Dept. of Management - Ph.D. / Sc.D.

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https://hdl.handle.net/11693/13893

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Open Access
Bank networks in Türkiye
(Bilkent University, 2023-11) Bozkurt, Ayça Topaloğlu
This thesis analyzes the loan network and cross-border network of banks in Türkiye. The impacts of two developments during the studied period between 2007-2019 that significantly affected the credit market, the increase in Treasury-backed guarantees and the exchange rate shock, on these bank networks were also investigated. In the first study, we introduce a novel measure of bank interconnectedness. Using more than 44 million loan observations during the period of 2007–2016, we construct a projected loan network that emerges from the banks’ lending to common firms. Then, we investigate the relation between banks’ loan portfolio riskiness and their connectedness. Our findings suggest that highly connected banks seem to manage their overall portfolio risk better. In the ends of the first quarter of 2017, the Treasury support for the sureties given by the Credit Guarantee Fund of Türkiye (CGF) increased to 12.5-fold and affected credit market significantly. In the third chapter, We investigate whether investor reactions to the announcement of the increase in Treasury support in CGF guarantees are in line with the stated aim of the program. We find that investors perceived the increase in Treasury support to benefit both firms and financial institutions. In the fourth chapter, extending our sample period in the first study, we investigate how CGF schemes changed the bank-loan network in Türkiye. We also find that CGF schemes support the negative relation between the bank connectedness and loan portfolio riskiness. On the other hand, banks’ loan portfolio riskiness increases with the schemes. Finally, considering the impact of currency shock in 2018 on the banking system, in the last chapter we study the cross-border bank network in Türkiye. We find that the currency shock negatively affects the cross-border network and its impact on cross-border borrowings changes based on lender banks’ country origin, showing the importance of diversification of funding partners.
Open Access
Effect of growth and medium of growth on resilience to global financial crisis
(Bilkent University, 2022-12) Bulut, Emre
This dissertation comprises three chapters about investor reactions to significant events and the growth strategy of large banks in the global financial crisis. The first chapter focuses on the subprime mortgage phase of the crisis. We examine whether investors significantly reacted to events until Lehman Brothers’ collapse. We use the event study methodology to calculate abnormal returns of large banks in the sample. We find that investors reacted significantly to the events. As the crisis approaches, investors’ reaction becomes more significant. Results suggest that Lehman Brothers’ collapse is not a cause but a result of the crisis. The second chapter investigates the effect of the growth strategy of large banks on investor reactions to significant events during the global financial crisis. We construct a growth index decomposing into the merger index and organic growth index. Using the event study methodology, we find abnormal returns of the large sample banks. Applying cross-sectional event-specific and pooled OLS regressions, we analyze cross-sectional variations of investor reactions to significant events. Results indicate that investors significantly reacted to the growth strategy of large banks after the Lehman Brothers’ collapse but not before. The third chapter examines investor reactions in Europe to major events until the Lehman Brothers’ collapse. We calculate the abnormal returns of fifty-four banks across sixteen countries in Europe with the event study methodology. Our findings show that investors react significantly to the events as the Lehman Brothers’ failure comes closer. Hence the Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy is a major turning point during the crisis.
Open Access
Organizational form and agency problems
(Bilkent University, 2022-12) Alp, Ezgi
This dissertation comprises three essays about agency problems in family firms. The second chapter examines how the protection of shareholder rights affects the pricing of family firms. We measure investor reaction to 132 deaths in 109 publicly traded family firms operating in 24 countries. Investor reaction to a death in the family, measured using abnormal stock returns, averages 0.58 percent and is significant. Investors perceive the death to be a value-enhancing event with the potential to dilute family control. The positive investor reaction is amplified in countries and periods with weaker protection of shareholder rights. The third chapter investigates how the gender perceptions of investors may shape their valuation of family firms. Children from multiple marriages could increase potential conflicts. Investor reaction decrease with the interaction of the number of children and the number of marriages the deceased had. Furthermore investors perceive male, but not female, progeny as potential instigators of unrest. The fourth chapter investigates whether family or nonfamily firms are more likely targets of shareholder activism. Shareholder activism aims to limit agency conflicts between insiders and outsider shareholders. We examine the shareholder activism targeting the 2,000 largest nonutility and nonfinancial firms traded in the United States. We measure shareholder activism with Schedule 13D forms filed to change or influence the control. Results indicate that family firms are more likely targets of shareholder activism than non-family firms. Activist shareholders seem to focus on principal-principal agency problems in family firms and principal-agent agency problems in non-family firms.
