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This empirical study uses herd behavior model to explore the role of anchor investors in ensuring fundraising success and overfunding of crowdfunded ventures.

Qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) is applied to find the configurational patterns describing how anchor investors' information disclosure leads to successful financing and overfunding.

Even when the anchor investor's resume is not detailed or the anchor investor has little experience in entrepreneurial investment, success or overfunding can be achieved, provided the anchor investor is a corporation rather than an individual. For individual anchor investors, a detailed resume matters. Overfunding can be achieved even when an individual anchor investor makes a small relative investment, if this small relative investment is compensated for by a detailed resume. Experience in entrepreneurial investment is crucial when individual anchor investors have few previous investments. Regardless of the anchor investor's identity, investment in absolute terms is crucial for crowdfunding success when experience in entrepreneurial investment is low. Such experience must be extensive if the anchor investor's resume is not detailed.

Both entrepreneurs and crowdfunding platforms can benefit from the findings in relation to the design of campaigns that use anchor investors' informational cues to achieve success and overfunding.

The study examines the importance of anchor investors' information disclosure in digital crowdfunding environments, differentiating between individual and corporate anchor investors.

本實證研究使用羊群行為模型, 去探究錨定投資者在確保眾籌活動可達成功籌資以及過多籌資方面所扮演的角色。

研究人員以定性比較分析法、去找出描述錨定投資者的資訊公佈如何帶來成功融資和過多籌資的配置模式。

研究結果顯示、只要錨定投資者不是個人、而是一間公司, 則即使他們的履歷不詳盡, 又或他們對企業投資的經驗淺薄, 也無礙籌資或過多籌資的成功完成。如錨定投資者為個人, 則詳盡的履歷會影響甚鉅。即使個人錨定投資者相對而言參與少量的投資, 但若這少量的投資給他們詳盡的履歷所彌補的話, 則過多籌資仍可成功達到。若個別錨定投資者原有的投資量不多的話, 則企業投資的經驗至為重要。不管錨定投資者的身份是什麼, 若他們對企業投資所持的經驗淺薄, 則按絕對值計算的投資額對眾籌能否成功至為重要。若錨定投資者的履歷不詳盡, 則這種經驗必須是豐富廣泛的。

本研究區分了個人錨定投資者與公司錨定投資者兩者對眾籌的影響, 就此而研究在數碼的眾籌環境裡, 錨定投資者信息公佈的重要性。

研究結果可幫助企業家和群眾募資平台去設計可使用錨定投資者的資訊提示來達至成功眾籌和過多籌資的活動。

The purpose of this paper aims to understand whether gender disparity has an impact on the likelihood of obtaining equity crowdfunding financing in Latin America.

The paper uses a unique database of 492 projects from different equity crowdfunding platforms in Latin America over a period of 2013–2017.

Results indicate that the involvement of at least one woman in the board of firms seeking equity financing increases campaigns' success significantly. Team gender has no impact on the project's likelihood to experience overfunding.

The paper sheds light on women's access to crowdfunding financing in Latin America, not yet considered so far.

The surging stock market in the late nineties lifted the funding level of most pension plans and led to plan management decisions that left them vulnerable to the stock market decline of 2000-2002. In this study, an analysis was conducted on the descriptive data of 51 state pension plans for the period 1998-2003 and it was found that overfunded plans were more likely to substantially increase benefits while simultaneously reduce contributions. This led to widespread underfunding and a need for sudden increase in contributions as market conditions grew worse and funding levels dropped sharply. This investment cycle emphasizes the need for more prudent surplus management strategies to protect pension plans from the consequences of stock market volatility.

This chapter demonstrates (1) divergence between spending based upon a budget ratcheting model and a benchmark spending model, (2) that this divergence affects organizational performance, and (3) that internal benchmarking enables unit-to-unit performance comparisons, despite claims of organizational or unit uniqueness. We contrast two spending models to examine whether the divergence, or cost estimation gap, affects operating performance across inpatient (n=4,536) and outpatient departments (n=8,438) in 23 U.S. Army hospitals. Using a fixed-effects panel data methodology for fiscal years 2004–2006, we find that unit managers’ spending in this setting is more closely approximated by budget ratcheting. Using multiple performance metrics measured via a DuPont-like decomposition, we find that, within a specified range, operating performance generally improves as resources become constrained. Outside that range, however, we find nonlinear performance effects that approximate a quadratic loss function. Our benchmark model enables clinical department comparisons while controlling for facility, clinical specialty, and case mix severity. The resulting departmental comparability facilitates identification and communication of best practices across the entire Army hospital system. These results should be of interest to corporate executives, government officials, and agency managers who have responsibility for establishing funding mechanisms that include performance-based components.

