Large shareholders and bidder announcement returns : evidence from Western Europe and East Asia

We investigate whether multiple large shareholders (MLS) play an internal corporate governance role in mitigating agency problems between the controlling shareholder and minority shareholders in a cross-country sample of public firms. We draw our conclusion by examining the market reaction (in terms of bidder announcement period abnormal returns) to acquisition announcements made by firms with and without MLS in their ownership structure. Using an international sample of acquisition announcements made by firms with at least one large shareholder from 10 Western European and 5 East Asian countries between 1996 and 2000, we find the presence of MLS, their voting rights, relative voting power, the number of blockholders and the relative voting power of these blockholders have a positive and significant impact on bidder announcement period abnormal returns. We also find that the legal institutions such as disclosure requirement, investor protection, common-law legal origin and anti-self-dealing have positive effects on bidder announcement period abnormal returns

Unreal Reality: Post-socialist China\u27s Massive Infrastructural Agenda in Jia Zhangke\u27s Three Gorges Films

This thesis focuses on Chinese Six-Generation film director Jia Zhangke’s “Three Gorges films” Still Life (2006) and Ash Is Purest White (2018) to demonstrate the impact of post-socialist China\u27s massive infrastructural agenda on Chinese citizens’ lives and psyches in contemporary Chinese society. Starting with the analysis of Still Life, this thesis first examines Jia’s experimentation with the computerized UFO imagery incorporated into the film’s realist narratives and themes to deliver the sense of unreality people feel towards the construction of the Three Gorges Dam, the world’s largest hydroelectric power station and post-socialist China’s largest infrastructural project. Revisiting the subject matter of the Three Gorges Dam in Ash Is Purest White, Jia extends his examination of China\u27s infrastructural agenda into the country\u27s other parts outside the Three Gorges region. This thesis connects Still Life and Ash Is Purest White in which both films’ female protagonists go to the Three Gorges construction site in search of their estranged male partners, and they both experience the unreal moments of UFO sightings. While he presents the Three Gorges construction’s consequences of housing demolitions, resident evictions and hazards and casualties in Still Life, Jia emphasizes the psychological impact China\u27s infrastructural agenda has on the psyche of Ash Is Purest White’s female protagonist

Corn stover as a biofuel feedstock in Iowa: an analysis of farmer interest, concerns and price

There has been much discussion recently about corn stover as a cellulosic biorefinery feedstock. The popular and scientific press in recent years has published many articles about corn stover and other potential lignocellulosic crops or crop residues being used as a biomass feedstock for next generation biorefineries. In this thesis, the researcher has worked for two parts. The first part examines the interests and concerns of supplying corn stover from the Iowa farmer\u27s perspective through an application of an ordinal probit model. The second examines the minimum willingness to accept (WTA) a price for corn stover sold in the future into a biomass feedstock market. The results of the analysis suggest that farmer interest in supplying stover and WTA are somewhat limited and mostly influenced by concern about environment, the farmer and farm characteristics, and some marketing concerns. This thesis should be helpful to policy makers, biofuel manufacturers and producers to better understand and predict the supply of corn stover biomass and future price for use in biorefineries designed to use cellulosic biomass. Key words: corn stover, biofuel, WTA, farmer interest, supply

Expanding Political Space In Contemporary China: A Comparative Study Of The Advocacy Strategies Of Three Grass-Root Women\u27s Groups

The absence of contentious performance has led scholars to question the existence of social movements and to agree with the description of state-social group relations in China as state corporatism. However, defining social movement by confrontational performance is inappropriate to examine social organizing under repression regimes. Most western social movement theories assume that political space for organizing exists before the formation of social movement. My research challenges this assumption by extending the concept of political opportunity structure to conduct process-tracing comparisons of two women\u27s and one lesbian groups\u27 respective strategies when facing interferences from the central authorities. By conducting interviews with forty three major participants of women and lesbian organizing, including founders, activists, academic experts, governmental officers, and ministerial officers of ACWF, along with archive analysis, and participatory observations, this study looks specifically at the campaign against domestic violence from 1988 to 2013. This research has found that the political space is not assumed to be existed. Instead, it is created and expanded by women\u27s advocacy groups. Three groups have shared experiences of revocation or failure of registration, cancellation of events, difficulty of fund raising, constantly being invited to have tea with security department etc. However, each group develops their own strategies to survive and to further expand their political spaces gradually. Most importantly, they carry on their advocacy work national wide. I argue under a repressive regime, these achievements are indeed confrontational in nature. Therefore, the aforementioned assumption of social movement theory should be reconsidered

Analysis on the perspective and value of the “cultivation” documentary images

As a multi-sensory expression, moving images have a stronger ability to express beyond time and space. The creator uses the camera to depict history through images and sounds, so that the audience can reflect more on the process of watching. From "The Up series" to other similar long-term videos, they have become important chronicles of the era. This article will focus on the relationship between documentary images and history, and the characteristics of "cultivation" formed by these long-term images. Analyze and interpret its value from a multi-dimensional perspective. The context of the development of the times and the critical observation of the creators have led to the creation of works that reflect on social change. This kind of creation has also become a reference mode for many countries, bringing about a rich and dynamic cultural exchange based on cross-regional cultural differences, which has contributed to the development of the globalization era.Como expressão multissensorial, as imagens em movimento têm uma capacidade mais forte para se expressar além do tempo e do espaço. O criador usa a câmera para representar a história através de imagens e sons, para que o público possa refletir mais sobre o processo de visualização. "The Up Series" e outros vídeos de longo prazo semelhantes tornaram-se crônicas importantes deste período. Este artigo focará na relação entre imagens documentais e história, e as características do "cultivo" formado por essas imagens de longo prazo. Análise e interpretação de seu valor a partir de uma perspectiva multidimensional. O contexto de desenvolvimento dos tempos e a observação crítica dos criadores tem levado à criação de obras que refletem sobre as mudanças sociais. Esse tipo de criação também se tornou um modo de referência para muitos países, gerando um intercâmbio cultural rico e dinâmico, baseado em diferenças culturais inter-regionais, o que contribuiu para o desenvolvimento de uma era da globalização

The Portraits of a Heroine: Huang Bamei and the Politics of Wartime History in China and Taiwan, 1930–1960

This article explores the life and images of Huang Bamei (1906–1982)—a female bandit, guerrilla leader, and women’s organization coordinator. During the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945), Huang was involved in smuggling and trade with pro-Japanese forces. The Nationalist authorities recruited her troops and hid her past by portraying her as a wartime heroine and model housewife. Yet, in later times she participated in guerrilla warfare and was portrayed as a pirate queen and a Han traitor, and her roles and images changed dramatically with the wars. Drawing on government archives, newspapers, memoirs, and films, this article examines how Huang developed survival strategies during turbulent times and how competing regimes used her images discursively to promote various social and political agendas and stimulate Chinese patriotism and war commemoration in different historical periods. Through a close reading of the life history of a woman made legendary by the state and the media, the article shows how Huang’s changing roles and competing representations were deeply embedded in the wartime politics of modern China and Taiwan. The author argues that Huang’s guerrilla practices, as well as her involvement in banditry, formed an integral part of not only her survival strategies but also a range of options for achieving legitimization. Keywords: Huang Bamei, pirate queen, female bandit, heroine, Second Sino-Japanese War, Chinese Civil War, Taiwa

Market Strategy from Microsoft Acquiring Nokia

Discusses the reason why Microsoft wants to acquire Nokia and the business strategy the company will use to expand its international market

Function of Several Variable

This Parkland A with Honors project discusses the function of several variables, it\u27s limits and partial derivatives