技术多元化、行业集中度与企业绩效波动

技术多元化是企业提高核心竞争力的重要手段,在不同行业背景下,技术多元化战略对于企业绩效的稳定作用存在一定的差异.运用2009—2018年710家创业板公司IPC发明专利信息数据,采用固定面板模型,基于行业特征与行业集中度视角研究了技术多元化对于企业绩效波动的影响.研究发现:技术多元化对于企业绩效波动有明显平滑效果;在高科技行业中,技术多元化对企业绩效波动的平滑效应相对较强;行业集中度低的情况下,技术多元化对企业绩效波动的平滑效应相对较强,而在高行业集中度的情况下,平滑效应近乎无效.为企业的技术知识基础建设提供重要依据,同时为不同行业背景下的多元化产业技术生态建设提供科学的理论指导.     

Ownership Structure and Firm Performance: Evidence from Vietnamese Listed Firms

We examine the effect of ownership structure on firm performance, for firms listed on Vietnamese stock exchanges, using 2744 firm‐year observations over the period from 2007 to 2012. We find a non‐linear relationship between ownership structure and firm performance. State ownership has a convex relationship with firm performance. This paper finds that firm performance increases beyond 28.67 percent level of state ownership. Foreign ownership has a concave relationship with firm performance. We find that firm performance increases with an increase of foreign ownership up to a level of 43 percent and then decreases. Policy makers should encourage foreign ownership and widely dispersed state ownership in firms, which can help improve firm performance.     

Corruption and corporate leverage in an emerging economy: The role of economic freedom

This study investigated the effects of corruption and economic freedom on corporate leverage. We also evaluated how economic freedom shapes the effect of corruption on corporate leverage. Using a sample of Vietnamese firms covering a nine-year period from 2010 to 2018, we find evidence that increased control of corruption has a significant positive impact on firm leverage, whereas the opposite is true for economic freedom. This effect is robust to alternative measures of control of corruption as well as advanced estimation methods, such as firm-fixed effects and quantile regressions. Our results also reveal that the positive impact of corruption controls on corporate leverage is more pronounced for firms with high economic freedom. Econometrically, our findings indicate that firms with better control over corruption prefer debt financing, as demonstrated by their higher leverage ratio.     

Diversification strategies and firm performance in Vietnam

This paper is based upon the assumption that a firm's profitability is determined by its degree of diversification which is, in turn, strongly related to the antecedent decision to carry out diversification activities. This calls for an empirical approach that permits the joint analysis of the three interrelated and consecutive stages of the overall diversification process: diversification decision, degree of diversification and outcome of diversification. We apply parametric and semi‐parametric approaches to control for sample selection and the endogeneity of the diversification decision in both static and dynamic models. For the analysis, we use the census dataset on the whole firm population in Vietnam, as a representative of transition countries. After controlling for industry fixed‐effects, the empirical evidence from the firm‐level data shows that diversification has a curvilinear effect on profitability: it improves firms’ profit up to a point, after which a further increase in diversification is associated with declining performance. This implies that firms should consider optimal levels of product diversification when they expand their product offerings beyond their core business. Other noteworthy findings include the following: (i) the factors that stimulate firms to diversify do not necessarily encourage them to extend their diversification strategy; (ii) firms that are endowed with highly technological resources and innovation investment are likely to successfully exploit diversification as an engine of growth; and (iii) while industry performance does not have a strong influence on the profitability of firms, it impacts their diversification decision as well as the degree of diversification.     

Corporate Restructuring in Japan Part I: Can M‐Form Organization Manage Diverse Businesses?

The purpose of this paper is to examine the recent organizational restructuring in Japan in the framework of organizational economics, assuming that the product/market portfolio of the firm is fixed. How does a firm set about organizing its internal divisions? I first summarize some stylized facts on corporate diversification strategy and multi‐divisional (M‐form) organization in large Japanese firms from different perspectives. I then analyse the problem of choosing an organizational form. In particular, I argue that, precisely because of its related diversification, the multi‐business Japanese firm adopting the M‐form finds it difficult to differentiate its diverse businesses internally.     

The impact of privatization on firm performance in a transition economy

The Vietnamese privatization programme, launched in 1992, differs from the usual Western privatization programmes in terms of the residual percentage of shares owned by the state and the portion of shares owned by insiders. This begs the question whether these differences influence the effects of the programme on firm performance. This study measures the impact of privatization on firm performance in Vietnam by comparing the pre‐ and post‐privatization financial and operating performance of 121 former state‐owned enterprises (SOEs). We find significant increases in profitability, sales revenues, efficiency and employee income. Results of applying the ‘difference‐in‐difference’ (DID) method, wherein a control group of firms is used to pick up the influence of other determinants of firm performance, suggest that the performance improvements may indeed be associated with equitization. Regression analyses reveal that firm size, residual state ownership, corporate governance and stock market listing are key determinants of performance improvements.     

