DEVELOPMENTS IN PUBLIC SECTOR PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT: A PROJECT ON PRODUCING RETURN ON INVESTMENT METRICS FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT

This paper reports on a project concerned with developing a return on investment (ROI) performance metric for a law enforcement organisation. The paper's contributions are twofold. First, it addresses concerns in the literature about how different stakeholder interests are balanced in the development of performance measures. Second, it helps to remedy an oversight in the literature regarding the hybridisation of accounting and economic expertise, whereby cost benefit techniques and ROI combine to produce a metric of public sector achievements. By virtue of its law enforcement context the paper also discusses a further hybridisation where accounting, economics and criminology/law enforcement intersect.     

New development: Wang Anshi's Wanyanshu as the origins of modern public management?

The drive for efficiencies across all areas of public spending in the UK has accelerated the need for improvements in service performance. This article considers how police performance might be improved through the adoption of a ‘Lean’ philosophy. This is seen as a potential driver for internal police improvements and is made in response to the government's call for reform and to address the challenges of a decrease in future police funding.     

澳大利亚关于市场操纵的认定及处罚

澳大利亚联邦<公司法>和<澳大利亚证券与投资委员会法>的颁布,确立了澳大利亚对市场操纵行为监管的基本法律框架.本文对澳大利亚市场操纵的认定、监管体制、调查与处罚机制进行了初步研究,总结出澳大利亚市场操纵监管的规律和趋势,以期对中国证券市场的监管实践提供有益的经验.     

The usefulness of performance reporting in local government: comparing Italy and Spain

This article presents a comparative analysis of the perceived usefulness of performance information by managers in local authorities in Italy and Spain. Italy and Spain have similar cultural and administrative characteristics and in both countries there are external requirements (from central government) to adopt performance indicators. The adoption of performance indicators was found to be almost symbolic in both states.     

环境执法监督对企业绿色创新的影响

以环保约谈制度实施为契机,基于合法性理论和遵从理论,考察环境执法监督对企业绿色创新的影响及其机制。研究发现：环境执法监督会有效地促进企业绿色创新,即环保约谈显著地提高了被约谈地区企业的绿色创新水平。拓展性检验与分析后发现,环境执法监督对企业绿色创新的促进作用主要表现在低融资约束企业和低代理成本企业中。影响机制探索后发现,环境执法监督通过提高企业环境成本、环境处罚力度和企业环保投资,进而促进企业绿色创新。     

公司法的深层结构： 从东印度公司到中国公司法

公司法深层结构是指公司法表层结构背后对于公司和公司法的观念认知、功能理解,展现了有关公司法的政治伦理、经济逻辑、文化理念。公司法的深层结构具有历史性特征,决定了不同国家或地区公司法的“精神气质”和“内在品格”,对于公司法的体系安排、制度建构、规范解释亦能发挥重要作用。从公司法发展历史来看,公司法深层结构决定了“民主型”英国东印度公司和“专制型”荷兰东印度公司的不同,二者在股东权利保护、公司权力分配、董事责任约束、股东自治空间、政府关系处理等方面形成了不同风格的制度体系,并对于英美法系公司法和大陆法系公司法产生了深远的影响。在我国公司法全面修改背景下,有必要深入考察我国公司法的深层结构及其对公司法治实践的影响,并立足本土实际、基于现实国情探讨公司法改革的重点方向和实施路径。     

Does Hedge Fund Performance Persist? Overview and New Empirical Evidence

The contribution of this paper is to provide an overview and new empirical evidence on hedge fund performance persistence, which has been a controversial issue in the academic literature during the last several years. In the first step, we review recent studies and put them into a joint evaluation of hedge fund performance persistence. In the second step, the methodological framework developed in the overview is used to present new empirical evidence. We find different levels of performance persistence depending on the statistical methodology and the hedge fund strategy employed. In our study, performance persistence cannot be explained by the use of option-like strategies, but it can be partially explained by survivorship and backfilling bias. Differences among hedge fund strategies might be explained by return smoothing. Finally, we develop a rationale for choosing between different methodologies to measure performance persistence and conclude that the multi-period Kolmogorov-Smirnov test is the most useful for evaluating performance persistence of hedge funds.     

