John S. Jahera

Service quality in the banking industry: an assessment in a developing economy

Examines the applicability of alternative measures of service quality in the developing economy of India and assesses related issues in that context. Based on data gathered from customers of two major banks, overall results support a multidimensional construct of service quality and suggest that the SERVQUAL scale provides greater diagnostic information than the SERVPERF scale. However, the five‐factor conceptualization of SERVQUAL does not seem to be totally applicable, and no significant difference was found in the predictive ability of the two measures. Further, although SERVQUAL and SERVPERF have identical convergent validity, SERVPERF appears to have higher discriminant validity than SERVQUAL.

ESOPs, takeover protection, and corporate decision-making

ESOPs have the potential to align the interests of employees and owners and may increase firm value. However, employee ownership may also strengthen the position of entrenched management. The literature predicts that firms newly protected from takeover threat will tend to (1) increase long-term investment and (2) require additional external monitoring, and/or (3) may use leverage as part of an overall antitakeover strategy. We examined firms that have adopted ESOPs and find that firms raise the level of capital expenditures, research and development expenditures, and dividends. (JEF G320)

A Multi-Country Analysis of Bank Capital and Earnings

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationship between bank capital and earnings. However, because banks and other financial service firms are increasingly operating in a global marketplace, it is important to examine bank relationships beyond the borders of a single country. This paper, therefore, analyzes the relationship between bank capital and earnings employing a sample of 231 banks in ten Pacific basin countries and the United States. More specifically, following the lead of earlier research, the study examines the relationship between the capital-to-asset ratio and return-on-equity. The empirical results indicate that, contrary to the case of U.S. banks during the 1980s, a significant negative relationship exists between these two variables for the sample banks in the eleven countries in 1994. This relationship generally holds when various control variables, including both firm- and country-specific variables, are included.

Abnormal returns of thrift versus non-thrift IPOs

This paper examines the issue of underpricing for converting thrift institutions. Evidence has found this underpricing to be pervasive in the mutual-to-stock thrift conversion process. The issue is of importance given the debate over whether any windfall gains should accrue to depositors, managers, or taxpayers. An event study is conducted to determine if there is a significant difference between the initial returns of thrift and non-thrift IPOs. Our overall results indicate that a significant difference does exist.

Corporate risk and corporate governance: another view

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of corporate governance strength as measured by the Gompers governance index (gindex) and other related factors on corporate risk as measured by implied volatility of returns. Design/methodology/approach - The research incorporates implied volatility as the measure of risk, as compared to earlier studies that have used historic volatility measures. Governance variables include the Gompers Index, as well as other measures to control for firm size, ownership and leverage. Findings - The findings indicate that corporate risk is significantly inversely-related with the gindex, which essentially gauges how extensively antitakeover provisions are adopted by a firm. Firm size is the other variable significant in both univariate and multivariate models. Financial leverage and the percentage of outsiders on the board are significantly related to firm risk when not controlling for other factors. Board percentage of voting power does not appear to affect firm riskiness statistically. Research limitations/implications - Future research needs to examine specifically why higher takeover defenses lead to lower implied volatility. This includes exploring whether the lower level of expected volatility is due to lower levels of takeover activity or whether firms with poor governance assume a suboptimal amount of risk. Originality/value - The paper contributes to the literature by the use of implied volatility as the measure of risk. The results are robust and provide further support for the relationship between corporate governance and risk. While counter to initial expectations, these results suggest, at the very least, a firm with good governance may not necessarily have low implied volatility in its stock price.

MEASURING AND ACCOUNTING FOR MARKET PRICE RISK TRADEOFFS AS REAL OPTIONS IN STOCK FOR STOCK EXCHANGES

The flexibility of managers to respond to risk and uncertainty inherent in business decisions is clearly of value. This value has historically been recognized in an ad hoc manner in the absence of a methodology for more rigorous assessment of value. The application of real option methodology represents a more objective mechanism that allows managers to hedge against adverse effects and exploit upside potential. Of particular interest to managers in the merger and acquisition (M&A) process is the value of such flexibility related to the particular terms of a transaction. Typically, stock for stock transactions take more time to complete as compared to cash given the time lapse between announcement and completion. Over this period, if stock prices are volatile, stock for stock exchanges may result in adverse selection through the dilution of shareholder wealth of an acquiring firm or a target firm. The paper develops a real option collar model that may be employed by managers to measure the market price risk involved to their shareholders in offering or accepting stock. We further discuss accounting issues related to this contingency pricing effect. Using an acquisition example from U.S. banking industry we illustrate how the collar arrangement may be used to hedge market price risk through flexibility to renegotiate the deal by exercising managerial options.

