Contemporary financial markets have been characterized by sociocultural phenomena such as "meme stocks", the Gamestop short squeeze, and "You Only Live Once (YOLO) trading". These are movements led by small-scale retail investors banding together to participate forcefully in financial markets through decentralized but coordinated actions. This book deploys many different subdisciplines to explore the recent ‘power grabbing’ of retail investors and the online environment that enables them to join the ranks of major financial players, and participate in contemporary capitalism. It offers multiple perspectives on the genesis, role, motivations, power, and future prospects of retail investors as a force in contemporary financial markets. Drawing upon the insights of authors hailing from many different countries, the book frames YOLO capitalism through numerous angles that help to explain the context and the importance of activist retail investors in modern financial markets, and thereby explore the possibilities of a transformed financial future with much wider small-scale participation. The book assesses the potential of online - and other - communities in enabling global coordination in impacting or even driving financial and crypto markets, and the challenges that come with it and weighs the competing narratives both positive and negative regarding YOLO capitalism. It strikes a balanced assessment of their legal, cultural, behavioural, economic, and political roles in modern finance. This book will be of interest to a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary audience of scholars in financial markets, financial regulation, political economy, public administration, macroeconomics, corporate governance, and the philosophy and the sociology of finance.

Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) constitute a comparatively novel area in academic research and scholarship, but the budding interest in this category of digital and algorithmic organization across various disciplines provides an indication of the possibilities that DAOs wield in terms of informing and advancing our understanding of the potentialities of the digital economy's forthcoming iterations. It also points towards practical use cases to solve problems that the increasing decentralization and amorphization of the structures of the digital economy portend. At the same time, DAOs are afflicted by various strands of skepticism that are attributable to their vulnerabilities, subjacent hype, ultimate purpose, and usefulness. This skepticism also requires scholarly attention and careful study through multidisciplinary perspectives, as further research may come to either dispel or confirm the array of concerns that continue to loom large about DAOs as technological, governance, societal, and economic instruments in the future. With all this in mind, the aim of this book is to offer multiple studied perspectives that explore DAOs from a variety of perspectives across several disciplinary prisms. It does not seek simply to weigh the balance of DAO's merits and demerits, but rather to conceive, appreciate, and discover various elements of ultimate import to DAOs over their future evolutionary course. Drawing upon the insights of interdisciplinary subject matter experts, this book allows for a holistic enquiry into the role, potential and limitations of DAOs. The book will thus be of interest to a multidisciplinary audience of scholars in organizational studies, computer science, economics, sociology of technology, philosophy, law, and the governance of innovation.

Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) have blossomed into an area of immense cultural, investment, and academic interest, and this groundswell of fascination with non-fungible digital tokenization has been accompanied by a variety of attitudes towards their function, purpose, and potential. Some advocates perceive NFTs to be revolutionary in character, reshaping notions of the construction and preservation of unique assets in the digital realm. At the same time, a notable number of skeptics and detractors view the NFT movement as a passing and overhyped fad at best, and a disingenuous ploy in the digital economy at its worst. Given the diversity of views that have emerged in a comparatively brief span, this book draws upon rich academic perspectives on NFTs from a variety of disciplines, including: computer science, cultural studies, mathematics, sociology, linguistics, mass communication, economics, and finance. The book teases out nuances in how NFTs can and should operate, while also pointing to the potential that these non-fungible assets wield in the digital sphere, along with countervailing arguments against their conceptual and functional salience, and perhaps some dangers that they pose. The book considers the longevity and viability of NFTs as sociocultural, technological, and economic phenomenon, while offering estimates of future paths that NFTs might take in each domain and weighs the opposing narratives and strikes balanced assessments of the legal, cultural, technological, economic, and political role of NFTs in modern society. With its panoramic display of analysis on NFTs, the book will be of particular interest to scholars and researchers across a wide number of subjects.

Hedge Fund Activism begins with a brief outline of the research literature and describes datasets on hedge fund activism.

