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A majority of the loan products produced by modern financial intermediaries (e.g., banks) provide borrowers with an option to prepay loans. The institutions issuing these products typically retain much of this prepayment exposure on their balance sheets. This article develops and applies a general framework to match funding to the prepayment‐sensitivity of assets, in order to preserve spread and achieve a more stable return profile.

Looks at the role of property in pensions funds pre and post minimum funding requirement (MFR). Suggests that while property has a role as a matching asset in pension funds, this role has declined in recent years. This is partly because of poor performance but also because other asset categories can perform the role that property has played. The introduction of the MFR may make property still less attractive to pension funds because of the equity/gilt valuation benchmark. However, we expect any effect in the short term to be limited.

This paper considers the impact of the recent minimum funding legislation on UK Pension Funds and how this may change the way in which property investment is regarded. The principles of investment diversification are re‐examined in the light of the MFR “matching” asset classes and the historic relationships between UK property and other asset classes are considered in some detail. Finally, the traditional “peer” approach to strategy adopted by many UK Pension Funds is critically examined to determine its continuing validity in the new minimum funding environment. These results are then extended to see what types of fund may find it appropriate to increase their property weightings.

Companies that adopt lean operations and lean accounting ultimately should achieve better profitability and cash flows than similarly situated companies that do not adopt lean operations and lean accounting.

Archival data is analyzed through Wilcoxon signed-ranks, matched-pairs tests.

Lean companies had greater returns on net operating assets (RNOA), returns on total assets (ROA), operating cash flows, and cash-adequacy ratios than Non-Lean companies. These results were driven by the larger Lean companies. The profit margins and financing-assets ratios also were marginally better for the Lean companies than the Non-Lean companies.

Lean companies have achieved benefits proposed by the proponents of lean operations. The present study provides a starting point for further research on the financial performance of Lean companies using archival data.

There is limited research on the financial performance of Lean companies that is based on archival data. The present study fills a void in the academic literature. This study measures RNOA, which does not confound operating and financing activities. Additionally, this study utilized a methodology that provides reasonable assurance of the identification of both Lean companies and Non-Lean companies from publicly available data.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how the filing of a securities class action, and associated corrective actions taken by management, impact the operating performance of sued firms.

A matched sample is formed three years prior to the filing of a class action, as opposed to the traditional one year used in the literature. Match adjusted performance is analyzed from three years prior to the filing to five years after. Further the authors analyze the impact corrective actions have on operating performance.

The results show that operating underperformance happens considerably earlier than had hitherto been believed. Further, there is no evidence that the filing adversely affects performance, rather securities class actions appear to act as a turning point. The findings also indicate that firms that increase leverage post filing, experience subsequent increases in their operating performance.

The results show that rather than leading to a deterioration in performance, as is currently understood, the filing of a securities class actions results in improved operating performance. This improvement is, in part, associated with more optimal use of leverage by management. Overall, class actions appear to be an effective disciplinary mechanism.

Studies have suggested that the auditor's fear of self‐fulfilling prophecy may alter an auditor's behavior concerning the issuance of a going concern opinion. This study investigates a sample of firms that received auditor going concern opinions and ultimately resolved these opinions successfully, as evidenced by subsequent unqualified opinions. The study finds that over 70 percent of these firms provide value to shareholders when monitored over a 12 to 18 year time period. Additionally, the study finds that this result is consistent with a matching sample of firms that had not received going concern opinions. The study further suggests that shareholders do best when the firm is acquired rather than when it continues in business. Larger firms are more likely subjects of acquisition while the smallest firms simply go out of existence over time. Considering the similarity in outcomes between the resolved going concern sample and the matching sample, it appears that there is no long‐term stigma attached to having received a going concern opinion.

Visual inspection and human judgement form the cornerstone of daily operations and maintenance (O&M) services activities carried out by facility managers nowadays. Recent advances in technologies such as building information modelling (BIM), distributed sensor networks, augmented reality (AR) technologies and digital twins present an immense opportunity to radically improve the way daily O&M is conducted. This paper aims to describe the development of an AR-supported automated environmental anomaly detection and fault isolation method to assist facility managers in addressing problems that affect building occupants’ thermal comfort.

