Independent directors and firm performance in family controlled firms: evidence from Indonesia

We analyse the relationship between board structure and firm performance in family‐controlled firms using a sample of Indonesian non‐financial companies. We find that the share of independent directors on the board has an insignificant relationship with firm performance. We suspect that the result is driven by the lack of institutional reforms in relation to the appointment of independent directors. Our analysis shows strong empirical support for the proposition that family control (family ownership and family involvement on the board) is negatively related to firm performance. However, the significant effect of family ownership disappears when family involvement on the board is taken into the model. This result indicates that family ownership is more detrimental to firm performance whenever the family is highly involved in control decisions. Our results suggest that Indonesia needs to implement governance reforms that prevent majority owners from exercising excessive control over firms.     

环境变迁与日本企业经营改革

在经济全球化条件下，日本企业面临着严峻的形势。经济全球化带来企业经营环境的变化，资本超越国界经营已成为普遍现象。日本在调整增长时代虽然有很多强点，使其取得高增长，规模扩大，但其封闭性和保守性使其在同其他国家比较之中处于相对落后的地位。面对21世纪的全球化经营，日本企业在经营制度上正在经历着重大的变革，诸如，改革董事会制度、刷新经营者队伍、实行经营基础的国际化、分配制度的改变乃至加强企业的伦理道德等等。总之，日本企业经营正在改变其传统形式，向欧美经营形式看齐，实行变革之中。     

日本制造企业变革特征探析

数十年来日本制造业一直在采取措施改善其经营和管理，特别是上个世纪的90年代末和21世纪初。如果我们对20世纪90年代末和21世纪初日本制造企业为了应对经济衰退和巨额亏损所采取的变革措施进行一次归纳和总结的话，我们不难从中发现日本制造企业变革所具有的一些基本的特征，例如人力资源变革、战略变革、质量管理上的变革、管理制度上的变革等，而这些特征对于中国制造企业而言也无疑有着十分重要的借鉴意义。     

家族持股比例对企业绩效影响的实证分析

本文以2003年110家上市家族公司为研究对象,在控制了董事会结构、管理层激励、企业规模及财务风险等因素后,发现家族作为第一大股东,其持股比例对公司绩效的影响并不显著,并在分析个中原因后提出,对将要上市或增发新股而面临股权稀释的家族企业来说,没有普遍适用的最佳持股比例,应根据自己的情况相机抉择。     

金融危机后国际公司治理改革的动向及启示

公司治理的失效是导致金融危机的原因之一。国际社会在金融危机后的公司治理改革,重点应放在提高董事会的责任、加强风险控制和改善薪酬制度等方面。从近年来公司治理改革的发展趋势看,维护监管与灵活性的平衡已经成为新一轮公司治理改革的出发点。越来越多的国家实行公司治理规范的"服从或解释"规则。在给予公司充分的治理选择权的条件下,通过提高透明度,加强市场约束和问责性。     

Professional Directors and Governance Quality

We examine professional directors—board members with no employment outside of serving as independent directors. We find that boards with a higher percentage of professional directors engage in more acquisitions, experience lower acquisition announcement returns, and exhibit lower performance‐turnover sensitivity and lower financial performance. We also examine the returns surrounding the appointment‐announcement dates of professional directors and find that firms experience significantly lower cumulative abnormal returns upon the appointment announcement of professional directors as compared to nonprofessional directors. The negative returns are primarily experienced by firms that face greater agency issues, suggesting that the market does not value professional directors for stricter monitoring. Overall, our findings do not lend support for calls to professionalize corporate boards.     

Assessing foreign direct investment relationships between China,Japan, and the United States

China has received enormous inflows of foreign direct investment (FDI) in recent years, including significant flows from Japan and the US. We examine these investment flows in detail to gain perspectives on their relative importance for the three countries involved. We also analyze the industrial composition of FDI flows over time. American FDI flows to China have been less concentrated in manufacturing than average for investors in China while Japan's FDI flows have been much more concentrated in manufacturing, particularly in transport, electrical and machinery industries in recent years. Using survey data from American and Japanese affiliates, we compare the employment patterns and sales destinations of American and Japanese affiliates in China. We find a much higher degree of export-orientation for Japanese affiliates than American affiliates, with the latter tending to make the vast majority of their sales in the Chinese market. Over time, however, we find a tendency towards convergence in the sales destinations of Japanese and American affiliates.     

The impact of business regulatory reforms on economic growth

I investigate the link between business regulatory reforms and economic growth in 172 countries. I create a 5 year dataset on business regulatory reforms from the World Bank’s Doing Business reports. Then, I test the hypothesis that business regulatory reforms increase economic growth, using data on micro-economic reforms. These data do not suffer the endogeneity issues associated with other datasets on changes in economic institutions. The results provide a robust support for the claim that business regulatory reforms are good for economic growth. The paper establishes that, on average, each business regulatory reform is associated with a 0.15% increase in growth rate of GDP.     

