The benefits of geographic sales diversification: How exporting facilitates capital investment

Many strategic investments require firms to make upfront outlays to generate profits at a later date. When firms have limited access to external capital, they have to rely on internally generated funds for these investments. In this case, their strategic investments are constrained by cash flow. I predict that by geographically diversifying sales (i.e., exporting), firms can relax this constraint because exporting signals more stable expected cash flows and firm quality, which can increase external capital providers' willingness to fund investments. Examining a representative sample of Spanish manufacturers from 1990 to 1998, I find support that exporting mitigates investment liquidity constraints allowing firms to make strategic investments they would not otherwise be able to make. This highlights how diversification can be a strategy to create and maintain competitive advantage. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Corporate Transparency and Firm Growth: Evidence from Real Estate Investment Trusts

Using a panel data set of Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs), we find corporate transparency to be positively associated with REIT growth. These results suggest that greater transparency facilitates firm growth by relaxing information‐based constraints on external financing. The magnitude of this effect is larger in the equity market than in the debt market. Moreover, the sensitivity of investment to cash flows is decreasing in transparency, evidence that transparency relaxes liquidity constraints. Finally, we find more transparent REITs are less likely to crash.     

Inside Ownership, Risk Sharing and Tobin's q-Ratios: Evidence from REITs

We investigate relations among inside ownership, managerial expenses, risk sharing and equity valuations. Our engine of analysis—Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs)—provides a unique and rich framework for analysis since we can calculate extremely accurate measures of asset replacement costs, and hence relative valuation (Tobin's q ). Further, the nature of the financial statements allows us to examine the impact of insider ownership on agency costs since we can accurately measure the costs of the entire management team. Our results show that firms with greater insider holdings tend to invest in assets with lower systematic risk and use less debt in their capital structure. At the same time, managerial expenses are lower as inside ownership increases. Finally, higher levels of insider ownership are associated with higher relative valuation as measured by both higher premiums to net asset value and higher multiples of cash flows. The results have implications for the design of optimal management contracts for both REITs and firms in general.     

Financing Choice and Liability Structure of Real Estate Investment Trusts

We conduct an analysis of public financial offerings of equity Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs), with a focus on liability structure effects and whether or not firms target longer-run debt ratios. Our major findings are that (1) proceeds from equity offers are more likely to fund investment, whereas public debt offer proceeds are typically used to reconfigure the liability structure of the firm; (2) public debt issuers are often capital constrained and target total leverage ratios to retain an investment grade credit rating; and (3) the preoffer liability structure affects the issuance choice decision, in that firms with higher preoffer levels of secured (unsecured) debt tend to issue equity (public debt). Other notable findings are that the market for public REIT debt is integrated with the broader debt markets and that higher credit quality firms issue longer-maturing bonds.     

REIT Asset Sales: Opportunistic Versus Liquidation

This study provides novel evidence that the outcome from REIT sales of office and apartment property is signaled in the transaction price managers accept relative to the fundamental value. The identification strategy recognizes opportunistic sales as sold at prices above fundamental value. Opportunistic sales are followed by positive abnormal returns, measured relative to the market and associated benchmark indices. Assets sold below fundamental value are liquidated by firms with low profitability, low cash and low investment opportunities. Discounted transactions experience zero abnormal returns. Returns following asset sales are influenced by accounting measures, the flow of funds and financial constraints.     

The Impact of Industrial Design Effectiveness on Corporate Financial Performance*

Despite the growing recognition of industrial design's value in creating sustainable competitive advantage, few studies have attempted to quantify the contribution that design makes to company financial performance. This article examines the relationship between industrial design and company financial performance in order to assess industrial design's contribution to this performance. Effective industrial design was evaluated by asking a panel of 138 industrial design experts to rank the industrial design effectiveness of publicly traded firms within nine selected manufacturing industries; the ranking process yielded 93 firms. Based on the rankings, firms within each industry were divided into two groups: those judged as exhibiting high design effectiveness versus those judged as low in design effectiveness. Audited financial data reported to the SEC across a seven‐year period from 1995 to 2001 were used to evaluate financial performance. Using traditional financial ratios senior managers consider essential performance measures, those firms with high design effectiveness were hypothesized to have higher returns on sales, returns on assets, and growth rates of sales, net income, and cash flow than firms with low design effectiveness. High design effectiveness firms further were hypothesized to have higher stock market returns. These comprehensive, corporate financial measures incorporate expenditures made on industrial design (industrial designers' salaries, design consultants' fees, computer‐aided industrial design equipment) and expenditures that designers influence through their design choices (material costs, manufacturing equipment). This analysis reveals that firms rated as having “good” design were stronger on all measures except growth rate measures. These results provide strong evidence that good industrial design is related to corporate financial performance and stock market performance even after considering expenditures on industrial design. Further, the patterns of financial performance over the seven‐year horizon suggest that these effects are persistent.     

