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This study examines the impact of employment background on the objectivity of profitability forecasts in the financial sector. We find that investment bank analysts provide relatively biased recommendations and less accurate forecasts than their counterparts at independent research firms (IRFs). The performance discrepancy is greater for bulge bracket banks and for firms involved in syndication with the analysts' employers. A closer look at analysts transitioning between IRFs and investment banks reveals that these biases stem from their affiliation with investment banks rather than personal bias. Our findings emphasize the critical influence of the work environment on analyst behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines mutual funds' dual role as both clients and shareholders of broker banks. Mutual funds are more likely to hold and significantly overweight stocks of their broker banks. In line with the portfolio decisions, fund voting is biased toward broker management in contentious proposals. Such voting bias is inconsistent with maximizing broker banks' shareholder value yet significantly affects voting outcomes and the presence of contentious proposals at the banks' shareholder meetings. Furthermore, we show that although client funds are rewarded with preferential initial public offering allocations from connected brokers for their voting support, fund managers' engagement in reciprocal practices is ultimately determined by the economic tradeoffs they face. Our study not only uncovers a new mechanism—being brokers' friendly shareholders—through which the two parties maintain their quid pro quo relationships but also raises a broader concern about governance of important financial institutions. This paper was accepted by Victoria Ivashina, finance. Supplemental Material: The data files and online appendix are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2023.4820. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we evaluate changes in investment bank balance sheets to determine how these firms respond to shocks in a financial crisis. Contrary to theories that emphasize liquidity problems, we find that most investment banks maintain funding levels during these downturns. Investment banks typically respond to shocks with a shift into deposits or by raising equity, rather than selling assets at a loss. We do not find strong evidence of fire sales, as asset declines mainly reflect write-downs rather than sales at unusually low prices. Write-downs are combined with strategic use of Level 3 assets, suggesting that banks mask insolvency. Investment banks often rely on cherry picking of assets in order to boost reported capital in a downturn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Gazi Journal of Economics & Business is the property of Gazi Journal of Economics & Business and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Afyon Kocatepe University Journal of Social Sciences / Afyon Kocatepe Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi is the property of Afyon Kocatepe University (AKU) Sosyal Bilimler Enstitusu and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Firms frequently change their business models in order to respond to internal and external challenges. This study aims to explore how investments banks adjust their business models in response to internal and external challenges. Based on a qualitative data from ten major investment banks operating in the largest financial market in the Middle East, we show that investment banks can achieve resilience by adjusting their business models through continuous activity changes in response to internal and external challenges. Specifically, investment banks adjust their business models through deploying alternative combinations of activities from a broad repertoire of activities. Within the same bank, divisions that respond to external challenges tend to sustain their performance, whereas resilient divisions that respond to both internal and external challenges tend to bounce back or achieve substantial increase in performance levels. This study contributes to the literature by proposing resilience as an alternative approach to business model innovation and by providing insight into how firms adjust their business models by altering specific activities in response to both internal and external challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the activities of investment banks in the stock market. The difference between an investment bank and a commercial bank is noted. The types of services provided by the investment bank to both issuers of securities and buyers of financial instruments are given. Investment bank helps companies issue debt obligations, guarantees placement of securities and assumes risks associated with the purchase and sale of securities. The role of investment banks in the market of mergers and acquisitions is noted.

