Successful Investment Research Articles

Impacts of startup founders’ personal and business networks on fundraising success by mediating fundraising opportunities: Moderating role of firm age

This study examines the effects of personal and business networks on fundraising successes through fundraising opportunities and analyze the differences in the effects of personal and business networks vary depending on the firm’s age groups. The first finding of this study is that both the startup founder's personal and business networks increase the funding opportunities for startups. Second, the number of successful investments increases as the number of fundraising opportunities from business networks increases. Third, the total effect of business networks is greater than the total effect of personal networks. Fourth, the difference in the effect of a founder's business and personal network on investment success in an old or mature startup firm is greater than the difference in effect in a new and nascent startup firm. This result means that young start-ups that do not yet have sufficiently developed business networks rely on private networks to attract investment, and that the two types of networks have similar effects on investment attraction success in the early stages of the startup business. This study contributes to the literature by showing that the effectiveness of fundraising through business networks is greater than those of personal networks and the impacts of social networks on fundraising successes vary depending on the age or growth stage of startups.

Bayesian optimization of ESG (Environmental Social Governance) financial investments

Financial experts seek to predict the variability of financial markets to ensure investors’ successful investments. However, there has been a big trend in finance in the last few years, which are the ESG (Economic, Social and Governance) criteria, due to the growing importance of investments being socially responsible, and because of the financial impact companies suffer when not complying with them. Consequently, creating a stock portfolio should consider not only its financial performance but compliance with ESG criteria. Portfolio optimization (PO) techniques previously applied to ESG portfolios, are all closed-form analytical ones. But the real world is rather a black box with unknown analytical expressions. Thus, in this paper we use Bayesian optimization (BO), a sequential state-of-the-art design strategy to optimize black-boxes with unknown analytical and costly-to-compute expressions, to maximize the performance of a stock portfolio under the presence of ESG criteria soft constraints incorporated into the objective function. And we compare it to two other black-box techniques widely applied for the optimization of ‘conventional portfolios’ (non-ESG ones): the metaheuristics Genetic algorithm (GA) and Simulated Annealing (SA). Although BO has many theoretical advantages over GA and SA, it has never been applied to PO. Thus, this paper investigates whether BO can be used in the ESG PO framework as an alternative and compares it with GA and SA. This is the research gap to which this paper responds. To show the empirical performance of BO, we carry out four illustrative experiments and find evidence of BO outperforming the baselines. Thus we add another different optimization approach to the world of ESG investing: a black-box non-heuristic optimization approach through BO. Our study is the first paper that leverages BO and ESG scores into a PO technique. This paper opens the door to many new research lines in (ESG) portfolio optimization.

Rhetoric Mining: A New Text-Analytics Approach for Quantifying Persuasion

Rhetoric mining is a novel text-analytics method for quantifying persuasion based on rhetorical analysis theory. Our mixed-methodology approach combines qualitative context analysis with automated tagging and quantification of rhetorical moves. Rhetorical moves are complex discursive patterns and, thus, require a sequence-based text-mining approach, rather than the simpler word-based frequency analyses. We apply a sequence-alignment method to detect semantically equivalent sequences with high precision and efficiency. We illustrate our method by analyzing arguments used to justify stock picks in an online investment community. For these data, we detect and quantify the rhetorical moves of ethos (personal versus cited expertise), hedging (confidence versus uncertainty), and evidence type (product-, company-, or stock-based evidence). We use rhetoric mining to identify argument styles of persuasiveness (pitches that receive community recommendations) and trustworthiness (pitches that are written by successful investors). Rhetoric mining provides a new analytic lens in Information Systems research to analyze the influence of persuasion in consumer decision making. History: W. Nick Street served as the senior editor for this article. Data Ethics & Reproducibility Note: The code capsule is available on Code Ocean at https://codeocean.com/capsule/9373643/tree/v1 and in the e-Companion to this article (available at https://doi.org/10.1287/ijds.2022.0024 ).

Investigating Joint Market Hypothesis during Periods of Financial Distress and its Implications

Empirical finance is about building an understanding of security prices and financial markets so as to foster better decision making while avoiding anecdote biases. Successful investors are often cognisant of their risk exposures coupled with extreme discipline and leverage. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore the concept of joint market hypothesis in five international stock indexes. This study used the Taleb’s ratio which is an extension of the Parkinson model. The financial distress periods were the financial crisis (December 1, 2007 to June 30, 2009) and the Covid-19 pandemic (January 1, 2020 to December 31, 2021). Joint hypothesis was evident in the JSE, CAC 40, the DAX and the Nikkei 225 while the Nasdaq displayed high levels of market efficiencies. Allocating more capital to the JSE, CAC 40, the DAX and the Nikkei 225 during periods of financial distress in conjunction with the Fama French five factor model will generate higher returns. As per the author’s knowledge, this study is the first to explore the concept of joint market hypothesis during periods of distress

Importance of mangrove plantations for climate change mitigation in Bangladesh.