The book Finance for Executives: A Practical Guide for Managers meets the needs of global executives, both finance as well as non-financial managers. It is a practical and fundamental finance reference book for any manager, as it makes a perfect balance of financial management theory and practice. It focuses on corporate finance concepts from value creation to derivatives, including cost of capital (and WACC), valuation, financing policies, project evaluation, and many other essential finance definitions. Finance for Executives makes finance simple and intuitive, through the use of real world data (brief company case studies and empirical examples of concepts), Excel financial modelling tools, and practical short chapters. Target Audience This finance book is appropriate for business executives, from all backgrounds, seeking to Focus on the links between financial management and the strategy of their company, be it a private or publicly traded company Discover how to create value for their company and boost its financial performance Understand the key topics of corporate finance for non-financial managers Create a cost of capital culture within a company Refresh and broaden their understanding of the latest financial concepts and tools Learn about financial management for decision makers - including financing and dividend policies, company valuation, mergers and acquisitions (M&As), project evaluation, cost of capital (WACC) estimation, or risk management and derivatives Finance for Executives is suited as a finance textbook for corporate finance programs, executive education courses, as well as in MBA, master's, and executive MBA programs. Indeed, the book is based on many years of executive education and consulting with world-class corporations from all continents of the world. What Is This Book About? Finance should be fun, and practical as well. With this book at hand, you will have access to a set of tools that will help you develop your intuition for solving key financial problems, improve your business decisions, and formulate strategies. This finance for managers' reference book is based on Simplicity - The core concepts in corporate finance are simple, and will become intuitively clear after using this book Conciseness - The chapters are short and self-contained to appeal to busy executives who are keen on value-added activities Practical focus - The key concepts of financial management are explained (and linked to Excel modelling tools), while you learn to identify the problems and pitfalls of different managerial choices Application of theory to practice - It highlights key academic research results that are relevant for practitioners Real-world focus - The book includes empirical data on several companies and industries around the world. Working with real-world problems and real-world data is more fruitful than theoretical discussions on formulas Excel Templates An Excel spreadsheet containing all the financial models used in the different chapters is available for download from the book's website. Practitioners will find the file easy to customize to their own requirements. It is useful in a variety of situations: value creation and its decomposition into managerial drivers or key performance indicators (KPIs), cost of capital (WACC) estimation, project evaluation, mergers and acquisitions, company valuation, derivatives valuation, etc. Editorial Reviews An excellent teach-yourself finance primer for non-financial executives, and, I dare say, even for most finance executives. Ravi Kant, Vice Chairman, Tata Motors, India The finance reference book for the desk of ANY manager. Michel Demaré, Chairman of the Board, Syngenta, Switzerland The perfect balance of practice and theory. Geert Bekaert, Professor of Finance, Columbia Business School, USA A key tool to improve your business decisions. Thilo Mannhardt, CEO of Ultrapar, Brazil Finance for Executives is easy to follow, and makes a boring subject actually quite exciting. Severin Schwan, CEO, Roche Group, Switzerland A must-have for your list of favorites. José Manuel Campa, Professor of Finance, IESE Business School, Spain

This book examines the rise and spread of corporate social responsibility across the globe and its impact on corporate reputation and behaviour.

Corporate law and governance are at the forefront of regulatory activities worldwide, and subject to increasing public attention in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis. Comprehensively referencing the key debates, the Handbook provides a much-needed framework for understanding the aims and methods of legal research in the field.

The economic climate is ripe for another golden age of shareholder activism Deep Value: Why Activist Investors and Other Contrarians Battle for Control of Losing Corporations is a must-read exploration of deep value investment strategy, describing the evolution of the theories of valuation and shareholder activism from Graham to Icahn and beyond. The book combines engaging anecdotes with industry research to illustrate the principles and methods of this complex strategy, and explains the reasoning behind seemingly incomprehensible activist maneuvers. Written by an active value investor, Deep Value provides an insider's perspective on shareholder activist strategies in a format accessible to both professional investors and laypeople. The Deep Value investment philosophy as described by Graham initially identified targets by their discount to liquidation value. This approach was extremely effective, but those opportunities are few and far between in the modern market, forcing activists to adapt. Current activists assess value from a much broader palate, and exploit a much wider range of tools to achieve their goals. Deep Value enumerates and expands upon the resources and strategies available to value investors today, and describes how the economic climate is allowing value investing to re-emerge. Topics include: Target identification, and determining the most advantageous ends Strategies and tactics of effective activism Unseating management and fomenting change Eyeing conditions for the next M&A boom Activist hedge funds have been quiet since the early 2000s, but economic conditions, shareholder sentiment, and available opportunities are creating a fertile environment for another golden age of activism. Deep Value: Why Activist Investors and Other Contrarians Battle for Control of Losing Corporations provides the in-depth information investors need to get up to speed before getting left behind.

The Wolf at the Door: The Impact of Hedge Fund Activism on Corporate Governance has three basic aims: to understand and explain the factors that have caused an explosion in hedge fund activism; to examine the impact of this activism; and to survey and evaluate possible legal interventions with an emphasis on the least restrictive alternative.

This book advances an innovative, multi-jurisdictional argument for the necessity of company law reform to reorient companies towards environmental sustainability.