INSTITUTIONAL RESEARCH ON PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT AND MANAGEMENT IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR ACCOUNTING LITERATURE: A REVIEW AND ASSESSMENT

This paper reviews the evolution of institutional research on performance measurement and management (PMM) in the public sector accounting literature. An assessment of the progress of this research programme is offered in light of some key developments in the broader neo-institutional sociology (NIS) literature, such as the growing recognition of the role of embedded agency, the need to bridge institutional and rational choice explanations of action and the extension of empirical research across different levels of institutional fields. Some progress has been made in this respect and has contributed to shift the emphasis from a one-sided focus on institutional effects  on  PMM, treating institutional pressures as largely exogenous, to recognize its more intricate roles as an outcome of, as well as a medium for, change. However, further research is required into the micro dynamics involved in transforming and reproducing PMM practices at different levels of analysis and how such practices become infused with meanings conditioned by higher-order institutional logics across various levels of institutional fields. Some research strategies for addressing these issues are outlined.     

THE IMPACT OF POLITICAL INTERESTS UPON THE FORMULATION OF PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENTS: THE NHS STAR RATING SYSTEM

This study examines the impact of political interests of the Blair Government on the development of the NHS star rating system. It argues that the use of performance measurements (PMs) is not detached from its political context but influenced by institutional interests including in particular those of the Government. The analysis indicates that the formulation of the specifics of PM, and of performance information within the NHS star rating system, was skewed to reflect the political objectives of the Blair Government. PMs are not merely neutral instruments, but, suffused with institutional interests, serve as a coercive mechanism to impose pressures upon the NHS as well as seeking to create a public perception of performance improvement. This study concludes that PMs in the public sector are influenced by the need to serve the political interests of the Government.     

考虑生存偏差现象的我国封闭式基金绩效持续性研究

生存偏差是进行我国封闭式基金绩效研究不可忽视的问题。本文选取2001-2009年我国54只契约型封闭式基金为样本,研究了生存偏差对封闭式基金绩效持续性的影响。结论认为,我国封闭式基金生存偏差效应显著为负,所估计得到的生存偏差效应值介于每年-4.97%至-0.34%之间;退市基金规模较小、绩效较高是导致这一结论的主要原因;同时,研究发现,生存偏差会减弱封闭式基金绩效持续性。     

Screening Talent for Task Assignment: Absolute or Percentile Thresholds?

Matching talents to tasks is an important part of job design. Organizations routinely use performance thresholds to group agents by talent. We see thresholds defined both in terms of an individual's own performance (absolute value) and in terms of peer performance (percentile). Intuition suggests a preference for percentile thresholds because the resulting rank-order statistic is sufficient to assess relative talent. Yet, in the context of a task assignment problem in which the objective is to match talent with task type (using two agents and two task types), we show that absolute thresholds can dominate percentile thresholds under either of two conditions. First, flexibility in task assignment tilts the balance toward absolute thresholds. Second, performance manipulation can adversely affect the inherent advantage of percentile thresholds because they motivate agents to invest relatively more in personally costly influence activities to cast their performance in a favorable light. We examine how these results hold up when there are countably large number of agents and discuss empirical implications.     

School output control and student performance in Norwegian primary schools—an exploratory study

This paper explores how national school performance measures are used as a management control system in Norwegian schools and the relationship between the use of these measures and student performance. Survey data from Norway and archival family background data are examined with the results of national tests (NTs) taken by grade 5 students (10 year olds). The study finds interesting relationships between how schools use NT results and student performance. The findings provide insight into how take up of national tests can be improved within Norwegian schools. These insights might also be transferable to schools outside Norway.     

The Cult of Modernity

This article examines Strategic Performance Management Systems oftenintroduced as a key component of New Public Management. In doing so, it identifies some of the common and long-standing difficulties identified with the introduction and use of performance measures. The article then questions why such management systems are consistently advocated given some of the apparently serious dysfunctions that their introduction and use can engender. It concludes that these systems reflect a deeper attachment to what has been characterised as Enlightenment thinking, and that an archaeology of this style of thought is a necessary pre-requisite for understanding models of management that are promulgated.