Measuring network effects on trade: A reexamination

Building upon [Greaney, T.M., 2005. Measuring network effects on trade: are Japanese affiliates distinctive? Journal of the Japanese and International Economies 19, 194–214], this research provides improved estimates of the impact of network effects on trade conducted by foreign affiliates operating in the US. With an expanded and improved data set, I find that both home and regional biases are much stronger for affiliates’ imports than for their exports. At the country-specific level, I find evidence to support the hypothesis that Japanese affiliates have particularly strong network effects, but these effects are limited to a home bias effect alone. Although Japanese affiliates show signs of a regional, or Asian, network effect in their import pattern, the strength of this effect is the weakest among all of the countries tested. Only two countries’ affiliates show signs of regional bias in their export behavior, Australia and the Netherlands.     

Debt financing and sharp currency depreciations: wholly versus partially-owned multinational affiliates

This paper provides empirical evidence on two potential costs of shared ownership of German affiliates abroad. First, in periods of currency crises, wholly-owned affiliates, in contrast to partially-owned affiliates, seem to circumvent financial constraints by accessing capital from their parent companies. In terms of differences in performance regarding sales of both types of firms, wholly-owned affiliates have a significantly better sales performance than partially-owned affiliates in periods of crises. This finding contributes to the evidence that FDI helps in mitigating the negative consequences of sharp currency depreciation, and stresses that this effect works especially through capital inflows to wholly-owned affiliates. Second, the debt financing of partially-owned affiliates is less sensitive to the tax rate suggesting that partially-owned affiliates rely less on international debt shifting than wholly-owned affiliates. This indicates that partially-owned affiliates are less flexible to exploit tax efficient strategies.     

Mixing Family Business with Politics in Thailand*

This paper uses newly compiled data on Thai family businesses and their direct participation in politics to examine whether the political participation of family business yields private economic payoff. The paper finds that the political participa‐tion of family members is positively associated with the profitability of family businesses. Furthermore, this ‘political benefit’ is found to be particularly large when firms are connected to cabinet members. These results support the crony capitalism view that powerful business groups in Thailand have an incentive to directly hold influential public offices to influence economic policy in their favor.     

专业化管理的家族企业——新加坡的华人企业

通过考察大量口迷历史记录、个人访谈、文献研究及有关新加坡经济、社会的评论，研究了亚洲金融危机（以下简称危机）前后新加坡华人企业变化及其发展的持续性，表明危机前，这些大型企业由家族制管理变为专业化管理；危机后，其变化趋势有两种，一种由于面临着西方企业日益激烈的竞争，在政府密切关注下，同时也因缺乏有能力、有管理家族企业意愿的后代，家族制度已松散；另一种由于没有政府的直接管制，在危机后消极的市场形势下，为谋求生存，任用有能力的家族后代充分发挥优势，维持着传统的家族制。本文分别从市场、制度（包括文化和政府）及一些主要大公司的领导者行为分析，推导一个路径清晰、条脉分明的管理变化模式，同时提出进一步的研究方向——专业化管理家族企业的结构及政府的角色。     

R&D and patenting activities of foreign firms in China: The case of Japan

This study investigates the research and development (R&D) and patenting activities of foreign firms in China. Utilizing a panel dataset of Japanese affiliates during the period 2001–2007, we first examine the determinants of R&D activity and find that local market-oriented firms place more emphasis on R&D, whereas process export-oriented firms are less likely to conduct R&D. Affiliates within a large business group that has more affiliates have a higher propensity to undertake R&D. Using only firms with positive R&D expenditures, we next estimate the patent production function. Results indicate that the patent elasticity of R&D for Japanese affiliates is high, suggesting that they are more productive on patent production than other firms. Moreover, local market-oriented firms do need more patents to protect their products, whereas scientific firms demonstrate a lower willingness to register patents in China.     

