The effect of ownership on sustainable development and environmental policy in urban waste management: An explicatory empirical analysis of Italian municipal corporations

This paper investigates the effect of ownership on sustainable development and environmental policy in Italian municipally owned corporations (MOCs) dealing with urban waste management, trying to understand if multiple ownership can generate better performance compared to single ownership and if the presence of private partners could be crucial in this. The research question is answered by analyzing 41 MOCs of the largest Italian cities operating in urban waste management. In this specific sector, public administrations have tried to improve their offer in terms of sustainable development, environmental policy, and efficiency. The paper covers the Italian case study, where urban waste production per capita is higher than the European average figure. The waste cycle management service is operated in Italy at local level through totally publicly owned companies (monoadministration or multiadministration), mixed (public–private) companies, or via a full externalization achieved by means of public tenders. Through a multinomial ordered probit panel, we show that MOCs with multiple owners perform better than those having a single owner and perform much better with the presence of a private partner, confirming those academic findings according to which collaborative arrangements can increase efficiency, do better than public sector bureaucracy, and lower the costs of service provision. The results of this paper can be used by academics, practitioners, and policy makers alike. To the best of our knowledge, this is the only study that applies this perspective to the analysis of the current international waste management scenario with relation to MOCs having multiple ownerships.     

政府效率对地区承接离岸服务外包的影响

本文构建了高质量发展背景下地区政府效率对承接离岸服务外包的影响机制,并基于首批服务外包示范城市样本开展实证检验。实证研究发现：地区政府效率对承接离岸服务外包具有高度显著的“U”型非线性影响。此外,政府效率对承接离岸服务外包的影响受到地区产业结构高度化水平、基础设施建设水平和人力资源禀赋水平的调节作用,上述因素与政府效率共同对地区承接离岸服务外包的规模发挥“协同效应”。分样本回归的结果进一步揭示在不同资源禀赋的区域样本中,政府效率对承接离岸服务外包的影响具有显著的异质性。基于上述结论,本文提出如下政策启示：持续优化政府效率,进一步释放制度红利;强化产业发展、基础设施和人力资源的“协同效应”;提高服务外包层次,优化服务外包结构;推动地区协调发展。     

中国国有、私营和外资工业企业地区间效率差异研究

根据中国30个省份工业企业2001~2011年的面板数据,基于Fre-Primont TFP指数DEA方法,测算各省份国有、私营和外资企业的综合效率、TFP增长及其分解要素,对其发展模式进行类别划分。结果表明,外资和私营企业的综合效率均值始终高于国有企业;工业企业表现出不同的效率优势,私营企业的优势在于技术效率和规模效率,国有企业的优势在于技术效率水平低但增长趋势显著,外资企业的优势在于范围经济效率;在研究期内TFP增长均产生了大幅增长,主要原因在于整体技术进步水平的大幅提高。进入高效高速发展模式省份最多的是外资企业,其次依次是私营和国有企业,三类企业地区间两极分化趋势明显。     

Does ownership matter for service delivery value? an examination of citizens’ service satisfaction

Governments across the world outsource service delivery to external agents, but does ownership matter for service delivery value? Though theory points to clear ownership differences on effectiveness, there remains limited empirical evidence of the impact of ownership on citizens’ satisfaction. Focusing on local authorities in England, we draw on secondary data (2007 and 2009) to examine if ownership type matters. The findings indicate that ownership – public, non-profit, private – confers no direct benefits for citizens’ satisfaction suggesting that the outsourcing decision should not rely on unfounded assumptions about performance differentials between ownership types. The implications for public management are explored.     

