The Relationship between Family Firms and Corporate Governance*

This paper contributes to the agency theory literature by identifying relations between family control and corporate governance structure. Emerging literature supports the notion that family control creates strong incentives that have potentially competing influences on the manner in, and extent to, which internal corporate governance mechanisms are utilized. A sample of 100 listed companies (evenly divided between family and nonfamily firms) is used to test the hypotheses that corporate governance structures are different between family and nonfamily firms; and that family firms adopt optimal corporate governance structures. This research finds evidence that suggests that family firms utilize substantially different corporate governance structures from nonfamily firms and that these differences lead to performance differentials. Indeed, results suggest that family control creates, rather than negates, agency costs and future research may be well rewarded by pursuing this latter notion further.     

我国家族企业治理结构演进研究

作为家族企业发展的核心问题,我国家族企业治理结构演进路径是以中国传统文化为基础,适当吸收外部企业文化为方向。从"家文化"和"家族泛化"角度分析家族企业制度变迁的文化根基,从资本结构、人力资本、信任结构等方面阐述影响我国家族企业治理结构的主要因素,从企业形态、关系治理和公司治理等维度分析我国家族企业治理结构的演进路径。     

Stock Price Informativeness and Corporate Governance: An International Study

This study investigates the cross‐country relationship between firm‐level corporate governance and stock price informativeness. Using firm‐level data from 22 developed countries, we find that stock price informativeness, as measured by firm‐specific stock return variation and future earnings response coefficients, increases with the quality of a firm's corporate governance. Further analyses show that all mechanisms except board‐related governance relate positively to stock price informativeness. Finally, firm‐level corporate governance plays a more significant role in strengthening the stock return–earnings associations for firms in countries with strong institutional environments. This evidence highlights the role of country‐level legal investor protections in shaping the relationship between firm‐level corporate governance and stock price informativeness.     

Does the Quality of Corporate Governance Affect Firm Valuation and Risk? Evidence from a Corporate Governance Scorecard in Hong Kong*

Using Hong Kong firm data, we construct an index of corporate governance during 2002–2005, which scores the corporate governance practices of listed companies from the public shareholders' perspective based on the Organization for Economic Corporation and Development Principles of Corporate Governance. The findings show that family firms and firms with concentrated ownership structures are associated with bad corporate governance. The evidence also shows that these firms improve their corporate governance practices slower than their peers. Overall, the quality of corporate governance is very significant in explaining future company stock returns and risk. Good corporate governance is associated with both higher stock returns and with lower risk. Improvements in corporate governance are associated with significantly higher stock returns and lower company risk.     

The Study of the Relations among Ethical Considerations, Family Management and Organizational Performance in Corporate Governance

Corporate governance is increasingly becoming an issue of global concern, not least because we are more and more living in a corporate world that transcends international boundaries. The main purpose and motivation of this study is to determine how the international community should motivate businesses in fostering exemplary corporate governance, therefore eliminating obstacles to ethically exemplary behavior. The empirical approach utilized here has been applied to 161 businesses, both listed and over-the-counter (OTC) companies, with the results indicating that ethical considerations, corporate governance and organizational performance are inextricably linked and, to an extent, demonstrably proportional. This study also indicates a major finding that family management is a significant mediating variable of the ethical considerations of corporate governance and organizational performance. Finally, this study has developed an operational model of ethical considerations of corporate governance as a consultancy aid for businesses that wish to implement and/or boost their performance in respect to corporate governance.     

Corporate Governance,Agility, and Survival

Abstract

Most corporate research has focused on (i) dimensions of governance that are relatively easy to measure (e.g., ownership structure, boards of directors, and executive compensation) and (ii) the role that governance arrangements play in mitigating agency costs. This paper takes an evolutionary perspective to corporate governance in which the concept of corporate agility, i.e., the ease with which firms adapt to changes in their respective environments, plays a prominent role. I argue that decentralization, which is understudied in the literature, promotes agility and predict that it is directly related to corporate performance and survival during periods of rapidly changing environments. The paper also discusses how some governance features that often are viewed through the lens of either mitigating or exacerbating agency costs are cast in a different light when their effects on corporate agility are considered.     

Corporate Governance and Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosures: Evidence from an Emerging Economy

We examine the relationship between corporate governance and the extent of corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosures in the annual reports of Bangladeshi companies. A legitimacy theory framework is adopted to understand the extent to which corporate governance characteristics, such as managerial ownership, public ownership, foreign ownership, board independence, CEO duality and presence of audit committee influence organisational response to various stakeholder groups. Our results suggest that although CSR disclosures generally have a negative association with managerial ownership, such relationship becomes significant and positive for export-oriented industries. We also find public ownership, foreign ownership, board independence and presence of audit committee to have positive significant impacts on CSR disclosures. However, we fail to find any significant impact of CEO duality. Thus, our results suggest that pressures exerted by external stakeholder groups and corporate governance mechanisms involving independent outsiders may allay some concerns relating to family influence on CSR disclosure practices. Overall, our study implies that corporate governance attributes play a vital role in ensuring organisational legitimacy through CSR disclosures. The findings of our study should be of interest to regulators and policy makers in countries which share similar corporate ownership and regulatory structures.     

