High-involvement practices and performance of French firms

This article deals with the relationship between human resource practices (HRPs) and firm performances in France. It focuses on four specific HRPs that are able to involve employees: empowerment, compensation, communication and training. Each HRP taken in isolation is supposed to be positively related to performances because it is a source of motivation and commitment for employees. But there also exists a synergy between these practices: when they are combined into a bundle and are implemented all together, they should lead to better firm performances. A survey carried out among 180 human resource managers of large French companies leads to validation of most of our hypotheses. Contrary to previous research, we do not find a significant link between compensation and firm performance. The other HRPs are all indirectly related to financial performances, with social performance playing a mediating role. When they are combined into a bundle, HRPs have a stronger impact on performance than when they are studied individually. The article concludes with the importance of developing a strategic human resource policy and of implementing coherent and complementary high-involvement practices to increase firm performance.     

Employment and wage practices of Japanese firms in the Philippines: convergence with Filipino-Chinese and Western-owned firms

In foreign-owned Philippine firms, human resource approaches and practices tend to converge. Japanese-owned firms localize their human resource practices by emphasizing local standards and practices in compensation, hiring, recruitment, job assignments and the like. On the other hand, Western-owned firms tend to adopt well-known Japanese style practices. Filipino-Chinese-owned firms tend to be traditional, emphasizing both informal and hierarchical control mechanisms which put a premium upon loyalty and trust, through familistic, informal but hierarchical control mechanisms. As the owners of these firms pass on control to the next generation, they tend to hire professional managers. These managers include younger generation Filipino-Chinese educated abroad. They are torn between the rational, and traditional norms and practices insisted upon by their Confucian-oriented elders, and the demands of a competitive and ever-changing technology and economy.

It is quite meaningless to attach adjectives like ‘Japanese’, ‘Filipino-Chinese’ or ‘Western’ to universal concepts like industrial relations and human resource approaches - the search for the best approach in work relations is beyond the issue of convergence or divergence.     

Reforming value added tax

The research reviewed in this paper establishes that the VAT system generates heavy administrative burdens for small firms in Europe despite various measures taken to alleviate them. A possible solution would be to abolish VAT charges between registered traders which would, in effect, convert the tax into a sales tax. The conclusion is that such a change would necessitate modification of the 6th Directive on VAT. The other alternative might be to compensate small firms for their work as unpaid tax collectors.     

On the stability of value added indicators

This paper shows how relevant concepts in educational effectiveness can support public policy in order to improve the performance of educational systems. Specifically, value-added indicators and the property of their stability over time is addressed with reference to application to school/teacher improvement. Findings of a longitudinal study developed in Portugal concerning primary education in mathematics are presented. Variance component models are fitted in order to obtain those indicators yearly to class-school units. Results of this study reveal that value-added indicators can be a useful instrument for progressive improvement in education, particularly in countries with high rates of student retention and evasion. The novelty of this paper is to measure value added over a single year rather than all stage of schooling that refers to more than 1 year.     

Exit, selection, and the value of firms

This paper studies a competitive dynamic model with firm level uncertainty and derives implications for the distribution of firm values and Tobin's q. Allowing for entry and exit, the model determines endogenously the degree of selection. A consequence of this selection is that average industry q values are biased above one. As parameters describing the technology and firm level uncertainty are changed, the equilibrium distribution for q values changes. This comparative statics is developed in the paper.     

The industrial relations practices of multi-plant foreign owned firms

Data from a survey of 143 enterprises indicates that foreign-owned firms are likely to devote more resources to, and be more advanced in, modern human resource management techniques while being similar in the extent to which unions are recognised for collective bargaining.     

Environmental policies and financial performance: stock market reaction to firms for their proactive environmental practices recognized by governmental programs

Firms implement proactive environmental practices (PEPs), and governments in developing countries such as China implement environmental policies such as pilot and demonstration programs to promote these PEPs. However, it remains unclear whether and when firms recognized by such governmental programs improve financial performance. Using a sample of 233 firms recognized by a national Chinese government environmental program, event study is employed to estimate stock market reaction of recognized firms. The Heckman two-stage procedure is followed to examine the moderating effects. We find that the average stock market reaction is not significant. Cross-sectional analyses indicate that firms with earlier recognitions, recognized for demonstration projects (compared with pilot ones), and operating in more-polluting industries have greater market reactions, while types of PEPs (internal versus external), export intensity and government ownership (state-owned or not) do not moderate the market reaction. This paper provides implications for firms about whether and when they should participate in a government environmental program.     

What is the value added by caseworkers?

This paper examines the efficacy of caseworkers in allocating individuals to government programs and to services within those programs. We investigate caseworker allocation of unemployed individuals to subprograms within Swiss active labour market policy in 1998. Our analysis compares the caseworker allocation to alternatives including random assignment to services and allocation via statistical treatment rules based on observable participant characteristics. Using unusually informative administrative data, we find that Swiss caseworkers obtain roughly the same post-program employment rate as random allocation to services, while statistical treatment rules, even when subject to capacity constraints, do substantially better.     

我国现行增值税存在的问题

作者对我国现行增值税在重复征税、征收范围、小规模纳税人的划分标准及对其政策、抵税凭证和税率设计几方面存在的问题进行了分析。     

Information value and efficiency measurement for risk-averse firms

This paper has three goals. First, we demonstrate that standard arguments and methods from production and duality analysis can be used to provide a comprehensive and general treatment of the value of information for a risk-averse firm with expected-utility (linear-in-probabilities) preferences and a general stochastic technology. Second, we place bounds on the value of information for a risk-averse firm and relate these bounds to characteristics of the technology and the producer’s preferences. The third and final goal is to derive the implications that information differences can have for measured efficiency differences and to relate the bounds on the value of information to those measured differences.      