External Financing Constraints and Firm Innovation

We investigate the effect of individual banks affected by the recent financial crisis of 2008/2009 on the innovation activities of their business customers. Firms associated with a bank that relies strongly on the interbank market are more likely to be exposed to a credit supply shock during the financial crisis and therefore face external financing constraints. Exploiting both the extensive and the intensive margin, our difference‐in‐differences results imply that those firms which have a business relation to a bank with higher interbank market reliance reduce their innovation activities during the financial crisis to a higher degree than other firms. Tests for additional expenditures reveal that marketing expenditures show a lower or even no sensitivity to bank financing during the financial crisis.     

Financial and stock market variables as predictors of management buyouts

This paper investigates whether publicly held firms which change to private ownership through management buyouts (ex-public firms) possess characteristics prior to the change which differentiate them from firms which remain publicly owned. The financial characteristics of ex-public firms for the year immediately prior to going private were analyzed. A multivariate framework was developed to determine which attributes best distinguished firms going private via management buyouts from similar firms not going private. A discriminant function was developed using seven ratios: (1) concentration of ownership, (2) cash flow to net worth, (3) cash flow to total assets, (4) price/earnings ratio, (5) price/book value ratio, (6) book value of depreciable assets in relation to original costs, and (7) dividend yield. The model demonstrated a classification accuracy of 77.8 percent for the original sample and 81.4 percent in a hold-out sample validation. These findings imply that financial characteristics alone provide a means by which firms going private via management buyouts can be separated from others. Therefore one can argue that, regardless of the stated motive for going private, financial characteristics either are explicit decision variables or directly reflect non-financial reasons for management buyouts.     

Is R & D Financially Constrained? Theory and Evidence from Irish Manufacturing

We re-examine the effects of liquidity constraints on R & D investment. Inour theoretical section we extend the neoclassical framework of investmentin physical capital by introducing R & D and liquidity constraints. Weanalyse this issue empirically using firm-level data for R & D activemanufacturing firms in the Republic of Ireland. Our results provide evidencethat suggests that R & D investment is financially constrained. This is inline with previous studies of U.S. firms.     

The free cash flow hypothesis for sales growth and firm performance

business is business! And business must grow –Dr. Seuss, The Lorax The paper investigates the agency argument that sales growth in firms with free cash flow (and without strong governance) is less profitable than sales growth for firms without free cash flow. It also tests whether strong governance conditions improve the performance of firms with free cash flow and/or limit the investments in unprofitable sales growth. Consistent with agency theory, firms with free cash flow gain less from sales growth than firms without free cash flow. But different governance conditions affect sales growth and performance in different ways. Having substantial management stock ownership mitigates the influence of free cash flow on performance, despite allowing higher sales growth. In contrast, outside blocks held by mutual funds reduce sales growth substantially, but does not increase performance from sales growth. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Strategic human capital management in the context of cross‐industry and within‐industry mobility frictions

Research Summary: We develop and test a theory examining how frictions that restrict mobility across industries and frictions constraining mobility within an industry can co‐occur to effectively isolate individual human capital, ultimately changing the firm's make‐versus‐buy decision for human capital. Empirically, we demonstrate that when cross‐industry frictions in the form of limited skill transferability and within‐industry frictions in the form of noncompete enforceability are both present, employees exhibit longer tenures, firms hire workers with less initial experience, firms change the amount and nature of training provided, and wages marginally increase. These findings suggest that sufficiently strong and complementary mobility frictions shift the emphasis of firms’ human capital management practices toward internal development of human capital relative to acquisition on the external market. Managerial Summary : In the face of frictions to employee mobility both within and across industries, which we capture empirically using measures of noncompete enforceability and limited skill transferability across industries, firms tend to hire less experienced workers, such workers exhibit longer tenures, and firms invest more in their training, particularly in the development of new skills. Our findings imply that for firms operating under such complementary frictions, better hiring and internal development capabilities are particularly important for performance, while those firms without such capabilities may benefit from considering ways to circumvent the mobility frictions, including moving out of the focal state or lobbying for different noncompete laws.     

