As someone who writes about mutual funds, I thought you might be interested in reading a new research report entitled Stewardship as a Factor in the Financial Performance of Mutual Funds, written by two professors at the College of Business Administration at Northeastern University. Below is an abstract of the report:
To accompany their more established ratings, Morningstar has recently begun assigning stewardship grades to mutual funds. The grades are based on the aggregation of five components, namely regulatory issues, board quality, management incentives, fees, and corporate culture. Presumably, this comprehensive construct can showcase funds that serve as stewards of investor capital and therefore warrant public trust. In this preliminary study, we examined the data on stewardship grades for 1165 mutual funds to see if they correlate with fund returns. The results suggest that funds with high stewardship grades may also preserve and augment shareholder return, albeit the correlations are not very high.
Below is the bio of Professor Mustafa Yilmaz, one of the authors of the piece:
Mustafa R. Yilmaz, Professor and Group Coordinator, Information, Operations and Analysis Group. Professor Yilmaz holds a BS in mechanical engineering from the Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey. He was a Fulbright fellow at Johns Hopkins University, where he received his PhD in Mathematical Sciences. Prior to joining Northeastern University in 1979, he taught at the Faculty of Management at the Middle East Technical University, and served as chairperson of the Department of Applied Statistics. Professor Yilmaz teaches courses in information analysis, information systems, and quantitative methods. His research interests include statistical modeling, quality management, management of information systems, and managerial decision support models. His scholarly articles have appeared in Theory and Decision, Decision Sciences, Business Horizons, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Statistical Science, The American Statistician, Chance, American Journal of Mathematical and Management Sciences, Journal of Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis, Journal of Applied Psychological Measurement, Journal of Statistical Computation and Simulation, Human Systems Management, Journal of Statistics Education, Communications in Statistics, Journal of Applied Statistics, Quality Management Journal, Journal of Business and Management, Journal of Managerial Issues, and Family Business Review. Professor Yilmaz has completed consulting assignments for several organizations, including Mathematica, Inc. in Washington, D.C., and Gardner and Preston Moss, Inc. in Boston. He is a member of several professional organizations, including the American Statistical Association (ASA), Decision Sciences Institute (DSI), and The Institute for Operations Research and Management Sciences (INFORMS).
Please let me know if you’d like to see the study, or if you’d be interested in speaking with Prof. Yilmaz.
Tuesday, March 6, 2007
Stewardship as a Factor in the Financial Performance of Mutual Funds
Security Industry Issues
Murray Beach, President of Boston Corporate Finance, states what security companies have to do to survive. "Security companies now have two choices: Either transform into a larger company offering a more diverse set of products to businesses -- as Symantec has -- or become buyout bait," says Mr. Beach. "With the established security players, if they aren't themselves building a new platform that ties in more applications, then it is difficult for them to compete," Beach says. "Any security player in the software space is an outright target."
To read the whole story, go here:
http://www.paradigmshiftpr.com/securitypure.htm
The Future of Security?
In a Febuary 7th story in Information Week, questions remain as to where security is going. Boston Corporate Finance President, Murray Beach states in a report, "Altiris will be run as a separate business unit. Symantec is looking to add Altiris' strengths as a provider of software for managing network endpoints while complementing Symantec Bindview offerings with Altiris' change management and configuration management capabilities."
To read the full story, go here:
http://www.paradigmshiftpr.com/SAKeynotes.htm
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