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1
Nutter, R. D. "Implications for return migration from the United Kingdom for urban employment in Kingston, Jamaica." Thesis, University of Liverpool, 1987. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.233748.
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Hussain, Hafezali Iqbal. "Capital structure and market timing in the UK : empirical evidence from UK firms." Thesis, University of Hull, 2011. http://hydra.hull.ac.uk/resources/hull:13737.
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This thesis studies capital structure of non-financial firm in the UK. It specifically examines the market timing theory of capital structure in the three different empirical chapters. Given that the market timing theory is new relative to the trade-off and pecking order explanations of firms‟ capital structure decisions; it provides an interesting discourse for the wider finance community. The thesis empirically tests the theory and provides evidence as well as theoretical implications for practising managers. The first empirical chapter looks at the timing of IPOs and SEOs in the UK as well as the reversal and persistence of timing attempts. Consistent with the findings in Barker and Wurgler (2002) we find that firms do time IPOs as well as SEOs. However, similar to Alti (2006), we do not find that the effect is persistent. In addition to that, we find that the motive for timing SEOs are distinctively different from the motive for IPO managers. Although timers in both markets are inferior (they are less profitable and have a smaller growth frontier), SEO firms appear to be over-levered and their timing attempts appear to be motivated by reaching a target level. The findings in this chapter lay out an interesting avenue that provides opportunities for future research work. The second empirical chapter studies the timing of issues as well as repurchases. Similar to Elliot et al. (2007) we use a direct measure of equity mispricing to measure how firms adjust security issues to reflect equity mispricing. Consistent with their findings in the US market, we find that firms increase debt issues during periods of undervaluation and equity issues during period of overvaluation to finance their deficit. We further investigate the impact of equity mispricing on repurchasing activities. The findings confirm those of Oswald and Young (2004) where firms repurchase activities are driven by equity mispricing and contradict Rau and Vermaelan (2002) where repurchases in the UK are tax driven. I further find that financial constraints play a critical role in timing of issues and repurchases. Constrained firms are more sensitive to equity mispricing and thus time the market more evidently. In addition to that, building from the work in Warr et al (2011) I find that firms are inclined to time security issues and repurchases to reach their target leverage levels. The third empirical chapter studies the probabilities of firms issuing and repurchasing securities to time periods of equity mispricing. I find that firms time issues and thus rely on debt issues during periods of undervaluation (and vice versa). This action leads them to deviate further from target levels. This is an intuitive finding and supports conclusions derived in Hovakimian (2006) where firms that set target leverage levels also engage in market timing. Similar to Huang and Ritter (2009) I find that equity mispricing drive the issue decision as well as the issue choice. Building on the work of Hovakimian et al. (2001) I also find that issue size is also driven by market timing considerations. Further to that I also find that equity mispricing similarly influences on the repurchasing decision, size and choice of repurchases. Contributing further, I find that firms decision to issue equity accompanied by reducing debt (or issue debt accompanied by repurchasing equity) are more likely to be driven by equity mispricing than pure issue or repurchase decisions, suggesting that managers do try to lower overall cost of capital by switching to a relatively cheaper source of financing. In brief this thesis provides empirical evidence that equity market timing influences capital structure decisions. In support of the market timing theory, I find that managers do indeed time security issues and repurchase securities to reflect equity mispricing. Their timing motivations seem to be driven by targeting behaviour and also financial capacity. I further find that managers substitute one form of financing with another due to market timing considerations. Further research into debt market timing such as Doukas et al. (2011) might shed further light into managerial timing decisions and its impact on capital structure of firms. Comparing both views simultaneously would also provide a more complete and insightful understanding of capital structure.
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McGee, P. S. T. "ERDF regional aid : Improving access for UK local authorities." Thesis, Oxford Brookes University, 1988. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.234456.
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Crosse, John D. "PBDEs in predatory birds from the UK." Thesis, Lancaster University, 2012. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.658319.
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polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) are additive flame retardants that have been -widely used globally for the last 30-40 years. In their functional operation, PBDEs are released from parent products when exposed to heat and light in order to retard combustion reactions. The physiochemical properties of PBDEs coupled with widespread use and production has led to ubiquitous environmental contamination by these compounds. In recent years PBDEs have become increasingly well studied and evidence of their toxicity to biota and occurrence in remote and pristine environments has led to the - implementation of legislation to control their use and production. A great many studies have been published on PBDEs, and key concepts are introduced in Chapter 1. However, comparatively little data exists for the UK. Data is lacking on both marine and terrestrial birds of prey; this is disconcerting, given the potential toxicity of PBDEs, as predatory birds have been susceptible to the adverse effects of anthropogenic organic contaminants in the past. Utilising the eggs and livers of two predatory bird sentinel species, the northern gannet (Morus bassanus) and the sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus), collected as pati of the activities of the Predatory Bird Monitoring Scheme (PBMS), this work aimed to detennine detailed long-term temporal and spatial trends of PBDEs in UK marine and terrestrial systems. In addition, stable isotope residues of carbon and nitrogen were used to identify if changes in the diets of these birds could influence the trends in contaminant residues in their eggs. Furthermore, other potentially confounding factors such as age, sex and body condition were assessed using sparrowhawk livers - a matrix which allowed for the PBDE contamination in male sparrowhawks to be characterised. The findings of the studies conducted as part of this thesis are presented in Papers IIV and discussed collectively in Chapter 2. Methodologies are provided in Papers I-IV and supplemented by Appendix 2. Other POPs, for which data is presented in Paper 4, are discussed in Chapter 1 and Appendix 3. Contributions to relevant studies regarding PBDE toxicity and trends in UK air are presented in Appendices 4 and 5. Key conclusions and recommendations for further work are given in Chapters 3 and 4.
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Xu, Lei. "Returns to education : evidence from the UK." Thesis, University of Dundee, 2018. https://discovery.dundee.ac.uk/en/studentTheses/3df62523-d6b5-47e7-90fa-ab824e60abee.
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This thesis consists of three independent chapters which address separate questions in relation to labor economics and economics of education. Wage Penalty of Vocational Education: Evidence from the UK (Chapter 3): In this chapter, I examine the difference in wages between academic and vocational education in the UK based on Quarterly Labor Force Survey (QLFS) from 2001 to 2013. First I examine the crude wage differences between vocational and academic education. To further test the differences between two types of education, I examine the effect of the education expansion on the returns to higher levels of vocational qualification, based on the difference-in-difference (DID) methodology. The results suggest that the reform has negative effects on the wage of holders of higher levels of vocational education. The penalties vary considerably, depending on the type of vocational qualification. Does age-dependent minimum wage affect employment? evidence from UK (Chapter 4): The chapter studies the age-dependent minimum wage in the UK, which is used to regulate the flow of young workers into the labor market. In this chapter, I examine the employment effect of becoming eligible for higher minimum wage rate by applying Regression Discontinuity (RD). The results suggest that an increase in the minimum wage has a positive effect on employment probability for higher skilled worker covered by the minimum wage but not for lower skilled workers, and it may also lead to crowding out effect coming from higher skilled workers. Moreover, higher skilled workers tend to transfer from a temporary job into a formal job more easily after becoming eligible for higher minimum wage rate and this pattern is the opposite for lower skilled workers. The evidence suggests that the labor market in which the minimum wage prevails is very competitive during the recession and lower skilled workers may bear the cost of competition due to the discontinuity caused by age-related increases in minimum wage. Quantitative effects of higher education expansion on the returns to education: Evidence from the UK (Chapter 5): This chapter studies the effect of the education expansion on the returns to education based on Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) and Understanding Society. After examining the heterogeneous returns, I apply the difference-in-difference (DID) methodology to examine the effect of the education reform on the returns and the matching Difference-in-Difference (MDID) methodology to account for the compositional change across cohorts since those newly recruited university graduates after the reform might be different from the previous graduate cohorts. Newly recruited university graduates consist of “fresh students” who entered universities as school leavers typically with A-level and workers with several years of work experience called “mature students”. The MDID results show that the expansion of higher education mostly reduces the returns for fresh students and it mostly appears in the post-expansion period. The mature students have more stable returns compared with fresh students.
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Kanungo, Rama P. "Corporate restructuring : empirical evidence from the UK." Thesis, Aston University, 2010. http://publications.aston.ac.uk/11938/.
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Corporate restructuring is perceived as a challenge to research. Prior studies do not provide conclusive evidence regarding the effects of restructuring. Since there are discernible findings, this research attempts to examine the effects of restructuring events amongst the UK listed firms. The sample firms are listed in the LSE and London AIM stock exchange. Only completed restructuring transactions are included in the study. The time horizon extends from year 1999 to 2003. A three-year floating window is assigned to examine the sample firms. The key enquiry is to scrutinise the ex post effects of restructuring on performance and value measures of firms with contrast to a matched criteria non-restructured sample. A cross sectional study employing logit estimate is undertaken to examine firm characteristics of restructuring samples. Further, additional parameters, i.e. Conditional Volatility and Asymmetry are generated under the GJR-GARCH estimate and reiterated in logit models to capture time-varying heteroscedasticity of the samples. This research incorporates most forms of restructurings, while prior studies have examined certain forms of restructuring. Particularly, these studies have made limited attempts to examine different restructuring events simultaneously. In addition to logit analysis, an event study is adopted to evaluate the announcement effect of restructuring under both the OLS and GJR-GARCH estimate supplementing our prior results. By engaging a composite empirical framework, our estimation method validates a full appreciation of restructuring effect. The study provides evidence that restructurings indicate non-trivial significant positive effect. There are some evidences that the response differs because of the types of restructuring, particularly while event study is applied. The results establish that performance measures, i.e. Operating Profit Margin, Return on Equity, Return on Assets, Growth, Size, Profit Margin and Shareholders' Ownership indicate consistent and significant increase. However, Leverage and Asset Turn Over suggest reasonable influence on restructuring across the sample period. Similarly, value measures, i.e. Abnormal Returns, Return on Equity and Cash Flow Margin suggest sizeable improvement. A notable characteristic seen coherently throughout the analysis is the decreasing proportion of Systematic Risk. Consistent with these findings, Conditional Volatility and Asymmetry exhibit similar trend. The event study analysis suggests that on an average market perceives restructuring favourably and shareholders experience significant and systematic positive gain.