Mangroves have been identified as blue carbon ecosystems that are natural carbon sinks. In Bangladesh, the establishment of mangrove plantations for coastal protection has occurred since the 1960s, but the plantations may also be a sustainable pathway to enhance carbon sequestration, which can help Bangladesh meet its greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction targets, contributing to climate change mitigation. As a part of its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement 2016, Bangladesh is committed to limiting the GHG emissions through the expansion of mangrove plantations, but the level of carbon removal that could be achieved through the establishment of plantations has not yet been estimated. The mean ecosystem carbon stock of 5-42 years aged (average age: 25.5 years) mangrove plantations was 190.1 (±30.3)Mg C ha-1 , with ecosystem carbon stocks varying regionally. The biomass carbon stock was 60.3 (±5.6)Mg C ha-1 and the soil carbon stock was 129.8 (±24.8)Mg C ha-1 in the top 1 m of which 43.9 Mg C ha-1 was added to the soil after plantation establishment. Plantations at age 5 to 42 years achieved 52% of the mean ecosystem carbon stock calculated for the reference site (Sundarbans natural mangroves). Since 1966, the 28,000 ha of established plantations to the east of the Sundarbans have accumulated approximately 76,607 Mg C year-1 sequestration in biomass and 37,542 Mg C year-1 sequestration in soils, totaling 114,149 Mg C year-1 . Continuation of the current plantation success rate would sequester an additional 664,850 Mg C by 2030, which is 4.4% of Bangladesh's 2030 GHG reduction target from all sectors described in its NDC, however, plantations for climate change mitigation would be most effective 20 years after establishment. Higher levels of investment in mangrove plantations and higher plantation establishment success could contribute up to 2,098,093 Mg C to blue carbon sequestration and climate change mitigation in Bangladesh by 2030.

The Evaluation Criteria Used by Venture Capitalists

Venture capital investments are very common sources of funding today. The rise of many well-known companies attributes to the bet from venture capitalists. There are successful investment examples and unsuccessful ones as well. This paper explores four venture capitalists’ criteria on their investments based on the common theories of different literature review and analyzes them by exemplifications of real cases from Mobileye, Genentech, Cerent, Alibaba, Meitu, JD.com, and Ele.me. All of the cases chosen happened in the last 25 years from different countries in the world. After analyzing these cases, four general evaluation criteria used by venture capitalists are reached: technology, attractiveness of the market, customer adoption, and product or service. Technology and market attractiveness often determine the potential of a product. Customer adoption and product or service can prove whether the company has a clear judgement on its potential customer. Providing examples and data, the paper discovers that venture capitalists often use these four criteria to determine whether a company worth investing or not.

The Asset Allocation Analysis for Banking and Technology and Retail Industries

With the outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020, the economies of almost all countries in the world have faced inevitable and significant losses. The GDP growth rate of major economies in the world has not improved or even declined. During the pandemic, many people lost their jobs, which meant they lost a regular source of income to support them; At this time, the money made by the way of making money online -- buying stocks, or various financial products -- is very important, and portfolio analysis is the first step to successful investment. In this paper, four of the most successful companies in the United States are selected for analysis. They are AAPL, AMZN, AXP, and JPM, which respectively involve the financial industry, banking, technology, and retail industry in the United States. This article uses three methods for portfolio optimization, which are called mean-variance analysis, CAPM Model and Fama French Three Factor Model, this paper calculates the weight proportion of four companies under Three different models. The results show that in mean-variance model has the highest projected revenue among the three models, while CAPM has the lowest projected revenue. Meanwhile, among the mean-variance models, AAPL has the highest proportion of investment, but among the CAPM and FF3F models, JPM, which has the worst performance in the mean-variance models, has the highest proportion. This research will benefit the related investors in financial markets.

