More value for your company's continuing education dollar

Money for training is in short supply, so dollars for “outside” training must be spent wisely. Here are some ways your employees can get the most for your company's money out of those external training programs.     

The six phases of cost reduction: Effective use can increase profits

The success of cost reduction (CR) is as tied to the commitment of top management as it is to the sophisticated analysis of problem areas. It is necessary that management prepare the organization for any changes that introducing a CR program might bring about. Management also must provide the impetus for the continuation o f such a project after it has been initiated. Effective use of CR can significantly increase a company's profits. This particular approach includes two basic methods of attacking the problem of cutting costs: prevention and cure. The author delineates six phases of a CR plan for a company to follow in order to achieve tangible results.     

The management club: A quality circle for managers

Many authorities argue that poor management is at the heart of the United States' productivity problem. Since traditional means of improving management seem to be falling short of their goal, the authors propose the establishment of management clubs whose members would be volunteers and who would find and implement solutions to their company's specific problems.     

Analyzing leases with the after-tax cost of debt

A generalized expression of the net advantage of leasing (NAL) is used to assess the implications of discounting incremental cash flows at the firm's before-tax cost of debt and the firm's after-tax cost of debt, respectively. If no personal tax biases are assumed, then the before-tax cost of debt should be used to compute NAL. If the before-tax cost of debt is the correct discount rate, then any change in the firm's borrowing level brought about by the decision to lease rather than purchase will alter the computed NAL by the amount of the present value of the tax savings on interest payments. Thus using the before-tax cost of debt is consistent with basic MM valuation theory. Using the after-tax cost of debt, in contrast, implies that any associated change in the firm's borrowing level is irrelevant for purposes of computing NAL. Sufficient conditions are specified for the after-tax cost of the debt to be the correct discount rate for lease versus purchase analysis. Finally, lease analysis in a MM world is compared to lease analysis in a Miller tax world. For the special case of a 100% leverage ratio, the specification of NAL is the same in both worlds. Use of the after-tax cost of debt is correct in a Miller world and is a good approximation in an MM world provided the cash flows are predominantly debt financed.     

Liquidity constraints in sequential economics

This paper models an individual trader's optimization problem as he visits a number of markets in sequence, paying and receiving cash with each transaction. Since traders can sometimes sell before they buy, Clower's rigid dichotomized budget constraint need not hold. In fact, the neoclassical budget constraint and Clower's dichotomized constraint turn up as polar cases of the more generalized temporal sequence of constraints presented here. The analysis is primarily microlevel, though there is some informal discussion of related systemwide monetary problems.     

高管薪酬差距与资本结构动态调整研究

文章利用2007-2012年我国A股上市公司数据,采用面板数据分析方法,实证检验了高管薪酬差距与资本结构动态调整之间的关系。结果发现,高管薪酬差距符合锦标赛理论预期,随着高管薪酬差距水平不断提升,资本结构的调整速度会不断加快,偏离目标资本结构的程度会不断缩小。民营企业高管对薪酬差距的敏感程度较国有企业高管更高,较低的薪酬差距即可引发资本结构的显著调整。     

Determining the cost of common equity capital: The direct method

One of the most critical aspects of the corporate capital budgeting process is the determination of a proper “hurdle rate” or “cut-off” rate to employ in the screening of proposed uses of funds. This hurdle rate is now commonly referred to in both industry and the literature of financial management as the cost of capital. General agreement on how to measure the equity component of the cost of capital (i.e., the cost of common equity) has not yet been achieved by either practitioners or theorists. A unique approach that shows considerable promise differs from the abstract mathematical techniques typically used. It involves quizzing directly a sample of the corporation's existing common stockholders as to their dividend and capital gain expectations. Proper interpretation of the responses can provide top corporate management with an estimate of the cost of equity capital, as represented by the returns (expected) by shareholders. Thus, top level management has more complete information from the firm's owners on the returns that are expected from the investment of retained earnings.     

Some evidence on the role of money illusion in labor supply behavior

The Keynesian idea that workers are subject to money illusion in their labor supply decisions is tested by estimating a labor supply function that includes the price level as an independent variable. The model is estimated with data drawn from various BLS publications and is aggregated by SMSA. The results indicate a significant negative supply response to price-level changes after controlling for the nominal wage rate, income, and the SMSA's unemployment rate. There is no significant difference between workers' supply response to the price level and the nominal wage rate, which suggests that workers are not subject to money illusion.     

