The trend in personal finance and retirement planning has changed, more and more investors have focused on the popular issue of wealth allocation across asset classes and specific investments. As a result, mutual fund investment companies have become an increasingly effective conduit for current income generation, capital appreciation, and the benefits derived through diversification. As time goes by, the amount of offshore funds introduced in Taiwan is increasing. We investors always want to ask which one could perform well and bring the investors a good return based on the past performance information. Thus the purpose of this paper is to give an overview and performance persistence of the largely unexploited Taiwan offshore and international American, European, Japanese, and Global equity mutual funds compared to Taiwan equity mutual funds and the Information Technology equity mutual funds. To do this, we evaluate fund performance applied for the Composite Index to cooperate the highly cooperate the colinearity problem of the performance indices which is introduced from Lee (2007) and Chou (2007). We focus on 6 biggest off-shore mutual fund market in Taiwan which are American, European, Global, Taiwan, Japan and Information Technology. All the performance information and fund characteristic are from Lipper. We restrict our sample to pure equity funds with at least 36 months of data. Performance details and specific fund characteristics are collected by the end of 2006. We develop the Composite Index component weights by factor analysis from January 2003 through December 2004 and rank the funds by the Composite Index score to exam the performance persistence through January 2005 through 2006. All returns are almost in local currency. We have the conclusion which all the difference in performance of the top 10% and the bottom 10% in each market is significant from zero except for the Information Technology industry. We find the effect of the Composite Index would depend on the maturity, variety, and the characteristic of the market. The more mature the market is, the less significant the performance between top deciles and bottom deciles, American mutual fund is the best supportive evidence. All the return-based indices are not adding value to select funds. Though the performance of the Composite Index is better than the other index, the raw annual return is not so high to be applied. As to the variety, the different categories and the range of the distribution of monthly return in the market have the effect to the significance of the difference in performance between the top 10% and the bottom 10%, markets of European, Global, Japan, and Taiwan are the best explanations. Finally, the higher the risk is the better the fund perform is the one special rule selecting fund in the market of Information Technology.

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Research suggests that belonging to multiple group memberships before and after life transitions promotes resilience by helping people maintain their well-being compared to those with fewer group memberships. Although group memberships are of key importance for well-being and adjustment to change, the influence of athletes’ group memberships on their well-being remains largely unexplored, despite the numerous transitions they face in sport. Furthermore, no research to date has assessed the effects of group memberships on performance, and little research has assessed the potential mechanisms through which group memberships produce beneficial effects on outcomes. These ideas were explored in this thesis. Two studies within this thesis adopted a longitudinal approach, using questionnaires to examine the effects of players’ group memberships on well-being after a sporting transition. Study 1 focused on team and club transitions for university students and measured changes in well-being across a three month period; Study 2, focused on programme transitions in elite cricket and measured changes in well-being across a two year period. Study 2 also examined whether the beneficial effects of group memberships extended to performance. Both studies demonstrated that players with multiple group memberships before and after transition generally experienced greater well-being after transition. Study 2 also showed that multiple group memberships had beneficial implications for performance. However, when the recency of the transition was taken into consideration, significant interactions between group memberships and time since the transition generally revealed that the beneficial effects were most pronounced for those who had recently transitioned into the clubs, teams, and programmes. Furthermore, both studies revealed that players with multiple group memberships before a transition were better able to maintain these group memberships across the transition (i.e., lose fewer groups) and more likely to identify highly with the new club, team, or programme (i.e., join new groups). Although Study 1 failed to uncover evidence of the processes underpinning these effects, Study 2 provided some evidence that identification with the new group, and (to a lesser extent) personal identity strength, appeared to be important potential mediators of the group membership effects. In Study 3, an experimental approach was employed to investigate whether changing athletes’ group memberships is associated with improvements in performance and persistence in a golf-putting task. To do this, the study manipulated the number of group memberships participants reflected on (i.e., control, one, or five groups) and assessed the effects this had on their performance and persistence (as an indicator of resilience). Results revealed that participants who were asked to reflect on five groups that they belonged to showed a greater improvement in their performance after receiving the group manipulation than those who reflected on one group and those in the control group condition. Furthermore, those who reflected on groups they belong to (whether one, or five) showed more persistence following false failure feedback than those who did not. Although potential mediating mechanisms were measured, there was no evidence that any of these processes accounted for the beneficial impact of group memberships. Overall, the results from this thesis demonstrate that multiple group memberships can promote resilience by making important contributions to athletes’ well-being, performance, and persistence. Thus, athletes should be encouraged to increase the number of group memberships they belong to as this may provide an important psychological resource during times of change.