Performance Measurement and Compensation Practices in Hospitals: An Empirical Analysis in Consideration of Ownership Types

Against the background of regulatory initiatives that put hospitals under increasing financial pressure, we explore performance measurement and compensation practices in hospitals through a multiple case study. We extend previous research by comparing practices among different ownership types (i.e. public, non-profit, and private) and by providing initial evidence on compensation schemes for the clinical staff. Our empirical investigation is embedded in the ‘stewardship–agency axis’ that allows the development of theoretical arguments about the interdependencies between ownership and performance measurement systems (PMS). We distinguish two primary levels of analysis – the types of measures implemented and their linkage with compensation and decision-making. Our findings suggest that the types of measures are primarily affected by regulatory pressures, while powerful internal actors considerably influence the linkage between these measures and compensation. Consistent with our theorised patterns, cross-case analyses indicate differences between ownership types concerning the performance dimensions that are prioritised and the linkage of performance measures with compensation of the clinical staff. Together, these findings provide evidence on the interdependent effects of the regulatory environment, the type of ownership and internal actors on a hospital's PMS. We also provide some tentative explanations for these findings based on insights from institutional and behavioural theory.     

Are firms with state ownership greener? An institutional complexity view

This study investigates the role of state ownership in green innovation from the institutional complexity viewpoint. We posit that state ownership can be characterised by two seemingly competing logics: institutional logic, which emphasises that firms with state ownership can acquire resources to promote innovation; and efficiency logic, which states that firms with state ownership have low resource utilisation effectiveness. On the basis of the integration of both views, we suggest a U‐shaped curvilinear relationship between state ownership and green innovation. Data from Chinese listed firms from 2003 to 2015 confirm our hypothesis. Moreover, we also find two macro‐level contingencies that moderate this relationship: regional innovation readiness and industrial competition. The U‐shaped relationship between state ownership and green innovation is more pronounced when regional innovation readiness and industrial competition are higher. This study advances previous research on environmental innovation by arguing that state ownership is characterised by institutional complexity rather than being a monolithic construct.     

Affective commitment within the public sector: antecedents and performance outcomes between ownership types

How to generate affective commitment and realize its performance potential is deemed critical to public management. But in the context of service outsourcing, does ownership type influence its antecedents and performance outcomes? Drawing on postal survey data for English leisure providers, we find training is an antecedent across public and private ownership types; performance appraisal is an antecedent for private ownership only; while performance-related pay carries an insignificant effect. Affective commitment holds business and customer performance outcomes for public ownership, but insignificant effects are observed for external ownership types. Implications of this contextual variation for public management theory are discussed.     

An empirical analysis of effects of gasoline price change on transportation behavior in Japan,with consideration of regional differences

This empirically analyzes the effect of gasoline price change on various aspects of surface transport behavior comprehensively, with consideration of regional differences as to whether or not the region includes a major metropolitan agglomeration area (hereafter, “megalopolis”), by means of carefully arranging yearly time-series data from fiscal 1987 to fiscal 2008 in Japan. The aim is to look at common as well as different effects among regions and to draw policy implications relating to fuel price, as well as to fuel tax, towards developing a low-carbon transport system, which are applicable to other countries including emerging countries where a demographic disparity between megalopolis areas and rural areas might be increasing. The methodology includes the multiple regression models complemented by the 1st order auto-regressive models of error terms, where the elasticities of gasoline price and those of income regarding usage of personal automobiles, of public transport and of passenger railways with or without periodic tickets, and fuel consumption on cars, as well as ownership of various types of cars, are estimated for individual gross-regions. In both gross-regions, higher gasoline prices are commonly shown to be related to lower ownership of larger private passenger cars, higher ownership of light cars, lower ownership of the total private passenger cars, lower passenger-km per capita in cars, lower fuel consumption on cars and higher transit ridership. The result suggests general automobile-fuel-price policy implications, the extent of which is differentiated by spatial characteristics, and estimates the adverse effect of the possible abolition of the provisional gasoline tax rate on the emissions in both gross-regions. The application of result is also tried in exploring effect of other policy measures such as expressway tolls.     

