Competitive forces and the importance of management control systems in emerging-economy firms: The moderating effect of international market orientation

Using survey and archival data from exchange-listed Chinese firms, we investigate the relationship between competitive forces (i.e., the threat of foreign entrants and buyers’ bargaining power) and the importance that the firms place on their management control systems (MCS), and whether the firms’ international market orientation moderates this relationship. We examine five MCS practices—formal procedures, strategic planning, budget targets, approval procedures, and participative budgeting—both as a package and separately. We predict and find a positive association between the threat of foreign entrants and the importance that the firms place on their MCS, but this association is larger for firms competing predominantly in the domestic market than for those competing predominantly in international markets. Further, we predict and find that the association between buyers’ bargaining power and the importance that the firms place on their MCS is larger for firms competing predominantly in international markets than for those competing in domestic markets. We probe deeper into our empirical findings using qualitative data collected from post hoc interviews with managers of Chinese firms and those of international firms operating in China. We discuss the implications of our findings and provide some directions for future research.     

遭遇反倾销与多产品企业的出口行为——来自中国制造业的证据

近年来中国出口企业遭遇的反倾销调查越发严重,基于此,本文将反倾销纳入多产品出口企业的分析框架,采用倍差法全面考察了遭遇反倾销对中国多产品企业出口及生产率的影响,主要得到以下结论:遭遇反倾销显著减少了多产品企业的出口数量和出口产品种类,提高了多产品企业的出口价格、出口产品集中度和出口市场多元化,且该效应受到企业全球价值链上游嵌入度、下游嵌入度以及地位指数的制约;异质性分析表明,民营企业会通过集中核心优势出口核心产品、放弃边缘产品出口的方式来应对国外的反倾销诉讼,而遭遇反倾销对国有企业的影响较小。在贸易方式方面,遭遇反倾销对企业出口的消极影响会随着加工贸易比例的提高而增强。最后,通过构造企业层面的产品竞争力指数,我们发现尽管遭遇反倾销总体上不利于企业的出口增长,但也可在一定程度上促进企业出口产品组合向其更具竞争优势的核心产品转变,从而加速多产品企业内部出口产品间的优胜劣汰。     

ACCA助力中国企业“走出去”

近年来,随着企业＂走出去＂战略的深入实施,中国企业＂走出去＂取得了重要进展,但由于对一些国际规则尤其是国际会计准则的不了解和忽视,中国企业在＂走出去＂的过程中也遇到了种种意想不到的问题。那么,中国企业在＂走出去＂的过程中如何适应跨国经营规则和国际惯例？如何借助会计这一手段进一步提升＂走出去＂的质量,提高在国际环境下开展...     

Corporate Innovation Strategy,Analyst Forecasting Activities and the Economic Consequences

We examine the impact of corporate innovation strategy on analyst following and forecasting performance, as well as the associated economic consequences. Using a sample of US firms from 1992?2012, we find that firms pursuing an exploration‐oriented innovation strategy (as opposed to an exploitation‐oriented innovation strategy) are associated with lower analyst coverage, higher forecast error and dispersion. The effect is less pronounced for firms with greater disclosure of innovation activities, and for firms followed by analysts with more firm‐specific experience. We also examine how innovation strategy affects the perceived credibility of analyst forecasts and find that investors appear to be less responsive to forecast revisions issued for exploratory firms. Such firms also incur a higher level of cash holdings, greater internal financing, and lower dividend ratio. The findings of this paper advance our understanding of how a public company's choice of innovation strategy affects its performance in the capital markets as well as the associated economic consequences.     

Investigating the effect of board independence on performance across different strategies

This study investigates the effect of board independence on performance across different strategies. Using moderated regression analyses, the results confirm our hypothesis that board independence has a significantly more positive effect on performance for firms pursuing a strategy of cost efficiency than for those pursuing a strategy of innovation. The results of this study indicate that consideration of firms' competitive strategy can provide a better understanding of the relationship between board independence and firm performance.     

