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This study investigates the media activities of firms issuing private equity placements and seasoned equity offerings in Taiwan, as firms have incentives to manage media coverage to influence their stock prices during private equity placement.

We collect a corpus of news stories and transform the news into term sets based on the part of speech. Then, we refer to Cecchini et al. (2010) to classify the news terms into positive, negative, and usual categories. Next, we employ the SVM algorithm to perform the classification tasks and the term frequency method to perform the text mining task. In last, we use a multiple regression model to verify the hypotheses.

We determine that issuing firms in a private placement have substantially more positive news stories and fewer negative news stories than those in public offerings. Furthermore, we evidence that the media management effects of postequity issues are more active than those of preequity issues. Finally, our results demonstrate that the timing and content of financial media coverage among different equity issuance methods may be biased by firm management. According to previous studies, they may attempt to manipulate stock prices to increase the number of highly profitable insider stakeholders.

To our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate that if private placement will associate with more active media management than the public offerings. According to our results of the difference-in-means test, the public offerings market may control news coverage; however, this result is inconsistent with that of the regression results. The private placements market may also exercise media management in the “before announcement day” and “after announcement day” periods by increasing positive news and reducing negative news.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent public listed construction firms in Malaysia disclose mandatory information on public private partnership (PPP) projects. This paper is important as the level of disclosure of PPP information reflects the extent of transparency as practiced by the companies involved in PPP projects.

In achieving the aim, a content analysis procedure was carried out to analyse the 2015 annual reports of the construction companies. Descriptive statistics including the mean score, frequency and percentage were employed to analyse the disclosure of the annual report.

The overall mean disclosure score of the sampled companies is 40 per cent, which connotes a low level of disclosure of mandatory information on PPP. The companies also tend to disclose more mandatory financial information than non-financial information.

This paper is one of the few studies that investigated the level of mandatory disclosure of PPP information, thus contributing to the scanty literature on PPP transparency not only in Malaysia but also internationally.

The purpose of this paper is to test the relationship between earnings quality and the cost of debt for private companies in a “code-law” country (Ball et al., 2000). The analysis controls for company size, debt level and audited information.

The paper uses the ordinary least squares regression technique to test the relationship between earnings quality and the cost of debt.

The collected empirical evidence shows a negative relationship between earnings quality and the cost of debt and controls for company size and debt level. Such a relationship is stronger when the company information is audited.

Similar to other studies, this paper has two main limitations. There was no access to specific data on the interest rates charged on bank loans, implying that the cost of debt is measured by the ratio of the interest expense to interest-bearing debt. The research only uses earnings quality measures based on abnormal accruals.

The collected evidence suggests that earnings quality have economic consequences for private companies by affecting their cost of debt, similar to those observed in previous studies for listed companies. This evidence can be seen as an incentive for private companies to increase their financial information quality. For debt providers, namely, financial institutions, the findings can be of interest to help them price properly the loans they make available to private companies. In general, the findings of this research can be of interest for company managers and financial institutions in countries with an institutional environment similar to that of Portugal.

The relation between earnings quality and the cost of debt has been so far studied for listed companies in “common law” countries. This paper provides new and complementary evidence about such relation for private companies and “code-law” country.

The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, it seeks the perception of public-private partnership (PPP) experts on the importance of desirable PPP information that can be voluntarily reported by the private sector; and second, it determines the extent and quality of voluntary disclosure of PPP information by private entities.

In achieving the first objective, the study uses a questionnaire survey. The questionnaire was distributed to PPP experts and 25 usable responses were received. In addressing the second objective, a content analysis procedure was utilized to analyse the 2015 annual reports of 11 construction companies. Descriptive statistics including the mean score, frequency and percentage were employed to analyse the responses of the questionnaire instrument and the annual reports disclosure.

The results of the questionnaire survey reveal that the majority of the items were rated as very important to be disclosed by the private sector in Malaysia. However, from the content analysis, it was also revealed that the extent and quality of voluntary information disclosed by the private construction companies were low.