Geothermal development in Kenya's Rift Valley will reap enormous energy benefits for the nation as a whole. But its impacts upon local communities, in this case in the Ol Karia area of Nakuru County, are often negative, and geothermal expansion has led to many divisions and conflicts over equitable resource use, environmental degradation, health impacts on humans and animals, forced resettlement, access to benefits including jobs, houses and profit sharing, human and land rights, and community representation vis-á-vis the geothermal companies. Many questions have been raised about the role of the state and international financial institutions (IFIs). Accusations abound at grassroots level of nepotism, corruption and discrimination, and some indigenous residents accuse the majority Maasai of doubly marginalising them in the scramble for rights and benefits. Against a background of historical continuities, land injustices, and global struggles for indigenous and marginalised peoples' rights, this article examines the conflicts and complexities surrounding geothermal development at Ol Karia and its environs, and describes how people on the ground see the prospects for future peaceful co-existence with extractive industry on their lands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the consequences of the series of reforms targeting investment banking–related conflicts of interest. The authors compare and contrast optimism biases in analysts’ stock recommendations and earnings forecasts across different types of analyst firms in the postreform period of 2004 to 2007 versus the prereform period of 1998 to 2001. The authors document a significant reduction in the relative optimism of sanctioned investment bank analysts’ stock recommendations but not in their earnings forecasts. Moreover, the authors find little change in the profitability of their stock recommendations but detect a drop in the accuracy of earnings forecasts made by investment bank analysts. In sum, the reforms achieve the objective of mitigating the apparent optimism in investment bank stock recommendations, but they do not provide benefit to investors in terms of more profitable recommendations or more accurate earnings forecasts. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper introduces a novel data set to examine the relationship between leverage and asset growth in the Canadian investment broker-dealer sector over the period of 1992–2010. Investment dealers have highly procyclical leverage, in that leverage growth is highly correlated with asset growth. This is largely due to collateralized borrowing, whereby increases in asset values lead to increases in collateral (margin deposits), allowing investment dealers to borrow against these deposits and purchase more assets. Of course, decreases in collateral value have the opposite effect and margins can be destabilizing if investment broker-dealers are forced to de-leverage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the distribution of power within financial networks of investment banks in equity capital markets of three key economies in Asia: Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore. Using social network analysis, it shows that while bulge-bracket banks occupy core positions in all three locations, their dominance is challenged by emerging Asian investment banks. The equity capital market networks of investment banks are strongly shaped by development trajectory and regional contexts of specific international financial centres, which reveals the differentiated nature of finance across Asia. Results also highlight the need for further research on networks within financial centres in addition to inter-city networks in order to understand the roles and development of international financial centres. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Global Settlement, along with related regulations in the early 2000s, prohibits the use of investment banking revenue to fund equity research and compensate equity analysts. We find that all-star analysts from investment banks are more likely to exit the profession or move to the buy side after the regulations. The departed star analysts' earnings revisions and stock recommendations are more informative than those of the remaining analysts who followed the same companies. To the extent that star analysts are superior to their nonstar counterparts in terms of research ability and ability to inform the market, the exit of star analysts represents a brain drain in the sell-side equity research industry. These results are consistent with the view that the regulations introduced to protect equity investors have unintended adverse effects on the investors due to a brain drain in investment banks. This paper was accepted by Suraj Srinivasan, accounting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why does professional misconduct persist in the face of media scrutiny? In this study, we explain how professional norms can be at odds with societal norms and how the behaviours they trigger can be perceived as misconduct. Most audiences tend to disapprove of wrongdoings, but specific stakeholders may interpret this disapproval as an indication of the focal organization's level of adherence to professional norms. Building on mixed methods, we explore the case of the investment banking industry during the financial crisis and suggest that corporate customers were favourably biased by the reporting of banks' misconduct in the print media as they linked it to the banks' quality of service. We capture the extent to which banks are associated with misconduct, signalling their adherence to negatively perceived professional norms. We then look at how such signalling affects the likelihood for banks to be invited into initial public offerings syndicates. Our findings show that the more banks are disapproved of for their wrongdoings, the more likely they are to be selected to join a syndicate. This study suggests that the coverage of misconduct can actually act as a positive signal providing banks with incentives to engage in what is broadly perceived as professional misconduct. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: to determine the place of banks on the securities market at the present stage.Methods: general scientific and specific scientific methods of cognition were used - dialectical, historical, comprehensive, comparative legal. Results: analysis of the legislation of the Anglo-Saxon legal system and Russian legislation on banks allowed to draw a conclusion about the existence of problems associated with the development of investment activity of Russian banks on securities market. The concept of «securities market» is associated with such term as «stock market». In the present study, comparative characterization of these two concepts is made. Measuresto improve the Russian banking legislation are proposed.Scientific novelty: the article for the first time, the concepts of «stock market banking operations» and «banking operations with securities»are delineated. A number of proposals are made for amending some provisions of the legislation on banks and banking activity.Practical significance: conclusions and recommendations contained in this paper can be used to improve the conceptual apparatus of busi- ness law science.