Open Access
Essays on foreign exchange
(Bilkent University, 2022-09) Uzun, Sevcan
This thesis investigates the foreign exchange market dynamics by using high fre-quency data. There is a vast literature on currency markets. However, we aimed to bring a new light on the foreign exchange market dynamics by investigating high frequency data for a set of mostly traded currencies, that includes both developed and emerging market currencies. In the first chapter, we focus on the commonality in liquidity in the foreign exchange market where we are able to contribute to the literature by using a comprehensive data set (14 currencies) with high frequency analysis. Our findings indicate that commonality in liquidity exist for foreign ex-change markets even beyond crisis periods and also monetary policy meetings of Federal Reserve (FOMC) have significant effect on commonality in liquidity. In the second chapter, we study the foreign exchange market for a large data set (14 currencies) where we analyzed the predictability of jumps in the foreign exchange market. We showed that different machine learning methodologies can be used for jump prediction as well as prediction of the direction of jumps in foreign exchange market where Multi Layer Perceptron (MLP), Support Vector Machine (SVM) and Random Forest methodologies have the highest accuracy rates. In our analysis, we are able to predict the occurrence of jumps as well as the direction of jumps in the foreign exchange market using state of art machine learning methodologies for high frequency data even for the Covid Pandemic period where volatility in the foreign exchange market is very high.
Open Access
Essays on housing market and bank loans
(Bilkent University, 2022-08) Ayberk, İdil
This dissertation comprises three essays about the housing market and banks’ loan portfolios at the province level in Turkey. The first essay focuses on the supply side of the housing market. The price elasticity of housing supply is estimated using quarterly data over the period 2008-2017, and the factors that drive the differences across provinces are investigated. We find that Turkey has a low housing supply elasticity on average, but elasticity estimates exhibit variation across provinces. Our results suggest that population, geographical constraints and local regulatory conditions are significant factors in explaining the differences in housing supply elasticity estimates. In the second essay, we answer the question of whether banks change their loan allocation with the appreciation of house prices and whether state-owned banks behave like other banks with different ownership structures by using province-level data over the 2007Q4–2015Q2 period. The undevelopable land share and mortgage rate are employed as instruments for house price growth. We find that commercial loans are crowded out by mortgage, consumer, and construction loans with the increase in house prices; in addition, state-owned banks are found to reduce their commercial, and in particular agricultural loans, more than private banks as house prices appreciate. In the third essay, we examine the effect of house price appreciation on non-performing loans (NPLs) of domestic banks between 2009Q1–2016Q4, when real house prices were increasing. We document that non-performing total, commercial, and consumer loans decline as house prices increase. No difference among banks by ownership type is observed.
Open Access
Three essays on derivatives markets
(Bilkent University, 2022-01) Omole, Oluwakayode John
This thesis comprises of three essays on derivatives markets. The first essay revisits the model-free methodology of the implied volatility index (VIX) and its global counterparts as empirically estimated. Then, we modify the model parameter selection procedure to be compatible with the microstructure characteristics of emerging derivative markets. Applying this approach on Turkish market data, we introduce the implied volatility index of Borsa Istanbul (VBI). We find that VBI is a significant predictor of the future realized volatility, is significantly correlated with Turkey’s own financial indicators, but not with many global financial indicators. Additionally, we find that the presence of implied volatility spillover from US equity market to Borsa Istanbul, but not the other way around. The second essay uses proprietary transaction level data of Borsa Istanbul to compute the order imbalance of index options to investigate the linkages between option trades and spot index returns. Our findings show that weeks with higher call (put) order imbalance are associated with higher (lower) contemporaneous spot index returns. In addition, higher call order imbalance significantly predicts negative next-week index returns. The result of the chapter is consistent with the view that the hedging demand of counterparties in the option market that leads to the transfer of order imbalance from option market to stock market drives the predictability of index call options. In the third essay, we investigate the existence of common effects in order imbalance in the Borsa Istanbul’s option market. Accordingly, we find the presence of commonality in order imbalance for call options and an even more dominant presence in put options. The results suggest that, from the order imbalance perspective, equity order imbalance contributes more than options to explaining stock return variations.