How to evaluate mutual fund performance correctly and determine the investment targets of mutual funds are the important issues to investors. In this study, we apply an innovative bootstrap statistical technique, to solve the small sample size problem and the distribution assumption disturbance in previous research. We examine the performance of domestic open-end mutual funds over the period from 1998 to 2003 using five performance measurement models. We further test the persistence of mutual fund performance. This study shows that¡G 1. On average, mutual fund managers do not own superior ability in stock selection. Most funds experiencing abnormal performance may simply result from good luck, since random selection also creates abnormal performance. 2. Mutual fund managers do not own market-timing ability. Classified further by investment objectives, the sample indicates that only the group of small-scale stocks shows significant market-timing ability. 3. Performance persistence does not exist no matter in long-term or short-term period.

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This thesis analyses and compares the performance, performance persistence and fund flows for UK equity unit trusts/OEICs and UK equity unit-linked personal pensions over the sample period January 1980 to December 2007. Unit-linked personal pension funds are an illiquid investment from the investor’s perspective since any invested capital is inaccessible until retirement whereas for unit trusts/OEICs capital invested can be withdrawn at any time. Since decreasing returns to scale from fund flows are the equilibrating mechanism in Berk and Green (2004) that results in no persistence in performance the illiquid nature of unit-linked personal pension funds should ensure more evidence of performance persistence in comparison to unit trusts/OEICs. I find significant evidence using performance ranked portfolio strategies that underlying portfolios that are only composed of unit-linked personal pension funds have greater performance persistence than unit-linked personal pension funds that have underlying portfolios that also include at least a unit trust/OEIC. This evidence is consistent with Berk and Green (2004) since the illiquid nature of personal pension funds results in an attenuated performance fund flow relationship restricting the equilibrating mechanism. However, there are anomalies in the performance persistence results in relation to Berk and Green (2004) but it could be due to the differential between the number of non-surviving unit trusts/OEICs and non-surviving unit-linked personal pension funds. I also find that the performance fund flow relationship based on abnormal returns from a Carhart four factor model for both UK equity unit trusts/OEICs and UK unit-linked personal pensions is convex but the performance fund flow relationship is more attenuated for the unit-linked personal pension funds. For the worst performing unit trusts/OEICs there are outflows on average whereas for unit-linked personal pensions there are fund inflows on average. For performance persistence tests conditional on underlying portfolio fund flows unit trusts/OEICs that have the worst performance but the lowest net fund flows in the ranking period have significantly greater subsequent performance in comparison to the unit trusts/OEICs that have the worst performance but the highest net fund flows in the ranking period. This empirical evidence provides support for Berk and Green (2004) but for the unit-linked personal pension funds the evidence is less convincing. There is very little evidence that UK equity unit-trusts/OEICs or UK equity unit-linked personal pensions produce abnormal returns. These results are robust across the single index (CAPM) model, the Fama and French three factor model and the Carhart four factor model for both conditional and unconditional models. There is also no evidence that unit trusts/OEICs or unit-linked personal pension funds can time the market. There is a significantly negative timing effect across unconditional factor models which becomes insignificant for the conditional models. There is also no evidence that unit trusts/OEICs have significantly different performance than unit-linked personal pension funds.

