This thesis consists of three essays examining issues related to human capital, careers, and financial economics. In the first chapter, I examine how the process of corporate bankruptcy varies by human capital intensity using a sample of 1,493 public firms that filed for Chapter 11 between 1980...

This thesis explores in three essays if, how, and why social relationships have a bearing on outcomes in the entrepreneurial process. The first essay attempts to determine which mechanism drives the children of business owners to expect to become and actually enter business ownership themselves....

The first part of the thesis studies the impact of liquidity crashes on asset prices. In financial markets, liquidity could have large downward jumps. The thesis proposes a dynamic model where investors face the risk of potential liquidity crises. We find that investors choose optimal portfolios...

The emergence of China as a rising economic power has surprised many pundits and commentators around the world. It first gained its status as one of the largest manufacturing centers in the world, creating companies from toy makers to networking gear manufacturers, which successfully used their...

The objective of this thesis is to analyze the factors that create competitive advantage through global delivery of IT services. Research on this thesis consists of a review of IT services markets and globally distributed operating models for IT services. A simple framework is created to analyze...

The identification of the different factors impacting a software start-up company's decision to pursue an alliance, acquisition, IPO or venture capital to sustain growth is the main objective of this research study. First and foremost on a software start-up company's list of reasons to pursue...

The general belief is that Location-Based Services (LBS) in emerging economies does not make much sense until there is widespread availability of geographic information system (GIS) data, broadband internet access, payment methods, infrastructure such as power, well developed advertising...

The purpose of this research is to provide an academic study to facilitate and improve the establishment and running of Expression Business Unit in Microsoft's Developer Division. This business unit was created in 2005 to help Microsoft expand into the computer-aided designer market. New...

The service concepts found in Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) have been used in software design for many years, with ever-improving tools and a growing understanding of where and how SOA should be applied. Applications built utilizing SOA concepts promote principles such as modularity,...