How should firms carry out technological diversification to improve their performance? An analysis of patenting of Korean firms

This research aims to analyze how a firm's technological diversification strategies influence its financial performances, in terms of ‘technological diversification’ in broad technology sectors and ‘technological concentration’ on its own core technology, especially in the case of Korean large firms. The data used in the analysis were panel data encompassing the years between 1990 and 2006, which linked Korean firms’ patent information registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office to the financial data of those firms collected from Korea Investors Service, Inc. (Kis-Value). For the estimation of the panel data, a fixed effect model, which considers the individual firms’ own effect on the financial performance, was used. Tobin's q was used as a dependent variable representing firm performance, while ‘broad technology diversity’ and ‘core technology diversity’ were used as the focal explanatory variables. The results show that a firm seeking to have more technological assets should invest in a broad technological diversification strategy in its search for new business opportunities; it should likewise concentrate on the core technology in order to maintain its financial performance.     

公司治理与企业家精神

传统公司治理理论强调对于企业控制权的控制,而淡化了企业作为企业家精神租金创造的意义。本文通过对公司治理与企业家精神的内在逻辑分析,提出公司治理实质上包含着朝向企业家精神的保健机制与激励机制,其共同作用影响企业家精神的发挥从而决定了公司治理的绩效。在理论分析的基础上,本文利用上市家族、国有企业的数据对理论假设进行了实证检验。结果证明,就家族企业而言,激励机制对企业家精神具有显著的正向促进作用,保健机制则表现为不作为或失灵;就国有企业而言,激励机制对企业家精神无显著影响,保健机制则对企业家精神具有较为显著的“倒U型”作用。     

Organisational form and the economic impacts of innovation: the case of patent grant announcements

This study investigates the impact of corporate diversification on the value creation of patent grants. We find that focussed firms experience significantly greater market reactions to patent announcements than diversified firms. Diversification into related industries has little effect on the wealth gains of granted patents, while diversification into unrelated industries significantly reduces the wealth gains. We further find that post-announcement operating performance is significantly associated with the degree of diversification. Overall, our findings suggest that the selection of diversification as a firm's organisational structure has a negative influence on the value creation of innovation, and this influence is exacerbated when this diversification involves unrelated industries.     

实际控制权性质、多元化进入方式与多元化经营业绩

企业实施多元化战略后,公司内部治理机制及外部治理环境均发生了相应改变。仅从内部治理结构与外部治理机制的角度进行分析,并不能够完全解释控制权性质对多元化公司绩效的作用途径。多元化进入方式作为多元化战略的关键部分,对经营业绩具有重要的影响。从多元化进入方式的角度分析控制权性质对多元化业绩的作用具有重要的意义。本文以2002～2004年111家制造业上市公司的年报资料为样本,从多元化进入模式的角度,考察了不同控制权类型对多元化经营公司绩效的影响。研究发现,国有上市公司多采用自建方式实施多元化战略,采用自建方式的国有上市公司绩效优于采用并购方式的上市公司。同时,非国有上市公司多采用并购方式实施多元化战略,采用并购方式的非国有上市公司绩效更优。     

The role of corporate governance strength in crisis and non-crisis times

This study evaluates corporate governance practices of listed firms in the United Arab Emirates and investigates whether corporate governance mitigates/exacerbates the impact of leverage and risk on firm performance during crisis and non-crisis times. The study constructs a corporate governance index not only to examine the dispute of the role of corporate governance during the crisis but also its influence on other factors that fuelled the crisis. A firm-level panel data is used that spans the period 2008–2012 of all listed firms on Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) and Dubai Financial Market (DFM). The study finds a positive influence of corporate governance strength on the accounting performance, but a negative influence on the firms’ economic performance. In normal times, corporate governance mitigates the negative influence of leverage and risk on the accounting and economic firm performance. However, this synergy effect varies across performance indicators during crisis.     

Firm Value,Corporate Cash Holdings and Financial Constraint: A Study from a Developing Market

This paper investigates the nonlinear relationship between firm value and corporate cash holdings in a sample of non‐financial Vietnamese firms from 2008 to 2013. We focus on both static and dynamic regressions to test for a nonlinear relationship. Our results reveal an ‘inverse U‐shape’ relationship between firm value and cash holdings, which is in line with trade‐off theory. Specially, we further test whether the optimal cash level changes under different financial conditions. In turn, this paper shows evidence of a nonlinear relationship between firm value and cash holdings under different financial circumstances and that each type of firm will adjust its optimal cash level based on business conditions.     

多元化经营与企业价值:我国上市公司多元化溢价的实证分析

多元化经营与企业价值之间的关系是近年来公司金融领域的一个研究热点.为此,该文建立起我国上市公司多元化程度的相关数据库,通过间接检验内部资本市场理论的实证含义,深入分析多元化经营与企业价值的理论与经验关系,发现:我国上市公司存在显著的多元化溢价现象,多元化公司具有较大的市值一账面值比、Tobin's q 和超额价值;在控制住规模、无形资产、财务杠杆和股利政策等影响企业价值的因素后,多元化溢价仍位于0.09?0.16之间;产生多元化溢价的原因是价值高的企业更倾向于采取多元化经营战略,并且我国上市公司的内部资本市场可能较为有效.     