家族企业治理转型问题探究——基于美的“换帅”案例分析

家族企业是我国经济发展中的一支重要力量。家族控制主导式治理模式使企业具有较强的向心力和合聚力,在发展初期能够减少交易成本和委托代理成本,但存在着用人机制不科学、组织结构不规范、存在继承风险等问题。家族控制主导式的治理模式向职业经理人治理企业的理想模式的转变,应从企业自身方面有规划的聘用职业经理人、完善企业激励约束机制、注重家族企业文化的创建,逐步向职业经理人治理模式转型。同时,政府也应该给予家族企业支持,完善相应的法律法规,规范职业经理人市场,促进社会信用与诚信的建设,使家族企业完成治理转型。     

关于我国家族企业股权结构及治理模式的研究

我国家族企业数量众多,其发展状况直接影响着中国的经济。本文分析了我国家族企业目前的治理结构具有的特征,在对目前治理模式的优、劣势进行了剖析后,本文认为,随着企业的发展,家族企业治理模式面临转换和创新,需要对所有权与经营权进行合理安排,并使之制度化、系统化。     

Governance Structure and the Credibility Gap: Experimental Evidence on Family Businesses’ Sustainability Reporting

This paper examines the success of corporate communication in voluntary sustainability reporting. Existing studies have focused on the perspective of the communicators but lack an understanding of the perspective of information recipients to clearly evaluate this interactive communication process. This paper looks at the issue of a credibility gap perceived by external stakeholders when they doubt the authenticity of communicated information due to the reporting company’s governance structure. The paper uses family businesses to exemplify the emergence of such a gap when outsiders become concerned about the potential agency problem of the integrated ownership and management controlled by a few members of the same family. Following source credibility theory, these concerns raise a credibility gap associated with a family firm’s trustworthiness and goodwill, even if the family has the expertise to carry out sustainability reporting. The findings of two experimental studies indicate that family businesses suffer a greater credibility gap than non-family businesses. An external and independent assurance service can mitigate such gaps, especially when the service is comprehensive and targets family businesses. The paper provides a complete view evaluating corporate communication by looking at the interaction between the communicating company and the information recipients.     

Corporate Governance Reforms: Redefined Expectations of Audit Committee Responsibilities and Effectiveness

Comprehensive regulatory changes brought on by recent corporate governance reforms have broadly redefined and re-emphasized the roles and responsibilities of all the participants in a public company’s financial reporting process. Most notably, these reforms have intensified scrutiny of corporate audit committees, whose role as protectors of investors’ interests now attracts substantially higher visibility and expectations. As a result, audit committees face the formidable challenge of effectively overseeing the company’s financial reporting process in a dramatically changed – and highly charged – corporate governance environment. This paper discusses the new expectations of audit committee responsibilities and effectiveness in the wake of corporate governance reforms, key challenges, “whistleblower” provisions and shortcomings, and provides some directions for future research.     

Corporate Governance Quality and CSR Disclosures

Given the increasing importance attached to both corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate governance, this study investigates the association between these two complimentary mechanisms used by companies to enhance relations with stakeholders. Consistent with both legitimacy and stakeholder theory and controlling for industry profile, firm size, stockholder power/dispersion, creditor power/leverage, and economic performance, our analysis of the annual reports for a sample of 222 listed companies suggests that firms providing more CSR information: have better corporate governance ratings; are larger; belong to higher profile industries; and are more highly leveraged. Our findings support the limited prior research suggesting a link between corporate governance quality and CSR disclosure in company annual reports and suggest that, rather than mandating specific disclosures, regulators might be better served focussing on corporate governance quality as a way of increasing CSR disclosures.     

Do Chinese corporations take their governance practices abroad? Evidence from Chinese mining subsidiaries in Australia

Directors of firms are theorized to fulfil control, service and resource dependence roles. However, the ways in which directors’ of Chinese MNCs govern their foreign subsidiaries, and perform these roles remains unclear. Building on the institutional logics perspective, this study explores the roles enacted by the boards of directors eight Chinese‐controlled companies in Australia to gain an appreciation of their governance practices. In depth semi‐structured interviews with insider and independent directors, consultants and market analysts were undertaken. A content analysis of company annual reports and web sites complimented primary sources of data on board functions. Findings reveal that control is the most dominant role played by these boards, rather than service or resource dependence. It also appears that the dominant logics of Chinese institutions influence the corporate governance of Chinese MNCs as they internationalize. These findings extend our understanding of corporate governance practices in China and abroad.     