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Al, Fadhel Hessa Mubarak. "Charity accountability : evidence from the United Kingdom (UK)." Thesis, University of Southampton, 2018. https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/428061/.
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This thesis examines UK charities' accountability through the use of annual reports and annual reviews as formal accountability tools. The overall aim of the thesis is to undertake a coherent analysis of the accountability of annual reports and annual reviews using multiple dimensions of text and disclosures by empirically examining UK charities' accountability disclosure. Given the overall aim, the objectives of this thesis are: first, to assess the effectiveness of narrative communication textual characteristics - specifically chairman's statements - in the context of the role played by trustees in delivering charity accountability; second, to examine the determinants of the extent of performance disclosures in the top 100 UK fundraising charities; and third, to investigate narratives' disclosure trends, strategies and rationales in the annual reports by Kids Company to communicate its performance and activities over time and around critical events, until its final collapse and leaders cognitive behavioural traits (e.g., hubris) impact on disclosures. Systematic engagement with the literature surrounding charities' accountability helps to identify the problems and highlights the knowledge gaps in discharging accountability through public discourse. Three different theoretical frameworks are used to develop and address the research questions of the thesis: stakeholder theory, resource dependence theory, legitimacy theory and hubris. Due to the nature of the research questions and the theoretical framework, the underpinning philosophy for this study is pragmatism. The research outcome of the first paper revealed that charities tend to behave instrumentally when preparing chairman's statements to cover both bad and good news, but charities still reflect some ethical sense by adopting a felt accountability by prioritising internal accountability. The second paper showed that the overall level of the Performance Disclosure Index (PDI) remains weak with a high emphasis on input and output information and less focus on efficiency, outcome and effectiveness disclosures. Moreover, there have been shifts in the influence of resource providers and stakeholders on the level of charity accountability. The third paper revealed that positive and uncertainty words (frequencies) dominated the narrative disclosures, while more positive performance news was emphasised using hyperbole words. It was found that the charity responded to external concerns either reactively or proactively. Finally, informed by hubris literature, it is indicated that the most common form of hubris found in the CEO statements was overconfidence and attribution of performance to self. Overall, this thesis contributed to the field on a number of different levels - theoretical, methodological and contextual - as well as informing policy and practical implications by providing a multi-layered understanding of the charity accountability phenomenon within the UK context.
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Needham, Duncan James. "UK monetary policy from devaluation to Mrs Thatcher." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2014. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.648616.
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Assadi, Gholam Hossein. "Profile of corporate disposal : evidence from the UK market." Thesis, University of Manchester, 1999. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.632634.
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Owners wishing to sell their business have a number of alternative exit routes. In a UK context, they may opt for a public sale of their shares either through the London International Stock Exchange, main market or on the AIM. Alternatively, they may choose a private sale route i.e. MBO or trade sale. This study aims to investigate the connection between the financial characteristics of firms and their choice of exit route. In particular company capital structure and valuation measures are used to discriminate between alternative exit routes and explain the rationale and factors for such segmentation in the market for corporate control. This research uses a discriminatory model to classify the preferred type of realisation route for a firm based on its financial characteristics. A classificatory accuracy better than that obtained by chance provides evidence of some segmentation of alternative disposal routes. A further aim is to consider the role of the large corporate finance advisory industry, which obtains large fees for their proficiency in disposal in the correct market. An attempt has therefore been made to see whether particular types of companies are suited to particular markets on the basis of their financial characteristics and whether this corresponds to actual outcome. We also investigate and evaluate the opportunity cost of misclassification both by the models and by the advisors. The results, in general, suggest that size and capital structure emerge as important discriminators. However, growth and working capital management were also found to contribute in discriminating between the suitability of particular companies for given exit routes. Our investigation demonstrates that discriminant (and logistic regression) models can assign cases to particular markets on the basis of financial attributes at above chance frequency and substantial valuation differences between the various markets are evident. Attention is also given to the opportunity costs involved in differences between indicated and chosen exit route. The results show that out-performing as well as under-performing misclassification errors occur and that the status of advisor seems to play a discussible role.
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Eltaybany, Sarah Abdelmohsen. "Accruals anomaly and accruals management : evidence from the UK." Thesis, University of Aberdeen, 2018. http://digitool.abdn.ac.uk:80/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=240721.
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Jiang, Fei. "Going public : why and when? : evidence from the UK." Thesis, Loughborough University, 2008. https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/2134/33790.
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This thesis empirically investigates the motive for and the timing of initial public offerings (IPOs) in the UK. Due to an apparent lack of research, the two questions as to why firms choose to go public and how they time their IPOs are left under-addressed in the existing IPO literature. Answers to these questions are critical to understand IPO activities and the extent to which firms can make efficient use of the stock market. The empirical studies in this thesis were based on a large and unique sample of 183 UK IPOs that floated on the London Stock Exchange during 1998–2003 and a control group of 2135 UK firms that remained private during 1996–2007.
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Palmer, John B. "Galaxy redshifts from the UK Schmidt objective prism combinations." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 1985. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/27163.
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In the last decade much work has been carried out in the development and use of the 44' objective prism of the UK Schmidt Telescope Unit (UKSTU) for the purpose of deriving redshifts of galaxies. The primary intention has been to obtain large numbers of moderately accurate redshifts for faint galaxies in order to probe the large scale spatial distribution of galaxies. The attainable accuracy with the 44' prism is such that supercluster sized structures can be resolved. In 1982 a new prism with a refracting angle of 13 2 1 was commissioned. On its own, or in combination with the old prism, this new instrument results in higher dispersion spectra though at brighter limiting magnitude. This thesis discusses the modification of existing methods and the development of new methods for the derivation of galaxy redshifts from higher dispersion spectra. The advantages and disadvantages of new versus old are discussed. Magnitude and morphological range of suitable samples are presented. It is found that the overall accuracy of redshifts from the dispersion 2 prism combination (1240A/mm at HIT) is +/-1150Km/s and that the limiting magnitude is 16.5. The range of later morphological types that are suitable for measurement is increased compared with results from the 44' prism. The approximate redshift range is from zero to z=0.1. Observations have been made of a prominent cluster in the region of the Coma supercluster. Prism derived redshifts for most of the galaxies in this cluster show that it is at a similar redshift to the Coma supercluster, though plates of the intervening region will be needed to establish a physical connection with the supercluster. Prism plates have been taken of a region south of the supercluster and whilst there is no evidence of structure at the redshift of the supercluster, a background cluster has been discovered.
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Chen, Jiaqi. "Liquidity, momentum and price bubbles : evidence from the UK." Thesis, Heriot-Watt University, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10399/3209.
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The asset pricing anomalies have existed in the UK stock market for a long time. This thesis aims to study different liquidity measures, liquidity commonality, systematic liquidity risk, different momentum trading strategies, asset pricing risks with momentum, investor behaviours with momentum and the causal link between financial crisis and asset pricing anomalies using various methods and tests. The first empirical chapter examines the performance of the standard Sharpe- Lintner CAPM, the Fama-French three factor model, and the four factor model of Carhart (1997) both with, and without, the first component of multiple illiquidity measures. The results show that no individual illiquidity proxy outperforms the others, and further that the illiquidity proxies have a systematic common illiquidity component. The results also reveal that the inclusion of the illiquidity factor in the capital asset pricing model plays a significant role in explaining the crosssectional variation in stock returns. The second empirical chapter analyses the relationship between momentum profits and stock market illiquidity. This study finds negative and significant relationship between aggregate market illiquidity and momentum profits. The model applied in this chapter captures significant bounce in varying beta coe cients changing over time. The analysis also indicates that the stocks associated with high liquidity performs better relative to illiquid stocks under systemic shocks. The final empirical chapter investigated momentum anomaly and the hypothesis that individual investors trade differently from institutional investors and significantly overreact to economic shocks, creating destabilising effect in the stock market. The results reveal that stock market ineffi ciency is driven and dominated by individual investors' anchoring and adjustment biases as well as institutional investors' cognitive biases. There are several implications for this work. The findings may be useful for both individual and institutional investors and regulators in similar markets beyond the UK, for example, the other European markets. In this study, we show that abnormal stock performance during liquidity crisis is, in part, predictable, and investors can construct portfolios of stocks that better withstand liquidity shocks. For individual investors, they can maximise their profits by holding momentum portfolios at a short horizon. For institutional investors, they might take advantage of professional expertise in making abnormal profits. Policy makers are expected to pay special attention to the differences in trading by financial institutions and individual investors.
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Balcombe, Paul. "Energy from microgeneration : sustainability and perceptions in the UK." Thesis, University of Manchester, 2014. https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/energy-from-microgeneration-sustainability-and-perceptions-in-the-uk(2cd21d5b-0dd1-45cd-a94f-11328f05559f).html.