The influence of business strategy on annual report readability

Concerns about the complexity of firm disclosures have prompted regulators to initiate projects to improve the readability of annual reports. We investigate business strategy as a determinant of annual report readability. As business strategy fundamentally determines a firm’s product and market domain, technology, and organizational structure, it influences a firm’s operating complexity, environmental uncertainty and information asymmetry. Consequently, business strategy frames the level, wording, and complexity of disclosures. We capture a firm’s business strategy based on the Miles and Snow (1978) strategic typology and measure 10-K readability with Li’s (2008) Fog index. We find that firms pursuing an innovation-oriented prospector strategy have less readable 10-Ks relative to firms pursuing an efficiency-oriented defender strategy. We also find that prospectors display more negative and uncertainty tones while defenders exhibit more litigious tone in their 10-Ks. Our study provides useful insights to policy makers as it suggests that efforts to improve annual report readability may be limited for some firms given that business strategy is a fundamental determinant of readability and pronouncements accommodating different strategic orientations are not feasible.     

Business as Usual? An Institutional View of the Relationship Between Management Control Systems and Strategy

The relationship between management control systems (MCS) and strategy has received considerable attention in the management control literature. Contingency‐based approaches, however, have traditionally dominated this research, with limited attention devoted specifically to how MCS and strategy may combine in organisations operating within highly institutionalised environments. Adopting an institutional perspective, the current study is based on interviews with CEOs and senior executives in 32 Australian Not‐for‐Profit organisations. Our findings indicate a tendency for these organisations to decouple informal control from MCS, producing a ‘business as usual’ mentality via the pervasive informal approach to control, supplanting contingency‐based predictions relating to MCS‐strategy relations.     

全球化:中国的方式是什么?

<正> 司马加:中国的全球化方式是什么?无庸置疑,在过去20年当中,中国在改革开放的速度上以及在全球化的进程中都创造了世界记录。因为20年以前,中国同国外的贸易量占国民生产总值的比例几乎为零,现在一下达到了35%。现在中国在吸收外资方面仅次于美国,是第二大世界引资国。任何公司如果宣称自己是世界性的跨国公司,但在中国没有大的举措和大的作为,就不能称之为一个全球化的跨国公司。在过去的5年里,已经有很多中国公司走向海外,并且获得了一些全球化的市场份额。现在中国占世界贸易的总额是3.5%,中国一旦加入世界贸易组织,5年以后,我们相信中国占世界贸易总量将达到7%。当然,随着机遇还会碰到一些挑战和问题。我们现在可以提出一些问题,这种中国的全球化是否有中国的特点呢?     

Business Firms as Adaptive Entities: The Case of the Major Australian Banks 1983–94

The conventional accounting notion of 'going concern', that a firm will continue business operations in the same manner indefinitely, has influenced accounting thought and practice throughout this century. An alternative view, widely upheld in the literatures of economics and organizational behaviour, is that firms are generally innovative and adapt to changes in market and economic conditions. These conflicting ideas are put under inquiry by examining the business policies and practices of the four major Australian banks over the period 1983 to 1994. We conclude on analytical grounds that conventional cost allocation and deferral practices, being based on the static or conventional idea of a 'going concern', are flawed and yield balance sheets that are not indicative of the financial capacity of firms to engage in commerce at any time. We conclude on empirical grounds that the Australian banks, at least, are generally innovative and adaptive enterprises.     

The Impact of Australian Accounting Education on Repatriates' Career Development

The aim of this article is to explore the impact of Australian accounting education on the career development of Chinese self‐initiated repatriates (SIRs) in different business settings. It is acknowledged in the literature that international education has an impact on the career development of SIRs. However, in this study, we explore the impact in terms of professional knowledge, qualifications and international exposure. A multi‐case study was conducted with Chinese SIRs in different industries in an effort to understand the specific impacts and potential adverse effects across different types of enterprises in China. Our research found that international accounting knowledge has a positive influence on individuals’ careers, especially in foreign enterprises. Skills obtained from international experience are highly valued in the foreign financial industry, while the CPA qualification is highly valued in accounting firms. Readjustment, competition from local counterparts and employers’ unreasonable expectations do have adverse effects. By analysing how SIRs’ professional knowledge in accounting disciplines has impacted their job performance in different industries, this article not only contributes to contemporary literature from a direct perspective but also presents practical recommendations regarding Chinese and Australian professional education.     

Business strategy,executive compensation and firm performance

We investigate the impact of business strategy on the use of performance‐linked compensation (PLC) and long‐term incentive plans. We also examine the relation between strategy and compensation structure fit and performance. Using cluster and content analyses to classify a firm’s business strategy, we predict and find that product differentiation firms use a higher proportion of PLCs than cost‐leadership firms. Furthermore, we find that the misfit between business strategy and compensation structure has a negative impact on performance. This study contributes to the executive compensation literature by recognizing that business strategy influences the compensation structure and that a strategy and compensation structure misfit negatively affects performance.     

