Product Innovation in Family versus Nonfamily Firms: An Exploratory Analysis

How family firms manage product innovation remains an overlooked topic in existing business research. This happens despite the fact that family businesses play a crucial role across all economies, and they often use technological innovation to nurture their competitive advantage. By drawing upon the resource‐based view of the firm as well as agency, stewardship, and behavioral theories and using empirical evidence gathered through a multiple case study, the paper studies how and why the anatomy of the product innovation process differs between family and nonfamily firms. The analysis shows that family businesses differ from nonfamily ones as regards product innovation strategies and organization of the innovation process.     

上市家族企业控制权代际转移的资本市场反应研究

以中国上市家族企业创始人子女出任总经理或董事长作为家族企业控制权代际转移的代理变量,运用事件研究方法,分析中国资本市场对家族企业控制权代际转移的短期和长期市场反应.短期事件研究结果表明,在事件前一交易日和事件日,家族企业控制权代际转移事件的平均累计异常回报率显著小于零,但这种负面效应在事件发生后的第一个交易日开始不显著;而长期事件研究结果表明,在控制权代际转移后的10 ～11月开始,由发生控制权代际转移的上市家族企业构成的投资组合其平均买进持有异常收益率.(BHARs)显著低于参照组合.总体上,中国资本市场对家族企业控制权代际转移的反应是负面的.     

控制权、现金流权与公司业绩——来自中国民营上市公司的经验研究

本文选取了2004年底在深市和沪市上市交易的238家民营公司作为样本,通过层层追溯控制链辨认了我国民营上市公司的最终控制股东,考察了最终控制股东拥有的控制权与现金流权及其偏离的程度,并进行了实证分析。结果发现在我国民营上市公司中,最终控制股东控制权的集中程度较高,并且其现金流权与控制权存在着偏离。最终控制股东的现金流权与公司业绩显著正相关,控制权与现金流权的偏离程度与公司业绩显著负相关     

Customer Relationship Management: A Comparative Analysis of Family and Nonfamily Business Practices*

It has been reported that family businesses perceive excellent customer service as critical to the future of their businesses. However, little research into the customer relationship management (CRM) practices of family businesses has been performed. In this study, we examine CRM implementation among 82 family and 370 nonfamily firms. Family and nonfamily businesses report similar attitudes toward the importance of CRM, their knowledge of CRM, and their success when they do implement it. However, using a logit regression model, we find that the actual implementation strategies of family businesses are significantly different from those of nonfamily businesses. These results remain constant when controlling for size and industry sector.     

Family Control,Socioemotional Wealth and Earnings Management in Publicly Traded Firms

We examine the unique nature of agency problems within publicly traded family firms by investigating the earnings management decision of dominant family owners relative to non-family. To do so, we draw upon literature demonstrating that family owners are loss averse with respect to the family’s socioemotional wealth, or the affective endowment derived from firm ownership and control. Our theory and findings suggest that potential reputational consequences of earnings management lead family principals to engage in less of this practice relative to non-family firms, and that founder family firms are less likely than non-founder family firms to use earnings management. Moreover, the family-firm effect varies with the firm size, the degree of CEO entrenchment, and the firm’s stock structure. We provide important insights regarding differences between family and non-family principals in the use of unethical accounting practices, thereby extending agency theory and advancing an underdeveloped research area.     

上市公司税收规避对资本结构的影响研究

选取2007—2016年沪深两市A股上市公司作为研究样本,基于资本结构权衡理论,探究上市公司税收规避对其资本结构的影响。结论显示:上市公司税收规避与其资产负债率之间呈显著的负相关关系,"替代效应假说"得以证实;税收规避程度及其对资产负债率的影响存在显著的行业差异;与国有企业相比,非国有企业的税收规避程度及其对资本结构的影响程度更大。进一步,上市公司税收规避程度与动态资产负债率调整量之间也存在负相关关系;考虑2008年税改因素的影响,研究结论也未受到影响,证实税收规避对债务税盾存在显著的替代作用。     

Founding Family Controlled Firms: Performance, Risk, and Value

An agency theory framework is used to test the effects of founding family control on firm performance, capital structure, and value. Both the finance and management literatures regarding the relationship between firm control and firm value are explored. Controlling for size, industry, and managerial ownership, the results suggest that firms controlled by the founding family have greater value, are operated more efficiently, and carry less debt than other firms.     

