Financial factors in R&D budget setting: the impact of interfunctional market coordination, strategic alliances, and the nature of competition

Increasingly demanding markets, changes in technology and greater international competition have made the effective management of product R&D together with its associated costs essential. The magnitude of R&D costs are of concern to many companies, potentially inhibiting organizations from investing in new product development. Although rising costs of R&D and the growing dependence of companies on R&D for product leadership increase the need to plan and evaluate R&D activities more effectively, difficulties have been experienced in applying budgetary control systems to R&D. Despite such concerns, the published literature indicates that an emphasis on financial factors in setting the size of R&D budgets is becoming a competitive necessity. A review of the published literature suggests that interfunctional market coordination, the relative use of strategic alliances and the nature of competition in terms of product cost versus product innovation are potentially instrumental in influencing the degree of emphasis on financial factors in R&D budget setting. The results of the present study indicate that these three organizational and environmental variables result in an emphasis on financial factors in setting the size of R&D budgets. Implications drawn from the findings are discussed.     

Innovation budget pressure,quality of IS information,and departmental performance

Evidence suggests that innovation budgets need to be carefully managed due to increasingly demanding markets, changes in technology and greater international competition. Companies often express concern over the magnitude of their innovation costs, potentially inhibiting them from investing in new product development. This has given rise to concern for innovation budget pressure, which focuses on constraining costs to budgeted levels even if further expenditure might facilitate enhancements in terms of the quality and speed of the innovation process. However, suggestions have been made that decision systems in these settings could benefit in terms of performance outcomes from improvements in information system (IS) information quality. The literature suggests that the impact of quality of IS information on departmental performance is dependent on whether there is an emphasis on innovation budget pressure. The results of this study show that when innovation budget pressure is high, quality of IS information enhances performance. In contrast, when the emphasis on innovation budget pressure is low, quality of IS information does not promote performance.     

民营化、融资约束与企业创新——来自中国工业企业的证据

本文研究国有企业民营化对企业创新的影响及其影响机制。利用中国工业企业数据库,以民营化企业为实验组、以国有企业为对照组进行双重差分检验,结果发现,国有企业民营化显著抑制了企业创新,而融资约束是抑制民营化企业创新的重要因素。进一步检验发现,融资约束对民营化企业创新的抑制作用主要存在于金融发展水平较低的地区,而在金融发展水平较高的地区,这种抑制作用并不明显。本文的研究结果从融资约束的角度拓展了民营化影响企业创新的相关研究,且从民营化的角度为金融市场如何影响企业创新提供了新的视角。此外,本文有助于澄清有关民营化的争议,为进一步深化混合所有制改革、加强金融对民营企业的支持以促进民营企业的创新和发展提供理论依据和政策参考。     

Coping with ambiguity through the budget: the positive effects of budgetary targets on managers' budgeting behaviours

Much consideration has been given over the years to what may be described as the `negative' aspect of budgeting; that budgets may constrain innovation and learning, and that budgetary pressure may lead to unintended behavioural side effects. In contrast to this, the present study examines the extent to which budgets have a more positive, `comforting' role to play in the individual's work experiences. We argue that managers confronted with uncertainties associated with role ambiguity may respond by becoming positively committed to achieving budgetary targets as budgets offer a source of structure and certainty. We find that the use of budgets as an antidote to role ambiguity is a powerful influence on the manager's budgeting behaviour. We test the strength of this effect and we find that budgetary commitment brought on by the experience of role ambiguity may over-ride the potential for recognised explanatory variables such as leadership style, the expectations of the superior, and occupational socialisation, to inform managers' budgeting behaviours in these circumstances. Budgets, it seems, may be as useful to the individual as they are problematic.     

