Massachusetts Institute of Technology Alfred P. Sloan School of Management. Thesis. 1971. M.S. / MICROFICHE COPY ALSO AVAILABLE IN DEWEY LIBRARY. / Bibliography: leaves 96-98. / M.S.

Thesis (M.B.A.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2012. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 98-102). / For several decades, the ascendancy of the Pharma & Biotech sector was largely driven by favorable macro-economic conditions combined with an astonishing level of innovation and a clear focus on addressing unmet medical needs. Significant R&D investments led to innovative drugs that changed clinical practice across multiple illnesses and contributed to an overall rise in life expectancy around the world. Unfortunately, this trend has not continued. Since the mid-90s', the approval of novel drugs has plummeted despite record levels of R&D investment. It is estimated that between 2000 and 2010, the top 10 global Pharma and Biotech companies have collectively invested over $500 Billion in R&D. In the same period, only about 150 novel drugs entered the market. This is partly explained by the fact that quick-wins have been harvested, and that further progress in treating grievous illness is harder to achieve. This is compounded by increasing concerns about the longterm safety of drugs and the conservative regulatory climate that has prevailed since 2000. In this challenging regulatory and cost environment, the basic economic model of the industry is now being questioned. In this work I review the recent financial performance of ten major global pharmaceutical companies, and the challenges faced by the industry in moving from a deterministic, blockbuster era to a more stochastic era defined by multiple unknowns. / by Kailash Swarna. / M.B.A.

Thesis: S.M. in Management Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2016. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 28-30). / While studies have shown that interactions between workers and employers reinforce gendered allocations of workers within firms, the literature has not yet demonstrated how these interactional mechanisms operate to create gender inequalities even before formal job applications are submitted. Such interactional mechanisms are documented and analyzed using a unique data from a web-based recruiting platform. We conduct a comprehensive content analysis of close to 150,000 jobs posted by approximately 25,000 recruiters reaching more than half million job seekers in the United States to find evidence that gender stereotypes influence recruiters' perceptions of the appropriate selection criteria for potential candidates, thereby affecting the language of job advertisements. Such cognitive biases, in turn, shape the ways in which job seekers of a particular gender inquire about a job. Specifically, when the share of stereotypically masculine words in job advertisements was larger, job seekers that inquired about such jobs were less likely to be female; when the share of stereotypically feminine words was larger, job seekers that inquired about such jobs were more likely to be female, holding all else constant. Further, we find that job seekers themselves were more likely to use stereotypically feminine (or masculine) words in their inquiries the greater the share of stereotypical feminine (or masculine) words increased in job postings. Lastly, we show that job seekers that show interest toward a job were more likely to be of the gender of the recruiter, holding all else constant. Even after controlling for potential within- and between- occupational variations, job seeker responses were strongly influenced by recruiters' use of language. / by Hye Jin Rho. / S.M. in Management Research

Thesis: S.M. in Management Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2016. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 86-92). / I believe film has the power to transform people's lives and minds and to enlighten today's generation like any other medium. This is why I wanted to write my thesis about film distribution as it will determine the future of the industry itself. The way films are distributed, accessed and consumed will be critical in shaping our future entertainment culture and the way we approach content. The goal of this thesis is to analyze current distribution models, consumer behaviors and distributors marketing efforts to try anticipating the best models for the film industry. I also want to explore what the changes in the distribution landscape mean for the creatives and the content creation in overall. I will focus my analysis on movie distribution in the United States as I consider this country to be the most changing and dynamic market in the whole industry. Trends and practices in the US should be predictive of future distribution and consumption models in international territories. In addition to the high number of articles that helped me for this thesis, I will very often refer to Chuck Tryon's On-Demand Culture: Digital Delivery and the Future of Movies (2013), and Anita Elberse' s Blockbusters: Why Big Hits - and Big Risks are The Future of the Entertainment Business (2013). / by Loubna Berrada. / S.M. in Management Studies

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 1992. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 57-63). / by Roger P. Roberts. / M.S.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 136-141). / (cont.) Slow information diffusion can cause return momentum. Institutions are thought to be more informed than individuals, and should eliminate return predictability. However, higher institutional ownership is associated with more momentum. Therefore, institutions either herd on returns or can have information before individuals. I find evidence of the latter. However, the effects are economically small, suggesting that aggregate data obscures differences between institutions. I divide institutions by trading aggressiveness. Aggressive institutions are more responsive to recent returns, and a strategy mimicking their trades generates even better performance. This confirms that some investors are more informed than others, but do not eliminate return predictability. / This thesis consists of three chapters, each about a separate aspect of how investors respond to information in equity markets. The first chapter concerns news and stock returns. Using a comprehensive database of headlines about individual companies, I examine monthly returns following public news. I compare them to stocks with similar returns, but no identifiable public news. There is a difference between the two sets. I find strong drift after bad news. Investors seem to react slowly to this information. I also find reversal after extreme price movements unaccompanied by public news. The separate patterns appear even after adjustments for risk exposure and other effects. They are, however, mainly seen in smaller, more illiquid stocks. These findings support some integrated theories of investor over- and underreaction. The second chapter is joint work with Richard Frankel and S. P. Kothari. Models based on psychology can explain momentum and reversal in stock returns, but may be overfitted to data. We examine a typical basis for these models, representativeness, in which individuals predict the future based on how closely past outcomes fit certain categories. We use accounting performance to mimic possible investor-defined categories for firm performance. We test the idea that investors predictably bias their expectations about future operations by using these categories. We find little evidence that the sequence or trend of past accounting performance is related to future returns, and is therefore unlikely to bias investor expectations. The third chapter concerns how informational advantage differs between institutional investors. / by Wesley S. Chan. / Ph.D.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2010. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 61-64). / Bertrand and Mullainathan (2003) find that managers shielded from the threat of takeovers exert less effort to maximize firm value, consistent with a 'quiet life' hypothesis. I study whether the governance role of financial reporting can mitigate adverse effects arising from managerial preferences for a quiet life. I hypothesize and find evidence that after changes in the mid 1990's to Delaware's takeover protection regime, Delaware firms with higher financial reporting quality (FRQ) have better operating performance and higher capital investment intensity. Furthermore, the above relation between FRQ and performance is stronger for firms operating in less competitive industries, and firms with staggered boards. Overall, the results suggest that financial reporting can help mitigate adverse effects associated with managerial preferences for a quiet life. / Ph.D.