In this paper we pointed out the general elements relating to investment banks: the definition of these institutions, their customers, the structure and their functions. The purpose of this article is to explore the role of investment banks in the development of the financial crisis. We focus on the activities during the crisis. Those activities contributed to the economic collapse that came full-blown the following year. Finally we made a short presentation of the investment bank Morgan Stanley, the bank that was considered "the best investment bank" at the end of the crisis period (2011).

We test the hypothesis that underwriters set higher gross spreads and deeper offer price discounts in seasoned equity offers of firms exhibiting weak shareholder rights as compensation for increased reputational risk and legal liability. Alternatively, if market participants are fully aware of the risks related to weak shareholder rights and efficiently price them, then underwriters arguably do not need to adjust issuance costs for firms with weak governance. Our results indicate that, on average, shareholder rights and direct issue costs are unrelated, supporting an efficient pricing view. However, upon closer examination, we find that underwriters charge higher gross spreads when the issuing firm has either an extremely low level of shareholder rights or a substantially lower level than expected, which are likely the cases in which the underwriter's reputational risk is highest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Al-Anbar University Journal of Economic & Administration Sciences is the property of Republic of Iraq Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research (MOHESR) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Europe provides an interesting setting to explore the role that investment banks play in acquisitions because it is composed of countries with different legal regimes – the shareholder‐oriented common law regime in the UK/Ireland and the stakeholder‐oriented civil law regime in Continental Europe. Since investment banks are hired to act in the interests of shareholders, and due to differences in disclosure requirements, market transparency, accounting standards, and ownership between the UK and Continental Europe, I argue that investment banks are relatively more important in UK‐only acquisitions. My findings support this conjecture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investment bank capitalism might have foundered during the global financial crisis in 2008, but what has happened to investment banks? Our analysis reveals that core investment banking activities have experienced a significant contraction, accompanied by diminished institutional and geographic concentration. Large banks have experienced the largest falls in revenue, and Asian banks have capitalized on the growth of their local capital markets. With direct access to the largest market in the world, US banks remain dominant globally, but their market shares have declined. Our results highlight the variegated nature of change under way in the global financial system, and its implications for geopolitics and geoeconomics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Growth and development of company depend on the adequate selection of financial resources and optimization of financial structure. In other words, the success of a company is determined by the choice of high-quality financial sources and their maturity adjustment. In developed economic and developed financial systems, companies have a wide range of financial sources: emissions of shares, bonds, emissions of other long-term and short-term securities, borrowing from the bank and alternative sources of financing. However, the developing countries and undeveloped countries addressed to financial resources of investors and loans from banking institutions. In this context, it is necessary to build a stable banking system, which will support the strategic development of the company and provide daily liquidity of companies.

Due to the lack of control and supervision, during the last two decades the investment banks exercised enormous freedom and were profit oriented taking highly risky trade and investments. These actions put them into a very difficult financial situation which did not affect only the financial market, but the entire US and world economy. The inability of the regulatory bodies to follow the actions of many multinational corporations clearly illustrates a weakness into the legal system as well as the rules and regulations applicable to the financial sector. The investment banks engaged themselves in very risky trades, investments and transactions and were not able to repay its short term obligations. The trading with derivatives expanded the crises worldwide, turning the US collapse into international collapse. The crises took massive measures and drew the entire world economy into financial crises and the biggest recession in the history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this research is to enable one to understand whether and how investment banks became one of the major influencing factors for the appearance of of the 2008 world financial and economic crises. Due to the lack of control and supervision, during the last two decades the investment banks exercised enormous freedom and were profit oriented taking highly risky trades and investments. The inability of the regulatory bodies to follow the actions of many multinational corporations clearly illustrates a weakness into the legal system as well as the rules and regulations applicable to the companies from the financial sector. The poor work of the rating agencies and regulatory bodies gave almost unlimited freedom to investment banks. The root of that is the amendment of the U.S. Glass - Steagall act (1999) which allowed intermingling of investment and commercial activities, the holes in the international standards