Mattel,Inc.: Global Manufacturing Principles (GMP) – A Life-Cycle Analysis of a Company-Based Code of Conduct in the Toy Industry

Over the last 20+ years, multinational corporations (MNCs) have been confronted with accusations of abuse of market power and unfair and unethical business conduct especially as it relates to their overseas operations and supply chain management. These accusations include, among others, worker exploitation in terms of unfairly low wages, excessive work hours, and unsafe work environment; pollution and contamination of air, ground water and land resources; and, undermining the ability of natural government to protect the well-being of their citizens. MNCs have responded to these accusations by creating voluntary codes of conduct which commit them to specific standards for addressing these issues. These codes are created at both the industry-wide and the individual company level. Unfortunately, these codes have generated little credibility and public trust because their compliance claims cannot be independently verified, and they lack transparency and full public disclosure. In this article, we present a case study of the voluntary code of conduct by Mattel, Inc., the world’s largest toy company. The code, called the Global Manufacturing Principles (GMP), confronts the general criticism leveled against voluntary codes of conduct by (a) creating detailed standards of compliance, (b) independent external monitoring of the company’s compliance with its code of conduct, and (c) making full, and uncensored public disclosure of the audit findings and company’s response in terms of remedial action. We present a detailed account of how Mattel’s voluntary code of conduct was created, implemented, and ultimately abandoned over 9 years. We provide an evaluative analysis of the company’s GMP compliance throughout its life span, which suggests a bell-shaped curve, where early top management commitments were met with pockets of resistance from operational groups, who were concerned about balancing GMP compliance efforts with traditional performance criteria. The early stage response from Mattel’s top management was quick and supported with the requisite resources. As a result, the compliance process accelerated, becoming increasingly more robust and effective. The success of code compliance and increased transparency in public disclosure energized field managers with a sense of professional satisfaction and publicly recognized accomplishments. The decline in GMP compliance was equally steep. When all the easily attainable targets had been reached at the company-operated plants, addressing vendor plants’ compliance presented a new set of challenges, which taxed corporate resources and management commitment. It would seem that value-based and ethics-oriented considerations, i.e., doing the right thing for the right reason, were no longer the driving force for Mattel’s management. Mattel did not see any economic benefit from its proactive stance, when competitors did not seem to suffer adverse consequences for not following suit. The final contributing factor to the code’s abandonment was a widely publicized series of product recalls which absorbed top management’s attention.     

Customer Efficient Electronic Cash Protocols

The technology of electronic cash makes it possible to transmit digital money over communication networks during electronic transactions. Owing to the untraceability and unforgeability properties, electronic cash can protect the privacy of customers and guarantee security of payments in the transactions. This paper introduces a customer-efficient electronic cash protocol where each customer only needs to store 1 coin for w dollars and transmit 1 coin for a w-dollar payment. Compared with traditional electronic cash protocols, the proposed method greatly reduces not only the storage required for the customers, but the communication traffic in the payments as well. Furthermore, the computation cost of each customer in the payment stage is greatly reduced by more than 99% as compared with other storage efficient electronic cash protocols. The proposed protocol is quite suitable for situations where storage and computation capabilities are limited, such as smart-card or mobile environments. In addition, both the problem of money laundering and the unlimited-growth problem of the bank's database, which records all spent coins for double-spending checking, are also considered in the proposed protocol. Especially, our basic idea is independent of the underlying cryptographic primitives such that it can be implemented by any public-key encryption, symmetric encryption, digital signature, and partially blind signature scheme.     

Economies of scale and the demand for money

Cross-sectional data from four Surveys of Small Business Finance demonstrate that economies of scale in money holding exist, that these economies appear to be increasing over time, and that the magnitudes are greater than those estimated for large US corporations. Firms not practising several specific cash management techniques and firms facing constraints in the credit market hold lower money balances. Minority-owned firms exhibit economies of scale similar to the overall sample but cash management practices and credit constraint variables generally do not influence their money holding behavior. Scale economies vary widely across industries but overall means are relatively stable over time.     