Terminations of overfunded pension plans may strengthen a financially‐weak firm. When manager's interests are aligned with shareholder's, either through high levels of stock ownership, or through labor and takeover market discipline at low levels of ownership, termination strengthens the firm and the stock price should react positively. In contrast, managers at middle levels of ownership hold enough stock to be entrenched, but not enough to be aligned with shareholder interests. Terminations may then be for reasons other than strengthening a financially‐weak firm and may not generate a positive stock price reaction. We find that the financial incentives for terminations differ significantly between terminators and nonterminators at high and low levels of managerial ownership, but not at intermediate levels. Our stock return analysis indicates that terminations by high and low ownership firms are consistent with shareholder welfare. Concern has been expressed that terminations of defined benefit pension plans transfer wealth from plan participants to plan sponsors. Plan terminations can have a value‐maximizing motive when the reversions are used as a source of financing, thereby helping firms avoid bankruptcy and liquidation. The empirical evidence (e.g., Alderson and VanDerhei (1992), VanDerhei (1987), and Hsieh, Ferris, and Chen (1990)) showing favorable stock price reactions to terminations by financially‐weak firms are consistent with the value‐maximizing justification for plan terminations. Prior studies (e.g., Agrawal and Mandelker (1987), Kim and Sorensen (1986), Sicherman and Pettway (1987), Hill and Snell (1989), Benston (1985), Morck, Shleifer, and Vishny (1988), Carter and Stover (1991) and Hermalin and Weisbach (1991)) have also documented that management's ownership interest in the firm has an important effect on the incentive to maximize firm value. This paper examines the effect of managerial ownership on financial termination. Specifically, we address whether or not financial motivation to terminate plans exists at all levels of managerial ownership. Our results suggest that the terminating firms, when compared to the nonterminating firms, are financially weak at high and low levels of managerial ownership. In contrast, there is no significant difference in financial weakness between the terminators and the nonterminators at the middle ownership levels. Also, stockholders reactions to terminations are higher at high and low levels of managerial ownership.

Explains the difference between defined benefit (DB) and defined contribution (DC) pension plans in the US context and the options open to companies wishing to terminate overfunded DB plans. Summarizes previous research on stock market reaction to terminations and uses event study methodology on 1986‐1994 US data to explore the relationships between share prices and DB plan terminations with new DB or DC plans. Presents the results, which suggest that terminations tend to produce negative abnormal returns when replaced by another DB plan, but positive abnormal returns when replaced by a DC plan. Considers the reasons why, consistency with other research and the implications for public policy.

The purpose of this paper is to explore whether and how the innovation performance of start-ups and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that collect funds using equity crowdfunding (EC), i.e. creators (or proponents), and the EC performance are influenced by the social media networks (SMNs) in which EC platforms' managers and firms exchange their ideas with investors and customers.

The empirical analysis is conducted on a sample composed by all the creators that collected funds in EC platforms over the three-year period 2018–2020. For each creator, the innovation performance is computed as the percentage of sales from new or significantly improved product and services compared to total sales of firm. For each campaign, the EC performance is considered as the ratio between the total amount of funding raised at the end of the campaign and the target capital for the campaign. To investigate EC platform social media activity, LinkedIn profiles of EC platforms managers are analyzed using the social network analysis (SNA) methodology, which permits to observe the quantity and the quality of managers' interactions with other users. A regression analysis is thus performed to observe the relationship between managers' LinkedIn activities, EC performance and creators' innovation performance.

Data reveal that EC platforms managers display different activities in networking, with some individuals more active than others and more oriented to interact with business profiles rather than personal ones. The variables related to managers' LinkedIn activities are shown to impact both on the EC performance and on the ability of creators to innovate, suggesting the existence of a link between creators, EC platforms and the activity of the subject who manages it.

