Women Board Directors: Characteristics of the Few

Appointment as a director of a company board often represents the pinnacle of a management career. Worldwide, it has been noted that very few women are appointed to the boards of directors of companies. Blame for the low numbers of women of company boards can be partly attributed to the widely publicized "glass ceiling". However, the very low representation of women on company boards requires further examination. This article reviews the current state of women's representation on boards of directors and summarizes the reasons as to why women are needed on company boards. Given that more women on boards are desirable, the article then describes how more women could be appointed to boards, and the actions that organizations and women could take to help increase the representation of women. Finally, the characteristics of those women that have succeeded in becoming members of company boards are described from an international perspective. Unfortunately, answers to the vexing question of whether these women have gained board directorships in their own right as extremely competent managers, or whether they are mere token female appointments in a traditional male dominated culture, remains elusive.     

Family SMEs' Internationalization: Disentangling the Influence of Familiness on Spanish Firms' Export Activity

This paper studies the relationships between family involvement and internationalization of family small and medium enterprises (SMEs), examining the effects exerted by the three main dimensions that comprise the concept of familiness: power, experience, and culture. Disentangling the influence of familiness dimensions lead us to discover the combined effects of family's governance, generation, and culture on SMEs' export activity. The results, using the F‐PEC scale over a sample of 500 Spanish firms, show that this multidimensional approach better identifies the determinants of the family SMEs' internationalization. Specifically, we find that the family experience and its culture orientation positively affect the firm's export activity, whereas family governance/management does not have any significant influence.     

Internationalization of Small Family Firms: The Influence of Family from a Socioemotional Wealth Perspective

We explore the factors influencing the internationalization of small family firms. Based on interviews with six family firms in Singapore, we highlight the importance of (1) family harmony, (2) trust in external relationships, (3) social and business networks, and (4) organizational resources and capabilities in the internationalization process. We show how the socioemotional wealth factors of trust and harmony affect networking and resources, which in turn affect internationalization. We find that initial internationalization through exports is enabled through trust in family networks, but the typical family characteristics of a desire to maintain family harmony and distrust of outsiders have a negative impact on network creation and resource development, which constrains the extent to which the firm internationalizes beyond exporting. In order to move from the first stage (exports/similar markets) to the second stage (joint ventures/different markets) of internationalization, less emphasis on trust and family harmony accompanied by more emphasis on building external networks and resources may be necessary. We propose a new model of internationalization of family firms based on our findings. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

家族涉入、家族理性与家族企业目标偏好——基于一项比较案例的探索

家族涉入是家族企业的基本特征,它影响了家族社会资本的结构分布,进而决定了家族理性的效用构成,并通过对家族企业二元目标的不同偏好表现出来。其中,家族理性反映为家族企业对家族整体责任的兼顾,二元目标指的是对企业即期利润的追求以及对家族非货币化利益的追求。这种家族涉入决定家族理性,家族理性体现家族企业目标偏好的理论构念,通过一项比较案例分析得以验证。案例中的两家家族企业背景相似,但由于企业传承上的不同选择影响了家族涉入情况,进而两家企业表现出显著的经营目标差异。     

董事会权力结构比较研究——兼论对我国公司治理的借鉴意义

董事会是公司权力执行机关 ,具有股东与公司在权力上的承接关系。但由于信息不对称 ,可能导致董事滥用权力造成损害性后果 ,且股东及监事的监督作用又具有滞后性。因此 ,对发达国家公司法律制度与我国制度现状进行有效评析 ,借鉴与设计有效的董事会内部权力制衡构架 ,对完善我国公司治理结构具有现实意义。     

The Role of the Board of Directors in Disseminating Relevant Information on Greenhouse Gases

In today’s world, the corporate image of the largest companies is closely linked to their performance in the field of corporate social responsibility and the disclosure of information on that topic, specifically, on climate change. Since the Board of Directors is the body responsible for this process, the aim of this article is to show the role that companies’ Boards of Directors play in the accountability process vis-à-vis stakeholders in relation to one specific aspect which has enormous significance in environmental information: practices used to monitor greenhouse gas emissions. In order to achieve this, we shall verify certain business characteristics, in addition to the size and activity of the Board of Directors, and we shall take different dependence models into consideration. These models will include variables related to the level of independence and diversity of the Board of Directors, which interact with dummy variables representing the company’s litigation risks regarding environmental behavior and the institutional macro-context of the organization’s country of origin. The results make it clear that Boards of Directors are basically focused on the traditional responsibility of creating economic value, instead of dealing with today’s broader business world concepts, which include social responsibility. This focus, therefore, does not favor the accountability process before other stakeholders, if this makes it more difficult to protect the interests of shareholders.     