Business Risk,Industry Affiliation,and Corporate Capital Structure: Evidence From Publicly Listed Nigerian Companies

This study demonstrates the extent to which changes in business risk help predict the capital structure choices of Nigerian listed companies. The findings support a U-shaped function with leverage ratio decreasing with earnings volatility, but only up to a cut-off point of 32% per annum. The results are consistent with agency cost models, which predict an escalation in the conflicts between shareholders and firm managers beyond a certain level of volatility with a subsequent increase in the equity risk premium. The expected rise in the cost of equity capital gives debt priority and helps avoid potential underinvestment.     

Achieving Growth and Responsiveness: Process Management and Market Orientation in Small Firms*

Achieving a consistent market orientation is a challenge for entrepreneurial manufacturers. This research seeks improved understanding of how internal process management assists and hinders small growing manufacturers in achieving the responsiveness component of a market orientation. Under process management, firms implement internal systems, procedures, and performance measures to improve performance and responsiveness to changing markets. Benefits include improved market sensing, two‐way communication, and coordinated responses to market demands. Despite the potential benefits, researchers question whether the internal structure and control of process management will improve responsiveness in entrepreneurial firms. Process management may conflict with the organizational cultures, agility, and responsiveness of entrepreneurial companies. Research results identify how process management assists and hinders the responsiveness component of market orientation in small manufacturers. Management implications and strategies for coping with growth challenges are presented.     

Board Composition in Small and Medium‐Sized Family Firms*

This study focuses on the determinants of board composition in Belgian small and medium‐sized family firms. It extends the empirical literature on board composition in private small and medium‐sized family enterprises by integrating several dimensions of the “family component” in the research model. Furthermore, using a multinomial logit model, we examine in which circumstances family firms opt for (1) a family board, (2) an inside board, or (3) an outside board. Results suggest that family‐related contingency variables are far more important than CEO‐related or control variables, giving support to the argument that board composition in family firms is a reflection of the family characteristics and objectives. Moreover, the results suggest that a resource dependence and added value perspective explain more of the variation in board composition than agency considerations.     

Family‐Owned Business Succession: The Influence of Pre‐performance in the Nomination of Family and Nonfamily Members: Evidence from Spanish Firms

Although family‐owned business succession has been widely researched, very few studies investigate the relationship between preperformance and succession. Drawing on the agency and the resource‐based view theories, we investigate how previous firm performance may influence the nomination of a family or a nonfamily member to top senior positions. We argue that positive firm performance will lead to the nomination of a family member, while negative firm performance leads to nonfamily nominations. Using a stepwise logistic regression with a bootstrap procedure on a sample of nonfinancial firm listed in the Spanish Stock Exchange, the results indicate that performance prior to succession does not affect these nominations, while directive experience does.     

Employee Training in SMEs: Effect of Size and Firm Type—Family and Nonfamily

The study examined the main and interaction effects of size and firm type on a variety of informal and formal training programs in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Samples of 448 family and 470 nonfamily SMEs were separated into four size groups and differences were assessed using multivariate analyses of variance. The results point to prevalence of informal training for all sizes and an increase in adoption of formal, structured, and development-oriented training with increasing firm size (especially for firms with 20–99 employees). This pattern was evident for nonfamily but not for family firms. For family firms, formal training programs increased significantly during the critical growth phase only (20–49 employees). Gaps in employee training between the two types of firms were greatest at 50–99 employees but narrowed thereafter at 100–199 employees. The approach to employee training in family SMEs is in consonance with their slower growth, informal management styles, limited financial resources, and greater emphasis on efficiency compared with nonfamily SMEs.     

European Family Firms in International Business: British and Greek Tramp-Shipping Firms

This article traces the similar paths and common characteristics of British and Greek tramp-shipping companies over the last 130 years through a comparative and international perspective. Despite the tendency of companies to adopt corporate and managerial forms, British and Greek tramp-shipping firms remained first and foremost family firms. The strength and the viability of these firms were networks, on a local, national and international level – networks whose cohesion was based on trust and a particular business culture that was developed in the maritime regions whence they came, centred on family firms involved in international business.     

