The role of the ideal organization in comparative management: A cross cultural perspective of Japan & Korea

It is popular to talk of the Confucian Work Ethic when explaining the successes of Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore. This is not an accurate impression. The authors of this article found significant differences in management practices — both actual and ideal — between Japan and South Korea.Professors Lane Kelley, Reginald Worthley and Harry Lie are from the College of Business Administration, University of Hawaii while Professor Arthur Whatley is from the College of Business Administration & Economics, New Mexico State University.     

融资约束视角下终极控股股东对企业风险承担的影响

本文利用我国2006～2014年沪深A股非金融类上市企业数据,研究终极控股股东对企业风险承 担的影响以及融资约束在该影响中的作用。结果表明,控股股东现金流权对企业风险承担的 影响呈U型结构,随现金流权的增大,现金流权对企业风险承担的影响由正转负。就我国市 场而言,控制权与现金流权的分离度对企业风险承担具有负向影响,这种负向影响程度随融 资约束的提高而减弱。     

融资约束、持有现金与公司投资——来自我国上市公司的经验证据

文章以我国上市公司2000年～2006年的经验数据为样本,从我国市场化进程与公司最终控制人性质的制度背景出发,在研究我国上市公司融资约束的基础上,考察了公司持有现金的对冲效应。研究结果表明,我国所在地区市场化进程较低的公司与非国有公司存在融资约束．进一步分析发现,公司持有现金具有一定的对冲效应,而且这种对冲效应在融资约束公司中更重要。     

CPF stocks: Prices,returns and volatility

We identify a unique phenomenon in the Central Provident Fund (CPF) stocks where stock prices increase in the absence of fundamental changes in firm value. CPF stocks are stocks endorsed by the Central Provident Fund Board in Singapore as approved investment for its members. CPF stocks offer significant price appreciation and value preservation as well as abnormal returns in the bull market before the October 1987 market crash. We find evidence of noise trading in bull markets and price pressure effects that persist through bearish market conditions.The authors are from the Department of Finance and Banking, National University of Singapore.     

Hedging spot fuel oil in Singapore: Will the new SIMEX contract succeed?

We assess SIMEX's new market for fuel oil futures by examining its effectiveness in hedging a cash fuel oil position in Singapore. We find that the SIMEX contract can eliminate about two-thirds of the volatility of a Singapore cash position and is many times more effective than a cross-hedge constructed with overseas contracts. Given its potential usefulness as a hedging tool for the regional petroleum industry, we anticipate that the new contract will be a success.We are grateful to Mobil (New York) for making the Platt oil price data available to us and to Jim Bovenage specifically for accessing the data for us.     

Comparative advertising: Superiority despite interference?

The effect of comparative versus noncomparative advertising on consumer cognitions, attitudes, and behavioural intentions toward an advertised brand with or without interference from other ads was investigated. The experimental results indicated that the superiority of comparative over noncomparative advertising on attitudinal and behavioural intention responses observed immediately after exposure diminished following interference from subsequent exposure to other ads. However, its superiority on two cognitive dimensions — perceived brand similarity and quality — was maintained despite such interference. Implications of the findings and directions for future research are discussed.The authors thank Joe Cote and Debbie Roedder John for their helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper, and the National University of Singapore for funding this research.     

Pricing of new equity issues in Singapore

This paper analyzes the pricing performance of new equity issues by companies which came to the new issue market and sought a listing on the Stock Exchange of Singapore during the period 1975–84. We find that the new equity issues in Singapore are more underpriced than those in the U.S., the U.K. and Australia. It appears that the greater underpricing is due largely to more conservative pricing policies followed by underwriters in Singapore. This results in greater losses suffered by the existing shareholders of the issuing companies.Dr Kie A. Wong is Senior Lecturer in the School of Management at the National University of Singapore, and Mr H. L. Chiang is Bank Officer in the Citibank N.A., Singapore.     

Equity diversification among the four Asian NICs

Recent studies have indicated the potential gains to U.S. investors from international portfolio diversification. Due to the rapid growth of the four Asian newly industrialised countries (NICs), namely, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan, it is believed that U.S. investors will become increasingly interested in these equity markets. The purpose of the present study is to investigate from the U.S. perspective, the prospects of diversifying across the countries. The results indicate that a diversified portfolio among these markets yields a higher return-to-risk ratio than investing in the U.S. market alone.The authors are with the School of Management, National University of Singapore.     

