Date

7-21-2026

Department

Graduate School of Business

Degree

Doctor of Business Administration (DBA)

Chair

Joanne Jordan

Keywords

conservative lending, constructivism, mixed-methods research, credit spreads and market liquidity, risk perception during financial crises

Disciplines

Business

Abstract

This dissertation investigated how bank’s conservative lending during the COVID-19 global pandemic affected trading rates, examined through a constructivist lens and established with a flexible, mixed-methods design. Rather than addressing bank behavior and market pricing in a mechanical way, this study contextualizes mortgage lending conservatism as a response to uncertainty derived from a socially constructed interpretation of risk, the financial narrative at the time, and regulatory policy. Using qualitative interviews with mortgage lenders, combined with a quantitative analysis of survey data, this research explores mortgage lending decision- making during the crisis. The flexible design enables the use of both qualitative and quantitative data to generate interpretations of how a bank's sense-making processes affected credit supply and trading dynamics in a measurable fashion. Findings reveal that the initial conservative lending measures were associated with wider credit spreads, higher volatility, and decreased market liquidity. These effects were more prominent in companies already in a risky predicament. The study benefits finance research by demonstrating the subjective current crisis and risk shape understanding is. It is also methodologically valuable by revealing the interplay between lending decisions and market price formation through a flexible mixed methods approach. The insights gathered in this study can help inform future policy making, regulatory tools and the overall social construction of risk during times of crisis.

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