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The drive to meet climate change and energy security targets has led the UK government to incentivise microgeneration, with 2 GW now installed, the vast majority of which is solar PV. However, this only represents 0.2% of UK energy supply and greater uptake is not guaranteed since FIT rates were cut for solar PV in 2012, reducing the financial incentive to install. Thus, other consumer motivations must be focussed on by industry and the government in order to further increase uptake. Additionally, microgeneration may be able to contribute to a sustainable and reliable UK energy mix, but such a contribution is not guaranteed. For example, there is concern that above 10 GW of installed solar PV, the electricity grid will experience balancing problems due to uncontrolled exporting to the grid. With higher intermittent solar PV generation, there will a greater load requirement on variable-load plants such as coal and gas generation plants. This research investigates the above issues by contributing to the question: How can microgeneration contribute further to UK climate change and energy security targets? Firstly, this research determines the consumer motivations and barriers associated with the decision whether or not to install microgeneration, in order to find ways of further improving uptake. A comprehensive literature review was carried out, followed by a survey using the ‘best-worst scaling’ approach to determine the relative importance of each motivation and barrier across existing adopters, those currently considering installing and those who have decided not to, rejecters. The most important motivations were to earn money, to increase self-sufficiency and to guard against future energy bill increases. The greatest barriers were high capital costs, not earning enough money and the risk of losing money if they moved home. Whilst the Green Deal was designed to remove the capital cost and risk of losing money barriers, it may actually increase the risk of losing money if they moved home as homebuyers are reluctant to purchase a house with an attached Green Deal loan. The desire for self-sufficiency is more important for considerers and rejecters than adopters and greater emphasis on increasing self-sufficiency could help improve uptake. Secondly, an option to increase household energy self-sufficiency whilst mitigating the grid balancing problems associated with solar PV exports was investigated: a combined solar PV, Stirling engine CHP (SECHP) and lead-acid battery household system was simulated and used to carry out a cost-benefit analysis and life cycle assessment compared to a conventional household system using the electricity grid and gas boiler for heating. The system provides 72% of a household’s energy demand and reduces grid demand variations by 35% with a 6 kWh battery. However, the system is only cost-effective for households with large electricity demand, 4,300 kWh/yr. If uptake of such a system is to be encouraged, it must be incentivised: a 24% capital grant would be required for the average household (£3,600). The environmental impacts of the system are reduced by 35-100% compared to the conventional system for 9 out of 11 impacts. However, depletion of elements is 42 times higher largely due to the use of antimony for the battery manufacture. Environmental benefits vary greatly across households and those with the largest energy demand achieve the greatest benefits from the system. Appropriate battery sizing is essential in order to maximise environmental benefits, with 10–20 kWh capacity being optimum for the households considered. Overall, this research has identified numerous ways to increase microgeneration uptake, but this is likely to be at a cost to the government and, ultimately, the tax payer. UK microgeneration policy over the last decade has frequently changed and created uncertainty for consumers and the industry. A more continuous, simple and transparent policy environment would provide security for both industry and consumers, allowing more stable growth in a quickly maturing market.
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Pappas, Kostas. "Three essays on earnings management : evidence from the UK." Thesis, University of Manchester, 2016. https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/three-essays-on-earnings-management-evidence-from-the-uk(65e2706f-8a79-4da9-a7f3-4faffb8d581e).html.
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In this thesis, I examine earnings management issues in the UK context. The thesis consists of three essays. The first chapter investigates whether managers base their trade-off decisions among real earnings management, accruals-based earnings management, and classification shifting, on the costs, constraints and timing of each strategy in the UK. The empirical evidence suggests that some, but not all, costs and constraints play a role in managers’ trade-off decisions. Further, contrasting between firms that are most likely to have manipulated earnings and firms that are not likely to have manipulated earnings, I find no difference in the relation of constraints towards all earnings management forms. This indicates that cost and constraints do not capture entirely what they are designed to, in the first place. Finally, I document evidence that is consistent with managers using real and accruals-based earnings management as substitutes but fail to find evidence that classification shifting acts as a substitute. The second essay studies the effect of income smoothing via accruals-based and real earnings management on the relationship between current stock returns, current earnings and future earnings. I measure income smoothing as the contemporaneous correlation between changes in earnings management proxies and pre-managed income. Using a sample of non-financial publicly listed firms in the UK, I show that both accruals-based and real income smoothing measures are associated with significantly positive share price anticipation of earnings. These results are robust to different stock returns specifications, income smoothing measure calculations, abnormal accruals models and accumulation periods of stock returns. In the third and final essay, I investigate the impact of the level of accruals-based and real earnings management on measures of the amount of performance commentary in annual reports for a large sample of UK public firms. I use automated textual analysis to construct disclosure scores based on the amount of performance and causal commentary. The results suggest that firms with higher levels of earnings management have lower levels of disclosure of performance and causal commentary. The presence of bad news for the firm (missed analyst forecast, underperformance or earnings decline) affects the relationship between disclosure and accruals-based earnings management but not the relationship between disclosure and real earnings management.
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Adra, Samer. "Four essays on UK takeovers : evidence from matching analysis." Thesis, University of St Andrews, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/9488.
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In four empirical chapters, matching analysis is employed to estimate the effects of specific contractual and regulatory arrangements on particular deal outcomes in the UK takeover market. The first chapter highlights the positive effect of earnout financing on the acquiring firms' returns in private target acquisitions. Furthermore, this chapter offers a detailed example of how the non-parametric Propensity Score Matching, despite its growing popularity in financial research, can lead to inaccurate inferences when relevant private-target-specific factors are omitted from the analysis. The second chapter provides the first empirical examination of the effect of the earnout's terms on the premium offered to the target firm's shareholders, and how information asymmetry concerns influence this premium. Additionally, the findings indicate that increases in the premia are negatively interpreted by the market in non-earnout financed deals. However, this negative effect is neutralised in comparable earnout financed deals. The third chapter provides the first empirical contribution that highlights the deal- and firm-related factors that contribute to the growing reliance on the Scheme of Arrangement, as a substitute for the Contractual Offer, in conducting UK public target deals. Despite the concerns raised in the legal literature about the limited bargaining power of the target shareholders under the Scheme, the robust conclusions indicate that such shareholders manage to receive premia that are at least as high as the premia received by shareholders in comparable Offer deals. The fourth chapter employs a hand-collected dataset that covers the incidences of termination fee use in the UK takeover market. The main result is that, in the period preceding the ban that The Panel on Takeovers and Mergers had imposed on termination fees, the inclusion of these fees had a beneficial, or at worst neutral, effect on target shareholders' wealth. Consequently, it is recommended that the Panel ends its ban.
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Al-Hamadeen, Radhi Mousa. "Assurance of corporate stand-alone reporting : evidence from the UK." Thesis, St Andrews, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/423.
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Ndoro, Girlie. "Executive compensation and firm performance : evidence from the UK charities." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2012. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/12678/.
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The past two decades have seen extensive research on governance structures of the firm, executive compensation and performance. However, most of these studies are in the context of profit-making organisations with relatively very little attention being given to this subject in respect of non-profit making organisations. This study examines the determinants of executive compensation and firm performance in charities. Specifically this study attempts to answer the following questions: What are the main determinants of CEO compensation in the UK Charities? What performance measures do the UK Charities use? What are the factors that influence performance in the UK charities? Using both quantitative and qualitative methodologies, the study reports a number of interesting findings. Regarding the executive compensation, the study finds that organisational size, CEOs qualification and CEO’s tenure have a positive bearing on executive pay. However, the results suggest that the sector of the organisation and CEO duality have no impact while and CEO experience had significantly negative relations with CEO pay. Turning to the performance measures, it was found that five performance measures categories are used by the UK charities, namely, financial, the customer; the internal business process, benchmarking and learning and innovation. To get deep insights into performance, the study examined the managers’ opinions on the factors influencing performance. However, CEO pay and the sector of operations have a statistically negative influence on performance. The results indicated that four factors, namely, board size, board independence, CEO pay and sector of operations, have statistically significant influences on the overall performance of the UK charities. The also results suggest that board size and board independence have positive and significant influence on performance. In terms of individual performance measures, the size of the board has a positive and significant influence in respect to financial, customer, internal business and overall performance. The results also indicate that board independence has an influence on financial performance, internal business, benchmarking and overall performance. On the contrary, benchmarking has a positive, but not significant, relationship with CEO pay. This relationship is not surprising, as it supports the social comparison and equity theory. The results also show that the gender of the CEO appears to have a positive, but not significant, impact on the CEO’s performance, with the exception of innovation and learning.
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Pechurina, Anna. "Creating a home from home : Russian communities in the UK." Thesis, University of Manchester, 2010. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.525945.
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Woodhams, M. S. "Market efficiency and UK traded financial futures : evidence from LIFFE." Thesis, Swansea University, 1999. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.636686.
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The following study concentrates on applying a well developed financial hypothesis, the Efficient Market Hypothesis, to a series of recently developed and highly popular financial instruments. The objective is to provide a comprehensive testing methodology of UK traded financial derivatives to cover a range of frequencies seldom if ever covered in the literature. It is the extent of coverage of previously untested instruments that makes this study unique. The objective of the study is to examine financial futures series for up to ten years of data over a spectrum of frequencies from as high as one minute intraday intervals to as low as quarterly data. No or little prior knowledge of the Efficient Market Hypothesis is assumed, therefore time is spent introducing it. The implemented testing methodology spans a range of techniques, the initial and most basic being an extension of the model used to price financial futures in the market, through to more complex mathematical techniques such as; nonstationary trend detection between futures and spot markets; cointegration, non-linear martingale difference error modelling, and discretised markovian analysis. These methodologies are applied in such a way that not only are we able to identify market inefficiencies when they occur, but also we are able to implement techniques in an attempt to provide some evidence for their occurrence. In our conclusions we consider such effects as closeness to contract maturity, periods of high traded volume, risk, and information arrival etc. as possible reasons for the presence of inefficiency. These results are brought together in the concluding chapter and areas for further research are discussed.