Open Access
Essays on investor attention
(Bilkent University, 2022-01) Bozok, İhsan
This thesis investigates the impact of firm centrality and macroeconomic uncertainty on attention allocation decisions of investors. First, we examine whether investor attention towards stocks is related to firm centrality in the input-output network. Using a data set of US firms’ principal customers, we find that stock prices do not promptly incorporate news about principal customers, generating return predictability which diminishes with the customer firm centrality levels. We show that this result is driven by limited investor attention. The evidence reveals that customer firms occupying more central positions in the network receive more investor attention. The results indicate that centrality effect is distinct from size effect. Our findings suggest that more central firms are associated with greater financial analyst coverage and greater institutional investor equity holdings. Second, we examine two competing theoretical models regarding the impact of macroeconomic uncertainty on investor attention to firm specific news. Kacperczyk et al. (2016) show that attention to firmspecific news decreases with the macroeconomic uncertainty, while Andrei et al. (2020) document that investor attention to firm-level news increases with the economic uncertainty. In line with the former hypothesis, we demonstrate that institutional investors raise their attention to customer news as economic uncertainty declines. However, there is no evidence of a meaningful association between retail attention to customer news and market-level uncertainty. We also find that stock prices incorporate customer news more quickly in times of low uncertainty, which is attributable to high institutional attention. During times of high uncertainty, stock prices underreact to customer news, generating return predictability which declines with an increase either in institutional attention or retail attention.
Open Access
Hedonic consumption practices of the disadvantaged and their well-being outcomes: a multimethod research on Syrian refugees in Turkey
(Bilkent University, 2021-08) Baktır, Zeynep
Consumption may be a practical tool to cope with the challenges of displacement. While there is extensive research on vulnerable groups such as immigrants and the poor as consumers, research on refugee consumers is quite limited. Moreover, consumers are not equal when it comes to consuming certain products and services, and thus research on the hedonic consumption of refugees is far from preliminary exploration. This research aims to fill this gap by studying refugees’ hedonic consumption, its functional role as a coping strategy, and its potential unintended consequences. Such an approach is essential for the mutual understanding of refugees and their local hosts and a harmonious living together, as refugees are also part of the greater consumer society, which plays a substantial role in the proper functioning of everyday life. The dissertation starts with an introduction covering literature on related topics such as hedonic consumption, coping, prosocial behavior, and well-being. Then, the qualitative research methodology is presented, followed by the findings of the field study. A framework is proposed to illustrate the various well-being outcomes of hedonic consumption through social capital and psychological capital that help refugees cope in some distinct ways. Next, local prosocial tendencies resulting from refugees’ hedonic consumption are tested to illustrate the subsequent local backlash towards refugees. Finally, community well-being outcomes of entrepreneurship driven by hedonic consumption are presented with a model that brings forth the importance of trust in refugee-hosting communities. The dissertation ends with a summary and intended contributions. Implications for marketers and policymakers are also discussed.
