Business Commons^™

Macroconstants Of Development: A New Benchmark For The Strategic Development Of Advanced Countries And Firms, Andrey Bystrov, Vyacheslav Yusim, Tamilla Curtis

Dr. Tamilla Curtis

This research proposed a new indicator of countries’ development called “macroconstants of development”. The literature review indicates that the concept of "macroconstants of development" is not used at the moment in neither the theory nor the practice of industrial policy. Research of longitudinal data of total GDP, GDP per capita and their derivatives for most countries of the world was conducted. An analysis of statistical information has been done by employing econometric analyses.

Based on the analysis of the statistical data, which characterizes the development of large, technologically advanced countries in ordinary conditions, it was identified that the average acceleration …

Narcissism In Public Accounting Firms, Michael D. Akers, Don E. Giacomino, Jill Weber

Michael D. Akers

Similar to other characteristics, narcissism is a personality trait that varies by individuals. While the management literature has examined narcissism, there is limited research of narcissism of professionals in public accounting firms. Using the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI), we assess the level of narcissism in practitioners of public accounting firms by examining differences by gender, age, practice area and position. We also compare our results with a prior study that examined narcissism of accounting majors. Our findings show there are differences between accounting students and accounting professionals for certain traits and gender. We also find there are differences for professionals …

Does Banks' Dual Holding Affect Bank Lending And Firms' Investment Decisions? Evidence From China, Xiaofei Pan, Gary Tian

Gary Tian

This study investigates the effect of banks' dual holding on bank lending and firms' investment decisions using a sample of listed firms in China. We find that dual holding leads to easier access to bank loans, a result that is more pronounced for non-state-owned enterprises (non-SOEs) than SOEs. We also find that dual holding distorts banks' lending decisions and harms the investment efficiency for SOEs, while resulting in optimal lending decisions and enhanced investment efficiency for non-SOEs. For non-SOEs, further analysis suggests that optimal lending decisions and efficient investment can be achieved for firms with higher ownership concentration, and firms …

Corporate Venturing In Family Business: The Effects On The Family And Its Members, Gaia Marchisio, Pietro Mazzola, Salvatore Sciascia, M. Miles, Joseph Astrachan

Gaia Marchisio

Previous literature on corporate entrepreneurship (CE) in family business (FB) focusses on the determinants of CE and presents conflicting results on its effects on firm-level performance. We argue that previous studies have overlooked the idea of FBs being complex social systems comprising three components, controlling families, business entities and individual family members; and any business activity in a FB should also be studied with respect to its effects on the family and individual family members, which ultimately impacts the performance. Moreover, previous FB literature addresses CE as a monolithic concept and does not separate its two primary types: corporate venturing …

The Effect Of Financial Status On Earnings Quality Of Chinese-Listed Firms, Feng Li, Indra Abeysekera, Shiguang Ma

Indra Abeysekera

This article investigates the relation between accounting-based earnings quality attributes and the financial status of Chinese companies listed in Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges from 2005 to 2007 by classifying them as either "healthy" or "bankrupt" firms. The authors find that accruals quality, earnings predictability, and earnings smoothness are significantly different between healthy and bankrupt firms, but not earnings persistence. Additional analysis undertaken indicates that firm categories (healthy, financially distressed, and bankrupt) based on financial status does not indicate distinct differences in earnings quality attributes.

Family Firms And Entrepreneurship: Contradiction Or Synonym?, Sascha Kraus, Justin Craig, Clay Dibrell, Stefan Mark

Justin B. Craig

Extract: This Journal of Small Business and Entrepreneurship (JSBE) Special Issue was motivated by increasing intellectual curiosity from within the entrepreneurship academic community to study entrepreneurial phenomenon in a family business context. Family enterprises dominate the commercial landscape in all economies, and interest in the unique challenges facing this business genre is growing. In many family firms, ownership and management are maintained across several generations, and a key challenge for long-term survival is to sustain the entrepreneurial spirit of the founding generation of entrepreneurs (Littunen and Hyrsky, 2000). All firms regularly need to renew their way of doing business in …

Valuation Of Family Firms: The Limitations Of Accounting Information, Tim Hasso, Keith Duncan

