Advanced Search
MyIDEAS: Login

What's in a name? What leads a firm to change its name and what the new name foreshadows

Contents:

Author Info

  • Wu, YiLin
Registered author(s):

    Abstract

    This paper examines corporate name changes. This paper connects different types of corporate name changes to the reputational concerns that precede them and to the important corporate events and performance changes that follow them. The empirical results suggest that a firm adopts a radically different name to disassociate from a poor reputation, the name of one of its well-recognized brands to associate with a good reputation, or a minor change in its name by adding or deleting a part of its name that identifies it with a particular product to accompany a narrower business focus or a broader business focus. The empirical results also suggest that, except for radical name changes, significant organizational upheaval follows most corporate name changes. The strength of the firm's subsequent economic performance is tied to changes in the business direction that the type of name change foreshadows.

    Download Info

    If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B6VCY-4XVK3XH-3/2/3853a5a1da8b8794a5f26d9bc5ef7373
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version under "Related research" (further below) or search for a different version of it.

    Bibliographic Info

    Article provided by Elsevier in its journal Journal of Banking & Finance.

    Volume (Year): 34 (2010)
    Issue (Month): 6 (June)
    Pages: 1344-1359

    as in new window
    Handle: RePEc:eee:jbfina:v:34:y:2010:i:6:p:1344-1359

    Contact details of provider:
    Web page: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbf

    Related research

    Keywords: Name change Reputation Brand name capital Intangible assets Corporate strategy Propensity score matching Preplay communication Investor sentiment;

    References

    References listed on IDEAS
    Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
    as in new window
    1. Michael S. Rashes, 2001. "Massively Confused Investors Making Conspicuously Ignorant Choices (MCI-MCIC)," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 56(5), pages 1911-1927, October.
    2. Cooper, Russell, et al, 1992. "Communication in Coordination Games," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 107(2), pages 739-71, May.
    3. Cabral, L.M.B., 2000. "Stretching Firm and Brand Reputation," New York University, Leonard N. Stern School Finance Department Working Paper Seires 00-07, New York University, Leonard N. Stern School of Business-.
    4. Steve Tadelis, 1997. "What's in a Name? Reputation as a Tradeable Asset," Working Papers 97033, Stanford University, Department of Economics.
    5. Luigi Zingales, 2000. "In Search of New Foundations," NBER Working Papers 7706, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Dos Santos, Marcelo B. & Errunza, Vihang R. & Miller, Darius P., 2008. "Does corporate international diversification destroy value? Evidence from cross-border mergers and acquisitions," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(12), pages 2716-2724, December.
    7. Tarun Chordia, 2001. "Market Liquidity and Trading Activity," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 56(2), pages 501-530, 04.
    8. Chordia, Tarun & Roll, Richard & Subrahmanyam, Avanidhar, 2000. "Commonality in liquidity," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(1), pages 3-28, April.
    9. Michael J. Cooper & Huseyin Gulen & P. Raghavendra Rau, 2005. "Changing Names with Style: Mutual Fund Name Changes and Their Effects on Fund Flows," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 60(6), pages 2825-2858, December.
    10. Michael J. Cooper, 2001. "A Rose.com by Any Other Name," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 56(6), pages 2371-2388, December.
    11. Lo, Andrew W & MacKinlay, A Craig, 1990. "When Are Contrarian Profits Due to Stock Market Overreaction?," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 3(2), pages 175-205.
    12. Paul C. Tetlock, 2007. "Giving Content to Investor Sentiment: The Role of Media in the Stock Market," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 62(3), pages 1139-1168, 06.
    13. Rakowski, David & Wang Beardsley, Xiaoxin, 2008. "Decomposing liquidity along the limit order book," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(8), pages 1687-1698, August.
    14. Karpoff, Jonathan M. & Rankine, Graeme, 1994. "In search of a signaling effect: The wealth effects of corporate name changes," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 18(6), pages 1027-1045, December.
    15. Choi, Jay Pil, 1998. "Brand Extension as Informational Leverage," Review of Economic Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 65(4), pages 655-69, October.
    16. Karpoff, Jonathan M. & Malatesta, Paul H. & Walkling, Ralph A., 1996. "Corporate governance and shareholder initiatives: Empirical evidence," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 365-395, November.
    17. Amihud, Yakov & Mendelson, Haim, 1986. "Asset pricing and the bid-ask spread," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 223-249, December.
    18. Cooper, Michael J. & Khorana, Ajay & Osobov, Igor & Patel, Ajay & Rau, P. Raghavendra, 2005. "Managerial actions in response to a market downturn: valuation effects of name changes in the dot.com decline," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 11(1-2), pages 319-335, March.
    19. Jostarndt, Philipp & Sautner, Zacharias, 2008. "Financial distress, corporate control, and management turnover," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(10), pages 2188-2204, October.
    20. Klein, Benjamin & Leffler, Keith B, 1981. "The Role of Market Forces in Assuring Contractual Performance," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 89(4), pages 615-41, August.
    21. Bailey, Warren & Cai, Jun & Cheung, Yan Leung & Wang, Fenghua, 2009. "Stock returns, order imbalances, and commonality: Evidence on individual, institutional, and proprietary investors in China," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 9-19, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as in new window

    Cited by:
    1. Kot, Hung Wan, 2011. "Corporate name changes: Price reactions and long-run performance," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 230-244, April.

    Lists

    This item is not listed on Wikipedia, on a reading list or among the top items on IDEAS.

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jbfina:v:34:y:2010:i:6:p:1344-1359

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Wendy Shamier).

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form.

    If the full references list an item that is present in RePEc, but the system did not link to it, you can help with this form.

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.