Corporate Finance Commons^™

Corporate Philanthropy And Corporate Financial Performance: The Roles Of Social Response And Political Access, Heli Wang, Cuili Qian

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Corporate philanthropy is expected to positively affect firm financial performance because it helps firms gain sociopolitical legitimacy, which enables them to elicit positive stakeholder responses and to gain political access. The positive philanthropy-performance relationship is stronger for firms with greater public visibility and for those with better past performance, as philanthropy by these firms gains more positive stakeholder responses. Firms that are not government-owned or politically well connected were shown to benefit more from philanthropy, as gaining political resources is more critical for such firms. Empirical analyses using data on Chinese firms listed on stock exchanges from 2001 to 2006 …

Developing A Culturally Responsive Classroom Collaborative Of Faculty, Students, And Institution, Paul J. Colbert

MBA Faculty Conference Papers & Journal Articles

Culture is integral to the learning process. It is the organization and way of life within the community of students and teachers and directs the way they communicate, interact, and approach teaching and learning. Although founded in particular values and principles, the academy, like most organizations, is impacted day-to-day by its culture. Yet, the traditional higher education institution has not been designed to operate within a racially or ethnically diverse student population. The social, political, economic, and cultural forces that support the institution influence the teaching and learning environments. To better address cultural diversity in the classroom, faculty must first …

Do Shareholders Or Stakeholders Appropriate The Rents From Corporate Diversification? The Influence Of Ownership Structure, Parthiban David, Jonathan P. O'Brien, Toru Yoshikawa, Andrew Delios

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Prior work on the performance consequences of corporate diversification has treated all powerful owners as seeking the same benefits from diversification (i.e, higher profit rather than growth) and therefore limiting value appropriation by other stakeholders such as employees and managers. In contrast, we distinguish between domestic "relational" owners and foreign "transactional" owners in Japanese corporations. Although transactional owners do indeed prioritize profitability when diversifying, relational owners primarily seek growth rather than profits from diversification. Furthermore, relational owners also allow managers and employees to appropriate more of the rents arising from diversification than do transactional owners.

The Efficiency And Profitability Improvement Of The Rehabilitation Operations And Management Of Non Performing Loans : A Case Study Of Bank Perusahaan Kecil & Sederhana Malaysia Berhad (Sme Bank)., Ridza Ramza Ramli, Mohd Prasad Hanif

Student Works (2010-2019)

The comprehensive study on Rehabilitation Department is conducted to identify which segment within the process flow that requires improvement. The management of Non Performing Loans (NPLs) in a Bank is very crucial as these accounts are actually reflects the performance of the Banks. The Rehabilitation Department main task is to ensure proper administration of Non Performing Loans to be executed in order to maximize the recovery income to the Bank. The department also responsible to provides desirable result in term of manageable and acceptable NPLs rate for the Bank. The current process flow which has been used and practiced by …

Finance Flies High: How Unilever Redesigned The Finance Function To Build Brand Value And Drive Growth, Barbara M. Tarasovich, Bridget Lyons

WCBT Faculty Publications

Unilever's finance team played a key role in the success of their brands. The company achieved its fourth consecutive year of accelerating organic sales growth from less than 0.5% in 2004 to more than 7% in 2008, according to Jim Lawrence, Unilever's CFO. Its strategy is to focus on volume growth and strengthening the competitive position of the company's brands. In this article, the authors examine how the finance function at Unilever was redesigned to deliver the firm's strategic goals, including an emphasis on volume growth and competitive position of its brands. Beginning in 2005, the finance team at Unilever …

Futility Of Stimulus Funds In The Middle Of Huge Trade Deficits, Narendra C. Bhandari

Faculty Working Papers and Articles

The U. S. is facing an unprecedented environment of increasing unemployment, declining income, disappearing middleclass, and mounting trade deficit (about $731 billion in 2007). The government is providing stimulus funds to a selected number of organizations to help solve these problems. However, as long as the country continues to have huge trade deficits, these stimulus efforts may not help much, if at all. They may even worsen the economic situation. This could happen if the banking, insurance, construction, transportation, and other companies—receiving the stimulus funds—would offshore part of their production activities. Several American firms send certain number of jobs abroad …

Stakeholder Influences On Diversification: Implications For Shareholders And Stakeholders, Partiban David, Jonathan P. O’Brien, Toru Yoshikawa, Andrew Delios

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The article presents the results of research into the relative influence of stakeholders and shareholders on corporate strategic planning in terms of diversification and performance, focusing on concepts such as opportunity cost and rent appropriation. An overview of related previous studies is provided, along with details of the research protocol, which involved data analysis drawn from a sample of Japanese firms and their corporate profits from the years 1990 through 2004. A distinction between transactional and relational ownership is described, which can lead to different priorities in terms of profit and growth.

