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The Effect of Customer-base Diversification on Idiosyncratic Volatility

Islam, Ronie LU and Törnblom, Anton (2017) NEKN02 20171
Department of Economics
Abstract
The study sets out the objective to investigate how a firm’s customer-base diversification affects its stock return idiosyncratic volatility. The research paper primarily focuses on the way that the distribution of sales impacts the firm specific risk that is unrelated to the risk of the market, and it does so through the use of both a geographical and an operating customer-base concentration measure. The previous literature and the underlying theory mainly propose that there is a positive relationship between customer-base concentration and idiosyncratic volatility. The findings of this study appear to be in line with that hypothesis at a first glance; however, the results lack significance when controlling for other firm specific... (More)
The study sets out the objective to investigate how a firm’s customer-base diversification affects its stock return idiosyncratic volatility. The research paper primarily focuses on the way that the distribution of sales impacts the firm specific risk that is unrelated to the risk of the market, and it does so through the use of both a geographical and an operating customer-base concentration measure. The previous literature and the underlying theory mainly propose that there is a positive relationship between customer-base concentration and idiosyncratic volatility. The findings of this study appear to be in line with that hypothesis at a first glance; however, the results lack significance when controlling for other firm specific factors. Preliminary testing that excludes the control variables suggests both a positive and significant effect between customer-base concentration and idiosyncratic volatility. The significance of this effect is absorbed by the control variables when introduced to the models indicating that the cause of an increase in idiosyncratic volatility is in fact attributable to other firm characteristics than customer-base concentration. The study is conducted on Swedish companies and uses a panel data setting with 60 different companies over a period of 10 years ranging from 2006 to 2015. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Islam, Ronie LU and Törnblom, Anton
supervisor
organization
course
NEKN02 20171
year
type
H1 - Master's Degree (One Year)
subject
keywords
Customer-base Concentration, Idiosyncratic Volatility, Diversification
language
English
id
8911051
date added to LUP
2017-06-13 15:18:56
date last changed
2017-06-13 15:18:56
@misc{8911051,
  abstract     = {{The study sets out the objective to investigate how a firm’s customer-base diversification affects its stock return idiosyncratic volatility. The research paper primarily focuses on the way that the distribution of sales impacts the firm specific risk that is unrelated to the risk of the market, and it does so through the use of both a geographical and an operating customer-base concentration measure. The previous literature and the underlying theory mainly propose that there is a positive relationship between customer-base concentration and idiosyncratic volatility. The findings of this study appear to be in line with that hypothesis at a first glance; however, the results lack significance when controlling for other firm specific factors. Preliminary testing that excludes the control variables suggests both a positive and significant effect between customer-base concentration and idiosyncratic volatility. The significance of this effect is absorbed by the control variables when introduced to the models indicating that the cause of an increase in idiosyncratic volatility is in fact attributable to other firm characteristics than customer-base concentration. The study is conducted on Swedish companies and uses a panel data setting with 60 different companies over a period of 10 years ranging from 2006 to 2015.}},
  author       = {{Islam, Ronie and Törnblom, Anton}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{The Effect of Customer-base Diversification on Idiosyncratic Volatility}},
  year         = {{2017}},
}