The evolution of private equity: corporate restructuring in the UK,c.1945–2010

The article analyses the role of private equity (PE) in restructuring the UK corporate economy. It develops a theoretical synthesis to show that the evolution of the PE industry and firms in which it invested were governed by the relations of corporate governance between investor and investee companies. Effective governance relations were a necessary condition for success and complement firm specific resources to create competitive advantage. Four case studies are used to show the contrasting effects of these determining factors, Industrial and Commercial Finance Corporation (ICFC) and Slater Walker, and the two waves of buy-out centred restructuring that developed with the maturity of the PE industry after 1980. In contrast to the evolutionary approach, the periodisations utilised in this study show that structural breaks associated with points of institutional reform are also necessary to make firm specific resource and governance determinants of competitive advantage operable.     

Computers and business — A case of ethical overload

A technological revolution with first order implications is undeniable and underway. That is the permeation of society by computers and telecommunications technology. For western society, committed to a social, economic, and value structure premised upon an industrial society, the move to an information society is more than disruptive; it is transformational. Current changes are so rapidly paced in relation to business planning that it creates major challenges and opportunities to reach out, influence, and guide the change.The telematics revolution will affect every aspect of our society since it will affect every aspect of our world which involves the generation, production, storage, or handling of information. Many ethical issues are touched upon. To sum them up, the new immorality is to choose to act in ignorance of future consequences. Joseph F. Coates, 3738 Kanawha Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 70015. This paper was presented at The Management of Computer Technology: Values and Choices in Corporate and Public Policy, during The Fourth National Conference on Business Ethics, Bentley College, Waltham, Mass., April 3, 1981.     

All about fun(ds) in emerging markets? The case of equity mutual funds

Using an expanded sample of emerging market (EM) mutual fund returns, we find that funds predominantly investing in EM equities have, on average, higher reward-to-risk ratios compared to benchmark indices. However, adjusted for risk factors EM funds outperform before costs but not after costs. Only growth and Chinese funds generate returns that more than recoup their costs. Local funds have an edge over their foreign counterparts, outperforming them by approximately 1.8% annually. Foreign funds tend to invest more cautiously in small-cap and growth-stocks. We also show that most funds in EMs pursuing a market-timing strategy have rather poor market-timing skills negatively affecting risk-adjusted performance measures.     

The Chinese Way of Communication——the analysis of the business discourse in market place

1Theoretical background and relevant literature Much research work about service encounter has already been done.Great bodies of literatures focus on how to create high quality service encounters by improving the skills of the front-line personnel.Burns(1997)notes how“soft”skills are much more important than“hard”technical skills in the service encounter:emotional demands make salespeople be in a positive,joyful and even playful mood.The“soft”skills,in Burns’s view,tend to be the attit…     

Does your religion make a difference in your business ethics? The case of consolidated foods

While the literature in business ethics abounds with philosophical analyses, perspectives from religious thinkers are curiously underrepresented. What religious analysis has occured has often been moralistic in tone, more fit to the pulpit than the classroom or the boardroom. In the three essays that follow, presented originally at a panel at the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion in 1989, ethicists from the Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Jewish traditions analyze a case study familiar to many who teach and research in business ethics — the Consolidated Foods Case. Each author shows how a particular religious tradition might react to the case. The authors show how insights from their traditions would affect corporation's moral deliberations about policy. Specific policy recommendations are offered to CEO John Bryan. Louke Siker recieved her Ph.D. in 1987. She has taught Christian ethics and business ethics at Wake Forest University and Loyola Marymount University. Her research interests include methodology in business ethics. She is the author of An Unlikely Dialogue: Barth and Business Ethicists on Human Work, Annual of the Society of Christian Ethics, 1989. James Donahue is an Associate Professor of Theological Ethics at Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. His research and publications focus on methodology in ethics, ethics and institutions, and ethics and the professions. He has published in Horizons, Religious Studies Review, Social Thought, Bioethics Books, and The Annual of the College Theology Society. Ronald M. Green is the John Phillips Professor of Religion in the Department of Religion, Dartmouth College. He also serves as Adjunct Professor of Business Ethics at Dartmouth's Amos Tuck School of Business Administration, where he is responsible for first and second year courses on business ethics. He has written many articles in theoretical and applied ethics. He is the author of three books, Population Growth and Justice (Scholars Press, 1975), Religious Reason (Oxford University Press, 1978) and Religion and Moral Reason (Oxford University Press, 1988). Professor Green is currently working, with Dr. Robbin Derry, on a textbook in business ethics entitled The Ethical Manager to be published by Macmillian.This is a summary of the Consolidated Foods Corporation Case # 382–158, Harvard Business School, 1982. It is used with the permission of its author, Kenneth E. Goodpaster.Author of A Protestant Response to the Consolidated Food Case.Author of A Catholic Response ...Author of A Jewish Response ...     

