Christian Funke aims at developing a better understanding of a central asset pricing issue: the stock price discovery process in capital markets. Using U.S. capital market data, he investigates the importance of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) for stock prices and examines economic links between customer and supplier firms. The empirical investigations document return predictability and show that capital markets are not perfectly efficient.

Diploma Thesis from the year 2004 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, grade: 1.1, European Business School - International University Schloss Reichartshausen Oestrich-Winkel, language: English, abstract: Empirische Diplomarbeit die mit einer multivariaten Regression untersucht, ob sich die beobachtete Variabilitat der Kapitalstrukturen von Unternehmen durch unterschiedliche Eigentumerstrukturen erklaren lasst

Seminar paper from the year 2003 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, printed single-sided, grade: 1,7 (A-), European Business School - International University Schloss Reichartshausen Oestrich-Winkel (Strategic Business Management), course: Managing in the Global Economy, 8 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: This paper addresses the question whether China has made enough reforms to justify significant investments and which additional reform steps are needed. The People's Republic of China (PRC) has shown tremendous Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth in absolute and per capita terms of 9.3% and 8.0% per annum, respectively, over the last 25 years since market oriented reforms were started in 1978. Its GDP per capita has quadrupled over this period reaching around 1,000 US$ in 2003. The market oriented reforms in China can be divided into two stages, dubbed "reforming the system" from for the first 15 years and "replacing the system" from 1993 onwards. In the second stage a significant determinant of China's success has been its policy of opening up the economy and attracting foreign direct investment (FDI). FDI grew with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 26.7%, and the growth rates in the 90s have even been more staggering with FDI reaching about 50 billion US$ in 2002. This FDI growth went hand in hand with growing imports and exports, reaching over 300 billion US$ in 2003 with a CAGR of 14.7% and 15.6%, respectively. This paper aims at answering the question stated in the opening paragraph by analyzing the specific market oriented reforms which have taken place in the two stages of the Chinese reform process. The paper argues that China definitely has made enough reforms to justify the significant FDI which has been flowing into the country. However, there clearly is a need for more reforms as China becomes more and more interconnected in a globalized world economy, especially with joining th

Diploma Thesis aus dem Jahr 2003 im Fachbereich Wirtschaft - Investition und Finanzierung, Note: 1,1 (A), European Business School - Internationale Universit t Schlo Reichartshausen Oestrich-Winkel (Endowed-Chairf for Corporate Finance and Capital Markets), Sprache: Englisch, Anmerkungen: Empirical diploma thesis using a multivariate regression approach to determine the influence of ownership structures on observed variations in capital structure. A discussion of the theoretical background takes up about 20 pages, and 40 pages are then dedicated to the development of the regression model, discussion of the results and robustness tests. The text part is 63 pages long, the rest is a detailed appendix with 18 exhibits, as well as a bibliography with 160 sources., Abstract: The idea that the general characteristics of a firm's ownership structure can affect performance has achieved considerable attention and related research brought forward relatively consistent empirical evidence e.g. on the positive impact of managerial ownership on firm performance. However, the evidence on the relation between ownership and capital structure is less consistent and numerous, although there are good reasons to believe that there may be such a relationship. Since the capital structure irrelevance propositions of MODIGLIANI/MILLER economists have devoted considerable time to studying cross-sectional and time-series variations in capital structure. More recent work following the seminal contribution by JENSEN/MECKLING has employed an agency theory perspective in the search for an explanation of capital structure variations. With this managerial perspective capital structure is not only explained by variations in internal and external contextual factors of the firm, but also by the values, goals, preferences and desires of managers. Corporate financing decisions are influenced by managers' incentives and the incentives for managers to act opportunistically can be influenced by t

