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.     

Sovereign Wealth Funds: Investment and Governance Practices

Sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) are large, growing, and concentrated investment vehicles, with a current estimated value of U.S. $3 trillion. The combination of low transparency and government ownership has raised questions about political agendas, national security, and transfers of technology. In this article the authors report on the current status of SWFs in terms of investments, regulation, governance, and transparency of activities. They also review some recent studies on SWF investments and their impact on financial markets.     

公司治理与内部控制环境之我见

尽管现今大部分企业的内部控制制度正在不断建立、发展、完善，但是为何会计信息失真现象仍然严重、内部人控制现象为何仍比比皆是，其主要原因在很大程度上是由于对内部控制环境重视不够引起的，而内部控制环境的运行好坏又与公司治理紧密关联。因此，组织合理、运行高效的公司治理不仅有助于股东、董事会、经理及其管理人员的权、责、利之间的合理配置，更有助于建立一个高效内部控制环境以促进内部控制体系的整体运行效果。     

公司治理影响资本结构吗

本文以2004-2007年A股非金融类上市公司非平衡面板数据为研究对象,在我国特殊的制度环境下分析上市公司的公司治理与资本结构之间的关系.研究发现公司治理结构对资本结构有着十分重要的影响.该结论基本符合债务控制理论,但与西方现有文献相比仍有所不同;该结论丰富了企业融资理论,对完善我国公司治理制度和资本结构有很大意义.     

The Survival of Family Firms: The Importance of Control and Family Ties

The aim of this article is to analyze the survival patterns of a group of family firms which have already spent at least 25 years in the market. To this end, we use the Kaplan–Meier product limit estimator supplemented with qualitative information gathered by direct observation and discussions with entrepreneurs. The main findings are that small family firms which have reached their 30th year in the market face a very high risk of sudden exit, increasing with firm age. Further control carried out by means of interviews with entrepreneurs identifies problems connected with succession as one of the main causes of the decision to close down.     

上市公司控制权类型、治理机制与代理成本——家族企业与非家族企业的比较分析

本文采用2006年1329家上市公司的数据,分析治理机制对代理成本的影响,对家族企业与非家族企业治理机制的影响效果进行比较分析.研究结果发现,对全体上市公司而言,大股东持股比例、机构投资者持股比例、流动负债比例与代理成本呈负相关,股权制衡度、两职合一、资产负债率与代理成本呈正相关,董事会规模、独立董事比例与代理成本的关系不显著;家族企业治理机制对代理成本的影响效果比非家族企业要弱.在非家族企业中,大股东持股比例、股权制衡度、两职合一与代理成本有显著的相关性,但上述治理机制对家族企业的代理成本没有显著影响.     

Whistleblowing,Governance and Regulation Before the Financial Crisis: The Case of HBOS

Following the financial crisis of 2008, the Treasury Committee of the UK House of Commons undertook an inquiry into the lessons that might be learned from the banking crisis. Paul Moore, head of group regulatory risk at Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS) during 2002–2005, provided evidence of his experience of questioning HBOS policies which resulted in his dismissal from HBOS. The problems that surfaced at HBOS during the financial crisis were so serious that it was forced to merge with Lloyds TSB, another UK bank, to form the Lloyds Banking Group in which the government took a significant stake. Moore’s evidence to the Treasury Committee revealed that long before the financial crisis, he had raised major concerns with the management of HBOS and with the Financial Services Authority (FSA), the UK financial services regulator. Moore’s evidence led to the submission of further disclosures, replies and rejoinders as evidence to the Treasury Committee. Moore’s case is therefore of considerable interest to researchers of whistleblowing because it is a rare instance of high-level whistleblowing, the details of which subsequently entered the public domain. The information revealed in evidence to the Treasury Committee sheds light on the process of whistleblowing in the context of the governance and regulation of a major UK bank that subsequently had to be rescued by government intervention during the financial crisis. The paper makes a contribution to the wider literature on whistleblowing, and to a greater understanding of aspects of the financial crisis.     

治理环境、技术水平与外商独资化

本文构建了外商直接投资独资化决策的治理环境-技术水平权衡框架,利用手工搜集的1997-2011年我国FDI结构的省级面板数据进行了实证检验,研究发现,治理环境与外资独资化倾向显著正相关,地区市场化程度的提高以及治理环境的改善使外商更倾向于采取独资的方式进入。在技术水平较低的地区,内外资技术差距越大,外商更倾向于独资的进入模式,以降低技术扩散风险。稳健性分析表明了结论的稳健性。本文研究为差异化的引进外资政策提供了实证依据。     

家族企业内部会计控制环境分析与优化

目前,我国内地非公有经济中家族式的企业至少占到了90%以上是经济发展的主要力量.随着时代的进步、经济的发展,组织机制障碍、人力资源瓶颈、内部审计薄弱、企业文化欠缺等内部环境因素制约了家族企业的健康发展.应从完善家族企业治理结构入手,优化家族企业内部会计控制环境,为内部会计控制提供优质的环境和前提;科学合理的设置组织结构,为内部会计控制提供良好的实施栽体;重视内部审计,确保内部会计控制的有效运行;优化人力资源管理,提高内部会计控制效率;构建先进的企业文化.为内部会计控制的建立与实施提供有力的保障和支持.     

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.     

