			Home About us Contact

Finance Theories (finance + theory)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Business, Economics, Finance and Accounting	75%

Selected Abstracts

Financing Constraints, Ownership Control, and Cross-Border M&As: Evidence from Nine East Asian Economies

CORPORATE GOVERNANCE, Issue 6 2009
Yenn-Ru Chen
ABSTRACT Manuscript Type: Empirical Research Question/Issue: This study distinguishes between the effects of financial constraint determinants on cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&As) and domestic M&As for all takeover bids announced in nine East Asian economies from 1998 to 2005. Research Findings/Insights: The results of logistic regressions verify that the extent of stock market and governance developments improves corporate financing conditions and subsequently encourages cross-border M&As in East Asia. The results also indicate that, except for ownership control variables, the firm-specific factors of financing constraints reduce the occurrence of cross-border M&As relative to domestic M&As. Although family- and state-controlled firms have better access to external financing, they are reluctant to risk diluting their management control and thus prefer domestic M&As to cross-border deals. Theoretical/Academic Implications: This study enhances the empirical studies of the relation between financing constraints and corporate investments based on the market imperfection hypothesis of corporate finance theories. In addition, this study also addresses the interaction between the market imperfection hypothesis and agency theory in explaining the effects of special ownership control on cross-border M&As relative to domestic deals. Furthermore, by examining the research questions across nine East Asian economies, this study provides an understanding of how such a relation applies to firms in countries where information asymmetry is high. Practitioner/Policy Implications: The findings indicate the importance of corporate governance and verify the effects of unique organizational structures on major corporate decisions. Specifically, family-controlled firms are often free of the financing constraints inherent in investment decisions. Thus, it is necessary to consider such organizational uniqueness when explaining the financing behavior of cross-border M&As conducted by Asian firms. [source]

Financial Globalization, Governance, and the Evolution of the Home Bias

JOURNAL OF ACCOUNTING RESEARCH, Issue 2 2009
BONG-CHAN KHO
ABSTRACT We merge portfolio theories of home bias with corporate finance theories of insider ownership to create the optimal corporate ownership theory of the home bias. The theory has two components: (1) foreign portfolio investors exhibit a large home bias against countries with poor governance because their investment is limited by high optimal ownership by insiders (the "direct effect" of poor governance) and domestic monitoring shareholders (the "indirect effect") in response to the governance and (2) foreign direct investors from "good governance" countries have a comparative advantage as insider monitors in "poor governance" countries, so that the relative importance of foreign direct investment is negatively related to the quality of governance. Using both country-level data on U.S. investors' foreign investment allocations and Korean firm-level data, we find empirical evidence supporting our optimal corporate ownership theory of the home bias. [source]

MIT Roundtable on Corporate Risk Management

JOURNAL OF APPLIED CORPORATE FINANCE, Issue 4 2008
Article first published online: 16 DEC 200
Against the backdrop of financial crisis, a distinguished group of academics and practitioners discusses the contribution of financial management and innovation to corporate growth and value, along with the pitfalls and unintended consequences of such innovation. The main focus of most panelists is the importance of a capital structure and risk management approach that complement the strategy and operations of the business. Instructive examples are provided by Judy Lewent, former CFO and head of strategic planning at Merck, and Lakshmi Shyam-Sunder, director of finance and risk management at the International Finance Corporation. But if these represent successful applications of finance theory, what about the large number of cases where the use of derivatives and other innovations has led to high leverage and apparent risk management failures? Part of the current trouble, as pointed out by Andrew Lo, can be attributed to the failure of risk managers and their models to account for highly improbable events,the so-called fat tails of the distribution. But, as Robert Merton suggests in closing, there is a more comprehensive explanation for today's problems: the tendency of market participants to respond to potentially risk-reducing financial innovation by increasing their risk-taking in other areas. "What we have here," says Merton, ,are two partly offsetting effects of innovation,one that is reducing the risk of companies and their investors, and another that is encouraging greater risk-taking. From a social or regulatory standpoint, the goal is to find the right balance between these two effects or forces. [source]

Does corporate environmental protection increase or decrease shareholder value?

BUSINESS STRATEGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT, Issue 4 2001
The case of environmental investments
This study examines share price effects of environmental investments using data from the Finnish forest industry from 1970 to 1996. The results indicate that the instantaneous market reaction is negative, and that the larger the investment, the larger the fall in prices. However, contrary to the view that corporate actions have a permanent effect on firm value, we observe rapid price recovery after the instantaneous negative reaction. This may support a hypothesis that environmental investments create goodwill for the investing firms and are thus not negative net present value investments. Unexpectedly, we find that the instantaneous negative market reaction was stronger in the most recent sample years. Explanations for this finding relate to the slowness of institutional change within the financial community as well as to the growing share of international investors seeking short-term holding gains. In conclusion, it appears that not only finance theory but also notions from institutional theory and corporate environmental management literature are needed to explain stock price behaviour in conjunction with environmental investments. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment [source]