How is Business Adapting to Climate Change Impacts Appropriately? Insight from the Commercial Port Sector

Adaptation to climate change impacts is a key research topic in business ethics that poses substantial implications on the good lives of human beings. The commercial port sector is a highly relevant study focus with its pivotal roles in supply chains and international trade. Hence, it is important to investigate whether the port planning system and practice is appropriate in tackling climate change impacts. But beforehand, we must thoroughly understand the attitude and behaviors of port planners and operators on ports’ climate adaptation planning. Through a survey towards 21 ports (seaports and dry ports) in Canada, the paper investigates the attitude and behaviors of port planners and operators on ports’ climate adaptation planning. Towards the end, we propose a new approach so as to enable port stakeholders to carry out climate adaptation planning effectively. The paper offers important insight to researchers to investigate the ways in developing effective climate adaptation plans and practice for ports and other business sectors.     

The Effectiveness of Bank Governance Reforms in the Wake of the Financial Crisis: A Stakeholder Approach

This study examines the impact of bank corporate governance reforms in the wake of the financial crisis. These reforms correspond to criticism of shareholder-focused agency-based corporate governance practices and a renewed focus on the stakeholder impact of corporate governance lapses in the financial sector. This study differs from previous studies of corporate governance in the financial sector in using performance indicators that proxy the interests of customers and the community. Drawing on data from 134 countries over an eight-year period from 2004 to 2011, we find that the post-crisis corporate governance reforms in the banking sector appear to be effective in promoting greater bank attention to non-shareholder stakeholders’ interests. This study provides a means to conceptualize measures of bank performance from a stakeholder perspective in order to test emerging ideas about governance effectiveness in the financial sector.     

Order frequency and the co-ordination of industrial purchasing relationships

Transaction cost analysis (TCA) includes the frequency of exchange as a significant dimension of the transaction, and order frequency is expected to influence the efficacy of inter-firm co-ordination arrangements. To date, transaction frequency has received little attention in empirical TCA-studies. This research focuses in particular on the frequency of inter-firm exchange and how it affects the calibration of inter-firm co-ordination efforts in supplier–buyer relationships. Empirical findings from a survey of 161 industrial purchasing relationships indicate that increased transaction frequency gives rise to administrative economics of scale, and there is a positively and logarithmic-shaped association between the order frequency of standardised items (low asset specificity) and inter-firm co-ordination efforts.Furthermore, increased asset specificity seems to improve the economics of specialised inter-firm co-ordination efforts when the transaction frequency increases. As asset specificity becomes substantial, the marginal co-ordination efforts of increased inter-firm exchange are significantly reduced. This research provides some new insight into the economics of inter-firm organisation and supports the TCA-assumption that the frequency of inter-firm exchange improves the utilisation of specialised co-ordination arrangements in business to business relationships.     

A Relationship Governance Perspective of Organizational Buyers' Supplier Choice Decisions

Although the transaction cost analysis (TCA) has long been used by marketing and management scholars to study organizational buyers' make-or-buy decisions, it sheds limited light on their choice behavior beyond the make-or-buy trade-off. In the meantime, many organizational purchase decisions are structured around which independent supplier to buy from, rather than a typical make-or-buy decision. This study extends existing research on TCA by applying this theoretical framework to explore why organizational buyers make purchases from among independent suppliers. The article posits that (1) two forms of relationship governance—buyer trust and market (i.e., the relative dependence between the buyer and supplier)—help explain the differences in buyer decision-making uncertainty involving independent suppliers, which further influences the buyers' propensity to purchase; and that (2) trust further influences the buyers' propensity to purchase due to its effect on customer perceived value. The empirical study based on organizational purchasing decisions lends support to the predictions of the relationship governance theory.     

广州林安物流园持续发展研究

林安物流园是华南地区最大的物流园之一,创立了全国第一家物流交易所,建立第四方服务平台,信息化交易平台,打造公路物流价格指数,推出诚信首赔制度等。但林安物流园持续发展也面临着同质化竞争,低碳物流园区还需强化,进驻企业之间缺乏协作,增值服务薄弱等困境。林安物流园应与区域经济和产业协同发展,面向空港经济提供增值服务,加强校企合作,建设生态物流园,与物流园相关利益体协同一体化发展,以实现资源共享,达到共赢。     

资产专用性、不确定性与交易的治理模式——基于农业龙头企业与农户间交易的实证研究

交易的治理模式包含正式的合约治理与非正式的关系治理两种,影响治理模式选择的因素很多,其中不确定性和资产专用性是被广泛讨论的两个主要因素,但关于他们的作用却仍然没有统一的研究结论。本文利用来自农业龙头企业与农户间交易的数据,试图在这一特定情境下,对不确定性与资产专用性将如何影响交易的治理模式进行分析。研究发现,相对合约治理来说,农业龙头企业与农户间的关系治理能够更好地应对资产专用性和不确定性带来的风险;而农业龙头企业投入的物质资产专用性的增加也应该伴随着更多的合约治理。本文的研究结果对我国农业龙头企业和农户合作的治理模式选择有一定的实践指导意义。     