Evaluating spatial service and layout efficiency of municipal Wi-Fi facilities for SmartCity planning: A case study of Wuhan city,China

This paper explores an approach to evaluating spatial service and layout efficiency of municipal Wi-Fi facilities for cyber infrastructure planning in the construction of a smart city. Based on the equilibrium principle that Wi-Fi services supply should meet the spatial demand for recreation, urgency, and security, two evaluation models were built. In the first model, the spatial service efficiency of Wi-Fi facilities is measured by a mean ratio of three types of demand spaces covered by Wi-Fi service. In the other model, spatial layout efficiency of each Wi-Fi facility is calculated by a demand load indicator - the sum of the three types of demand space's ratios of served quantity to the average quantity it should carry, and then assessed by relationship with its adjacent facilities. Corresponding statistical methods and analysis processes were also designed using the function modules found in ArcGIS software. The approach was applied to Wuhan city in 2016. After overlaying influence areas of 688 Wi-Fi facilities with demand spaces of 137 access points for recreation, 1200.99 km roads for urgency, 121.54 km² regions for security, the results show that there exists a spatial disequilibrium between supply and demand of Wi-Fi service in Wuhan due to lack of comprehensive planning. Specifically, there are 67 points, 700.76 km roads, and 42.59 km² regions of demand spaces covered by Wi-Fi service, with service efficiencies of 48.91%, 58.35%, and 35.04% respectively and an overall spatial service efficiency of 47.43%. Among all the Wi-Fi facilities, there are 481 carrying saturated demand, 3 straying from the centre of demand space, and 204 redundant. The overall spatial layout efficiency of Wi-Fi facilities is 43.01%. The conclusion is that the dense and massive redundant Wi-Fi facilities should be optimized, especially in the centre areas along the confluence of Yangtze and Han rivers and new Wi-Fi facilities supplemented in other ill-equipped areas. Since many metropolitan cities experience the same problem, this novel approach will find wide application in the future and offer improved evaluation strategies for researchers and policymakers.     

A review of business models for decentralised renewable energy projects

The diffusion of renewable energy technologies has often been suggested as a means to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases, but emphasis tends to be placed on large scale projects. Adoption of renewable energy at the local level provides opportunities for both distributed energy schemes and domestic microgeneration. However, alternative models of ownership, governance and operation are not well developed. Locally managed energy solutions need to respond to varied end users' requirements to ensure that needs are met, so understanding of different types of end users is a prerequisite to the development of robust business models. This paper presents a review of existing models of decentralised energy generation in which actors such as community groups, energy cooperatives, charities and municipalities participate as owners and coproducers. End users can become involved in the design, development and delivery of energy services in a variety of ways. The focus is active user engagement through coconstruction, coproduction and coprovision of energy services. The following categories will be reviewed with reference to current understandings of both sustainable entrepreneurship and social enterprise: (a) energy service companies (ESCos) as commercial actors that undertake management of these projects, (b) energy cooperatives and (c) municipal energy. This analysis is used to reflect on and refine understanding of the relationship between technical, financial and operational constructs in models of decentralised energy generation which can contribute to social and environmental gains.     

从常州看新"苏南模式"及其动力机制

20世纪80年代末90年代初,以集体所有制为主,依托乡镇工业发展的"苏南模式"已发生了重要的转型,并形成了新"苏南模式".新"苏南模式"主要包括以下特点:高新技术产业快速发展,制造业和服务业共同发展的产业结构;外资、民营等多种所有制经济蓬勃发展的所有制结构;新型产业园区建设加快以及城镇化快速发展.论文以常州为例,说明新"苏南模式"的特点,并从发展动力和运行机制两个方面分析了新"苏南模式".     

