“Our five year mission— to boldly go where no man has been before… .”

The paper presents research conducted in New Zealand on the content, creation, use and impact of mission statements. Following a review of the literature the paper goes on to report an empirical study comparing the reality of mission statements with the theory. The paper concludes that practice rarely coincides with theory and that there are a wide variety of types of mission statement in current use. Recommendations are made for creating more actionable mission statements.     

How Do Franchise Ownership Structure and Strategic Investment Emphasis Influence Stock Returns and Risks?

Franchisors seek to maximize firm value by managing investments both in tangible and intangible assets and in the mix of company and franchised outlets, yet little is known about how investors respond to shifts in these strategic decisions. Our goal is to assess the impact of these decisions on shareholder value within franchise systems through panel-data models. Specifically, we provide evidence on how investors in publicly traded franchises evaluate both the ownership structure and the strategic investment emphasis between intangible assets (e.g., brand) and tangible assets (e.g., plant and property). We find that an increase in the proportion of franchised units is negatively associated both with stock returns and idiosyncratic risk. In contrast, an increase in the emphasis on strategic investments in intangible assets is positively associated both with stock returns and idiosyncratic risk. Moreover, strategic investment emphasis moderates the strength of the effect of franchise ownership structure when firms franchise internationally. Overall, this research provides a novel empirical examination of franchising economics and has managerial implications for franchised channel structure.     

同业业务发展、货币政策传导与银行风险承担

商业银行同业业务逐渐从传统信用拆借演变为类信贷业务,一些银行通过同业业务实施监管套利、风险资产出表,同业业务的快速发展对原有货币政策传导体系形成干扰,甚至改变了商业银行的风险承担渠道。使用25家A股上市银行2008-2018年数据,在理论和实证两个方面分析了同业业务发展对银行风险承担的影响。理论上,同业业务能够提高银行风险承担水平和强化货币政策风险承担渠道,上述影响并同时对于不同银行伴有异质性。实证结论验证了理论推演的假设:同业业务发展与银行风险承担水平正相关,并对货币政策银行风险承担渠道具有强化作用;同业业务对大型银行的风险承担水平影响有限,但对股份制银行和中小银行的风险承担水平表现了较强的正相关性。分析货币政策风险承担渠道,中小银行对货币宽松与否更为敏感,其同业业务发展程度与货币宽松情况表现出较强的相关性。根据上述研究结论,监管政策应当更加关注银行体系分层结构下的同业业务发展引导,尤其是对于股份制银行和中小银行,应当逐步引导同业业务占比较高银行压缩同业资产,鼓励商业银行业务回归本源,支持实体经济发展。     

Cross sectoral FDI spillovers and their impact on manufacturing productivity

This paper explores the relationship between FDI spillovers and productivity in manufacturing firms in five European transition countries. The novelty of our approach lies in exploring different mechanisms of horizontal spillovers and disentangling the impact of backward and forward vertical spillovers from services and manufacturing sectors. We rely on firm level data obtained from the Amadeus database and annual input-output tables. The results from dynamic panel model estimations reveal that local manufacturing firms benefit from the presence of foreign firms in upstream services, especially in the knowledge intensive services, and in downstream manufacturing sector. Demonstration effect is found to be negatively associated with domestic firms’ productivity, while worker mobility and increased competition appear to be the main channels of horizontal knowledge diffusion. The firms’ productivity is also influenced positively by human capital and intangible assets. Finally, we show that the direction and intensity of both vertical and horizontal spillovers depend on the absorptive capacity of domestic firms.     

Knowledge assets and firm international performance

This paper investigates how intangible knowledge assets impact upon firm international performance through the analysis of a sample of 290 European listed companies. We draw upon the knowledge-based view of the firm, and argue that more knowledge assets have a positive impact on foreign sales intensity, but only a up to a point. The inverse quadratic relationship found suggests that it is necessary to balance knowledge assets with complementary assets in order to achieve a higher degree of international performance. Furthermore we also suggest that externally-generated knowledge assets may have a positive impact upon international performance, but that the impact will be mediated by the possession of internally generated knowledge assets.     

The impact of pay on CEO turnover: A test of two perspectives

We investigate the impact of pay on CEO turnover from two perspectives. One is managerial power perspective that focuses on power in the setting of CEO pay. The other is tournament theory that treats CEO pay as a top prize designed to motivate executives to work hard for the top position. Building on research that highlights the impact of power dynamics at the top of the firm on CEO turnover, we propose that managerial power perspective suggests a negative impact of CEO pay on CEO turnover, while tournament theory suggests a positive impact. Using data from a sample of 313 large U.S. companies from 1988 to 1997, we find that both the level of CEO pay and its ratio over the average pay of the firm's four other highest paid executives have a negative impact on CEO turnover.     

