Matching Items (3)
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- All Subjects: Firm Performance
- Genre: Academic theses
- Creators: Dooley, Kevin
- Creators: Du, Fangfang
- Creators: Lee, Peggy
Description
By matching a CEO's place of residence in his or her formative years with U.S. Census survey data, I obtain an estimate of the CEO's family wealth and study the link between the CEO's endowed social status and firm performance. I find that, on average, CEOs born into poor families outperform those born into wealthy families, as measured by a variety of proxies for firm performance. There is no evidence of higher risk-taking by the CEOs from low social status backgrounds. Further, CEOs from less privileged families perform better in firms with high R&D spending but they underperform CEOs from wealthy families when firms operate in a more uncertain environment. Taken together, my results show that endowed family wealth of a CEO is useful in identifying his or her managerial ability.
ContributorsDu, Fangfang (Author) / Babenko, Ilona (Thesis advisor) / Bates, Thomas (Thesis advisor) / Tserlukevich, Yuri (Committee member) / Wang, Jessie (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
Shareholder Activism is a mechanism by which investors who hold a significant but
non-majority percentage of a company’s stock, exercise their voting rights, participate in
corporate governance and influence operational decisions of target companies. The
purpose is improve corporate governance, increase firm performance and boost share
-holders’ returns. Existing studies of shareholder activism, based largely in mature
capital markets like the US, come to different conclusions regarding its impact on firm
performance.
In this paper, I collect data on shareholder activism events in the China A Share
market between 2006 and 2016. The sample includes 60 companies targeted by 42
activist investors over this period. I find that institutional investors, typically industrial
capital and private funds, playing an increasingly important role in corporate governance
of Chinese listed companies through activism. The disclosure of the holdings of activists
results in large gains in the target firm. I also find subsequent improvements in long
-term operational performance of target firms. Activist investors in China focus on
smaller targets and those characterized by higher agency costs and lower operating
performance. Activists appear to be largely concerned with improvements in business
strategy and M&A activity. Non-hostile behavior is more likely to be related to successful
activism in China. In addition to statistical evidence, I present case studies of the
“BaoWan dispute” and the activist investment of Butterfly Capital in two firms,
“Guonong” and “Xiuqiang”. The case studies highlight the mechanism employed by these
firms to influence performance.
I conclude with policy recommendations and direction for further research.
non-majority percentage of a company’s stock, exercise their voting rights, participate in
corporate governance and influence operational decisions of target companies. The
purpose is improve corporate governance, increase firm performance and boost share
-holders’ returns. Existing studies of shareholder activism, based largely in mature
capital markets like the US, come to different conclusions regarding its impact on firm
performance.
In this paper, I collect data on shareholder activism events in the China A Share
market between 2006 and 2016. The sample includes 60 companies targeted by 42
activist investors over this period. I find that institutional investors, typically industrial
capital and private funds, playing an increasingly important role in corporate governance
of Chinese listed companies through activism. The disclosure of the holdings of activists
results in large gains in the target firm. I also find subsequent improvements in long
-term operational performance of target firms. Activist investors in China focus on
smaller targets and those characterized by higher agency costs and lower operating
performance. Activists appear to be largely concerned with improvements in business
strategy and M&A activity. Non-hostile behavior is more likely to be related to successful
activism in China. In addition to statistical evidence, I present case studies of the
“BaoWan dispute” and the activist investment of Butterfly Capital in two firms,
“Guonong” and “Xiuqiang”. The case studies highlight the mechanism employed by these
firms to influence performance.
I conclude with policy recommendations and direction for further research.
ContributorsXie, Fenghua (Author) / Wahal, Sunil (Thesis advisor) / Yan, Hong (Thesis advisor) / Lee, Peggy (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
Description
Firms have increasingly taken on the commitment to sustainability due to environmental and social concerns. Environmental and social sustainability can create firm value and social welfare through cost reduction and revenue growth. While indicating a desire to do more, firms face challenges while engaging with stakeholders in their supply chains – suppliers and consumers. Suppliers are key partners to achieve cost reduction while customers can be the driver for revenue growth. If firms do not overcome the challenges properly, such a win-win situation of both firms and their supply chain stakeholders may not exist. This dissertation aims to understand and suggest ways to overcome the challenges which firms and their supply chain stakeholders face while collaboratively pursuing sustainability.
In the first essay, I investigate the financial impact of a buyer-initiated supplier-focused sustainability improvement program on suppliers’ profitability. The results indicate that a supplier sustainability program may lead to short-term financial loss but long-term financial gain for suppliers, and this effect is contingent on supplier slack resources. The second essay of this dissertation focuses on the consumers and investigates their reactions to two types of firm environmental sustainability claims – sustainable production versus sustainable consumption. The results indicate that firm sustainable consumption claims increase consumers’ purchase, thus leads to larger firm sales, whereas firm sustainable production claims decrease consumers’ buying intention, then result in smaller firm sales. Therefore, I show that, contrary to extant belief, firm environmental sustainability can decrease consumers’ intention to buy. Finally, a firm may be impacted when some of its upstream or downstream stakeholders, or its own operations, are impacted by a natural disaster, which are becoming more frequent due to climate change. In the third essay I study the joint effect of market attention and donation timing on firm stock returns based on the experiences of firms who donated to the 2017 Hurricane Harvey. I conclude that neither the first donors nor the followers can mitigate the negative stock returns due to disasters. However, firms who match their donation timing with market attention experience less negative stock market returns compared to other counterparts.
In the first essay, I investigate the financial impact of a buyer-initiated supplier-focused sustainability improvement program on suppliers’ profitability. The results indicate that a supplier sustainability program may lead to short-term financial loss but long-term financial gain for suppliers, and this effect is contingent on supplier slack resources. The second essay of this dissertation focuses on the consumers and investigates their reactions to two types of firm environmental sustainability claims – sustainable production versus sustainable consumption. The results indicate that firm sustainable consumption claims increase consumers’ purchase, thus leads to larger firm sales, whereas firm sustainable production claims decrease consumers’ buying intention, then result in smaller firm sales. Therefore, I show that, contrary to extant belief, firm environmental sustainability can decrease consumers’ intention to buy. Finally, a firm may be impacted when some of its upstream or downstream stakeholders, or its own operations, are impacted by a natural disaster, which are becoming more frequent due to climate change. In the third essay I study the joint effect of market attention and donation timing on firm stock returns based on the experiences of firms who donated to the 2017 Hurricane Harvey. I conclude that neither the first donors nor the followers can mitigate the negative stock returns due to disasters. However, firms who match their donation timing with market attention experience less negative stock market returns compared to other counterparts.
ContributorsCheng, Feng (Author) / Dooley, Kevin (Thesis advisor) / Han, Sang-Pil (Committee member) / Polyviou, Mikaella (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020