The Effects of Corporate Social Responsibility on Real and Accrual‐based Earnings Management: Evidence from China

This study examines the relationship between Chinese firms’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) and their earnings management (EM) practices. As China rapidly emerges as one of the largest exporters as well as importers, an understanding of Chinese CSR practices is increasingly important not only to Chinese authorities and firms, but also to international stakeholders. However, Chinese CSR has been largely underestimated in previous studies, and this CSR–EM relationship has never been sufficiently examined with regard to Chinese firms. In addition, this study measures the level of EM using two different methods: accrual‐based EM (AEM) and real activity‐based EM (REM). In general, REM is regarded as more costly but less detectable, while AEM is regarded as less costly but more detectable, owing to the fact that AEM is subject to greater scrutiny from auditors and regulators. The results show that Chinese firms’ enhanced CSR generally decreases their EM practices. On the contrary, state‐controlled firms and firms operating in more institutionally developed regions are more likely to engage in REM, while increasing their CSR activities. These findings provide new evidence that managers in Chinese firms tend to opportunistically adopt CSR practices according to the firm's institutional environment.     

Greasing the wheels of bank lending: Evidence from private firms in China

Bribery, rather than firm performance, largely determines the extent to which private firms access bank credit in China. Bribery enables an economic outcome whereby firms with better economic performance are awarded larger loans. These firms also pay more in terms of bribes. Although satisfactory firm performance does determine whether firms can access loans, it does so only for loans originated by the big-four banks. For loans originated by smaller banks, performance is not essential for firms to secure loan access. Our evidence sheds light on the surprising finding of earlier studies that Chinese banks use commercial logic in their lending practices despite being endowed with a weak institutional framework.     

儒家传统与企业创新:文化的力量

在创新型国家建设进程中,传统文化到底具有怎样的时代价值和功能？这是一个值得研究的重要问题。本文从非正式制度视角考察了儒家传统文化对当代企业创新行为的影响效应及机理。结果表明,儒家文化对企业创新具有明显的“促进效应”,即企业受到儒家文化的影响程度越强,其专利产出水平显著越高。进一步检验揭示,儒家文化主要通过缓解企业代理冲突、提高人力资本投资水平和降低专利侵权风险等三条渠道影响企业创新。我们还发现,非正式制度的儒家文化和正式制度的法律环境在促进企业创新方面存在相互替代功能。特别是儒家文化的全员辐射效应有利于激发全体员工创新热情,进而提升技术创新成果的实际转化效率,增强专利技术对企业经营绩效的边际贡献。本文从微观企业层面揭示了儒家思想促进创新的内在逻辑,纠正了部分学者对儒家文化价值的消极认知偏见,同时丰富了“文化与企业决策”国际前沿文献,贡献了东方文化情境的经验证据。     

The performance of specialized and oriented diversified firms: A comparative analysis from the targeted expansion of renewable energy business of listed companies

With the rise of high-tech industry and the continuous change of business scope of enterprises, it is vital to study the different performance between enterprises with professional development and enterprises with business orientation expansion across the industrial chain, and this process is related to the industrial development background of the region where the enterprises are located. The development of renewable energy industry provides an excellent opportunity for this research. By identifying the business data of Chinese listed renewable energy companies from 2003 to 2021, this paper explores the performance of their renewable energy business expansion, and further uses the US sample for comparative analysis. First, the empirical results show that the expansion of renewable energy business contributes to the outstanding performance of firms. Second, compared with American enterprises, Chinese enterprises have achieved greater relative performance improvement in expanding renewable energy business, which is mainly due to the advantages of directional transformation of Chinese manufacturing enterprises. Finally, China's policy environment is conducive to professional enterprises to achieve more outstanding performance when expanding renewable energy business. This study helps to understand the differences between specialized development companies and directional diversified business expansion companies, and has certain implications for the development of the renewable energy industry and industrial policies.     