财务冗余、股权集中度与企业产品创新——基于高科技上市公司的实证数据

以2007-2014年我国高科技上市公司为研究样本,基于资源基础论和委托代理理论,实证检验不同类型财务冗余对企业产品创新的作用,并引入股权集中度,研究其如何调节不同类型财务冗余对产品创新的作用。研究发现：可利用财务冗余有利于企业产品创新的推进;而潜在财务冗余却对企业产品创新产生负向影响,即负债率越高,潜在财务冗余越低,企业越倾向于实施产品创新;且股权集中度增强了可利用财务冗余对企业产品创新的促进作用,但也放大了潜在财务冗余产生的负向影响。     

Accounting for Accountability and Management in NPOs. A Comparative Study of Four Countries: Canada, the United Kingdom, the USA and Spain

Financial and non–financial information are developing issues in the NPO field. Countries such as Canada, the UK, the USA and Spain have recently updated their accounting systems for NPOs through the implementation of full accrual basis to enhance their accountability and the usefulness of accounting information for decision–making purposes. The information provided by accrual accounting will be incomplete until performance indicators are developed. The performance indicators are essential for making budgets, for planning and forecasting, for evaluating the financial needs, for carrying out benchmarking with other NPOs or governmental entities, and for explaining the welfare activities realised to donors.     

Budgeting and Strategy in Schools: The Elusive Link

This paper examines the effects upon management control in schools following the assumption of responsibility for delegated budgets required by the Education Reform Act (ERA) 1988. The paper examines the process of construction, approval and amendment of school budgets drawing on a neo-institutionalist framework. Our investigation has drawn upon extensive interviews in 17 schools in three North West local authorities, supplemented by a postal questionnaire and inspection of relevant documents. We develop two main arguments. First, in order to satisfy their statutory duties LEAs supervised the introduction of internal systems of budgetary control and school development planning in schools. Thus, control procedures were largely designed by internal auditors, who sought to provide an audit trail and to ensure financial probity mainly to satisfy external legitimacy, rather than to influence internal decision-making. Second, the specific nature of the relationship between budgeting and strategy varies between schools as the extent of formalised planning differs, but in general there is a very loose coupling between strategic objectives and budget expenditures.     

管理决断权、财务柔性与企业技术创新

本文以2010-2018年沪深A股上市公司为研究对象,通过构建中介效应模型和有调节的中介效应模型,实证研究管理决断权对企业创新绩效的影响路径,以及CEO变更对管理决断权、财务柔性与企业创新绩效之间关系的调节效应。研究结果表明,提升管理层的管理决断权有助于促进创新绩效,而且财务柔性在管理决断权影响创新绩效过程中起不完全中介作用,存在"管理决断权水平高-→财务柔性水平高-→企业创新绩效高"的传导路径;CEO变更会正向调节财务柔性在管理决断权正向影响创新绩效中的中介效应,即存在有调节的中介效应。本文深化了管理决断权影响企业创新绩效的研究,对企业在CEO变更条件下建立和推动创新导向、增加研发投资以提升创新绩效具有重要的现实意义。     

Environmental regulation,green innovation,and export product quality: What is the role of greenwashing?

To facilitate sustainable growth, green innovation, and industrial upgrading, it is important to explore the relationship between environmental regulations and firm performance. Green innovation is increasingly being recognized as an important determinant of the quality of export products, which plays a critical role in international business and finance. Therefore, this paper empirically examines the impact of green innovation on export product quality at the firm level using relevant data from Chinese exporters. First, we identify a positive relationship between green innovation and export product quality. Second, environmental regulations are observed to have a negative effect on green innovation for highly-polluting firms but do not significantly impact those with lower levels of pollution. Third, our research reveals that the negative effects only exist in those highly-polluting firms that exhibit greenwashing behavior, with financial constraints strengthening these impacts. Therefore, this study reveals that the greenwashing suppression effect curbs the efficiency of environmental regulations on green innovation.     

