Do financial constraints in an unstable emerging economy mitigate the opportunistic behavior of entrenched family owners?

Prior research is not conclusive whether information asymmetries or managerial discretion are the cause of observed investment-cash flow sensitivity. This paper examines the effect of family firms' governance heterogeneity on firm's investment-cash flow sensitivity in Brazil. The Brazilian economic and corporate governance context present several idiosyncratic features, including weak minority shareholder protection, an underdeveloped capital market, macro-economic uncertainties, the presence of controlling shareholders (especially families), and the excessive use of control-enhancing mechanisms, allowing us to explore in greater detail the drivers of investment-cash flow sensitivity. We find that investment is more sensitive to cash flow for firms with a highly entrenched family presence (divergence between corporate control and voting rights coupled with family management) than in less entrenched family firms. This result emerges primarily due to financial constraints from asymmetric information, rather than agency problems of free cash flow from abuse of managerial discretion. Our findings shed new light on the role of excessive control rights in investment decisions, allowing family managers to reallocate capital to cope with financial constraints in times of economic uncertainties.     

Extending the investment development path model to include the human environment factor

This article aims to address Dunning's call to include the “human environment” (HE) as a new trend and trajectory for research in international business (IB). Dunning argues that the most important driver for economic advancement is knowledge, which arises from the HE. We extend Dunning's IB theory of the five stages of a country's investment development path (IDP) to include the HE factor. Further, we use China as an example in which to examine the role of human resource management (HRM). We identify and analyze an important link between foreign direct investment, multinational enterprises, and both domestic and global HRM. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Nonfinancial companies as large shareholders alleviate financial constraints of Brazilian firm

We analyze whether financial constraints of Brazilian firms are alleviated by ownership structure. More specifically, we study whether the presence of nonfinancial firms as shareholders of Brazilian firm mitigates financial constraints. We find that the presence of nonfinancial firms as significant shareholders reduces financial constraints, probably because such blockholders are able to reduce asymmetric information problems that are at the origin of financial constraints. This result indicates that the changes in the corporate ownership of the Brazilian firms, achieved within the country's structural changes, have been positive for firm investment and have contributed to the development of Brazil.     

The effects of the governance environment on the choice of investment mode and the strategic implications

Direct investment and indirect (portfolio) investment require different governance mechanisms for investor protection. The literature on the effect of the governance environment (such as the legal system) on investment, which had been relatively underdeveloped, has begun to draw more attention recently. Existing studies, however, have largely ignored the differences between the two modes of investment in terms of investor protection. Their finding that a poor governance environment deters foreign direct investment is mis-specified and fails to explain why countries with a poor governance environment attract relatively large amount of direct investment as opposed to portfolio investment.We introduce a framework that measures the level of rule-based governance environment in a capital receiving economy, with an especial attention to the information and enforcement mechanisms for investor protection facilitated by different governance environments. We argue that in countries with a weak rule-based governance environment, investors prefer direct investment to indirect (portfolio) investment, because the former can be better protected by private means. Our empirical test strongly supports our hypotheses. Strategic implications for investors are drawn in conclusion.     

Transformation of China's sovereign wealth fund since the 2008‐2009 global crisis

China Investment Corporation (CIC) transformed its initial investment strategy of focusing mainly on the US financial sector during 2007‐2008 into a new strategy of diversified investments across geography and sectors since 2009. Massive financial losses and domestic political backlash during the global financial crisis of 2008 gave impetus to CIC's rethinking of strategy. In the midst of the crisis, CIC engineered a capacity‐building and reorganization exercise to reposition itself for a new strategy that has since allowed for more diversification of investments. A more receptive global investment climate for sovereign wealth funds has also aided CIC's efforts to present itself as a responsible global investor and facilitated its investments. Postcrisis, CIC's new strategy of diversification is characterized by continued investments in the financial sector, but with new investments increasingly directed to real sectors of energy, natural resources, and real estate in both developed and emerging economies. Notwithstanding a global recovery that is fraught with uncertainties, CIC's judicious timing in making diversified investments, and its attention to reducing risks and enhancing returns, have been rewarded by an impressive turnaround in performance since 2009. Going forward, the success and sustainability of the new strategy will be contingent on how well CIC can navigate domestic bureaucratic rivalry and the shifting climate of the international investment environment in the medium to long term. Ultimately, CIC's shareholder, the government of the People's Republic of China (PRC), holds the key to its future direction and goals. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Brand Management as an Internationalization Strategy for SME: A Multiple Case Study