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Sherif, Mohamed A. "Modelling consumption asset pricing models : empirical evidence from the UK." Thesis, University of Manchester, 2005. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.633243.
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This thesis adopts a range of different methodologies in an attempt to evaluate the performance of consumption-based asset pricing models. In particular, it sets out to investigate the relationship between asset prices, consumption and investment decisions. Different utility functions are used in an attempt to examine their roles in pricing assets, reducing pricing errors and solving the equity premium puzzle. First considered is whether the value of relative risk aversion can be changed by using parametric tests and different utility functions. Whereas the power utility model introduces a basic learning framework of the relation between consumption and asset returns, there is general consensus that there is evidence against the model as an asset pricing tool and for its ability to resolve the equity premium puzzle. Within the context of representation of agent models, various studies have attempted to introduce more general preferences. In this study, tests are made of the traditional CCAPM, the Epstein and Zin (1989, 1991) model, and two external habit formation specifications using GMM on a quarterly data set spanning 35 years. In a novel approach the models are estimated for both the whole economy and four separate industrial sector groupings. The structural stability tests advocated by Hall and Sen (1999) are used to test the models further. There is little evidence found to support the traditional CCAPM and the recursive preferences model of Epstein and Zin (1989, 1991). There is highly supportive evidence for the performance of the habit formation models, particularly the Campbell-Cochrane specification. Importantly, the analysis of the four sector groupings shows that estimated levels of risk aversion are similar across these groupings, conforming with theory. In line with previous studies, the models show signs of sensitivity to choices of asset return data, consumption measures, and particularly, instrumental variables. Second, a non-parametric framework is used in an attempt to investigate the performance of the models. In particular, investigation of the pricing errors of consumption asset pricing models by estimating the vertical and minimum distances to the Hansen-Jagannathan bound. Additionally, bootstrap experiments are conducted in a further attempt to examine the performance of the models. The power utility model produces high pricing errors associated with higher values of relative risk aversion. The Epstein-Zin (1991) recursive preferences model and the Abel (1990) formulation manage to reduce the pricing errors. However, these pricing errors are associated with higher values of relative risk aversion. In the bootstrap experiments, in the majority of simulations, the models violate the Hansen and Jagannathan bound, and the distance is an order of magnitude larger than the IMRS volatility. However, the lower risk aversion coefficient associated with the lower distance is obtained from the Campbell-Cochrane model. Third, investigation of the performance of the consumption-based asset pricing models in pricing bonds. Additionally, an investigation of whether the term structure in the UK can reflect information about consumption growth. In this study, the methodology adopted by Harvey (1988) is used to test the relation between term structure and the consumption asset pricing models. Also used are the structure stability tests of Hall and Sen (1999). The models perform better with longer horizons. The results suggest that the estimates of the coefficient of relative risk aversion/curvature parameter are negative and insignificant, very often with the models that no longer consider the habit formation specification. The empirical evidence based on the regression are broadly supportive of efficiency in using lagged consumption and yield spread as predictors of consumption growth, rather than other lagged stock returns. The final study investigates the recent explorations of asset pricing in the UK, using the OLS and GMM methodology to revisit the conditional Sharp-Linter CAPM model with fixed and time varying parameters. Additionally, an examination is made to the performance of the consumption-based asset pricing models and the conditional asset pricing model with the Famma-F'rench factors, 8MB and HML. Following Harvey (1988), a specification is estimated that allows for the time variation in conditional covariance, conditionally expected returns, and the conditional variance of the market and it is found that the restriction can not be rejected. However, there is evidence that the conditional Sharpe-Linter model with fixed parameter is unable to capture the dynamic behaviour of asset returns. Additionally, the estimation of the conditional CAPM that allows for time variation performs better with the inclusion of BMS and HML. As for the consumption-based asset pricing models, the Campbell-Cochrane specification still best characterises the UK market.
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Appiah, Kingsley O. "Corporate governance and corporate failure : evidence from listed UK firms." Thesis, Loughborough University, 2013. https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/2134/13576.
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This study is motivated by the numerous reforms to strengthen the efficacy of corporate boards and their oversight committees, in the wake of high profile corporate failures. The empirical question, however, is whether recent proposals would enhance board and their committee effectiveness and in this way, reduce the likelihood of firm`s failure. This study examines whether the composition, structure and functions of corporate boards and their interactions are related to the probability of corporate failure. Prior studies employ agency and resource dependency theories in isolation as theoretical lenses. This study, however, employs these aforementioned theories as theoretical lenses and argues that the board control and resource function affects the relationship between corporate board attributes and corporate failure. This study examines a sample of 358 UK listed firms, consisting of 95 failed firms and 263 non-failed firms during the period 1999-2011. This study also uses a unique hand-collected data set that measures the corporate governance attributes and functions of these 358 firms over a period of five years preceding failure or otherwise, resulting in 1748 firm-years observations. This study reveals that the probability of failure is lower in firms with large board size, former government officials, independent remuneration committee chairman and greater proportion of outside directors as well as effective audit and remuneration committees. This study also finds that the prospect of corporate failure is higher in firms with less than three independent NEDs on both the audit and nomination committees, without audit committee and where audit committee has no one with financial expertise. The results, however, suggest that the possibility of corporate failure is higher in firms whose boards have a female director and where the nomination committee meets often or where its membership is exclusively preserved for independent NEDs. On the interaction effects, the results show that frequency of board meetings as well as its interactions with presence of female directors, audit and remuneration committees effectiveness are positively related to the probability of corporate failure. The results also indicate that a number of interactions between corporate board attributes and functions are unrelated to the likelihood of corporate failure. These include the interactions between board composition measures (i.e. proportion of outside directors, presence of female directors and board size) and the board resource proxy (i.e. former government official). These associations, especially remuneration committee effectiveness, remuneration committee chairman independence, firm size and profitability, are not only statistically and economically significant but also robust to different specifications. Further, the Receiver Operating Curves indicate that the impact of corporate governance measures after controlling for firm size, liquidity, profitability, age, industry effects, and leverage is more profound in two years preceding failure. The implication of this is that corporate governance mechanisms alone are insufficient to rescue the firm on the verge of collapse. The findings are consistent with the idea that failing firms decline in size, managerial performance, corporate board attributes as well as their board`s ability to discharge it`s monitoring and resource roles. This study adds to the debate on the impact of corporate governance on corporate failure by developing, analysing and testing a robust UK corporate failure prediction model which is underpinned by a multi-theoretical framework: agency and resource dependency theories. This study also offers several recommendations for policy makers and firm-level corporate governance strategies in the mix of the numerous corporate governance reforms worldwide, this in particular makes this study unique.
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Wood, Michelle H. "Organisation for innovation : evidence from the UK electronic components industry." Thesis, University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, 1997. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.388153.
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Martiskainen, Mari. "Developing community energy projects : experiences from Finland and the UK." Thesis, University of Sussex, 2014. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/51506/.
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Community energy has drawn interest from the general public, policy makers and researchers in the UK over the last few years. Community energy projects, such as energy saving measures and renewable energy projects, are usually organised by civil society groups rather than commercial businesses. This DPhil research approaches community energy as local grassroots innovation and compares its development in two different countries, Finland and the UK. Key research question is: Why and how do community energy projects develop and how do they contribute to niche development? The thesis uses Sustainability Transitions studies literature, especially literature on Strategic Niche Management (SNM), as a theoretical framing, and empirical in-depth analysis of four community energy projects, two in the UK and two in Finland. The research examines how community energy projects develop in ‘niches'. Research findings highlight that motivations for projects include monetary savings, energy savings and climate change. Projects are developed by pre-existing community groups or groups that have come together to develop an energy project. Local embedding of community energy projects to each project's individual circumstances helps successful project delivery. Pre-existing skills and tacit knowledge such as the ability to seek information and fill in funding applications can aid success. Engagement with key stakeholders further shapes projects' aims and objectives. Community energy projects benefit from a clear leader who works with a supportive team. There is evidence of projects networking at the local and national level in the UK, while in Finland networking remains limited to the local area and projects often develop in isolation. Furthermore, there is a clear lack of active intermediary organisations in the Finnish context. Policy discourse at the government level can aid the attractiveness of community energy, while continued funding support encourages more people to get involved in projects in their local areas.
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Parkinson, Tom. "Values of higher popular music education : perspectives from the UK." Thesis, University of Reading, 2014. https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.762218.
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In the 23 years since the first undergraduate popular music degree programme opened in the United Kingdom, the academic discipline of popular music has burgeoned to encompass over 160 programmes delivered across the higher education sector, by private institutions, Royal-chartered conservatoires, post-92 universities and Russell Group universities. This doctoral research project seeks to understand the values underpinning and informing educational practice in this growing academic discipline. It proceeds from an understanding of higher education and popular music as two highly complex domains in their own right, and from the proposition that values inhering at their nexus- Higher Popular Music Education- derive from and are borne by multiple human, institutional and disciplinary sources, and bear the trace of socio-cultural, economic and historical contexts related to each domain. It takes an inductive approach to a multiple-case study of four popular music degree programmes at different higher education institutions across the United Kingdom. Acknowledging from the outset the impossibility of identifying a conclusive ‘roster’ of itemisable values, this study draws on a combination of institutional literature, semi-structured interview and field observation data to explore the interplay of musical, educational and other values within the educational message systems of pedagogy, curriculum, institution, assessment, lifestyle and market. Analysis of the data suggested that seemingly unrelated values such as, for example, those relating to musical aesthetics and social justice, could in fact be oppositional in practice, resulting in surprising tensions and impacting on such areas as curricula and student lifestyles. Moreover, values enshrined in policy, or perceived by interviewees to be dominant within the higher education sector, appeared often to be at odds with individuals’ personal opinions regarding the value of knowledge and education, or with what they saw to be the core values of popular music as an art form. This interdisciplinary study sits across the research fields of music education, the sociology of higher education and popular music studies, and makes original contributions to knowledge in each of these fields.