Governance decisions for the offshore outsourcing of new product development in technology intensive markets

This study addresses how buyers organize their offshore outsourcing new product development relationships. Building on transaction cost economics and resource dependence theories, we propose a model of the influence of key new product development offshore outsourcing factors on two important buyers’ governance decisions (i.e., supply concentration and degree of supplier involvement). The antecedents, drawn from the marketing, management, and international business literatures, include: three sources of asset specificity (degree of modularity, strategic value of the project, and technology specificity) and two sources of uncertainty (cultural distance and technological discontinuity). The results, derived from an analysis of 200 offshore outsourcing new product development relationships, provide new insights for academics and practitioners.     

中国特色自由贸易港政策制度体系创新的基点与内涵探讨

国家确立了构建自由贸易港政策制度体系的战略任务,但目前各界对自由港、自由贸易港内涵的认识仁者见仁、智者见智,对自由贸易试验区与自由贸易港关系的理解也多种多样。本文通过梳理自由港的本源“基因”和历史“进货”路径,从自由港与各类特殊经济功能区发展的关系角度,阐述自由贸易港政策和制度体系创新的一些基本点,提出了推进中国特色自由贸易港事业的“三合一”基本框架,即“汲取传统自由港的理念精华、服务国家重大战略实践需求、着眼未来创新构架政策制度”。     

从共同治理视角看现行财务分析体系缺陷

随着当前经济的迅速发展,企业不再是股东的私有物品,转而成为各利益相关者共同拥有并共同治理的价值创造体。在此情况下,现有财务分析体系能否满足各利益相关者财务分析目标值得探讨。经过整理分析可以发现,现行财务分析体系有很多,但主要是基于单边治理的,并忽略了企业员工、社会公众等弱势利益相关者参与治理时对财务分析提供信息的要求,而且这些分析体系之间联系并不紧密,这无疑不利于实现共同治理,不利于充分发挥企业的价值创造能力。因此,构建基于共同治理视角的综合性财务分析体系十分必要。     

Can minority state ownership influence firm value? Universal and contingency views of its governance effects

Drawing on the literature of corporate governance and privatization, this study explores the elusive roles of a specific owner identity, namely, state ownership in its minority. With a sample of 68 Taiwanese companies with 5 to 49% state ownership during 1999-2003, the study examines the value-shaping effects of minority state ownership (MSO) and, furthermore, seeks to establish a contingency perspective suggesting that the internal and external contexts may moderate the influence of MSO on firm value. Using first-order autoregressive models to mitigate the problems of endogeneity, the study shows that the governance effect of MSO associates not only in a curvilinear relationship with firm value but also strengthened by corporate ownership ties and market competition. The non-monotonic performance effect and the context-dependent nature of MSO yield significant implications for government investments in the private sector.     

Service strategy to improve operational capabilities in the public sector

ABSTRACT

Public institutions, such as emergency services, face unique operational challenges because they do not have a clear profit motive, operate in a political system as opposed to a market system, and have a fragmented authority structure. This study applies traditional operations and service strategy theory to the not-for-profit, public sector context. Synthesizing research from these theoretical domains, a contingency framework is developed to determine the effect of environmental uncertainty and strategic choices on operational capabilities in emergency services under different governance structures. Operations strategy research traditionally uses survey-based measures, while emergency services research focuses on mathematical modeling techniques. In contrast, this study analyzes archival data with 9800 emergency incidents using hierarchical regression. The results support that in the public not-for-profit context, strategic choices mediate the impact of environmental uncertainty on operational capability. Furthermore, governance structure moderates the impact of environmental uncertainty and strategic choices.     

Project Finance and Concession Pricing Models: An Application to Brazilian Ports

Since the Lei dos Portos (“Ports Law”) of 1993, Brazilian ports have operated under the landlord regime, which places the management of ports in the hands of a national authority and provides for the rendering of private services inside the facilities. The model has enabled increases in capacity as well as gains in efficiency, both of which are currently limited due to infrastructure constraints. Expanding infrastructure by building additional ports was an option for the sector to meet the needs of a growing economy. In this context, this article discusses the adoption of public–private partnerships and project finance structure to propose a formula to compute the value of a new port.     

