Foreign acquisition and post-privatization exit of state-owned firms

This paper analyzes the impact of foreign and domestic ownership on the exit rates of privatized state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in transitional countries. The exit of privatized SOEs can have a profound impact on employment and on the development of local economies of transitional countries. An oligopoly model that incorporates country-level trade costs and individual SOE's productivity is developed to assess the exit of SOEs under either foreign or domestic ownership. The model shows that market competition between firms can lead to liquidation of the SOE by a domestic firm when trade costs increase. When the productivity of SOE is high, neither foreign nor domestic firm will liquidate. The predictions of the model are tested using firm-level privatization data from Central and Eastern Europe. By controlling for productivity, trade costs, and other attributes of SOEs after privatization, it is found that foreign ownership significantly reduces the probability of SOE's exit as compared to domestic ownership. Furthermore, there is evidence that as trade costs increase, the exit probability of domestically owned SOEs increases and the exit probability of foreign-owned SOEs declines.     

Why Do Governments Privatize Abroad?

Privatization through global equity market placement has largely contributed to financial market development and integration. Despite the relevance of the fact, the reasons underlying governments' choice to sell shares of privatized companies abroad are still poorly understood. This paper presents new evidence for a sample of 233 share issue privatizations in 20 OECD countries, showing that redistribution concerns and the objective of domestic financial market development make domestic privatization more likely. However, if budget constraints are binding, governments tend to sell abroad a larger quantity of shares, particularly when corporate governance at home is weak.     

Privatization in East Germany: The delivery of an economy

Soon after the re-unification of East and West Germany, the West German government chose to swiftly privatize the businesses of its former neighbor. To oversee this process, the government set up an independent agency, the Treuhandanstalt, which did its work from July 1990 to December 1994. In that time, thousands of businesses were converted to private ownership, and jobs were secured for 1.5 million employees. Von der Heyden discusses the efficacy of the project, its successes and failures, and how applicable the German model may be for other governments seeking a complete privatization of their countries' assets.     

The globalization of Chinese enterprises

The question of how and why Chinese firms globalize is one of the most pressing issues for businesses today. China's globalization process is nothing less than remarkable. The twenty‐first century will feature a developing country as the leader of the global economy by 2020, when, by most estimates, China's purchasing power parity (PPP) gross domestic product (GDP) surpasses America's. With China's new role on the world's stage, global economic and political institutions are likely to change. China's foray into Latin America, for example, has changed the traditional role that America has played in its “backyard.” While the Chinese government was given much credit for China's globalization, Chinese private‐ and family‐owned businesses have also propelled China outward. Our research stream and annual China Goes Global conference at Harvard has attempted to frame the questions associated with China's globalization. This special issue is another important step in this direction. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The impact of residual government ownership in privatized firms: New evidence from China

This study investigates the determinants of residual government ownership and the impact of such ownership on post-privatization performance in China. Using hand collected data, we find that government shareholders are more likely to be present in small firms, while large firms are more likely to have politically connected CEOs on their boards. Contrary to the “political interference” hypothesis, our results show that residual government ownership has a positive impact on Tobin's Q. This study indicates that when the risk of expropriation by parent companies is high, government shareholders can add value to firms by signalling their commitment to privatization.     

The privatization of swarzedz furniture company (SFM): Lessons from Poland's first underwritten public offering

The sale through public offering of Poland's Swarzedz Furniture Company demonstrates that relatively complex privatization transactions can be successfully implemented in economies where capital market institutions have not yet fully emerged. However, the company's performance before and after privatization suggests that a change of ownership is a necessary, but not a sufficient, requirement for effective restructuring of a state-owned enterprise in a formerly socialist economy.     

Privatization in Saudi Arabia: Is slow beautiful?