家族企业上市公司的治理问题与对策

家族企业上市公司在股市的比重越来越大。改制与上市是家族企业发展与壮大的主要途径而不是目的,但是许多家族企业上市以后却停留在原来的治理水平上,不能走上现代公司治理之路,失去了继续发展的方向。家族企业上市公司的不良治理问题还会引起股市的大波动,帮助他们提高治理水平．既有利于家族企业上市公司的健康发展,又利于股市的稳定运行。     

The Governance of Early Modern Trade: The Case of Hans Thijs, 1556-1611

In this article the organization of early modern trade is analyzedthrough a case study of the business of Hans Thijs, an Antwerpmerchant who worked in Danzig and Amsterdam in the late sixteenthand early seventeenth century. His career demonstrates how earlymodern merchants combined markets, personal relations, and firmsto govern their transactions. The complementary relationshipsamong these institutions helped to minimize information andenforcement costs. A comparison of Hans Thijs' business organizationin Danzig (1585–1595) and in Amsterdam (1595–1611)shows that trade was governed more efficiently in markets ofgreater scale and scope.     

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。     

Crime,Control and Environmental Policy: The Case of Hazardous Wastes

In the context of a model of principal–agency the institutional setting in which the agency operates is investigated. Optimal behaviour for an agency which is restricted to enforcement policies is deduced, and further behavioural interactions between the firm and the restricted agency are explored. Also the firm's behavioural responses to agency dump fee policies are developed, and the welfare implications are derived.     

治理层的监督与内部控制

治理层对内部控制的监督和指导属于内部控制的内部环境要素,是内部控制不可或缺的组成部分,也是内部控制要素建立的重要基础,内部控制有效性高低会提高或削弱公司治理效率。为了保证内部控制健全有效,公司治理层必须切实履行对内部控制的监督和指导责任;为了履行好这些责任,治理层中的董事会和监事会应当切实加强自身素质和能力的建设,努力提高自身的独立性、权威性和胜任能力。     

财富管理 ——以商业银行私人银行业务为例

改革开放以来,中国经济迅猛发展,社会财富不断积累,并且高净值人群的比例不断提升,高净值人群对财富管理的需求也不断增强,这无疑给中国的金融机构巨大的发展机会。传统的商业银行必须解决自身的发展战略转型问题,这关乎其能否获取市场份额,否则将会逐渐被市场抛弃,并且渐渐的失去自己原有的市场。在此严峻的形势下,商业银行应该结合高净值人群,制定相应的转型战略,中国商业银行的私人银行业务应运而生。高净值客户群的需求分析为基础,探讨私人银行业务在国内发展的机遇与创新。     

制度环境与民营企业治理结构变迁——基于国美电器的案例分析

本文以班纳德孙-范氏模型为基础,通过对国美电器从“家族经营-家族所有权”到“家族经营-所有权分散”,再到“职业经营-所有权分散”的治理结构变迁过程的分析,揭示了微观层面的最佳治理结构选择是由宏观层面的制度环境因素决定的,即公司治理结构会随着制度环境的变化而变化.     

Family Finance: Value Creation and the Democratization of Cross-Border Governance

As Mira Wilkins has argued, there is a curious disconnect betweenbusiness and financial history (Wilkins 2004). Whereas businesshistory literature has rediscovered the importance of familybusiness in many countries and in many sectors of contemporarycommercial life, for example, little has been written aboutfamily banking as an alternative to joint-stock, management-runfinancial institutions. This lacuna is odd for many reasons.First, family banking is one of the best-known examples of familybusiness in history. Second, family banks once played a muchgreater role in international investment banking than it doestoday. Third, some family financial institutions are still active(dominant) in certain market segments and countries. This paperwill focus on how, when and why family banking lost its positionin international (multinational) banking during the first fewdecades of the twentieth century. Although political upheavaland a widespread movement to reduce the power of private financialinstitutions undermined their businesses, family banks suffered,too, from America's maturing as a financial center. I will arguethat this shift is connected with the increased importance ofAmerican markets and financial regulations, which, in the 1930s,deliberately steered financial transactions away from privatedealings and toward transparent impersonal exchanges and capitalmarkets with new forms of aggregated capital and individualinvestors, in which private banks were ill-suited to manageor at the least for which they had no special competitive edge.Using concepts drawn from an earlier paper on family businessesand relying mostly on secondary sources, this paper will furtherargue that in markets or market segments, such as LeveragedBuyouts, where uncertainty forms a greater part of the transactionalenvironment, family banking still plays a significant role.     

Ethics Audits and Corporate Governance: The Case of Public Sector Sports Organizations

This article presents a theorized and conceptually informed method for the undertaking of an ethics audit organization. At an operational level, the overall integrity of an organization, it is argued, may be evaluated through the application of a conceptual framework that embraces the inter-related themes of individual responsibility, social equity and political responsibility. Finally, a method is presented for ethics audit which was developed in the auditing of a national public sector sports organization: sportscotland. This emphasizes the significance of key personnel (individuals and in groups) in producing and reproducing the organizational ethos, whilst recognizing the importance of anonymity and confidentiality throughout the process. The theoretical terrain of the ethics audit is articulated through a consideration of ethics as applied moral philosophy, equity as social justice and corporate governance as the moral health (or otherwise) of a public sector sports organization.