A Hybrid Model Combining Discrete Wavelet Transform and Nonlinear Autoregressive Neural Network for Stock Price Prediction: An Application in the Egyptian Exchange

Forecasting stock prices is crucial for successful investment in financial markets. However, it is challenging due to the nonlinearity and high volatility caused by various factors influencing price movements. This paper proposes a hybrid model that integrates the discrete wavelet transform (DWT) with the nonlinear autoregressive neural network (NARNN) to predict stock prices. Following the division of stock prices into training and testing sets, the DWT decomposes the training set into low- and high-frequency components reducing the noise and lessening the data's nonlinearity. Then, the obtained components are used to train the NARNNs. To predict the future components, the model decomposes the preceding available prices at each time step and utilizes the latest eight points as input to the NARNNs. Eventually, NARNNs' outputs are combined to provide the final predicted prices. In previous works, the entire dataset is first decomposed and then partitioned into training and testing sets. This unrealistic approach causes the testing set to inherit information regarding stocks' future performance, leading to optimistic deceptive results. Twenty-four stocks from the Egyptian Exchange (EGX-30) are utilized to validate the proposed model's performance. The DWT-NARNN model is compared against other methods, and the empirical findings show that it performs the best.

Crypto-Currency Price Prediction Using Deep Learning

After the price swings of crypto-currencies in past years, it has been considered as an asset. As crypto-currency is unpredictable, there arises the requirement of crypto-currency price prediction with greater level of accuracy. For this many researchers uses variety of ML and DL algorithms and are applying them to build a model which will predict crypto-currency price with improved accuracy. To build successful investment plan, accurate prediction is needed. The proposed method uses combination of LSTM and GRU for the bitcoin price prediction in order to find the closing price of bitcoin

Skin in the Game: An Analysis of Venture Capital Investment in Dermatology from 2002 to 2021

Skin in the Game: An Analysis of Venture Capital Investment in Dermatology from 2002 to 2021

ОЦІНКА ІНВЕСТИЦІЙНО-ІННОВАЦІЙНОЇ ДІЯЛЬНОСТІ ПІДПРИЄМСТВ ПІВДЕННОГО РЕГІОНУ УКРАЇНИ

Тask statement. The market requires enterprises to ensure the appropriate level of competitiveness, at the same time, achieving the effect and effectiveness of enterprises is ensured by the production of competitive products and the provision of high-quality services. This cannot be obtained without the use of the latest modern technologies, "know-how", achievements of scientific and technical progress, which require investments from enterprises. Investment and innovation activity is the most important for the further development of the enterprise, since the systematization of its main components is necessary when forming its development strategy. A stable political situation regarding the development of the investment climate, transparency and ease of doing business, as well as the efficiency of administrative processes, acceptable tax rates and rules, developed infrastructure that makes business operations more efficient and convenient - these are the main factors affecting the growth of investment activity. Successful investment and innovation activity of enterprises at the regional level is possible at enterprises that invest resources in the development of new technologies, scientific research and other innovations; in the presence of close interaction with scientific institutions, universities, and other stakeholders, which are a key factor in creating an innovative environment; when conducting a thorough analysis of the effectiveness of the implementation of promising innovative projects and realizing the need for the necessary resources and sources of financing, in particular, in addition to own resources, at the expense of state programs, grants and other sources of support for investment and innovation activities.

The Impact of Business Strategy between Corporate Ownership and Investment Efficiency

In this study, the effect of firm strategy—prospector and defender—on successful investments in various ownership arrangements is investigated. The non-financial firms listed on the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) between 2011 and 2020 are the subject of this study, which is the first of its kind. The analyses included a generalized least squares (GLS) regression model for data analysis techniques. The findings of the study demonstrate that the prospector approach favourably moderates the link between concentrated ownership, institutional ownership, and managerial ownership, while adversely affecting the correlation between family ownership and investment efficiency. In contrast, the family ownership-investment efficiency is favourably moderated by the defender strategy. However, defender business strategies with management ownership are unaffected. Checks, alternate measurements, and model specifications all corroborated these conclusions. To make a new investment and achieve effective business performance, practitioners and investors alike need pay close attention to the research factors.