Keith Duncan

This conceptual paper explores the extent to which reported accounting information captures unique family firm decision-making and intangible asset factors that impact financial value. We review the family firm valuation-relevant literature and identify that this body of research is predicated on the assumption that accounting information reflects the underlying reality of family firms. This research, however, fails to recognise that current accounting technology does not fully recognise the family firm factors in the book value of the firm or the implications for long-run persistence of earnings. Thus, valuation models underpinning the extant empirical research, which are predicated on reported accounting …

Do Venture Capitalists Play A Monitoring Role In An Emerging Market? Evidence From The Pay-Performance Relationship Of Chinese Entrepreneurial Firms, Jerry Cao, Qigui Liu, Gary Tian

Qigui Liu

This paper investigates venture capitalists' monitoring of managerial behaviour by examining their impact on CEO pay-performance sensitivity across various controlling structures in Chinese firms. We find that the effectiveness of venture capitalists' monitoring depends on different types of agency conflict. In particular, we find that venture capital (VC) monitoring is hampered in firms that experience severe controlling-minority agency problems caused by disproportionate ownership structures. We provide further evidence that VC is more likely to exert close monitoring in firms that have greater managerial agency conflict, and thus require more direct monitoring. However, controlling-minority agency problems have a greater impact on …

Do Venture Capitalists Play A Monitoring Role In An Emerging Market? Evidence From The Pay-Performance Relationship Of Chinese Entrepreneurial Firms, Jerry Cao, Qigui Liu, Gary Tian

Gary Tian

This paper investigates venture capitalists' monitoring of managerial behaviour by examining their impact on CEO pay-performance sensitivity across various controlling structures in Chinese firms. We find that the effectiveness of venture capitalists' monitoring depends on different types of agency conflict. In particular, we find that venture capital (VC) monitoring is hampered in firms that experience severe controlling-minority agency problems caused by disproportionate ownership structures. We provide further evidence that VC is more likely to exert close monitoring in firms that have greater managerial agency conflict, and thus require more direct monitoring. However, controlling-minority agency problems have a greater impact on …

Political Connection, Founder-Manager And Their Impact On Tunneling In China's Listed Firms, Liangbo Ma, Shiguang Ma, Gary G. Tian

Shiguang Ma

Reciprocal relationship, often regarded as mutually beneficial and secure, can actually be destructive and result in inefficiency. We provide evidence of such double-blade by studying the impact of political connection on corporate governance. Private firms in countries where the government controls the allocation of resources have incentives to seek political connections by hiring politicians or ex-politicians as top executives. Such political capital, however, may turn into political constraint when the CEOs fail to perform but use connections to entrench themselves. We take advantage of the unique setting in China to illustrate this argument. We show that politically connected CEOs have …

The Stock Market Implication Of Political Connections: Evidence From Firms' Dividend Policy, Jerry Cao, Sheng Huang, Qigui Liu, Gary G. Tian

Qigui Liu

Political connections are valuable for shareholders of privately-run firms especially in countries with weak legal institutions. We study the effect of a firm's political connections in the public equity market by focusing on its impact on the firms' dividend policy. Prior studies suggest that dividends signal the commitment for proper treatment of minority shareholders and thus high growth firms pay dividends to establish such a reputation for better access to equity market in the future. Using a sample of privately-owned Chinese firms, we find that politically connected firms are less likely to pay dividends and pay less if they pay. …

Actual And Preferred Hrm Practices In Domestic And Foreign Invested Firms, Palli Mulla K A Chandrakumara, H Gunathilake, John Glynn

John J Glynn

This study examines differences between actual and preferred HRM policies and practices in domestic firms (DF) and MNC subsidiaries (MNCs) in Sri Lanka. The paper argues the existence of within-country differences in HRM practices between MNCs and DF. The analysis and findings are based on 487 responses from employees and HR executives of eight manufacturing sector companies. Results indicate that differences exist between MNCs and DF in not only actual HR practices, but also in preferred HRM practices. Within-culture diversity of both employees' preferences for and actual HRM practices between DF and MNCs was evident. The findings contribute to cross-cultural …