ABSTRACT

This research examines the role of branding in the Portuguese SME internationalization process and how the internationalization and brand strategies are articulated in the search for a better business performance within a competitive framework and increasing competitiveness environment. The article aims specifically at: (a) the strategy of creation and brand management; (b) the relevance given to the brand; (c) the importance of brand creation and management in the internationalization strategy. We chose a qualitative methodology, based on four cases studies. Our results suggest that branding strategies of SME cannot be compared with the strategies of multinationals. Budgetary constraints and human resources lead companies to invest in low-cost strategies. The importance of the brand lies in the distinction that allows competition with similar products within the sectors. Management of the brand does not come up as an essential strategy for the internationalization of a Portuguese SME.     

Limits to learning from the west: How western management advice may prove limited in Eastern Europe

The West's aid to the emerging Eastern European economies includes consultancy and education. This will have considerable impact on their economic and managerial activity, even though the theories of organization and management on which it is based are much criticized here. As these theories are applied in the extreme economic, social and political circumstances of the Soviet collapse, we are likely to be both surprised and pushed into a period of critical organizational theorizing. Much of the criticism comes from institutionalists who reject a generic approach to economics and management. They argue instead that organizations are embedded within a specific environment of social, legal, economic, and technological institutions which fashion their activities. They are saying “things are different over there and we should recognize that our advice presumes our own institutional arrangements.” The first part of this study reviews the reasoning behind this critique. It has two threads: (a) the institutional context and the way that shapes economic transactions and their costs; and (b) the way institutions develop as collective responses to social uncertainties. We look at organization theory's dependence on the social institutions, such as contract law, professional training, and the market for insurance. We take these and many other Western institutions for granted, and seldom stop to analyze them. In Eastern Europe, managers lack such institutional infrastructures and face uncertainties beyond our experience. This article's second part focuses on the processes by which organizations respond to uncertainties. There are many types of uncertainty and we pick out that of adopting a new technology. Problems arise because of “gaps” between the organization's in-place work practices, knowledge, and attitudes, and those which they must eventually adopt if they are to use the new technology effectively. Recent research into workplace know-how suggests that such gaps are bridged by workers developing a new “tacit” understanding of the technology through learning-by-doing. This knowledge generation (KG) works best when it is also communal, when creative teams form. By definition, this kind of team cannot be managed bureaucratically, in ways that depend on an understanding of the task in hand. We see that bureaucracy is a theory of knowledge application (KA) which breaks down in the absence of the necessary knowledge, rules, measurements, communications, and sanctions. Creative teams can operate under the conditions of bureaucratic failure because they are held together by institutional forces rather than by rational administration. The context of social institutions outside the organization becomes important because it defines the institutional bases for such teams. In the final section we look beyond creative teams as internal uncertainty resolvers. The new institutional economists argue that firms should internalize the uncertain transactions that are difficult to contract, and so precipitate market failure. We suggest that entrepreneurs also look outside the firm at those social institutions which enable them to externalize uncertainties. In general, the institutionalist critique reveals that entrepreneurs have several domains of action. The formal KA part of the firm, the focus of classical organization and management theory, is but one of these domains. Other equally important KG domains lie both within the firm and in the interorganizational networks and social institutions beyond its boundaries. The uncertainties of the Soviet collapse move us on from the simplicities of Western organization theory toward a richer set of ideas more relevant to our Eastern European colleagues—and to ourselves.     

俄罗斯投资环境分析

俄罗斯投资环境所具有的优势就是其丰富的自然资源、低廉劳动力和燃料、原料以及相当便利交通条件和比较完善的基础设施。对于以往存在的一些问题,俄罗斯政府已经开始采取相应的措施对其进行治理,其政治环境、法律体系的已经得到了有效的改善,人民生活水平也得到了进一步提高,总体上看,投资环境已经得到了有效的改善,已经被广大外国投资商看成是一片新的投资沃土,相信越来越多的外国投资商回到俄罗斯进行不断投资。     

跨国公司投资与流通产业管制

本文依据跨国公司在华流通领域投资逐步膨胀有可能产生局部垄断的现实,首先从理论上讨论了流通产业是否存在自然垄断,以及跨国公司在华投资形成自然垄断的可能性等问题;继之,在分析跨国公司投资于流通产业所表征的性质规定的基础上,结合我国的实际,探讨了投资环境之于跨国公司战略选择的路径依赖,并据此刻画了由投资环境和战略目标共同决定的跨国公司投资决策的抽象函数;最后,围绕要不要对流通产业实施管制问题,文章依据外资商业在我国流通产业中有可能出现自然垄断的现实,就政府是否有必要对流通产业实行适当的管制提出了几点看法.     

