Essays Surrounding Enterprise Risk Management's Influence on Risk Tolerance, Value and Performance.

Abstract

Enterprise risk management (ERM) has been cited as a framework that fosters a holistic understanding and response to the risks that an organization is exposed to during its normal course of operations. ERM builds on traditional risk management in that risks are managed in a connected fashion, and not simply controlled in separate silos. Theoretically this holistic approach fosters improved decision making across the corporate governance structure, while supporting operational efficiencies, improved performance and enhanced value. The goal of this research is to evaluate if the connection between ERM and value or performance is as evident as its supporters would suggest, and just as importantly to provide insight on the role within these relationships of an organization's risk capacity and the choice to utilize that capacity for risk taking activities. The thesis will follow an alternative format consisting of four manuscripts. The first is a thematic assessment of existing research as respects to how ERM, corporate risk tolerance, value and performance are interlinked. This is followed by three distinct, but interconnected empirical research studies. The first empirical study will use different interaction regression techniques to evaluate how risk tolerance interacts with ERM's influence on value and performance, and if this is consistent over a multiyear period. The second empirical study will establish a two-phased multiple regression modelling process to help estimate optimal risk tolerances for an insurer based on its risk profile and ERM strength, and to assess if assuming a less than optimal risk tolerance detracts from performance. The final empirical study will utilize mixed methods - time-fixed panel regressions and structured interviews - to assess the extent and nature of ERM's role in how insurance companies decide to allocate risk and return specifically between investments and underwriting given a presumed corporate risk tolerance. Collectively, the thematic review of relevant ERM literature and these three empirical studies should benefit efforts to expand existing theoretical and practical understandings of ERM's relationship to value, performance, risk tolerance and risk-based decision making.

Date of Award	31 Dec 2017
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	The University of Manchester
Supervisor	Dong Xu (Supervisor), Julia Handl (Supervisor) & Olga Kolokolova (Supervisor)