Diploma Thesis from the year 2000 in the subject Health Science, grade: 1,0, Technical University of Darmstadt (Unbekannt), course: Zivilrecht, Deutsches und Internationales, language: English, abstract: Inhaltsangabe: Abstract: A true revolution has taken place in the financing of health care in America. Today, managed care is dominating the way Americans receive and pay for their health care. With the rise of managed care medicine has been wrenched out of its atomized world of solo physician practices and community hospitals and has been transformed into a modern industry of giant for-profit companies traded on Wall Street. The current marketplace is characterized by mergers, acquisitions and the establishment of giant multi-billion dollar healthcare networks. Hospitals and managed care plans run big advertisement campaigns in the media, praising their products and services in order to get the biggest share possible of the $1.1 trillion America spends on health care each year. All parties involved in providing health care lobby for their interests at all levels of political decision-making in order to influence legislators and policymakers. Today's health care market changes quickly and at a high rate. New variations of managed care arise constantly making any analysis of managed care an ongoing game of "catch-up" with the marketplace. While writing this paper, for example, UnitedHealthcare dropped one of the major managed care instruments, utilization review, to address public's concerns and pending legislation. This paper will take a snapshot of managed care on the eve of the new millennium by using the most recent information available. After this introduction, the paper will give a description of the current American health care system in chapter two (The U.S. Health Care System). Then, the paper will focus on two aspects: A detailed description of managed care in chapter three (Managed Care) and an introduction of the main issues connected with this way of

In AEsthetik, Politik und schiitische Reprasentation im zeitgenoessischen Iran zeigt Christian Funke die Verflechtungen von Politik, Protest und schiitischer Materialitat auf und legt vielschichtig dar, wie die Grune Bewegung mit umfassenderen Diskursen uber Demokratie, Identitat, Geschichte und Gegenwart sowie Religion und Politik verknupft war. In Aesthetics, Politics, and Shi'i Representation in Contemporary Iran Christian Funke explores the entangled relationship between politics, protest and Shi'i materiality and shows how the 'Green Movement' was part of larger discourses on democracy, identity, the present and the past, and religion and politics.

Studienarbeit aus dem Jahr 2002 im Fachbereich BWL - Unternehmensf hrung, Management, Organisation, Note: 1,7, European Business School - Internationale Universit t Schlo Reichartshausen Oestrich-Winkel (Lehrstuhl f r allgemeine Betriebswirtschaftslehre insb. Entscheidungstheorie), Veranstaltung: Seminar zur Unternehmensentwicklung, Sprache: Deutsch, Abstract: In unserer modernen Informationsgesellschaft des ausgehenden 20. und gerade beginnenden 21. Jahrhunderts w chst die Informations- und Wissensmenge explosionsartig und unkontrolliert, wie eine Suche bei der Internet-Suchmaschine Google zum Stichwort Knowledge Management" mit ber 706.000 Resultaten bei 2,07 Mrd. registrierten Webseiten eindrucksvoll zeigt. Diese Entwicklung bezeichnet man auch als Wissensexplosion" bzw. Wissensinflation," bei der der Proze der Wissensvermehrung im Grunde au er Kontrolle ist. Heutzutage ist effektives und effizientes Wissensmanagement f r viele Unternehmen zu einem entscheidenden strategischen Wettbewerbsfaktor geworden. Doch im Vergleich mit etablierten Ans tzen wie dem Finanzmanagement ist das Wissensmanagement noch immer unterentwickelt, es fehlen z. B. eine gemeinsame Sprache und klare Zielvorgaben. Au erdem wird Wissensmanagement immer noch relativ losgel st von strategischen Absichten, Ideen und Konzepten betrachtet und bearbeitet, weil in den meisten K pfen eine assoziative Kopplung mit Informationstechnologie besteht. Das Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit ist es nun, die Auswirkungen eines strategischen, an den Unternehmenszielen ausgerichteten Wissensmanagements zu untersuchen, und erfolgversprechende Unternehmensstrategien zur optimalen Nutzung des vorhandenen Wissens zu erl utern.