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Morris, Jennifer Ellen. "Organically bound tritium in sediments from the Severn Estuary, UK." Thesis, University of Southampton, 2006. https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/41353/.
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Amersham plc, now GE Healthcare, has discharged both organically bound tritium (OBT) and tritiated water (HTO) into the Severn estuary since 1981. The OBT component of these discharges results in elevated tritium (3H) activities in the sediments and biota of the estuary. A monthly sampling programme, covering February 2000 to May 2004, has provided the first detailed description of the spatial and temporal distribution of 3H activities in surface sediments from the estuary. Four sediment cores were also collected from salt marshes on the northern shore, to obtain longer term records of tritium accumulation. The spatial distribution of sediment 3H activities correlates well with predicted patterns of suspended sediment circulation, with higher activities (up to 3 Bq/g dry weight) in sediments from sites within 10 km of the Amersham plc discharge point and at a greater distance to the east. Temporal variations in the 3H activities of both surface and core sediments are predominantly controlled by the magnitude, composition and pre-discharge treatment of organic 3H discharges from Amersham plc, with secondary sediment composition effects; lower 3H activities are generally measured in sandy/gravelly sediments than in muddy sediments. The dated sediment 3H activity profile in one of the salt marsh cores corresponds to the Amersham plc OBT discharge record, indicating that 3H is persistent in sediments over a period of 25 years. Up to 60 % of the OBT in sediments could only be extracted with strong acids and bases, indicating that it may be composed of large, complex and hydrophobic compounds that are only extractable when lysed, such as humic compounds and/or large biomolecules. The sediment-bound fraction of OBT is predicted to be less than 2 % of the total organic tritium discharged from Amersham plc, however, these molecules do have the potential to remain in salt marsh and subtidal mud patch sediments for decades, unless the sediments are eroded and resuspended, until tritium activities decline by radioactive decay.
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Hutagaol, Yanthi. "IPO valuation and performance : evidence from the UK main market." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 2005. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/1674/.
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Selling stock to the general public is one important method by which firms are able to raise new equity capital. If the firm sells stock for the first time to the general public, it is called an initial public offering (IPO). Subsequent to the IPO, firms may seek to raise further equity capital by offering to sell new shares through a seasoned equity offering (SEO). In the UK, most young/small firms initially raise equity capital from a small number of investors through private placements. If a firm prospers and needs additional equity capital, it may choose at some point to go public by selling stock through an IPO. By issuing publicly traded equity, the firm establishes both a market value for the firm and a market for its common stock. There have been many IPO studies that record the so-called “Underpricing anomaly” as a primary stylised fact of IPOs. The underpricing refers to the significance increase of the IPO market price over the first few days after the initial listing. This fact suggests that the IPO pricing is not simple very few information about the issuing firm is available to the market prior to IPO. This study is to examine the IPO valuation based on the prospectus information, which is perceived as comprehensive information about the firm prior to the IPOs. Furthermore, this study is also to observe the impact of the prospectus information on the IPO after market performances.
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McKaig, Andrew J. "Are asset prices predictable? : evidence from the UK futures market." Thesis, University of Aberdeen, 1998. http://digitool.abdn.ac.uk/R?func=search-advanced-go&find_code1=WSN&request1=AAIU105678.
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The purpose of this thesis is to provide evidence on the predictability of asset prices: does it exist and what are its characteristics? Therefore processes underlying asset price behaviour are the central concern of this thesis. Utilising UK futures market data, initial time-series tests consider if, ex post, prices depart from random behaviour and if linkages exist between prices set in different markets. Results show that departures from randomness exist, namely, persistence and mean reversion, and suggest that prices in some markets may be used to forecast prices set in other markets. The thesis then investigates the mean reversion characteristics of the data by conducting 'model-based' tests on the existence and sources of mean reversion. Subject to the maintained hypothesis of the cost-of-carry model, tests reveal expected transitory components in commodity and metals prices across maturities. For financial assets, expected mean reversion is found only at the near to maturity horizons. Implied cash flow yields and interest rate movements have a role in driving the transitory process but this varies across assets and maturities. Using multivariate estimation procedures and focussing on asset bases, the thesis then explores whether predictability may be due to a common component driven by an unobservable source of risk. Movement in the price of systematic risk is proxied by ex ante variables that have been shown to have predictive power for returns from bond and stock markets. For financial assets, the evidence cannot reject common movement at short horizons but rejects common movement at longer horizons. Further tests reveal that the observed short run commonalties are dominated by systematic components associated with expected future spot rates. In contrast, tests reveal that agents' in metal and energy markets appear to price the systematic risk associated with their futures position as well that associated with spot price forecasts.
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Zhang, Qiantao. "Universities, knowledge networks, and regional competitiveness : perspectives from the UK." Thesis, Cardiff University, 2015. http://orca.cf.ac.uk/78321/.
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As the need for regions to convert knowledge within universities into industrial and commercial success is increasingly acknowledged in the knowledge-based economy, universities are no longer considered to be isolated islands of knowledge, but as institutions increasingly engaged with a range of external partners through various types of knowledge networks. Although studies have examined the importance of interactions between academics and businesses in building competitive advantages of regions, there has been much less work considering how the nature of interactions is associated with regional competitiveness. This research explores these issues through a study of the network relationships between universities and businesses in the context of the UK, where uneven regional economic development has long been a feature of the economy. By adopting a critical realist paradigm and employing both qualitative and quantitative methods, this research reveals both ‘what’ knowledge exchange activities are engaged by universities and ‘how’ the intensity and performance of those activities are associated with regional competitiveness. National findings suggest that universities in more competitive regions generate higher income from engaging in knowledge exchange activities than those in uncompetitive areas. However, academics in uncompetitive regions are more actively engaged in knowledge exchange activities than their counterparts in competitive areas. It is also found that the intensity of firm-level interaction with universities is associated with the regional location of firms, especially in the case of smaller firms. In particular, firms located within relatively economically competitive regions tend to be more positively engaged with the use of academic knowledge. Firms in uncompetitive regions have lower levels of demand for academic knowledge, even though there is often sufficient supply. Overall, the study indicates that the competitiveness of regions in the UK is positively associated with a strong demand from businesses for knowledge generated by universities. The complexity of the knowledge exchange process is further highlighted in case studies of university initiatives, which show that universities engage with businesses in a diverse spectrum even at the regional level. It is concluded that future policy intervention targeted at fostering university-industry interactions needs to more fully acknowledge territorial patterns of knowledge exchange.
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Hu, Nan. "Media impacts on mergers and acquisitions : evidence from UK market." Thesis, Durham University, 2015. http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/11341/.
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This thesis examines the impact of financial media on UK merger and acquisition (M&A) deals from several perspectives. The Chapter 2 examines the impact of financial media on M&A performance using UK M&A data from 1981 to 2010. The results show that, both in the short run and long run, deals with media coverage outperform deals without media coverage. Moreover, the results indicate a significantly negative correlation between media pessimism and post-merger performance both in the short run and long run. These findings suggest that pre-merger news released by influential financial media has a large impact on market reactions to M&A announcements, consistent with the investor recognition hypothesis. Furthermore, the negative correlation between media pessimism and acquirer returns suggests that high media pessimism about M&As leads to downward pressure on market prices. Chapter 3 examines how media coverage and media pessimism influence takeover outcomes, based on the same database as in the first chapter. It is generally believed that financial newspapers directly impact investor sentiment concerning both individual stocks and the market as a whole (Antweiler and Frank, 2004; Joe et al., 2009; Ferguson et al., 2012; Jegadeesh and Wu, 2012; Chen et al., 2013; Garcia, 2013). Moreover, M&As often occur due to either takeovers or tender offers and usually require bidders to buy the target stock for more than its current market value (Jensen and Ruback, 1983). However, Branch et al. (2008) state that about 10% of announced takeover attempts fail, including those withdrawn by the acquirer or rebuffed by the target firm. Failure usually consists of withdrawn or pending takeovers. Successful takeovers are contractual agreements in which both acquirers and targets have enough interest to agree on an offer. Chapter 4 tests the different impacts of media pessimism in hot and cold markets. This paper is primarily motivated by the growing importance of media sentiment among merger waves. The principle result suggests that acquirers are subject to less media pessimism when the deal is announced during a hot market valuation period. Moreover, the results also show that acquirers obtain significantly higher short-run announcement returns for deals announced during hot markets with low media pessimism and significantly lower long-run returns for deals announced during cold markets with low media pessimism. The finding is in line with early investigations by Petmezas (2009), who states that managers undertaking takeovers during hot markets can earn positive returns in the short run and earn insignificant returns during cold markets.
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Chow, William Kong Meng. "Can profitable trading strategies be derived from investment bestsellers?" Thesis, University of Reading, 2001. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.367341.
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Mowjee, Tasneem. "NGO donor funding relationships : UK and EC funding for the humanitarian aid activities of UK NGOs from 1990-1997." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 2002. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.271289.