家族企业主的政治联系、制度环境与慈善捐赠——基于全国私营企业调查的实证研究

家族企业的慈善捐赠是中国慈善事业的中坚力量,探究其影响因素对深化理解家族企业行为具有重要价值。文章基于2012年全国私营企业调查数据,采用Tobit回归模型,研究了家族企业主的政治联系、制度环境对慈善捐赠的影响。研究发现家族企业主的政治联系促进慈善捐赠行为,具有政治联系的家族企业主比没有政治联系的家族企业主更多地进行慈善捐赠,政治联系级别越高,慈善捐赠水平也越高。当企业所处地区的制度环境更完善时,政治联系对慈善捐赠的促进作用减弱。文章揭示了家族企业慈善捐赠行为的部分规律,对推动中国慈善事业的发展具有一定的政策含义。     

创业导向下女性高管对家族企业财务绩效的影响——来自性别属性与家族属性的双重效应

文章通过区分家族女性高管和非家族女性高管两类群体，实证检验了在家族企业创业成长的过程中，性别属性与家族属性带来的双重影响。研究结果表明，与独立型女性高管相比，与控制家族有血缘关系的亲缘型女性高管参与治理会对家族企业财务绩效产生更为积极的影响，且在内部创业导向下该积极作用更显著。独立型女性高管对财务绩效无直接显著作用，且在内部创业导向下，会削减家族企业的绩效，在外部创业导向下也没有体现出积极作用。本研究揭示了在以内部创业导向为主的家族企业中，家族经验、家族关系等家族属性可以一定程度上弥补女性角色在家族企业治理中的不足，为日益蓬勃的女性后代继任的家族企业创业成长给出了一定的有益指导。     

专业化管理的家族企业——新加坡的华人企业

通过考察大量口述历史记录、个人访谈、文献研究及有关新加坡经济、社会的评论,研究了亚洲金融危机(以下简称危机)前后新加坡华人企业变化及其发展的持续性,表明危机前,这些大型企业由家族制管理变为专业化管理;危机后,其变化趋势有两种,一种由于面临着西方企业日益激烈的竞争,在政府密切关注下,同时也因缺乏有能力、有管理家族企业意愿的后代,家族制度已松散;另一种由于没有政府的直接管制,在危机后消极的市场形势下,为谋求生存,任用有能力的家族后代充分发挥优势,维持着传统的家族制.本文分别从市场、制度(包括文化和政府)及一些主要大公司的领导者行为分析,推导一个路径清晰、条脉分明的管理变化模式,同时提出进一步的研究方向--专业化管理家族企业的结构及政府的角色.     

The Relationship between Board Characteristics and Voluntary Improvements in Audit Committee Composition and Experience*

This study empirically examines the relation between certain board of director characteristics and the extent that audit committee composition voluntarily exceeds minimum mandated levels and includes outside directors with financial reporting and audit committee knowledge and experience. This study focuses on board characteristics because the board directly controls audit committee membership. Such staffing decisions can directly affect the ability of the audit committee to monitor management's financial reporting process on behalf of the board. Results suggest that Canadian firms that voluntarily include more outside directors on the audit committee than the mandated minimum have larger boards with more outsiders serving on those boards and are more likely to segregate the board chairperson position from the CEO/president positions. Additionally, firms that voluntarily create audit committees composed of outsider members with a breadth of relevant financial reporting and audit committee knowledge and experience have boards that are larger, have more outside members, and are less likely to be chaired by the CEO/president. Implications of these findings for auditors, institutional investors, regulators, and other interested parties are discussed.     

Utilization of minority employees in small business: A comparison of nonminority and black-owned urban enterprises

Structural changes in the urban economy are causing African-American workers in blue collar occupations to rely increasingly upon the small business sector for employment. This study finds that most of the nonminority-owned small businesses operating in large urban areas do not employ minorities. Even among the businesses physically located within minority communities, the majority of the workers in the nonminority small firms are white. Black-owned businesses, in contrast, rely largely on minority workers even when their firms are located outside of minority neighborhoods.     

基于代理理论与管家理论视角的家族企业的公司治理选择

企业组织是一个非常异质性的组织，企业的不同治理选择潜在影响着企业的代理成本和管家态度，最终体现为能力和企业绩效上的重要区别。文章从代理理论与管家理论这两种不同公司治理视角，分析了家族企业公司治理的四个维度，即家族所有与控制、家族领导能力、多个家族成员的广泛参与以及家族传承计划与实际参与下的各自的代理成本和管家态度，以及对企业能力和绩效的影响。     

Do Multinational Enterprises Relocate Employment to Low-Wage Regions? Evidence from European Multinationals

This paper analyzes the employment behavior of home multinational enterprises (MNEs) in Europe. To this end we use a unique firm-level panel data set of more than 1,000 European multinational parent enterprises and their European affiliates. We find for parent firms operating in the manufacturing sector that the labor cost elasticity of parent employment with respect to North EU affiliates’ labor costs is positive and statistically significant. This implies employment substitution between parents and their North EU based affiliates takes place in response to wage cost differentials between the parent and its North EU based affiliates. In contrast, we find no evidence for such substitution effects between parent employment and its affiliates that are located in low-wage regions in the EU and in Central and Eastern Europe. JEL no. F23, J23