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<p>I examine the long-term valuation consequence of over-investment in mergers and acquisitions (M&As) on acquiring firms through the "anticipation effect," in which forward-looking prices embed investors' expectations about the profitability of firms' potential future acquisitions. Using a sample of 1,451 firms with past acquisition activities, I find that their market valuations depend on both the profitability of their past acquisitions and their current free cash flow. Specifically, among firms with positive free cash flow, those with the worse history of value-destroying acquisitions experience lower market valuations. Among firms with negative free cash flow, the history of value-destroying acquisitions is not systematically associated with firm value. In addition, a significant portion of the discount is from lowered valuation of firms' cash holdings. These findings are consistent with investors forming expectations about the profitability of future possible acquisitions based on the realized performance outcomes of firms' past acquisitions and value these firms accordingly based on the likelihood of engaging in future acquisitions. They also provide empirical support for using observed market prices to proxy for investors' expectations about firms' future investment opportunities.</p> / Dissertation

Predicting tenderness in today's beef supply could be advantageous to packers and consumers. In this study (n = 1,137 carcasses), visible-near-infrared, electrical impedance, pH and Minolta CIE L*, a*, and b* color space values were examined as predictors of beef 1, 7, and 14 d Warner-Bratzler (N) or Slice Shear (N) force values as estimators of beef tenderness. Visible-NIR at 350 to 1830 nm, electrical impedance, and color space values were taken at the beef packing plant, along with carcass data. Strip loins were transported to Texas A & M University where pH was taken. Six steaks were taken from the anterior end of the strip loin and randomly assigned to either Warner-Bratzler shear force (WBSF) after 1, 7, or 14 days, or Slice shear force (SSF) after 1, 7, and 14 days of post-harvest aging at 2 degrees C. Shears were taken on assigned days. Shear force values were highly correlated with each other (r = 0.37 to 0.56 for WBSF and r = 0.75 to 0.78 for SSF) (P < 0.05). Within the independent variables, reflectance values for mid-range wavelengths (562nm-1193nm) were found to be most highly correlated with the dependent variables (P < 0.05). pH and color spaces values were more highly correlated (P < 0.05) to slice shears values then to Warner-Bratzler shears force values. Electrical impedance was the least significant with r values of 0.00 to 0.14. When Visble-NIR reflectance values were used in stepwise regression equations to predict 1, 7, or 14 d WBSF or 1, 7, or 14 d SSF, prediction equations for 14 d WBSF and SSF had the highest R^2 (0.14 and 0.36, respectively). Stepwise regression equations that included pH and color space values had the highest R^2 for 7 d WBSF and 1 d SSF (0.22 and 0.28, respectively). Electrical impedance alone in a stepwise regression equation had the highest R^2 for 1 and 14 d WBSF and 1 and 7 d SSF (0.02 and 0.03, respectively). Stepwise regression equations that included pH, color space values, and electrical impedance had the highest R^2 for 7 d WBSF and 14 d SSF (0.25 and 0.24, respectively). When pH, color space values, electrical impedance, and Visible-NIR were used, 7 d WBSF and 1 d SSF had the highest R^2 (0.38 and 0.34, respectively). Stepwise regression equations that included pH, color space values, and Visible-NIR had the highest R^2 for 7 d WBSF and 14 d SSF (0.30 and 0.44, respectively). For predicting 14 d Warner-Bratzler shear force, a R^2 of 0.20 was found using Visible-NIR, pH and color space values. When used, the partial least squares equation predicted tenderness with an 85 percent success rate. For predicting 14 d Slice shear forces, a R^2 of 0.40 was found. When used, the partial least squares equation had a 100 percent success rate of predicting those steaks found tender to be tender for Slice shear force. There was an 85 percent success rate for predicting 14 d Warner-Bratzler shear forces. Both equations still had little to no success in predicting tough steaks. The Visible-NIR can successfully predict tenderness