流动性在组合投资管理中的认识

在传统的均值-方差模型中,“市场流动性是充分的”假设使投资者忽略了流动性在组合投资管理中的重要性。流动性作为金融资产的三大属性之一,体现并作用于组合投资管理整个过程中。本文从流动性的内涵、流动性的股票交易特征、流动性与均值-方差模型的结合及行业流动性对组合投资的影响等角度探讨了流动性在组合投资管理中的作用,将组合投资的思维从二维空间拓展至三维空间,丰富了现代资产组合选择理论。     

Market frictions as building blocks of an organizational economics approach to strategic management

This paper shows that market frictions are fundamental building blocks for an organizational economics approach to strategic management. Various organizational economic approaches (transaction costs, property rights, real options, and resource‐based) have distinctive focal problems and emphasize different combinations of market frictions. A wider recognition of the role of market frictions is useful for three main objectives. First, it helps identify an evolving market‐frictions paradigm in strategic management. Second, it shows how two primary questions in strategy of why firms exist and why some firms outperform others and the three primary strategic goals of cost minimization, value creation, and value capture can be better joined and evaluated. Third, different combinations of market frictions can generate new research questions and advance theory development in the strategic management field. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The impact of earnings expectations on corporate downsizing

Research Summary: We propose that due to financial market pressures, managers are forward‐looking in their search and decision processes and focus on meeting performance targets set by the financial community. Using panel data on S&P 100 companies, we find that pressure felt by management to meet the analyst consensus earnings estimate influences the extent of corporate downsizing. Moreover, our results show that high levels of institutional investor stock ownership and CEO power attenuate managers’ sensitivity to financial market pressures, while high levels of analyst coverage increase their sensitivity. Managerial Summary: In this study we examine how financial market pressures influence managers’ downsizing decisions. We argue that investment analysts’ earnings estimates represent important performance targets to which managers aspire. If firms fail to meet analysts’ expectations, the stock price will suffer. This study shows that managers utilize corporate downsizing to address the potential shortfall between a firm's future performance and the analyst consensus earnings estimate. In addition, we find that managers’ concerns over meeting analysts’ earnings estimates are influenced by various contextual factors such as institutional investor stock ownership, CEO power, and high levels of analyst coverage.     

Time compression (dis)economies: An empirical analysis

Research Summary: To investigate time compression diseconomies (TCD), this study estimated time–cost elasticities using 459 oil and gas global investment projects (1997–2010). Results show that the average cost of accelerating investments is negative: a firm could cut $6.3 million in costs of a single project by accumulating asset stocks 1 month faster. About 88% of the projects exhibit negative time–cost elasticities with over 39% of unrealized economies of time compression. Only 12% of the projects are subject to TCD. These time inefficiencies or frictions do not negate the existence of TCD, but suggest they are less prevalent than assumed in the literature. Management experience, R&D investment, firm size, economic development, and political stability are shown to be associated with greater time compression efficiency. Managerial Summary: How fast should firms invest? The conventional view is that acceleration increases market revenues but also inflates costs. However, there is no recent empirical evidence of this tradeoff. Our article systematically investigates the costs of compressing time in investment projects. Results show that most firms in the oil and gas industry are significantly time inefficient in their operations. Specifically, by accelerating investments, firms would also substantially decrease costs. We estimate the magnitude of these time inefficiencies for specific oil and gas industries and firms and study which strategies might mitigate this problem. This fine‐grained analysis should help firms assess their financial incentives to accelerate projects and prove informative to stock market analysts’ valuations of firm investment timing.     

