Exploring determinants of success in corporate ventures

Previous work (Biggadike 1979) has shown that corporate ventures (CVs) typically realize their first profits as eight-year-old “adolescents.” Eightyfour such CVs drawn from the PIMS database were explored to search for strong predictors of financial performance. This analysis resulted in several findings that corporate level managers (i.e., managers of portfolios of business) can act upon to influence CV performance, as well as numerous other findings that lower level managers can use to strategically position their operations better. Some of these findings are either contrary to those reported elsewhere in other studies of CVs or contrary to results of more mature businesses. These conflicting findings should be of particular interest to the growing number of academicans studying CV management.Corporate level managers are responsible for selecting the markets in which they will fund the development of new CVs, and maintaining a corporate environment conducive to the support of the CVs as they develop. Results of this research indicate that in selecting markets to enter, corporate managers should look for situations in which high market growth can potentially reduce the effect of competitive pressures; in which they are likely to realize a technology-based advantage: and in which they can stand up to international competition. An in-house environment stressing a hands off attitude on the part of corporate level managers appears most appropriate.Business level managers directly involved with the operation of the adolescent business can improve their CVs chances of success through good strategic positioning. By aggressively maintaining a high market share after an early entry into a broadly defined market, they can expect to move more quickly down their learning curves and beyond their break-even points. Given the choice of one or the other, a product that stresses quality over price is more likely to produce higher profits, although customers are obviously able to shop for value by considering both price and quality. Finally, any of the adolescent business' resources devoted to vertical integration should emphasize downstream rather than upstream development.Where the supporting results differ from those results expected and/or reported elsewhere, such differences are described and possible explanations offered. Before turning to the results, we need to describe this work's position within a broader context of developing literature on corporate ventures.     

Agency costs and the structure and performance of international joint ventures

This article develops a principal-agent contractual model for the issue of the structure and performance of international joint ventures. From this model, hypotheses are generated relating the number of partners in a joint venture and the cross-cultural divergence of the partners with joint venture performance. These hypotheses are empirically assessed using a population of over 3,500 developed-country joint ventures.     

Non-family chair and corporate performance

Using a sample of Chinese family firms listed from 1999 to 2014, we investigate the relationship between non-family leadership and firm performance. We find that firms with a non-family member as board chair perform significantly worse than firms whose chair belongs to the family. Moreover, we show that the underperformance of non-family-chair firms is more pronounced when firms are under weaker outside monitoring and when the controlling families care less about family business longevity. The negative effect of a non-family chair is robust to a variety of endogeneity tests. We also dismiss alternative explanations other than concern for reputation. Overall, our empirical results suggest that the social norms regarding family reputation are important in shaping the controlling shareholders’ expropriation incentives and firm performance.     

Organizational attention to corporate social responsibility and corporate social performance: the moderating effects of corporate governance

Many studies have explored the antecedents of corporate social performance (CSP), such as institutional forces and stakeholder pressures. However, few studies examine CSP from a socio‐cognitive perspective. To address this research void, this study adopts an attention‐based approach to examine the relationship between managers' attention to social issues and CSP. More important, this study reports that this relationship will be moderated by governance mechanisms that constrain managerial discretion. Using a sample of Chinese listed firms, this study provides empirical support for these arguments. Therefore, our study adds new insights to the literature addressing CSP from a socio‐cognitive perspective and speaks to the structural features, both inside and outside organizations, that guide managers' attention.     

Value leadership: the principles driving corporate value

Two years on from Enron, the litany of problems facing equity capitalism has been well aired. The simple reality is that the misbehaviour of a small number of rogue executives, analysts and bankers has made life much harder for the majority who are honest, hardworking and eager to enrich their shareholders, employees, customers and communities. Peter S Cohan argues that what executives need now is a way to rethink their businesses that will inspire people and revive corporate performance.     

Firm performance,corporate ownership,and corporate social responsibility disclosure in China

The existing literature provides conflicting results on the association between firm performance and corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure. This paper empirically examines the effect of firm performance on CSR disclosure in terms of disclosure frequency and quality among Chinese listed firms and the possible mediating effect of corporate ownership on the relationship between firm performance and CSR disclosure. Our findings show that better‐performing firms are more likely than worse‐performing ones to disclose CSR information and to produce higher quality CSR reports. In addition, the link between firm performance and CSR disclosure is found to be weaker among state‐owned enterprises compared with non‐state‐owned ones.     

Heterogeneity in business groups and the corporate diversification-firm performance relationship

This article examines how heterogeneous features among business groups influence the corporate diversification-firm performance relationship. The study classifies heterogeneity along three dimensions: group size, group diversity, and share ownership. Using a sample of firms from India, the study finds some evidence that for firms affiliated to larger business groups, corporate diversification enhances firm performance. However, business group diversity does not influence the diversification-performance relationship. The impact of diversification on firm performance differs substantially owing to the heterogeneity in share ownership. The paper documents an interesting interplay between business group and ownership structure.     

CEO过度自信、非效率投资与企业绩效

基于国内A股上市公司2009-2019年的样本,通过OLS回归分析实证探究CEO过度自信、非效率投资与企业绩效三者之间的关系.研究表明:过度自信的CEO会负向影响企业绩效;非效率投资在过度自信的CEO与企业绩效之间起到中介作用;该结果不但拓宽了CEO过度自信影响企业绩效的内在机理,而且强调了CEO有限理性的认知偏差产生的重大影响.     

