Causality Between Corporate Social Performance and Financial Performance: Evidence from Canadian Firms

This study assesses the causal relationship between corporate social performance (CSP) and financial performance (FP). We perform our empirical analyses on a sample of 179 publicly held Canadian firms and use the measures of CSP provided by Canadian Social Investment Database for the years 2004 and 2005. Using the “Granger causality” approach, we find no significant relationship between a composite measure of a firm’s CSP and FP, except for market returns. However, using individual measures of CSP, we find a robust significant negative impact of the environmental dimension of CSP and three measures of FP, namely return on assets, return on equity, and market returns. This latter finding is consistent, at least in the short run, with the trade-off hypothesis and, in part, with the negative synergy hypothesis which states that socially responsible firms experience lower profits and reduced shareholder wealth, which in turn limits the socially responsible investments.     

Financial Knowledge and Child Development Account Policy: A Test of Financial Capability

This study examines how study participants' financial knowledge and participation in a Child Development Account intervention affects 529 College Savings Plan account holding among caregivers of infants. The study uses data from the SEED for Oklahoma Kids (N = 2,651), a statewide randomized experiment using a probability sample of infants selected from birth records. Results of logit regression show that participants' financial knowledge is positively related to account holding in the treatment group but not in the control group. The interactive effects between financial knowledge and treatment status are statistically significant. This finding implies that the effect of financial knowledge on financial decisions related to college savings is moderated by institutional features, such as incentives, information and access. Results of this study support the propositions of financial capability and suggest that expanding financial capability requires both improved individual financial knowledge and supportive policy .     

供应链金融缓解融资约束效应研究--来自科技型中小企业的经验证据

本文理论分析供应链金融缓解融资约束的作用机理,提出金融发展与产权性质对供应链金融缓解企业融资约束具有调节效应的观点。研究结果表明：科技型中小企业普遍存在融资约束现象,具有强烈的研发投资－现金流敏感性;供应链金融可以缓解科技型中小企业的融资约束程度,显著降低企业的研发投资－现金流敏感性;相对于低金融发展地区,高金融发展地区的供应链金融对融资约束的缓解效应更显著,相对于国有企业,非国有企业的供应链金融对融资约束的影响更显著。     

Financial Literacy and Retirement Preparedness: Evidence and Implications for Financial Education

Economists are beginning to investigate the causes and consequences of financial illiteracy to better understand why retirement planning is lacking and why so many households arrive close to retirement with little or no wealth. Our review reveals that many households are unfamiliar with even the most basic economic concepts needed to make saving and investment decisions. Such financial illiteracy is widespread: the young and older people in the United States and other countries appear woefully under-informed about basic financial concepts, with serious implications for saving, retirement planning, mortgages, and other decisions. In response, governments and several nonprofit organizations have undertaken initiatives to enhance financial literacy. The experience of other countries, including a saving campaign in Japan as well as the Swedish pension privatization program, offers insights into possible roles for financial literacy and saving programs. JEL Classification A2, G2     

Networks of innovators: Evidence from Canadian patents

Various forms of cooperative development have emerged in recent years, in response to increasing competitive pressures, development costs, and complexity. We use data on patents granted by the Canadian government between 1978 and 1989, in order to explore the formation of development coalitions, where two or more firms jointly develop and patent an innovation. Close to 2,600 firms have been involved in development coalitions. These coalitions can be mapped into more than 1,000 independent networks of innovators. The largest network interconnects 711 organizations.The prevalence of development coalitions varies considerably across nations. Two-thirds of the Japanese firms holding more than five patents are involved in at least one development coalition. This figure is less than 20% for Canadian and American firms, and 35% for German firms. Coalitions tend to be domestic rather than international. They also tend to be intra-sectorial, except in Japan where they are more frequently inter-sectorial. Our analysis indicates that Japanese development networks are very loose, just as they are for their American and European counterparts.This research has been supported by a grant of the FCAR. The author would like to thank the participants of the First International Conference on Joint-Ventures and Strategic Alliances (University Park) and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments.     

金融发展与家庭金融资产投资:基于中国数据的分析

文章使用中国2000-2011年的季度数据,运用动态最小二乘(DOLS)和误差修正模型(ECM),检验了金融发展与家庭金融资产投资之间的长期和短期动态关系.结果表明,在金融发展和资产收益率之间不存在明显的分工,金融发展无论是在短期和长期都会影响家庭投资组合的动态变化,其中,无论在短期和长期,股票市场发展在家庭存款和股票资产之间都产生了较强的替代效应.     