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Neale, Klaire. "Mating interactions of the harmful dinoflagellate alexandrium tamarense from UK coastal waters." Thesis, University of Westminster, 2014. https://westminsterresearch.westminster.ac.uk/item/96wy3/mating-interactions-of-the-harmful-dinoflagellate-alexandrium-tamarense-from-uk-coastal-waters.
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The Alexandrium tamarense species complex is a group of economically and ecologically important marine dinoflagellates. The complex is comprised of three morphospecies A. tamarense, A. fundyense and A. catenella grouped according to ribosomal DNA or ‘ribotype’. There are five ribotype type groups (I-V) each consisting entirely of toxic or non-toxic isolates. Toxic isolates are associated with harmful algal blooms (HAB’s) due to their ability to produce powerful neurotoxins, which are responsible for outbreaks of paralytic shellfish poisoning in areas of shellfish production. Sexual reproduction in A. tamarense has important implications for the initiation and termination of HAB’s associated with these species. Resistant, long-lived hypnozygotes are formed during blooms through gamete fusion and deposited in sediments. These hypnozygotes provide the source of inoculum of motile vegetative A. tamarense cells in temperate zones during subsequent spring/summer blooms. This study provides further insight into the mating interactions between toxic Group I and non-toxic Group III isolates primarily from UK coastal waters. Study of the effect of temperature on the mating interactions of A. tamarense Group I and Group III in culture showed that temperature had a significant effect on both groups. Co-cultures of compatible Group III isolates showed a significant decrease (p<0.05) in hypnozygote yield at 15°C, compared to 20°C. In contrast the mating compatibility of co-cultures of Group I isolates showed significant increase (p<0.05) at 15°C, compared to 20°C. Similar to other studies, compatible Group I and Group III isolates formed non-viable hybrid hypnozygotes in co-culture. Comparison of the average vigour of inbred Group I crosses and outbred Group I/III crosses suggest that Group I isolates are more likely to out-breed with a compatible Group III isolate. A finding that may have significance in areas where the two groups co-occur. Preliminary data suggesting the presence of both Group I and Group III ribotypes in some isolates has been generated from a nested single cell PCR/qPCR protocol using group specific primers. These data were compared to a dual probe whole cell fluorescent in situ hybridisation (whole cell FISH) assay of isolates. Whole cell FISH showed no dual expression of ribosomal RNA. This suggests that some A. tamarense Group I and Group III isolates may have rDNA pseudogenes corresponding to different ribotypes. If correct this could have implications for the overestimation of A. tamarense group diversity in natural populations when using rDNA sequences for identification.
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Zhang, Xufei. "Exchange rates and exports : evidence from manufacturing firms in the UK." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2008. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/28227/.
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The thesis examines the effect of exchange rate variability on firms' export decisions, using data for UK manufacturing firms. We separately investigate the relationship between the changes of level of exchange rate and exports and that between exchange rate uncertainty and exports. Our results show that export extensive margin is not significantly related to changes in the level of exchange rates, whereas exchange rates have a significant and negative impact on the export intensity. Since industry heterogeneity is important in the effect of exchange rate level changes, we further explore possible explanations. In particular, we test whether external orientation and market structure play a role in the effect. Our results provide significant evidence for the role of external orientation and market structure. We also find significant evidence for the hysteresis effect of exchange rate uncertainty on exports, using new measures of uncertainty. In both cases, the behaviour of multinationals is investigated. We find that multinationals are less likely to be negatively affected by both changes of level of exchange rate and exchange rate uncertainty than indigenous firms. It contributes to the micro econometric literature in several aspects. Our evidence for industry heterogeneity from UK firm level data is new. Our explanations for industry heterogeneity by testing two hypotheses are the first attempt to investigate the factors driving different effects across industries. New measures of exchange rate uncertainty and related new method are used to test the hypothesis of hysteresis effects of uncertainty on trade. The use of micro data and new measures enable us to overcome the econometric difficulties and problems in previous studies. We also investigate whether multinationals' export behaviour is different from that of indigenous firms in response to exchange rate fluctuations. As far as we know, the multinationals' ability to deal with currency risk has never been examined before. The thesis provides new evidence for the multinationals' advantage of internalising currency risk over indigenous firms under exchange rate movements.
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Kasseeah, Harshana. "Financing decisions and financial constraints : evidence from the UK and China." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2008. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/10523/.
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Firms are the engines of growth in any economy. It is therefore important to study how they finance themselves, as this may have a direct impact on the overall growth rate of the economy. A firm can choose whether to finance its activities with equity, debt, or both. An optimal capital structure is that mix of internal and external finance (debt and/or equity) that optimizes the value of a firm. Therefore, the question of how to finance or equivalently from where to borrow becomes a crucial decision. In each chapter of this study, we study the financing decisions of a different set of firms faced with financial constraints. The two countries we focus on are the UK and China. Our study examines two types of firms in the UK. We first study listed firms and examine how financial constraints affect their leverage decisions. Next, we focus on the financing decisions of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), as these firms are more likely to suffer from financial constraints. To examine financial constraints, we use both conventionally used indicators of financial constraints and new indicators. Our study on China is mainly based on listed manufacturing Chinese firms. China is currently the largest developing and transition economy in the world. It is interesting to study the financing behaviour of manufacturing firms in China as manufacturing is believed to be the main engine behind the Chinese growth miracle. We account for factors specific to the Chinese case to determine if the leverage decisions of Chinese firms are similar to those of firms in other parts of the world. We also examine the cash holding decisions of Chinese firms as these firms seem to be highly financially conservative. Our results indicate that firms tend to follow a financial hierarchy in their financing patters and that the preferred source of external finance of most firms, whether in the UK or China, remains leverage. However firms tend to reduce their leverage when they experience an increase in their internal funds, which points towards a financially conservative behaviour. This needs to be accounted for in policy decisions that are mainly formulated on the supply side.
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Badreddine, Sina. "Sources and practicality of momentum profits : evidence from the UK market." Thesis, Durham University, 2009. http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/2066/.
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It is hard to believe that rewarding opportunities in a liberalised market are left unexploited by acquisitive market participants or even by proficient institutional investors. Notwithstanding this, the sources of momentum profits have been puzzling academics for many years. Therefore, the incentives for these rewarding opportunities remain an unresolved mystery long after the momentum phenomenon has been identified. The significance of the momentum phenomenon is reflected in the voluminous studies that investigate it. This thesis aims to investigate a number of issues surrounding the debate on the momentum phenomenon in order to provide a broader understanding of the profitability of momentum strategies and its sources by using alternative as well as some new methods. Furthermore, this study investigates momentum strategies in the UK market by controlling for several market microstructure effects and finds that momentum profits tend to disappear after the six months holding period, from the year 2000, providing evidence of fading momentum profits. While market states fail to explain fading momentum profits, this study argues that it is the result of gradual market awareness. Seasonal effects on momentum returns after 1998 show evidence of continuing tax-loss selling activity, and hence, draw impactions on the effectiveness of the governmental 1998 Tax-Act. This thesis also supports the presence of an industry effect on the cross-section of momentum returns; however, this effect is small and is confined to the stocks that have performed well in the past and increases with liquidity. Empirical evidence suggests that momentum profits exist among the highly liquid stocks that are weekly traded. The findings also suggest that market frictions such as short sales constraints and trading costs cannot eliminate momentum profits among optioned or non-optioned (comparable) stocks using a new technique to measure transaction costs. The overall evidence implies that the observed momentum profits are not fully attributed to the argued trading obstacles but mainly driven by biased investment decisions and that momentum profits are significant even after controlling for uncertainty, ambiguity and trading costs
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Garside, Ludivine. "Discretion in public enforcement : evidence from UK competition enforcement, 1970-2003." Thesis, University of Bristol, 2011. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.573395.
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Applied to public enforcement, the concern for value for money in the public sector makes discretionary decision-making a target for reform. UK competition policy has already been reformed in favour of a more prohibitive legal regime. I isolate some discretionary features in the previous competition regime, and examine their consequences on decisions. Extant empirical competition studies rely on case-level analysis. To deepen the analysis, I disaggregate enforcement data at company level, on abuse of dominance cases published by the UK national competition authority, between 1970 and 2003. Econometric analysis confirms that decisions still depend on the economic facts of the case. Additionally, decisions are shown not to be neutral to the investigation process itself, but actually to depend on the specific assortments and hierarchy amongst investi- gators. Extensive experience of chairing investigations makes case chairmen tougher: the more experienced the case chairman, the more likely an adverse finding against a company. The strength of the discretionary power of the case chairman does not, how- ever, destroy all the potential benefits of the more onerous method of making decisions in a panel. Panel members unaccustomed to a given case chairman exert a calming effect on an experienced case chairman's tendency towards more adverse findings, which can be interpreted as a sign of effective information aggregation. The controversial use of profitability analysis in competition deci- sions affects only decisions where the abuses investigated directly involve excessive pricing. Furthermore, companies alleged to have engaged in infringements where economic theory recommends more active intervention, respond to de facto incentives to change their behaviour as the investigation starts: reported profitability levels exhibit a marked reduction in the financial years during the inves- tigation, compared to the pre-investigation years. Within-tenure experience, the use of profitability, and collegiality effectively in- jected more discretion into public enforcement decisions.
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Meng, Qingwei. "Corporate investment, financing and payout decisions : evidence from UK listed companies." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2013. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/4062/.