Open Access
Essays in international finance
(Bilkent University, 2021-06) Geyikçi, Utku Bora
This thesis investigates FX market characteristics of emerging markets by exam-ining the uncovered and covered interest parity deviations, There is an extensive literature studying parity conditions in the currency markets. However, we mainly focus on the violation of the parity conditions, especially during post financial crisis period. In the first chapter, we study carry trades which is a well known violation of the so-called uncovered interest-rate parity (UIP). We show that the carry strategy matters in the emerging markets in the sense that the dollar neutral carry strat-egy outperforms the dollar carry strategy. We also show that carry trade is not a profitable strategy, compared to the returns from U.S. stocks and/or U.S. dollar risk-free rate. The findings indicate that risk factors explain the dollar carry strate-gies better than the dollar neutral strategy particularly in the post-crisis period. Because emerging markets are riskier than developed ones, investors are expected to hedge using FX options. However, the evidence suggest that hedging carry trade is not a good idea in the emerging markets because crash risk that is priced in the options seems to evaporate carry profits. In the second chapter, we study de-viations from covered interest parity (CIP) for six emerging market economies: Hungary, Mexico, Poland, Russia, South Africa, Turkey, using daily data following the global financial crisis. After documenting large and persistent discrepancies between January 2010 and July 2018, cost of illiquidity and interest differentials are found to be main drivers of CIP deviations in the emerging countries. We find that the impact of credit risk on CIP deviations may take two forms. In low-carry currencies, the well-known mechanism for credit risk operates so that the increase in credit risk exacerbates CIP deviations. Conversely, in high-carry currencies, the high usage of FX swaps makes swap rates react more than domestic rates, which causes CIP to decrease.
Open Access
Financial economics of cryptocurrency markets
(Bilkent University, 2021-01) Aslan, Aylin
The financial sector is currently experiencing a gradual change, driven by near-term digital and technological innovations. Emerging distributed ledger technologies (DLT), such as Blockchain, open new avenues for investors and companies providing fast, secure, and low-cost peer-to-peer transactions. Bitcoin, the first application of Blockchain, has inspired other applications and products, and led to the creation of thousands of other cryptocurrencies and new wave of crowdfunding. The primary purpose of this study is to investigate both cryptocurrencies and cryptocurrency-based crowdfunding. This dissertation made up of three main parts. In the first part, the determinants of Initial Coin Offering (ICO) success and aftermarket performance of ICOs are analyzed. We find that higher ratings, shorter duration, smaller share for token sale, larger number of experts and more members in the developing team have a positive impact on ICO success. We also observe a significant relationship between offer price, market sentiment and longer term post-ICO performance. Yet, key to a successful ICO and post-ICO performance differ between boom vs bust periods in the cryptocurrency markets. The second part deals with the weak-form efficiency property of four largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, i.e. Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ripple and Ethereum. We use different Hurst exponent estimation techniques at different intraday frequencies. We reveal a U-shaped pattern for pricing efficiency with respect to the sampling frequency. The last part is about the hedge and safe-haven properties of Bitcoin, and its interlinkages to other precious metals (gold, silver, platinum, and palladium). Using high frequency data, we find evidence of spillover effects in volatility among Bitcoin and precious metals. Furthermore, the results suggest that the risk spillovers are time dependent and are sensitive to slowdowns in economic activity and political events. Overall, we contribute to the understanding of both market and corporate based approaches to the role of cryptocurrencies in capital markets.
Open Access
Institutional investment horizon, herding, and stock returns
(Bilkent University, 2020-12) Iqbal, Muhammad Sabeeh
This thesis investigates the interaction between the herding behavior of institutions classified by their investment horizons and the role of investment horizon of institutions in driving the book-to-market effect. First, we examine the price impact of the herding behavior of short- and long-horizon institutional investors. We categorize the institutional herding as same-side herding when both types of institutions herd on the buy-side or sell-side together and as opposite-side herding when short-horizon institutions buy while the long-horizon institutions sell or vice versa. We find that the previously documented destabilizing impact of long-horizon institutional herding is only observed on opposite-side herding. Moreover, short-horizon institutional herding improves the stock price discovery process confirming the belief that they are more informed. Second, we investigate the differential contribution of institutions with different investment horizons in book-to-market effect. We find that long-horizon institutions tend to buy (sell) stocks with positive (negative) past intangible information. This behavior exacerbates market overreaction and magnifies intangible return reversals and thus contributes to book-to-market effect. On the other hand, short-horizon institutions trade independent of intangible information, and their trading in the direction of intangible information does not contribute to book to market effect. Moreover, our findings also support that short-horizon institutions are better informed than long-horizon institutions.