Assessing the Validity of Consumer Ratings for Higher Education: Evidence from a New Survey

This analysis assesses the validity of using consumer surveys to measure the quality of colleges using new survey data from the Strada‐Gallup Education Consumer Survey. I develop an individual consumer rating based on responses to 14 items related to the quality of education and implement two validity tests: Do higher ratings predict higher welfare, and do they correspond to objective quality measures? I conclude that they do. Indeed, the mean ratings of at least 20 other alumni provide a better prediction of individual satisfaction than popular college rankings from media sources. Consumers rate their experiences higher after attending not‐for‐profit colleges that generate better economic opportunities, enroll students with higher test scores, employ well‐paid faculty, and graduate a higher percentage of students who eventually earn doctorates. I conclude that survey‐based consumer ratings of postsecondary institutions can provide valid and reliable quality comparisons.     

Knowledge outflows from foreign subsidiaries and the tension between knowledge creation and knowledge protection: Evidence from the semiconductor industry

This paper analyzes the MNC subsidiaries’ trade-off between the need for knowledge creation and the need for knowledge protection, and relates it to the extent of knowledge outflows generated within the host location. Combining research in International Business with Social Theory, we build a conceptual framework suggesting that subsidiaries that extensively draw on external knowledge sources are also more likely to generate knowledge outflows to local firms. We argue that this may be explained by the subsidiaries’ willingness to build the trust that facilitates the establishment of reciprocal knowledge linkages. However, when the value of the subsidiary's knowledge stock is very high, the need for knowledge protection restrains reciprocity mechanisms in knowledge exchanges, thus reducing the extent of knowledge outflows to the host location. This study contributes to the literature on the firm-level antecedents of FDI-mediated local knowledge outflows, as well as to the broad IB literature on the relationship between subsidiaries and their host regions. The implications for managers and policy-makers are also discussed.     

Service-Learning and Leadership: Evidence from Teaching Financial Literacy

We provide an empirical investigation of leadership characteristics and social justice issues in the context of financial literacy service-learning. Using a unique dataset of student self-ratings, we find that students experience statistically significant increases in 8 of the 10 leadership dimensions and 7 of the 7 social justice issues examined in this study. Leadership dimensions include: persuasion, building community, “commitment to the growth of people,” stewardship, empathy, awareness, foresight, and listening. Interest in social justice issues include: dignity of the human person, community and the common good, rights and responsibilities, option for the poor, dignity of work, solidarity, and care for God’s creation. The statistically significant increases in these dimensions following the completion of the service-learning suggest positive effects on students’ self-perception of leadership qualities and interests in social justice issues: business school students sense improvement in nurturing growth of employees and colleagues, commitment to serving the need of others, understanding and empathizing with others, ethics, ability to foresee the likely outcome of a situation, and listening intently to others. As a consequence of the financial literacy service-learning, we believe that business students become more prepared toward becoming ethical leaders and citizens with compassion to serve the world for the well-being of all people, rich and poor alike.     

Financial Crisis and Productivity Evolution: Evidence from Indonesia

We examine how the productivity of different industries changes over the course of a financial crisis by exploiting cross‐firm, within‐industry differences in productivity resulting from the Asian financial crisis of 1997. We show that the crisis coincided with dramatic changes in productivity and that many of these changes were sustained in the long run. In particular, an increasing number of industries experienced decreases in average firm productivity during the crisis and did not recover. Further, we find that changes in industrial productivity in the recovery period are driven not by increases in the productivity of existing firms, but rather by the entry of new firms and changes to the reallocation of market share. Finally, we find that foreign exporters' productivity was the least impacted by the crisis, suggesting that only access to alternate forms of both capital and international markets can help to smooth investment and maintain productivity over a financial crisis.     

中国黄金期货与现货市场的相关性及其套期保值研究

通过构建VAR-DCC-MVGARCH模型,检验2008—2011年中国黄金期货与现货市场的相关性,并分析最小化资产组合风险的最优套期保值率及其绩效,结果表明:黄金市场仅存在着现货收益率对期货收益率的单向影响;收益率的波动间具有高度正相关的时变特征;动态套期保值组合能够有效地规避黄金现货的投资风险。     

企业家战略执行能力对企业战略执行绩效的作用机理研究——来自中小民营企业家的证据

企业家战略执行能力无疑是决定企业战略执行绩效的重要因素之一.对204位中小民营企业家的实证研究表明,企业家战略执行能力及其三个维度都对企业的战略执行绩效有显著的正向影响,这三个维度对企业的战略执行绩效的作用强度从大到小依次为建立战略共识能力、实施战略控制能力和推动战略协同能力,企业家战略执行能力存在短缺的维度数量越多.企业战略执行绩效的下降程度越大.因此,企业家通过改善其战略执行能力的三个维度可以有效提升企业战略执行绩效;改善的先后顺序依次为建立战略共识能力、实施战略控制能力和推动战略协同能力;同时改善的存在短缺的维度数量越多越有利于企业战略执行绩效的改善.     

