La información no financiera y el desempeño financiero empresarial

This paper aims to validate the effects that sustainability reports have on the financial performance of Colombian companies. Through a panel data model and the information of 30 companies listed on the Colombian stock exchange for the 2012 - 2015 period, the impact of sustainability reports on the financial performance of this group of companies is evaluated. It is concluded that the size of the company and the number of environmental indicators have a positive effect on financial performance, while its antiquity causes the opposite.Este artigo pretende validar os efeitos que os relatórios de sustentabilidade têm no desempenho financeiro das empresas colombianas. Através de um modelo de dados em painel e da informação de 30 empresas que cotizam na bolsa de valores colombiana para o período de 2012-2015, avalia-se a incidência que os relatórios de sustentabilidade têm sobre o desempenho financeiro desse grupo de empresas.Conclui-se que o tamanho da empresa e a quantidade de indicadores ambientais têm um efeito positivo no desempenho financeiro, enquanto a antiguidade da empresa apresenta um efeito contrário.Este artículo pretende validar los efectos que tienen los reportes de sostenibilidad en el desempeño financiero de las empresas colombianas. A través de un modelo de datos de panel y la información de 30 empresas que cotizan en la bolsa de valores colombiana para el periodo 2012 - 2015, se evalúa la incidencia que tienen los reportes de sostenibilidad sobre el desempeño financiero de este grupo de empresas. Se concluye que el tamaño de la empresa y la cantidad de indicadores ambientales tienen un efecto positivo en el desempeño financiero, mientras que la antigüedad de la misma causa lo contrario

Investment Timing for New Business Ventures

A key requirement for the start of many entrepreneurial business is private equity or venture capital financing. In the traditional approach to entrepreneurial investment analysis, an entrepreneur starts a new venture and a venture capitalist finances the new venture when business return exceeds the financial opportunity cost for comparable risk - the cost of capital for the new venture. The real options literature recommends that entrepreneurs delay business start due to investment irreversibility until business return reaches a threshold greater than the cost of capital. In this paper, we show that for new ventures with modest earnings volatility, an entrepreneur starts his/her business before return exceeds the cost of capital. We identify the circumstances in which the cost of capital is an unduly conservative return benchmark for the start of a new business and discuss the empirical implications of our findings

Investigation of flow and combustion in the injector region of LOX/H2-rocket combustors

Diese Arbeit befaßt sich mit den Problemen, die bei der Modellierung von Raketenbrennkammern auftreten. Die Komplexität der Phänomene, die auch die integralen Leistungsdaten von Triebwerken bestimmen, ist aufgezeigt worden. Aus diesen Erkenntnissen folgt, daß es in naher Zukunft kein Modell oder CFD-Programm geben wird, das vollständige Brennkammern über verschiedene Betriebspunkte und mit versch. Brennkammergeometrien ausreichend exakt berechnen kann. Das ist hauptsächlich ein Problem der Rechnerkapazität, denn die Genauigkeit der Rechnung, d.h. wie detailliert bestimmte Phänomene modelliert werden, aber auch wie fein das Rechengebiet aufgelöst (diskretisiert) wird und natürlich wieviel Zeit benötigt wird bis man eine auskonvergierte Lösung erhält, hängt in erster Linie von der Leistung der Computer ab. In Zukunft werden sich deshalb auf dem CFD-Sektor immer mehr hochparallelisierte Programme durchsetzen, die auf sehr leistungsfähigen Parallelrechnern laufen werden. Folglich ist es abzusehen, daß die Large-Eddy-Simulation in Zukunft immer wichtiger wird. Aber auch hochkomplexe Modelle, die heutzutage nicht verwendet werden können, da sie die Berechnung zu langsam machen, werden immer mehr angewendet werden. Simultan zu den theoret. Aktivitäten der numerischen Simulation von Brennkammern ist es weiterhin mindestens ebenso wichtig, die experimentelle Untersuchung von Raketenbrennkammern voranzutreiben. In dieser Arbeit werden Brennkammeruntersuchungen mittels Schattenaufnahmetechniken, OH- und H2O-Imaging durchgeführt. Experimentelle Datensätze über Spezies- und Temperaturverteilungen in der Flammenregion sind wichtig zum vollständigen Verständnis der physikalisch-chemischen Prozesse in reagierenden Scherschichten. Diese Datensätze wurden mit verschiedenen numerischen Simulationen verglichen. Somit war es möglich die in den Simulationsprogrammen implementierten physikalischen Modelle zu verifizieren bzw. deren Gültigkeitsgrenzen anzugeben.This work is concerned with the problems that appear in the modeling of combustion chambers. The complexity of the dominant phenomena, which determine the integral performance characteristics of propulsion systems, is discussed. Based on this discussion it is shown that, in the near future, it is unlikely that CFD techniques will be able to accurately predict real combustion processes over various operating points and combustion chamber geometries. This is mostly a problem of computer capacity, because the precision of the calculation, for example the resolution of important physical scales depends primarily on the numerical algorithms implemented and the available computing power. Therefore in the future parallel programming techniques will prevail more and more on the CFD-sector which will run on very capable computer architectures. Accordingly it is conceivable that in future the Large-Eddy-Simulation will be more important. But also very complex models which nowadays can not be used, since they retard the program, will be utilized more and more. In addition to the numerical and theoretical work, emphasis is also be made on the development of more reliable and accurate experimental methods. In this work studies of a combustion chamber are performed using shadowgraphs, OH- and H2O-Imaging techniques. Experimental datasets about species and temperature distributions in flameregions are important for the entire understanding of the physical-chemical processes in reactive shear layers. These datasets were compared with various numerical simulations. Thus it was possible to verify and to specify the limits of the physical models implemented in the simulation programs

