Information Sharing,Price Negotiation and Management Buy-outs of Private Family-owned Firms

Perspectives relating to agency theory, information asymmetries and game theory were utilized to explore two outcomes associated with the management buy-out (MBO) or management buy-in (MBI) of former private firms: whether information was shared equally between vendors (i.e., family firm owners) and purchasers (i.e., MBO/I management teams) and whether a mutually agreed price was achieved. With reference to the themes of company ownership structure, governance structure and company objectives several hypotheses were derived. Survey evidence was gathered from the managers of 114 former private family-owned firms located across Europe that recently reported an MBO/I. Multiple logistic regression analysis detected that respondents in founded (first generation) family firms and those reporting a high focus on the strategic importance of the market value increment were more likely to report that ‘information was shared equally between vendors and purchasers’. Respondents reporting no suitable family successor had been identified, a high focus on the strategic importance of the market value increment, and the involvement of venture capitalists in succession planning were more likely to report that a mutually agreed sale price had been achieved. Implications for practitioners and researchers are discussed.      

Buyouts,information asymmetry and the family management dyad

Management buyouts (MBOs) and buyins (MBIs) are an alternative solution to the private family firm ownership succession issue. It is typically assumed that MBO/MBIs of private family firms progress more smoothly than other types of MBO/MBI, due to fewer information asymmetries and closer relationships between the parties involved. This study provides novel evidence from eight private family firms that had selected an MBO or an MBI. The myths surrounding the succession issues of family firms who have selected an MBO/MBI are specifically explored. The MBO/MBI process is examined within an agency theory framework with particular emphasis on the balance of information and the relationships between vendors and purchasers. Complementary theoretical frameworks relating to trust and negotiation behavior are utilized. Interviews were held with former family owners as well as the current members of the MBO/MBI teams. Triangulation of opinions was considered, thus strengthening the validity of presented results. The case studies confirmed that information asymmetries were widespread, providing opportunities for the parties with more information to negotiate a price and structure the deal to their advantage. Good relationships and trust between the vendor and MBO/MBI team mitigated information asymmetries. Where the MBO/MBI was part of the family firm's long-term strategy, there were fewer information asymmetries, and knowledge transfer was facilitated.     

MBO—Twenty years later,where do we stand?: A preliminary evaluation

Although the management system known as management by objectives, or MBO, has existed for only twenty years, any significant validation of its effectiveness has yet to be done. Serving as a preliminary evaluation for MBO, this article traces the important steps in the development of the system and makes some general appraisals on the extent to which it has been adopted. Some of the primary changes which MBO created in the management process are discussed, as well as some of the reasons why MBO has failed in certain situations. Finally, the author considers the future of MBO—what its past and present indicate its place in management systems will be.     

管理层收购会带来财富效应吗?——基于中国上市公司的实证研究

股权分置改革完成后,管理层收购的动机更加强烈.相关研究也再次成为理论界与实务界共同关注的热点问题.本文收集了1997-2006年间我国实施管理层收购的上市公司数据,运用事件分析法对上市公司MBO的市场效应进行考察.实证研究发现,上市公司的管理层收购没有带来显著的财富效应.表明,我国管理层收购的积极作用不明显,有关部门应该加强监管.     

管理层收购:融资、定价、风险防范与信息披露

管理层收购是当前我国企业界和资本市场上最受瞩目 ,同时也是争议最多的的热点问题之一。作为一种创新的制度安排 ,管理层收购对中国的最大意义就是可以作为一种产权改革的重要手段 ,有助于使中国最优质的上市公司资源的配置不断实现帕累托改进。本文重点分析了管理层收购中的融资、定价、风险防范和信息披露等问题 ,并提出相应的对策。     

The logic behind foreign market selection: Objective distance dimensions vs. strategic objectives and psychic distance

The aim of this paper is to highlight the importance of the firm’s strategic objectives regarding the choice of countries for foreign expansion, complementing the existing literature on the internationalisation process. Through a multiple case study methodology, we conduct a comparative analysis of three Brazilian ventures that have internationalised in Italy, and three Italian firms that have internationalised in Brazil, seeking to investigate the firms’ decisions on the selection of foreign markets. We consider jointly the objective aspects of distance, the overall perceptions of the decision-makers in relation to the differences between the domestic and (potential) host countries, and the firm’s strategic objectives. This research contributes to International Business studies by revealing the role of firm-specific strategic objectives as determinants of foreign market selection, in addition to, or even on top of, the dimensions of objective distance and psychic distance.     

