Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Business finance'

Over the past 15 years, privately held small businesses generated nearly two-thirds of the net job growth in the United States, yet much of what scholars know regarding the capitalization challenges faced by small businesses is limited to data from large corporations. In 2013 alone, business bankruptcies numbered 33,212, and each year approximately 10% to 12% of U.S. small businesses close. Ineffective capitalization strategies coupled with a limited understanding of funding options frequently results in unsustainable business practices. In this multiple case study, the capital budgeting theory was utilized to explore the capitalization strategies small business owners in the greater Phoenix, Arizona metropolitan area employed to achieve sustainability beyond 5 years of business inception. Participants were purposefully selected based on their tenure in business, number of employees, and geographic location. Data were collected via in-person semistructured interviews with 4 small business owners, coupled with a review of financial archival documents. Data were analyzed using theme interpretation, data grouping, and word frequency tabulation. Three themes emerged: a preference for self-funded, personal capitalization; the leveraging of personal relationships as a primary educational strategy; and a general aversion to debt and high interest rates. Implementing sound capitalization strategies contributes to social change by improving the likelihood of long-term sustainability. Sustainable small businesses increase employment opportunities, wage growth, and community-based services while enhancing the overall quality of life for local families and the community.

In the United States, 20% of newly established small businesses, including small businesses in the life insurance industry, fail within 2 years, and over 50% of them fail during the first 5 years. The purpose of this multiple case study was to identify and explore the strategies that life insurance brokerage owners use to sustain business operations beyond 5 years. Porter’s 5 forces model served as the conceptual framework for exploring this subject matter. Owners of 3 separate small life insurance brokerage firms in Texas, who sustained their businesses beyond 5 years, participated in semistructured interviews. A secondary source of data was relevant company documents. Methodological triangulation and member checking assured the reliability and validity of the interpretations. Through thematic analysis and supporting software, 5 themes emerged: exceptional customer service, relationship-building, efficient promotional strategies, regular training of salespersons, and hiring the right employees. The application of the findings of the study could contribute to positive social change by reducing unemployment and thereby catalyzing an economic environment supporting employees, families, and communities.

Background: Following the wave of privatisation and deregulation during the last decades, buyers of infrastructure constructions, such as dams, roads and telecommunication, have changed from states or public authorities to private companies. Private buyers do not always have the financial strength to arrange the financing for a project and providing a financial arrangement, for example by helping customers to obtain loans, has become a means to compete on the market.

Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to describe and analyse how Swedish companies arrange project finance for large-scale projects.

Method: In order to gain knowledge of our area of investigation we searched for relevant literature and articles from magazines.

Result: The result of this study has showed that three factors are of special importance when choosing a certain financial arrangement. These three factors are the region in which the project is located, duration of the project and its size measured in monetary terms.

Bakgrund: Privatiseringsvågen och avregleringarna de senaste decennierna har medfört att många köpare av infrastruktur, t.ex. dammar, vägar och telekommunikation, gått från att vara statligt ägda företag till att vara privata företag. Privata köpare har inte alltid möjligheten att ordna finansieringen av projektet. Således har det blivit en viktig del av säljarens erbjudande att kunna erbjuda köparen en finansiell lösning, t.ex. förmedling av lån.

Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats är att beskriva och analysera hur svenska företag organiserar finansieringen av storskaliga projekt.

Resultat: Resultatet av denna studie pekar på att det är tre faktorer som är speciellt viktiga när det gäller hur man ska organisera en projektfinansiering. Dessa tre faktorer är regionen där projektet är lokaliserat, projektets löptid och dess storlek.

This dissertation consists of two chapters that concern with the consumption cycle and corporate finance. The first chapter analyzes the role of durability in characterizing the consumption cycle. There is strong empirical evidence demonstrating that decreases in residential investments and durable expenditures are early indicators of economic downturns. Analogously, once the economy goes into recession, early increases in residential investments and durable expenditures signal economic recoveries. So far, little work has been done detailing the mechanisms explaining these important empirical stylized facts. In this article, I develop a general equilibrium asset pricing production model that includes durability and substitutability between perishable and durable service consumption. Results indicate that large shocks in the productivity of the capital accumulation process and a high elasticity of intertemporal substitution are both needed to create the correct timing of changes in durable expenditures and nondurable consumption characterized in the data. The study also uses this general equilibrium model as a framework to make predictions about the term structure of forward contracts settled on a national housing price index. Such work will create a foundation for further developing this important derivatives market.

The second chapter analyzes the link between debt maturity and the term spread. This chapter is co-authored with Pratish Anilkumar Patel. Evidence shows that a firm's debt maturity and term spread are intricately linked. Firms issue short term debt when the term spread is significantly positive and they increase maturity as the term spread decreases. The current literature explains this link with market frictions such as agency problems, asymmetric information, and liquidity risk. We explain the link between debt maturity and term spread using the trade-off theory of capital structure. When the term spread is small or even negative, transaction costs of debt rollover outweigh bankruptcy costs. Therefore, the firm optimally chooses to increase debt maturity. On the other hand, when the term spread is significantly positive, bankruptcy costs outweigh transaction costs of debt rollover. Therefore shorter debt maturity is optimal as it minimizes the chance of bankruptcy. In addition, we contribute to the current discussion in the literature concerning the speed of adjustments of capital structure, finding that firms are active in adjusting their capital structure. The model is consistent with a variety of stylized facts concerning debt maturity.

This research was an attempt to replicate, yet expand previous empirically supported, qualitative gray literature research conducted by NEXA (2010). The primary difference between this study and the NEXA study is adding significance testing in a quantitative study, to substantiate previously reported positive organizational financial performance associated with business aircraft investment. The outcome contradicted the previous study by providing evidence there were no significant differences in financial performance between those companies that own business aircraft and those companies that do not. The sampling populations were collected from publicly available data through a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) aircraft registry and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) / Edgar database for the Standard and Poor’s (S&P) 600 Small Capitalization (SmallCap) Index funds.

The research utilized the Andersen (2001) Utilization strategies, Benefits, and shareholder Value (UBV) conceptual framework. The dependent variables of Earnings Before Income Tax, Depreciation and Ammoritization (EBITDA), Revenue Growth, Return on Equity (ROE), and Return on Assets (ROA) financial indicators and ratios were applied to test the significant differences between the independent variables of companies that own business aircraft versus companies that do not own business aircraft. The breadth of associated costs when contemplating investment in business aircraft goes well beynd the initial cost of the aircraft itself and was not covered in this study. Depending on the strategic objective and intended use of a business aircraft, ownership involves an additional and significant investment in infrastructure and back office support, segregated by direct and indirect costs.

In order to help define the future roles of business aircraft, the industry as a whole must create a synchronous and performance based public face that emphasizes the broad collection of the multi-dimensional and positive, technological, economic, and regulatory, political, and social dynamic contributions. Moreover, with financial indicators demonstrating positive value, productivity, and performance separation between business aircraft ownership from non-ownership, coupled with the internal as well as external drivers influencing financial results, the public face of business aviation and its aircraft should be one of the top investment decisions for future sustainability and competitive advantage.