Essays on Stock Issuance

Firms which issue new equity subsequently have lower returns than other firms, but does the strength of the issuance effect vary in the cross section of firms? The essay shows, that US firms with characteristics that makes them “hard to value” have returns which are strongly related to their past issuance activity, while the return of “easy to value” firms are less related to their past issuance activity. In most cases the difference between “hard to value” and “easy to value” firms are signiffcant. As proxies for “hard to value”, I use three different types of firm characteristics. First, I consider firms for which relatively little information is available as “hard to value”. Examples are firms covered by few analysts and small firms. Second, I consider firms with high levels of analyst disagreement on stock price target, next quarter earnings per share and share recommendation as “hard to value”. Third, firms with expected cash flows in the more distant future are “hard to value”. These include firms with low earnings, high asset growth, and low dividend yield

Putting the ‘we’ into workout: The association of identity leadership with exercise class attendance and effort, and the mediating role of group identification and comfort

This research examined how identity leadership displayed by group exercise instructors is associated with exercisers’ class attendance and in-class effort. Group exercise participants assessed their instructors’ engagement in identity leadership at baseline before indicating their comfort in the exercise environment, identification with the exercise group, class attendance, and in-class effort four weeks later. Results indicated positive associations between instructors’ identity leadership and exercisers’ group identification and comfort in the exercise environment four weeks later. Furthermore, results provided evidence of indirect effects. First, identity leadership was associated with members’ more frequent class attendance through their stronger group identification. Second, identity leadership was associated with members’ greater in-class effort through (a) their stronger group identification, and (b) their greater comfort. These relationships remained significant when accounting for the effect of established motivational predictors (i.e., competence and autonomy). These results point to the role that instructors’ leadership plays in promoting physical activity by suggesting that instructors’ engagement in identity leadership is associated with exercisers’ group-related experiences which, in turn, are a basis for group exercise participation