Banking crises,financial dependence,and growth

This paper contributes to the literature that analyzes the mechanisms linking financial shocks and real activity. In particular, we investigate the growth impact of banking crises on industries with different levels of dependence on external finance. If banks are the key institutions allowing credit constraints to be relaxed, then a sudden loss of these intermediaries in a system in which such intermediaries are important should have a disproportionately contractionary impact on the sectors that flourished due to their reliance on banks. Using data from 38 developed and developing countries that experienced financial crises during the last quarter century, we find that those sectors that are highly dependent on external finance tend to experience a substantially greater contraction of value added during a banking crisis in countries with deeper financial systems than in countries with shallower financial systems. Our results do not suggest, however, that on net the externally dependent firms fare worse in deep financial systems.     

ACCOUNTING REFORMS: DETERMINANTS OF LOCAL GOVERNMENTS' CHOICES

The introduction of accrual accounting in Italian Local Governments has been mandated in a way that permits, and in fact encourages, a merely formal compliance. Local Governments must produce accrual‐based financial statements, but double‐entry bookkeeping is not mandatory, nor may traditional budgetary accounting be abandoned. Why, then, should they bother to introduce an integrated system of budgetary and accrual accounting? In this paper, we empirically investigate the determinants of Local Government's choices of accounting innovation. According to our results, ‘rational’ elements such as complexity, types of activities performed, presence of surpluses, and access to capital markets are seemingly unhelpful in explaining why a Local Government decides to introduce accrual accounting. What counts are ‘institutional’ and cultural explanations, such as the perceptions of CFOs and the North‐South divide.     

银行业竞争、融资约束与企业创新——中国工业企业的经验证据

本文将1998-2007年中国工业企业数据、专利申请数据与银监会公布的金融许可证数据相匹配,考察银行业竞争影响企业创新的内在机制。结果发现,竞争的加剧通过缓解企业面临的融资约束,从而提升其创新能力。在弱化内生性问题和一系列稳健性检验后,上述结果仍然稳健。进一步研究发现,外部融资依赖度较高的企业,中小、民营企业,以及位于市场化水平高和法治环境好的地区的企业,银行业竞争通过缓解融资约束促进其创新的效应更加明显。此外,本文还发现股份制银行和城商行的竞争能更好地推动企业创新。因此,建立健全多层次、多元化的金融体系,能有效缓解企业创新的融资困境,激发创新活力。     

THE JOINT EFFECTS OF BUDGETARY SLACK AND TASK UNCERTAINTY ON SUBUNIT PERFORMANCE

Even though managers may build slack into their budgets to enhance their prospects for reward, the literature proposes that there may be circumstances when budgetary slack may be utilized by subunits to provide them with a degree of flexibility in responding effectively to changes in operating conditions. This suggests that the use to which budgetary slack is put, in contrast to any dysfunctional reason for its creation, may have implications for subunit performance particularly when task uncertainty is high. A theory was developed and an empirical assessment was conducted to evaluate whether slack moderates the relation between task uncertainty and subunit performance, paying specific attention to the effects of the task difficulty and task variability dimensions of task uncertainty. The results of the study suggest that slack has a positive role to play in Influencing the relation between task difficulty and subunit performance. There was no evidence, however, that slack and task variability jointly influence performance.     

现代公司预算编制起点问题的探讨──兼论公司财务报告的改进

本文在界定以生产为起点和以销售为起点的两种传统预算编制方法所适用的条件的同时，论证了以所有 权与管理权相分离为特征的现代公司应以每股收益或利润为起点编制预算的观点。在实务上按照这种现点编制 预算，不仅有助于提升所有者和经营者对整个公司计划和控制的能力，顺势通过改善经营管理来影响本公司股 价，而且还为财务报告的改进提供了新的线索。由于预算编制结果也可用资产负债表、利润表和现金流量表来 表述，本文建议将按每股收益为起点编制的预算以及定期甚至实时编制的预算反馈报告进行公开披露，以增强 现行财务报告的前瞻性、及时性和明细化程度，为投资者提供更加有用的信息。     

Managing budget emphasis through the explicit design of conditional budgetary slack

