Doing more and doing better are two different entities: Different patterns of family control and environmental performance

Family firms bear two types of agency costs, including type I and type II agency problems, in corporate environmental practices: (1) Outside executives at family firms hesitate to engage in environmental strategies, which can lead to drops in profits; (2) Controlling families employ opportunistically environmental management to achieve their interests. We argue that a primary cause for the agency problems lies on ineffective internal corporate governance at family firms, which can cause loss of managerial (or power) balance between outside executives and family executives. Our findings show that family firms with ownership and strategic control (FSC), which family executives and outside executives monitor and constrain each other, can achieve the highest environmental performance. Moreover, external controls, including product market competition and provincial environmental regulations, substitute effective internal control of FSC. The environmental performance premium of FSC is more prevalent when the production market competition is lower. Family firms with ownership, operational, and strategic control (FOSC) can achieve higher environmental performance within a province with more stringent environmental regulations.     

Organization,technology and management innovations through acquisition in China’s pork value chains: The case of the Smithfield acquisition by Shuanghui

This paper reviews the changes in Shuanghui’s operations after the Smithfield acquisition as well as transformations in China’s pork industries. As income grows and diets change, there has been an increasing demand for high-quality pork and more processed pork products. However, China’s swine and pork industries are still at an early stage of development as evidenced by the low market concentration, intensive use of labour, a proliferation of intermediaries, and low levels of technology. Bounded by the established consumer preferences for freshness and the status quo in the midstream and upstream segments, Shuanghui is in a slow process of upgrading its domestic operations with Smithfield’s leading brands, import of chilled and frozen pork, advanced technologies, and the vertically integrated business model after this acquisition. In particular, it remains unclear whether Shuanghui can follow Smithfield’s experience to establish stable and safe hog supplies by multiplying self-owned hog farms, maintain and expand its current contracts with large-scale commercial hog farms, or rely more on global sourcing of pork primarily from the U.S.     

Testing the associations between quality-based factors and their impacts on historic village tourism

This paper develops a conceptual model to examine the associations between quality-based factors (e.g., perceived value (PV), historical authenticity (HS), experience quality (EQ), and administrative quality (AD)) and either travel intention (TR) or preservation attitude (PR). A case study was conducted at a typical historic village in Zhejiang province, China. Using partial least squares (PLS) regression analysis, we observe direct effects of PV, EQ, and AD on TR. Additionally, the direct effects of PV, EQ, and HS on PR are validated. This study reveals the critical mediating role of PV between quality-based factors and either TR or PR. In contrast, the impact of HS on TR is fully mediated by PV. These major findings deepen our understanding of rural tourism, and corresponding managerial implications to improve rural tourism are suggested.     

Union membership,union coverage and wage dispersion of rural migrants: Evidence from Suzhou industrial sector

Using the data from an original survey on rural migrant workers from Suzhou industrial sector in 2013, we estimate the wage effect of both union membership and union coverage across the wage distributions using decomposition approach based on unconditional quantile regression. The results show that union membership has a significant effect on the wage level of rural migrant workers across the wage distribution. The effect of coefficient differences which results from the different rewarding systems explains the majority wage differentials between union members and non-members in non-unionized firms. There is also significant union coverage effect at the lower part of the distribution when comparing the union-covered non-member to the nonunion-covered non-member, which is also mainly caused by the coefficient effect. By contrast, wage differentials between union members and non-members in unionized firms are attributed to significant composition effect, which reveals that union members are positively selected within unionized firms. As a result, the positive wage effect of union is limited to the more advantaged group among migrant workers.     

Accrual anomaly and mandatory adoption of IFRS: Evidence from Germany

This study examines the effect of mandatory adoption of IFRS on the accrual anomaly in Germany. Using the setting in Germany between 2002 and 2008, we find that the accrual anomaly occurs between 2002 and 2004 (pre-IFRS period) but disappears between 2006 and 2008 (post-IFRS period). Results are consistent after extending the test period to 2010 and controlling for analysts' cash forecasts. We also find that German firms with more significant improvements in analysts following, forecast accuracy, forecast dispersion, and earnings management following mandatory adoption of IFRS in 2005 have greater decline of the accrual anomaly between 2006 and 2008. Overall, our findings suggest that IFRS adoption together with improved reporting enforcement significantly reduces the accrual anomaly in Germany.     

Effect of Price Change Alert on Perceptions of Hotel Attribute-based Room Pricing (ABP) versus Traditional Room Pricing (TRP)

Aside from marketing information on traditional room rates, hotels and online travel agents (OTAs) are trying a new pricing technique based on the attributes of guestrooms. This research investigates how attribute-based room pricing (ABP) differs from traditional room pricing (TRP) in influencing consumer reactions when consumers receive a price change alert before (vs. after) sales. Through a series of experiments, we found that TRP and ABP result in similar alert attitude, brand attitude, and visit intention for presale price change alert. However, ABP leads to more favorable results for postsale price change alert. We examined the underlying mechanism and found that perceived fairness mediates the effect of pricing strategy on brand attitude, price alert attitude, and visit intention for postsale alert only. This research provides hotel managers and OTA marketers with guidance on when to send either type of price change message to consumers.     

Dividends and economic policy uncertainty: International evidence

We provide the first international evidence on the impact of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) on dividend policy. Using data from 19 countries, we find that a high level of EPU is positively associated with dividend payout. This evidence is robust to using alternative dividend payout measures, to controlling for other sources of uncertainty, and to addressing endogeneity. We further find that the effect of EPU on dividend policy is moderated by firms' free cash flows and governance quality, and by the quality of country-level indicators of shareholder protection, disclosure, enforcement, and creditor protection. Collectively, our novel evidence suggests that dividends help mitigate agency problems during high-EPU periods.     

生态文明建设背景财政扶持、林权改革对林业生产效率的影响

基于2000—2016年中国省际面板数据,利用DEA-Malmquist指数法对中国林业生产效率的区域差异和时序变化进行研究,运用面板Tobit模型检验财政扶持对林业生产效率的影响并验证林权改革对二者关系的调节作用。研究发现:在生态文明建设背景下,林业生产效率存在显著的区域差异;技术进步对于全要素生产率的提升起到重要推进作用;财政扶持与林权改革均对林业生产效率产生了正向影响,但林权改革并没有对财政扶持与林业生产效率的关系产生积极调节作用。因此,各省份应当通过加大政府扶持力度、优化投资方式、深化集体林权制度改革等措施促进林业生产效率提升。     

Do site visits mitigate corporate fraudulence? Evidence from China

Corporate site visits emerge as an increasingly important means of information acquisition process for analysts and institutional investors. In this study, we test whether and how site visits mitigate corporate fraud risk using a unique dataset of site visits to Chinese listed firms. We find that corporate site visits can substantially reduce the incidence of corporate fraud, which is robust to adding a series of control variables, alternative model specifications and alternative measures of corporate fraud, as well as accounting for endogeneity issue and controlling for firm and time fixed effects. This negative effect is more pronounced for firms with poorer information environment and for firms with weaker corporate governance. Furthermore, we examine the mechanisms underlying the negative association between site visits and corporate fraud. Overall, this paper contributes to the literature by providing complementary evidence that site visits are important venues for analysts and institutional investors to collect firm-specific information and monitor the management of firms in China. Our findings also provide significant practical and policy implications for investors and regulators who seek to promote corporate information disclosure and mitigate the risk of corporate fraud.