The present study is the first to examine the link between the ability of creators to innovate and SMNs, focusing on the social links of platforms managers and considering the LinkedIn social media; moreover, the analysis is conducted analyzing the quality of the interactions in addition to their number. The study is original also in that rather than focusing on specific EC platforms it considers all those purposefully authorized by the Italian financial market supervisory authority over a three-year time span. From a managerial point of view, the observation of the relevance of social networks by personnel with specific professional skills reveals it can be a successful driver for operators in the sector, not only to safeguard their reputation, but to stimulate the processes of co-creation of value that is essential in the crowdfunding market.

This study aims to examine the solvency and performance persistence of defined benefit private and public pension plans (DBPPs) in the Republic of Congo.

The authors use the 2 × 2 contingency table approach and the time product ratio (TPR)-based cross-product ratio (CPR) on data covering ten years from 2011 to 2020, with variable funded ratios and excess returns, to determine the solvency and performance persistence of defined benefit pension plans.

The authors document a lack of solvency and performance persistence in DBPP funds. They conclude that the solvency and performance of DBPP funds are not repetitive. The previous year's private and public defined benefit pension funds’ results do not repeat in the current year. Hence, the current solvency and performance of defined benefit pension funds are not good predictors of future funds' solvency and performance.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to combine solvency and performance to examine the persistence of defined benefit pension plans in sub-Saharan Africa.

This paper examines the formation of pension plans from a corporate finance perspective. The theoretical underpinnings for selecting a defined‐benefit or defined‐contribution plan are discussed and used to form empirically testable hypotheses. Linear probability and logit models are used to identify corporate financial characteristics that affect the likelihood of forming a defined‐benefit or defined‐contribution plan. The results strongly indicate that firms with high degrees of debt and intangible assets are least likely to form defined‐benefit plans in a post‐reversion situation, while firm size enhances the probability of forming defined‐benefit plans. The growth in private retirement plans over the past quarter century has made pension fund management a critical concern for many financial managers. The total amount of assets in private pension plans amounted to approximately $150 billion in 1970, while this figure was about $2 trillion in 1989. A corresponding trend to this growth has been an acceleration in the formation of defined‐contribution plans relative to defined‐benefit plans. In 1975 about 29 percent of all plans were defined‐contribution plans, and 71 percent were defined‐benefit plans. In contrast, defined‐contribution plans comprised 55 percent of all plans in 1988, while 45 percent were defined‐benefit plans.1 Gustman and Steinmeier (1987) suggest that the shift to defined‐contribution plans in recent years may be attributable to shifts in jobs in the economy away from the manufacturing sector and toward the service sector. Furthermore, the role of unions, firm size, and administrative costs have also been sighted as factors which partially explain the economy wide shift toward defined‐contribution plans (see Gustman and Steinmeier (1989), Clark and McDermed (1990), and Kruse (1991)). In this paper, we address the pension choice by examining the formation of individual plans from a corporate finance perspective. Specifically, we examine the pension choice issue when firms are faced with making this decision after the termination of an overfunded defined‐benefit plan. The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. Section I discusses the possible motives for selecting one plan over the other, and develops testable hypotheses. The data and methodology are discussed in section II, while section III presents the empirical results. Section IV summarizes and concludes the paper.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the association between conformity with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) indicated by Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) 34 presentation and pension underfunding in Illinois.

The authors used a fixed effects regression and employed a sample of Illinois municipalities (n=2,565 municipal-year observations) over the period 2009–2014.

The findings show that GAAP is inversely associated with pension underfunding, but only among the subsample of municipalities that are within the healthy pension funding range, i.e., above 80 percent funded. These municipalities may be in a better position to increase pension funding in response to the disciplining effect of broad GAAP conformity.

The paper focuses solely on one state and one multi-employer plan. Future studies should consider assessing the applicability of the results to other states and plan settings.

The results inform the standard-setting process, particularly as the implementation of the new GASB standards is evaluated and as GASB 34 is reexamined.

Despite concerns associated with state and local pension underfunding, academic studies examining its determinants are few. The sample setting is representative of municipal pension plans in the USA (with a comparable average pension funding ratio of 74.2 percent) and provides variability in GAAP conformity (the state encourages, but does not require, financial statement presentation consistent with GASB 34), as well as homogeneity in actuarial assumptions across observations (all sample municipalities participate in a large multi-employer municipal pension plan). The sample period immediately precedes the implementation of GASB Statements Nos 67 and 68, which increase the scope of pension reporting, providing the opportunity to consider the effects of broad GAAP conformity and a baseline for subsequent consideration of the effects of the new standards.