Innovation and Insider Trading

The study finds that insiders\u27 purchases in large firms precede the patent applications for innovations. US publicly held large firms increase their innovation quality by 25% subsequent to the share purchase of top insiders, as measured by non-self citations received per patent applied. The average cumulative abnormal returns of insiders on their purchases prior to the important patent applications are economically large and significant especially in the long run. The use of private information by insiders seems to be less prevalent in firms with better corporate governance. Firm innovation quality also deteriorates after insiders sell their share in the compan

Financing innovation through minority acquisitions

© 2018 Elsevier Inc. This study analyses the financing role of minority equity purchases on innovation activities of US target firms. We provide evidence of increased innovation following minority acquisitions accompanied by cash flows to small, young, most financially constrained target firms that have relatively small patent portfolios prior to acquisition. The effect is not present in the case of minority acquisitions without cash transfers to target firms, or in the case of pre-acquisition relatively large patent portfolio firms, which are less likely to face financial constraints. We also find that R&D expenditures increase following minority acquisitions with cash transfers to target firms. The results are robust to accounting for endogeneity in estimation using matching techniques. Comparable firms, who are targets of announced but failed minority acquisitions, experience no change in their innovation activity. Several sensitivity checks confirm the validity of our results

ICT USAGE CHARACTERISTICS AND COMPUTER SECURITY

Although acquired-user security habits and user security awareness are qualified as the feeblest components in assuring the information and communication technologies security, they are deemed to be inevitable as well. While the technology in information processing domain efforts its best in establishing the highest plausible security, user awareness is still referred as the key-component. Human demographic factors, ICT usage frequency might have correlation with security related behavior routines, this dimension not to be known yet. Hence, in this study we examined the influence of ICT usage characteristics on secure computer usage behaviors. In order to investigate this relation, a survey was carried out with the participation of 466 individuals from diverse layers of the community. The results demonstrated that statistically noteworthy relations exist between several socio-demographic features, frequency and reason of ICT usage factors and secure computer usage.&nbsp

Inventor CEOs and Firm Innovation

Using a novel, manually-collected dataset, we find that firms whose chief executive officer (CEO) is an inventor experience significantly better innovation outcomes, as measured by patents and future citations. We obtain these results in models with firm fixed effects, in difference-in-difference analysis of transitioning CEOs that controls for the CEO fixed effects, and among firms with founder CEOs. Firms led by an inventor CEO also exhibit greater tolerance for failure as indicated by a greater number of both highly cited and uncited patents, and engage more in explorative search strategies that exploit new technological trajectories. Stock market, however, seems unable to fully capture the positive impact of inventor CEOs on future innovation: firms whose CEO transitions to be an inventor experience positive abnormal stock returns, especially during the early years following the transition

Do Insiders Trade on Innovation?

We find that pure insider share purchases—which we define as insider purchases over two successive years without any corresponding sales—are a strong predictor of a firm’s patent applications. The predictability increases with the quality of the patent: Applications for the highest-quality, breakthrough patents increase by 21% in the year following pure insider purchases in our sample. These purchases are associated with large abnormal stock returns of 1.1% per month (14% annualized) over the subsequent three-year period. We also document that stock price responds less to the subsequent announcement of the grant of patent if the application for the patent has been preceded by pure insider purchases, consistent with the idea that insider purchases reveal information about future firm innovation. Our evidence has implications for understanding insider trading within technology companies that have become a dominant feature of US stock markets in recent decades

The relationship between R&D intensity, conservatism, and management earnings forecast issuance

R&D-intensive firms suffer from high information asymmetry and high proprietary costs and are prone to exhibit bottom-line losses given the unconditional conservative accounting treatment of R&D expenses. We examine how R&D intensity influences the issuance of management earnings forecasts (MEFs) across levels of accounting conservatism, controlling for proprietary costs and other earnings guidance determinants. We provide insights into how managers view the tradeoffs of using MEF disclosures to lower information asymmetry versus the costs of releasing proprietary information to competitors and the loss of reputational capital that could arise from providing inaccurate forecasts. We find that although R&D intensity and conditional conservatism are negatively related to the issuance of MEFs, as shown in prior research, at high levels of research intensity and the accompanying uncertainty about future payoffs, the negative association between conditional conservatism and MEF issuance is mitigated. These findings point to a role for conditional conservatism as a credibility enhancer for managers of R&D intense firms

Impact of education on security practices in ICT

U provođenju sigurnosnih mjera u informatičkoj tehnologiji, svijest i stečene radne navike korisnika neizbježne su komponente. Ipak, može ih se označiti i kao najslabije. Premda informatička tehnologija nastoji činiti najviše što može da bi osigurala maksimum sigurnosti, svijest korisnika o tome je ključna. Uz to, iako se u literaturi mogu naći radovi koji se bave načinima podučavanja sigurnosti u informatici, nema ih mnogo koji razmatraju utjecaj stupnja obrazovanja. Stoga se u ovom radu ispituje utjecaj stupnja obrazovanja na to koliko su korisnici svjesni potrebe primjene zaštitnih mjera pri korištenju proizvoda informatičke i komunikacijske tehnologije (ICT). U tu je svrhu provedeno ispitivanje na grupi od 433 građana, pripadnika raznih društvenih slojeva. Zanimljivo je da su rezultati pokazali kako nivo obrazovanja značajno utječe na pitanja vezana uz provođenje zaštitnih mjera kad se radi o uporabi računala, internetske mreže i e-pošte.In assuring the security in information technology, user awareness and acquired-user habits are inevitable components, yet they may be qualified as the feeblest ones. As the information technology tries to put its best in providing maximum security, user awareness plays a key-role. Additionally, although the literature provides studies on approaches for teaching information security, there are not many evidences on the impact of education level. Therefore, this study investigates the impact of the education level on user security awareness in using the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) products. For this purpose, a survey was conducted among 433 citizens from different layers of the society. Interestingly, the results indicated that education level has significant impact on all security issues included in the analysis regarding computer usage, web usage and e-mail usage