This study is important as it contributes to the scant literature on PPP disclosure in Malaysia. The study is unique as it not only investigated the extent and quality of voluntary disclosure by private entities, but also solicited the perception of PPP experts on what voluntary items should be disclosed.

The purpose of this paper is to extend the research on private equity by studying the drivers of leveraged buyout (LBO) operating performance in Latin America. The authors consider a large set of candidate drivers (financial, governance, macroeconomic and industry variables) and study their effects on performance over short- and long-terms.

To conduct this study, the authors used Capital IQ as a database as well as a hand-collected data set covering LBO in Latin America from 2000 to 2008.

The empirical results show that macroeconomic variables have an important impact on LBO value creation. Governance variables show also that LBO transactions reduce information asymmetries between existing and new management teams. Consequently, a concentrated shareholder structure has a better impact on performance than diluted stockholders. Financial variables present significant effects after the delisting.

The characteristics of the debts included in the balance sheets (maturity for example) are not available in the authors' data basis. A test including this information could bring other elements of explanation. The measure of cumulative abnormal returns around going-private announcements and their impacts on shareholder’s value could also be of interest. This last study has been published for the UK (Wright et al., 2006). Further research should introduce other continents and particularly Asia in the analysis but also comparisons between the Brazil–Russia–India–China–South Africa (BRICS) countries.

This study makes five main contributions. First, the authors construct an LBO sample with emerging markets and specially Latin America. It is the first time that an academic article has been realized. Data are very difficult to obtain to do empirical tests. Latin America is a part of emerging markets, which is an interesting study subject due to their attractiveness in terms of growth of private equity funds. Second, to understand clearly how LBOs create value, the authors construct a sample control to highlight the key factors. Criteria of size, sector of activity and Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes were strictly enforced. Third, the authors do not focus on the moment where the transaction is realized like many studies but before and after the delisting. Indeed, they observed, on the one hand, the operating performance between year −1 and year +1 and, on the other hand, the operating performance between year −1 and year +3. Generally, only the market reaction around the acquisition announcement is examined. Post-performance is not considered due to lack of data. Fourth, the authors take into account the macroeconomic effects on performance of LBOs. It is the first examination of the impact of macroeconomic factors on performance of LBOs in Latin America. And fifth, they analyze the impact of going-private decisions on employees.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the development of the private security sector in several former Yugoslav countries that have gone through difficult post‐conflict reconstruction including the field of security.

The paper takes a qualitative approach to data collection that includes interviews with experts in the field of private security from several ex‐Yugoslav countries.

While much effort is invested in the rebuilding of new, democratic public police forces in post‐conflict societies, little attention is usually paid to non‐state providers of security, for example, private security industry. Private security could, potentially, be both a crucial additional stabilising factor in assuring security in post‐conflict environments and a cause of instability if it lacks legislative control, professionalism and ethical guidance. Hence, both the state and the police should support the private security industry in helping it to achieve legitimacy and, where appropriate, partner state bodies. A well‐regulated private security sector could also become a substantial employer of large numbers of demobilised combatants in post‐conflict societies. Analyses of private security sectors in several former Yugoslav countries that experienced conflict identify a number of potential advantages and challenges. On one hand, in those countries with appropriate legislation in this regard, private security is becoming a valuable additional provider of security, while on the other hand, even strict regulation has failed to prevent some private security companies maintaining links with paramilitary, political and organised crime groups. Legal regulation is a precondition for the stable development of private security in those countries focussed upon in this paper, and this is not possible without appropriate action regarding the training, integrity and ethical behaviour of private security officers.

The results are limited to developments in ex‐Yugoslavia, and may not be easily generalized to other situations and venues.

This paper provides a useful source of information for security policy makers and security experts in post‐conflict societies.

This paper extends understanding of the development of private security in post‐conflict societies.

The purpose of this study is to examine both accruals and real earnings management in a large sample of private companies in the UK using data from 2002 to 2009 following the implementation of the UK Act of 2006.

A panel data analysis using GMM has been adopted to examine the objectives of the study and answer the research questions.