Open Access
Systemic risk and financial networks
(Bilkent University, 2019-12) Sümer, Tuba Pelin
This thesis investigates the interbank relations of Turkish banks with each other and foreign banks abroad. In the ﬁrst chapter, we focus on the interbank relations between domestic banks and study the eﬀects of bank ownership structure on the in terbank network structure. During the sample period of 2003-2017, we observe that foreign and state-owned banks play dominant role in shaping the network structure. Foreign banks, in particular, have a higher coreness vector in derivative exposures through their comparative advantage in oﬀsetting derivative transactions. More over, our ﬁndings indicate that when a foreign investor acquires a domestic bank, the network structure of the acquired bank changes considerably. We also present evidence that local and Basel III regulations play a signiﬁcant role in the formation of the network structure through liquidity channel. In the second chapter, we focus on the interbank relations between banks in Turkey and foreign banks abroad for 2014-2018 period. Funding from foreign banks in repo, deposit and loan type is an important ﬁnancing channel for domestic banks. For hedging currency risk, domestic banks are also making derivative transactions with foreign counterparties. We docu ment several network statistics and analyze the similarities of bank rankings in these statistics. Moreover, we examine the similarities between diﬀerent instrument-level networks as repo, loan, deposit and derivatives. By diﬀerentiating foreign banks as the banks having shares in domestic banks and others and the banks that work ac cording to islamic principles and others, we investigate the evolvement of interbank relations between these groups.
Open Access
Essays in empirical finance
(Bilkent University, 2019-12) Serdengeçti, Süleyman
This thesis comprise three essays that investigate foreign exchange market volatility and its dynamics using high frequency exchange rate data. In the first essay, we decompose the jump component of USDTRY exchange rate volatility and investigate association of jump frequencies and sizes with portfolio ows, carry trade activity and proxies for heterogeneous expectations derived from foreign exchange rate forecasts, currency options and forecasts for key macro-economic variables. The findings of the essay show that portfolio ows, particularly bond ows significantly reduce size and frequency of jumps. Moreover, we observe significant increases in jump size and frequencies with increasing dispersion in beliefs in future exchange rate level and CPI. In the second essay, we study the dynamics of return and liquidity jumps for USDMXN, USDTRY and USDZAR exchange rates. The findings of the essay show that the duration between consecutive return jump arrivals are significantly reduced by average liquidity level in the same period. Furthermore, arrival rates of both liquidity and return jumps are significantly affected by market-wide risk and liquidity factors and key macroeconomic news releases. In the third essay, we investigate the trading volume and volatility nexus for USDTRY exchange rate by using local banks' foreign exchange transaction volume data. In this context, foreign currency denominated spot, forward and swap transactions in with local and foreign customers and between each other for intraday realized volatility of different trading sessions. The findings of this study reveal that positive contemporaneous relationship between trading volume and volatility is evident for local customers and in local trading sessions. Moreover, dispersion in expectations for future foreign exchange rate strengthens this relationship.
Open Access
Essays on financial connectivity and stability
(Bilkent University, 2019-11) Demir, Müge
This thesis investigates the structure of cross-border lending market by using network analysis and examines the relationship between financial connectivity and probability of systemic crises, controlling for macroeconomic variables. A country-level panel data set of BIS locational banking statistics for bank-to-bank and bank-to-non-bank cross-border lending markets including 177 countries is used in the analysis for the 1978-2016 period. Systemic crisis periods are retrieved from European Systemic Risk Board ( Lo Duca et al. (2017)) and Laeven and Valencia (2013, 2018). In the literature, there are two conflicting arguments on the relationship between financial connectivity and stability. On the one hand, it is argued that an increase in the level of financial connectivity enhances financial stability by allowing financial institutions to absorb the negative impacts of a shock among many counterparties through risk sharing. On the other hand, depending on the structure of the financial markets, it can also deteriorate financial stability by facilitating the spread of a shock from one institution to another, leading to an increase in systemic risk. We, first, examine cross-border bank-to-bank and bank-to-non-bank lending markets of 13 advanced economies. We find that an increase in financial connectivity reduces the probability of systemic crises. However, this effect is found to be mitigated or completely eliminated in credit boom and capital inflow upsurge periods in both lending markets. Second, we examine European bank-to-bank and bank-to-non-bank cross-border lending markets comprised of 25 countries, during 1978-2016 period, as it allows us to test the effect of the level of financial integration measured by the level of financial connectivity on the probability of crisis. We find that while using the single currency, Euro, helps to improve the resiliency of EU in response to crisis in both networks, legislative-regulatory integration across member states without eliminating currency risk undermines the resiliency of the EU bank-to-bank lending network. During the excessive cross-border lending period, an increase in connectivity is found to raise the probability of crisis for both lending networks, regardless of the membership status. Finally, we extend our data set to 177 countries and examine the relationship between financial connectivity and stability in the global lending network. We find that in bank-to-bank lending network, an increase in global financial connectivity decreases the probability of crises, but this effect is found to be eliminated only in credit boom periods. On the other hand, an increase in local connectivity is found to be associated with an increase in the probability of crisis. This effect seems to be mainly driven by emerging countries, rather than advanced countries. In both lending markets we find that capital inflow periods do not affect the relationship between connectivity and probability of crisis. The findings suggest that policy-makers should design a financial market mechanism that can reduce risks associated with an increase in financial connectivity, while maintaining its benefits.