and the introduction of two new products on the market: securitization and derivative trading. The investment banks started acquiring other businesses and became holdings. They engaged themselves in very risky trades, investments and transactions and were not able to repay its short term obligations. The trading with derivatives expanded the crises worldwide. The crises took massive measures and drew the entire world economy into financial crises and the biggest recession in the history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study uses a comprehensive sample of 5271 bidders during the period of 1995-2011 to examine the role of financial advisors on the outcomes of mergers and acquisitions in the Asia Pacific market. The results indicate that bidders take more time to complete deals when hiring tier-3 advisors. In addition, the empirical evidence indicates that bidders obtain higher announcement returns when hiring low reputation financial advisors. The results are robust when controlling for year effects, country effects and self-selection bias. In addition, the regression analysis also reveals that bidders obtain lower post-announcement returns when hiring tier-1 advisors in domestic deals. Thus, the empirical findings illustrate the importance of the quality of financial advisors on firm performance in mergers and acquisitions in the Asia Pacific market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to answer the question: "What factors that influence the price of corporate loans in Indonesia?" And "Are there some differences in loan pricing between several types of creditors?". Furthermore, this research is to develop and test the loan pricing model that was developed in America and Europe to the context or setting in Asia, especially Indonesia. Different conditions and settings of the financial system between America/Europe and Asia, especially Indonesia, causing the loan pricing model that was developed in America/Europe can not be fully implemented for Indonesia. Key issues in this study consisted of: information asymmetry, moral hazard and funding structure. The first issue, information asymmetry consists of the type of creditors, foreign and domestic ownership, public and non-public ownership. The second issue, moral hazard problem consists of variables governmental and non-government ownership, and the special relationship between creditors and debtors. The last issue, creditors’ structure of funding is proxied by the ratio of CD / ML. In addition, this study also adobt the loan pricing models that are developed in America / Europe as control variables. This study also examines the argument of Strahan (1999) whether the loan fees also reflected the condition of the loan as well as loan spreads. The OLS regression (Ordinary Least Squares) with white correction method (White heteroskedasticity correction) for heteroscedasticity problem is conducted to test the model. Various samples and sub samples are prepared to answer various research questions and hypotheses. Testing between regression coefficients are conducted to examine differences in loan pricing between different types of creditors for each variable in the model. The test results generally show that only two new variables suggested by the study, namely: ownership and structure of funding have a significant contribution to the loan pricing model. For variable type of institution consisting of investment banks and commercial banks indicate that generally there is no difference in loan pricing between the two, only in some models of these variables are not significant with signs consistent.Ownership variable show results consistent with the hypothesis and significant effect on loan prices. While the variable special relationship between creditors and debtors have no effect on loan prices, it is due to inter-group loans made by conglomerates. For the case of capital costs of the creditor shows that the variable has a positive effect on lending rates set by creditors. Testing different regression coefficients lead to the conclusion that domestic creditors succeeded in detecting an increased risk of the debtor before the economic crisis of 1997 compared with foreign creditors.

The purpose of this study is to assess to what extent the business model practiced by investment banks, before the beginning of the financial crisis, has influenced their performance indicators, and especially those who express shareholders' satisfaction. To this end, we have applied a nonparametric method, called Data Envelopment Analysis, which allows obtaining the efficiency scores for each financial institution considered. The sample included two pure investment banks, Lehman Brothers and Goldman Sachs, and seven international financial groups carrying out investment banking activities. The model tested assumed the maximization of selected output variables (ROE and the dividend distributed), by considering several input variables, meant to summarize the risk profile and costs arising from implementing a particular business model. The results obtained, in the form of high inefficiency scores, indicate that the business model of investment banks was not better performing than that applied by financial groups, because it failed to ensure a balance between ownership compensation and sustainable expansion of financial activity.

This paper discusses some features of financial institutions and instruments which originated the financial crisis triggered by increasing default rate, household real estate and financial asset depreciation combined with U.S. subprime mortgages. The first part presents major crisis events in a chronological order. The second part describes the interconnection of the institutions and markets which engendered a global shadow financial system. The third part focuses on an overview of measures taken by government authorities and large banks to bring about possible solutions for the global financial crisis.