Actual And Preferred Hrm Practices In Domestic And Foreign Invested Firms, Palli Mulla K A Chandrakumara, H Gunathilake, John Glynn

Anil Chandrakumara

This study examines differences between actual and preferred HRM policies and practices in domestic firms (DF) and MNC subsidiaries (MNCs) in Sri Lanka. The paper argues the existence of within-country differences in HRM practices between MNCs and DF. The analysis and findings are based on 487 responses from employees and HR executives of eight manufacturing sector companies. Results indicate that differences exist between MNCs and DF in not only actual HR practices, but also in preferred HRM practices. Within-culture diversity of both employees' preferences for and actual HRM practices between DF and MNCs was evident. The findings contribute to cross-cultural …

Complex And Diverse Roles Performed By Non-Executive Directors In The Context Of The Implementation Of The Non-Regulatory Codes Of Corporate Governance: Evidence From Small And Medium Firms In The Uk, H Gunathilake, Palli Mulla K A Chandrakumara

Anil Chandrakumara

This study aims to address two interrelated issues. (1) What is the role of nonexecutive directors (NEDs) of public companies listed in the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) in the UK? (2) Whether AIM listed companies accept the principles and provisions of the Combined Code of Corporate Governance (CCCG)? And, if so, to what extent? The findings indicate that the nature of task of NEDs of AMI listed firms is characterised by multiplicity of tasks and task variation by the type of chair. This study contributes to fill the knowledge gap in the literature with regard to the role of NEDs …

The Effect Of Ownership Structure On Leverage Decision: New Evidence From Chinese Listed Firms, Qigui Liu, Gary Tian, Xiaoming Wang

Qigui Liu

This paper examines the effect of state control and ownership structure on the leverage decision of firms listed in the Chinese stock market. Our results show that state-owned enterprises (SOEs) have higher leverage ratios than non-SOEs, and SOEs in regions with a poorer institutional environment have higher leverage ratios than SOEs in better regions. We also show that the largest shareholding (the percentage of shares held by the largest shareholder) in the SOEs has a negative relationship with the leverage ratio, while the largest shareholding in non-SOEs has a non-linear relationship with the short-term and long-term debt ratios. Finally, this …

The Stock Market Implication Of Political Connections: Evidence From Firms' Dividend Policy, Jerry Cao, Sheng Huang, Qigui Liu, Gary Tian

Qigui Liu

Political connections are valuable for shareholders of privately-run firms especially in countries with weak legal institutions. We study the effect of a firm's political connections in the public equity market by focusing on its impact on the firms' dividend policy. Prior studies suggest that dividends signal the commitment for proper treatment of minority shareholders and thus high growth firms pay dividends to establish such a reputation for better access to equity market in the future. Using a sample of privately-owned Chinese firms, we find that politically connected firms are less likely to pay dividends and pay less if they pay. …

Political Connections, Founding Family Ownership And Leverage Decision Of Privately Owned Firms, Qigui Liu, Gary Tian

Qigui Liu

In this paper, we examine the effect of political connections versus founding family ownership on the relationship between disproportional ownership structure and leverage decisions of privately owned firms listed in Chinese market. We find that disproportional ownership has positive effect on leverage, indicating that controlling shareholder tends to use both disproportional ownership structure and debt to expropriate. We also find that the interacted term between disproportional ownership and political connections has a positive impact on leverage ratio, and disproportional ownership structure is negatively related with leverage ratio of founding-family controlled firms, which indicate a substitute effect between political connections and …

The Stock Market Implication Of Political Connections: Evidence From Firms' Dividend Policy, Jerry Cao, Sheng Huang, Qigui Liu, Gary G. Tian

Gary Tian

Political connections are valuable for shareholders of privately-run firms especially in countries with weak legal institutions. We study the effect of a firm's political connections in the public equity market by focusing on its impact on the firms' dividend policy. Prior studies suggest that dividends signal the commitment for proper treatment of minority shareholders and thus high growth firms pay dividends to establish such a reputation for better access to equity market in the future. Using a sample of privately-owned Chinese firms, we find that politically connected firms are less likely to pay dividends and pay less if they pay. …