Thesis: S.M. in Management Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2016. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 62-64). / The present research identifies a novel measure of perceived intentionality of societal discrimination and demonstrates its value in predicting individuals' preference for and the effectiveness of different approaches to improving intergroup relations. Study 1 creates and validates a measure of perceived intentionality of societal discrimination, the extent to which an individual believes discrimination in society as a whole is generally caused by intentional actions. Individuals' responses on this measure are associated with their preferences for an approach to intergroup relations that advocates looking beyond differences, rather than recognizing differences. Studies 2 and 3 use experimental designs to investigate perceived intentionality of societal bias as a moderator of the effect of these approaches on attitudes toward interracial interactions and on comfort with conversations about race. Across the studies, the greater the extent to which participants perceive discrimination in society to be intentional, the more an approach advocating looking beyond differences is preferred and effective. / by Rebecca L. Grunberg. / S.M. in Management Research

Thesis (M.B.A.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 96). / In the automotive industry, due to the trend to introduce active safety systems, concerns about protecting the environment, and advances in information technology, key automotive manufacturers are eager to acquire new enabling technologies which can provide solutions for these issues. As a result, the demand for automotive electronics is increasing. Meanwhile, due to strict requirements for demanding specifications, as well as low volume commitment offered by car manufacturers as compared with consumer electronics products, many electronics manufacturers have so far avoided entering this business. However, as the requirement for high technology grow, the technology of the electronics companies becomes indispensable for the car manufacturers. Currently, there are some electronics companies who provide automotive parts, mostly on the components level and not on the solution level, but only few of them are truly successful. The automotive electronics business requires various types of components as well as demanding specifications for safety and operating conditions. Offering solutions for this demanding industry often requires cross-organizational initiative. / (cont.) Despite the difficult challenges, many electronics companies, including semiconductor and fabless companies, have already penetrated into this industry, and its market is becoming more and more competitive. The purpose of this work is to discuss the potential of Toshiba Corporation to become a major player in the automotive electronics industry. While it seems to be attractive, there are also many challenges which would face Toshiba as a new player attempting to penetrate this market. The work will focus on the understanding and analysis of these challenges. The work will start from a general description of the current automotive electronics industry. Following, I will discuss the future technological trends of automotive electronic systems and the demands and requirements of the different geographical markets. Following this general background, Toshiba's current market position and a comparison to the key competitors is presented. The work will be concluded with a discussion of the optional strategies which can be adopted by Toshiba if it decides to focus on the automotive market. / by Yoshiko Hase. / M.B.A.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references. / The first chapter in my thesis investigates the association between selected hedge fund characteristics and persistence in performance over time. Analyzing TASS data from 1996-2006, I observe a positive correlation between persistence in good performance and fund size, as well as age. Furthermore, I find that more illiquid investment strategies exhibit significantly stronger persistence in good performance, both in the short and long run, even after controlling for illiquidity risk. These results indicate that higher fund size, age, and exposure to illiquidity are reflective of superior managerial skill. Finally, I note that funds with higher incentive fees display greater persistence in both good and bad (post-fee) performance in the long run. These findings are consistent with a scenario in which incentive fees are raised by both skilled and unskilled, (but lucky), fund managers in response to good past performance. Therefore, my analysis suggests that incentive fees for hedge funds may be endogenously determined. The second chapter tests a simple explanation for momentum profits: systematic out performance arises because certain stocks have persistently strong fundamentals which are not fully valued by the market. We find that "winner" portfolios have higher book-to-market ratios than "loser" portfolios, and the economic and statistical significance of momentum profits is markedly reduced when calculated above value benchmarks. A large component of the returns to relative strength portfolios may thus stem from such portfolios overweighting high value stocks, suggesting a close relation between the value and momentum anomalies. The final chapter develops a measure of international financial contagion using a semi structural approach. / (cont.) In particular, we work with a multi-country dynamic equilibrium setting, placing a constraint on portfolio volatility. The tightening of this constraint is a channel through which shocks are propagated globally in our model. We then derive a measure of the tightness of the constraint, or 'contagion', using cross-equation restrictions. We finally evaluate our measure of international contagion with regards to its predictability on global asset price co-movement, as well as on news about the recent sub-prime crisis. We find evidence that our contagion estimator is a strong measure of the sub-prime crisis in this regard. / by Pavithra Kamakshi Kumar. / Ph.D.