Budgetary slack plays an important role in the functioning of budgets in organizations. While theory has found negative as well as positive elements associated with its presence, the empirical literature has interpreted it as being dysfunctional to organizations. In this paper, we present empirical evidence on how a company purposefully budgeted additional financial resources with a motivation intention (Lukka. Budgetary biasing in organizations: Theoretical framework and empirical evidence. Accounting, Organizations and Society 13 (1998) 281–302) to facilitate the managers’ task in achieving the goals of the company. Using quantitative and qualitative data from four logistic sites of a disk drive manufacturer for 24 months, we examine how the company accepted more slack as the demand on business processes increased and goals other than budget targets––in particular, service quality––became harder to achieve. By allowing this practice, headquarters made it clear to local managers that product quality and service were at least as important as meeting budget objectives. We also find that not only was budgetary slack purposefully built during the budgeting process but also in the budgeting system itself through the underlying cost accounting assumptions. The results of this paper provide empirical evidence on the positive aspects of budgetary slack and on the role of cost accounting models used in the budgeting system to facilitate managerial work.     

Reliance on budgetary control, manufacturing process automation and production subunit performance: A research note

The degree to which reliance can be placed on budgetary control in the assessment of production subunit performance, particularly with the advent of manufacturing process automation involving, for example, robots and CAD/CAM, is problematic. While budget-based control systems are extensively employed in organizations, such usage does not provide clear evidence of their utility as performance enhancement vehicles as advances are made in the automation of manufacturing processes. The purpose of this paper is to report the results of a study which examines the effect of automation on the link between reliance on budgetary control and production subunit performance. The findings suggest that manufacturing process automation moderates the relation between reliance on budgetary control and departmental performance. As such, firms may benefit from a reliance on budgetary control in the evaluation of production subunit performance as manufacturing processes become more automated.     

我国商业银行金融产品创新策略探讨

在西方国家,产品创新是商业银行增强核心竞争力的重要手段.目前我国金融体系改革进一步深化,市场开放度逐渐提高,同业竞争将日趋激烈,而我国银行业的产品创新能力依然较弱.本文从产品创新的现状出发,指出我国商业银行金融产品创新存在着产品整合程度不高、缺乏创新自主性、产品独创性比较低、同质化现象严重等问题,分析了我国商业银行金融...     

改进型创新抑或突破型创新——基于客户集中度的视角

本文从客户集中度的视角考察其究竟是促进了企业的改进型创新抑或突破型创新。研究结果表明,企业的客户集中度越高,其越倾向于进行突破型创新,但是这种关系只在国有企业以及与主要客户地理位置相似度比较高的企业中显著;对发明专利和实用新型专利分别进行检验的结果表明,在国有企业以及与主要客户地理位置相似度比较高的企业中,客户集中度的提高有助于增加企业申请的发明专利数量,但是并不会对企业申请的实用新型专利数量产生影响。本文的研究不仅为客户集中度究竟是促进了企业改进型创新抑或突破型创新的不同观点提供了一定的经验证据,而且对于我国推进制造强国战略、促进企业转型升级具有重要的启示意义。     

Governmental budgeting as ex ante financial accounting: The United Kingdom case

For many years now the academic governmental-budgeting literature has concentrated almost exclusively on the politics and economics of the budgetary process at the expense of the mechanical foundations. Consequently, we see an interesting but insulated discussion about political involvement and about the strengths and weaknesses of planning models. What we do not see is a discussion of the accounting perspective. This paper offers such a discussion. It explains local government budgeting as “ex ante financial accounting” and offers some important implications of this re-interpretation.     

适应人民银行履职特点的财务制度研究

随着国内经济金融的快速发展,尤其在全球金融危机后,中国人民银行的管理职能有了很大的扩展,但现行人民银行财务制度尚未根据其职能变化做出相应调整,这会在一定程度上影响其职能的履行。文章结合央行工作实际分析了当前人民银行财务制度与其履职不相适应的表现,并从强化独立的财务预算体系、建立与职能相统一的财务管理体系、合理设计编制和执行部预算等方面,对建立适应人民银行履职特点的财务制度进行了研究。