Business Administration electronic theses and dissertations (MU)
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The items in this collection are the theses and dissertations written by students of the Department of Business Administration. Some items may be viewed only by members of the University of Missouri System and/or University of Missouri-Columbia. Click on one of the browse buttons above for a complete listing of the works.
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Item Two essays on public finance and alternative investments(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2025) Zimmerschied, Kyle Evan; Bereskin, Fred; O'Doherty, Michael[EMBARGOED UNTIL 08/01/2026] This dissertation consists of two essays on public finance and alternative investments. The first essay in Chapter 1--Should They Stay or Should They Go? Immigration and Municipal Bonds--examines the impact of immigration on municipal borrowing costs and public finance from 1985 to 2010. I find that exposure to immigration improves access to finance for local communities by reducing the cost of borrowing for municipal issuers. These positive effects of immigration are concentrated in areas with a higher likelihood of labor shortages. Immigrants of higher education levels provide stronger benefits to the communities they settle in, but even reducing the stock of low-skilled, undocumented immigrants results in increased borrowing costs in the presence of labor shortages. The positive impact of immigration is driven by an expansion in the local labor market which results in long-term increases in profitability for the local government. In the second essay in Chapter 2--Investing with Purpose: Evidence from Private Foundations--I study the asset allocation and investment performance of U.S. private foundations. I find private foundations increase risk-taking in response to declines in the real interest rate due to the binding five percent spending rule they face. Regarding investment performance, the median foundation underperforms by more than 100 basis points. Larger private foundations generate positive risk-adjusted returns prior to 2008 driven by their early access to private equity and venture capital funds rather than their concentrated stock positions.Item The adverse implications of government grants(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2025) Rainville, Alex; Schaubroeck, John[EMBARGOED UNTIL 08/01/2026] The government plays a vital role in society, using their resources to alter the behavior of other organizations, inclusive of providing specific grants to firms. These grants, however, come in distinct forms, each with their own unique dynamics, purpose, and function. As a firm grapples with a government grant, while an explicit and intended purpose may exist, the underlying aspects of how each type of grant operates will have unintended implications for the firm. These adverse effects, often overlooked, are vital to improving the interconnectivity between firms and the government. This series of studies investigate how distinct mechanisms influence firm behavior after it receives either public sponsorship, a subsidy, or a tax concession, potentially creating adverse and confounding firm behavior.Item Three essays on investments and empirical asset pricing(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2025) Nguyen, Du Dinh; O'Doherty, Michael[EMBARGOED UNTIL 05/01/2026] This dissertation consists of three essays on investments and empirical asset pricing. The first essay in Chapter 1--Portfolio Manager Ownership and Low-Risk Anomalies--examines the impact of portfolio manager ownership (i.e., skin in the game) in the mutual fund industry on the relation between risk (e.g., beta, idiosyncratic volatility or distress risk) and abnormal return in the stock market. Across a comprehensive set of strategies that buy high-risk stocks and sell low-risk stocks (i.e., low-risk anomalies), I show that negative alphas concentrate only among stocks with low ownership intensity. The findings are consistent with the conjecture that agency-issue-induced incentives entail excessive risk taking that distorts the riskreturn relation. In the second essay in Chapter 2--Flow Hedging and Mutual Fund Performance-- I study the cross-sectional differences in the flow-hedging behavior of U.S. active mutual funds and their implication for fund performance. I find that nearly half of the funds do not hedge against systematic flow risk, and I explain this result with a rational model in which informed managers receive more precise private signals about systematic flows. In the data, I confirm the model's prediction that funds having higher exposure to flow risk generate better risk-adjusted performance. In the last essay in Chapter 3--Out-of-Sample Performance of Factor Return Predictors--I investigate the ability of a comprehensive set of variables in predicting equity factor returns. I apply a variety of shrinkage methods on the predictor variables to forecast almost a hundred equity factors and document robust evidence of out-of-sample predictability and investment outperformance for factor timing strategies.Item Messaging and politics in firms : conveyance methods, culture messaging, and the presidential puzzle(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2025) Im, Esther; Bereskin, Frederick[EMBARGOED UNTIL 05/01/2026] This dissertation investigates how firms strategically shape communication and behavior in response to investor attention and political environments, providing new insights into disclosure effectiveness, cultural signaling, and political cycles in financial markets. Chapter one explores how the mode of communication affects investor response. It finds that oral disclosures--especially those delivered in-person--generate stronger stock price reactions than written statements, even when the content is similar. These results underscore the importance of real-time social interaction and audience salience in driving investor attention. Chapter two examines how firms adjust their culture-related messaging in response to shifts in the U.S. political climate. During periods of heightened polarization, such as the Obama and Trump administrations, firms reduce cultural signaling, particularly when misaligned with the prevailing political leadership. These patterns suggest that culture messaging is a form of strategic communication shaped by the broader political context. Chapter three contributes to the literature on the "presidential puzzle" by identifying real economic mechanisms behind the pattern of lower stock returns during Republican presidencies. Firms experience lower sales growth, investment, and profitability--particularly in Democrat-leaning regions--indicating that political cycles have tangible effects on firm fundamentals. The findings offer a rational explanation for return differentials tied to partisan leadership. Collectively, this dissertation deepens our understanding of how firms manage communication and adapt operationally in politically and behaviorally complex environments.Item How do you see my work unit or work role? Psychological and behavioral reactions to localized stigma perceptions(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2025) Kim, Dongchul; Schaubroeck, JohnScholars have noted that stigma may uniquely exist within a narrower, specific context, even if it is not prevalent in broader society. Yet, both theoretical and empirical examinations of this phenomenon remain largely absent. My research introduces the concept of localized stigma perceptions, defined as the belief that one is stigmatized by coworkers within the organization but does not necessarily extend beyond it. I conceptually distinguish between perceived unit stigma--the belief that one's work unit is stigmatized by employees in other units--and perceived role stigma--the belief that one's work role is stigmatized by coworkers within the same unit. In doing so, I build on the social identity perspective to propose that localized stigma perceptions have differential effects on psychological identification with the work unit and the organization, respectively. I further develop a moderated mediation model in which localized stigma perceptions, moderated by perceived internal mobility, have indirect effects on behavioral outcomes (i.e., informal leadership, upward voice, OCB-I, OCB-O, and taking charge) through theorized identification. Results from three studies using experimental designs and survey provided limited support for my hypotheses. Yet, my research offers novel insights into how scope-specific stigma perceptions can have divergent effects on one's social identification process at work. I discuss theoretical implications for the literature on stigma. Keywords: Localized stigma; unit stigma; role stigma; perceived mobility; identification; informal leadership; voice; OCB; taking charge.