Open Access
Informed trading in borsa İstanbul
(Bilkent University, 2019-05) Tiniç, Murat
This thesis investigates how information asymmetry affects asset prices in Borsa İstanbul. In the first chapter, we introduce the R package InfoTrad that estimates the probability of informed trading. Next, we examine the relationship between information asymmetry and stock returns in Borsa İstanbul. Firm-level cross-sectional regressions indicate an economically insignificant relationship between PIN and future returns. Moreover, univariate and multivariate portfolio analyses show that portfolios of stocks with high levels of informed trading do not realize significant return premiums. Consequently, our results, suggest that information asymmetry is a firm-specific risk and it can be eliminated with portfolio diversification. Finally, we compare the informational (dis)advantage of foreign investors trading in Borsa İstanbul. We first show that an average foreign trade creates buy pressure whereas an average local trade generates a sell pressure. The permanent impact of foreign investors over and above local investors is significant only for 24 stocks which correspond to 7% of our sample. Importantly, we show that the foreign price impact occurs primarily in a period of political instability which started with the Gezi Park protests in June 2013. In a panel setting, we also show that adverse selection cost due to foreign trading significantly increases even when we control for firm-specific factors along with global and local macroeconomic conditions. Domestic investors with undiversified portfolios may be more risk-averse during periods of increased turmoil. This may enable foreign investors to have a better position to take advantage of potential price misalignments, especially for stocks of commercial banks.
Open Access
Agency costs in an emerging market : investigating business groups
(Bilkent University, 2017-09) Bakıcıol, Tamer
Positive abnormal returns around loan announcements imply that banks have unique expertise in information production about borrowers. I study abnormal returns around loans that Turkish listed firms secure from international markets between 2003 and 2016 two investigate two research questions. Do listed firms controlled by business groups have higher agency costs when compared to stand-alone firms? Does control through pyramid ownership structures increase agency costs of business group listed firms? I hypothesize that controlled for other factors, abnormal returns around loan announcements measure agency costs associated with borrowers because new information provided by bank loans lead to the higher revaluation for business group firms that bear agency costs. I provide evidence that when business group firms are positioned within pyramid ownership structures they realize higher abnormal returns when benchmarked against stand-alone firms and business group firms that are not positioned within pyramids. Therefore, my results indicate market perception towards pyramid ownership structures in increasing tunneling incentives within business groups.
