The Impact of a Corporate Name Change on Stock Price and Trading Volume of Canadian Companies

This thesis examines the impact of a corporate name change on stock price and trading volume of Canadian companies around the announcement date, the approval date, and the adoption date over the time period from 1997 to 2011. Name changes are classified into six categories: major and minor, structural and pure, diversified and focused, accompanied with a change in ticker symbol and without a change in ticker symbol, “Gold” name addition and deletion, and different reasons for name changes (e.g., merger and acquisition, change of structure, change of strategy, and better image). The thesis uses the standard event study methodology to perform abnormal return and trading volume analyses. In addition, regression analysis is employed to examine which type of a name change has the largest impact on cumulative abnormal returns. Sample stocks exhibit a significant positive abnormal return one-day prior to the approval day and one day after the adoption date. Around the approval date we observe significant abnormal returns for stocks with a structural name change. On the day after the adoption date we document abnormal returns for stocks with major, minor, structural, pure, focused, and ticker symbol name changes. If a merger or acquisition is the reason for a name change, companies tend to experience a significant positive abnormal return one-day before the approval date and on the adoption date. If a change of structure is the reason for a name change, companies exhibit a significant positive abnormal return on the approval date and a significant negative abnormal return on the adoption date. In case of a change of strategy as the reason for a name change, companies show a significant negative abnormal return around the approval date and a significant positive abnormal return around the adoption date.

Management decision-making in nursing

This study developed a new, valid and reliable evaluation instrument to measure the level, type and pattern of management decisions of fifteen nursing students. The management decision score achieved using this instrument was correlated with two psychological determinants of management decision making: creativity and problem-solving ability. The instrument was a written patient management problem in case format, answered by a free form written response. The student responses were classified for type of management decision according to the sub-categories of technical, inter-personal, environmental and unique. Using statistical analysis a significant difference was found in the type of management decisions most frequently selected by the study sample. The students predominantly selected technical type decisions. This preference for one type of management decision may be due to a number of psychological and environmental factors. These factors may program and mold the type of management decisions student nurses make early in their career. Low but positive correlations were found between the total management score and the two psychological tests. This finding supports the authors cited in the literature who state that although creativity augments the type of management decision making, it is not present or encouraged widely in the nursing profession. These factors are worth considering when the profession becomes concerned over ritualization and lack of individuality in patient care. The tool is easy to administer, lends itself to a variety of professional settings and shows promise with further refinement for computer application.