ЦИФРОВІЗАЦІЯ СТРАХУВАННЯ

Digital technologies are fundamentally transforming the way businesses operate. Digital insurance holds significant growth potential and promising prospects for development. The insurance industry is on the cusp of significant technological changes. Therefore, the objectives outlined in this article are to define the essence of digital insurance and its advantages, characterize trends and development prospects, and describe the challenges and strategies for optimizing digital progress in insurance. Digital insurance entails the digitization of all insurance operations and replacing physical presence in insurance with online interactions. Digital insurance, known as InsurTech, combines traditional understanding of insurance with 21st-century technologies. Artificial intelligence (AI) can be used to analyze large volumes of data for better risk assessment and setting insurance premiums. Blockchain technologies can be used to create secure and transparent insurance contracts. Internet of Things (IoT) devices, such as smartwatches or vehicles, can provide real-time data to aid in risk assessment and insurance claim monitoring. Mobile applications and web platforms can provide convenient access to insurance services and informa- tion for customers. The most significant advantages of insurance digitalization will manifest in the following ways: Increased efficiency and productivity; Improved customer service ;Access to new markets; Proactive risk management; Reduction of fraud. Current trends in digital insurance include the utilization of Big Data, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and the Internet of Things (IoT) technologies. Digital insurance has significant growth potential. The prospects for the development of digital insurance in Ukraine include: Development of digital infrastructure; Development of the fintech industry; Legislative initiatives; Connected insurance. However, for successful development of digital insurance in Ukraine, it is necessary to overcome certain challenges, including: Data privacy issues; Cybersecurity; Regulation; Integration challenges; Change of corporate culture and skills. Three key strategies have been identified to optimize digital progress in the insurance sector: The importance of digital transformation for business success, yet the fear of fully unleashing its potential. Successful investments in digital self-service platforms and robotic process automation. Understanding the necessity for insurers to adopt a new approach to workforce reorganization that promotes genuine digital thinking within the organization. The main obstacle for insurers in becoming digital organizations is change management. Digitalization of the insurance industry provides significant opportunities for the development of this type of entrepreneurial activity, offering advantages for both insurance companies and clients.

Warunki rynkowe a krótkookresowe możliwości prognostyczne na polskiej giełdzie papierów wartościowych

Purpose – Verifying that market conditions are related to the ability to provide effective forecasts on the Polish stock exchange in the short-term. Research method – A Quenouille autocorrelation test was applied to verify the occurrence of correlations between returns in sub‑periods. Market conditions were determined: boom/bust market, bull, bear and normal periods, the occurrence of a crisis and the level of volatility. The χ2 test and the rho‑Spearman correlation coefficient were used to assess the strength, direction and significance of the relationship between market conditions and the ability to forecast future returns. Results – Sub‑periods of significant correlations between WIG returns were found. Forecasting opportunities increased during boom periods, bull markets and periods of higher market volatility. Prognostic possibilities decreased during bust, normal and crisis periods. Originality / value / implications / recommendations – A description of how market conditions can be determined and an indication during which market conditions the chances of determining successful investment forecasts on the Polish stock market increase or decrease are provided.

Can Female Venture Capitalists Improve the Investment Success Rate of Venture Capital Firms? Evidence from China

Gender inequalities are widespread in the labor market, especially in the venture capital (VC) industry. Women are expected to balance work and family, and are left with limited energy to be competent in a high-intensity work environment, such as venture capital firms. However, the multiple roles women play help improve their multitasking ability, which makes female venture capitalists (VCs) more patient and they tend to have a stronger resolve when faced with difficult tasks. This study investigates the role of gender diversity and female VCs in the venture capital industry. Using a sample of 503 Chinese venture capital firms, we find that female venture capitalists can significantly increase the rate of successful investments owing to their investment experience in the industry. This effect is more significant for independent venture capital firms. Female VCs affect investment success rates by changing the preferences of venture capital firms. In areas with a better institutional environment, they have a slightly greater impact on investment performance. The results suggest that women have a positive impact on the course of venture capital investment, and that they make a distinct contribution to investment behavior and success rate.

Vaccines and the Covid-19 pandemic: lessons from failure and success

AbstractThe losses from the global Covid-19 pandemic have been staggering—trillions in economic costs, on top of significant losses of life, health, and well-being. The world made significant and successful investments in vaccines to mitigate the pandemic, yet there were missed opportunities, as well. We review what has been learnt about the value of vaccines, the speed at which vaccines can be developed, and the optimal and ethical approaches to vaccine distribution, as well as other issues related to pandemic and emergency preparedness. Surprisingly, spending on vaccines remains far below that which would be justified by the social return. We remain poorly prepared for future pandemics and other emergencies.