Overseas listing, voluntary corporate governance and performance

This paper analyzes the evolution of Sinopec’s corporate governance system and performance in the domestic capital market after its overseas listing. Results show that Sinopec’s governance system successfully evolves from a mandatory type to a voluntary type as a result of conformation to legal regulatory systems in the overseas market as exogenous forces and company voluntary decision-makings as endogenous forces. Sinopec takes the initiative to carry out corporate governance innovation, which has significantly improved its performance in the domestic capital market.     

High performance work systems and corporate performance: the influence of entrepreneurial orientation and organizational learning

This study investigates the functioning mechanisms of how high performance work systems (HPWS) affect organizational performance. We propose that (HPWS) can positively affect organizational performance through the mediating role of entrepreneurial orientation. An organization with high performance work systems can perform better if it enjoys high level of organizational learning. We design and administer a survey questionnaire to high-level executives or founders of companies from manufacturing and service industries and receive 176 valid responses. The results of the empirical data indicate that the relationship between high performance work systems and corporate performance is more positive when organizational learning is stronger. Entrepreneurial orientation partially mediates the relationship between high performance work systems and organizational performance. This study opens new research avenues by extending and incorporating explanations and predictions of HPWS and entrepreneurial orientation, two areas that largely have been considered independently of each other. Implications for practice and directions for future research are provided.     

Alliances and the innovation performance of corporate and public research spin-off firms

We explore the innovation performance benefits of alliances for spin-off firms, in particular spin-offs either from other firms or from public research organizations. During the early years of the emerging combinatorial chemistry industry, the industry on which our empirical analysis focuses, spin-offs engaged in alliances with large and established partners, partners of similar type and size, and with public research organizations, often for different reasons. We seek to understand to what extent alliances of spin-offs with other firms (either large- or small- and medium-sized firms) affected their innovation performance and also how this performance may have been affected by their corporate or public research background. We find evidence that in general alliances of spin-offs with other firms, in particular alliances with large firms, increased their innovation performance. Corporate spin-offs that formed alliances with other firms outperformed public research spin-offs with such alliances. This suggests that, in terms of their innovation performance, corporate spin-offs that engaged in alliances with other firms seemed to have benefitted from their prior corporate background. Interestingly, it turns out that the negative impact of alliances on the innovation performance of public research spin-offs was largely affected by their alliances with small- and medium-sized firms.     

Psychic distance,marketing strategy and performance in export ventures of Brazilian firms

Compared to other issues examined in the exporting literature, less attention has been paid to the performance implications of following a standardisation or adaptation strategy. In addition, despite the interest in the psychic distance construct in the international marketing literature, there has been also little empirical research on the effect of managers' psychic distance on the international marketing strategies of the firm. To address these issues the present study offers an empirical investigation of the relationship among psychic distance, international marketing strategies, and export performance of Brazilian firms. A sample of senior managers of industrial firms in Brazil is used to test the hypotheses. The results reported here indicate that the degree of international marketing strategy adaptation is affected by the manager's psychic distance towards the foreign markets. Product and promotion adaptation were found to have a positive effect on export performance while surprisingly, distribution and price adaptation were found to influence export performance negatively. Contrary to expectations, the results also confirm that psychic distance has a positive effect on the export performance of the firm. Implications of these findings along with the limitations of the study are discussed.     

从内部审计定义的演变看内部审计职能的发展

内部审计定义的变化是与内部审计实践相适应的。自国际内部审计师协会(IIA)成立以来,内部审计定义经历了几次重大修改。随着生产力的发展,经营活动对内部审计的要求在不断变化,内部审计职能也由最初的财务审计、经营审计发展到管理审计,直至现在的风险导向审计。我国的内部审计应跟进其最新发展,以便与目标相协调。     

Financial performance comparison between international joint ventures and wholly foreign-owned enterprises in China

International joint ventures (IJVs) and wholly foreign-owned enterprises (WFOEs) are the two major competing modes of Chinese market entry for foreign investors. However, the financial performance of and relative financial efficacy between the two modes have not been researched. The present study utilizes firmspecific financial data and examines financial ratios and characteristics of IJVs and WFOEs in the current Chinese financial environment. Results of this study reveal that the WFOE is superior to the IJV in terms of asset efficiency, financial risk aversion, and export growth whereas the IJV outperforms the WFOE with respect to local market growth and environment adaptation. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Value relevance,earnings management and corporate governance in China

This study investigates whether earnings management reduces the level of value relevance and whether good corporate governance restrains earnings management. Using hand-collected data comprising 1012 firm-year observations from all companies listed on the Shanghai SSE 180 and the Shenzhen SSE 100, the results show that the negative impact of value relevance for the companies engaged in earnings management is greater than the companies that have not engaged in earnings management engagement. Furthermore, the companies with good corporate governance practices are more likely to constrain earnings management than those without.     

Working capital management,corporate performance,and financial constraints

This paper examines the linkage between working capital management and corporate performance for a sample of non-financial UK companies. In contrast to previous studies, the findings provide strong support for an inverted U-shaped relation between investment in working capital and firm performance, which implies the existence of an optimal level of investment in working capital that balances costs and benefits and maximizes a firm's value. The results suggest that managers should avoid negative effects on firm performance because of lost sales and lost discounts for early payments or additional financing expenses. The paper also analyzes whether the optimal working capital level is sensitive to alternative measures of financial constraints. The findings show that this optimum is lower for firms more likely to be financially constrained.