When The Going Gets Tough: Board Capital And Survival Of New Economy Ipo Firms, Nongnit Chancharat, Chandrasekhar Krishnamurti, Gary G. Tian

Gary Tian

The high profile corporate collapse of Enron and WorldCom has been attributed to corporate governance failures. This implicit linkage between governance failures and corporate failures raises the important question of whether good governance will mitigate the probability of failure of a firm faced with extreme financial duress. Additionally, recent studies question the assumption that a single board structure will be optimal for all firms. We empirically address this issue in the context of survival of new economy Australian IPOs. We characterize governance by board structure and leadership. Our results show that one of the key principles of the Cadbury Code …

Disproportional Ownership Structure And Pay-Performance Relationship: Evidence From China's Listed Firms, Jerry Cao, Xiaofei Pan, Gary G. Tian

Xiaofei Pan

This paper examines the impact of disproportional ownership structure on the pay-performance relationship in China’s listed firms. We find that the cash flow rights of the ultimate controlling shareholder have a positive effect on this relationship while a divergence between the control rights and cash flow rights has a significantly negative effect. By dividing our sample into state owned enterprises (SOE), state assets management bureaus (SAMB), and privately controlled firms, we find that cash flow rights in SOE controlled firms have a significant impact on accounting based pay performance and cash flow rights in privately controlled firms also affect the …

An Exploratory Study Of Internationalization Strategies Of Malaysian And Taiwanese Firms, Ah Ba Sim, J Rajendran Pandian

Ah Ba Sim

There is as yet limited empirical research on the internationalization processes, strategies and operations of Asian MNEs from countries at different levels of development. Drawing on primary data from matched case studies of emergin Taiwanese and Malaysian MNEs in the textiile and electronics industries, this paper examines and analyses their internationalization characteristics and strategies within the IDP perspective. The findings indicate that the emerging Taiwanese and Malaysian MNEs, while exhibiting characteristics such as that described in extant theories also suggest some differences. The empirical findings, limitations and areas fro further research are discussed.

Capital Structure And Firm Performance In Emerging Economies: An Empirical Analysis Of Sri Lankan Firms, Anura De Zoysa, Muhammad Chowdhury, Palli Mulla K A Chandrakumara, Athula Manawaduge

Anil Chandrakumara

This paper offers an empirical analysis of the impact of capital structure on firm performance in thecontext of an emerging market¿Sri Lanka. The study applies both pooled and panel data regressionmodels for a sample of 155 Sri Lankan-listed firms. The results demonstrate that most of the SriLankan firms finance their operations with short-term debt capital as against the long-term debtcapital and provide strong evidence that the firm performance is negatively affected by the use of debtcapital. The study also finds a significant negative relationship between tangibility and performanceindicating inefficient utilization of non-current assets. The negative performance implicationsassociated with over-utilization of …

Political Connections, Founding Family Ownership And Leverage Decision Of Privately Owned Firms, Qigui Liu, Gary Tian

Qigui Liu

In this paper, we examine the effect of political connections versus founding family ownership on the relationship between disproportional ownership structure and leverage decisions of privately owned firms listed in Chinese market. We find that disproportional ownership has positive effect on leverage, indicating that controlling shareholder tends to use both disproportional ownership structure and debt to expropriate. We also find that the interacted term between disproportional ownership and political connections has a positive impact on leverage ratio, and disproportional ownership structure is negatively related with leverage ratio of founding-family controlled firms, which indicate a substitute effect between political connections and …

The Effect Of Ownership Structure On Leverage Decision: New Evidence From Chinese Listed Firms, Qigui Liu, Gary Tian, Xiaoming Wang

Qigui Liu

This paper examines the effect of state control and ownership structure on the leverage decision of firms listed in the Chinese stock market. Our results show that state-owned enterprises (SOEs) have higher leverage ratios than non-SOEs, and SOEs in regions with a poorer institutional environment have higher leverage ratios than SOEs in better regions. We also show that the largest shareholding (the percentage of shares held by the largest shareholder) in the SOEs has a negative relationship with the leverage ratio, while the largest shareholding in non-SOEs has a non-linear relationship with the short-term and long-term debt ratios. Finally, this …

