Firm Productivity and the Foreign‐Market Entry Decision

We use Japanese firm‐level data to examine how a firm’s productivity affects its foreign‐market entry strategy. The firm faces a choice between exporting and foreign direct investment (FDI). In the case of FDI, the firm has two options: greenfield investment or acquisition of an existing plant (M&A). If it selects greenfield investment, it has two ownership choices: whole ownership or a joint venture with a local company. Controlling for industry‐ and country‐specific characteristics, we find that the more productive a firm is, the more likely it is to choose FDI rather than exporting and greenfield investment rather than M&A.     

风险资本与风险资本市场

风险资本与风险资本市场存在着相互促进的关系。一个发达活跃的风险资本市场能够极大地刺激风险的扩张。流入高新技术企业的风险资本越多,成功上市的企业就越多,风险资本市场的功能发挥就越强,对社会资金的吸引力就越大,由此推动风险投资事业的发展。本文通过对风险资本与风险资本市场的关系分析,来论证我国二板市场的建立。     

Firm and Group Influences on Venture Capital Firms’ Involvement in New Ventures

abstract Drawing on expectancy, equity, and collective effort theories, we argue that the level of involvement of individual firms in multifirm alliances depends on both individual firms’ self‐focused interests and factors stemming from the firms’ membership in the alliance group. We apply our theoretical arguments to the context of venture capital syndicates and test the hypotheses using data about 160 venture capital firms (VCFs) drawn from a survey instrument and a secondary data source. The results show that individual firms’ involvement in a multifirm alliance is somewhat dominated by group effects; specifically, financial stake relative to that of the group and the reputation of the other group members significantly influence the focal firm's involvement. However, focal firms’ involvement relates negatively to their own reputation. We discuss the implications of these findings for future research. Our results imply that firms in multiparty alliances pay attention to the characteristics of their alliance partnership to calibrate their own behaviour. In our specific setting, VCF involvement in syndicates depends more on relative syndicate characteristics than on the focal firm's absolute level of investment. Further, because reputation is negatively associated with involvement, entrepreneurs and potential syndicate entrants should ensure that they fully leverage VCF reputation to achieve their goals.     

Firm Complexity and Capital Structure: Evidence from Italian Diversified Firms

This paper examines the links between product diversification, international diversification and capital structure for a panel of medium and large Italian firms. The results indicate that the interaction between these two dimensions of diversification strategy has a negative and significant impact on leverage. Furthermore, debt maturity analysis reveals that firms pursuing a simultaneous dual diversification strategy have, in particular, lower long‐term debt ratios. Our findings support the hypothesis that the complexity that comes from diversification reduces debt levels. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A UK `Hands-off' Venture Capital Firm and the Handling of Post-investment Investor--Investee Relationships

Commentators on the UK venture capital industry have observed that it has reached a watershed in its development, with the players of the 1980s having to reassess their positions and possibly, in some cases, their continuing viability as independent operators. It has been suggested that increasing numbers of UK venture capitalists are moving towards a more `hands on' approach to post-investment relationships with investees in the hope of improving performance and investment out-turns. Research in the US suggests that the hoped for improvement by this route is not a foregone conclusion. In this paper we examine how a longstanding and successful UK venture capitalist makes a widely publicised `hands-off' approach work -- and how their investees see the approach working. Our research supports the view that, over time, and by a process of feedback learning from post-investment performance monitoring, investees are selected that are compatible with this particular approach. Our findings demonstrate that mutual trust is one of the most vital elements in successful `hands-off' post-investment relationship building -- and that achieving this requires careful and considered nurturing. Moreover, because `hands-on' involvement can be expensive in terms of investor management resources and against the stated investor policy, relationships of the principal--agent type were kept to a minimum as far as was possible consistent with protecting investments.     

台湾地区风险投资运作的经验借鉴及其启示

我国台湾地区风险投资业虽起步较晚,但由于政府大力扶植和组织管理模式创新等,已发展成为继美国之后的风险投资发展最好的地区。然而,国内学者一提到风险投资经验借鉴,首先就会想到美国。但事实上,美国现在风险投资业所处的金融环境、风险投资运作模式、科技经济水平、相关的法律、乃至于创业投资本身存在的目的和意义都与我国有很大的区别。相比之下台湾地区和大陆的风险投资业在起步之初,都是政府主导型的,而且起步期也大致相近,所以,台湾地区风险投资业的发展应对我们更有借鉴意义。本文通过从政府扶植组织管理模式等方面具体分析,总结和借鉴台湾地区风险投资发展的经验,对我国大陆风险投资发展的启示。     

高科技中小企业风险投资国际比较及借鉴

本文通过对美国、英国、日本等发达国家中小企业风险投资的经验进行比较分析,提出完善我国中小企业风险投资业的国际借鉴。     

Earnings fraud: board control vs CEO control and corporate performance – 1992–2004