In this dissertation, I study coordination or collaboration settings that are either within company or at inter-organizational levels in the form of three essays. In the first essay, I study the relationship between a client and a vendor in value co-creation environments such as knowledge intensive services. I consider that the client gets utility from the project throughout the development period. The output is contingent on the effort levels of each party and I allow these effort levels to be dynamic. Hence, the client needs to optimally decide the terms of the payment so as to maximize the project output and minimize its cost. In my second essay, I study another value co-creation environment. In this case, unlike the first essay, I assume that the effort levels are not observable but might be monitored. In both essays, I analyze the performance of different contracts and find the best one for the client in diverse settings. Among several other results, I derive the conditions under which the client chooses not to observe vendor’s effort level and operates in a double moral hazard environment. In addition, I show that the remaining time of the project and the client’s valuation of the project regulate the behavior of the effort levels and some other characteristics in the collaboration. In the third essay, I consider a subscription based rental organization, such as Netflix and Blockbuster. In these environments, the satisfaction of customers de- pends on the availability of requested products. Hence, it is important for these firms to satisfy as much demand as possible. Recommender systems, in a DVD- rental context, are typically used to help customers in finding the right movies for them. However, recommendations can be utilized to shift demand among movies considering the inventory level and future demand to increase the number of satisfied customers or profitability. I address this issue by considering inventory in the optimization of recommender systems. I present several results that could be utilized by managers in order to make important tactical and operational decisions. Results suggest that the proposed approach may improve profitability of the firms substantially.

Economic research on climate and productivity effects of ocean phenomena has mostly focused on interannual cases such as the El Niño Southern Oscillation. Here Decadal climate variability (DCV) refers to ocean related climate influences of duration from seven to twenty years. The specific phenomena analyzed here are the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, the Tropical Atlantic Gradient and the West Pacific Warm Pool. Their positive and negative phases, occurring individually or in combination, are associated with variations in crop and water yields. This dissertation examines the value of DCV information to agriculture and water users in the Missouri river basin using a price endogenous agricultural and non-agricultural model that depicts cropping and water use. The model is used to evaluate the welfare gains and adaptations given various levels of DCV information. The analysis shows the value (for a 10-year average) for a perfect forecast is about 5.2 billion dollars, though 86% of this value, 4.55 billion dollars, can be obtained by a less perfect forecast based on already available data in the form of the prediction of DCV phase under transition probabilities. The results indicate that forecasting any DCV state is important because of differential responses in the acreage of major crops plus water use adjustments by residential, agricultural and industrial users.

Past research has indicated that Chinese culture is more past oriented; whereas North American culture is more future oriented. Such cultural differences in temporal orientation may affect how people value future and past events. I predicted that the typical temporal asymmetry effect among European North Americans - placing more value on future events than on past ones - would be reversed among Chinese due to the cultural differences in temporal orientation. I conducted four studies to examine how culture affects the values people attached to past and future events. Overall, the results supported my predictions. Across all four studies, I found that European Canadians attached more monetary value to an event in the future than to an identical event in the past with similar temporal distance; whereas Chinese people placed more monetary value on a past event than on an identical future event. In Study 3, I also investigated the underlying mechanisms that would account for such cultural differences. Among the three mediators believed to be affected by the past and future orientations, I found two that mediated the cultural influences on the temporal value asymmetry effect: (1) emotions associated with future and past events, and (2) mental simulations of future and past events. Specifically, European Canadians predicted stronger emotions for future events than what they recalled for past events, whereas Chinese showed an opposite trend. Emotions associated with future or past events, in turn, predicted the monetary values attached to the events. In addition, relative to Chinese Canadians, who showed clearer mental simulations for past than for future events, European Canadians had clearer mental simulations for future than for past events. Mental simulations, in turn, showed a positive association with the monetary value assigned to the events. / Thesis (Ph.D, Psychology) -- Queen's University, 2008-09-26 16:18:09.371

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An Asian option is an example of exotic options. Its payoff depends on the average of the underlying asset prices. The average may be over the entire time period between initiation and expiration or may be over some period of time that begins later than the initiation of the option and ends with the options expiration. The average may be from continuous sampling or may be from discrete sampling. The primary reason to base an option payoff on an average asset price is to make it more difficult for anyone to significantly affect the payoff by manipulation of the underlying asset price. The price of Asian options is not known in closed form, in general, if the arithmetic average is taken into effect. In this dissertation, we shall investigate the pricing theory for Asian options. After a brief introduction to the Black-Scholes theory, we derive the partial differential equations for the value process of an Asian option to satisfy. We do this in several approaches, including the usual extension to Asian options of the Black-Scholes, and the sophisticated martingale approach. Both fixed and floating strike are considered. In the case of the geometric average, we derive a closed form solution for the Asian option. Moreover, we investigate the Asian option price theory under stochastic volatility which is a recent trend in the study of path-dependent option theory. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville, 2007.