Research

The research centers and institutes at the DeGroote School of Business rank among the world’s best, and our students — both graduate and undergraduate — reap the benefits of these first-class facilities while they learn from some of the country’s finest researchers and educators.

DeGroote faculty have studied extensively nationally and internationally, bringing their wide variety of experiences and backgrounds to the School of Business success story.

There is a need, and an opportunity, for rigorous and broad-based interdisciplinary research that investigates the creation of value in an enterprise. Such areas include traditional valuation metrics as well as new approaches to the valuation of the development of human capital, product development and innovation, brand development, reputation, customer development, societal and environmental impact, leadership, and crisis management. The Institute will provide future and, indeed, current business professionals with the techniques and expertise to understand and assess business strategies and the tangible and intangible assets that contribute to their value more fully.

The former AIC Institute for Strategic Business Studies in 2007 issued a call for proposals to faculty to conduct scholarly research into the content and process of defining, creating and measuring value in an enterprise. Perspectives and methodologies that go beyond traditional business valuation models and are not anchored in any one specific discipline were encouraged. Recent working papers by DeGroote School of Business faculty and PhD students along this line of research are provided below.

Working Paper Series in Strategic Business Valuation

Michael Lee-Chin & Family Institute for Strategic Business Studies Working Paper Series

This working paper series presents original contributions focused on the theme of creation and measurement of value in business enterprises and organizations.

2022 Working Papers

Franchising Structure Changes and Shareholder Value: Evidence from Store Buybacks and Refranchising
Anna Sadovnikova, Manish Kacker, and Saurabh Mishra | 2022-09 | Download the PDF

Drawing on agency theory and transaction cost analysis, this study investigates the impact of refranchising and buybacks of downstream retail units by franchising firms on shareholder value (i.e., stock returns). It further evaluates the contingency role of firm and industry factors in shaping this impact. An event study analysis over the years 2001-2020 confirms that […]

Are Firms as Liquid as they Appear in Annual Reports?
Abdul-Rahman Khokhar, Jiaping Qiu, and Mohammad M. Rahaman | 2022-08 | Download the PDF

We find that firms report significantly higher cash holdings in the fourth fiscal quarter, followed by subsequent reversal. Such a phenomenon cannot be explained by traditional determinants of cash holdings, calendar year-end effect, or the choice of fiscal-year-end quarter. We identify real and timing apparatuses that firms employ to maneuver such a cash hike within […]

Firm Foreign Activity and the Geography of Exchange Rate Risk [update of wp 2022-02]
Amir Akbari and Francesca Carrieri | 2022-07 | Download the PDF

Globally-focused firms are the key drivers of foreign exchange rate (FX) risk. These firms have higher FX exposure to the risk from the currency of a closer country, in line with the gravity effect, and during the home currency depreciation. Furthermore, those in countries more dependent on the export sector and in the periphery of […]

Social Distancing and Local Bias
Yi Liu and Justin Jin | 2022-06 | Download the PDF

This study investigates the effect of social distancing on the local bias of institutional investors. Using SafeGraph’s Social Distancing Metrics data and SEC’s EDGAR 13F filings, we find that stay-at-home duration ratio decreases institutional investors’ local holdings and firms’ institutional ownership in the U.S. We also exploit the lockdown orders across various states during the […]

Local Labor Market Concentration and Capital Structure Decisions
John (Jianqiu) Bai, Massimo Massa, Chi Wan, and Yan Wang | 2022-05 | Download the PDF

Using the near universe of online job postings from 2007 to 2019, we construct a firm level metric of local labor market concentration. We find that firms hiring in more concentrated labor markets tend to have higher financial leverage. The positive relation between labor market concentration and financial leverage is more pronounced when the firm […]

On the Nature of Managerial Work in a Transitional Society: The Case of Estonia at the Point of Transition
Vishwanath Baba and Ruth Alas | 2022-04 | Download the PDF

We examine Estonia as a society transitioning from state socialism to market capitalism at the point of transition. We interviewed Chief Executive Officers, Vice Presidents, General Managers, Project Managers, and Functional Managers working in a variety of industries. We show that during transition, management practice has realigned itself toward capitalist values, adopted a modern management […]

Green Acquisitions: Are They Just Low-Hanging Green Fruit? [Abstract. Full version available from the authors]
Yuyan Wei and Devashish Pujari | 2022-03 | Download the PDF

Increasingly, corporations are expanding their green business portfolios by acquiring green technologies, brands, and firms to respond to sustainability trends. However, little is known regarding the financial impact of such a green strategy. This study uses the event study method to examine stock market reactions to green acquisition announcements. We find that the stock market […]

Firm Foreign Activity and Exchange Rate Risk [replaced by wp 2022-07]
Amir Akbari and Francesca Carrieri | 2022-02 | Download the PDF

Globally focused firms are the drivers of foreign exchange rate (FX) risk. Among the risk of the G10 currencies, the comovements with the largest currencies are the most important of the postulated risk factors. Firms’ exposure to FX risk is time-varying, is larger with respect to the home currency, and responds to fluctuations in the […]

Pricing Power: Measures, Trends and Influences on Firm Value
Yang Pan, Thomas S. Gruca, and Lope Rego | 2022-01 | Download the PDF

Pricing power is highly prized by investors, pursued by managers and almost totally ignored by marketing academics. One potential reason may be a lack of validated measures of pricing power. In this study, we examine two pricing power metrics: a new enterprise-level measure of price elasticity and the industry-adjusted Lerner Index. Both measures can be […]