How do institutional transitions impact the efficacy of related and unrelated diversification strategies used by business groups?

Drawing from institutional theory and organizational theory, this paper reports findings from a longitudinal study of Indian business groups as they were responding to pro-market institutional reforms. It explores their diversification choices at the group level, and the group performance consequences of these choices during a period of institutional change (1988–2012). Results show that although overall group diversification had a positive impact on performance, as institutions developed and market reforms took root, unrelated diversification resulted in poorer performance. However, related diversification strategies resulted in positive group performance outcomes after pro-market reforms had taken root. This suggests that the performance consequences of alternative diversification strategies adopted by business groups change as institutional development occurs, an important facet of business group evolution that has received limited attention in the extant literature.     

Out of Africa: The role of institutional distance and host-home colonial tie in South African Firms’ post-acquisition performance in developed economies

The colonial ties and institutional distance affect the cross-border acquisition performance of internationalizing South African firms who acquire targets in developed economies. Along with these main effects, this paper examines the moderating effect of the colonial tie on the effects of institutional distance on post-acquisition long-term operating performance. Using data on South African acquisitions in developed economies, this study finds that the colonial tie has a negative impact on the long-term operating performance of South African acquirers. Yet, the colonial tie also moderates the effects of institutional distance. This work contributes to the discussion on host-home country institutional distance and its impact on post-acquisition long-term operating performance and how colonial past can influence the performance of acquirers from South Africa and other such countries with colonial history.     

Market-oriented institutional change and R&D investments: Do business groups enhance advantage?

Emerging market firms (EMFs) are increasingly relying on innovation to find their competitive advantage, but our understanding of how institutional change affects firm innovation has been limited. We analyzed Korean manufacturing firms from 1994 to 2006 to test the proposition that market-oriented institutional change in an emerging economy alleviates firms’ financing constraints and monitoring problems and improves the effectiveness of their innovation activities. Institutional evolution in the economy was found to affect Korean business groups and independent firms differently. Institutional change reduced the financing constraints on independent firms more than for business group affiliates in R&D investment. Independent firms, however, appeared less capable than group affiliates of translating the benefits of improved institutional environments into efficient R&D investment. This asymmetry may lead to a wider gap in the efficiency of R&D investment between business group affiliates and independent firms.     

Does foreign direct investment promote institutional development in Africa?

Foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows into Africa have increased since the turn of the millennium, mainly due to FDI growth into African countries by multinational enterprises (MNEs) from developing economies. While African governments view this growth as a positive development for the continent, many governments in the West have raised concerns regarding the institutional impact of investments from developing economies. This paper examines the impact of FDI flows on institutional quality in African countries by distinguishing investments from developed versus developing economies. Previous empirical studies have found a significant relationship between FDI flows and institutional quality in African countries but regard the relationship as MNEs rewarding African countries for adopting institutional reforms. However, little attention has been paid to the reverse causality, i.e. that FDI can cause an institutional change in African countries. Using bilateral greenfield FDI flows between 56 countries during 2003?2015, we find no significant FDI effect from developed and developing economies on institutional quality in host countries. However, aggregate FDI flows from developed and developing economies have a significant positive effect on host country institutional quality but differ concerning the impact's timing. In contrast, we find no significant effect of FDI flows from China on host country institutional quality. Our results are robust to alternative measures of institutional quality.     