The turn of the millennium is associated with increased corporate fraud, largely attributed to the failure of corporate governance. The compensation committee is expected to minimize fraud by rewarding only appropriate CEO behavior. A causal modeling approach, the Directed Acyclic Graph, was used to estimate the structure of corporate fraud. Corporate fraud was measured as illegal earnings statement(s), not all restatements but only those found illegal. A major finding is that the CEO's stock‐option compensation motivates the CEO to commit corporate earnings fraud, while cash salaries and bonuses are only indirectly related to earnings fraud through those stock options. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Tapping Deep Pockets: The Role of Resources and Social Capital on Financial Capital Acquisition by Biotechnology Firms in Biotech–Pharma Alliances

Strategic alliances with pharmaceutical firms allow small biotechnology firms to acquire needed financial capital in exchange for sharing new, cutting‐edge technologies. This study draws from aspects of resource‐based view and social capital theory to examine the factors that influence the extent of financial capital biotech firms acquire when forming an alliance with pharmaceutical firms. Using a sample of 184 alliances from the period 1995–2000, we found that alliances where the pharmaceutical firm has greater management control are associated with greater acquisition of financial capital by the biotech firm. We also found that the credibility of the pharmaceutical firm is positively associated with the extent of financial capital acquired by the biotechnology firm and that the number of patents that the biotech firm has is negatively associated to the financial capital the biotech firm receives. We discuss the implications of our findings for theory, research, and management practice.     

‘Control – What Control?’ Culture and Ambiguity Within a Knowledge Intensive Firm*

ABSTRACT This paper explores the distinctive culture that existed within a knowledge‐intensive firm (KIF) and also attempts to explain the emergence and effects of this culture. The findings are based on a detailed case study that was conducted over two years within a consultancy firm that created and applied scientific knowledge and expertise to the invention of solutions for clients. The firm employed highly educated scientists, considered ‘leading’ in their respective disciplines and project work was inherently fluid, complex, and uncertain. These kinds of ‘knowledge workers’, and this kind of work, are expected to demand high levels of autonomy. This creates complex managerial dilemmas around how to balance autonomy with control and uncertainty and flexibility with efficiency. The analysis shows how a strong culture based on an acceptance of ambiguity (e.g. in roles, power relations, organizational routines and practices) promoted the development of a loyal, committed, effective workforce and sustained a fluid and flexible form of project working over time. Critically, ambiguity allowed individuals to sustain multiple identities as both ‘expert’ and ‘consultant’. This, coupled with a corporate identity premised on ‘élitism’, helped to maximize commitment to the work and minimize tensions between control and autonomy. Thus the culture that embraced ambiguity (a consensus that there would be no consensus) engendered a form of normative control whereby consultants operated freely and at the same time willingly participated in the regulation of their own autonomy.     

Workplace industrial relations in Britain, 1980–2004

The Workplace Industrial Relations Surveys marked a radical departure in the study of industrial relations (IR) by ‘mapping’ IR in Britain with nationally representative large‐scale surveys of workplace managers, thus permitting investigation of the incidence of practices and changes over time. This article reflects on some of what we have learned in the five surveys over the quarter century since 1980, focusing selectively on the demise of collective IR, pay determination, the IR climate, and union effects on wages and employment growth.     

论美国风险投资维护金融安全的经验及启示

风险投资对于维护金融安全而言有利也有弊,而美国风险投资却趋利避害,不仅促进了美国实体经济的发展,也为稳定美国金融安全作出了贡献。究其原因,美国风险投资有科学的组织模式、广泛的资金来源、谨慎的投资方式的选择、健全的服务与监管体系,而且还有美国政府的大力支持。本文以美国的成功经验为鉴提出了发展我国风险投资的一些看法。     

Confounding Market and Hierarchy in Venture Capital Governance: The Canadian Immigrant Investor Program

Governance structure is a central feature of organization. Hybrid forms of organization – typified by governance structures from more than one organizational model – have become prominent features of the organizational landscape. This study examined the governance structure of a hybrid organizational arrangement created when a government programme was developed utilizing selected aspects of venture capitalist models of governance. Central findings include: designing appropriate governance structure is a key activity for new organizations; combining market and hierarchical forms of governance produces a confounding mix of rationalities, which is potentially dangerous for long-term survival; ambiguous control systems allow participants to pay selective attention to particular elements of governance structure; existing models of venture capital governance understate important social dimensions of governance – particularly the role of trust; hybrid organizations potentially remove the element of trust necessary for effective transactions     

Voluntary Adopters of Integrated Reporting – Evidence on Forecast Accuracy and Firm Value

This study investigates how integrated reporting (IR) creates value for investors. It examines how providers of financial capital benefit from an improved firm information environment provided by IR. Specifically, this study investigates the effect of voluntary IR disclosure on analyst earnings forecast accuracy as well as on firm value. To do so, we use an international sample of 167 listed companies that voluntarily publish an integrated report. Our analysis shows no significant effect of a voluntary IR publication on analyst earnings forecast accuracy and no significant effect on firm value. We thus do not find evidence for the fulfillment of IR's promises regarding improved information environment and value creation of voluntary adopters. We conclude that such companies might already have a relatively high level of transparency leading to an absent additional effect of IR disclosure. Positive effects of IR appear to be more relevant in environments where IR is mandatory.