The DUNE far detector vertical drift technology. Technical design report

DUNE is an international experiment dedicated to addressing some of the questions at the forefront of particle physics and astrophysics, including the mystifying preponderance of matter over antimatter in the early universe. The dual-site experiment will employ an intense neutrino beam focused on a near and a far detector as it aims to determine the neutrino mass hierarchy and to make high-precision measurements of the PMNS matrix parameters, including the CP-violating phase. It will also stand ready to observe supernova neutrino bursts, and seeks to observe nucleon decay as a signature of a grand unified theory underlying the standard model. The DUNE far detector implements liquid argon time-projection chamber (LArTPC) technology, and combines the many tens-of-kiloton fiducial mass necessary for rare event searches with the sub-centimeter spatial resolution required to image those events with high precision. The addition of a photon detection system enhances physics capabilities for all DUNE physics drivers and opens prospects for further physics explorations. Given its size, the far detector will be implemented as a set of modules, with LArTPC designs that differ from one another as newer technologies arise. In the vertical drift LArTPC design, a horizontal cathode bisects the detector, creating two stacked drift volumes in which ionization charges drift towards anodes at either the top or bottom. The anodes are composed of perforated PCB layers with conductive strips, enabling reconstruction in 3D. Light-trap-style photon detection modules are placed both on the cryostat's side walls and on the central cathode where they are optically powered. This Technical Design Report describes in detail the technical implementations of each subsystem of this LArTPC that, together with the other far detector modules and the near detector, will enable DUNE to achieve its physics goals

Yatırım projelerinin analizinde reel opsiyonların kullanılması ve bir uygulama

YATIRIM PROJELERİNİN ANALİZİNDE REEL OPSİYONLARIN KULLANILMASI VE BİR UYGULAMA Finansal varlıklar üzerine kurulan opsiyon teorisinin yatırım projelerinin analizinde kullanılmaya başlanmasından sonra bu alanda bir çok çalışma yapılmıştır. Reel opsiyonlar hakkındaki çalışmalar büyük oranda yatırımlar üzerindeki opsiyonlar hakkında olmuştur. Çünkü reel opsiyon analizi, gelecekte bir veya birden çok noktada karar alma hakkına sahip olduğumuzda anlam kazanmaktadır. Gelecekteki bu fırsatların yatırım analizinin içine katılması ise finans teorisinin, ekonomik analizlerin, yönetim biliminin, karar bilimlerinin, istatistik ve ekonometrik modellerin opsiyon teorisine uygulanmasını gerektirmektedir. Bu bakımdan çalışmada opsiyon teorisinden yola çıkılarak bunun finansal varlıklara ve ardından reel varlıklara uygulanışı açıklanmaya çalışılmış, yatırım amacıyla karar vermek durumunda olanlara sahip oldukları veya olacakları opsiyonları yatırım analizine nasıl dâhil edebilecekleri gösterilmeye çalışılmıştır. Yönetimsel esnekliği de göz önüne alarak yapılan böyle bir değerlendirme yatırımların iyi bir yönetici elinde ulaşabileceği gerçek değerine yaklaştırılmasına olanak sağlamaktadır. ABSTRACT USING OF REAL OPTIONS IN INVESTMENT PROJECT ANALYSIS AND A CASE STUDY Option-pricing methods were first developed to value financial options. However, the potential application of these methods to the valuation of options on real assets was quickly identified, and hundreds of scholarly papers have been written on this topic. The studies about real options generally have been associated with the options over investments. Because real options analysis will be meaningful when we have the right to take decisions at one or more points in the future. In order to integrate these rights into investment analysis, financial theory, economic analysis, management science, decision sciences, statistics, and econometric modeling must be applied to options theory. In this research, the application process of the option theory over the financial security and real asset was tried to be analyzed. It was tried to indicate that how those individuals or potential companies who have decided to invest possess the options or will be possessing the options, can be included in the investment analysis. Such an evaluation, which considers the managerial flexibility, provides the possibility of approximating the real value of the investments, those can be obtained by a skilled manager

Inventor Chief Executive Officers and Firm Innovation

© 2019 International Review of Finance Ltd. 2019 Using a novel, manually collected dataset, we find that firms whose chief executive officer (CEO) is an inventor experience significantly better innovation outcomes, as measured by patents and future citations. We obtain these results in models with firm fixed effects, in difference-in-difference analysis of transitioning CEOs that controls for the CEO fixed effects, and among firms with founder CEOs. Firms led by an inventor CEO also exhibit greater tolerance for failure as indicated by a greater number of both highly cited and uncited patents, and engage more in explorative search strategies that exploit new technological trajectories. Stock market, however, seems unable to fully capture the positive impact of inventor CEOs on future innovation: firms whose CEO transitions to be an inventor experience positive abnormal stock returns, especially during the early years following the transition