Corporate tax policy and heterogeneous firm innovation: Evidence from a developing country

This paper adds to the literature by identifying the causality of corporate tax policy on firm innovation in a developing country. We exploit the China’s 2006 corporate income tax base reform to integrate the tax system between foreign-invested and state/collective-controlled firms as a natural experiment. The difference-in-differences strategy documents a positive effect of corporate tax deduction on firm patenting. The effect is particularly significant if a firm is of larger size or locates in eastern provinces. We also examine possible channels behind the findings, including changes in R&D and capital investment, intangible assets, financial constraints, and new product sales.     

The impact of local financial development on firm growth in Vietnam: Does the level of corruption matter?

We examine the effects of province-level financial development and corruption on the performance of Vietnamese firms in terms of the growth rates of sales, investment and sales per worker. Employing a large firm-level dataset of more than 40,000 firms for the period 2009–2013 and applying a heteroskedasticity-based identification strategy, we find that province-level financial development promotes firm growth, while corruption hinders it. Most importantly, the marginal effect of financial development on firm growth depends negatively on the level of corruption. Moreover, financial development exacerbates the growth-retarding effect of corruption.     

Determinants and value relevance of UK CEO pay slice

This paper studies the CEO pay slice (CPS) of UK listed firms during the period 2003 to 2009. We investigate the determinants of CPS. We study the links between CPS and measures of firm performance. We find that firms with higher levels of corporate governance ratings and those with more independent boards tend to have higher CPS. In addition, we find that CEOs are more likely to receive lower compensation when they chair the board and when they work in firms with large board size. We also find that higher CPS is positively associated with firm performance after controlling for the firm-specific characteristics and corporate governance variables. We get compatible results when we examine the association between equity-based CPS and firm performance. Our results remain robust to alternative accounting measures of firm performance. Our results suggest that high UK CPS levels do indeed reflect top managerial talent rather than managerial power.     

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate diversification: do diversified production firms invest more in CSR?

A diversification strategy increases the range of stakeholder demands and social issues related to a firm’s operation. Examining the consequence of production diversification strategy at a broader level, not only (short-term) financial performance but also long-term performance, as proxied by corporate social responsibility (CSR), is surprising. We show that a firm’s production diversification is associated with stronger engagement in CSR, particularly for unrelated diversification. And the higher level of diversification is, the more investment in CSR. Our findings lead to the interesting questions regarding diversification discount and the value of unrelated diversification, which has often been criticized because of its negative impact on short-term financial performance.     

Is it Beneficial to be Included in a Sustainability Stock Index? A Panel Data Study for European Firms

This paper empirically examines the effect of inclusion in the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index (DJSI World) on corporate financial performance. On the basis of panel data for European firms that were included in the Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index over time, our micro-econometric analysis with fixed and random effects models implies positive impacts on return on assets for continental European countries, but insignificant effects for Anglo-Saxon European countries (i.e., the United Kingdom and Ireland). Furthermore, the impacts on alternative indicators of corporate financial performance such as Tobin’s Q are generally insignificant. The weak or neutral effect of inclusion in the DJSI World on corporate financial performance can be explained by several mutually confounding factors. Furthermore, the composition of this sustainability stock index is influenced by factors that need not necessarily be directly connected to corporate environmental or social activities, so that potential positive and negative effects of corporate sustainability performance on financial performance can be weakened. Methodologically, this study again supports the strong relevance of unobserved firm heterogeneity since the application of misspecified pooled regression models leads to obviously biased estimation results.     

Stock market-driven investment: new evidence on information,financing and agency effects

This study provides a theoretical model and empirical analysis to jointly examine the information, financing and agency effects, the three channels through which the stock market can actively influence corporate investment decisions and firm performance. First, stock market affects corporate investments, and such impact varies with different market valuation measures, types of investments and firm characteristics. Second, stock market valuation affects investments through the channel of corporate financing, supporting the financing hypothesis. Third, stock market-driven investments have differential impacts on the future operating performance of firms. Investments driven by market valuation of firm-specific information have a positive effect on future performance. In contrast, investments driven by market-wide sentiment have a negative effect on future performance. Fourth, consistent with the information hypothesis, market-driven investments are value-enhancing for firms with better external monitoring by analysts and institutional investors. Lastly, consistent with the agency hypothesis, market-driven investments are value-destroying when firms lack external monitoring, proper managerial incentives and independent board of directors.     

Ownership and corporate wage policy: the signal and its strength

We argue that identification and proper specification of ownership links among firms is an important factor and is affecting firm performance on different dimensions. We focus on the corporate wage policy, where we show that firms with same stockholders have similar average labour costs after controlling for standard factors of the wage equation. Moreover, we propose new measures of stockholders’ ability to influence firms’ decision; signal and its strength. The signal measures stockholder’s preferences over a given corporate policy, while the strength function describes stockholder’s ability to influence a firms’ corporate policy.