Firm life cycle,corporate risk‐taking and investor sentiment

This study investigates the corporate risk‐taking and the performance consequences at different stages of the firm life cycle. We find that risk‐taking is higher in the introduction and decline stages of the life cycle, but lower in the growth and mature stages. We also find that risk‐taking during introduction and decline stage (growth and maturity stage) affects future performance adversely (positively). We also document that managerial risk‐taking propensities increase during periods of high investor sentiment and firms in different life cycle stages respond to sentiment differently. Collectively, these results suggest that the firm life cycle has explanatory power for corporate risk‐taking behaviour.     

Institutional investors,controlling shareholders and CEO pay‐performance relationship: evidence from China

Using a large sample of China’s listed firms between 2005 and 2015, we find that domestic mutual funds have a positive effect on the CEO pay‐performance relationship, and this effect becomes stronger when their ownership is higher and closer to the controlling shareholder’s ownership. This effect is stronger in non‐state‐owned enterprises (non‐SOEs), firms facing weaker industry competition incentives, and firms located in more developed regions. However, Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors (QFIIs) do not have such an influence. Overall, our study contends that the effectiveness of institutional investors’ monitoring role is subject to their identity, controlling shareholders and institutional environments.     

Impact of special economic zones on firm performance

The establishment of special economic zones (SEZs) is one of the critical policies to promote economic growth. However, the relationship between SEZs and firm performance is still unclear. Using China Industrial Enterprise Database (CIED) from 1998 to 2007, this paper investigates the influence of firm location on its performance mainly from two channels: selection effect and agglomeration effect. The results suggest that firms in SEZs have better performance on average than firms outside SEZs. One reason for the productivity effect is selecting firms with higher productivity to enter the zone and firms with lower productivity to exit the zone. Agglomeration is another critical channel, and the effects are heterogeneous. Both firms in the zones and firms outside the zones gain spillovers from the zones, with the former being larger than the latter. Firms gain larger agglomeration effects from a cluster of the same industry than across industries.     

Managerial ownership and firm performance: A re-examination using productivity measurement

The role of productivity in firm performance is of fundamental importance to the US economy. Consistent with the corporate finance approach, this paper uses the ownership stake of a firm's managers as an argument in estimating the firm's production function. Accordingly, this paper brings together the corporate finance and productivity literature. Using a large sample of randomly selected manufacturing firms that does not suffer from any survivorship or large firm size biases, we find that managerial ownership changes are positively related to changes in productivity. We also find a higher sensitivity of changes in managerial ownership to changes in productivity for firms who experience greater than the median change in managerial ownership. These results are robust to including lagged estimates of production inputs, year dummies and separate dummies for each firm to control for unobservable firm characteristics. In addition, we find that the stock market rewards firms with increases in firm value when these firms increase their level of productivity.     

Do foreign investments increase firm value and firm performance? Evidence from Japan

As empirical evidence on the impact of internationalization on firm performance remains unclear, we revisit the question of whether foreign investments enhance firm value and firm performance. Using a panel sample of publicly listed firms in Japan during the 1990–2016 period, we find that foreign investments are negatively associated with firm value. In addition, foreign investments are negatively related to firm performance at short- and long-horizons. Furthermore, foreign investments appear to reduce revenue growth but have no effect on firm efficiency, suggesting that simply increasing foreign investments does not necessarily enhance revenue growth or firm efficiency.     

Interdependencies of female board member appointments

We investigate the appointments of female board members of Japanese corporations together with the corporations’ performance. We relate the presence of female board members to the board and ownership networks of the corresponding firms. We find that firms with female board members often show above average performance. We also find that corporate boards and the corresponding members show homophily with respect to gender in their networks. The observed homophily leads to interdependencies in the appointments of new board members. New appointments of female board members are more likely at firms with ties to other boards with female board members.     

