little is known about what gubernatorial discourse looks like and how they construct their image. This study examines how gubernatorial candidates discursively construct their image in a hyperpolarized electoral environment. An extensive content analysis of gubernatorial political interviews (n = 94), and specifically the utterances arising from those interviews (n = 1,524), was conducted. Findings show that gubernatorial candidates discursively construct their own image as a savior to the state, while creating their opponent’s and the DC elite’s image as a villain. Additionally, gubernatorial candidates do not adhere to the image bound by their party, and construct an image that is unique to their environment. Consequently, the environment that a gubernatorial candidate is situated influences how they communicate and construct their image and their opponent’s image. By examining gubernatorial discourse through political interviews, this study offers theoretical implications into understanding the influence of polarization, issue ownership, and tone in gubernatorial discourse. Practical implications examine the role of media outlets in gubernatorial discourse. This study contributes to scholarly understanding of gubernatorial discourse in a changing and polarizing political environment.

By using the data on Indian firms on the BSE 500 Index during the period 2005-2006, we find that family ownership affects group affiliated firms more positively than standalone firms. Group affiliated firms underperform initially as compared to standalone firms but after certain threshold of family ownership their performance becomes better than standalone firms. Within diversified Indian Business Group, family ownership affects highly diversified affiliates positively. Effect of family excess vote holdings and involvement of family management is found to be insignificant. We also find that block holders affect firm value negatively. Our results are in contrast with the existing literature of diversification and family ownership on developed market especially, US and UK. Some of our results are consistent with those of Khanna and Palepu (2000). This paper supports most of the findings of Khanna and Palepu based on more complete and reliable data set. In addition, it shows that the superior performance of highly diversified groups is related to greater family ownership. In the second essay, we examined the issues related to market reaction on IT outsourcing announcement and firm characteristics which induce firms to outsource. We find that IT outsourcing has a strong positive effect on stock prices of announcing firms, especially for longer event windows. We also find that the higher the pre-announcement inefficiency of a firm (as evidenced by lower asset turnover ratios, higher operating cost to sales, and higher cost of good sales to sales), the greater the positive price reaction to the outsourcing announcements. We also find that firms with higher information asymmetry problems (firms in the service industry) elicit a higher positive market reaction at the time of outsource announcement. Finally, firms that are likely to outsource are cost inefficient, and/or are cash needy.

This dissertation consists of two essays: one looks at the relation between firm focus and hedging in the REIT industry, and the other compares bank board structures in China and the US. The first essay presented in Chapter 2 examines the relation between corporate hedging and firm focus in the REIT industry by using a sample of REITs in 2005 and in 2007. We find 46.41% utilization rate in 2005 and 43.41% in 2007. Consistent with our hypothesis, we find that, relative to diversified firms, focused firms are more likely to engage in hedging. Focused firms also tend to be involved in greater amount of hedging. We also document a negative relation between hedging and transparency, although the evidence is not overwhelming. Consistent with previous literature, there is a strong firm size effect. The second essay presented in Chapter 3 examines the relation between bank performance and board structure by using a sample of 74 US banks and 53 Chinese banks for the period 2002 to 2006. Indeed, the empirical relation between board structure and performance is virtually non-existing in China. In particular, for the US sample, the board size is found to be significantly and negatively correlated with ROA, but a larger board also tends to be associated with lower costs. For Chinese banks, the evidence indicates that governance variables are not significantly correlated with performances with the exception of block ownership: there is strong evidence that the relation between block ownership and bank performance is negative. Additionally, we find substantial differences in board structure between the two countries; in particular the average board size and the proportion of outside directors for US banks are almost twice of those in China.

[pt] A Constituição Federal de 1988, reflexo de anos de luta dos movimentos sociais urbanos, trouxe novas possibilidades para fazer frente ao problema da moradia da população de baixa renda. Trata-se de uma reafirmação do direito social à moradia. A partir desse novo escopo jurídico, várias experiências de regularização fundiária e urbanística de assentamentos informais foram realizadas, especialmente no âmbito do Programa de Aceleração do Crescimento. Muitas dessas experiências foram realizadas em terras da União, o que exigiu uma modificação do paradigma arrecadatório desses bens, tendo em vista uma maior valorização da função socioambiental. Este é o caso do projeto realizado no setor 1 da Colônia Juliano Moreira, objeto desta dissertação. Pretende-se, assim, analisar de que maneira a nova política habitacional vem sendo desenvolvida e como contribui para assegurar o princípio da função socioambiental da terra urbana da União, de forma a priorizar o atendimento às necessidades da população de baixa renda. / [en] The Federal Constitution of 1988, reflecting years of struggle of the urban social movements brought new possibilities to tackle the housing problem of low-income population. This is a restatement of the social right to housing. From this new legal scope, various experiences of tenure and urban informal settlements were made, especially under the Growth Acceleration Program. Many of these experiments were carried out on lands of the Union, which required a modification of the revenue collection of the goods paradigm, towards a greater appreciation of social and environmental function. This is the case of a project undertaken in the sector 1 of Colônia Juliano Moreira, object of this dissertation. The aim is thus to analyze how the new housing policy is being developed and how it contributes to ensure the principle of social and environmental role of urban land in the Union, in order to prioritize meeting the needs of low-income population.

This research paper examines China's urban housing reform with a historical perspective, which provides an insight into current housing policy. In the past two decades, urban housing in China has been under a drastic transformation. As a critical component of the economy, the housing sector has played a very active role in restructuring China's economic system. The housing reform has encountered significant resistance. This research focuses on the property rights issue, which is a major concern in housing reform. With a comparative approach, the study addresses the basic research question, what are the fundamental barriers in urban housing reform. The research also involves a comprehensive review of the concept of the property rights and related issues in Western countries to establish a theoretical framework for furthering China's housing reform in term of property rights. The research also involves an inspection of housing reform in selected post-socialist countries to explore alternative transformation policies. Further housing reform policy is also articulated. / Master of Urban and Regional Planning