Development and perspectives of the Australian Coal Supply Chain and Implications for the Export Market

The Australian coal industry is critical for the nation’s domestic energy supply and economy with an export value of almost A$24 bn in the fiscal year 2007/08. With almost 75% of production destined to the export market, Australia is also the world’s largest hard coal exporter and an essential secure source of energy particularly to meet both thermal and metallurgical coal demand in the fast growing Pacific Rim. This paper examines the Australian mining sector prospects to retain its position as the world’s largest coal exporter in the mid-term, by analysing the potential increases in export capacity along the coal supply chain through expansions in mine, rail and port capacities. Despite current financial challenges and restrictions, the authors conclude that export volumes, depending on demand, could rise by 50% in the period to 2014.     

A comparative evaluation of the government's role in national airlines

This paper contrasts the role of the government owners of the British and Singaporean national airline companies. Although both companies were outstanding performers, it is contended here that the Singapore state-owned enterprise was operating out of a more favourable political economic environment. British Airways resembled the classic case depicted in the literature — inhibited by government interference, politicisation, confusion of long-term plans, etc. Singapore Airlines' history manifests these classic afflictions much less, and the government's proactive role even seemed to provide a competitive advantage.     

Locus of control,social support,stress, and adjustment in international transfers

This study examined the direct effects of locus of control and social support on stressors and adjustment, as well as the moderating effects of these variables on the relationship between stressors and adjustment, for a sample of American managers transferred to overseas positions in four Pacific Rim countries — Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. Locus of control and social support had stronger direct effects on stressors than on adjustment. Mixed results were obtained concerning the moderating effects of locus of control and social support on the relationship between stressors and adjustment. Future theoretical and research implications are explored.     

The effects of procedural and informational justice in the integration of related acquisitions

This study explores the independent and interactive effects of procedural justice and informational justice on post‐deal value creation in large, related acquisitions. Our results show that informational justice and procedural justice affect different components of value creation. Procedural justice is critical in realizing market position improvements following the integration process, while informational justice is essential in achieving market position gains during integration and financial return gains both during and post‐integration. Indicating that the interrelationships between different justice dimensions may be more complex than previously thought, we find that procedural justice reduces the positive effects of informational justice on financial return during the integration process, while it magnifies the effects of informational justice on the combined firms' market position during integration efforts. We explore the implications of these results for future research on the acquisition integration process and for practicing managers engaging in large, related acquisitions. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Financial Constraints, Liquidity Management and Investment

Investment and liquidity management are analyzed in a sector in which firms are exogenously cash constrained and empirical estimates of Tobin's  q  provide reliable measures of investment opportunity. Across the entire sector, we document substantial realized investment as well as high investment sensitivity to  q . Investment is also sensitive to measures of financial market frictions, suggesting that constraints on retention of cash flow distort investment decisions. Liquidity is managed through dividend policy and access to short-term bank finance, in which bank lines of credit smooth variation in available cash flow and accelerate investment. Using the Kaplan–Zingales method for measuring the degree of financial constraint, we identify substantial differences between investment and liquidity management policies of firms, in which more (less) financially constrained firms in our sample exhibit high (low) investment and liquidity management sensitivity to variables that measure financial market frictions.     

股权分置改革与股票需求价格弹性——基于供给需求的理论框架和经验证据

股票需求的完全价格弹性这一假设是许多金融理论的基础。然而,真实市场上的股票并非是相互替代的,股价与市场供给有关。本文在中国股权分置改革的背景下,建立股票供给和需求的理论模型,分析在需求和供给变动两个冲击下,流通股股东的累积超额收益。我们进而利用市场模型和市场调整模型,计算流通股股东在股改复牌前后的累积超额收益,并分析检验其截面影响因素。实证检验发现,累积超额收益和远期股票供给量成负相关关系。在控制流通股供给冲击效应之后,我们还发现公司盈利能力和非流通股集中度与股改价格效应负相关。进一步考虑市场时机和内生性问题后,结论仍然稳健。本文创造性地度量了股权分置改革经济价值的市场预期,并提供了需求曲线斜率为负的经验证据。     