The role of customer management capabilities in public–private partnerships

Commercial organisations are increasingly asked to perform tasks traditionally associated with governmental bodies, such as law enforcement. The rationale for these public–private partnerships is that there are synergies between traditional business skills and those required to achieve certain societal goals. However, there is a lack of research into whether this is, indeed, the case. This paper addresses this gap by investigating one particular type of public–private partnership: anti-money laundering (AML). The study explores the potential synergies between customer relationship management (CRM) and those required for AML. A quantitative survey-based approach is used to identify the overlaps and connections between these two areas of competence. The findings reveal tensions between financial institutions’ dual roles as both commercial organisations and players in the battle against money laundering. The consequences for these firms are explored, and the wider implications for other organisations supplying non-commercial services to government are considered.     

Firms’ reactions to public information on business practices: The case of search advertising

Quantitative Marketing and Economics - We use five years of bidding data to examine the reaction of advertisers to widely disseminated press on the lack of effectiveness of brand search advertising...     

CMH Real Estate Group——The biggest private real estate group in France

The great design comes from the great ambition. Just as our CMH Group, we first have a good tradition in practice, As the leading enterprise in France and Lille area, the group always lays stress on the sustainable development of our company. This is the best development policy of CMH Group in realizing her double goal: develop and help others     

A capital-budgeting decision—The case of a multinational corporation operating in high-inflation countries

The situation considered is one in which a parent company based in the United States is making capital-budgeting decisions for a subsidiary operating in a high- inflation country. A numerical example of a lease vs. borrow problem is used to demonstrate the difficulties that are introduced in applying the standard solution to the problem in such a situation. It is shown that because of the existing tax code, inflation affects both the cash flow of a project and the discount rate. Thus, a correct analysis should consider all factors affected by inflation in order to reach the right decision.     

Multiple interpretations of “national culture” and the implications for International business: The case of Taiwan

This paper considers the implications for international business of cases whereby a country may have two, or more, conflicting interpretations of its “national culture”. A case study of the different ways in which Taiwanese self-initiated expatriates of the benshengren and waishengren social categories use their status as “Taiwanese” to do business in London suggests that the varying interpretations which people of the same national origin and ethnic group have of their “national culture”, as a symbol of identity, affects the social resources they can use. The paper concludes by considering new directions for studying national culture in international business, and for re-evaluating earlier research.     

Does size matter? The state of the art in small business ethics

In this paper the exclusive focus on large firms in the field of business ethics is challenged. Some of the idiosyncrasies of small firms are explained, and links are made between these and potential ethical issues. A review of the existing literature on ethics in small firms demonstrates the lack of appropriate research, so that to date we can draw no firm conclusions in relation to ethics in the small firm. Recommendations are made as to the way forward for small firm business ethics research. Questions for investigation are suggested using micro, meso and macro perspectives. Much exploratory work needs to be done to lay the groundwork for this important area of social and commercial research in the future.     

The cross-section of returns in frontier equity markets: Integrated or segmented pricing?

Is asset pricing segmented or integrated in frontier equity markets? To answer this question, we examine the returns on more than 4500 stocks from 22 frontier countries for the years 1997–2018. We evaluate the performance of a few major asset pricing models. We document strong value and momentum effects but find no consistent evidence regarding size, investment, and profitability premia. The recent six-factor model of Fama and French (2018) outperforms other models and best explains the cross-sectional and time-series variation in returns. Our results point to low integration of frontier equities, even after the global financial crisis. Local risk factors explain the behavior of prices much better than their global counterparts do. The low correlation of these risk factors allows augmenting the efficient frontier of an international investor.     

The influence of product involvement on consumers’ interactive processes in interactive television

Based on the classical elaboration likelihood model, we develop an interactive communication behavior model and apply it to the interactive television environment. The model suggests a hypothesis about interactive information searches and how they are impacted by product involvement and hypotheses about how the category of an advertised product impacts the type of information sought. Testing these hypotheses empirically, we verify that product involvement influences the extent of interactive communication behavior, while the type of information being sought is a function of the advertised product category. Implications regarding advertising practice and research are suggested.     

Korean Business Abroad——Korean business in china

Since China and South Korea established diplomatic ties in 1992, South Korean investment grew rapidly and soon became the main source of foreign capital in China.According to Ministry of Commerce statis- tics,as of the end of 2003,South Korea’s total actual investment in China amounted to 19,688 billion US dollars.Only in the first eight months of 2004,its actual investment in China had reached 4,661 bil- lion US dollars,more than Japan and the United States’ investment flows.