Asymmetric Payoffs and Spatial Competition

We investigate the location choice of two firms whose objectives are the weighted average of their own profit and social welfare, in which they simultaneously decide their locations before setting their prices. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether the asymmetric locations are influenced by the asymmetry of the firms’ objectives or by the asymmetry of firms’ marginal costs. We show that, when both firms have the same marginal cost, the equilibrium locations are always symmetric even in the case of the asymmetric objectives. On the other hand, the cost differences lead the asymmetric locations in equilibrium. That is, the asymmetric locations are a result of the cost asymmetry, but not the asymmetry of the firms’ objectives. We also demonstrate that the pursuit of profit by the cost-inefficient firm may increase consumer surplus.     

困扰MBO的四大问题

作为产权制度改革的一种创新 ,越来越多的公司实施MBO (管理层收购 ) ,而随之暴露出来的问题也日益引人关注。困扰MBO的有四大突出问题 ,要使MBO成为国有资产从竞争性行业退出的有效通道 ,必须进一步完善我国的市场环境、法律环境和金融环境。     

MBO与中国企业产权改革

我们通过了解MBO的特点,以及中国企业实施MBO的现状,说明MBO作为先进的产权改革方法值得中国企业学习、借鉴。在引进MBO上,中国企业应切忌叶公好龙,应对MBO有比较深刻的了解和认识。在完善MBO改革问题上,引入独立董事制度,完善公司治理结构,作为MBO的一种补充和制度保证。     

Corporate ownership and the theory of the multinational enterprise

This paper makes a contribution to the theory of the multinational enterprise (MNE) and, in particular, to why firms undertake foreign direct investment (FDI) rather than alternative strategies. We argue that FDI and its strategic alternatives involve different patterns of costs and returns over time, and hence different levels of risk and uncertainty. Traditional theories of the MNE conceptualize the firm as a risk-neutral decision-making entity with short-term efficiency objectives, and hence do not take these issues into account. This may be reasonable for firms with passive professional managers and widely-dispersed shareholders, operating in countries with the Anglo-American system of corporate governance. But many firms operate under quite different systems of corporate governance where concentrated shareholdings are commonplace and markets for corporate control are weak or non-existent. In these cases, shareholders exert considerable influence on all aspects of firm strategy including FDI. Furthermore, different groups of shareholders (State, family, institutions) are likely to have different objectives, different attitudes towards risk, and different decision-making time horizons. We thus suggest that the traditional theories of the MNE need to be extended to embrace consideration of corporate ownership (and other governance dimensions).     

客观看待中国式的MBO

MBO作为企业杠杆收购方式的一种,曾在欧美国家取得了成功。近几年,在我国企业尤其是上市公司中间,也掀起了一场MBO的热潮。在国内实施的MBO案例中,也存在不少的问题。然而目前对MBO或褒或贬都为时过早,有失客观,当务之急应该取客观、冷静、正确的态度,从实践中发现问题并针对问题、解决问题,制定相应的对策。     

A comparative study of innovation behaviour in Singapore's KIBS and manufacturing firms

While most services innovation studies are concentrated on the OECD or EU countries, research on services innovation in the non-OECD context is still rare. This study investigates innovation behaviour of a certain group of services – knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS), compared with the manufacturing sector in Singapore. The main findings of this study are: (1) KIBS firms have higher innovating ratio than manufacturing firms, but innovating manufacturing firms are more likely to do R&D than innovating KIBS firms; (2) KIBS firms have higher human capital intensity, training spending intensity, innovation spending intensity, and R&D spending intensity than manufacturing firms; (3) KIBS firms and manufacturing firms have similar innovation objectives, although some delicate nuances do exist; (4) KIBS firms are less likely to have overseas partners for innovation collaboration than manufacturing firms; (5) there is a U pattern of innovation collaboration with geographic distance for both KIBS and manufacturing firms; (6) social capitals are important for KIBS firms' successful provision of innovation support to manufacturing clients; (7) the importance of spatial proximity varies over different phases of innovation support.     

Nonfinancial Goals,Governance, and Dividend Payout in Private Family Firms

This paper uses insights from behavioral economics to explain dividend policy in private family firms. Based on a sample of 501 Belgian firms, our results indicate that dividend payout is low when a family chief executive officer (CEO) leads the business and in the presence of a family‐dominated board. The tendency of a family CEO or family‐dominated board to retain earnings appears to be stronger in earlier generational stages compared with later generational stages. The findings are consistent with (1) socioemotional objectives being important drivers of funding decisions in private firms where families possess important decision and control power and (2) these objectives being more predominant in early generational stages.     

