产品生命周期成本的演进及其对成本管理的启示

本文重点分析了产品生命周期成本概念的演进过程，提出了产品的企业生命周期成本、用户生命周期成本和社会生命周期成本，并在此基础上分析了这三者之间的关系及其对企业成本管理的启示。     

面对反倾销调查:企业会计准备好了吗?——以美国为例的分析报告

反倾销调查赋予了企业会计新的内容和方法,本文在分析反倾销问卷调查有关会计内容的基础上,提出了企业会计在特殊时期应承担的具体任务:会计资料的重新归类、生产成本的合理计算、正常价格的适当选择、会计方法有目的进行调整等,按照会计信息决策有用的目标为反倾销调查取证提供依据。     

标准成本管理在餐饮企业管理中的应用

目前我国餐饮业的发展正处在激烈的竞争之中,越来越低的利润使企业不得不将成本控制作为战略的重点之一。由于中餐的生产带有较强的主观性和随意性,这就使得标准成本的控制问题显得更为突出。针对餐饮企业的特点进行标准成本管理,分析其实际成本和标准成本的差异化,找出成本差异的原因,从而可使餐饮企业达到降低成本、提高利润水平和竞争力的目的。     

后发经济体技术赶超中的转型陷阱

文章通过将中间产品生产厂商的异质性结构引入罗默三部门内生增长模型中,构建了一个基于垂直创新的技术进步模型。运用该模型对后发经济体技术赶超中不同阶段间过渡时存在的技术进步模式转型陷阱的问题进行理论性分析。通过研究发现,技术赶超过程中要依次经历专注模仿、模仿并且创新、专注创新三个阶段。后发经济体技术进步会从一个阶段进入下一个阶段,然而各个阶段间技术进步模式转型不是自然发生的,而是存在着转型陷阱。第一次转型会经历创新停滞陷阱,第二次转型可能会出现模仿陷阱,而陷入模仿陷阱的经济体在技术水平达到一定程度时会出现技术进步减缓甚至是倒退。后发经济体一旦陷入模仿陷阱将很难接近世界技术前沿,技术赶超也就无法实现。     

Are analysts' cash flow forecasts useful?

This study provides evidence that the cost of equity capital decreases with the number of analysts who issue both cash flow and earnings forecasts (cash analysts). The evidence also shows that cash analysts reduce information asymmetry and predict long‐term earnings more accurately than analysts who issue only earnings forecasts. Taken together, these findings suggest that cash analysts provide market participants with high‐quality information and, as a result, firms benefit from cash analyst coverage in the form of a reduced cost of equity capital.     

Incentive Contracts,Market Risk,and Cost of Capital

Should incentive contracts expose the agent to market‐wide shocks? Counterintuitively, I show that market risk cannot be filtered out from the compensation and managed independently by the agent. Under plausible risk preferences, the principal should offer a contract in which performance pay increases following a favorable market shock. In the aggregate, however, the effect of market risk on individual contracts diversifies away and the agency problem does not directly affect the cost of capital. The analysis suggests caution in interpreting changes in cost of capital in terms of the stewardship role of accounting information.     

Internal Versus External R&D: A Study of R&D Choice with Sample Selection

This paper extends previous analyses of the choice between internal and external R&D to consider the costs of internal R&D. The Heckman two-stage estimator is used to estimate the determinants of internal R&D unit cost (i.e. cost per product innovation) allowing for sample selection effects. Theory indicates that R&D unit cost will be influenced by scale issues and by the technological opportunities faced by the firm. Transaction costs encountered in research activities are allowed for and, in addition, consideration is given to issues of market structure which influence the choice of R&D mode without affecting the unit cost of internal or external R&D. The model is tested on data from a sample of over 500 UK manufacturing plants which have engaged in product innovation. The key determinants of R&D mode are the scale of plant and R&D input, and market structure conditions. In terms of the R&D cost equation, scale factors are again important and have a non-linear relationship with R&D unit cost. Specificities in physical and human capital also affect unit cost, but have no clear impact on the choice of R&D mode. There is no evidence of technological opportunity affecting either R&D cost or the internal/external decision.     

Separation of ownership and control for Chinese listed firms: Effect on the cost of debt and the moderating role of bank competition

This research investigates the effect of the separation between firm ownership and control on the cost of debt, with attention to the moderating role of state ownership and bank competition. We make use of a sample of 1744 Chinese A-share firms for the years 2011–2017. We find that separation between ownership and control is positively associated with the cost of debt. This is consistent with the view that separation of control from ownership allows controlling shareholders to engage in tunneling and other behaviors that increase the risk of default. State ownership weakens this positive link because government debt guarantees mitigate the risk of default. Greater competition in the banking industry generally reduces the cost of debt for non-state enterprises while having no effect for state enterprises. At the same time, greater bank competition amplifies the positive effect of ownership and control separation on debt cost for non-state enterprises as banks must still cover the higher default risk. Finally, the global financial crisis raised the cost of debt for non-state enterprises but had no effect for state enterprises.     

The cost of capital and optimal financing policy in a dynamic setting

This paper revisits the Modigliani–Miller propositions on the optimal financing policy and cost of capital in a dynamic setting. In an environment without taxes and bankruptcy costs, the results are generally consistent with the Modigliani–Miller Propositions 1 and 2. However, the first proposition should be presented and interpreted more carefully, as given firm characteristics, there is only one optimal capital structure. Thus, a firm’s capital structure is relevant. A relaxation of assumptions about either taxes or bankruptcy costs leads to conclusions that are generally different from those in Modigliani and Miller (1958). The model predicts that leverage and sales-to-capital ratios decrease but firm size and capital stock increase with the subjective discount factor of the firm’s manager if there are taxes and bankruptcy costs. The empirical analysis supports these predictions.     

Measuring firm performance: Differentiating between uncontrollable and controllable bad outputs

This paper introduces a new model that differentiates between controllable and uncontrollable bad outputs in the measurement of firm performance; the airline industry is used as the empirical example. The model allows us to measure technical inefficiency, as well as the inefficiency in the production of bad outputs, and the inefficiency in the investments allocated to the reduction of uncontrollable bad outputs. Moreover, we provide a direct measure of the total cost of controllable bad outputs. As the model involves a number of latent (unobservable) variables that cannot be easily integrated out of the likelihood function without producing complicated expressions, we resort to Bayesian techniques. We find notable differences in inefficiency across airlines. More importantly though, we find that the production of bad or undesirable outputs impose significant costs on airlines. However, these cost issues could be reduced if airlines invest more in maintenance and service training.