Managerial ownership,board monitoring and firm performance in a family‐concentrated corporate environment

Using data from Hong Kong, a market that has family‐concentrated ownership structure, we examine the relation between managerial ownership, the board of directors and firm performance. We first conduct analysis on the managerial ownership and firm performance to derive the turning points where either ‘convergence of interest’ or ‘entrenchment’ effect of managerial ownership is dominant. Based on these estimated turning points, we find that at low and high level of ownership, effective board mitigates the entrenchment effect associated with managerial ownership; at medium level of ownership, board effectiveness is less demanded. These findings suggest that managerial ownership and board monitoring are substitutes in mitigating the agency problem between managers and shareholders. We also find that effective board curbs the excessive compensation by entrenched managers to themselves at low level of managerial ownership.     

企业多元化:理论与实践的反思

多元化是目前许多企业热衷的战略选择 ,成为企业心目中的“伊甸园”。本文作者从多元化发展的理论与实践及其历程入手进行分析 ,认为不论从多元化与企业分散风险、扩张规模、增加绩效之间的联系 ,还是从发达国家多元化的实践来看 ,多元化并没有达到人们预想的效果 ,而正确的选择是坚持走专业化的道路。     

高管背景特征与企业绩效关系实证研究

高层管理团队(TMT)背景特征与企业绩效之间的关系引起广泛的关注。以房地产上市公司为例,基于高层管理团队的异质性理论,实证研究了TMT背景特征对公司财务绩效不同指标的影响。并且对不同绩效公司进行分组检验背景特征的影响变化,结果发现,TMT背景特征对不同企业的绩效影响不同,年龄与教育背景多样化程度能提高企业绩效,薪酬水平与企业绩效负相关,其余背景特征对企业绩效并无显著影响,不同绩效分组的影响因素也不同。最后据此提出了针对性的政策建议。     

Are Multiple Directorships Beneficial in East Asia?

We posit that the benefits and costs of multiple directorships are conditional on firm characteristics. We find firm valuation is positively associated with multiple directorships in (i) firms with high advising needs and (ii) firms with high external financing needs. These beneficial effects of multiple directorships are generally stronger in countries with weak shareholder rights and in firms that are widely held. However, when controlling shareholder hold high voting‐rights to cash‐flow rights, multiple directorships reduce firm valuation, especially in countries with weak shareholder rights and in closely held firms. As multiple directorships increases, cash holdings (capital expenditures) contribute less to shareholder value. The negative association between value of cash (capital expenditure) and busy boards is mitigated in firms with (i) high advising needs, (ii) high external financing needs and (iii) less entrenched ownership structures.     

中小企业板上市公司股权结构、公司治理与企业绩效:基于随机前沿生产函数的分析

本文通过构建深圳中小企业板上市公司股权结构影响企业绩效的复合随机前沿生产函数,利用2006—2008年面板数据对中小企业的股权结构和企业绩效的关系进行了经验研究,结果表明中小企业的股权集中度与企业绩效之间显著正相关,这与国内文献中对大公司的经验研究结果一致,表明当前上市公司的股权集中有利于公司治理改善和企业绩效的提高。但是第一大股东持股比率却与绩效负相关,这与对大公司的研究结论相反,表明在中小企业中存在较为明显的"隧道挖掘"现象,"一股独大"在中小企业中并不利于公司治理。研究结果还表明,国家、法人、外资或个人对公司治理的绩效无显著差异;流通股比重、高管持股、研发人员投入等都与企业绩效不相关;中小企业具有较强的股权融资倾向,不符合"啄食顺序"的资本结构理论。     

战略群组与绩效关系的实证研究——以我国酒、饮料和精制茶制造业为例

基于消费品行业移动壁垒的特点,从竞争战略和企业资源两个维度选取相应变量指标对我国酒、饮料和精致茶制造业上市企业进行战略群组的划分,并进一步探索战略群组与绩效的关系。实证结果表明:战略群组间存在显著的绩效差异,对差异的来源进行剖析,得出明确清晰的战略定位才能给企业带来更多的效益。其中,采取低成本战略的群组绩效最优,差异化战略的群组次之,无明确战略定位的企业绩效最差。     

The effect of corporate culture on firm performance: Evidence from China

This study examines whether corporate culture promotion affects firm performance in China in terms of firm market value, firm financial performance and innovation output. We find consistent evidence that corporate culture promotion is negatively related to firm market value, positively related to innovation output and not significantly related to firm financial performance. In addition, the negative effect of corporate culture promotion on firm market value is driven by small firms and firms located in less developed provinces. Furthermore, we find that some specific corporate culture promotions, such as innovation culture promotion and integrity culture promotion, are not related to firm value or financial performance. However, innovation culture promotion is positively associated with innovation output.     