The aim of this article is to abridge the dearth of academic research on Saudi Arabia's privatization strategy, which is touted by government as key to empowering the business community in the largest economy in the Middle East and North Africa region. Whereas some contend privatization has moved at a slow pace and that the business model employed for privatizing public enterprises lacks commercial business efficiency standards, government retorts that, guided by an organized and sequential process, privatization has been successful. This article maintains that if privatization is to confer the benefits claimed for it and sway international investors equipped with modern managerial skills and technical know‐how, authorities need to accelerate privatization and subject enterprises to steadfast market competitive forces. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Do women-owned businesses have equal access to angel capital?

Women-owned businesses are the fastest growing sector of new venture ownership in the United States. Although women's access to, and use of, debt and venture capital financing have been explored, comparatively little is known about women's access to capital from private equity investors. In this paper, we examine the equality of women's access to angel capital. The research suggests that women seek angel financing at rates substantially lower than that of men, but have an equal probability of receiving investment. We also document that women are more likely to seek, and to a lesser extent receive, financing from women angels.     

Indian economy and Indian private equity

India's gross domestic product has been growing at more than 8% in the past few years, making it the fourth‐largest economy in terms of purchasing power parity. According to a Goldman Sachs report, India could become the second‐largest economy in the world by 2050. The key growth drivers are investments in infrastructure, domestic consumption, and a hub for global outsourcing. This is further supported by growth‐oriented policies by the government. The favorable environment has led to the growth of the private equity market. India received approximately U.S. $17.5 billion of investments in private equity in 2007, making it the number‐one destination in Asia. Indian private equity has been mainly focused on providing growth/expansion capital to the company as compared to buyouts in the developed markets. © 2008 ICICI Bank Limited. Printed with permission.     

The collapse of the Soviet Ministries: Economic and legal transformation

Facing a free-falling economy, the presidents of the Commonwealth of Independent States (formerly the Soviet Union), led by Russian President Boris Yeltsin, began to administer shock therapy in order to transform their economy into a market-driven economy as soon as possible. On January 1, 1992, a series of decrees by Yeltsin freed almost all prices, privatized ownership of most land, permitted privatization of collective farms, motivated privatization of all small enterprises, and enabled the transfer of almost all state enterprises into joint stock companies. A few days later, other Commonwealth states, such as the Ukraine and Byelorussia, adopted similar measures. As a result, five full years after the far-reaching concept of perestroika was put forth by Mikhail Gorbachev, 1992 seems to be the year of the acid test of the market economy in the Commonwealth. In the meantime, over 80 ministries, which had controlled the Soviet economy, collapsed. What do these changes mean to the international executive in terms of risk, opportunity, and strategy?     

Policy transfer and policy inertia: privatization in Taiwan

In recent years, privatization seems to have been more talked about than carried out in a number of countries. This study looks at the progress of privatization in Taiwan in the light of the literature on policy transfer. Although the government of Taiwan announced a privatization programme in the late 1980s, by the end of 1998 sales of state-owned enterprises had occurred much more slowly than planned. The first part of the article reviews the literature on policy transfer. Policy transfer has been described as the process by which policies transfer from one country to another due to mimetic, normative or coercive effects. Taiwan's privatization programme is then reviewed and the main barriers to change are identified. The study concludes by considering the implications of Taiwan's record on privatization for our understanding of policy transfer in an international context.     

Privatization in Italy: Roundtable discussion with Paolo Savona the italian minister of industry

Over the last few years, the Italian government has intensified its privatization program of state-owned industries. Since 1989, it has privatized the banking and food industries and will begin work on the telecom and insurance industries in late 1994. Paolo Savona, the Minister of Industry, has been in part responsible for these reforms. In his comments to the Italian Academy of Advanced Studies at Columbia University, he outlines the constitutional and cultural difficulties that Italy has faced in its privatization program, and asserts that through reducing the public debt, improving efficiency, and enlarging capital and other markets, the Italian economy will be better prepared for the 21st Century.     