Ownership structure,information asymmetry and growth of the firm: Implications from nonfinancial firms listed in S&P500

This paper investigates the association between growth of the firm and ownership structure under conditions of information asymmetry. The objective is to show the effects of information asymmetry (favorable vs. adverse selection) on the choice of the ownership structure that helps firms grow. Our sample includes nonfinancial firms listed in the S&P500 over the period 2000 to 2016. The dependent variable is growth of the firm measured by growth in sales. The independent variables are proxies for changes in ownership structure, individual investors, investment managers, and brokerage firms. Observations are grouped according to level of information asymmetry (high or low) using three proxies for information asymmetry: beta of return on equity (ROE), probability of default of ROE, and q ratio. The results conclude that (a) changes in ownership structure affect growth of the firm positively and (b) the effect of ownership structure is more significant and consistent at low level of information asymmetry. The contribution of the paper is threefold. First, it extends the arguments of corporate governance by showing the impact of ownership structure on growth of the firm. Second, the paper offers robust evidence that growth of the firm is associated with low level of information asymmetry. Third, the paper shows that fundamental financial information can help lessen the level of information asymmetry and thus help firms grow.     

Ownership structure, corporate governance and productive efficiency in China

This paper investigates whether and to what extent ownership structure and corporate governance affect productive efficiency in a sample of 744 publicly listed manufacturing firms in China between 1999 and 2006. The paper finds that firm efficiency, as estimated using stochastic frontier analysis and data envelopment analysis, is negatively related to state ownership while positively related to public and employee share ownership. In addition, the relationship between ownership concentration and firm efficiency is U-shaped, indicating that the largest shareholder may engage in tunneling activities. As the identity of the largest shareholder changes from government, government-controlled legal entity to other types of legal entity, firm efficiency significantly improves. These results provide strong evidence that political interferences have reduced firm efficiency. Moreover, firms with more independent board are more efficient, supporting the argument that board of directors can be an effective internal governance mechanism. Furthermore, provincial market development, a proxy for the strength of external governance mechanism, is positively related to firm efficiency. Overall, the findings illustrate that restructuring state-owned enterprises via improvements in corporate governance has enhanced firm efficiency, but partial privatization without transfer of ownership and control from the state to the public remains a major source of inefficiency in corporate China.     

Corporate governance and firm efficiency: evidence from China's publicly listed firms

This paper applies a two‐stage, double bootstrapping data envelope analysis approach to investigate whether and to what extent various distinctive corporate governance practices affect productive efficiency in a sample of 461 publicly listed manufacturing firms in China between 1999 and 2002. We find that firm efficiency is negatively related to state ownership while positively related to public and employee share ownership. In addition, the relationship between ownership concentration and firm efficiency is U‐shaped, indicating the presence of tunneling activities by the largest shareholder. Among three types of controlling shareholder, state exerts the most negative impact on firm efficiency, followed by state‐owned legal entities. These results provide strong evidence that political interferences have reduced firm efficiency. It shows that the proportion of outside directors and the number of board meetings are positively associated with firm efficiency, suggesting that board of directors can be an effective internal governance mechanism. Furthermore, provincial market development, a proxy for the strength of external governance mechanism, is positively related to firm efficiency. Overall, our findings illustrate that restructuring state‐owned enterprises via improvements in corporate governance has enhanced firm efficiency, but partial privatization without transfer of ownership and control from the state to the public remains a major source of inefficiency in corporate China. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

基于DEA评价模型的我国国际机场效率分析

文章以2011年我国民航运输量排名前30位的国际机场为样本,每个机场分别选取3个投入指标和产出指标,进行模型构建和数据分析。总样本数为180个,通过数据包络分析(Data Envelopment Analysis,DEA)方法和常用的评估技术有效和规模有效的CCR模型。评估我国国际机场总体的运营效率值和我国机场的效率优化,分析影响我国不同区域机场效率差异的相关因素,并指出运营无效的主要原因及提高效率的途径。结果显示我国大多数机场属于运营无效,其中,机场运营无效源于纯技术无效或规模无效。最后针对不同类型机场给出了提高效率的建议。     

The role of control power allocation in service supply chains: Model analysis and empirical examination

