An Empirical Examination of the Stated Purposes of Issuer Tender Offers to Purchase Common Stock

This paper documents the purposes of issuer tender offers to repurchase stock, as stated in Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) disclosures, over the period 1994‐2006. We explore whether stated purposes relate to announcement period returns and find returns are significantly lower when repurchases replace dividends, distribute cash from unspecified sources, or occur subsequent to third‐party tender offers. Announcement period returns are significantly higher when repurchases are viewed by management as the best investment opportunity available or when they occur subsequent to previous repurchase programs. Finally, we find evidence in support of signaling theory and Jensen's (1986) agency cost of free cash flow theory.     

Relationships between leader behaviors and audit team performance

This study considers the nature and importance of leadership in the audit process. The relationships between audit team performance and leader behaviors, which are practised by in-charge auditors to supervise staff assistants, are examined in a field experiment. The results identify a number of leader behaviors which relate, either directly or through some intermediary factors, to audit team performance. For example, high performing audit teams tended to be supervised by in-charge auditors who allowed staff innovation, were considerate to the staff's personal needs, administered frequent positive reinforcement, relied heavily on time budgets, assigned a small number of tasks per staff member and administered negative reinforcement infrequently. These and other results appear to have implications for practicing auditors as well as future research in the area.     

The prophecy of Ulrich Beck: signposts for the social sciences

Abstract

This special issue on the legacy of Ulrich Beck is aimed to stimulate reflection both on the specific uses to which Beck’s conceptual and theoretical apparatus can be put within risk studies and the wider significance of his academic project for the social sciences. In this end-piece, we draw out the key themes which surface in the different contributions relating to five particular areas: the nature of risk; advancements in methods; issues of non-knowledge and uncertainty; the development of cosmopolitan risk communities; and the situated character of individualization. We discuss the implications of the accounts contained in this special issue and reflect on the impact and influence of Beck’s sustained engagement with colleagues around the globe, concluding that the concepts and methods that Beck bequeathed the social sciences are set to live on and thrive.     

Manipulation in U.S. REIT Investment Performance Evaluation: Empirical Evidence

We investigate whether Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) managers actively manipulate performance measures in spite of the strict regulation under the REIT regime. We provide empirical evidence that is consistent with this hypothesis. Specifically, manipulation strategies may rely on the opportunistic use of leverage. However, manipulation does not appear to be uniform across REIT sectors and seems to become more common as the level of competition in the underlying property sector increases. We employ a set of commonly used traditional performance measures and a recently developed manipulation-proof measure (MPPM, Goetzmann et al., Rev Finan Stud 20(5):1503–1546, 2007) to evaluate the performance of 147 REITs from seven different property sectors over the period 1991–2009. Our findings suggest that the existing REIT regulation may fail to mitigate a substantial agency conflict and that investors can benefit from evaluating return information carefully in order to avoid potentially manipulative funds.     

Canonical vine copulas in the context of modern portfolio management: Are they worth it?

In the context of managing downside correlations, we examine the use of multi-dimensional elliptical and asymmetric copula models to forecast returns for portfolios with 3–12 constituents. Our analysis assumes that investors have no short-sales constraints and a utility function characterized by the minimization of Conditional Value-at-Risk (CVaR). We examine the efficient frontiers produced by each model and focus on comparing two methods for incorporating scalable asymmetric dependence structures across asset returns using the Archimedean Clayton copula in an out-of-sample, long-run multi-period setting. For portfolios of higher dimensions, we find that modeling asymmetries within the marginals and the dependence structure with the Clayton canonical vine copula (CVC) consistently produces the highest-ranked outcomes across a range of statistical and economic metrics when compared to other models incorporating elliptical or symmetric dependence structures. Accordingly, we conclude that CVC copulas are ‘worth it’ when managing larger portfolios.     

The Evaluation of Performance in Firms of Chartered Accountants

In this paper, the results are reported of a survey of the performance evaluation practices of six UK offices of four firms of chartered accountants. The objective of the study was to identify the variables which seemed likely to affect the perceived performance of chartered accountants in the UK. The study was conducted in three stages. First, a model was specified which identifies perceived performance as a function of perceived effort, perceived ability and perceived luck. Second, using a modified form of Vroom's expectancy model of motivation, the determinants of effort were identified. Finally, four work value factors were empirically derived and conceptually related to each of the variables in the model of performance and effort. The results suggest that two of the work value factors (the desire for a better quality of life and the desire to avoid uncertainty) may be particularly important.     

Neoliberal Urbanism Redux?

Neoliberalization processes have been reshaping the landscapes of urban development for more than three decades, but their forms and consequences continue to evolve through an eclectic blend of failure and crisis, regulatory experimentation, and policy transfer across places, territories and scales. The proliferation of familiar neoliberal discourses and policy formulations in the aftermath of the 2007‐09 world financial crisis masks evidence of more deeply rooted transformations of policies, institutions and spaces that continue to combatively remake terrains of urban development. Accordingly, the critical intellectual project of deciphering the problematic of neoliberal urbanism must continue to evolve. This essay outlines some of the methodological and political challenges associated with (re)constructing a ′moving map′ of post‐crisis neoliberalization processes. We affirm a form of critical urban theory that adopts a restlessly antagonistic stance towards orthodox urban formations and their dominant ideologies, institutional arrangements and societal effects, tracking their endemic policy failures and crisis tendencies while at the same time demarcating potential terrains for heterodox, radical and/or insurgent theories and practices of emancipatory social change.