增值税转型对珠三角外向型企业影响的实证研究

以珠三角外向型企业数据为基础,就增值税转型对珠三角的税负和收益、主要行业和城市的影响进行了横向对比研究。结果表明:平均税收负担减少额为1.0033%,销售净利率增加额和净资产收益率增加额分别为0.1396%和0.1395%,当年新增允许抵扣固定资产多的企业受增值税转型影响较大,反之,则较小;增值税转型对固定资产投资较多的电信行业影响较大,对固定资产投资较少的房地产业行业影响较小;增值税转型对区域的影响程度也不相同,与区域经济发展水平并不完全一致,各个地区外向型企业增值税转型情况并不能很好地代表当地的实际经济发展水平。     

Linking Mission to Learning Activities for Assurance of Learning

Can accreditation-related requirements and mission statements measure learning outcomes? This study focuses on triangulating accreditation-related requirements with mission statements and learning activities to learning outcomes. This topic has not been comprehensively explored in the past. After looking into the requirements of AACSB, ISO, and the Hong Kong Qualifications Framework (QF), “mission/objective/goal/outcome, improvement, learning, activities, review, and consistent” were identified as the key elements which can be applied to designing learning activities with a teaching log. From teachers' observations and studying the reflections of learners, it was found that “Ability, Affection, All-round Development and Appreciation” improved to align with the elements of the mission statement “Capable and Caring.” It was found that guest lectures by academics and industry practitioners can also help nurture learners' overall development. These findings are of great value as a mission statement is intended to lead to action and continuous improvement; and accreditation exercises involve mission verification and validation. Longitudinal studies of a similar nature are suggested to further test the findings of the present study.     

Zero-in: A Technique for formulating better mission statements

Although everyone agrees that they are necessary, statements of mission do not even exist in many organizations, and are inadequate in others. Zero-in, a new technique for formulating statements of mission derived from the nominal group method, is a structured group process which efficiently develops a consensual synthesized mission statement resulting in high commitment.     

Dollar illiquidity and central bank swap arrangements during the global financial crisis

While the global financial crisis was centered in the United States, it led to a surprising appreciation in the dollar, suggesting global dollar illiquidity. In response, the Federal Reserve partnered with other central banks to inject dollars into the international financial system. Empirical studies of the success of these efforts have yielded mixed results, in part because their timing is likely to be endogenous. In this paper, we examine the cross-sectional impact of these interventions. Theory consistent with dollar appreciation in the crisis suggests that their impact should be greater for countries that have greater exposure to the United States through trade and financial channels, less transparent holdings of dollar assets, and greater illiquidity difficulties. We examine these predictions for observed cross-sectional changes in CDS spreads, using a new proxy for innovations in perceived changes in sovereign risk based upon Google-search data. We find robust evidence that auctions of dollar assets by foreign central banks disproportionately benefited countries that were more exposed to the United States through either trade linkages or asset exposure. We obtain weaker results for differences in asset transparency or illiquidity. However, several of the important announcements concerning the international swap programs disproportionately benefited countries exhibiting greater asset opaqueness.     

Balance sheet effects of foreign currency debt and real exchange rate on corporate investment: evidence from Turkey

I analyze the balance sheet channels of depreciation of the Turkish non-financial corporations for 2003–2015. Having constructed a novel, hand-collected firm-level dataset on the composition and term structure of foreign currency assets and liabilities, I show that foreign currency debt and mismatch has a significant negative balance sheet effect on capital investment following a depreciation. The results remain same even after controlling for foreign currency assets and exports. This implies that the contractionary net worth effect of depreciation dominates its expansionary competitiveness effect. The result is more pronounced for the firms with short-term foreign currency exposures.     

The Role of Service Operations Management in New Retail Venture Survival

While the factors related to the survival of established retail firms are well researched, current understanding of drivers of new retail venture survival is limited. We assess the influence of retail operations characteristics on the survival of new retail ventures. Based on data from 15,901 Portuguese retail ventures that were founded between 2006 and 2010 and followed until 2014, the new retail ventures with faster inventory turnover or higher staff expenses per employee had a higher likelihood of survival while higher investment in intangible assets had a negative but negligible effect on survival. The implications of these findings for entrepreneurs of new retailing ventures are discussed.     

金融结构演变、货币政策与银行风险承担异质性

基于2002-2017年165家银行的面板数据,本文采用可行广义最小二乘(FGLS)方法实证检验金融结构演变视角下货币政策对银行风险承担渠道的影响。研究发现:金融结构的变化对银行风险承担具有显著影响,随着直接融资占比的上升,银行资产端风险承担显著减少,但负债端风险承担显著增加;控制住金融结构的作用之后,货币政策对银行资产端风险承担和负债端风险承担也具有显著的异质性影响,具体来说,价格型货币政策的紧缩使得银行资产端风险承担显著减少而导致银行负债端风险承担显著增加,数量型货币政策的紧缩则使得银行资产端风险承担和负债端风险承担同时减少;此外,货币政策与金融结构对银行风险承担具有显著的交互影响,随着直接融资占比的上升,价格型货币政策工具对银行资产端风险承担的影响减弱,对银行负债端风险承担的影响没有表现出显著变化,数量型货币政策工具对银行资产端风险承担和负债端风险承担的影响都受到削弱。研究结论的政策含义对货币当局、监管部门以及商业银行都具有重要意义。     

What's in a change in an industrial bond rating?