Ownership and performance in Chinese manufacturing industry

The relation between various ownership types and performance measures for 1036 firms in China is examined. State owned enterprises (SOE) are consistently less profitable than mixed enterprises (ME), collective owned enterprises (COE), joint ventures (JV), and foreign owned enterprises (FOE). The SOEs and FOEs are also less productive than MEs, COEs and JVs. The surprisingly low productivity for FOEs may result from the learning curve for international investors doing business in China. Owned by local governments, COEs are more profitable and productive than the central government owned SOEs, possibly because of closer monitoring and harder budget constraints, and better employees and management. The performance of MEs, mostly newly privatized firms, is weaker when related to assets, possibly due to the anomaly that capital investments following their public offerings are not yet on line. The co-existence of economies of scale and over-employment is also evident among Chinese enterprises.     

Economic policy uncertainty and executive turnover

This paper examines whether economic uncertainty increases executive turnover. The negative perception perspective and business change theory suggest that executives are more likely to leave their jobs during periods of corporate distress. However, the additive effects of internal and external risk are thought to prompt firms to carefully consider executive turnover, thereby reducing the likelihood of executive changes. Based on the literature, we propose a check-and-balance hypothesis for the relationship between external uncertainty and executive change, according to which the optimal superposition of the internal and external risks stemming from increased external uncertainty would be to avoid a wave of executive departures. Using a sample of Chinese A-share listed companies from 2010 to 2019 and the China economic policy uncertainty index of Baker et al. (2013), we examine the impact of economic policy uncertainty on executive turnover and our results support the check-and-balance hypothesis. Our findings enhance our understanding of how economic policy uncertainty affects executive turnover, and enrich the literature on corporate risk management and strategic management.     

国企混合所有制能治疗僵尸企业吗？ —— 一个混合所有制类啄序逻辑

本文使用1998-2013年中国工业企业数据库,采用国际前沿方法识别出僵尸企业,然后比较了国企控股、国企参股以及转制民企这三种混合所有制改革策略治疗僵尸国企的效果。实证结果表明:相对于纯国企,混合所有制改革对僵尸国企具有显著的治疗效果;在多种混合所有制改革策略中,转制民企优于国企参股,国企参股优于国企控股,这形成了一种“国企混改类啄序”现象;然而,上述“啄序”现象并非对所有国企都适用,对于那些所处行业垄断程度高、企业政治级别高的国企,单纯民营化导向的混改对僵尸企业治愈的效果较差;最后,混合所有制改革治疗僵尸国企的主要渠道,是降低了国企的期间费用(主要是管理费用)。本文的结果为处置僵尸企业和渐进式改革提供了重要的理论依据。     

The effect of service process type, business strategy and life cycle stage on bureaucratic MCS in service organizations

This study uses the survey method to investigate the influence of several contingent variables on the design of MCS in service organizations. MCS was conceptualized in terms of five dimensions: action/results controls, formal/informal controls, tight/loose controls, restricted/flexible controls, and impersonal/interpersonal controls to form a composite measure of the degree of MCS bureaucracy. The framework used in this study recognizes that the service process type, business strategy, and stage in the organizational life cycle influence the choice of MCS design within an organization. Questionnaires were administered to financial controllers of service organizations operating in Australia. Using t tests and multiple regression analysis, the results indicated that (1) mass service, mature and cost leader firms place a greater emphasis on more bureaucratic forms of MCS, compared to professional service, growth and differentiator firms, and (2) service process type, organizational life cycle stage, and business strategies have a significant influence on the design of a firm's MCS.     

银行业竞争、创新资源配置和企业创新产出——基于中国工业企业的经验证据

本文利用城市级商业银行分支机构数据,结合中国工业企业数据和企业专利数据,实证分析银行业竞争对中国企业创新产出的影响。研究发现,竞争性的银行业市场结构显著促进了企业创新产出,对非国有企业和中小企业尤为显著。进一步地,本文基于资源配置角度,从新进入企业和在位企业双重视角探讨银行业竞争影响企业创新产出的作用途径。检验发现,银行业竞争提高条件下,更多的高效率企业进入创新部门,更多的高效率在位企业增加创新投入,且上述影响在非国有企业和中小企业中更为明显。本文检验结果显示,银行业竞争能提高银行对高效率企业的信贷支持,优化企业之间创新资源配置,并通过引导高效率非国有企业和中小企业增加创新投入而推动整体层面的创新产出。本文拓展了银行业竞争对企业创新的微观影响研究,为制定基于创新驱动的金融发展政策提供新思路。