Term Paper (Financial Management Class )

Individual Paper Assignment:

Purpose: For this assignment you will need to identify 5 papers and/or articles (at least two have to be from academic journals; remaining three can be from general business press – WSJ, Bloomberg etc.), which discuss any of the topics, tools, ideas, techniques discussed in the course. View this exercise as a practice for finding practical information for decision making as managers.

For example, your firm is planning to initiate a dividend payout. Your task is to find out what other practitioners and academics say regarding dividend initiation (when it is optimal and when not, how stock prices respond to changes in dividend policies of firms etc.) and share this information with the management.

Requirements: - Papers you choose must be on a single topic/idea/tool; - Do not search papers more than 7 years old (if the reading is too old – this is likely no longer an innovative idea); - Do not use papers already used as extra readings in class.

Format: Write a story what you learned about topic covered in addition to what we learned in class. You may do so by summarizing key findings (1-2 pages summary) on what paper is about, what is your major take-away from it (i.e., what you learned – you discovered some new tool or technique; you learned how certain concept you learned about in class is used by practitioners). Your report should be somewhere around 8-12 pages.

Although I am not requiring any specific format (abstracts, table of content etc.) and you have a flexibility to structure report the way you want, it is expected you proofread report prior to submission, use citations properly and follow APA standards.

Example: These are a type of papers/articles that will make a great report (I would suggest you take a look at all of them to get a better idea what to search for):

Examples of academic and practitioner-oriented publications: 1. On how cost of capital is determined: Brotherton, W. Todd, Kenneth M. Eades, Robert S. Harris, and Robert C.

Higgins. “Best Practices” in Estimating the Cost of Capital: An Update. Journal of Applied Finance, 2013 2. About valuation technique (APV): Timothy A. Luehrman, May/June 1997, “What’s It Worth? A General

Manager’s Guide to Valuation,” Harvard Business Review, 75 3. About capital structure decisions: Barclay and Smith, Spring 1999, “The Capital Structure Puzzle: Another Look at

the Evidence,” Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, 12 4. About share repurchases (Payout policies): Justin Pettit, April 2001, “Is a Share Buyback Right for Your

Company?” Harvard Business Review; 5. About cash needs (also fits into Payout policies topic): Richard Passov, November 2003, “How Much Cash Does

Your Company Need?” Harvard Business Review

Examples of general business press publications: 1. Michael Milken, April 21, 2009, “Why Capital Structure Matters,” Wall Street Journal 2. John C. Kelleher and Justin J. MacCormack, August 2004, “Internal Rate of Return: A Cautionary Tale,” The

McKinsey Quarterly 3. On M&A practice: http://www.bain.com/publications/articles/when-to-walk-away-from-a-deal-newsletter.aspx 4. On using TVM concepts in making business decisions:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2013/12/24/why-apple-sends-all-iphones-and-ipads-by-air-its- cheaper/