Unlike the early industrializing countries, in which the prerequisites of industrial development exist, and these prerequisites are driven by liberal economic instruments to accelerate industrialization, late industrializing countries have had to create the prerequisites for industrial development through unique institutional reactions. In this context, late industrializing countries have been the institutions that determine the direction of their industrialization during their efforts to industrialize. The aim of this study is to emphasize that the most important institutions promoting industrial development in Germany, which is part of the late industrialized countries, are universal banks that carry out investment and commercial banking together. In this context, this study deals with the role played by universal banks in capital formation and the mobilization of capital in Germany, credit creation policies and incentives in the private sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As investment banks, large shareholders and directors find themselves simultaneously on both sides of merger and acquisition (M&A) activity, significant conflicts of interest raise legal challenges. What is the proper role for directors to meet their fiduciary obligations in such circumstances? What degree of disclosure of such conflicts to the stockholders does the law mandate? This article discusses how the most influential American court on corporate issues views these issues and subjects the board's decisions to enhanced scrutiny, except when full disclosure is made to shareholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is focused on investment banking and analyzes specific cases from the past which had major impact on the crises with an aim to find possible solutions to eliminate the existing weaknesses in the finance and investments sectors. Due to the lack of control and supervision, during the last two decades the investment banks exercised enormous freedom and were profit oriented taking highly risky trades and investments. These actions put them into a very difficult financial situation which did affect the whole world economy. The root of that is the amendment of the U.S. Glass - Steagall act (1999) which allowed intermingling of investment and commercial activities, the holes in the international standards and the introduction of two new products on the market: securitization and derivative trading. The trading with derivatives expanded the crises worldwide, turning the US collapse into international collapse. The crises took massive measures and drew the entire world economy into financial crises and the biggest recession in the history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the quest fo r additional financial returns, investment banks are increasingly seeking roles on both the sell and buy sides in M&A activity. Such situations yield an increased focus upon the proper role fo r the directors in meeting their obligations to shareholders. This article examines how an influential American court evaluates the legal standards the board must meet and discusses the ethical theories that may apply in the presence of such conflicts of interest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses prudential regulation in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in relation to wealth effects and changes in the systemic risk that is associated with the return structure of the Functional/Segmented Two-Pillar system in the UAE as of 2015. Several deregulatory banking directives are mentioned, along with the nation's investment firms and banking sector. The Gulf Cooperation Council organization, financial regulations, and UAE Central Bank are also examined.

The objective of this paper is to analyze how often Macedonian enterprises issue securities on the primary capital market in order to raise funds for capital funding and business expansion. The analysis of the amount of issued securities by the companies is presented, in total, annually for the period 2007-2012. The reasons why enterprises in Macedonia do not issue securities for raising capital is also explained. In the final part of the paper it is explained how establishment of investment banks will affect the development of the primary capital market in the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we pointed out the general elements relating to investment banks: the definition of these institutions, their customers, the structure and their functions. The purpose of this article is to explore the role of investment banks in the development of the financial crisis. We focus on the activiti es during the crisis. Those activities contributed to the economic collapse that came full -blown the following year. Finally we made a short presentation of the investment bank Morgan Stanley, the bank that was considered "the best investment bank" at the end of the crisis period (2011). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines whether banks' recommendations to investors in the Latin American sovereign bond market are truly independent of the same banks' underwriting activities in these countries. The main findings are the following. First, after controlling for macroeconomic and financial variables, I find that investment banks tend to provide optimistic recommendations to investors in sovereign bonds on which they act as lead managers. Second, econometric analysis shows that this association increases with the underwriting fee. These results are consistent with interviews with the main institutional investors in sovereign bonds. The findings of this research suggest the existence of a conflict of interest between the origination and research departments of investment banks in the Latin American bond market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates Seasoned Equity Offering (SEO) cost differences between Europe and the US in the period 1990 to 2011. We find that the direct costs for the US companies are around 40% higher than those for the European companies. Results of this paper are consistent with strategic pricing on the part of investment banks in the US, while the European market is more competitive. However, if the European companies register with the Securities and Exchange Commission in the US, they are also affected by over 25% more in direct costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the relationship