金融发展与融资约束——来自中小企业板的证据

本文使用2005—2007年中小企业板数据,在考虑实际控制人性质和政治关系的背景下,研究金融发展是否可以缓解中小企业融资约束。研究发现:无政治关系的民营中小企业面临较强融资约束,金融发展可以显著缓解其融资约束,这种缓解作用来自信贷资金分配的市场化和金融市场引入外资;具有政治关系的民营中小企业不存在显著的融资约束,但金融业引入外资会显著增加其现金的现金流敏感度,可能导致这类中小企业融资状况或企业绩效弱化;国有中小企业现金的现金流敏感度最高,但其现金持有量与绩效负相关,金融发展对其不产生显著影响。     

Business Ethics and Financial Reporting Quality: Evidence from Korea

This study examines the relationship between corporate commitment to business ethics and financial reporting quality. We posit that companies with a higher level of ethical commitment exhibit better quality financial reporting than those with a lower level of ethical commitment. Consistent with our prediction, we find that companies with a higher level of ethical commitment are engaged in less earnings management, report earnings more conservatively, and predict future cash flows more accurately than those with a lower level of ethical commitment. We also find that corporate commitment to business ethics has perpetuating effects on future financial reporting quality.     

从金融深化与经济增长关系看大庆市经济的可持续发展

大庆是典型的石油资源型城市,面对大庆实施经济可持续发展战略的要求,金融业进一步深化改革.切实理顺金融深化与经济增长之间的关系,更好地支持大庆市经济的可持续发展,是应该注意和认真考虑的问题.金融深化比人们预想的要复杂得多,主要体现在扩张性的宏观经济政策,利率自由化和资本市场的开放速度加快,汇率高估以及缺乏对金融机构的足够有效监管等.在金融深化的过程中应特别要重视金融深化理论及对经济增长的影响,重视金融深化对经济增长的"双刃剑"效应等问题,使之步入良性循环轨道.     

市场导向与出口绩效关系的研究

市场导向由顾客导向、竞争者导向和部门协作所组成,每一部分都包含对信息的获取、共享、认知和响应四个步骤。本文通过对浙江中小出口企业的实证分析,发现市场导向对出口绩效(除财务绩效)有着积极的促进作用,企业内部因素对市场导向的程度有着较高的相关性。从管理角度看。市场导向程度可以作为企业的标杆基准来识别企业的瓶颈和检验战略的有效性。     

Factors Affecting Permanent Workforce Reduction: Evidence from Large Canadian Organizations

Abstract Despite an extensive practitioner literature on workforce reduction, relatively few Canadian studies have empirically examined the determinants of workforce reduction policies. Using data from more than 1,000 organizations across the country, this study investigated factors associated with permanent workforce reduction strategies. Fifty-three percent of the respondents permanently reduced their workforce during the two-year period of the study (with an average reduction of almost 15% of the workforce). Multinomial logit was used to compare organizations that had and had not engaged in employee cutbacks. The results revealed that differences in workforce reduction strategies were associated with the economic environment, characteristics of the organization, and human resource management policies. Résumé Malgré l'abondance de la documentation qui existe sur la pratique de la réduction des effectifs, relativement peu d'études canadiennes ont examiné empiriquement les déterminants des politiques de réduction des effectifs. Basée sur les réponses de plus de 1,000 organisations dans tout le pays, cette étude se penche sur les facteurs qui déterminent les stratégies de réduction permanente des effectifs. Cinquante-trois pour cent des répondants ont réduit leur personnel de façon définitive pendant les deux années de l'étude (réduction moyenne de près de 15% des effectifs). Des organisations qui ont et qui n'ont pas réduit leurs effectifs ont été comparées au moyen d'un logit multinomial. Les résultats montrent que les stratégies de réduction des effectifs dépendent de la con-joncture, des caractéristiques de l'organisation et des politiques de gestion des ressources humaines.     

山东省金融结构与经济增长:1978-2004年的实证分析

本文从金融结构与经济增长关系的分析入手,首先通过拓展的Dickey-Fuller检验,利用协整检验技术,说明山东金融结构和经济增长之间存在长期稳定的关系;然后采用格兰杰(Granger)因果关系检验方法,得出山东省经济增长是金融结构的原因,而金融结构不是经济增长的原因.实证结果为山东省以后的发展提供了一个全新的思路和视角.