Does performance appraisal work?: Common set of goals needed

The need for better managers in the rapidly shrinking world o f multinational business justifies the executive performance appraisal effort. The very best European companies, the author believes, are doing a better job than the average U.S. company. When we appraise the manager's performance, we are really discussing the management of the enterprise. Companies making a conscious effort in this area have benefited greatly; when targets are set for individual executives, it does not take top management long to recognize the need for company objectives. When these are set, the executive team has a common set of goals that sharpen the focus of each individual's efforts. As a result, the competitive effectiveness of the group action is multiplied.     

Freeport-McMoRan Copper &; Gold,Inc.: An Innovative Voluntary Code of Conduct to Protect Human Rights,Create Employment Opportunities,and Economic Development of the Indigenous People

Environmental degradation and extractive industry are inextricably linked, and the industry’s adverse impact on air, water, and ground resources has been exacerbated with increased demand for raw materials and their location in some of the more environmentally fragile areas of the world. Historically, companies have managed to control calls for regulation and improved, i.e., more expensive, mining technologies by (a) their importance in economic growth and job creation or (b) through adroit use of their economic power and bargaining leverage against weak national governments, regional and international regulatory bodies. More recently, the industry has had to contend with another set of challenges that involved treatment of indigenous people and their traditional land rights, fair treatment of workers, human rights abuses, and bribery and corruption involving local officials and political leaders. These challenges currently fall outside the traditional areas of regulation and control. Nevertheless, they pose serious threat to the industry’s business practices because of their global scope, threat to company’s reputation, and long-term risks of political instability leading to increasing cost of capital. Industry has responded to these challenges by creating voluntary codes of conduct that would signify their intent to comply with higher standards of conduct, and assuage public opinion that no further action is called for. These codes, however, lack any monitoring mechanism and reporting integrity to assure the public that the industry members are indeed meeting their commitments. Consequently, pressure on the industry continues unabated and with ever increasing calls for mandatory regulation and oversight. This article examines the activities of one mining company, Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold, Inc., which has taken a radically different approach in responding to these challenges at its mining operations in West Papua, Indonesia. While cooperating with industry-based efforts of voluntary codes of conduct, Freeport also initiated a radically different response through its own voluntary code that would directly focus on issues of human rights, treatment of indigenous people on whose traditional land its mine was located; economic development and job creation and, improvements in health, education, and housing facilities, to name a few. Additionally, the company earmarked large sums of money and involved representatives of the indigenous people in their management and disbursement. The company took an even more radical action when it committed itself to independent external audits of the company’s compliance with the code, and that these findings and company’s responses would be made public without prior censorship by the company. We analyze the nature of corporate culture, vision and risk-taking propensities of its management that would impel the company to embark on a high risk strategy whose outcomes could not be predicted with any degree of certainty before the fact. The parent company also had to confront discontent among the management ranks at the mine site because of cultural differences and management styles of expatriates and local (Indonesian) managers. Finally, we discuss in some detail the extensive and intensive character of a two phase audit conducted by the outside monitors, their findings, and the process by which they were implemented and reported to general public. We also evaluate the strengths and challenges posed by such audits, their importance to the company’s future, and how such projects might be undertaken by other companies.     

Determinants of indebtedness among young adults: Impacts of lender guidelines,explicit information and financial (over)confidence

For most people, borrowing money is a necessary aspect of life in the 21st century. Wisely handled, loans give consumers access to consumption too expensive for most individuals to purchase with cash, such as homes and cars. However, history shows that taking on too much debt can be detrimental for the individual consumer as well as society as a whole. In this paper, we investigate determinants of over‐indebtedness among young adults. We perform three studies in a setting focused on buying and borrowing money for a home. We show that, compared with an overall mortgage amount, explicit information about monthly payments reduces the tendency to take on too much debt (Study 1), that the amount borrowed depends on standards regarding the loan amount communicated through guidelines from the lender (Study 2), and that borrowers who are overconfident about their financial abilities tend to borrow more than less confident individuals (Study 3). These determinants and their policy implications are discussed.     

Do money‐earning time and money‐exchanging route matter?