资本市场对外开放与上市公司流动性管理——基于沪深港通实施的经验研究

基于我国资本市场持续对外开放的背景,以及沪港通和深港通的实施,采用双重差分法,从公司现金持有和财务弹性积累的视角,研究资本市场对外开放对我国上市公司流动性管理的影响。研究发现,沪深港通的实施降低了上市公司现金持有增加对经营净现金流量的敏感性,减弱了上市公司财务弹性积累与投资支出之间的负向相关性。进一步研究还发现,沪深港通的实施提升了上市公司积累财务弹性的市场价值;在非国有控股公司中,沪深港通的实施降低了公司投资的同群效应对财务弹性的依赖,并且减弱了公司增持现金的同群效应。     

Institutional Interest,Ownership Type,and Environmental Capital Expenditures: Evidence from the Most Polluting Chinese Listed Firms

This study empirically examines whether firms’ environmental capital expenditures impact institutional investors’ investment decisions in the Chinese market. We particularly examine the impact of ownership type on the relationship of environmental capital expenditures and the behavior of different types of institutional investors by classifying institutional investors into two categories, short-term and long-term investors. In addition, this study further investigates whether environmental capital expenditures related to ownership type increase firm value. We find that long-term institutional investors tend to invest in state-owned firms (SOEs) making environmental capital expenditures. Results also indicate that, with governmental backing and encouragement, the market value of SOEs making more environmental capital expenditures is likely to increase. However, no similar results are found for non-SOEs.     

Determinants of Speed of Adjustment (SOA) toward Optimum Capital Structure: Evidence from Listed Firms in Sri Lanka

This research article aims at examining the determinants of speed of adjustment (SOA) toward the optimum capital structure (OCS). Particularly, this study focuses the impact of firm-specific factors and corporate governance factors on the capital structure adjustment in the Sri Lankan context. The methodology utilizes the benefits of the partial (stock) adjustment model, namely, two-step panel framework using generalised method of moments (GMM) to determine the SOA to OCS. The results indicate that Sri Lankan firms are found to have an OCS and do rapidly adjust toward their target structures. Further this study reveals that profitability, size, tangibility, nondebt tax shields, and governance factors such as directors’ compensation and CEO duality significantly affect the SOA to OCS. The past studies in the emerging market context hardly go into corporate governance factors, leaving a large space for research in the area of capital structure. This study of the listed firms in Sri Lanka contributes to the literature, by examining the determinants of SOA to OCS decision.     

2001年生产资料市场分析及展望

2001年国际经济形势逆转,给我国经济和生产资料市场带来很大的压力.尽管国家实行积极的财政政策,保持了国内市场大体平稳格局,然而仍因资源增长过快等因素,市场价格承受沉重的压力,全年生产资料市场价格指数出现负增长已成定局.如果2002年全球经济发展不出现大的意外,也就是说,以美国为首的西方发达国家不出现整体性严重经济衰退,中国经济稳定增长的条件还是有保证的.新一年里,将会出现利用外资增多、投资强劲、消费稳定共同拉动经济增长和促进生产资料市场发展的局面.全年经济增长率仍会保持在7%左右的水平,全社会生产资料销售总额增长速度在8%以上.     

企业专用性人力资本与企业绩效——基于我国上市公司的实证研究

文章利用我国上市公司的数据,以总经理为研究对象,以总经理的企业任期作为企业专用性人力资本的替代变量,研究企业专用性人力资本与企业绩效之间的关系,结果表明：企业专用性人力资本与企业绩效之间呈U型关系,即随着企业专用性人力资本的增加,企业绩效呈现出先下降后上升的态势。因此,为了提高企业的绩效水平,企业应对新雇佣的总经理进行在职培训,采取各种措施激励其进行企业专用性人力资本投资,并保护其投资的准租不被侵占;搭建良好的信息交流平台,减少企业内部的交易成本,以有效缩短总经理与企业之间的磨合期,促进隐性知识的转化与学习。