Environmental sustainability orientation and performance of family and nonfamily firms

Despite the growing research evidence on the effect of environmental sustainability orientation (ESO) on firm outcomes, contingent factors that may influence the strength of this relationship have received little scholarly attention. In this study, we use insights from the literature on ESO and family business to introduce family status and firm age as moderators in the ESO‐performance linkage. Using time‐lagged data from 253 small and medium‐sized enterprises in Ghana, we found the impact of ESO on firm performance is amplified for nonfamily firms but not significant for family firms. Our evidence suggests it is stronger among older firms than younger ones. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.     

Organisational learning,knowledge assets and HR practices in professional service firms

This paper identifies the interrelationship between the nature of knowledge assets (inputs), HR practices and types of organisational learning (outputs) in Professional Service Firms (PSFs). First, we draw on a theoretical framework which includes both exploitive and explorative learning and is appreciative of the time-dimensions within which PSFs operate (accelerated-planned). This juxtaposition identifies four learning orientations. Second, we conduct a thematic analysis of multiple case study data to identify the properties of the dominant knowledge assets and the HR practices that underpin each learning orientation. Finally, we highlight the HR approaches to managing the tensions which arise when exploitive and explorative learning are combined.     

Auditor choices and auditor reporting practices: evidence from Finnish small firms

Abstract

This paper examines whether book-tax conformity (i.e. reducing the gap between financial and taxable incomes) can restrain managers from opportunistically reporting financial profits and taxable income. Empirical work on this relation so far is limited and provides contradictory results. Using publicly available financial statements from 1994 to 2007 for 16,739 firms across 32 countries, I construct a new proxy for mandatory conformity and document that high book-tax conformity is associated with lower levels of earnings management and tax avoidance. These results persist even after controlling for firm characteristics and institutional factors, such as legal enforcement, investor protection, legal systems, capital market development, and the adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). Additional tests reveal that the deterrent effect of conformity on earnings management is more pronounced in code-law countries but does not differ between IFRS and non-IFRS adopters, and between developed and developing capital markets.     

Interest rate, demand and input price uncertainty and the value of firms

In an infinite-horizon inventory model, an increase in interest rate uncertainty increases the value of a firm which has positive value. An increase in input price uncertainty increases the value of the firm. If decisions are made before the realization of demand uncertainty, increased uncertainty about an additive demand shock reduces the value of a price-setting firm with a concave value function, and leaves unchanged or increases the value of a quantity-setting firm. If decisions are made after the realization of demand uncertainty, an increase in the uncertainty of an additive demand shock increases the value of the firm.     

Environmental performance and bank lending: Evidence from unlisted firms

Growing public concerns about sustainability and adopting environmentally responsible practices increase risks as well as opportunities for firms and banks. It is unclear whether being environmentally responsible matters for unlisted firms, which are significant contributors to the degradation of the environment but which are not under strict scrutiny like public listed firms. Using a sample of 3915 firms from developing economies, we investigate whether the superior environmental performance of unlisted firms leads them to better loan conditions. After controlling for endogeneity and sample selection bias, we find that firms with better environmental performance received approximately 6.4% higher loans (as a ratio of total sales) and that this effect is more prominent in small and medium firms. This finding supports an information asymmetry view of agency costs. Our results, however, show that environmental performance does not affect loan duration and collateral requirement, indicating no spillover economic effect of corporate environmental performance on loan conditions. This partially supports a new perspective of legitimacy theory in relation to the ‘greenwash strategy’. Overall, our study shows that strategically engaged environmental activities that are integrated with core business objectives represent an important business strategy for firms to enhance credit access.     

An integrated innovation process model based on practices of Australian biotechnology firms

An integrated approach to managing the innovation process is attractive for organizations for many reasons. However, there is a relative paucity of models that describe this approach. In this paper, an attempt is made to produce one such model. Based on a multiple case study design involving nine biotechnology companies and one peak industry body from Australia, a conceptual model is proposed that has the linear stage process model as the backbone. The twin mechanisms of market pull and technology push are incorporated within the model, with a set of key organizational constructs (management, communication, structure and control) embedded within these mechanisms. Overall, the results of this study improve our understanding of the innovation process by building a more comprehensive and integrated conceptual model.     

Comparative performance appraisal practices and management values among foreign and domestic firms in India

Countering culture-based analyses indicating homogeneity in Indian management practices, this empirical study compares performance appraisal practices and management values in India by firm ownership. Differences in Indian private investor corporations, public sector enterprises, foreign/joint ventures and private family businesses are examined to assist managers to adapt selectively to firms in the changing Indian economy. Theoretical and managerial implications, as well as future directions for research are discussed.     

Bifurcated HR practices in family firms: Insights from the normative-adaptive approach to stepfamilies

This paper seeks to stimulate additional research on a form of workforce differentiation specific to family firms: the asymmetric treatment of family versus nonfamily employees. Argued to be manifest within differential HR practices applied to each group, little is known as yet about the nature, prevalence, origins, and consequences of this ‘bifurcation bias’. Our overarching thesis is that greater insight can be gleaned by considering family firms as analogous to stepfamilies, which we demonstrate by drawing upon work adopting a normative-adaptive approach to stepfamily research. A key contribution of our resultant interdisciplinary theory-building is a typology of different bifurcated HR practice bundles in family firms. We also develop propositions regarding (a) owning family characteristics that contribute to the various forms of bifurcation, (b) conditions under which the presumed dysfunctional consequences can be attenuated, and, (c) the functionality of a particular type that we term ‘bivalent bifurcation’.