Five Decades Of Agricultural Policies In Nigeria: What Roles Has Statistics Played?, Akinboyo O. I

Bullion

All over the country and internationally, the publications of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) such as the Annual Report and Statement of Accounts, the Statistical Bulletin, Economic and Financial Review, the Bullion and Nigeria: Major Economic and Banking Indicators and those of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) have become a veritable source of data and reference materials on Nigeria. Without basic i n f o r m a t i o n o n e c o n o m i c developments, it would be very difficult for policy makers to assess economic performances. The f o …

Pre-Acquisition Characteristics Of The Acquirers, Rupendra Paliwal

WCBT Faculty Publications

Existing empirical literature has extensively analyzed post-acquisition performance of the acquirers to evaluate success of the takeover. The academic literature tends to agree that target shareholders benefit from takeovers; however takeovers benefits for acquiring firm’s shareholders have been questioned. A majority of empirical literature indicate acquisition announcements are associated with a decrease in acquiring shareholder’s wealth. While pre-acquisition characteristics of takeover targets have been extensively analyzed, empirical literature has not directly and comprehensively analyzed pre-acquisition financial and operating characteristics of the acquiring firms. In this paper, I examine pre-acquisition operating performance and governance characteristics of acquirers. Results suggest that bidders …

The Implications Of Debt Heterogeneity For R&D Investment And Firm Performance, Parthiban David, Jonathan P. O'Brien, Toru Yoshikawa

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

An assumption in prior research is that debt is homogeneous and provides inappropriate governance for R&D investments. We argue that debt is heterogeneous: although transactional debt does indeed impose strict contractual constraints that provide inappropriate governance for R&D investments, relational debt has very different characteristics that provide more appropriate governance. Using a sample of Japanese firms, we find that firms that align their debt structures with their R&D investments perform better than those that are misaligned. Furthermore, firms tend to align their debt structure with R&D investments, but only after deregulation permits relatively free access to various types of debt.

Too Little Or Too Much? Untangling The Relationship Between Corporate Philanthropy And Corporate Financial Performance, Heli Wang, Jaepil Choi, Jiatao Li

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

What is the relationship between corporate philanthropy and corporate financial performance? Some scholars argue that corporate philanthropy facilitates stakeholder cooperation and helps secure access to critical resources controlled by those stakeholders, suggesting that corporate philanthropy should be positively associated with corporate financial performance. In contrast, other scholars take a negative stance, suggesting that corporate philanthropy diverts valuable corporate resources and tends to inhibit corporate financial performance. Existing empirical studies have not found conclusive evidence on the corporate philanthropy-financial performance relationship. Integrating and extending existing perspectives, this study develops the argument that the relationship between corporate philanthropy and financial performance is …

Japanese Corporate Governance: Structural Change And Financial Performance, Asli M. Colpan, Toru Yoshikawa, Takashi Hikino, Hiroaki Miyoshi

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This paper analyzes institutional and legal changes related to corporate governance and their impact on financial performance in Japan since the second half of the 1990s. We attempt to address two issues systematically: (1) how much the governance reforms of Japanese firms transformed the conventional system of alliance capitalism and managerial control; and (2) what economic outcomes those governance changes have yielded. As the Commercial Code and other legal and institutional frameworks were revised, Japanese firms experienced shifts in terms of stock ownership, corporate control and managerial organizations. Our empirical results show that the influence of new ownership composition and …

Too Little Or Too Much? Reexamining The Relationship Between Corporate Charitable Giving And Corporate Financial Performance, Heli Wang, Jaepil Choi, Jiatao Li

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

How do corporate charitable contributions affect corporate financial performance? Instrumental stakeholder theory posits that corporate giving can lead to high levels of corporate financial performance through improved stakeholder relations. In contrast, agency theory suggests that corporate giving diverts valuable corporate resources and inhibits corporate financial performance. Extant empirical studies that have examined the relationship found inconclusive results. We depart from and extend the existing literature in two main aspects. First, building upon the instrumental stakeholder argument and agency perspective, we develop the argument that there is an inverse U-shaped relationship between corporate charitable giving and corporate financial performance. Second, we …

Ownership Structure, Investment Behaviour And Firm Performance In Japanese Manufacturing Industries, Eric Gedajlovic, Toru Yoshikawa, Motomi Hashimoto

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Using data spanning the 1996-98 fiscal years of 247 of Japan's largest manufacturers, we empirically evaluate the extent to which a firm's investment behaviour and financial performance are influenced by its ownership structure. To do so, we examine six distinct categories of Japanese shareholders: foreign investors, investment funds, pension funds, banks and insurance companies, affiliated companies and insiders. Our findings strongly indicate that the relationship between the equity stakes of a particular category of investor and a firm' s financial performance and investment behaviour is considerably more complex than is depicted in simple principal-agent representations. Such a result emphasizes the …

Obesity, Educational Attainment, And State Economic Welfare, Martin W. Sivula Ph.D.

