Business - Theses, Dissertations, and other Required Graduate Degree Essays

Faced with increasing fiscal restraint and political pushes for efficiency, Canada's health care system is on the verge of maximizing internal resources through employee involvement programs. However, faced with a history of poor labour-management relations, broken promises, and general mistrust, the employees of these organizations are skeptical at best when faced with the introduction of an employee involvement program. Using the context of an organizational change initiative at Ridge Meadows Hospital in Maple Ridge, British Columbia, an examination of the usage of employee involvement was conducted. While the findings closely corroborate management literature espousing the benefits of employee involvement programs, key obstacles must still be overcome to maximize its effectiveness. Overall, the usage of employee involvement may hold the promise of realizing such internal gains that Canada's health care system may be able to stave off the pressure to privatize or consume ever increasing portions of government budgets.

This thesis is a collection of three papers that have the valuation of derivative securities as a common theme. The first paper empirically compares three convertible bond valuation models. We use an innovative approach where all model parameters are estimated by the Marquardt (1963) algorithm using a subsample of convertible bond prices. The model parameters are then used for out-of-sample forecasts of convertible bond prices. The mean absolute deviation, which is calculated as the absolute difference between the model and the market price and expressed as a percentage of the market price, is 1.70% for the Ayache-Forsyth-Vetzal (2003) model, 1.74% for the Tsiveriotis-Fernandes (1998) model, and 2.12% for the Brennan-Schwartz (1980) model. For this and other measures of fit, the Ayache-Forsyth-Vetzal and the Tsiveriotis-Fernandes models outperform the Brennan-Schwartz model. The second paper examines the market memory effect in convertible bond markets. More specifically, we look at the pricing of convertible bonds issued after the original issuer adversely redeemed previous issues without giving an opportunity for investors to benefit from bond value appreciation. We find evidence that the market underprices new convertible bond issues of firms that call their bonds early. We also find that the degree of market underpricing depends on whether the convertibles are more debt- or equity-like. In the third paper, the European put-call parity condition is used to estimate the early exercise premium for American currency options traded on the Philadelphia Stock Exchange. Using a sample of 331 pairs of call and put options with the same exercise price and time to expiration, we find that the early exercise premium on average is 5.03% for put options and 4.60% for call options. The premia for both call and put options are strongly related to the interest rate differential and time to expiration. These results are important to consider when valuing American currency options using European option pricing models.

Succession Planning is fast becoming an urgent issue facing today's organizations. Looming mass retirements due to the baby boomer generation means that organizations can expect to lose knowledgeable and experienced workers and finding replacements will be difficult as mass retirements force a labour shortage. Consequently, many organizations are creating succession plans. In an investigation of the British Columbia Ministry of Forests and Range Succession Plan, internal documents and previous government surveys were analyzed, and stakeholder interviews were conducted to assess the Ministry's readiness to adapt and implement this project. This investigation concludes that the Ministry's plans are thorough, yet many opportunities for improvement exist. Additionally, this succession research provides strategies, tools, and processes for successful succession planning and discusses recommendations.

This article attempts to explain export behaviour of Canadian firms by testing whether psychic distance is a significant factor in the choice of export market. 250 Canadian exporters responded and the results were analysed. The survey proves inconclusive as to whether psychic distance plays a role in the choice of export markets, leading the authors to conclude that Canadian exports have increased significantly enough so as to require a more complex model involving more than one factor.

International Joint Ventures (IJVs) are an increasingly popular mode of entry into foreign markets. This project explores the possibility that high profile events (HPEs) have stimulated their creation. I examined two HPEs, the Sydney and Atlanta Olympics Games, and how they used various incentives through their Investment 2000 and Operation Legacy economic programs to influence the formation of IJVs. From this a number of key learnings emerge to form a best practices guide that can be used to improve joint venture (JV) success.

ABC is a mature company, operating in the power electronics market, using the stage gate process to develop products. This analysis evaluates the company's development process including innovation and portfolio management. An examination of the market reveals that speed-to-market and commitment to innovation are critical success factors. Benchmarking shows how comparable companies have adapted the traditional stage gate process to incorporate more flexible practices. Analysis of ABC uncovers the need to streamline the process and improve the commitment to innovation. Recommendations include reducing the number of gates, defining "GoIKill" criteria unique to each project but adhering to them, implementing flexibility in resource allocation to foster innovation and building the capacity for ongoing process improvement. A draft of an implementation plan is provided.

This document describes the handset industry players – component vendors, contract manufacturers, original design manufacturers, OEMs – and explores the shifting roles and relationships between them. Focus is given to ODMs and brands of mobile devices, with particular attention to design models between them. A relationship map represents the industry’s outsourcing structure, seeking to identify trends and patterns between successful firms’ performances and their partners. Handset designs originate largely from OEMs and ODMs, but innovative firms also gravitate towards certain design flow models. The commoditization of mature technologies and basic reference designs further allows new entrants to develop products with relative ease, creating complementary assets as prized core competencies: OEMs developing key design and feature innovations in-house are found to enjoy stronger brand value, better global sales, and higher profits. ODMs taking their own design lead also rank higher in shipment volumes than those mainly manufacturing client designs.

This project compares and tests the effectiveness of two asset-pricing models: the Sharpe (1 964)-Lintner (1 965) capital asset pricing model (CAPM) and Fama and French (1 993) three-factor model. Effectiveness is measured by focusing on the models' alphas and includes the mean absolute value of alphas (MAVA) and the Gibbons, Ross and Shanken (1 989), or GRS F-Test. Fama and French (1 996) claim their model outperforms the CAPM because their MAVA is smaller than that of the CAPM in a universe of twenty-five portfolios sorted by size and book-to-market equity. This paper examines these twenty-five portfolios over longer time periods. The threefactor model outperforms the CAPM according to the MAVA. However, both models are rejected by the GRS test. A dataset composed of twelve industries is also employed, where the MAVA of the CAPM is smaller than that of the three-factor model and the CAPM is not rejected by the GRS F-test.

Much academic research has been completed on the use of portfolio optimizers in an international setting. Many optimizers use historical data and almost all allow for short sales. Some researchers have begun to question the output from such strategies. While some papers have tackled the problem of finding reasonable estimates for risk, the focus in this paper is on the inherent risk of investing in the tangency portfolio while allowing short sales. To test this theory, I first used historical data to test the validity of the theory that diversifying into international stock and bond index investments can provide gains to a US investor. Second, I performed the same test but with quarterly portfolio revision based on four separate strategies, two with short sales and two without. Last, I compared the results to those of an investor who followed two passive strategies. I found that while there was evidence that international diversification did provide US investors with an opportunity to increase returns, the risk adjusted return was not superior to that of the passive strategies. I also found that the use of short sales greatly increased the overall risk of the portfolio.

Collins Manufacturing Company Limited has experienced a divergence from its traditional differentiation strategy which constitutes the need to review and revise its strategy to meet the changing needs of the market. Coupled with this is the impending loss of land due to the government bridge building project, scheduled to commence in the fall of 2005. If no action is taken, customer service levels will decline and the firm's reputation of premium quality service will be in jeopardy, putting the entire firm at risk of failure. This paper puts forth the recommended course of action to proceed with acquiring and expanding to the adjacent lot to the south of the current property. Expansion would include a new structure to house the highly differentiated service and customization division, leaving room in the main structure to operate a separate costbased, mass production division.