Submitted by Sandra Pereira (srpereira@ufrrj.br) on 2016-09-20T14:34:45Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2011 - Rodrigo Alves de Melo.pdf: 647767 bytes, checksum: 56dbf52b2dc0c6c7d87ccf57e757a793 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-09-20T14:34:45Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2011 - Rodrigo Alves de Melo.pdf: 647767 bytes, checksum: 56dbf52b2dc0c6c7d87ccf57e757a793 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-03-21 / This dissertation studies the performance of brazilian mutual funds stock portfolios classified as ?multimercado macro? from april, 2005 to march, 2010 by a multicriteria manner. The research aims to evaluate: (i) the success of market timing and stock picking strategies; (ii) the performance persistence taking into account macroeconomic various periods and (iii) if persistence depends on the time period analyzed, the performance indicator used or other variables such as size, client kind or investment profile. Therefore, were calculated the risk measures beta and standard deviation, the performance measures average return and cumulative return and the stock picking measure Fama?s decomposition for six months, one year and two years and six months periods and the stock picking measure Jensen's alpha and the market timing measure proposed by Treynor and Mazuy for two years and six months periods. The statistical tools used to verify the influence of control variables on performance and whether there is an association between the results were the Mann-Whitney?s test and Spearman?s correlation coefficient. The sample exhibits survivorship bias since it includes only the mutual funds that were actives throughout the studied period. Most studied portfolios failed to outperform the market by using stock picking and market timing strategies. Significant influences of the control variables size and investment profile were found, but only concerning the market timing measure. In the performance persistence analysis, only the systematic risk beta showed persistent evidences throughout the studied period, since the managers couldn?t keep the total risk under control during the financial crisis. In general, the portfolios have been unable to persist in any of the performance indicators, except for the unauthorized-operating-leveraged portfolio group, which showed persistence in average and cumulative returns and in selectivity indicator Fama?s decomposition, but only in long-term. Finally, DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis) enabled the creation of a portfolios? efficiency ranking taking into account its cumulative returns and systematic and total risks and only one portfolio showed maximum efficiency for the studied period. / Esta disserta??o estuda o desempenho das carteiras de a??es dos fundos de investimento da categoria multimercado macro no Brasil no per?odo de abril de 2005 a mar?o de 2010 de forma multicriterial. O estudo busca avaliar: (i) o sucesso dos gestores em estrat?gias de market timing e stock picking; (ii) a persist?ncia de performance levando em considera??o per?odos macroecon?micos diversos e (iii) se a persist?ncia depende do per?odo de tempo analisado, do indicador de performance utilizado ou de outras vari?veis, como tamanho, p?blico-alvo ou perfil de investimento. Para tal foram calculadas as medidas de risco beta e desvio-padr?o, as medidas de desempenho retorno m?dio e retorno acumulado e a medida de seletividade decomposi??o de Fama para os per?odos de seis meses, um ano e dois anos e seis meses e as medidas de seletividade alpha de Jensen e de market timing proposta por Treynor e Mazuy para per?odos de dois anos e seis meses. Os instrumentos estat?sticos utilizados para verificar a influ?ncia das vari?veis de controle no desempenho e a exist?ncia ou n?o de associa??o entre os resultados foram o teste de Mann-Whitney e o coeficiente de correla??o de Spearman. A amostra apresenta vi?s de sobreviv?ncia pois compreende apenas os fundos que estiveram ativos durante todo o per?odo estudado. a maioria das carteiras de a??es estudadas n?o conseguiu superar o mercado atrav?s da utiliza??o de estrat?gias de stock picking e market timing. Foram verificadas influ?ncias significativas das vari?veis de controle tamanho e perfil de risco, mas apenas em rela??o ? medida de market timing. Na an?lise de persist?ncia de performance, somente o risco sistem?tico beta apresentou evid?ncias de persist?ncia durante todo o per?odo estudado, uma vez que os gestores n?o conseguiram manter o risco total sob controle durante a crise financeira. De um modo geral, os portf?lios n?o conseguiram apresentar persist?ncia de performance em nenhum dos indicadores de desempenho, com exce??o do grupo de portf?lios n?o autorizados a operarem alavancados, o qual apresentou persist?ncia somente no longo prazo para os indicadores de retornos m?dio e acumulado e de seletividade decomposi??o de Fama. Finalmente a t?cnica DEA (An?lise Envolt?ria de Dados) possibilitou a composi??o de um ranking da efici?ncia das carteiras levando-se em considera??o o retorno acumulado, o risco sistem?tico e o risco total das mesmas e somente uma delas apresentou m?xima efici?ncia para o per?odo estudado.

