IT Investments under Earnings Pressure

Recent research has shown managers’ tendency to cut discretionary investments to meet short-term earnings targets. However, how these aspirational levels of performance and associated conflicts of interest between managers and shareholders influence information technology (IT) investments has hardly been examined. Drawing on behavioral agency theory, we analyze how earnings pressure – the pressure managers feel to meet or beat analysts’ consensus earnings forecast – influences IT investments. We find that earnings pressure is associated with a reduction in firms’ IT investment commitment, based on the frequency of sentences within 10-K filings emphasizing IT investment. This finding points towards a hitherto unconsidered influence of capital markets on IT investments in literature on IT investment determinants. Further, we plan to analyze if this reduction entails negative or positive stock market performance consequences. Understanding the performance consequences will allow us to lay the foundation towards effectively addressing this issue within corporate governance

When the Machine Stops: The Impact of Information Technology Failure on Firm Value

Previous research on information technology (IT) failures has predominantly focused on determining the impact of security breaches on firm value. However, little is known about IT failures that emerge accidentally and are unrelated to security incidents. This study approaches this notable research gap by applying the resource weakness framework and utilizing event study methodology. Based on a sample of 571 failure events from publicly-traded European firms, we find that non-security-related IT failures result on average in a 0.32% decline in firm value over a two-day event window. Interestingly, this decline is diminishing in more recent years. Moreover, the loss in firm value is particularly pronounced if the failure is caused by a software error (1.08%). In sum, our findings suggest that the often-neglected resource weakness perspective – that complements resource strengths within resource-based view – has strong explanatory power regarding the contingency factors of IT failure events

Apoptosis Is Essential for Neutrophil Functional Shutdown and Determines Tissue Damage in Experimental Pneumococcal Meningitis

During acute bacterial infections such as meningitis, neutrophils enter the tissue where they combat the infection before they undergo apoptosis and are taken up by macrophages. Neutrophils show pro-inflammatory activity and may contribute to tissue damage. In pneumococcal meningitis, neuronal damage despite adequate chemotherapy is a frequent clinical finding. This damage may be due to excessive neutrophil activity. We here show that transgenic expression of Bcl-2 in haematopoietic cells blocks the resolution of inflammation following antibiotic therapy in a mouse model of pneumococcal meningitis. The persistence of neutrophil brain infiltrates was accompanied by high levels of IL-1β and G-CSF as well as reduced levels of anti-inflammatory TGF-β. Significantly, Bcl-2-transgenic mice developed more severe disease that was dependent on neutrophils, characterized by pronounced vasogenic edema, vasculitis, brain haemorrhages and higher clinical scores. In vitro analysis of neutrophils demonstrated that apoptosis inhibition completely preserves neutrophil effector function and prevents internalization by macrophages. The inhibitor of cyclin-dependent kinases, roscovitine induced apoptosis in neutrophils in vitro and in vivo. In wild type mice treated with antibiotics, roscovitine significantly improved the resolution of the inflammation after pneumococcal infection and accelerated recovery. These results indicate that apoptosis is essential to turn off activated neutrophils and show that inflammatory activity and disease severity in a pyogenic infection can be modulated by targeting the apoptotic pathway in neutrophils

Unternehmensbewertung, Basiszinssatz und Zinsstruktur: Kapitalmarktorientierte Bestimmung des risikolosen Basiszinssatzes bei nicht-flacher Zinsstruktur

Der Diskussionsbeitrag zeigt, wie der für die Unternehmensbewertung benötigte risikolose Basiszinssatz modellgestützt aus Kapitalmarktdaten gewonnen werden kann. Dies ist die Basis für eine konsistente Bewertung, die auf den unbestimmten Begriff des "landesüblichen Zinsfußes" zurückgehende Manipulationsspielräume und bislang in Kauf genommene Bewertungsfehler vermeidet. This working paper deals with the risk free rate in firm valuation. The main concern is how the risk free rate can be determined from capital market data. An interest rate model is proposed including the actual term structure of interest rates. This helps to avoid valuation errors as well as distress of manipulation