Real Options: Valuing Flexibility in Strategic Mergers and Acquisitions as an Exchange Ratio Swap

In recent years, practitioners and academics have argued that traditional discounted cash flow (DCF) valuation models do not adequately capture the value of managerial flexibility to delay, grow, scale down or abandon projects. The insight is that a business investment opportunity can be conceptually compared to a financial option. The purpose of this paper is to develop a theoretical model based on option pricing theory to value managerial flexibility arising in stock for stock exchanges. The paper shows how a mergers and acquisition (M&A) deal may be optimally structured as a real options swap by including managerial flexibility of both the acquiring and target firms when stock prices are volatile. Using a recent acquisition case example from US banking industry the paper illustrates how the proposed exchange ratio swap optimize deal value and avoids earnings per share (EPS) dilution to both parties. Appropriate valuation of managerial flexibility is important given the historical premiums paid in takeovers. While the fact that such premiums exist lends some credibility to the idea that at least implicitly managerial flexibility is valued, the real options approach allows for more explicit valuation of such flexibility.

Thrift Conversions and Windfall Profits: An Empirical Examination

The thrift industry has been studied extensively in recent years due to the enormous costs to resolve failed thrifts during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Almost all of the studies have focused on the causes of these failures. Yet an important but relatively neglected development that merits further study is the conversion of mutual institutions to the stock form of ownership. Such conversions raise questions regarding the appropriate price for the shares in initial offerings, particularly in view of reports that windfall profits have been realized by the initial investors in numerous cases and who should receive the shares. The purpose of this article is to examine mutual thrifts that converted to stock ownership form during 1992 and 1993 to determine whether excess returns were indeed realized and, if so, to identify the determinants of those excess returns. The empirical results indicate the initial investors do indeed benefit from significantly positive abnormal returns during the first few days of trading after conversion. Additional empirical results indicate that both the pro-forma price-to-book ratio and the dollar amount of shares management intends to purchase are significant factors in explaining the variation in the abnormal returns.

Country Banking Crisis Prediction Using Transvariation Analysis

The main purpose of this paper is to investigate macroeconomic variables that are predictive of banking crisis. We focus on selecting variables that have high predictive power to discriminate between two groups of countries: the sound and the distressed. We consider a sample of 50 emerging market and developing countries during 1990–2005 time period, and apply generalized estimating equations as well as univariate, bivariate and trivariate transvariation analysis to choose the variables that have high predictive and discriminative powers to separate the distressed countries from the sound countries. In order to compare the predictive performance of these selected variables, we calculate the leave one out predictive error rate for the top ranking variables with low transvariation probability using discrimination procedures. Not surprisingly the results show that countries with better macroeconomic and monetary environments and healthier banking institutions are less likely to suffer systemic banking crisis.

State antitakeover legislation and firm financial policy

In the wake of numerous hostile corporate takeover attempts in the 1980s, many states enacted antitakeover legislation, often as a direct response to a particular takeover effort in the specific state. A number of empirical studies assess the impact of such statutes on firm value using traditional event methodology. While the event type research may capture the immediate market assessment of the impact of such legislation, the legislation can affect longer term financial policies of the affected firms. Theorists have speculated that firms less exposed to a takeover threat are more likely to pursue a longer term investment strategy, that leverage may substitute for or complement other existing takeover defenses, and that protected firms may require additional external monitoring. The results of this study indicate that protected firms increase both capital expenditures and R&D relative to assets and sales. Further, there are increases in dividends but only small changes in leverage. Firms with antitakeover amendments in place prior to the legislation show lower increases in capital spending and R&D, and modest evidence of a greater tendency to increase debt levels. While these results indicate that the laws influence subsequent firm strategy, that does not necessarily mean that these changes in policy improve firm value.