Matching Items (217)
Description
In accordance with the Principal Agent Theory, Property Right Theory, Incentive Theory, and Human Capital Theory, firms face agency problems due to “separation of ownership and management”, which call for effective corporate governance. Ownership structure is a core element of the corporate governance. The differences in ownership structures thus may result in differential incentives in governance through the selection of senior management and in the design of senior management compensation system. This thesis investigates four firms with four different types of ownership structures: a public listed firm with the controlling interest by the state, a public listed firm with a non-state-owned controlling interest, a public listed firm a family-owned controlling interest, and a Sino-foreign joint venture firm. By using a case study approach, I focus on two dimensions of ownership structure characteristics – ownership diversification and differences in property rights so as to document whether there are systematic differences in governance participation and executive compensation design. Specifically, I focused on whether such differences are reflected in management selection (which is linked to adverse selection and moral hazard problems) and in compensation design (the choices of performance measurements, performance pay, and in stock option or restricted stock). The results are consistent with my expectation – the nature of ownership structure does affect senior management compensation design. Policy implications are discussed accordingly.
ContributorsGao, Shenghua (Author) / Pei, Ker-Wei (Thesis advisor) / Li, Feng (Committee member) / Shen, Wei (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
Qualifications based selection (QBS) of construction services uses a variety of criteria to evaluate proponents and select a contractor for the project. The criteria typically fall into three categories: past performance and technical capability, key personnel, and price, with price often being considered the most important factor in selection. Evaluation and the merits of the key personnel category is not well described or discussed in research. Prior research has investigated the evaluation criteria elements and their ability to differentiate proponents. This case study uses QBS evaluation data from fifty-eight construction projects to show that use of a structured interview process provides the highest level of differentiation of qualifications of proponents, as compared to the proposed price and the technical proposal. The results of the analysis also indicate: 1) the key personnel element (the interview) is statistically more important than price,
2) Contractors who propose on projects using QBS should use their best people in proposal response, and 3) Contractors should educate/prepare their teams for interviews, people count.
2) Contractors who propose on projects using QBS should use their best people in proposal response, and 3) Contractors should educate/prepare their teams for interviews, people count.
ContributorsSawyer, Jeff T (Author) / Sullivan, Kennth S (Thesis advisor) / Wiezel, Avi (Committee member) / Badger, William (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
This thesis examines the immediate post-World War II operational strategy of Valley National Bank of Arizona, a Phoenix-based institution in operation from 1899 until its 1992 acquisition by Ohio-based Banc One Corporation (now JPMorgan Chase). For the purposes of this study, the immediate post-war period is defined as 1944 to January 20, 1953, a span that opens with the bank's wartime planning efforts for the post-war period and ends with the 1953 retirement of bank president Walter Bimson. By the end of World War II, Valley National ranked as the largest financial institution in the eight-state Rocky Mountain region, as measured by total deposits. However, post-war regulatory issues, competitor expansion, and an inability to generate deposit volume sufficient to meet subject period loan demands challenged bank leaders seeking to maintain market share and grow company profitability and stock value. In response to these difficulties, the bank focused on a three-pronged operational strategy emphasizing advertising, market-appropriate deposit and loan product offerings, and an aggressive branching and acquisition campaign. This strategy did not result in unmitigated success as the bank did experience a decrease in average deposit account balances, lost mortgage market share, and undertook acquisition activity that later resulted in federal antitrust action. However, by the end of the subject period, the three-pronged strategy employed by the bank did result in an increase in deposit dollar market share, as measured by deposits controlled directly and indirectly by the institution, rising annual net profits, and substantial share price appreciation. The findings related to bank strategy and results presented in this thesis are based primarily upon information found in the 169-box Valley National Bank Collection housed at the Arizona Historical Society. Extensive newspaper research conducted using targeted date range and keyword searches and careful consideration of secondary source materials relating to the bank, the banking industry, and state, regional, and national politics, economics, and culture during the subject period provided additional information used in this study, and corroborated much of the material found in the Valley National Bank Collection files.
ContributorsSouthard, John (Author) / Warren-Findley, Jannelle (Thesis advisor) / Vandermeer, Philip (Committee member) / Gammage, Jr., Grady (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
ABSTRACT Facility managers have an important job in today's competitive business world by caring for the backbone of the corporation's capital. Maintaining assets and the support efforts cause facility managers to fight an uphill battle to prove the worth of their organizations. This thesis will discuss the important and flexible use of measurement and leadership reports and the benefits of justifying the work required to maintain or upgrade a facility. The task is streamlined by invoking accountability to subject experts. The facility manager must trust in the ability of his or her work force to get the job done. However, with accountability comes increased risk. Even though accountability may not alleviate total control or cease reactionary actions, facility managers can develop key leadership based reports to reassign accountability and measure subject matter experts while simultaneously reducing reactionary actions leading to increased cost. Identifying and reassigning risk that are not controlled to subject matter experts is imperative for effective facility management leadership and allows facility managers to create an accurate and solid facility management plan, supports the organization's succession plan, and allows the organization to focus on key competencies.