Corporate Governance in Asia: A Survey

Corporate governance has received much attention in recent years, partly due to the Asian financial crisis. We review the literature on corporate governance issues in Asia to develop region‐specific and general lessons. Much attention has been given to poor corporate sector performance, but most studies do not suggest that Asian firms were badly run. The literature does confirm the limited protection of minority rights in Asia, allowing controlling shareholders to expropriate minority shareholders. Agency problems have been exacerbated by low corporate transparency, associated with rent‐seeking and relationship‐based transactions, extensive group structures and diversification, and risky financial structures. The controlling shareholder bears some of agency costs in the form of share price discounts and expenditures on monitoring, bonding and reputation building. The Asian financial crisis further showed that conventional and alternative corporate governance mechanisms can have limited effectiveness in systems with weak institutions and poor property rights. Overall, the understanding of the determinants of firm organizational structures, corporate governance practices and outcomes remains limited, however.     

民营企业公司治理机制及其发展趋向

中国民营企业绝大部分家族化特征显著,但是非家族类型的民营企业之特殊性也不能被忽视。只有对民营企业公司治理的权益机制、权力制衡与协调机制、决策机制,经营管理人员的选择与激励约束机制,融资机制进行分析,才能弄清民营企业公司治理的发展趋向。     

Corporate Governance and the CEO Pay–Performance Link: Australian Evidence

We examine the influence of corporate governance mechanisms, namely blockholdings and board structure, on CEO pay–performance sensitivity in listed Australian firms. Results highlight blockholders' role in shaping observed pay–performance associations and their impact varying with their independence and relative magnitude of ownership. Monitoring blockholders increase the sensitivity of long‐term at‐risk pay to performance, better aligning manager and shareholder interests. However, consistent with a shorter investment horizon, insider blockholders increase (decrease) the responsiveness of cash bonuses (long‐term at‐risk pay). Finally, consistent with them affording less‐effective monitoring, larger boards raise (lower) the sensitivity of known pay (long‐term at‐risk pay) to performance.     

家族上市公司治理与绩效研究——基于企业家、资本家视角的比较

文章选取了截至2006年底383住家族富豪控制的419个家族上市公司为研究样本,从最终控制家族是"企业家"还是"资本家"这一新的视角考察最终控制家族的这种经营倾向上的差别对上市公司治理结构以及公司绩效的影响,设计了两个模型对绩效分别进行单变量分析和多元回归分析.实证分析表明不同控制家族下的公司治理结构具有明显差异,而这种差异在一定程度上也对公司绩效有显著影响,这从完善公司治理结构角度,提高我国家族上市公司的绩效提供了一定的借鉴意义.     

浅析内向型管理审计在公司治理结构中的作用

内向型管理审计是公司治理结构的重要组成部分,有效的内向型管理审计有利于公司治理结构的完善。要实现公司治理的目标,就必须正确认识内向型管理审计与公司治理之间的互动关系,并充分发挥内向型管理审计在公司治理结构中的积极作用。     

浅析内向型管理审计在公司治理结构中的作用

内向型管理审计是公司治理结构的重要组成部分，有效的内向型管理审计有利于公司治理结构的完善。要实现公司治理的目标，就必须正确认识内向型管理审计与公司治理之间的互动关系，并充分发挥内向型管理审计在公司治理结构中的积极作用。     

Large Shareholder Activism in Corporate Governance in Developing Countries: Evidence from India

Most of the existing evidence on the effectiveness of large shareholders in corporate governance has been restricted to a handful of developed countries, notably the UK, US, Germany and Japan. This paper provides evidence on the role of large shareholders in monitoring company value with respect to a developing and emerging economy, India, whose corporate governance system is a hybrid of the outsider‐dominated market‐based systems of the UK and the US, and the insider‐dominated bank‐based systems of Germany and Japan. The picture of large‐shareholder monitoring that emerges from our case study of Indian corporates is a mixed one. Like many of the existing studies, while we find blockholdings by directors to increase company value after a certain level of holdings, we find no evidence that institutional investors, typically mutual funds, are active in governance. We find support for the efficiency of the German/Japanese bank‐based model of governance; our results suggest that lending institutions start monitoring the company effectively once they have substantial equity holdings in the company and that this monitoring is reinforced by the extent of debt holdings by these institutions. Our analysis also highlights that foreign equity ownership has a beneficial effect on company value. In general, our analysis supports the view emerging from developed country studies that the identity of large shareholders matters in corporate governance.