‘FAMILY’ OWNERSHIP,TUNNELLING AND EARNINGS MANAGEMENT: A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

Abstract In this review paper, we bring together a number of aspects of family firms that are ubiquitous in a number of institutional contexts, often as part of larger business groups. We pay particular attention to the mechanisms by which families retain control over firms, and the incentives of the families in control to expropriate other stakeholders by way of tunnelling. We examine the role of earnings management in facilitating tunnelling, and evidence about the incidence of earnings management in family firms. Our review suggests that while the literature on these aspects of family control is rich, the contexts in which the empirical exercises are undertaken are relatively few, and hence there is considerable opportunity to expand it to other contexts, in particular in the form of cross‐country comparisons of the relative impact of agency conflicts and institutions on these issues.     

THE STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT OF TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATIONS: A REVIEW AND A MODEL

This paper describes a research model which can guide empirical studies of technological innovation in business organizations. The focus of the model is the strategic management of new product development processes. Variables that affect the success or failure of these processes are identified and several research hypotheses are suggested for empirical examination.     

A PROFILE OF DOCTORAL DISSERTATIONS IN STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT: A NOTE*

A study of 88 randomly selected strategy-related dissertations was conducted to develop a statistical profile of dissertations in the strategic management field. This study also provides some empirical evidence supporting the criticism that the field is fragmented.     

MANAGEMENT CONTROL SYSTEMS IN FAMILY FIRMS: A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE AND DIRECTIONS FOR THE FUTURE

Family firms play a significant role in the global economy. Although family firm literature has devoted much time and effort to investigating topics concerning corporate governance, leadership, ownership and succession, accounting issues have received relatively scant attention. In this paper, we assemble and critically review extant literature on the choice of management controls. This is an essential topic for firms as management control systems (MCS) are used to make sure subordinates behave in function of the goals of the firm. Family firms, however, have distinct features, such as differences in governance structures and goals, which can have a significant impact on whether and how MCS are used. We conclude this review paper by providing avenues for future research that can advance our understanding of both the determinants and the outcomes of the choice of MCS.     

THE ECONOMICS OF HEALTH AND SAFETY AT WORK: AN INTERDICIPLINARY REVIEW OF THE THEORY AND POLICY

Abstract This paper engages in an interdisciplinary survey of the current state of knowledge related to the theory, determinants and consequences of occupational safety and health (OSH). It first describes the fundamental theoretical construct of compensating wage differentials, which is used by economists to understand the optimal provision of OSH in a perfectly competitive labour market. The plethora of incentives faced by workers and firms in job and insurance markets that determine the ultimate level of OSH are discussed in detail. The extensive empirical evidence from the hedonic wage and stated choice approaches used to assess the value of OSH is reviewed. The causes of inefficiency and inequity in the market for OSH, such as externalities, moral hazard in compensation insurance, systematic biases in individual risk perception/well‐being and labour market segregation are subsequently examined. The implications of government intervention and regulation for tackling the aforementioned inefficiencies in OSH are then considered. Finally, the survey identifies areas of future research interests and suggests indicators and priorities for policy initiatives that can improve the health and safety of workers in modern job markets.     

SCALE, PERFORMANCE AND THE NEW PUBLIC MANAGEMENT: AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF LOCAL AUTHORITY SERVICES

New public management (NPM) arguments on strategy and structure suggest that performance is enhanced if large organizations are disaggregated into smaller units. the NPM perspective reflects the views of public choice theorists who claim that big organizations are unresponsive to public needs, inefficient and fail to achieve their formal goals. These arguments have underpinned many recent changes in the structure of public services at both central and local levels.
This paper uses data on six local government services to test the NPM hypothesis that there is a negative relationship between scale and performance. Five dimensions of performance are analysed: service coverage, quality, speed of provision, efficiency, and administrative effectiveness. Scale is measured through indicators of service output, caseload and needs. the impact of scale is tested in multivariate statistical models which control for other potential influences on variations in performance across local authorities.
Only around half of the statistical evidence suggests that the smallest local units are the best performers. In addition, even when performance does decline with scale, this trend is reversed in the very largest units. Thus, contrary to NPM arguments, the biggest organizations are seldom the poorest performers.     

