The impact of equity ownership groups on investment: Evidence from Ukraine

We empirically investigate the impact of different ownership groups on companies’ investment in Ukraine with a novel dynamic investment model where investment is based on present and historical levels of profitability (market-to-book value of equity) and lagged investment. Groups include state, insider, non-domestic, financial and financial and industrial group (FIG) ownership. Contrary to the literature, we find that the past level of profitability significantly affects investment; the majority presence of and increases in state ownership have a negative impact on firms’ investment, as is the case for non-domestic and financial companies’ ownership. Insider and FIG ownership have no impact on investment. We explain the results by the extent of liquidity concerns (hard and soft budget constraints), measured by cash flow interacted with a dummy variable of majority ownership of the respective group, and the extent of asset stripping for the corresponding ownership group and relate them to over- and under-investment, and to the free cash flow or cash constraint hypothesis.     

Will future land based food and fibre production be in family or corporate hands? An analysis of farm land ownership and governance considering farmer characteristics as choice drivers. The New Zealand case

Family farming in various guises has been the dominant ownership and governance system in primary production over recorded history. This outcome has been controlled by farmers and their families, possibly due to tradition, opportunities, personal characteristics, skill sets and the nature of primary production. Of these, it is hypothesised that the farmers’ personal characteristics play a major part in the choice, and continuance, of current ownership and governance systems. Equally as important, they, and therefore the land ownership system, play a part in the efficiency of production systems and improvement of the biological and production environment.The benefits and difficulties of commonly used ownership systems in Western society are reviewed. Using a sample of New Zealand (NZ) farms, a comparison of the managers’ features for owner/operator, partnership and corporate based systems is presented. There were significant differences in many variables including the farmers’ age, education, number of children, asset levels, years on the current farm, and similar, but more importantly, the farmers in the ownership system groups had differing personal characteristics. Significantly, despite the corporate based farms employing more professional assistance, the profit levels were similar across ownership systems leaving the farmers’ characteristics the main factors correlating with system choice. However, governance systems per se are only marginally correlated with production systems and efficiency.As successive generations of farmers are unlikely to have different characteristics, and corporate based systems continue to exhibit similar profit levels, relatively simple family based systems will continue to dominate farm land ownership and control. The trends suggest family farms will increase in size and involve family conglomerates facilitating the management of larger, and in many cases multiple, farms. While currently there are few differences in biological efficiency between ownership systems, given the efficiency benefits of size and scale, this could well change with the increase of family conglomerates. Relative to increasing corporatisation, the continuance of family based ownership and governance will also be of benefit to the environment. When developing land policies, these highlighted relationships should be taken into account. This study is a first to consider personal characteristics relative to ownership.     

The influences of governance quality on equity-based entry mode choice: The strengthening role of family control

This study examines the possible heterogeneity of governance quality's influence on entry mode decisions made by firms with different degrees of family control. When entering a country with low governance quality, ceding control of the subsidiary in exchange for local partners’ help enables foreign firms to tackle institutional flaws. However, such a motivation diminishes as governance quality increases. This study thus hypothesizes that firms tend to choose WOSs over JVs when entering a host country with high governance quality.Firms controlled by family members, due to concerns regarding the preservation of socioemotional wealth, prefer to maintain high ownership levels of their affiliates. This study thus hypothesizes that firms with a higher degree of family control are even more likely to choose WOSs when entering a country with high governance quality. The results support the hypotheses.     

Surplus distribution and characteristics of social enterprises: Evidence from microfinance

The issue of surplus distribution has hardly been analyzed in the context of the social economy. This paper highlights the main drivers of distribution between various stakeholders of microfinance institutions (MFIs), which are an example of social enterprises. We focus on three major variables: size, governance structure and subsidies. Our results show that the size of the institution is the main indicator of the surplus that the organization keeps as a self-financial margin. Moreover, MFIs with a cooperative ownership structure allocate a larger part of their surplus to their employees, whereas non-profit organizations and shareholder-firm MFIs do not allocate their surplus in a significantly different way among their main stakeholders. Finally, we do not find any clear-cut effect of subsidies on the surplus allocation process.     

Moving out or living on a mound? Jointly planning a Dutch flood adaptation project

All over the world spatial flood risk management policies are on the rise. This paper analyses the planning process for the Overdiepse polder, a so-called “Room for the River” project in the Netherlands. After high water in the 1990s, the Dutch government changed its flood risk management policy. While before 2000 it leaned heavily on dikes to separate water from land, after that year spatial measures to “let the water flow” were introduced. This required the integration of two formerly separated policy domains: flood risk management and land use planning. In the densely populated and economically highly developed Netherlands, returning space to the river unavoidably impacts on the lives and livelihoods of those who live and work along the rivers. Therefore, such spatial measures to decrease flood risk have to be negotiated with various stakeholders. The planning process towards making the Overdiepse polder suitable for temporary water storage deserves more in-depth analysis. We describe and analyze the development of relationships between key actors in the planning process, with a focus on planning practices rather than on assumptions about the existence of certain types and qualities of relationships. We conclude, among others, that citizen involvement can, under specific socio-political and institutional conditions, build trust among stakeholders and increase local legitimacy for interventions by government agencies. However, it should not be idealized as “self-governance” or assumed to be part of a unidirectional change in water interventions towards new relationships between actors.     