Bond quality rating changes (BQRC) for industrial bonds are analyzed using both univariate statistical methods and discriminant analysis to find significant variables and their relationship with the changes. The single most important explanatory variable is found to be the rate of return on assets (ROA), followed by the trend in the return on assets (ROATREND). The univariate analysis found six of the seven proposed explanatory variables significant beyond the 0.01 level. The two-group discriminant analysis model achieved a correct classification rate of over 77%. The paper shows how the results of the two-group discriminant analysis can be used for a three-way prediction (upgrade, downgrade, or no change of bond ratings). The results of this study show that models based on financial statement data can predict rating changes with good accuracy and therefore may be a useful tool for rating agencies, at least as an initial screening device.     

Whistle Blowing and Rational Loyalty

Today's complex and decentralized organization gives rise to organizational needs for both loyalty and institutionalized whistle blowing. However, ethicists see a contradiction between both needs. This paper argues there is no such contradiction. It shows why earlier attempts to go beyond the dilemma are not satisfying. The solution proposed in this paper starts from an organizational perspective instead of an individual one. It does so by reframing the concept of loyalty into “rational loyalty”. This means that the object of loyalty is not the physicality of an organization, but its corpus of explicit mission statement, goals, value statement and code of conduct. An implication is that organizations are – as their side of the duty of loyalty – obliged to institutionalize whistle blowing.     

Applying career concepts to strengthen the work-attitudes of service professionals

Given the nature of employment relationships today, service organizations can strengthen the organization commitment levels and reduce the turnover intentions of its professionals through providing job features important to their careers. These features include opportunities to perform challenging work, experience trusting relationships with customers/clients, and obtain extrinsic rewards. Using a sample of alumni from a hospitality business program, hypotheses that these features impact organizational commitment and turnover intentions, partially through strengthening professionals’ career commitment, are developed and tested. Findings suggest that challenging work opportunities impact these attitudes both directly and indirectly. So too trusting relationships with customers and clients indirectly impact organization commitment and intent to turnover (ITO). Results also suggest that, as a whole, satisfaction with extrinsic rewards has no effect. However, an analysis of multigroup mediation results revealed that for professionals working in professional service firms, satisfaction with pay reduces both attitudes. Implications for research in organization commitment and ITO, specifically the role and impact of career-based antecedents, are discussed.     

上市公司无形资产结构、行业特征分析

文章以我国沪市发行的A股上市公司作为研究对象,以2007—2011年为研究时间序列,研究分析了上市公司不同行业无形资产及不同无形资产类别对公司的影响。研究结果表明,无形资产具有明显的行业特征,并因无形资产内部结构不同,对公司的影响和效用会不同。     

Variance of Firm Performance and Leverage of Small Businesses

We investigate the relationship between leverage and firm performance using small business data from Japan by estimating the effects of leverage on both average firm performance and the variance of firm performance. We find that leverage has a negative effect on average firm performance and a positive effect on the variance of firm performance. This suggests that the problem of moral hazard is severe for highly leveraged firms. However, when highly leveraged firms have sufficient collateral assets, the effects of leverage are positive for average performance, but negative for the variance of performance. This implies that when small firms have sufficient collateral assets, highly leveraged businesses are better performers.     

解决金融资产核算问题的建议

金融资源的稀缺性决定了企业金融资产能够有效创造价值的功能。为防止企业利用金融资产归类进行利润操纵,必须改进金融资产未实现损益会计处理与报表列表,对出售或转让的金融资产,按其累计数额直接计入公允值的变化,尽量消除金融资产在会计处理中的区别,使其遵循一定的资产负债观;同时,要创造健康的经济发展环境,建立健全活跃的市场体系,努力提高会计人员职业判断能力和专业水平,健全金融资产核算的相关规程,加强金融资产核算的审计监督和社会中介组织再监督,为在金融资产核算中大胆应用公允价值创造条件,从而使金融资产核算在法制及规制轨道上规范运行。     

Assessing mission drift at venture capital impact investors

In this article, we consider a recent trend whereby private equity available from venture capital (VC) firms is being deployed toward mission‐driven initiatives in the form of impact investing. Acting as hybrid organizations, these impact investors aim to achieve financial results while also targeting companies and funds to achieve social impact. However, potential mission drift in these VCs, which we define as a decoupling between the investments made (means) and intended aims (ends), might become detrimental to the simultaneous financial and social goals of such firms. Based on a content analysis of mission statements, we assess mission drift and the hybridization level of VC impact investors by examining their missions (ends/goals) and their investment practices (means) through the criteria of social and financial logic. After examining eight impact‐oriented VC investors and their investments in 164 companies, we find mission drift manifest as a disparity between the means and ends in half of the VC impact investors in our sample. We discuss these findings and make suggestions for further studies.