Environmental Tax and Public Ownership in Vertically Related Markets

This paper investigates the optimal rate of environmental tax and level of privatization in a vertical relationship between one partially privatized producer and two private sellers. The main results are as follows: First, privatization of the producer firm decreases environmental damage. Second, the optimal environmental tax rate equals the Pigouvian level. Third, fully nationalizing the producer firm is optimal when the government simultaneously decides upon the environmental tax rate; then, privatization decreases social welfare.     

Exploring corporate entrepreneurship in privatized firms

This paper reports an analysis of whether state-owned enterprises (SOEs) increase their levels of corporate entrepreneurship after privatization. The study uses agency theory to discuss why SOEs display little entrepreneurial behavior and how privatization may alter this situation by changing firms’ systems of controls and incentives. The study also uses a sample of Spanish firms for its empirical research. Data on these firms were available for three years before and after privatization. The findings show that corporate entrepreneurship increases after privatization when firms are in highly competitive industries, either because competition was greater after privatization or because the firm was already in a highly competitive industry. In summary, corporate entrepreneurship in privatized firms seems to be favored by two factors, a change of ownership and competition.     

On the survival prospects of men's and women's new business ventures

In this study, we examine the relationship between owner and business characteristics and business survival. Our findings are based upon analyses of the Census Bureau's 1982 and 1987 Characteristics of Business Owners (CBO) survey data on a sample of white male and female sole proprietors. Two aspects of this study distinguish it from any related studies to date. First, we separately examine issues affecting the survival prospects of female-owned businesses, whereas previous studies have focussed solely on businesses owned by men. Second, we use data on cohorts of businesses started or acquired in two different time periods, namely 1980–1982 and 1985–1987. Overall, the mean survival rates of male-owned businesses in these two cohorts are 4- to 6% higher, respectively, that those of businesses owned by women.We hypothesize that wage employment provides opportunities for men and women to acquire the financial and human capital necessary for success in business ownership. In fact, most male and female business owners had some prior spell of employment in the wage sector. But there are gender differences in the status of wage workers that, we further hypothesize, could differentially impact the survival prospects of men's and women's new business ventures. First, women's lower average wage earnings may imply more binding financial constraints on the initial scale of women's businesses relative to men's. Second, we find that female owners in both cohorts are less likely than their male counterparts to have had any prior managerial experience or to have 10 or more years of general, prior paid employment experience, which may imply that female entrepreneurs are more constrained in the amount and quality of human capital that they acquire during wage employment. Female entrepreneurs' access to debt and equity capital has not been overlooked by policy makers. What has been largely overlooked are possible gender differences in the amount and quality of human capital of new entrepreneurs. Women's fewer years of general work experience and lesser exposure to managerial occupations may indicate a role for remedial education or mentoring of would-be female entrepreneurs.Women in both cohorts tended to use less financial capital to start or acquire their businesses than men did, and for the 1982 cohort, business survival is found to be positively related to the amount of start-up capital, other factors held constant. The survival prospects of both male- and female-owned businesses are greater for owners with 10 or more years of prior work experience and/or 4 or more years of college. So at least in terms of education and quantity of work experience, female entrepreneurs are at something of a disadvantage relative to their male counterparts. We find that prior managerial experience has no systematic positive or negative effects on the survival prospects of either men's or women's new business ventures, however.Finally, our research indicates that issues concerning business formation and survival must be considered within the context of prevailing macroeconomic conditions. For example, we find that the survival rates of both male- and female-owned businesses started in the 1985–1987 time period were considerably higher than those of businesses started in 1980–1982. Moreover, we uncover systematic differences in owner and business characteristics between our 1982 and 1987 cohorts, as well as differences in how these characteristics influence business survival. Specifically, both male and female owners in our 1982 cohort were better educated, were more likely to have had prior, paid managerial experience, and had more years of prior, paid employment experience, in general. Researchers interested in assessing the survival prospects of businesses over a given time period must consider changes in both product and labor markets over that period. Strength of demand in product markets will have an obvious, direct effect on business viability. The tightening and loosening of labor markets imply changes in potential wage earnings (an opportunity cost of being self-employed) and in this way can affect business dissolution.     