Open Access
Essays in corporate finance : an analysis of stock market investment patterns in emerging countries from a behavioral and a traditional perspective
(Bilkent University, 2017-06) Usul, Naime
This thesis investigates the investment patterns in emerging stock markets first from a behavioral then from a traditional perspective. The first two chapters deal with affective motivations in the stock investment decision. First, we develop the hypothesis concerning the affect-based investment motivations in the stock markets and the role of affective self-affinity. Based on Social Identity Theory, Affect literature, Socially Responsible Investing literature and Home Bias literature, we propose that identification with different dimensions of a company may trigger affect-based extra investment motivation. The following chapter tests the hypotheses developed in the first chapter using partial least squares path analysis with Turkish stock investors. We conclude that the ideas of socially responsible investing and nationalism have significant positive effects on the investment motivation. Likewise, the people and the groups that the investors identify themselves with have significant positive effects on the affect-based motivations to invest in the companies, which are perceived to support those people and groups. The last chapter, studies the return patterns in MENA stock markets during the Arab Spring events in an event study setting. Considering the three-year period of 2010- 2013, we study the effects of 172 events on the stock markets of nine countries in the region, namely; Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Tunisia. Using Brown and Warner (1985) event study methodology, we have found some events have relatively large effects, though we cannot find significant reactions on the average. Hence, we cannot conclude that stock markets react significantly to the events during Arab Spring.
Open Access
Mergers and acquisitions during financial crises
(Bilkent University, 2016-09) Yılmaz, Işıl Sevilay
This thesis investigates the effects of financial crises on mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity. We investigate if M&A deals in crisis periods differ in terms of dollar volume and quantity of deals, target and bidder characteristics, cumulative abnormal returns (CAR) and deal premiums. First, we describe global M&A activity across 47 countries over the period 1992 to 2011. We investigate how value is generated and distributed in M&A deals around the world. We find that M&A activity (particularly in deals where control rights are sold) generates value. We also find that the magnitudes of bidder and target CARs in developed countries are higher than those in emerging-market countries. Second, we identify effects of financial crises based on a sample of 39 countries. We conclude that financial crisis in target country affects the value generated in M&A deals and how the generated value is distributed between target and bidder shareholders. Moreover, a typical crisis affects the value generated and the distribution of value differently in developed and emerging countries. In particular, crisis time M&A deals generate more value if the target is from a developed country. Finally, financial crises may affect the type of deals that are undertaken and/or affect the pricing of deals. We investigate if differences in deal characteristics account for differences in the value generated and distributed. We conclude that targets operating in countries, which experience crisis, enjoy higher CARs in the full sample even after accounting for the differences in deal specifics.
Open Access
Consumers and their brands : acting out personal mythologies in a 'global' brand community
(Bilkent University, 2006) Yenicioğlu, M. Baskın
Brand communities have been theorized to be a crucial source for marketers to build long-term customer centered brand loyalty and a place where consumers can experience the long lost traditional community. Despite this significance consumer research is yet to study the global and the mundane aspects of the brand community concept. This research aims to fill that gap through a qualitative ethnographic study of Harley Davidson brand community in Turkey. The data is presented on two interconnected levels. Through the lived level analysis I challenge the extant literature by portraying brand community as a very heterogeneous formation where traditional community structures only formed through the everyday experiences of consumers with each other. I introduce the personal mythologies metaphor as a way in which consumers form strong emotional attachments with brands within their mundane realities. Finally, I show that brand communities travel internationally as structured set of relationships only on a believed level as a supposition in consumers’ minds. I also discuss the theoretical implications of these findings for consumer culture theory research.
Open Access
Origins of a consumer culture in an early modern context : Ottoman Bursa
(Bilkent University, 2006) Karababa, Eminegül
Studies on the origins of the modern consumer culture generally focus on the early modern western context with the inherent assumption that today’s modern consumer culture had its origins in the early modern west. This study examines origins of an early modern consumer culture in a non-western context; Ottoman Empire between the mid-sixteenth to mid-seventeenth centuries and investigates how particularities of the context shaped a different consumer culture. Specifically the study focuses the town of Bursa. In the Ottoman context, social structure provided differences from the previously theorized western contexts concerning consumer culture phenomena. Ottoman context had a different dominant class and relatively high level of upward mobility among the ranks. Ottoman dominant class allowed the entry of lowest echelons and had intergenerational downward mobility. Multiple data sources including archival data were used to conduct this historical research. Quantitative and qualitative data analysis techniques were complemented. Findings show that indeed an early modern consumer culture in a non-western context existed. In addition, the characteristics of the Ottoman social structure shaped a different Ottoman consumer culture both in terms of appropriation of different categories of goods and the processes of fashion and diffusion of goods.