Ethics and the Board of Directors in Spain: The Olivencia Code of Good Governance

In an open, unregulated and globalised economy, it is logical that the problem of corporate government not only occupy the time of academics, but also preoccupy both companies and the public administration. Corporate governance varies depending on several factors, such as the culture of a particular country, the economic situation and the organisational structures. Thus, there is no single recipe which can be applied automatically and is universally valid in all contexts. However, it is possible to propose some general principles which have duly stood the test of experience and are recognised as providing valuable guidance for efficient corporate governance.The aim of this article is to present the Spanish "Olivencia Report", which is an attempt to draft an "ethical code" containing a number of practices and principles, which, if they were to be applied, could improve the governance of the larger Spanish companies listed on the Stock Market.The pages which follow narrate the story of the making of the report, and highlight those features which distinguish this report from other analogous reports published in other countries, and which inspired the Olivencia Report. These reports, which include the "Cadbury Report", the "Viénot Report" and the "Peters Report" among others will also be dealt with. Once the more outstanding aspects of the Spanish report have been highlighted, the article closes with a brief concluding section, which goes beyond the case in question and stresses the relationship between ethics, corporate governance and the mission of the enterprise. This focus is of some importance as the literature on corporate governance rarely brings the ethical problem to the fore.     

家族涉入、网络结构与家族企业的网络交易成本

文章利用浙江和重庆两地制造业家族企业的调查数据,实证检验了家族涉入对家族企业降低网络交易成本的影响及网络结构的中介效应,研究结果表明：（1）家族所有权、家族承诺对家族企业降低网络交易成本有显著的正向影响,领导企业的家族代数对家族企业降低网络交易成本有显著的负向影响;（2）网络中心度和密度在家族承诺与降低网络交易成本之间起部分中介作用。本文的研究结论对于提高我国家族企业网络组织效率具有一定的现实意义。     

Revisiting the Effect of Family Involvement on Corporate Social Responsibility: A Behavioral Agency Perspective

This paper sheds light on the incongruent findings concerning the relationship between family involvement and firms’ corporate social responsibility (CSR). While prior studies have mainly taken the perspective of families’ socioemotional wealth preservation, we approach this relationship from the perspective of behavioral agency theory, highlighting the important role played by CEOs’ family memberships. Specifically, we posit that family firms are more likely to invest in CSR when their CEOs are members of the controlling families. Furthermore, we examine how family firms can employ long-term incentives to encourage non-family CEOs to act in the interests of the controlling families to preserve SEW and thus enhancing family firms’ CSR performance. We tested our hypotheses using hand-collected data of family firms included in the S&P 500 index, in the period of 2003–2010. The empirical findings support our hypotheses that (a) family firms with family members as the CEOs have better CSR performance and (b) family firms tend to provide a high level of long-term incentives to non-family than family CEOs. In addition, long-term incentives strongly motivate CEOs to improve firms’ CSR performance, regardless of their family memberships.     

Promotional Spending Effects in High Involvement Elections: An Examination of the Voter Involvement Explanation

Abstract

Published evidence questions the voter involvement explantion of promotional spending effects in high involvement elections. This study replicates and extends the Soley and Reid (20) study which showed that promotional expenditures have as great an effect on votes received in congressional elections as party affiliation and incumbency. Using an expanded data base and a different analytical technique, the replication found that House and Senate election outcomes were significantly affected by promotional spending, but that spending effects varied by candidate type (i.e., incumbent and challengers) and party affiliation (i.e., major third and independent parties).     

家族涉入对企业外包决策的影响:来自中国制造业的经验证据

文章利用重庆和浙江两地制造业民营企业的问卷调查数据,实证检验家族涉入与企业外包倾向之间的关系,分析结果表明:第一,现阶段中国家族企业外包倾向强于非家族企业；第二,家族管理权、领导企业的家族代数与家族企业外包倾向之间有显著的正向关系,家族或泛家族信任与家族企业外包倾向之间有显著的负向关系.研究结论对我国家族企业成长实践具有重要指导意义.     