海峡西岸经济区港口物流网络体系的构建

本文认为,当前港口成为福建物流的中心节点,港口物流是实现海峡西岸经济区发展要素整合、协调和优化的重要途径,构筑适应经济社会发展需求的港口物流网络体系对加快海峡西岸经济区建设具有十分重要的现实意义。文章采用模糊聚类方法对福建省沿海主要港口进行了宏观规划层次分析,根据各个港口与城市的关系、港口特征,将福州港和厦门港定位为主枢纽港(第一层次),泉州港和湄洲湾港定位为地区性重要港口(第二层次),漳州港和宁德港定位为地方性中小港口(第三层次),构建了一个以主枢纽港为骨干,区域性重要港口为辅助,地方中小港口为补充的层次分明的海峡西岸经济区港口物流网络体系。     

Enough chit-chat,strike! Deliberation and agonism in corporate governance

This conceptual paper contributes to the critique of a body of literature that will be named ‘deliberative corporate governance’ by defending non-deliberative acts performed by stakeholders. It first argues that this literature introduces to the corporation a decision-making process where it does not belong, given the corporation's economic role. This leads to an ‘efficiency constraint’ on any attempt to justify deliberation – deliberative governance theorists must show that it is the most efficient and cost-effective way to address the issues that concern them. A real case example where deliberation would have been counter-productive in that regard will show that this is not the case. Building on this example, the paper uses the theory of democratic agonism to argue that non-deliberative acts should be part of governance. A sketch of managerial duties vis-à-vis such acts is attempted as well. The paper does not seek to reject deliberative corporate governance entirely, but rather to defend the importance of non-deliberative practices in addressing its theoretical concern. It makes a conceptual contribution to corporate governance theory, from which it draws practical implications for stakeholders-oriented management.     

Supply chain consortia: the rise of transcendental buyer–supplier relationships

A theoretical, cross-disciplinary model for cooperative buyer–supplier relationships is proposed which integrates information obtained from prior research on organizational culture and transaction cost analysis (TCA). The authors describe key elements of TCA and review the three types of transaction governance structures commonly used to explain relationships within an organization. The authors extend this by applying structure type to buyer–supplier relationships. The researchers propose several types of interorganizational relationships and conclude with an in-depth discussion of a successful supply chain consortium used by Boeing Aircraft Company and several key suppliers.     

论公司治理中的"利益相关者"模式

传统的"股东至上"的治理模式开始受到人们的批评,"利益相关者"治理模式越来越为学者们重视.在探讨了"利益相关者"治理模式的理论渊源及其内涵后,通过与"股东至上"治理模式的比较,对"利益相关者"模式进行了评价,最后结合我国国有企业公司治理现状,就如何引入"利益相关者"治理模式,提出了设想.     

我国沿边口岸经济特殊性分析及发展建议

20世纪90年代后,我国沿边口岸经济快速发展,但是至今没有成为带动沿边地区经济发展的增长极.当前,新的经济形势对我国沿边口岸经济的发展提出了新的要求,在制定沿边开放和发展政策措施时,应充分认识到沿边口岸经济的特殊性,具体包括由地理区位引发的特殊性和在经济发展过程中表现出的特殊性,前者包括受地缘的影响显著、处于经济势能凹陷区、与对应口岸荣衰与共、效率取决于双边的协调等,后者包括第三产业占比过高但现代服务业匮乏、边境贸易“两头在外”、交通等基础设施落后等.为此,在发展口岸经济过程中应促进我国与周边邻国的区域经济一体化、确定适合沿边口岸经济发展的模式、改变沿边口岸的基础设施,并大力发展第二产业,推动口岸经济可持续发展.     

Asset specificity's impact on outsourcing relationship performance: A disaggregated analysis by buyer-supplier asset specificity dimensions

Using hierarchical regression analysis on a sample of UK service firms, this study tests the impact of asset specificity on outsourcing relationship performance within a disaggregated methodological framework that allows to discern the specific effects of various buyers and suppliers' individual dimensions of asset specific investments. The results indicate that the impact of asset specific investments on outsourcing relationship performance varies according to the particular specificity dimension examined. While all statistically significant dimensions of buyers' asset specificity have a negative impact on relationship satisfaction, suppliers' human and dedicated asset specific investments exert a positive and significant influence. The results also show that, in three interaction instances, reciprocal specific investments are positively associated with outsourcing relationship performance. These findings have profound theoretical and methodological implications.     

Governance Structure and the Credibility Gap: Experimental Evidence on Family Businesses’ Sustainability Reporting

This paper examines the success of corporate communication in voluntary sustainability reporting. Existing studies have focused on the perspective of the communicators but lack an understanding of the perspective of information recipients to clearly evaluate this interactive communication process. This paper looks at the issue of a credibility gap perceived by external stakeholders when they doubt the authenticity of communicated information due to the reporting company’s governance structure. The paper uses family businesses to exemplify the emergence of such a gap when outsiders become concerned about the potential agency problem of the integrated ownership and management controlled by a few members of the same family. Following source credibility theory, these concerns raise a credibility gap associated with a family firm’s trustworthiness and goodwill, even if the family has the expertise to carry out sustainability reporting. The findings of two experimental studies indicate that family businesses suffer a greater credibility gap than non-family businesses. An external and independent assurance service can mitigate such gaps, especially when the service is comprehensive and targets family businesses. The paper provides a complete view evaluating corporate communication by looking at the interaction between the communicating company and the information recipients.