The developed system focusses on the detection of environmental anomalies related to the thermal comfort of occupants within a building. The performance of three anomaly detection algorithms in terms of their ability to detect indoor temperature anomalies is compared. Based on the fault tree analysis (FTA), a decision-making tree is developed to assist facility management (FM) professionals in identifying corresponding failed assets according to the detected anomalous symptoms. The AR system facilitates easy maintenance by highlighting the failed assets hidden behind walls/ceilings on site to the maintenance personnel. The system can thus provide enhanced support to facility managers in their daily O&M activities such as inspection, recording, communication and verification.

Taking the indoor temperature inspection as an example, the case study demonstrates that the O&M management process can be improved using the proposed AR-enhanced inspection system. Comparative analysis of different anomaly detection algorithms reveals that the binary segmentation-based change point detection is effective and efficient in identifying temperature anomalies. The decision-making tree supported by FTA helps formalise the linkage between temperature issues and the corresponding failed assets. Finally, the AR-based model enhanced the maintenance process by visualising and highlighting the hidden failed assets to the maintenance personnel on site.

The originality lies in bringing together the advances in augmented reality, digital twins and data-driven decision-making to support the daily O&M management activities. In particular, the paper presents a novel binary segmentation-based change point detection for identifying temperature anomalous symptoms, a decision-making tree for matching the symptoms to the failed assets, and an AR system for visualising those assets with related information.

We examine how business group affiliation affects corporate debt maturity.

This study employs the financial data of all listed Indian companies obtained from the CMIE database for 2011–2018. The ordinary least square, firm-fixed effect and Fama–Macbeth regression methods are used for empirical analysis. We use propensity score matching and difference-in-difference method to address endogeneity issues. Further, two-stage least square (2SLS) regression is performed to mitigate the endogeneity that stems from simultaneity between debt maturity and leverage.

Using Indian firms, we report that group affiliation is positively associated with corporate debt maturity; group firms use more long-term debt compared to similar standalone firms. We also observe that the positive effect of group affiliation on debt maturity is more pronounced in business group firms associated with a group having more resources and having unrelated diversification. However, information asymmetry and moral hazard problems weaken the impact of group affiliation on debt maturity structure of a firm. Overall, our results are consistent with co-insurance benefits that are an argument for the presence of business groups in emerging markets.

This study contributes to the existing literature by testing the role of group affiliation on corporate debt maturity decisions in the Indian market context where market imperfections persuade firms to borrow from banks. This is also the first study on determinants of corporate debt maturity that distinguishes between public and private debt.

Long lease real estate funds (over £15bn in Q3 2020) have emerged as an increasingly important part of UK pension fund real estate portfolios. This paper explores the reasons for their dramatic growth, their characteristics and performance.

This study uses data for the period 2004–2020 collected directly from fund managers and from AREF/MSCI and empirical analysis to explore their characteristics and performance.

Pension fund de-risking and regulatory guidance have supported the dramatic growth of long lease real estate funds. Long lease real estate funds have delivered strong risk-adjusted returns relative to both balanced property funds (with shorter lease terms) and the wider property market. This relative performance has been particularly strong when wider property market performance has been weak. Long lease funds have objectives aligned with liability matching and their performance suggests they are lower risk (more bond-like) investments. In addition, our analysis highlights they are far less responsive to the wider property market than balanced funds. However, they are not significantly different from balanced property funds in terms of their short-term relationship with gilt yield movements.

For pension funds and other investors the paper highlights that long lease real estate funds offer a different exposure than balanced property funds. Long lease funds have objectives more closely aligned to the overall objectives for pension fund investment but are not significantly more reliable than balanced property funds in the short-term as a liability hedge. For real estate fund managers, occupiers, developers and others active in the real estate market, the paper highlights why these funds have been (and are likely to remain) attractive to investors leading to substantial demand for long lease real estate investments.

This is the first study to review this increasingly important part of the UK real estate fund universe.