我国企业实施管理层收购的意义及存在问题分析

管理层收购是完善公司治理结构和促进公司管理、激励机制变化的有效工具,有可能成为未来几年内我国产权改造的主流性重组手段。我国现阶段实行管理层收购对产权制度改革具有重要的现实意义,但也存在着诸多问题。因此,MBO既是我国上市公司治理结构改革中的热点,也是一个难以逾越的难点。     

The Characteristics of Foreign Exchange Hedging: A Comparative Analysis

The hedging of foreign exchange exposure is an important aspect of financial management. This article examines what firm foreign exchange hedging practices actually are and compares these to firm characteristics via a comparison of New Zealand firms with U.S., Asian, and European studies. Using survey evidence and a carefully updated methodology, we gained a fairly detailed understanding of hedging methods from a limited question set. Overall, we found evidence of focus on accounting objectives rather than financial objectives, and a possible small-country hedging style which differs from that of U.S., U.K., or German firms. We also found that firms from small countries have a widespread use of forwards, options, and nonderivative hedging methods, even for quite small firms. We also found that some firms that claimed to hedge their exposure display no obvious method of doing so.     

The Effect of Corporate Governance on Firm Stock Volatility in Asia

The authors examine whether firm corporate governance (CG) contributes to lower stock-return volatility. Using the panel data of 1,252 public listed firms in Asia across 11 countries for 15 years, the authors document international evidence that CG has a stabilizing effect on firm stock-return volatility. The authors further examine whether increasing information efficiency, reducing foreign exposure, and a lower cost of capital contribute to the stabilizing effect of firm CG on stock-return volatility. The result implies that better CG will only reduce stock-return volatility for firms that have less foreign exposure.     

Process and intensity of internationalization of IT firms – Evidence from India

This paper provides insights and evidence related to the process and intensity of internationalization of firms in the Information Technology (IT) sector, which is the driving force of high economic growth in the Indian sub-continent during the last two decades. Research objectives were set as (i) to examine the existence of born global firms in the IT sector, (ii) to identify the process of internationalization adopted by firms in the IT industry, (iii) to measure the intensity of internationalization of IT firms. The paper is based on data collected from annual financial reports of firms listed in the CNX IT Index of National Stock Exchange of India. Two clusters were extracted using hierarchical clustering method followed by k-means clustering to analyze the characteristics of the variables. We find that the firms in both clusters are true global firms with 66 and 85% of their income from foreign markets with a very high level of international intensity. Though the findings provide some evidence for the gradual internationalization of Indian IT firms; the empirical results indicate that firm age has no impact on internationalization. The results from our study also show that firms, especially in certain industries such as IT, do have access to information that reduces the risk aversion.     

Positive and Negative Corporate Social Responsibility, Financial Leverage, and Idiosyncratic Risk

Existing research on the financial implications of corporate social responsibility (CSR) for firms has predominantly focused on positive aspects of CSR, overlooking that firms also undertake actions and initiatives that qualify as negative CSR. Moreover, studies in this area have not investigated how both positive and negative CSR affect the financial risk of firms. As such, in this research, the authors provide a framework linking both positive and negative CSR to idiosyncratic risk of firms. While investigating these relationships, the authors also analyze the moderating role of financial leverage of firms. Overall, analysis of secondary information for firms from multiple industries over the years 2000–2009 shows that CSR has a significant effect on the idiosyncratic risk of firms, with positive CSR reducing risk and negative CSR increasing it. Results also show that the reduction in risk from positive CSR is not guaranteed, with firms having high levels of financial leverage witnessing lower idiosyncratic risk reduction.     

语言交际图式对目标管理的启示

著名逻辑学家周礼全先生曾概括陈述了语言交际图式的基本思想,表达了人们在交际过程中意图传递的基本图式。借鉴这个基本图式,可以构建目标管理中目标传达与执行的逻辑图式,这个图式为目标管理中各种保障目标实现的策略提供了基本的逻辑学依据,并为管理策略创新与组织目标的成功实施提供了基本思维图式。     

A Case Study of Balanced Scorecard Implementation in a Malaysian Company

ABSTRACT

The balanced scorecard (BSC) has attracted considerable interest among organizations seeking to improve the implementation of their strategy. Nevertheless, the success of BSC initiatives is far from certain. Some researchers argue that the BSC has its theoretical roots in management by objective (MBO). Others argue that the BSC was probably inspired by the Tableau De Bord that has been used by French companies since the 1930s. All these techniques seek to provide organizations with a basis for aligning activities and objectives. Some researchers are beginning to raise questions about BSC's effectiveness. Basing their argument on the failure of MBO and performance management programs, they argue that the BSC may also encounter similar problems. Among other things, it is argued that the effective implementation of the BSC requires the presence of human relations norms. Studies on Malaysian culture indicate that this may be more difficult to develop in Malaysian organizations. Certain characteristics of Malaysian culture may impede the development of human relations norms. Other researchers argue that there are inherent weaknesses in the BSC concept itself. These weaknesses will limit the usefulness of the BSC. This study presents the findings of a study on BSC implementation in a Malaysian telecommunication company. The findings provide some support for the concerns raised about the problems and limitations of the BSC.