Investments in Bonds, Stocks, Gold and Real Estate as a Hedge Against Inflation

In times of accelerating inflation, financial instruments that protect capital against loss of value are becoming increasingly important. Therefore, an open question remains as to what to invest in to, if not outstrip, at least keep up with the inflation rate in the case of return on investments. This raises the question of whether there are such opportunities in the market. However, according to some authors, this type of analysis is not easy and simple econometric methods are not able to show the appropriate dependencies. An example is real estate investment, which, especially in the short term, may not be a suitable inflation hedge. The purpose of the study is to determine whether investments in the Polish capital market are able to protect capital from depreciation due to inflation. The study began with the analysis of distributions, stationarity of returns and correlation of successive investments and the CPI inflation rate, ending with cointegration analysis using the Engle–Granger test. The analysis was performed from the first quarter of 2009 to the fourth quarter of 2021. The following indices were used for the study: the TBSPIndex from the bond market, the WIG from the stock market, gold prices in PLN, the NBP hedonic index of real estate prices in seven largest Polish cities and CPI inflation rates published by Statistics Poland (GUS). The analysis led to a negative verification of the research hypothesis, as it could not be proved that the analysed indices and prices are related to the level of inflation. The study fills a gap in the Polish market for analysis of capital protection against inflation. The research concerns only the Polish market, however this issue has not been discussed for years in mature economies either.

Psychological Bias of Chinese Investors Due to Overconfidence- Take “Tik-Tok” for Example

In many cases we’ve found that when a company CEO is overconfident, it has a major impact on decision making, and often puts a company’s future at risk. Through a modern case study in such overconfidence, I examine the causes of psychological overconfidence in its various forms The case of Tik-Tok allows us to look at the moderating impact of overconfidence bias and decision-making by investors. We learn that prudence and indeed fear of making mistakes are reasons for successful investment.

Investment mechanism in agricultural enterprises during war

The article analyzes the state of investment activity of agricultural enterprises during a full-scale war. In today's conditions, the complexity of the process of investment activity development of agricultural enterprises boils down, on the one hand, to the need to ensure their financial stability, and on the other hand, to consider a significant number of factors that ensure the investment attractiveness of a particular enterprise and stimulate the attraction of investment resources from external sources in the post-war period. Active investment activity of agricultural enterprises includes not only accelerated reproduction and development of the material and technical base, but also the expansion of its innovative component. To a large extent, this process depends on the approval and implementation by the owners of enterprises of successful investment projects, which are based on information about the financial attractiveness of investing in certain objects and technological methods. This indicates the need for improving methodological approaches, practical recommendations, and mechanisms for preparing and implementing management decisions in the field of investment activities of agricultural enterprises. Therefore, the system of investment attractiveness management is complex because to change the situation of an enterprise that has been formed under the influence of a set of factors for a certain period of time, a significant toolkit for influencing its financial and economic system must be involved. It is important to emphasize that the process of increasing investment attractiveness should be continuous because the successful implementation of measures to increase investment attractiveness results not only in the activation of investment processes but also in the growth of management system efficiency, level of profitability, and implementation of progressive business planning and budgeting systems. Keywords: investment climate, investment activity, investing, investment intensity, agricultural enterprise.

Influence of social and environmental drivers on nutrient concentrations and ratios in lakes: A comparison between China and Europe

Global anthropogenic flows of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) have exceeded planetary boundaries with significant implications for pollution of the freshwater resources in the world. Understanding the global patterns and drivers of N and P concentrations and their ratios in the lakes could help design more effective management and remediation strategies to mitigate the impacts of eutrophication. While a suite of drivers are associated with the sources of nutrients, their transport and internal processes that control concentrations of N and P in the lakes, much less is known about the relative importance of different drivers in explaining spatial variations of lake nutrients and ratios. In this study, we compared N and P concentrations and their ratios in the lakes across China and Europe and examined the differences of dominant environmental and social drivers on lake nutrients. Our comparison showed that total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP) concentrations were much higher in the lakes in China compared to those in Europe (i.e., TN: 1.13 mg/L in China vs. 0.64 mg/L in Europe; TP: 35.83 μg/L in China vs. 19.38 μg/L in Europe, the median value). However, lake N/P ratios for both regions were not statistically different. Concentrations of TN and TP showed decoupling in both regions, with the majority of lakes having high N/P mass ratios when evaluated by the commonly accepted threshold of 23 (i.e., 61% in China and 68% in Europe), indicating that phytoplankton are more P limited relative to N. Agricultural activity in the lake catchment is an important predictor for both nutrient concentrations and their ratio in Europe. This reflects successful investments in infrastructure and policy prescriptions in addressing point sources of pollution. In comparison, lake depth and water residence time are important in the decoupling of N and P concentrations in China. The regional difference between the dominant drivers can provide important insights into development of effective water pollution control measures. It is necessary for policy makers and water resource managers to be aware of large-scale imbalance of nutrients in lake due to the potential environmental consequences. A set of spatially flexible policies for water quality controls would be beneficial for sustaining the ecological integrity and future health of lakes.