ContributorsTellefsen, Thor (Author) / Sullivan, Kenneth (Thesis advisor) / Kashiwagi, Dean (Committee member) / Badger, William (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
This study investigates the impact of portfolio disclosure on hedge fund performance. Using a regression discontinuity design, I investigate the effect of the disclosure requirements that take effect when an investment company's assets exceed $100 million; when that occurs, a fund is required by the SEC to submit form 13F disclosing its portfolio holdings. Consistent with the argument that portfolio disclosure reveals "trade secrets" and also raises front running costs thus harms the funds that disclose, I find that there is a drop in fund performance (about 4% annually) after a fund begins filing form 13F, as well as an increase in return correlations with other hedge funds in the same investment style. The drop in performance cannot be explained by a change in the assets under management or a mean reversion in returns. Consistent with the idea that funds with illiquid holdings tend to employ sequential trading strategies, which increase the likelihood of being taken advantage of by free riders and front runners, the drop in performance is more dramatic for funds that have more illiquid holdings. In addition, I find that the incentive fees paid to fund managers are 1% higher when portfolio disclosure is required, which supports the hypothesis that investors' monitoring of portfolio holdings disciplines adverse risk-taking by fund managers and allows for higher convexity in the optimal compensation structure. Finally, there is a drop in flows into funds that file 13F, which suggests that hedge fund investors negatively value 13F disclosure. Overall, this study suggests that the cost of portfolio disclosure is economically large. It contributes to the policy debate over what constitutes optimal disclosure.
ContributorsShi, Zhen (Author) / Hertzel, Michael (Thesis advisor) / Aragon, Georges (Thesis advisor) / Coles, Jeffrey (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
This dissertation analyzes the reliability of reported employee stock option (ESO) expense, the determination of expected life of ESOs, motivations to manipulate ESO expense, and the impact of noise in ESO expense on subsequent stock price returns. Based on unique data, this is the first paper to measure average historical ESO life for all employees of a broad set of firms. I find average life has a mean of 4.12 years. Average life is reduced by 0.38 years per 10 percentage point increase in volatility, and industry effects explain an additional 7% of the variation. Reported expected life increases 0.37 years per year of historical life and an additional 0.16 years per year of age of the outstanding options. Deviations of reported volatility and life from benchmarks have positive correlations with deviations from own reporting history. Using stated assumptions rather than benchmark assumptions drops (increases) ESO expense by 8.3% (17.6%) for the 25th (75th) percentile firm. The change in earnings per share decreases (increases) by $0.019 ($0.007) for the 25th (75th) percentile firm. Tests for motivations to manipulate stock option expense downward have mixed results. Absolute values of deviations from benchmarks have a positive relationship with subsequent stock price volatility suggesting noise in reported stock option expense results in stock price noise. Deviations from benchmarks and subsequent cumulative abnormal returns have statistically significant results but are difficult to interpret.
ContributorsYoung, Brian (Author) / Coles, Jeffrey (Thesis advisor) / Hertzel, Michael (Committee member) / Babenko, Ilona (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
Restaurants have a cumulative impact on the environment, economy, and society. The majority of restaurants are small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs). Review of sustainability and industry literature revealed that considering restaurants as businesses with sustainable development options is the most appropriate way to evaluate their sustainable practices or lack thereof. Sustainable development is the means by which a company progresses towards achieving an identified set of sustainability goals and harnesses competitive advantage. The purpose of this thesis is to identify barriers to implementing sustainable practices in restaurants, and explore ways that restaurateurs can incorporate sustainable business practices. Energy consumption, water use, waste production, and food throughput are the four sustainability indicators addressed in this thesis. Interviews were conducted with five Tempe, Arizona restaurants, two of which consider their operations to be sustainable, and three of which are traditional restaurants. Results show that for traditional restaurants, the primary barriers to implementing sustainable business practices are cost, lack of awareness, and space. For sustainability-marketed restaurants, the barriers included a lack of knowledge or legal concerns. The sustainability-marketed restaurants have energy-efficient equipment and locally source a majority of their food purchases. There is a marked difference between the two types of restaurants in perception of barriers to sustainable business practices. I created a matrix to identify whether each indicator metric was applicable and present at a particular restaurant, and the potential barriers to implementing sustainable practices in each of the four indicator areas. Restaurants can use the assessment matrix to compare their current practices with sustainable practices and find ways to implement new or enhance existing sustainable practices. Identifying the barriers from within restaurants increases our understanding of the reasons why sustainable practices are not automatically adopted by SMEs. The assessment matrix can help restaurants overcome barriers to achieving sustainability by highlighting how to incorporate sustainable business practices.