我国董事会约束机制现状及其问题——对我国500家上市公司的描述性实证分析

完善的董事会约束机制是确保上市公司董事会有效参与公司决策与监督的关键。由于我国上市公司处于由行政型治理向经济型治理转化的过程中,公司治理的各项外部监督机制如公司控制权市场、产品市场、专业董事市场等对上市公司董事会的约束力较弱。掌握董事会治理的状况,强化对董事会的约束,对提高董事会治理的效率具有一定的指导意义。     

董事会绩效管理体系的构建

在现代企业中，董事会本质上属于公司的代理人，它是将公司活动全面联系起来的一个支点，也是公司人力资源的重要组成部分，董事会运行的好坏直接关系到一个企业的生存与发展，因此，对其进行绩效管理就显得十分必要。董事会绩效管理必须成为公司治理系统的一个重要部分，正逐渐被视作董事会最重要、在程序上和实质上最具挑战性的任务之一。因而，应依据董事会的特点，构建适合董事会自身的绩效管理体系。     

论监事会与独立董事的融合

监事会和独立董事作为公司法人治理结构的两种监督机制具有各自的特性，在我国现有经济体制下，更应当将二有机结合，从而克服机构重复设置给公司带来的资源浪费。     

浅析开架销售的双效性

随着社会的发展和人的自我意识的显著提高,开架销售以独特的商业文化魅力越来越受到商家和消费者的青睐。当前的问题是开架销售同时带来了商品丢失率的不断上升。开架销售犹如一把＂双刃剑＂,具有双效特性。开架销售的优势,在于这种新的经营态势适应了现代经济发展的潮流。值得注意的是,盗窃是超市经营损耗的主要因素,直接影响企业实现利润目标的最大障碍,严重威胁企业经营的成功,愈来愈凸现开架销售的负面影响。     

高管薪酬、董事会治理与分类转移

本文研究了高管薪酬和董事会治理对分类转移的影响。研究表明,货币薪酬会诱使高管向上转移利得,股权激励和缺乏区分度的薪酬制度会诱使高管同时向下转移费用和向上转移利得;而勤勉、独立和两职分离的董事会能够在一定程度上识别并抑制这两种不同方式的分类转移;但董事会对分类转移的抑制程度小于高管薪酬对分类转移的诱发程度。进一步地,良好的市场、法制和媒体监督环境能够有效缓解高管薪酬对分类转移的诱发作用,而董事会能够有效弥补法制建设和媒体监督不足导致的分类转移治理缺陷,并在较高质量的审计环境下对分类转移发挥更强的抑制作用。本文首次结合制度背景和媒体监督研究了公司核心治理机制对不同分类转移方式的影响和原因,并创新性地对向上转移利得的程度进行了衡量,为监管部门及公司治理机制、会计准则的制定者提供经验证据。     

The Impact of Family Involvement on SMEs’ Performance: Theory and Evidence

By complementing agency theory with behavioral assumptions, we explore the effects of family involvement on small and medium enterprises’ (SMEs) performance. We identify three separate dimensions of family involvement and hypothesize nonlinear, direct, and interaction effects on the performance of an SME. The evidence on 787 SMEs suggests that an inverted U‐shaped relationship exists between family ownership and performance, and ownership dispersion among family members negatively affects performance. Balancing family and nonfamily members in the top management team (TMT) is found to be beneficial to SMEs’ performance, but the family ratio in the TMT becomes crucial only at high levels of family ownership.     

家族经营权涉入对经理人薪酬业绩敏感度的权变影响

从家族经营权涉入的角度,考察不同治理问题情境下经理人薪酬业绩敏感度的差异。结果表明:在主要受第一类代理问题困扰的直接上市家族企业中,家族经营权涉入的退出,即家族企业职业化,对治理绩效有显著负面影响,反映为经理人薪酬业绩敏感度的降低。而在第二类代理问题相对严重的间接上市企业中,家族经营权涉入的加强,即公众企业家族化,也不利于治理绩效的好转,经理人薪酬业绩敏感度会随之降低。这说明,家族化与职业化在处理两类治理问题上的能力不同,家族化与职业化的选择应该权变而定。     

Entrepreneurial orientation and innovation in family SMEs: Unveiling the (actual) impact of the Board of Directors

Drawing on stewardship and resource dependence theories, we examine how the board of directors (BoD) influences the link between entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and ambidextrous innovation in small and medium sized family firms (family SMEs). Our analysis of 230 Spanish family SMEs shows that family involvement in the BoD has a negative effect on their ability to turn EO into innovation. Moreover, we show that the BoD's strategic involvement in service and control tasks and the provision of knowledge and skills have positive effects, whereas the intensity of BoD activity has a surprisingly negative effect. These findings underscore that the effects of the BoD on the entrepreneurship-innovation link are more complex than previously thought, pointing to the important role of both BoD composition and BoD functioning for enabling innovation in family SMEs.