In complex and competitive business environment, there have been many examples of supply chain members fighting for power. Therefore, researchers have begun focusing on the impact of control power allocation on the supply chain. This paper examines the allocation of power in different service supply chain relationships, analyzing the impact of service level on optimal control power allocation and comparing the differences between the optimal power distribution in service supply chains and that of manufacturing supply chains. We adopt a mathematical model building method to discuss this issue, verifying the theoretical perspectives through empirical studies of China's largest state-owned logistics company, the China Railway Company, and the private ownership enterprise, Tianjin SND Logistics Company. We also develop a conceptual model of the influence of control power on the performance of service supply chains, based on the modeling and case analysis. The conceptual model shows several results: the control power allocation determines the dominant structure of the supply chain; the service provider's wholesale pricing strategy and the service integrator's sales price strategy present different outcomes under various dominant structures of the supply chain, which will greatly affect the performance of the corresponding supply chain; and the relationship between the supply chain dominant structure and the price can be adjusted by the service level.     

Ownership Types and Strategic Groups in an Emerging Economy*

ABSTRACT Existing strategic group studies have rarely examined ownership type as a variable to classify firms in an industry. Using Chinese firms of different ownership types, we suggest that ownership type can be a parsimonious and important variable that managers use to cognitively classify firms into different strategic groups. While ownership itself is an objective variable, we contend that different ownership types lead to different managerial outlook and mentality due to a number of macro and micro foundations giving rise to various managerial cognitions. Employing the Miles and Snow typology, we find that state‐owned enterprises (SOEs) and privately‐owned enterprises (POEs) tend to adopt defender and prospector strategies, respectively, while collectively‐owned enterprises (COEs) and foreign‐invested enterprises (FIEs) exhibit an analyser orientation that falls between defenders and prospectors on the strategy continuum. Three statistical tests suggest that ownership types can be used to successfully predict strategic group memberships in China's emerging economy.     

混合所有制改革何以影响国有企业投资效率？——基于公司治理视角的研究

以2011—2021年A股上市国有企业为研究对象,实证检验混合所有制改革影响国有企业投资效率的过程和机理。实证结果表明,混合所有制改革能够有效提高国有企业的投资效率,并且公司治理水平在二者之间发挥了部分中介传导作用。进一步分析发现,较高的经济政策不确定性会削弱混合所有制改革对国有企业投资效率产生的积极作用。异质性分析发现,混合所有制改革对国有企业投资效率的提升作用在尚未建立董监高责任保险制度以及地方国有企业中更加显著。研究结论对促进国有企业混合所有制改革和长远发展具有重要的现实意义。     

政商关系演进的创新效应研究——基于不同所有制企业比较的视角

本文选取A股上市公司数据为样本,实证分析政商关系亲清程度变化对我国不同所有制企业创新的影响。研究发现,政商关系亲清程度的提高显著激励了民营企业的创新;分别基于"亲"和"清"的视角,与国有企业相比,"亲"更促进民营企业的创新,"清"显著促进民营企业的创新,而对国有企业几乎没有影响。因此,应继续提高政府的服务水平和廉洁程度,进而提升整个国家的创新效率。同时,民营企业应借助政商关系不断优化的机遇,通过创新提升自身的竞争力;国有企业应进一步深化改革,在提高其创新能力的同时,发挥引领和带动作用。     

共同机构所有权是否会提升企业社会责任表现？

基于我国2010—2020年的上市公司样本数据,从企业社会责任视角,实证检验共同机构所有权是否会提升我国上市公司的社会责任表现,以及背后的作用机理。研究结果表明,共同机构所有权会显著提高企业社会责任表现。在一系列稳健性检验后,结论依然成立。机制分析表明,共同机构所有权通过机构协同和监督治理效应改善企业社会责任表现。进一步讨论发现,在长期持股、非成熟期企业、资本市场处于“熊市”阶段、非国有企业中,共同机构所有权对企业社会责任表现提升作用更明显。