ContributorsFreeman, Emily McConnell (Author) / Eakin, Hallie (Thesis advisor) / Basile, George (Thesis advisor) / Williams, Eric D. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
Commodity contracts are often awarded on the basis of price. A price-based methodology for making such awards fails to consider the suppliers' ability to minimize the risk of non-performance in terms of cost, schedule, or customer satisfaction. Literature suggests that nearly all risk in the delivery of commodities is in the interfacing of nodes within a supply chain. Therefore, commodity suppliers should be selected on the basis of their past performance, ability to identify and minimize risk, and capacity to preplan the delivery of services. Organizations that select commodity suppliers primarily on the basis of price may experience customer dissatisfaction, delayed services, low product quality, or some combination thereof. One area that is often considered a "commodity" is the delivery of furniture services. Arizona State University, on behalf of the Arizona Tri-University Furniture Consortium, approached the researcher and identified concerns with their current furnishing services contract. These concerns included misaligned customer expectations, minimal furniture supplier upfront involvement on large capital construction projects, and manufacturer design expertise was not being utilized during project preplanning. The Universities implemented a best value selection process and risk management structure. The system has resulted in a 9.3 / 10 customer satisfaction rating (24 percent increase over the previous system), for over 1,100 furniture projects totaling $19.3M.
ContributorsSmithwick, Jake (Author) / Sullivan, Kenneth T. (Thesis advisor) / Kashiwagi, Dean T. (Committee member) / Badger, William W. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
Current information on successful leadership and management practices is contradictory and inconsistent, which makes difficult to understand what successful business practices are and what are not. The purpose of this study is to identify a simple process that quickly and logically identifies consistent and inconsistent leadership and management criteria. The hypothesis proposed is that Information Measurement Theory (IMT) along with the Kashiwagi Solution Model (KSM) is a methodology than can differentiate between accurate and inaccurate principles the initial part of the study about authors in these areas show how information is conflictive, and also served to establish an initial baseline of recommended practices aligned with IMT. The one author that excels in comparison to the rest suits the "Initial Baseline Matrix from Deming" which composes the first model. The second model is denominated the "Full Extended KSM-Matrix" composed of all the LS characteristics found among all authors and IMT. Both models were tested-out for accuracy. The second part of the study was directed to evaluate the perception of individuals on these principles. Two different groups were evaluated, one group of people that had prior training and knowledge of IMT; another group of people without any knowledge of IMT. The results of the survey showed more confusion in the group of people without knowledge to IMT and improved consistency and less variation in the group of people with knowledge in IMT. The third part of the study, the analysis of case studies of success and failure, identified principles as contributors, and categorized them into LS/type "A" characteristics and RS/type "C" characteristics, by applying the KSM. The results validated the initial proposal and led to the conclusion that practices that fall into the LS side of the KSM will lead to success, while practices that fall into the RS of the KSM will lead to failure. The comparison and testing of both models indicated a dominant support of the IMT concepts as contributors to success; while the KSM model has a higher accuracy of prediction.
ContributorsReynolds, Harry (Author) / Kashiwagi, Dean (Thesis advisor) / Sullivan, Kenneth (Committee member) / Badger, William (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
Mutual monitoring in a well-structured authority system can mitigate the agency problem. I empirically examine whether the number 2 executive in a firm, if given authority, incentive, and channels for communication and influence, is able to monitor and constrain the potentially self-interested CEO. I find strong evidence that: (1) measures of the presence and extent of mutual monitoring from the No. 2 executive are positively related to future firm value (Tobin's Q); (2) the beneficial effect is more pronounced for firms with weaker corporate governance or CEO incentive alignment, with stronger incentives for the No. 2 executives to monitor, and with higher information asymmetry between the boards and the CEOs; (3) such mutual monitoring reduces the CEO's ability to pursue the "quiet life" but has no effect on "empire building;" and (4) mutual monitoring is a substitute for other governance mechanisms. The results suggest that mutual monitoring by a No. 2 executive provides checks and balances on CEO power.
ContributorsLi, Zhichuan (Author) / Coles, Jeffrey (Thesis advisor) / Hertzel, Michael (Committee member) / Bharath, Sreedhar (Committee member) / Babenko, Ilona (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012