MANAGEMENT IN CONTEXT: AN ESSAY ON THE RELEVANCE OF CULTURE TO THE UNDERSTANDING OF ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE

The recent interest in cultural analysis of organizations is based on the belief that organizations have symbolic aspects that affect organizational behaviour. Underlying this research, however, are different assumptions about the nature of symbols and the role they play in organizations. The majority of writers have assumed that symbols perform an expressive function and are used in a type of action they call 'symbolic action’which they contrast with ‘substantive action’. This dichotomy between symbolic and substantive action has resulted in the development of models that assume culture is a causal factor in organizational change, and should be controlled by the management of symbols. In this article, this approach - the management as symbolic action approach - is examined and found to be inadequate. An alternative approach is developed - the culture-as-context approach - that assumes all actions have a symbolic aspect, all actions are value-laden, symbols are meaningful only in terms of their relations with other symbols, and symbols are dispositions to action, not causes of it. The study of culture is seen, then, as the explication of action in terms of the system of symbolic forms - goals, plans, ideas, roles and traditions - that people use to give meaning and order to their experience. This approach is applied to the interactions of the members of the‘Transition Team’in a Bell Telephone operating company preparing for the deregulation of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, its parent corporation, in 1981. It is demonstrated empirically and explained conceptually that culture leads to a certain class of possible actions which makes certain attempts at change, or reactions to change, probable in a given situation.     

PATENT ENFORCEMENT: A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

Without the confidence that patent rights can be enforced quickly and efficiently, when needed, the patent system will not stimulate innovation. For this reason, governments, academics, international institutions and the private sector have poured significant resources into gathering and analysing statistics on patent enforcement over the last two decades. This paper reviews these studies and finds that while infringement is relatively common, much enforcement occurs informally and less than 1–2% of patents incur litigation. New strategic uses of the enforcement system, especially by nonpracticing entities, are the major emerging enforcement issue, especially in the United States. While the old problem of litigation costs attracts the lion's share of empirical attention, it has produced remarkably few solutions to date.     

A REVIEW OF GHEMAWAT'S COMMITMENT: THE DYNAMIC OF STRATEGY

Commitment: The Dynamic of Strategy , by Pankaj Ghemawat.
Ghemawat's Commitment makes recent results in game-theoretic industrial organization accessible and useful to practitioners in the field of strategic management. This book contributes to the management strategy literature on two levels. On a conceptual level, Ghemawat strives to isolate "commitment" as the sole explanation of persistent differences in firm performance. On a more pragmatic level, he provides a framework intended to aid managers in making commitment-intensive decisions. It is with respect to how well he achieves these two distinct goals that I evaluate Ghemawat's contribution. In addition, I review briefly the book's content, and I compare Ghemawat's approach to some alternative approaches familiar to scholars and practitioners of strategic management.     

TOP MANAGEMENT TURNOVER AND CEO SUCCESSION: AN INVESTIGATION OF THE EFFECTS OF TURNOVER ON PERFORMANCE

One strategic action which is often taken by firms in need of a turnaround is to bring in a new chief executive officer (CEO). Many observers argue, however, that having done this the new CEO must replace large numbers of top managers in order to effect a change in the firm's interactions and subsequent performance. Critics of this perspective insist that just the opposite is true. Substantial levels of turnover may only serve to further disrupt the organization decreasing performance still more. This controversy is addressed in the following study using a sample of 84 firms all of which experienced CEO succession during the year 1980. Analyses rely on a three-year-period pre-succession and three-year period post-succession. Three hypotheses are proposed. First, poor performance prior to CEO succession leads to greater turnover afterward. Second, that turnover is curvilinearly related to performance after the succession. And, finally, that successor type (i.e. whether the CEO was an inside or outside candidate) is related to the level of turnover in upper level management positions in the post-succession period. the results from tests of these hypotheses are presented, and the implications of these findings are discussed.     

THE GINI CONCENTRATION INDEX: A REVIEW OF THE INFERENCE LITERATURE

More than a century ago, Corrado Gini proposed his well-known concentration index for measuring the degree of inequality in the distribution of income and wealth. His index is still extremely relevant and widely used in several fields of research and application. In this paper, we focus on the inferential properties of the Gini index, and discuss the main directions of analysis proposed in the literature. The aim of the paper is to provide a comprehensive review of the main developments on the inferential aspects of the Gini concentration ratio. We feel that this work can provide a valuable contribution to those scholars who are approaching the large amount of literature on the inferential properties of the Gini index.