The results of this study showed that the imposition of the Companies Act of 2006, on its own, did lead to changes in earnings management behaviour, in both accruals-based earnings and real earnings management. Moreover, this study also found that firms that chose to provide IFRS financial statements tended to show less discretionary earnings management, however, it tended to have no impact on real earnings management.

In accordance with the research findings, standard setters with some insight tend to determine how capital markets see the information provided under the legislation such as the UK Act of 2006 in developed countries and thereby ensure long-term sustainability in a modern and sophisticated financial world. This study provides an insight into the successful implementation of the UK act of 2006, and its influence on the aspect of financial reporting.

The novel conclusion reached in the study is that there exists a strong and direct link between the smooth implementation of UK Act of 2006 and the practices of both accruals and real earnings management in real-world business and financial scenarios, particularly, in private companies.

This chapter draws on a study conducted in the mid 1990s to compare management differences between three different groups of South African hospitals, in order to understand how these differences might have affected hospital functioning. The groups were public hospitals; contractor hospitals publicly funded but privately managed; and private hospitals owned and run by private companies. Public sector structures made effective management difficult and were highly centralized, with hospital managers enjoying little autonomy. In contrast, contractor and private groups emphasised efficient management and cost containment. These differences appeared to be reflected in cost and quality differences between the groups. The findings suggest that in the context of a country such as South Africa, with a relatively well-developed private sector, there is potential for the government to profit from the management expertise in the private sector by identifying lessons for its own management structures, and by contracting-out service management.

The purpose of this paper is to present alternative management practice methods for the cultural heritage sector apart from the traditional public support model. These alternatives rely on sponsorship and patronage as well as the newer and more innovative public-private partnership (PPP).

The paper is organized in two conceptual sections based on a literature review. The first section presents and compares two closely associated business strategy forms that are increasingly becoming popular within companies: sponsorship and patronage. These strategies are analyzed to show their advantages and disadvantages and are assessed based on their best uses in terms of the benefits from their implementation to all stakeholders involved (benefactors, recipients and the public) and, more particularly, to the benefactor’s company communication policy. The second section analyzes the PPP as a newer innovative practice in the cultural heritage sector, a recent development that has great potential, especially during an economic crisis where public funds are reduced, which risks the future recovery and proper maintenance of sites.

In the paper, the authors stressed that sponsorship, patronage and PPP are not merely alternative ways of primarily obtaining government funding for the cultural heritage sector but are also new strategic management practices that, when properly performed, will not only preserve and improve the sector but also allow more value to be distributed among all stakeholders.

Although the topic of PPP is treated fairly in the scientific literature, especially with regard to infrastructure, there are few cases of the application of this model to cultural heritage management.

The purpose of this paper is to examine principals’ experience and sensemaking of collaboration with private companies, focussing on leadership and school improvement.

This paper is set against the backdrop of a project where three public Swedish schools collaborated with private companies within their communities. Data were collected over three years and consisted of semi-structured interviews, meeting notes, field observations, field notes and document analysis. A qualitative content analysis was performed using the Atlas.ti 6.2 software tool.

The study shows that important sensemaking for the principals in this collaboration between schools and private companies is related to the sense of collective responsibility and involvement, development of improvement culture and trust between key actors, and common improvement initiatives based on mutual interest. Challenges in the collaboration are related to principal changes, a lack of implementation of the collaboration, and that there was no clear vision of external collaboration in two out of three schools. In terms of possibilities, the collaboration was based on the needs of the school, a collaborative culture was developed, and the development/activities were undertaken between involved schools and private companies during the collaboration.

Inevitably, there are limitations that need to be identified and recognised in this study. First, the small number of cases in this multiple case study, as well as the specific social context, limits the possibility of generalising the findings. Second, the study was not independently selected, and the findings and analyses are linked to national and local contexts, which can be seen as a limitation and strength. Notwithstanding, this study contributes with in-depth information about how a beyond-school collaboration with private companies is practised as well as how involved principals made sense of the collaboration from the perspective of school improvement.

The originality is the collaboration between schools and private companies. The paper contributes with new knowledge about how principals experience and make sense of this collaboration as a vehicle for school improvement.