基于成长性差异的上市公司投资支出与现金流量的实证研究

公司处于不同的成长阶段,其面临的投资机会与现金流量的需求不同。为减少财务困境成本、避免投资不足,需要充足的现金流量才能支撑公司的健康成长。如果违背公司成长性规律,可能造成投资失误,甚至威胁公司的生存。因此,文章在建构上市公司成长性评价模型的基础上,从成长性视角出发,研究上市公司成长性与投资支出、成长性与现金流量、投资支出与现金流量间的关系,并对不同成长性公司的投资支出与现金流量进行了实证研究。主要研究发现,我国上市公司无论成长性高低,其投资支出与现金流量间呈显著正相关,而且低成长性公司的投资支出与现金流量的敏感性要高于高成长性的公司。     

中国制造业上市公司投资——现金流高敏感性实证研究

由于现实中资本市场的不完善,信息不对称、代理问题和交易成本的存在,内部融资与外部融资之间存在显著的成本差异,这使现金流量在企业生存发展中起着举足轻重的作用,成为决定公司投资水平的重要因素。本文在系统借鉴和吸收国内外公司投资行为研究成果基础上,结合中国资本市场的实际情况,验证中国制造业上市公司投资支出与其内部现金流量的敏感性,通过实证研究揭示二者之间的关系及其背后动因;并在此基础上,探索建立中国上市公司投资行为分析框架,为投融资体制改革、经济政策选择、企业过度投资行为治理及投资效率的提高提供理论基础和决策依据。     

Corporate Governance and Performance: The REIT Effect

Real estate investment trusts (REITs) offer a natural experiment in corporate governance due to the fact that they leave little free cash flow for management, which reduces agency problems. We exploit a unique and leading corporate governance database to test whether corporate governance matters for the performance of U.S. REITs. We document for a sample including governance ratings of more than 220 REITs that firm value is significantly related to firm-level governance for REITs with low payout ratios only. Repeating the analysis with the complete database that includes more than 5,000 companies and a control sample of firms with high corporate real estate ratios, we find a strong and significantly positive relation between our governance index and several performance variables, indicating that the partial lack of a relation between governance and performance in the real estate sector might be explained by a REIT effect.     

数字普惠金融与商业信用二次配置

商业信用二次配置是企业充当信用中介,将银行信贷等资金通过商业信用的渠道为供应链的上下游中小企业提供融资支持,这会导致资金供给链延长,加剧了供应链系统性风险,而数字普惠金融发展的重点在于为中小企业提供直接融资,因此,其能否抑制商业信用二次配置,对于防范金融风险和促进实体经济稳定发展具有重要意义。本文深入探讨了数字普惠金融对商业信用二次配置的影响及其作用机制,研究发现:数字普惠金融有助于降低商业信用二次配置,有效减少了企业利用商业信用把长期借款资金进行二次配置的行为,而且该抑制作用对于外部融资能力较强的企业更加明显。机制检验表明,数字普惠金融通过减少上市公司超额银行信贷抑制商业信用二次配置。进一步分析显示,在外部市场竞争程度较低、内部风险较低、现金持有水平较高以及非高科技企业中,数字普惠金融对上市公司商业信用二次配置的抑制作用更加明显;而且,数字普惠金融在降低商业信用二次配置的同时,对于促进企业创新投入具有一定的积极作用。本文研究表明,数字普惠金融通过增加中小企业直接融资,减少了资金供给的中间环节,进而抑制大型企业充当"影子银行"进行资金的二次配置。     

On the strategic value of risk management

This article examines how firms facing volatile input prices and holding some degree of market power in their product market link their risk management and their production or pricing strategies. This issue is relevant in many industries ranging from manufacturing to energy retailing, where firms that are rendered “risk averse” by financial frictions decide on and commit to their hedging strategies before their product market strategies. We find that commitment to hedging modifies the pricing and production strategies of firms. This strategic effect is channeled through the risk-adjusted expected cost, i.e., the expected marginal cost under the probability measure induced by shareholders' “risk aversion”. It has opposite effects depending on the nature of product market competition: commitment to hedging toughens quantity competition while it softens price competition. Finally, not committing to the hedging position can never be an equilibrium outcome: committing is always a best response to non-committing. In the Hotelling model, committing is a dominant strategy for all firms.