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This thesis aims to contribute to the corporate finance literature by focusing on the interdependence of corporate investment, financing and payout decisions of UK-listed companies, within the period 1999-2008. After the introductory chapter, Chapter 2 critically reviews the existing literature on corporate investment, financing and payout policies. Chapter 3 investigates the interactions among the three corporate decisions. One of the key findings is that the three corporate decisions are likely to be jointly determined in the presence of financial constraints. The results also suggest that the effect of uncertainty on corporate investment is significantly positive, but the effect on dividend payout is significantly negative. Chapter 4 explores the influence of managerial confidence and economic sentiment on the set of jointly determined corporate decisions. An important finding is that the state of confidence at aggregate levels has significantly positive effects on both real investment and debt financing decisions. Chapter 5 discriminates conceptually and evaluates empirically twenty alternative measures of corporate investment used in the existing literature. It is found that conclusions drawn from empirical analysis are likely to be sensitive to the choice of corporate investment measures. The key findings of the thesis are summarised in the conclusion chapter.
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Gertsch, Stefan. "Multifactor Stock Selection Strategies Evidence from France, Germany and the UK /." St. Gallen, 2006. http://www.biblio.unisg.ch/org/biblio/edoc.nsf/wwwDisplayIdentifier/01650381002/$FILE/01650381002.pdf.
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Enabulele, Egie Elisha. "Molecular and morphological identification of digeneans from Lymnaeidae in the UK." Thesis, Kingston University, 2016. http://eprints.kingston.ac.uk/35056/.
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Many parasitic digeneans are of medical and veterinary importance and therefore developing methods to accurately identify them and understand their evolutionary epidemiology is crucial to disease diagnosis, surveillance and control. An integrative approach using molecular and morphological data was applied in investigating digenean species transmitted by lymnaeid snails in the UK. Radix auricularia, R. balthica, Lymnaea stagnalis and Stagnicola fuscus were identified by DNA sequencing of the ITS2 and cox1 genes. They were recorded to transmit a total of 13 digenean species belonging to six families. The parasites were identified by sequencing appropriate nuclear and mitochondrial genetic markers and were morphologically described. The study presents the first molecular identification of Diplostomum pseudospathaceum and Tylodelphys clavata (Diplostomatidae), Cotylurus brevis (Strigeidae), Plagiorchis maculosus (Plagiorchiidae), Trichobilharzia szidati (Schistosomatidae), Echinostoma revolutum, Echinoparyphium aconiatum, and Hypoderaeum conoideum (Echinostomatidae) from the UK. Australapatemon sp. (Strigeidae) and Echinoparyphium sp. could only be identified to genus level and require further investigation. Trichobilharzia franki was molecularly identified for the first time from Scotland. Echinoparyphium recurvatum and Lecithodendrium linstowi (Lecithodendriidae) were molecularly identified for the second time in the UK. Trichobilharzia species are causative agents of human cercarial dermatitis which is currently regarded as a re-emerging disease in Europe and E. revolutum, Ep. recurvatum and H. conoideum are zoonotic agents of echinostomiasis. Diplostomum pseudospathaceum and T. clavata cause diplostomiasis in aquaculture. The cercaria of the bat trematode L. linstowi is described for the first time and its molluscan host identified as R. balthica.
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Marsden, Olivia Jayne. "Determination of actinide distributions in intertidal sediments from West Cumbria, UK." Thesis, University of Manchester, 2003. https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.675408.
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The distribution of a range of artificial radionuclides, derived from the authorised discharges of the Sellafield nuclear fuel reprocessing plant, have been determined in a core sampled from the intertidal sediments in the Esk Estuary. The plutonium-alpha activity profiles qualitatively resemble the Sellafield discharge histories for these isotopes, suggesting that the plutonium is largely immobile in the sediments. The beta-emitting 241Pu isotope activity profile was also determined for the sediments using the beta/alpha discriminator on a low-level liquid scintillation counter and qualitatively resembles the Sellafield discharge history. The 241Am activity profile represents the sum of americium both from Sellafield discharges and from the decay of its parent isotope 241Pu. The 244Cm activity profile was examined to see if its relationship to 241Am could be used as a marker of the Sellafield "discharge only" 241Am but this proved to be unsuitable. The 241Pu measurements were therefore used to calculate the amount of 241Am ingrowth and a deconvolved 241Am profile was estimated. The presence of the short-lived isotope 242Cm in the core can only be due to the precursor isotope, 242mAM, supporting its production. The first direct environmental sample measurements of the anthropogenic isotope of uranium, 236U, have been made using accelerator mass spectrometry. Coupled with 238U/235U atom ratios, and the known operational history of Sellafield, these data provide evidence that uranium has limited movement within the core. 237Np activity profiles in cores from west Cumbrian area are limited and the concentrations determined here are very similar to findings of other authors who have sampled close to this sampling site. The profile does not resemble the known Sellafield discharges suggesting that some redistribution of neptunium in the core is occurring. Finally, a quantitative model has been developed to examine the relationship between the Sellafield discharge histories and the sediment profiles, in terms of transport to the sampling site via an offshore mud patch which acts as a buffer. A prediction of the Sellafield discharge history for 236U, which is unknown, has been made, and the model has also been used to evaluate the potential mobility of the actinides that have been studied. A long-term prediction of the transfer of radionuclides to the intertidal sediments has also been made.
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Wilcock, Cathy. "Building peace from diaspora : UK Sudanese opposition activists, peacebuilding and hybridity." Thesis, University of Manchester, 2016. https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/building-peace-from-diaspora-uk-sudanese-opposition-activists-peacebuilding-and-hybridity(23b7ceaa-8f85-4123-bc48-ac3435eef2f2).html.
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This research is concerned with the problems and possibilities of combining diverse forms of peacebuilding in the same peacebuilding space. It analyses patterns of interaction between various forms of peacebuilding using a framework of hybridity. Within debates on peacebuilding hybridities, frictional encounters are situated between international peacebuilders and 'locals' who are predominantly conceptualised as domestic, indigenous and globally Southern. While enhancing understandings of local/international interactions, this conceptualisation excludes constituencies of locals who occupy global spaces - those in diaspora. Diaspora activists have been shown to ambivalently shape other processes of homeland change as either mediators or meddlers due to the opportunities and limitations arising from being in diaspora. In spite of this, an in-depth understanding of the roles of diaspora in hybrid peacebuilding debates is lacking. When diaspora activists have been analysed in relation to peacebuilding, it has been primarily outside of the framework of hybridity which - due to its roots in postcolonial theory - extolls resistance to international peacebuilding as having enormous peacebuilding potential. As such, diaspora who resist international peacebuilding processes have been consistently cast as peace-wreckers which belies the tolerance for resistance so central to hybrid analyses. In light of the potential for diaspora, and particularly those in opposition to formal peacebuilding, to transform, assuage or exacerbate patterns of interaction between locals and internationals, this research centralises diaspora opposition activism in a hybrid analysis of a peacebuilding space. It does this through a single case study of UK Sudanese activists and their contributions to Sudanese peacebuilding. Sudanese peacebuilding is characterised by its diversity: it combines international peace agreements, elite dialogues, top-down transitional justice with local-level community reconciliation and bottom-up political change movements. It therefore provides an exemplary case of a peacebuilding space in which multiple forms of peacebuilding with diverse, and often contradictory aims, coalesce and contend with one another. The study examines how Sudanese activists resident in the UK shape the patterns of interaction within Sudanese peacebuilding, and asks how various aspects of 'being in diaspora' make those contributions possible. In doing so, this research contributes to understandings of how, why and with what effects diverse actors, ideas and processes combine during peacebuilding.
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Bilici, Ozgul. "International trade in a competitive world : empirical evidence from the UK." Thesis, University of Essex, 2016. http://repository.essex.ac.uk/16051/.
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This thesis aims to provide helpful insights into trade in goods and services. The first two chapters focus on the micro-level determinants of international trade in services in the UK: The aim of the first chapter is to investigate the determinants of trade in services in a gravity framework, considering both country- and firm-level factors. The second chapter investigates how the determinants of service trade vary along the distribution of trade value and how the firm-level characteristics influence the impact of typical gravity variables. The third chapter focuses on the UK's imports of goods from China and investigates the impact of increasing Chinese import competition on local labour market outcomes in the UK. The results from the first chapter show that the gravity equation succeeds in explaining the determinants of service exports and imports. When the disaggregated level data is taken into account, the coefficients of the trade determinants change considerably, suggesting that the policies adopted according to the results of the country-level analyses do not fit all of the trading firms. The second chapter provides evidence for the parameter heterogeneity in firm-level service exports and imports in a gravity context. According to the findings, the impact of typical gravity variables is influenced by the firm characteristics and differs along the distribution of trade value. The findings from the third chapter show that exposure to Chinese imports does not have any significant impact on workers in the UK. The results are sustained when the different demographic groups, such as age, gender and education level are considered, except in the case of graduate employment. Accordingly, exposure to Chinese imports is associated with a decline in graduate employment only. The analysis regarding the firm characteristics suggests that exposure to Chinese imports within these local labour markets decreases the average firm size, whereas the average labour productivity remains unaffected.
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Clatworthy, Mark Anthony. "Transnational equity analysis : evidence from UK investment analysts and institutional investors." Thesis, Cardiff University, 2002. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.432665.