This article explores whether the route via which the money form is changed (i.e., money–cash–money versus money–token–money) and the timing at which the money is earned (i.e., before performance versus after performance) play a role in influencing people's willingness to part with money. Two studies, with 125 and 253 subjects, respectively, showed that the route indeed had an effect on the spendability of the dollar in hand and that the timing of earning did affect the proclivity to spend the earned money. These results add to a growing body of evidence for the possible violation of the fundamental economic assumption of fungibility. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Moral consequences of a seller's market: Polish experience

The article is an analysis of the moral consequences of permanent and major shortages in supply for producers, distributors, and especially consumers. The analysis is based on the author's long experience, obtained in Poland during observations and studies of the behaviour of economic units and consumers. The conclusions presented can be generally applied to centrally planned economies. Similar studies are lacking in countries characterized by an `economics of shortage'. Immoral behaviour is reflected in the negligence of the socially accepted system of values and moral norms. In ‘economics of shortage’ this system has been largely destroyed, making moral evaluation of behaviour rather difficult. The seller's market puts society in a situation characterized by a conflict between the law and moral norms; it restricts distributive justice; makes it easier to infringe upon somebody's property; induces fraudulent activities to the detriment of the consumer; restricts the individual's freedom and the consumer's sovereignty; dehumanizes the consumption process; violates human dignity; carries a threat for family life and generates interhuman conflicts. Decisions concerning production and products do not make sufficient allowances for the needs of end users in the sphere of quality, assortment, information transmitted to consumers, and new product development. There exist, in parallel, different systems of allocation of goods and services: administrative allotment, government-controlled outlets, grey and black markets. The purchase of a product itself stretches in time and involves considerable obstacles. The consumer is forced to continue searching and queuing, compulsory substitution, compulsory spending of money and compulsory savings. All this paves the way for unethical behaviour of both sellers and consumers. Among consumers there can be seen symptoms of alienation from the market.     

股权结构与企业股利政策选择关系:理论与实证分析

本文从公司治理视角出发,以中国上市公司为样本,对股权结构与企业股利政策关系进行了理论与实证分析。结果表明,管理者持股比例、股权集中度(包括第一大股东持股比例)与现金股利支付率显著正相关;国有股比例与现金股利支付率正相关;法人股比例和流通A股比例对现金股利支付率的影响可能是负向的,且极不显著。     

Children's role in the domestic economy

Studies of family finances have largely concentrated on adults. This paper examines the neglected role of children in the receiving and spending of money and reports on an investigation of children's own views on their involvement in handling money. It is shown that pocket money is an institution perceived by both parents and children to be as much a mechanism for transferring adult values about expenditure and saving as to give children independent access to money. Many children receive cash from outside the nuclear family. particularly as part of a wider exchange network of kin. Some money is given freely, some is provided in return for domestic tasks performed by children.     

Driving Shareholder Value: The Role of Marketing in Reducing Vulnerability and Volatility of Cash Flows

Marketing professionals have historically found it difficultto measure and communicate to other disciplines and to top managementthe value created by marketing activities. All too often, justificationof marketing and communication initiatives is restricted to theirimpact on revenue generation. But, marketers do create valuein other ways. Marketing actions do lead to an acceleration ofthe market's acceptance of new products, to enhanced customerretention/loyalty, to an improvement in the size and qualityof customer bases, to price premiums and other desirable payoffs.Such financial outcomes suggest that marketing activities areoften strategic investments, not tactical, intangible expenses.We suggest that the effectiveness of marketinginitiatives should be evaluated on the basis of their impacton the basic drivers of shareholder value–cash flow acceleration,cash flow enhancement, reduction in volatility and vulnerabilityof cash flows, and growth in the long-term value of business).These shareholder value metrics provide a framework for communicationof the contribution of marketing strategies to value creation.In particular, this paper focuses on the role of marketing inenhancing shareholder value by reducing the vulnerability andvolatility (hence risks) associated with cash flows. This riskreduction (and shareholder value creation) role of marketingactivities is examined within cross-functional processes forcreating customer value such as design of new products and services,supply chain management and management of relationships withcustomers, channels and strategic partners.     

浅析跨国公司现金管理

跨国公司的现金管理是营运资本管理中的一个重要组成部分,对跨国公司的整体营运资本的管理意义重大。跨国公司现金的集中管理方式有减少现金占用量、实现公司整体经营目标的优势;跨国公司通过建立全球互联网银行的财务通信系统进行现金收支的管理;通过对现金计划和预算的分析与利用,可以更好的促进跨国公司整体营运资本的管理。