MBA Faculty Conference Papers & Journal Articles

For the first time in history, estimates of the overweight people in the world rival estimates of those malnourished. The World Health Organization (WHO, 2002) ranked obesity among the top 10 risks to human health worldwide. In the early 1960s, nearly half of the Americans were overweight and 13% were obese. Today some 64% of U.S. adults are overweight and 30.5% are obese. Even more alarming, twice as many U.S. children are overweight than were twenty years ago, a 66% increase. Non-communicable diseases impose a heavy economic burden on already strained health systems. Health is a key determinant of development …

Effects Of Board Structure On Firm Performance: A Comparison Of Japan And Australia, Ingrid Bonn, Toru Yoshikawa, Phillip H. Phan

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This article compares the effects of board size, proportion of female directors, proportion of outside directors and average age of directors on firm performance in Japanese and Australian firms. We found that board size and age of directors were negatively associated with the performance of Japanese firms. For Australian firms, outsider ratio and female director ratio were positively associated with performance.

Stimulating Firm-Specific Investment Through Risk Management, Heli Wang, Jay B. Barney, Jeffrey J. Reuer

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This article suggests a rationale for firm risk management that has been largely ignored in financial economics literature. It presents an argument for harnessing the influence of a company’s stakeholders who, whether as employees, suppliers or customers, make a valuable investment specific to the company. Such investments are crucial for a firm’s competitive advantage, yet because they are firm-specific and therefore cannot be transformed or transferred, stakeholders are often concerned about the risks involved in making them. A company’s efforts to manage risk can therefore persuade stakeholders to make even greater firm-specific investments, bringing benefits to shareholders and stakeholders alike.

Beware Of The Ides Of March: The Demise Of Hih Insurance, Bonnie Buchanan, Tom Arnold, Lance Nail

Finance Faculty Publications

Despite differences in corporate governance systems in the United States and Australia, the corporate governance failures that led to each country’s largest bankruptcy are strikingly similar. WorldCom in the United States and HIH Insurance in Australia were both created by a rapid series of major acquisitions, failed after their last major acquisitions, and attempted to hide their declining performance with aggressive and/or fraudulent accounting practices. In this paper we present a clinical examination of the corporate governance failures that led to the demise of HIH Insurance and show that corporate governance failures are not endemic to the existing corporate governance …

Sampling Concepts, Paul Boyd, Ph.D.

MBA Faculty Conference Papers & Journal Articles

The usefulness of any research is dependent upon how well the group studied represents the group about which decisions are to be made or conclusions drawn. That is, it depends upon how well the sample reflects relevant characteristics of the population. When it is possible to study every member of that group there is no problem, for on these occasions we can easily calculate the exact attribute (parameter) of interest for our population.

For example, if we were interested in determining the average number of gallons of gasoline sold to customers at our service station yesterday, we …

Director Ownership And Financial Performance Of Listed Companies In Malaysia, Kiew Heong Yap

Student Works (2000-2009)

The ability to align managerial and shareholder Interests via the managerial ownership of equity is an important topic of Inquiry, with the governance issues arising from the separation of ownership from control. The primarily US and UK based literature and findings suggest that management is aligned at low and possibly high levels of ownership but is entrenched (pursuing self interest) at intermediate ownership levels. This paper examines the relationship between the performance of public-listed companies (PLC) and director ownership in Malaysia using accounting and market performance measures. The empirical results of the paper shows that as director ownership in a …

Research And Development Practices Of Malaysian Companies : Current Perceptions Of The Directors, Ervina Alfan

Student Works (2000-2009)

Short-termistic perception; according to a study done in U.K is the main cause for declining UK companies competitiveness in the international market. Because of this perception, companies are less involved in R&D activities. This scenario could be detrimental to their survival in the long run. This paper tries to explore this issue from the Malaysian perspective. It attempts to determine the perceptions of the Finance Directors of Malaysian companies and to obtain an understanding behind their perceptions.

Corporate Performance And Ownership Structure : A Comparative Analysis Between Bumiputera And Non-Bumiputera Controlled Companies, Nor Aizurawati Aminudin

Student Works (2000-2009)

New Economic Policy (NEP) 1970-1990, in general had changed the outlook of Malaysian  economy. Resulted from the policy, Bumiputera companies have been awaken to compete more aggressively with the Non-bumiputera companies in exploiting the country's wealth. This paper attempts to see the performance of bumiputera companies as compared to the non-bumiputera companies after the NEP era. The objective is to analyze whether ownership structure has influence over the performance of Malaysian public listed companies. Ownership structure is viewed from two perspectives, ethnic ownership and concentration of ownership. Performance of companies is mainly viewed from the aspect of accounting profit performance, …