Policy and politics behind Shanghai’s Free Trade Zone Program

China launched the Shanghai Free Trade Zone (FTZ) Program on September 29, 2013 in a bid to reduce administrative interventions, ease restrictions on investments, further open up its financial system, and internationalize its currency to booster shipping, logistics, and commerce. This article aims to present a background of the Shanghai FTZ and some reflections on it. China’s economic reconstruction has made a major impact on its port cities. Competitions between ports are gradually evolving into competitions between supply chains, with ports no longer considered as isolated links in the transport chain but rather as integral links in the supply chain. Ports are transitioning into fourth-generation ports with the establishment of logistics and value-added activities, which are developed in conjunction with local industrial and service businesses. In this trend, China’s port cities can provide a wide range of value-added services and become centers of commodity flow, capital flow, and information flow. Specifically, the combined effects of driving the development of peripheral industries and actively coordinating the activities of relevant parties help regulate the operations of the entire supply chain to obtain potential value-added benefits. The implementation of the Shanghai FTZ will not only stimulate trade but will also bring increased shipping and finance opportunities to the city. With free trade as the new direction and focus of the country’s economic initiatives, the Shanghai FTZ will hopefully lay the groundwork for a new round of reforms and restructuring of the Chinese economy.     

Impact of growth strategy on mode of governance in alliances

The aim of this study is to analyse the way in which growth strategies influence the choice of governance mode in corporate alliances. Specifically, the study looks at how expansion, diversification and internationalisation strategies determine choice of joint ventures rather than other types of alliances. To that end, we analysed a sample of 918 alliances among companies from the European Union-15 between 2000 and 2004. The results suggest that companies prefer to set up joint ventures when their strategies are based on expansion and related diversification, whereas they prefer other types of alliances when they follow a strategy of unrelated diversification. Furthermore, in international alliances, it appears that the impact of growth strategy on alliance governance mode is similar for the entire range of companies employed in the sample.     

The political economy of wine: How terroir and intra-sector dynamics affect land use in Spain

This paper provides a constructive critique of Corrine Cash's paper “Good governance and strong political will: Are they enough for transformation?”, published in volume 58 of Land Use Policy in 2016. By focusing on how intra-sector dynamics influence land use policies in conflicts revolving around urban sprawl, this paper aims to complement and, to some extent, widen the analytic lens deployed by Cash. The examination of the Spanish wine sector and its lack of zoning policies confirms Cash's argument about the need to go beyond discourses of ‘good governance’ and ‘strong political will’ to understand the dynamics underpinning real spatial processes. However, this exploration underscores the need to add layers of complexity to land use analyses, showing the relevance of intra-sector conflict and logics. In complicating any simplistic reduction of urban sprawl conflicts to rural–urban oppositions, the paper ultimately calls for a more dynamic and multiscalar planning theory to address complex governance issues.     

环境不确定下企业孵化网络治理机制对治理绩效影响研究

从企业孵化网络本身以及环境视角分析了企业孵化网络治理绩效的影响因素,通过企业孵化网络治理机制对治理绩效关系的实证分析,验证了环境不确定下企业孵化网络的契约治理机制、管理治理机制对治理绩效的影响。结果表明:企业孵化网络治理机制中的契约治理机制、关系治理机制对治理绩效具有正向调节作用;环境不确定性会扩大或缩小治理机制对治理绩效的作用强度。企业孵化网络在高市场不确定性环境下,采用关系治理机制的绩效较好;在高技术不确定性环境下,采用契约治理机制的绩效较好。     

Consumer cooperatives as an alternative form of governance: The case of the broadband industry

With a growing number of consumer cooperatives in non-agrarian industries such as energy and broadband, there is a need to better understand their emergence as a viable form of governance. In this context, the paper uses Mikami’s (2010) model on consumer cooperatives to explain their emergence as a result of their ability to generate additional equity financing through the membership market. It focuses on the motivations of consumers to financially contribute to a cooperative by examining the risks and benefits associated with the investment. Based on a survey of 759 consumers, it links their motivations for joining a cooperative to different forms of risks and benefits associated with the investment. It shows that the risks related to cost sharing and switching costs are important determinants for consumers. Other factors that affected the likelihood of joining a cooperative were expected benefits with respect to user network externalities and infrastructure gains.