Corporate Sales, Predisclosure Information and Return Variability

This paper investigates the determinants of return variability between accounting report and non-report periods. A model of information dissemination in financial markets is developed which shows that if corporate sales activity is a source of predisclosure information, the ratio of return variability between accounting report and non-report periods decreases in contribution margin per dollar sales. Greater contribution margin increases that portion of cash flow variability which is predictable by investors' observation of sales activity and, therefore, contribution margin indexes the informativeness of sales-related predisclosure information. Greater informativeness increases return variability in the predisclosure period relative to the accounting report period. Supporting evidence for this prediction is presented. Copyright Blackwell Publishers Ltd 1997.

Managerial Preference, Asymmetric Information, and Financial Structur e.

If firm performance affects managers' wealth or reputation, preferences of managers dominate firms' financing decisions. When information about real a sset investment is symmetric, managers finance exclusively with equit y. If managers know more about investment quality than do investors, and if managers are sufficiently risk averse, they signal high qualit y projects with debt. Increases in collateral value decrease debt use Increases in interest rates, that do not change productive opportun ities, increase debt use. The explanation for these and further resul ts is based on underpricing of equity and overpricing of debt at the margin. Copyright 1987 by American Finance Association.

Essays in the economics of insurance markets

This dissertation investigates several aspects of the economics of insurance markets. First, conditions under which policies with deductible provisions, coinsurance provisions, or premium rebates are optimal are given. Results of previous papers on indemnity costs are considered as special cases. For both personal and commercial lines of insurance, further applications consider income taxes, interest income and acquisition costs. Second, the effect of individuals' characteristics on the trade-off between risk-sharing and incentives in a competitive insurance market affected by moral hazard is studied. An increase in the utility cost of effort decreases both prevention and coverage, while an increase in productivity of effort decreases loss frequencies and increases coverage. Decreases of utility in the loss state increase both prevention and coverage. Additional results establish the effect of wealth and risk aversion changes. Third, features of insurance markets that affect the use of reinsurance are examined. An active reinsurance market exists when the direct market is imperfectly competitive. The manager of an insurance firm with monopoly power takes reinsurance in preference to holding this on own account. Market power in the reinsurance market also restricts reinsurance. The manager of a monopsonistic insurer takes reinsurance when risk aversion is greater than that of clients; this is consistent with the interests of owners. The use of reinsurance is then decreasing with the ratio of policy-holder to manager risk aversion coefficients. Costs incurred by either insurers or reinsurers in the reinsurance market reduce the use of reinsurance, while costs incurred by insurers in the original transaction leave coverage provided by insurers themselves unchanged.Business, Sauder School ofGraduat