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This thesis responds to calls for research into transnational investment decisionmaking by institutional investors and investment analysts. This issue has assumed a growing significanceo ver recent decadesd ue to the internationalisationa nd institutionalisationo f equity markets. Transnationald ecision-makingp rocessesa re also of import to the debate on the harmonization of international accounting. Using a questionnaires urvey and semi-structuredin terviews, the thesis investigates three related issues. First, it examines and compares the analysis techniques used by UK analystsa nd fund managersin analysingd omestica nd oversease quities. Second, it investigatesth e sourcesu sedb y fund managersa nd investmenta nalystst o inform domestic and transnational equity decisions, placing particular emphasis on accounting information and direct company contact. Finally, the research examines the attitude of the investment community to the international harmonization of accounting. In particular, it assessews hether fund managers'a nd investment analysts' decisions are affected by international accounting differences and gauges the views of these important users of accounting information on the harmonization process. The main findings are that fundamental analysis is the predominant appraisal technique in domestic and transnational equity analysis, irrespective of the country of domicile of the company being analysed. However, in order to facilitate international accountingc omparisons,a nalystsa nd fund managersu se ratios and measuresw hich are largely unaffected by international accounting differences when analysing overseasc ompanies. In particular, earningsb efore interest,t ax, depreciationa nd amortisation (EBITDA) is perceived as useful for cross-border comparisons. In respect of the information sources used to analyse overseas companies, direct company contact and the annual report remain the most influential overall. The financial statementsa rc clearly the most heavily utilised componentso f the annual report, yet there is some evidence that qualitative information in the annual report is more useful in overseasc ompanya nalysis. UK fund managersa lso rely on locallybaseda nalystsi n overseasc ompanya nalysisi n order to overcomep ossible information asymmetriesa nd for assistancew ith internationala ccountingd ifferences. However,f und managerse xpressedc oncerno ver analysts' independenced ue to analysts'r eluctancet o j eopardiseth eir relationshipw ith companym anagement. Although international accounting differences are not perceived to have a material effect on transnational investment decisions, the findings demonstrate substantial support from the financial community for harmonization. Indeed, analysts' and fund managersd' ecisionsa re themselvesa market-basedfo rce for harmonization,a s companiesu sing opaquea nd 'unfamiliar' accountings tandardsa re penalisedt hrough higher capital costs imposed to allow for additional accounting risk.
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Sun, Ji. "Research on capital structure and financing decision : evidence from the UK." Thesis, Durham University, 2013. http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/7335/.
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This thesis focuses on whether the decisions of firms’ external financing activities are influenced by ownership structure, market timing, or public media in the UK context. Chapter 2 examines the effect of ownership on firm capital structure by using a universal sample of UK firms over the period 1998–2009. The empirical results show that the relation between managerial share ownership (MSO) and leverage level is non-monotonic. This study further investigates the effect of ownership on firm financial issuance activities. The finding suggests that firms with higher MSO are more likely to choose equity issues instead of bonds, supporting the theory that managers have more incentive to avoid the bankruptcy risk associated with a bond issue. Further, this study finds a hot (cold) stock market valuation strengthens (weakens) this positive effect of higher MSO on the likelihood of equity issue. Chapter 3 analyzes the role of ownership characteristics in a firm’s choice of seasoned equity offering (SEO) methods, offer price discount, and market reactions to SEO announcements. This chapter examines UK firms’ choices of seasoned equity issue methods, particularly the differences between rights offers (ROs), placings (PLs), open offers (OOs), and combinations of placing and open offer (PLOOs). This study finds that ownership-concentrated firms prefer rights or open offers to placings, supporting the argument that large shareholders favour right-preserving issues as the SEO method to maintain benefits of control. Consistent with the managerial entrenchment hypothesis, the results indicate that firms with high managerial ownership are more likely to choose placing as the SEO method. This study also suggests that firms with lower institutional ownership are more likely to conduct placing to improve monitoring. Chapter 4 investigates the role of the news media in SEOs in the UK market. The results show that issuers with positive (negative) media news are likely to price SEO shares higher (lower) and have higher (lower) announcement returns. This finding supports the argument that the media has impact on stock price through affecting investor expectations. Moreover, this study finds that issuers with greater pre-SEO media coverage are likely to have a more negative market response to the announcement, which strongly supports Merton’s investor recognition model.
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Sun, Xin. "Subordinated debt and market discipline : evidence from the UK banking industry." Thesis, Durham University, 2013. http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/7738/.
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This research empirically investigates how and to what extent bank subordinated debt plays a role in providing market discipline whereby the private sector is deployed to monitor and influence bank risk taking, hence complement government supervision and regulation of banks. The study comprises four essays on the use of subordinated debt as an instrument for creating direct and indirect market discipline, with specific reference to the case of the UK banking industry. Broadly, Chapters 2, 3 and 4 examine the effectiveness of subordinated debt as an instrument of direct market discipline; Chapter 5 approaches the issue of indirect market discipline. First, we analyse whether the risk premiums or yield spreads of subordinated debt indicate banks’ financial health. Our results show that yield spreads contain timely and accurate information on issuing banks’ risk taking, and this underpins the proposals that advocate forcing large financial institutions to issue subordinated debt to the public on a regular basis. Then we examine whether the issued subordinated debt and its price have any impact on banks’ performance. The results have positive signs, implying that the signalling and influencing effects of subordinated debt can induce banks to act prudently and restrain them from assuming unsound risk. However, the final chapter finds that the UK financial regulator, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) has little enthusiasm for utilizing the subordinated debt to indirectly discipline financial institutions. This reflects the FSA’s doubt as to the usefulness of the market in providing disciplining effects. In contrast, the evidence documented in this research shows that the subordinated market proves to be sensitive to bank risk, and banks do respond to market information, hence it can be an effective mechanism for generating useful market discipline. In reforming the financial regulation regime, adding new regulations to the old is therefore not the best way forward. Rather, priority should be given to reforming the paradigm of financial regulation by allowing more room for the subordinated market to discipline the regulators to take more prompt and rigorous corrective actions.
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Miles, Roger. "From compliance to coping : experiences of Chief Risk Officers in UK banks 2007-2009." Thesis, King's College London (University of London), 2013. https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/from-compliance-to-coping(e2634d8e-1682-4790-8110-405b0ed2b359).html.
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Even without the pressures of a financial crisis, the Chief Risk Officer (CRO) in UK banks occupied a potentially conflicted role during 2007 - 9. The Boards of banks had created the CRO role with responsibility for managing commercial risk but also for producing public risk reports within a system of enforced self-regulation. Under this system, the regulator seeks to overcome control asymmetries by harnessing the governance resources of regulated organizations. Theoretical perspectives of regulation in action, informal groups in organizations, and individual risk perception, indicated that CROs’ dilemmas merited further study. Banks’ selective risk reporting practices were under-represented, with scholarly knowledge seemingly limited by difficulties of access and trust. This research overcomes these limitations, gaining access to a closed group to conduct qualitative depth interviews with bank senior managers including 35 CROs (one-third of known incumbents in 2007). Ideas of enforced self-regulation were found not to account fully for banks’ risk reporting practices. The regulator was little-respected, mistrusted, and had limited influence over bankers’ behaviour. Within a bank the CRO, though formally identified with risk governance, was informally pressed by powerful sales-side groups to report optimistically. Seeking senior management support to resist this pressure, many CROs instead found their Board prioritising sales activity over risk governance. Though employed as compliance managers, many CROs reinterpreted their role as a commercial support function, becoming coping agents for banks’ creative risk reporting. Enforced self-regulation does not restrain organizations whose reward systems reinforce asymmetries of control, whose economic power exceeds that of governments attempting to regulate them, and whose sales culture aggressively dictates organizational norms. New approaches are suggested to recognise and prevent conduct which increases financial market fragility. This thesis provides wider lessons for the relationships between organizational behaviour, individual cognition and regulatory power beyond the world of banking.
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Mannings, Leon. "From accommodation to constraint : an analysis of shifts in UK transport policy." Thesis, Goldsmiths College (University of London), 2004. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.415456.
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Kendrick, Leanne. "Experiences of cultural bereavement amongst refugees from Zimbabwe living in the UK." Thesis, University of East Anglia, 2010. https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/45677/.
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During the resettlement journey, refugees can experience war trauma, violence, and loss. Research has consistently linked these experiences with mental health difficulties, such as PTSD and depression. An alternative perspective is the phenomenon of cultural bereavement. Cultural bereavement is known as a type of grief reaction that can result from the considerable losses that refugees experience during displacement. Refugees come to the UK from all over the world. However, in recent years, due to decades of political upheaval, there have been a significant number of Zimbabweans seeking refuge in the UK. It is, therefore, likely that they have experienced the level of loss that may result in experiences of cultural bereavement. This qualitative study explored the experiences of Zimbabwean refugees living in the UK, and their relevance to cultural bereavement. Additionally, the study aimed to determine how the refugees’ overall experiences related to a theoretical model of refugee trauma. Seven Zimbabwean refugees were interviewed about their experiences, and transcripts were analysed using template analysis. The template outlined three dominant themes arising from the research. These were 1) factors that contributed towards cultural bereavement, 2) the experiences themselves, and 3) coping and resilience factors in the UK. Each was discussed in relation to previous research and the proposed refugee model. The methodological limitations and contributions of the research are discussed, along with the potential wider relevance of the findings particularly in relation to services working with refugees. Suggestions are made for future research to investigate these initial findings further, specifically with othercultures and refugee populations.
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Geraghty, Keith J. "From bureaucracy and market to network in the UK National Health Service." Thesis, Cardiff University, 2006. http://orca.cf.ac.uk/55424/.
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A mix of qualitative research instruments is used to investigate networking at the national health sector level, the primary care level, the regional of NHS Wales, and at the local level within four local health groups across one health authority area. Findings from the study provide original theoretic and empirical exploration of the contextual issues driving reform in health care and the salient factors impacting upon network relations.