The determinants of foreign partner's equity ownership in Southeast Asian joint ventures

Using a sample of 375 equity joint venture agreements between 2 partners in 6 Southeast Asian countries, we document the active role of Asian companies in driving the flow of joint venture activity in this region and provide a comparative analysis of joint ventures in transitional and non-transitional Southeast Asian countries. Specifically, we analyze the relationship between the foreign partner's equity ownership and partner uncertainty, the types of joint venture activities, and the frequency of transactions between the joint venture partners. In addition, we show that the relationship between the foreign partner's equity ownership and partner uncertainty, as proxied by cultural dissimilarity, depends on the types of joint venture activities. In the case of Vietnam, a transitional economy, the evidence suggests that, in the presence of a weak legal and regulatory system, foreign firms are entering the country on a smaller scale and are more prone to informal, relational contracting as a substitute for legal enforcement.     

Do outside directors and new managers help improve firm performance? An exploratory study in Russian privatization

In the context of privatization and restructuring in Russia, we test two standard agency theory hypotheses, namely, (1) outside board members and (2) new managers are positively related to firm performance. Based on a survey of 314 privatized firms, the evidence offers little support for the hypotheses. Historically, results refuting theories have been launch pads for scientific progress. Our findings, therefore, raise interesting questions about whether the underlying theory is appropriate, whether there are methodological problems, or whether there are institutional factors in Russia’s transition economy that need to be accounted for when we test agency theory in a new setting. We address these questions and discuss their implications for corporate governance theory, practice, and public policy.     

Maximum-Revenue and Optimum-Welfare Tariffs in International Mixed Duopoly: Does the Order of Firms’ Move Matter?

This paper examines the effect of privatization on the priority of the maximum-revenue tariff and the optimum-welfare tariff in a mixed oligopoly with partial privatization and foreign competition. Major findings of this paper are that: firstly, in a mixed duopoly with partial privatization and asymmetric marginal costs, when the marginal cost of the privatized firm is higher than a critical value, the optimum-welfare tariff will be lower than the maximum-revenue tariff regardless of the order of firms?? move; secondly, if the degree of privatization is sufficiently high and cost is symmetric, the optimum-welfare tariff will be higher than the maximum-revenue tariff; thirdly, if the degree of privatization is sufficiently high and the domestic firm is highly ineffective in production, under Stackelberg public leadership, the optimum-welfare tariff is low and then it is more possible that the optimum-welfare tariff is lower than the maximum-revenue one.     

民营化、国有化与中国国有银行改革

国有银行自上世纪70年代中期以来出现了民营化的国际趋势,一些国家因此发生了银行危机.而此前全球曾有过国有化浪潮.虽然国有银行效率比民营银行低,但经验研究却表明,国有银行与银行危机之间没有或很少有因果关系;而且由于有政府信誉担保不易发生挤兑.中国国有银行改革过程实际上是政府逐步放弃控制权的过程,但切不可因效率而忽视金融稳定;简单地依靠所有权变更无法解决国有银行脆弱性问题;而且,与境外战略投资者合作时要谨防金融主权失控风险.     

Role of Advertising and Promotion in Brand Equity Creation

This article surveys the effects of the individual's attitude toward advertising and nonmonetary promotions besides other subjects, namely advertising cost and monetary promotions on brand equity. It has been surveyed on 392 consumers in Iran. Its results prove the effective role of the individual's attitude toward advertising in promoting the brand equity. The deficiency of advertising in affecting the perceived quality and brand association, and the inefficacy of nonmonetary promotions on brand equity are the fascinating ramifications. In addition, the findings show that businesses can improve the process of the brand equity management by contemplating the relations between the dimensions of the brand equity.