Gains From Diversifying Into Real Estate: Three Decades of Portfolio Returns Based on the Dynamic Investment Model

This paper compares the investment policies and returns for portfolios of stocks and bonds with and without up to three categories of real estate. Both domestic and global settings are examined, with and without the possibility of leverage. The portfolios were generated via the dynamic investment model based on the empirical probability assessment approach applied to past (joint) realizations of returns, both with and without correction for "smoothing" in the real estate data series. Our principal findings are: (1) the gains from adding real estate, on a semi-passive (equal-weighted) basis, to portfolios of either U.S. or global financial assets were relatively modest; in contrast, (2) the gains from adding real estate to the universe of U.S. financial assets under an active strategy were rather large (in some cases highly statistically significant), especially for the very risk-averse strategies; (3) the gains from adding U.S. real estate to a universe of global financial assets under an active strategy were mixed, although generally favorable for the highly risk-averse strategies; (4) correcting for second-moment smoothing in the real estate returns series had a relatively small impact for the more risk-tolerant strategies; and (5) there was some evidence that desmoothing resulted in improved probability estimates.     

Market Microstructure and Real Estate Returns

This paper examines the Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) market microstruc-ture and its relationship to stock returns. When compared with the general stock market, REIT stocks tend to have a lower level of institutional investor participation and are followed by fewer security analysts. In addition, REIT stocks that have a higher percentage of institutional investors or are followed by more security analysts tend to perform better than other REIT stocks. Our results seem to confirm Jensen's ( 1993 , p. 868) proposition that ownership structure (that is, who owns the firm's securities) affects the value of the firm. Our findings also have implications about the well documented phenomenon that the financial performance of Commingled Real Estate Funds (CREFs) is better than that of REITs.     

Relationship of Planning and Control Systems with Strategic Choices: A Closer Look

The study finds that relative to others, firms pursuing the Prospector-like strategy (high innovation) have lower financial results uncertainty, a more long-term orientation for decision making, and more decentralized control. As well, the tightness of budgetary control is found to be negatively correlated with financial results uncertainty. Thus, we are able to reproduce in our study the result that Prospector type firms have tighter budgetary control, which many have found puzzling previously, and point to the relation between strategy and financial results uncertainty as an explanation for the result.Based on a sample of large firms in Singapore, the study also finds the impact of the 1997–1998 Asian crisis is correlated with the intensity with which the Prospector-like strategy was pursued.     

Markov Perfect Equilibrium in the US digital camera market

This paper examines the model launch and withdrawal decisions of the major digital camera makers for the period 1996–1999. These manufacturers produce differentiated products and some have the experience of participating in a similar market—the film camera market. This paper investigates to what extent the following four factors affect firms' decisions to launch a new model of digital camera: the effects of competition with “within-brand” models; the effects of competition with “cross-brand” models; the level of experience in the film camera market; and market conditions. The empirical findings suggest that good market conditions can accommodate more products, which has a positive effect on product launches. On the other hand, existing cross-brand models have a negative effect on product launches, while within-brand models and experience in similar markets have an ambiguous effect on product launches.     

Effects of agricultural market policy on crop production in China

This paper investigates the effects of Chinese market policy on crop production in the reform process. After a brief review of the policy changes due to the reform, the theoretical significance of Chinese market policies for crop production is demonstrated diagrammatically. It is shown that under the current market system the production of main crops is significantly influenced by both market and quota prices. While relatively high quota reduces the influence of market prices on production, relative price changes between competing crops will lead to shifting farmers’ cultivation preferences if inputs are constant. Empirical analysis, based on cross-section data for the period 1985–1997 from the province of Zhejiang, confirms these hypotheses. The effects of policy variables, however, prove to be crop-specific. If the potential of crop production in China is to be better used, an even more market-oriented agricultural policy is required.     

Electronic information services : An emerging market opportunity?

This article considers the key market development issues of electronic information services (EIS). Two variables — technology and demand — are used to model the past behaviour of the market (1975–1984) and to propose a process to stimulate EIS market development in the 1990s. The changes in the supply side of the EIS market since 1984 are summarized and interpreted as moves to realize greater market integration. The author concludes by outlining policy implications for the 1990s and noting the need for a shift in emphasis towards demand-oriented measures.