The decreasing value of non‐SOEs’ political connections during China’s anti‐corruption campaign: evidence and mechanism

In this paper, we find that China’s anti‐corruption campaign since 2012 significantly reduces the value of political connections for non‐state‐owned enterprises (non‐SOEs). We provide evidence showing that the decline of the value of political connections for non‐SOEs is attributed mainly to the decreasing return from political connections, instead of increasing political risk. We further find that the decreasing return of the politically connected firms is driven mainly by the disappearance of the ‘resource effect’ of political connection in facilitating access to bank credit and government subsidies, but not due to the increasing cost of maintaining political connections.     

Risk,resilience, and Shariah-compliance

Despite the popularity of Islamic Finance, the effects of Shariah-compliance on non-financial firm operations have never been studied. Shariah-compliance requirements presents unique conditions to examine how firms perform under restricted conditions. This paper seeks to examine the effects of Shariah-compliance on the risk and resilience of non-financial firms. Using a dynamic panel system GMM and a host of firm-specific attributes, and a global sample of 2,160 firms across six geographic regions, the results suggest that Shariah-compliant firms have lower firm risk as measured by total and idiosyncratic risk, and greater firm resilience as measured by the percent deviation from the maximum values of sales, cost of goods sold, operating expenses, and share price. These effects are more profound in the years following the U.S. subprime crisis. Results also show socio-cultural norms to have a moderating effect. Further testing shows firms face stiff penalties for losing their Shariah-compliance status. This paper is the first to study the effects of Shariah-compliance on non-financial firm operations on a global scale. This paper also contributes to the capital structure and corporate governance literature as it provides evidence that suggest resource restraints may be beneficial for a firm. The findings of this paper also provide significant value to firms looking to capitalize on the 1.8 billion-strong Muslim market with further insight on the intricacies of Shariah-compliance.     

Diversification strategy,efficiency, and firm performance: Insight from emerging market

We investigate further the inconsistencies of the diversification-performance link by introducing efficiency as moderating factor. A data of 319 firms was used to conduct a panel data analysis excluding the financial sector industries and the results show three important findings. First, industrial diversification shows a significant contribution in performance improvement while international diversification shows no effect on performance. Yet, international-conglomerate shows a significant negative relationship with performance. Meanwhile, the efficiency results are contrary to our conjecture. We find that efficiency is a factor to enhance performance, but it is not the moderating variable on the diversification-performance link. This implies that the efficiency of the firm has no connection with the link between diversification and performance.     

Board size and firm performance: the moderating effects of the market for corporate control

We examine whether takeover threats affect the importance of board size using the passage of state antitakeover laws enacted in mid-to-late 1980s as our empirical setting. While the Complement Hypothesis predicts that board size matters more before the passage of the laws, the Substitute Hypothesis predicts the opposite. For a sample of 350 Forbes 500 firms over the period 1984–1991, we find a significant association between smaller boards and better firm performance before passage of antitakeover laws, but a much weaker relation (reduced by more than one-third) after the takeover restrictions were in place. Consistent with the Complement Hypothesis, this finding suggests that decreasing board size is more valuable when the market for corporate control is more active.

Who selects the ‘right’ directors? An examination of the association between board selection,gender diversity and outcomes

Using a sample of companies from the top 500 listed firms in Australia, we investigate whether the presence of a designated nomination committee and female representation on the nomination committee affect board gender diversity. We also examine whether gender diversity on the board affects firm risk and financial performance. We find that board gender diversity is significantly and positively associated with the presence of a designated nomination committee and that female representation on the nomination committee is a significant explanatory factor of increasing board gender diversity following the release of the 2010 Australian Securities Exchange Corporate Governance Council (ASXCGC) recommendations. Further, our results support the business case for board gender diversity as we find greater gender diversity moderates excessive firm risk which in turn improves firms' financial performance. Our results are robust after correcting for selection bias and controlling for other board, firm and industry characteristics.