Finance 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 Finance. 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 The value of crowdsourcing in apparel and fashion retail buying(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2019) Kamran-Disfani, Omid; Mantrala, Murali K.[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI SYSTEM AT REQUEST OF AUTHOR.] Apparel and fashion retail buyers are responsible for selecting and ordering products, on behalf of the retailer, to be sold to retailers' end-consumers. Compared to their counterparts in other retailing sectors, fashion buyers face unique challenges such as high demand uncertainty and volatility, seasonality, frequent changes in fashion trends, and short product life cycles. As previous trends rarely provide useful information for predicting future sales of trendy products, fashion buyers make a subjective assessment of products' future demand by relying on their intuition and perceived expertise. Industry reports show that fashion buyers' predictions are often far from the demand that is later realized causing loss of profits for retailers. In this dissertation. I argue that retailers can benefit from the Wisdom of the Crowd (WOC) in predicting future sales of fashion products. It is suggested that lay customers as a group can provide more accurate prediction of future demand of fashion products than individual fashion buyers. An empirical study is conducted to test this proposition involving two groups: professional fashion buyers (N=60) and lay customers (N=397). Customers predicted future sales of products in all six product categories that were used in the study. The prediction error, measured by MAPE, was reduced between 12 and 73 percent. The implication of these findings for retailers are discussed, and directions for implementing crowdsourcing in fashion buying to improve prediction accuracy are provided.Item Complex service offerings : a theoretical exposition and empirical investigation(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2018) Hampton, Stephen Andrew; Scheer, Lisa K. (Lisa Kay)It is generally acknowledged that not all services are alike, still little has been done to distinguish between service offerings of different varieties. While some service offerings are simple and others complex, how they differ is not yet understood. This dissertation addresses what distinguishes complex services from simpler services, why an inquiry into complex services is needed, and how a knowledge of complex services can inform research. In order to address these questions a new organizing framework for categorizing services is developed. This framework helps to make sense of service offering heterogeneity. A description of the service offering types belonging to the framework is presented to illustrate why inquiry into complex services is needed. In order to demonstrate how complex services may be used in empirical research, a model and hypotheses is built to test complex service contexts' potential as a new domain of fruitful research. This study found that customers' perceptions of role ambiguity are potentially negatively impacted by service complexity. This research also demonstrates that customers' perceptions of role ambiguity is affected both by the breadth and depth of participation by service coordinators, a role unique to complex service contexts.Item Three essays on mergers and acquisitions(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2019) Morillon, Thibaut Guillaume; Howe, John S.[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI SYSTEM AT REQUEST OF AUTHOR.] In this dissertation, I investigate two segments of the mergers and acquisitions (M&A) literature: serial acquirers and cross-border M&As. In the first essay presented in Chapter 1, I examine the phenomenon of declining announcement returns of serial acquirers. Using a classification of acquirers based on their patterns of acquisition, I find that decreasing returns occur mostly within "blocks" of acquisitions. This trend is driven by sprinters, bidders who acquire targets quickly in chunks. In contrast, I find no evidence of any such decline in returns for the most active acquirers in the market of corporate control: the marathoners. I test several theories proposed by prior literature to explain declining returns and find evidence consistent with temporary overvaluation, agency costs, and bidder learning as likely drivers. In the third essay presented in chapter 3, I investigate the impact of the cultural gap between the CEO of the acquiring firm and the CEO of the target firm in M&A deals. I find evidence that bidding CEOs are more likely to acquire targets led by CEOs with whom they have more cultural affinity, and that M&A deals are more likely to fail when the decision makers of both parties are culturally diverse. I find that higher levels of cultural heterogeneity are associated with more all-cash deals, a greater proportion of cash payments and a lower proportion of stock payment, consistent with cultural distance inducing mistrust between the partners. Moreover, I find evidence that partners are more likely to protect themselves against the risk of overvaluation of the other party when one or both are hard to value and CEO cultural heterogeneity is high.Item Essays on behavioral finance(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2019) Obaid, Khaled; Pukthuanthong, Kuntara[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI-COLUMBIA AT REQUEST OF AUTHOR.] This dissertation consists of three essays on behavioral finance. In the first essay, we proposes a new daily market-level investor sentiment index (Photo Pessimism) constructed from photos in news media. We apply a machine learning technique to classify perceived sentiment from a large sample of photos and study how sentiment in these photos relates to market activities. Between 1926 and 2018, we show that Photo Pessimism is able to predict market return-reversal and increase in abnormal trading volume. We document that the return predictability pattern is concentrated among stocks with high limits to arbitrage and during periods of high uncertainty and low investor distraction. ... In the third essay, we examine whether information in mutual fund advertisements is valuable and how investors respond to such information. Motivated by Nelson (1970, 1974) and Kihlstrom and Riordan (1984), we find that advertising expenditure is associated with significant increase in three-factor (18.9 bps) and four-factor (19.4 bps)alphas in the subsequent year. This relation is primarily driven by mutual fund advertisements that contain information on past relative performance. Generally, the positive relation between advertising expenditure and fund flows is not sensitive to the content of advertisements with one exception-during recessions, the inclusion of information about past performance or fees in advertisements is associated with capital outflows. This evidence is consistent with the coarse thinking model (Mullainathan et al., 2008).Item The effects of exercise on organizational and personal outcomes : a work-home resources perspective(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2019) Patel, Amanda S.; Turban, Daniel B.In the organizational sciences, daily exercise research has largely centered on how exercise replenishes resources depleted by work and thus facilitates recovery during off-work time. However, we know little about whether exercise generates resources that influence individuals at work and subsequently at home, and under what conditions. I theorized that daily exercise results in resource accumulation that leads to more organizational citizenship behaviors, higher job satisfaction, and better job performance. Subsequently, I theorized better work outcomes are associated with a sense of accomplishment that leads to more sharing behaviors at home. I also theorized that the resource accumulation from exercise may depend on contextual characteristics of the exercise (i.e., time of day and accompanied) and individual differences (i.e., autonomous motivation and physical fitness). To test the theorized model, 102 respondents from two different organizations answered three surveys a day for 10 work days. Multi-level modeling was used to test the hypotheses. Results indicated that exercise was associated with greater OCBs, job satisfaction, and job performance via the resources of positive affect, mental focus, and energy. However, the gain in positive affect was strongest for employees who were less fit. OCBs, job satisfaction, and job performance were associated with feelings of accomplishment. The findings illustrate the importance of daily exercise for generating resources useful for outcomes at work. I hope to offer insight into the importance of an expanded view of the role of daily exercise for employees.