Influence of economic factors on the valuation effects of debt offerings

The obejective of this paper is to determine whether the share price responses to debt offerings are influenced cross-sectially by economic factors. We develop hypotheses that share price responses are inversely related to nominal interest rates, and to the issuing firm's stock price level relative to the market, and positively related to economic growth. After controlling for firm-specific characteristics used in previous studies, we find that the share price responses to straight debt offerings are not significantly related to the nominal interest rates or to the issuing firm's relative stock price level, but are positively related to the economic growth. We also find that share price responses to convertible debt offerings are significantly related to the nominal interest rates, the issuing firm's relative stock price level, and economic growth in the manner hypothesized. These results imply that the signal emitted by a firm's debt offering can be influecnced not only by firm-specific characteristics, but also by prevailing economic conditions.     

Quality, Safety and Consistency Equals Better Business

The United States and China both hold unique titles in the global dietary supplement industry.The U.S.is the global leader in regard to manufacturing and marketing finished dietary supplements and China is the largest supplier of raw materials and ingredients.As the leaders in these two areas,it is important to lead by example and also be the safest.     

Political Risk and Purchases of Privatized State‐Owned Enterprises

We assess the valuation effects and risk for acquirers of privatized state‐owned enterprises (SOEs). The valuation effects of purchasers are positive and significant; they increase for purchasers that have recent high performance, better access to capital, and have engaged in larger acquisitions. The acquirer valuation effects are lower when the selling government is more corrupt, more bureaucratic, and a weaker financial performer. Acquirer's total and unsystematic risk increases, indicating that purchasers of SOEs realize diversification benefits. Systematic risk increases for purchasers when the government is characterized by high political risk.     

An empirical assessment of commercial web-based professor evaluation services

We examined the validity of data found on a popular web-based, user-created commercial professor evaluation service, RateMyProfessors.com (RMP), in business school settings. We compared publicly available RMP data for two business schools with official faculty evaluations unavailable to the public. We find that students rate professors significantly lower on RMP than on official university evaluations. However, we also find that the rankings of official university evaluations and RMP are significantly correlated (p < .001), with correlation values high enough to provide useful data to students.     

CEO tenure,the risk of termination and firm value

We examine CEOs' risk of termination, its determinants and its effect on firm value. Using survival analysis, we find that the risk of termination increases for about thirteen years before decreasing slightly with CEO tenure; 82% of CEOs have tenure of less than thirteen years. We also find that tenure increases with performance and compensation and decreases with monitoring by the board. Changes in the risk of termination do not have a significant effect on firm value. Taken as a whole, our results are consistent with the view that corporate governance functions reasonably well for the vast majority of firms.     

The Neoliberal Assault on the Public University: The Case of Recreation,Park, and Leisure Research

Public universities face critical challenges in terms of teaching, researching, and providing service. Funding mechanisms for various departments, programs, and professors have become increasingly intertwined with market-driven forces in light of neoliberal political and economic philosophies. In this essay, we illuminate neoliberalism and its multiple influences in university recreation, parks, and leisure studies departments. In noting classical theories of leisure and the deleterious aspects of neoliberalism, we encourage researchers, teachers, administrators, and students to resist these prevalent cultural trends, evoking a normative role for universities in the provision of a liberal education.     

Building consumer self-control: The effect of self-control exercises on impulse buying urges

In this research, the effects of self-control exercises on impulse buying urges are examined. Drawing on the strength model of self-control (Baumeister and Heatherton 1996, Psychological Inquiry 7:1?C15), the present paper aims to shed light on impulsive buying by exploring the impact of enhancement of self-control as a result of repeated physical and cognitive self-control exercises over time. The findings showed that these self-control exercises reduced impulse buying urges. Directions for future research are discussed.     

Modelling Heterogeneity in Response Behaviour Towards a Sequence of Discrete Choice Questions: A Probabilistic Decision Process Model

There is a growing body of evidence in the non-market valuation literature suggesting that responses to a sequence of discrete choice questions tend to violate the assumptions typically made by analysts regarding independence of responses and stability of preferences. Decision processes (or heuristics) such as value learning and strategic misrepresentation have been offered as explanations for these results. While a few studies have tested these heuristics as competing hypotheses, none has investigated the possibility that each explains the response behaviour of a subgroup of the population. In this paper, we make a contribution towards addressing this research gap by presenting a probabilistic decision process model designed to estimate the proportion of respondents employing defined heuristics. We demonstrate the model on binary and multinomial choice data sources and find three distinct types of response behaviour. The results suggest that accounting for heterogeneity in response behaviour may be a better way forward than attempting to identify a single heuristic to explain the behaviour of all respondents.