Nonperforming Loans In Banking And Financial Sector, Ning Ning Chang

Student Works (2000-2009)

It is crucially important to understand the connection between banking sector fragility and the nonperforning loans (NPLs) problem. The problem of mounting NPLs gained much prominence during the recession that hit particularly all countries over the world in 1980s. It is again become prominent following the financial crisis that recently hit the Asian countries. This study examines various factors contributing to the NPL problem, where some endogenous as well as exogenous factors are identified. Poor management and poor lending policies, fraud and embezzlement, moral hazard incentives, heavy government intervention and weaknesses in prudential regulation and supervision are among the factors …

The Impact Of The Travel Account On The Malaysian Balance Of Payments, Goh Mei Lee

Student Works (2000-2009)

The current account deficits in the balance of payments have been a serious concern to policy makers and academicians in their efforts to formulate possible ways to assist the current account deficits . This study looks at the Malaysian services account balances in the current account of the balance of payment with specific focus on the travel account position. The long-standing deficits in the Malaysian current account position due to the services account deficits have been rather prominent in the ear1y I980's due to excessive external debts . The net investment payment ranked the highest in terms of generating outflows …

Ownership Structure And Corporate Performance : A Study On Malaysian Public-Listed Companies, Yoke Ping Lua

Student Works (2000-2009)

This study examines the relationship between ownership structure and corporation performance on 100 Malaysian public-listed companies from 1993 to 1997. We first investigate the effect of ownership concentration on corporate performance, as measured by return on equity, market to book value ratio and return on assets. Further, we extend our analysis by examining the relation between insider ownership and the three accounting ratios. The results showed no significant relationship between ownership concentration or insider ownership and corporate performance for the selected corporations in 1993 - 1997. This study further confirms the studies conducted by Kwabena (1993) and Yee (1998) that …

The Selective Capital And Exchange Controls In Malaysia : A Malaysian Perspective, Muhamad Shukri Abdul Rani

Student Works (2000-2009)

The latest financial and currency crisis that struck Malaysia in 1997 has exposed several macroeconomic weaknesses within the Malaysian economy, in light of the huge influx of international capital flows and speculative activities, and highlighted once again the issue of premature capital account and financial liberalization. These weaknesses such as economic growth well above potential output, loss of efficiency in the economy, current account deficits, over dependence on the banking sector for loans, which were later used for unproductive investments such as those in the stock and property markets have made Malaysia vulnerable to the shocks that emanated from the …

The Effectiveness Of Monetary Policy In Malaysia In The Light Of Financial Liberalization, Farizah Ahmad

Student Works (2000-2009)

Financial liberalization had caused instability in the money demand function as well as in the velocity of money. As a result, money supply is no longer reliable as the main intermediate target and there appeared to be a shift in the technique of monetary control towards greater reliance on interest rates as the main operating instrument. Developing countries that continue to emphasize on quantitative method in their monetary framework while at the same time implement financial refom1s may face the problem of a loss of monetary control and hence, monetary policy may possibly not be effective in influencing income or …

The Impact Of The Real Exchange Rates On Exports : The Malaysian Case, Lay Lian Chuah

Student Works (2000-2009)

Many studies have yielded contradicting results on the impact of real exchange rate volatility on exports. Therefore, this paper attempts to examine the relationship between real exchange rate volatility and Malaysian exports. The model of this study is adapted from Caballero and Corbo's ( 1989) paper. In this respect, this paper also uses the same standard calculation for real exchange rate (RER) volatility. However, a minor adaptation was made whereby the standard deviation, the measurement of real exchange rate volatility is refined by using trade weighted settlement in its computation. This would be a more accurate way of measurement, as …

Afghanistan's Economic Potentials And Malaysian Entrepreneurs' Perceptions, Abdul Sattar Murad

Student Works (2000-2009)

Afghanistan is a country that has started its economic development after the World War II, one of the very early beginners in launching its economic development programs; it is one of the least developed countries in Asia. This study reviews the economic potentials of Afghanistan including mineral, water, land resources and perception of Malaysian Investors. These two aspects of the study highlight the causes of low economic development and factors responsible for it. This study attempts to examine four logically linked questions, i.e. (i) what are the trade potentials of Afghanistan? (ii) What are the mineral potentials of Afghanistan? What …

Behaviour Of Trading And Non-Trading Stock Returns In The Malaysian Stock Market, Lay Khong Tan

Student Works (2000-2009)

This study examines the stock returns and volatilities of trading and non­trading day for seven KLSE indices from January 3, 1994 to November 26, 1999. Six return series are computed. They are the overnight, open to close, morning, afternoon, close to close and open to open series. There is consistently positive overnight return throughout Monday to Friday. The weekend effect or Monday effect is significantly positive. The returns of the morning, open to close, close to close series are negative particularly on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. Except for Monday, other weekdays have positive afternoon return. Mean and variance return are …