Entrepreneurial Orientation (Eo) And Performance Of Government-Linked Companies (Glcs), Wei-Loon Koe

Journal of Entrepreneurship, Management and Innovation JEMI

Quite often, people have negative views on government-linked companies (GLCs) due to the unsatisfactory performance of some key players. In order to improve the performance of GLCs in the country, Malaysian government implemented GLC Transformation Program (GLCT) in 2004. As the program is approaching its ending phase, some efforts are needed to assess the performance of GLCs. This study aimed to examine the influence of EO dimensions on the performance of GLCs. The sample of this study consisted of 153 subsidiaries and branches of G20. Based on the multiple regression analysis performed, this study found that all the five dimensions …

Earnings Management And The Effect Of Earnings Quality In Relation To Stress Level And Bankruptcy Level Of Chinese Listed Firms, Feng Li, Indra Abeysekera, Shiguang Ma

Indra Abeysekera

This paper investigates the link between earnings management and earnings quality for the Chinese firms listed in the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges from 2003 to 2007. The earnings quality is measured by four separate earnings attributes: accruals quality, earnings persistence, earnings predictability, and earnings smoothness. We find that the stressed/bankrupt firms prefer opportunistic earnings management; the non-stressed/non-bankrupt firms are more likely to choose more efficient earnings management than the stressed/non-bankrupt firms. We find that earnings management performs better than earnings quality in predicting future profitability. We also find that the earnings quality has deteriorated over the sample period; the …

Disproportional Ownership Structure And Pay–Performance Relationship: Evidence From China's Listed Firms, Jerry Cao, Xiaofei Pan, Gary Tian

Xiaofei Pan

This paper examines the impact of ownership structure on executive compensation in China's listed firms. We find that the cash flow rights of ultimate controlling shareholders have a positive effect on the pay–performance relationship, while a divergence between control rights and cash flow rights has a significantly negative effect on the pay–performance relationship. We divide our sample based on ultimate controlling shareholders' type into state owned enterprises (SOE), state assets management bureaus (SAMB), and privately controlled firms. We find that in SOE controlled firms cash flow rights have a significant impact on accounting based pay–performance relationship. In privately controlled firms, …

Managerial Compensation, Ownership Structure And Firm Performance In China's Listed Firms, Xiaofei Pan, Gary G. Tian, Shiguang Ma, Aelee Jun, Qingliang Tang

Aelee Jun

This paper investigates managerial compensation and its relationship with firm performance in China's listed firms. In China, the largest shareholder dominates other shareholders, controls the firm and therefore exercises substantial impacts on manager compensation. After controlling for other firm and industry characteristics, we find that manager remuneration is greater and pay-performance relation is stronger for privately-controlled firms than for state-controlled firms. We also document that state-controlled firms exercise performance-based manager incentive schemes, which is contrary to evidence found in some earlier studies. Our results also indicate that top executives in firms with a foreign ownership are more highly compensated, relative …

Financing Growth: New Issues By Australian Firms, 1920-1939, David Merrett, Simon Ville

Simon Ville

An expanding economy, new technologies, and changing consumer preferences provided growth opportunities for firms in interwar Australia. This period saw an increase in the number of large-scale firms in mining, manufacturing, and a wide range of service industries. Firms unable to rely solely on retained earnings to fund expansion turned to the domestic stock exchanges. A new data set of capital raisings constructed from reports of prospectuses published in the financial press forms the basis for the conclusion that many firms used substantial injections of equity finance to augment internally generated sources of funds. That they were able to do …

Size Still Matters When Firms Choose Business Collaborators, Yu Zhang, Charles Harvie

Charles Harvie

Collaborate with peer-sized or larger-sized partner helps the firm to enhance its process, product quality, reputation, and market position. Therefore, when choosing collaborator, firms prefer peer-sized or lager-sized partners. Many empirical researches try to link the firm’s size with the performance and result of collaboration. However, there are still many debates. Instead of using the firm’s size, this paper use the compared size or size difference between collaborating firms to examine its influence on the performance of inter-firm collaboration. The results from qualitative case study and quantitative online survey in both Australia and China supported that size matters when firms …