Dan Mcconaughy

• Doctor of Philosophy
• Emeritus Professor at California State University, Northridge

This paper marks the 35th anniversary after the death of the great Syriac scholar Arthur Vööbus (d. 1988) and focuses on Dr. Vööbus as the scholar and man of God from the author’s personal experiences with him at the Lutheran School of Chicago. Searching for Syriac manuscripts was in the early and mid-career of Dr Vööbus, like a treasure hunt. It p...

This paper examines the transmission of the early Syriac text of Acts Chapter fifteen based on collations of 44 Syriac Biblical manuscripts and 6 lectionary manuscripts and citations of Acts in the Syriac patristic sources. Chapter fifteen is extensively quoted in the Didascalia Apostolorum, and these readings are the focus of the analysis of the p...

This paper examines in detail the mimro, "Concerning the Question of our Lord and the Revelation Simon Received from the Father," based on the authors' English translation, the first in a modern language.This mimro sets the basis for Simon to be the chief apostle. This paper discussesJacob's development of the two title-topics as well as other impo...

This paper extends Andreas Juckel's important 2009 article, "Research on the Old Syriac Heritage of the Peshitta Gospels: A Collation of MS Bibl. Nationale Syr. 30" (Hugoye 12.1, 41-115). The research herein is based on collating the text of Acts contained in this noteworthy Syriac Biblical manuscript against the standard Peshitta text and forty-tw...

This paper examines the Star and the Magi in Jacob of Serugh's mimro, "On the Star that Appeared to the Magi." It also draws on Ephrem's and Narsai's works relating to the subject. This paper presents major ideas and terms regarding the Star and the Magi in Mor Jacob's mimro and early Syriac tradition. 1 Jacob shows that the Star was the ideal 'bai...

This article presents the first detailed statistical analysis of the volatilities of various commonly encountered financial metrics used in contingent consideration (and earn-out) agreements. The valuation of contingent consideration using an option-based methodology and non-equity volatilities is becoming more common in business valuation. We prov...

Examining 416 transactions over the 1996 to 2013 time period, we find that size, stock price volatility, block size, price-to-revenue, and EBITDA margin are significantly related to restricted stock discounts. We do not find registration rights or the initial holding period to be statistically significantly related to discounts. Our results suggest...

The greater a target company’s leverage, the less cash or shares an acquirer needs to control the target enterprise. Given the benefits of acquiring a target, the equity takeover premium is spread over relatively more assets in a more highly leveraged target, thus reducing the premium paid relative to the entire enterprise. This suggests that more...

This study examines the impact of the market participant on prices paid for private companies in the Pratt's Stats database. We examine approximately 4,200 transactions over the period of 2000-2011 for companies with sales of $1 million or more. We find that public buyers pay more after controlling for the target's size, industry, age, estimated gr...

This study empirically examines the long-term relationships between Capital Expenditures (CAPX) and Depreciation (DEPR) and Net Working Capital (NWC) to Sales. The CAPX to DEPR and NWC to Sales ratios are frequently used in capitalized earnings and discounted cash flow models. Previously, McConaughy and Bordi documented that CAPX exceeds DEPR expen...

The relative illiquidity of private firms is a fundamental characteristic differentiating them from publicly traded firms. This article fills a void in the business valuation literature by addressing the impact of a private business's location upon its liquidity. Using Pratt's Stats, we construct and examine a measure we call Days-on-Market (DOM),...

The standard, market-based valuation approach uses pricing multiples from guideline public companies with industry, size, and growth characteristics similar to those of the subject private company. These multiples must be adjusted for the fact that diversified investors' Cost of Equity Capital (COEC) for a given firm is lower than the COEC of an un...

Capital market theory suggests that undiversified investors may have a higher cost of capital than do diversified investors. Private companies generally trade at a discount to similar publicly traded companies. From a discounted cash-flow viewpoint, this implies that the cost of capital for the private company is higher. We suggest that a large com...

With a focus on small Initial Public Offerings (IPOs), this study analyzes the relationship among insider ownership, venture capitalists, and firm performance.Two hypotheses are formulated:venture capitalists are associated with better performance in small firms, and higher insider retention of shares after the IPO is associated with better stock m...

This study examines CEO compensation in 82 founding-family-controlled firms; 47 CEOs are members of the founding family and 35 are not. It tests the family incentive alignment hypothesis, which predicts that family CEOs have superior incentives for maximizing firm value and, therefore, need fewer compensation-based incentives. Univariate and multiv...

The authors provide an in-depth analysis of an incumbent worker training program funded through California's unemployment insurance taxes.

Qualitative methods were used to analyze a sample of 23 representative California Employment Training Panel (ETP) projects to determine how ETP training affected companies. Data were collected through interviews, focus groups, surveys, observations, and document analysis. Among the factors found to affect quality of training design were: selection...

This study examines how the presence of venture capitalists (VCs) in closely held IPOs relates to their performance. It also identifies other factors that are related to the performance of closely held IPOs. Closely held firms in this study had an average of 88& insider ownership before the IPO. In general, we find that closely held IPOs benefit fr...

Firm performance has a generally positive, but diminishing relationship with the level of CEO pay-for-performance sensitivity to stock returns, consistent with the tradeoffs between incentives and risk sharing that underlie the use of pay-for-performance. Two moderating risk variables capture this tradeoff and significantly shape the pay-for-perfor...

It has been suggested that the cost of capital for a family firm depends on, among other things, a “family effect,” which deals with the family's relation to its business. Financial theory regarding the cost of capital states that the cost of capital is a market-based function of the characteristics of the investment, not the investor. This theory...

This paper tests the hypothesis that Founding Family Controlled Firms (FFCFs) are more averse to control risk than similar non-FFCFs and therefore avoid debt. Higher levels of debt increase the likelihood of bankruptcy and the level of control risk. We show that FFCFs use less debt; their choice of debt is more sensitive to conditions associated wi...

This study examines the differences between founder-controlled firms and firms controlled by descendants or relatives of the founder. In general, we observe that founder-controlled firms grow faster and invest more in capital assets and research and development. However, descendant-controlled firms are more profitable. The results are consistent wi...

An agency theory framework is used to test the effects of founding family control on firm efficiency, capital structure and value. Both the finance literature and the management literature regarding the relationship between firm control and firm value are explored. Controlling for size, industry, and managerial ownership, the results suggest that f...

We examine the efficiency and value of founding family controlled firms (FFCFs), firms whose CEOs are either the founder or a descendant of the founder. We find that FFCFs are more efficient and valuable than non-FFCFs that are similar with respect to industry, size, and managerial ownership. We also observe that descendant-controlled firms are mor...

The Loyola University Chicago Family Firm Stock Index (LUCFFSI) tracks the performance of publicly traded, family controlled firms headquartered in the Chicago area. Family controlled firms have governance structures that are expected to result in improved performance compared to non-family controlled firms. The LUCFFSI, over the period from Septem...

We identify conditions of prior performance and pay-performance sensitivity under which an increase in incentives is associated with improved performance. We find that increasing sensitivity increases risk-adjusted performance in firms with poor prior performance, but has little impact on high-performance firms. We also observe that firms choose hi...

We compare ninety-nine 1985 IPO firms with a matched sample of “seasoned” firms. The IPO firms were more efficient and profitable, yet exhibited declining market-to-book-equity ratios over the 1985-1992 period. However, we observe no significant trend toward lower efficiency or profitability among the IPO firms. In fact, we observe a significant im...