This dissertation studies the importance of alliance networks on firms’ behavior and performance outcomes in the context of the global automotive industry. The first essay examines the importance of alliance networks positions on the persistence of an innovation advantage for a firm. The results contribute to our understanding of network advantages and network structure persistence over time. Building upon network theory, I found that network prominence facilitates the persistence of an innovation advantage over time as network prominence supports a firm’s continuous innovation and can effectively impede imitation by competitors. Conversely, network density and brokerage are negatively associated with the persistence of an innovation advantage over time. Drawn upon organization learning, knowledge transfer, and network literature, the second essay aims to uncover different combinations of a firm’s internal and external knowledge creation capabilities and knowledge transfer capabilities that lead to a firm’s superior innovation performance within different environments. Specifically, using a fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) technique, I identified three possible solutions to a firm’s superior innovation performance. Results from the global automotive industry highlight that the novel knowledge recognition capability, represented by alliance network diversity and structural holes, play a critical role for firms to achieve superior innovation. In the third essay, I explored how MNEs’ host country local network advantages can influence their subsequent entry strategies. Based on a study of 345 FDI entries in the U.S. market, I found that firms with a higher level of local network prominence are more likely to choose greenfield investments over acquisitions in their subsequent entries as local network prominence can facilitate firms’ local resource access and reduce the dependence on forming new cooperative modes in the host country. This study contributes to both the entry mode and network literature by showing the importance of firms’ network positions on their resource access and control in the process of internationalization. In sum, the findings of this dissertation contribute to our understanding of alliance networks and alliance management by providing empirical evidence of the influence of alliance networks on firms’ behavior and performance outcomes.

Recent studies have reported that open-end fund has its performance persistence. However, those studies didn¡¦t mention the factors of performance persistence. Therefore, investors knows the character of the types of fund, but unable to determine which individual fund have the character given the type of fund. The main purpose of this study is to provide investors a new way to select funds. First, investors can select high performance funds in the past period and aim to pick the individual funds which fit the character of high performance persistence. This study is divided into two parts. In first part, the researcher use Spearman's Rank Correlation Coefficient Test to examine the existence of performance persistence. In second part, the study aims to use Panel Data Analysis to examine the impact of 10 factors on the performance persistence in different type of funds, and periods. Samples in the study are chosen from 160 Taiwan open-end equity funds during 2004-2011. The return rate data is rolling data. In order to remove the difference of the risks of the funds, simple return rates were transferred into Jensen¡¦s Alpha. The conclusions are shown as below¡G 1. In short term, Time of Establishment often has a positive effect on fund performance persistence. 2. In short term, Net Asset Value often has a negative effect on fund performance persistence. In long term, net asset value often has a positive effect on fund performance persistence. 3. In short and middle term, Average Investment Amount always has a positive effect on fund performance persistence. 4. Almost in all type of funds and all periods, Stock Holding Rate has a negative effect on fund performance persistence. 5. Almost in all type of funds and all periods, The Score of Monitoring indicator has a negative effect on fund performance persistence.