between investment banks’ initial public offering (IPO) market shares and their prior IPO underpricing in the new IPO market for China-based companies on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. To gain expertise in Chinese business practices, investment banks have the incentive to obtain business in this new IPO market by providing high offer prices to the issuer, leading to less underpricing and less money on the table. We hypothesize and find that the less an investment bank underprices China-based company IPOs, the greater its subsequent market share of China-based company IPOs in the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Furthermore, this relationship is driven by a bank’s initial China-based company IPO deals. These results suggest that in new IPO markets, investment banks’ initial market shares, obtained through lower underpricing, help them grow their market shares in later periods, possibly through the expertise gained in the initial business. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the article is to study the characteristics of cyclic investment banking using fractal analysis. Analyzing scientific works of Russian and foreign scientists to assess the characteristics of cyclic investment banks in Ukraine were invited to use the method of R/S-analysis. As a result of studies of capital investment by bank loans in Ukraine within time series (2006\-2013), it was found that the study of time series has a different memory depth for tempo and quantitative indicators (5 and 9, respectively) identified six quasi-cycles (5 completed and one unfinished) of time series. These results provide a basis for predicting the size of a bounding box values of the future and to identify the trend of the time series of capital investments by bank loans. Prospects for further research in this direction is to predict the dynamics of capital investment by bank loans on the basis of the results obtained, the definition of counter-cyclical regulatory the investment activity of banks in Ukraine in the framework of macro-prudential regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investment banks play a vital role in the economic development of a country through their impact on capital and money markets. In developing countries, they promote and support business investors in bringing about economic stability. The investment banking industry faced significant challenges as a result of the financial crisis in 2008. This study presents a detailed financial analysis of the recent performance of seven investment banks in Pakistan for the period 2007-11 with the help of financial ratios. The banks were assessed across several perspectives: profitability, efficiency, liquidity, leverage, and other financial measures such as institution size. Our findings show that all banks faced a significant squeeze on profitability, although the smaller banks performed better overall. This implies that successful performance does not necessarily depend on economies of scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the client assets regime in the U.S. and the European Union in 2014. Topics include the law of trusts, the protection of client monies after the collapse of financial services firm Lehman Brothers, and rules governing property rights. Information is provided on investment bank regulation.

This article identifies the main reasons that contributed to the wider phenomenon of shifting the consequences of risk and loss toward society during the global economic crisis. It is about risk and losses, both economic and psychological, in the process of making personal financial decisions. The assumption is that the process of shifting the risk and losses is associated with a parallel process of appropriating life chances especially the economic benefits of investment banks across the world. Globalization and digitization of the economy, falling depreciation standards' of ethical business and instrumentalization its ethical values and processes of digitization of society had influenced the changes in the social structure and the content and format (including forms of employment) of contemporary work. This article presages a planned study on the processes of the instrumentalization of work attitudes that contribute to the individualization, dispersion and inconsistency of the work ethic in Poland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Bankarstvo Magazine is the property of Association of Serbian Banks and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Recognizing information-related problems in acquisition transactions, we study how the characteristics of acquiring firms' relationships with information brokers or intermediaries like investment banks affect firms' access to acquisition-related information, thus influencing expected acquisition performance. We propose that relational configurations that enhance the intermediaries' ability and willingness provide the most beneficial and appropriate information to acquiring firms. We find that acquirers' expected acquisition performance increases with the number of prior transactions with investment banks but decreases when relationships with banks become exclusive. Further, the positive effect of number of prior transactions becomes even stronger for less related acquisitions. Our study provides insights on the beneficial performance implications of competition in multiple but nonexclusive relationships with information intermediaries such as investment banks. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Underwriters underprice Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) and often, immediately after, repurchase shares in an attempt to stabilize the price. This ancillary service is not mandatory and can be provided by underwriters in the first month of trading. Using a sample of Italian IPOs, we investigate whether the price stabilization activity is carried out when actually needed. We document that only half of the IPOs that require this service are actually stabilized after going public. The fees charged by underwriters are not informative about the provision of this ancillary activity. Rather, the underwriter's reputation is negatively associated with the stabilization activity. Negative price revisions and negative (or low) underpricing also drive the provision of price stabilization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]