Management pay-performance sensitivity, internal cash flow and investment behavior: A test of the free cach flow theory and asymmetric information theory

The relationship between investment and financing, the two basic components of corporate finance, is of significant interest to researchers and practitioners alike. The free cash flow hypothesis and asymmetric information hypothesis are two important theories to explain the relationship between investment expenditure and cash flow. In this paper, we examine how consistency between the interests of management and shareholders influences investment-cash flow sensitivity, and how the nature of the controlling shareholder influences this relationship, so as to analyze how much the free cash flow hypothesis and asymmetric information hypothesis can explain the practice of investment and financing in China. We use pay-performance sensitivity as a proxy for the degree of consistency between shareholders and management interests. We find that investment-cash flow sensitivity is affected not only by financial constraints that caused by asymmetric information, but also by the shareholder-manager agency problem. It is found that the asymmetric information theory has more explanatory power than the shareholder-manager agency theory. In addition, the relationship between investment-cash flow sensitivity and pay-performance sensitivity is affected by the nature of controlling shareholders. Specifically, in the state-owned enterprises, the investment-cash flow sensitivity is mainly ascribed to information asymmetry problems, but in the non-state-owned enterprises, the investment-cash flow sensitivity mainly results from free cash flow. Translated and revised from Kuaiji Yanjiu 会计研究 (Accounting Research), 2007, (10): 73–81     

融资约束条件下我国中小板上市公司投资效率测度

文章以我国中小企业板上市公司为研究对象,从企业经理人追求利润最大化行为出发构建中小企业的投资支出模型。不同于已有文献仅从投资-现金流敏感性角度入手的实证研究,文章的研究方法无需对样本公司进行分组,而且可以定量测度融资约束条件下的公司投资效率问题。实证结果表明：由于融资约束的存在,使得我国中小板上市公司实际投资支出最优水平低;现金流的增加不仅可以缓解融资约束压力,还能够降低融资不确定性,债务融资比例越高,融资约束越大,进一步加剧了未来融资时的不确定性;我国中小板上市公司融资约束程度与企业规模呈负相关关系,且投资效率随时间呈现下降趋势,意味着近年来我国出台的一系列旨在改善中小企业融资难的政策措施,在实践中并没有起到有效缓解融资约束的作用。     

Strategic Portfolio Management Model

Abstract

Institutional investors look forward to extra-ordinary returns in the new millennium. Yet, many have not displayed knowledge of scientific models such as modern portfolio theory, capital asset pricing model, and other financial assets investment management approaches, particularly within the local setting. They indiscriminately take risk by investing in subjectively determined options. We surveyed 44 quoted and unquoted companies, typical of emerging economies using Nigeria as a case. The test of hypotheses reveals that the firms' basis of portfolio selection is traditional. Investment risk is taken for granted. Also the homogeneity of portfolio components, though attractive in the short-run, adversely affect investment returns in the long-run. We, therefore, recommend the departmentalization and standardization of the corporate investment management process, reorientation and direction of organizational functionaries towards effective adoption of scientific approaches as integrally represented by the strategic portfolio management model, exemplified in this work.     

Monetary policy in a developing economy with external debt: Theory and empirics

Using annual data from four open economies (Thailand, Indonesia, Mexico, and Chile), and estimating correlations and generalized impulse responses within the traditional vector autoregressive (VAR) analysis, we find that inflation, both in the short and long run, is negatively correlated with consumption, investment, and the stock of foreign debt. We propose an optimizing model of an open economy with outstanding foreign debt and borrowing constraint that could explain these empirics. In this economy, risk premium depends on creditworthiness measured by debt–income ratio. Firms operate under costly investment, and all transactions involving consumption and investment are subject to cash-in-advance (CIA) constraints.     

我国公司理财的风险管理研究

公司在理财过程中经常面临多种制约因素,不同的公司治理结构模式、理财战略以及理财理念等都会给公司理财带来收益的不确定性。面对这些理财风险,公司必须加强业务人员培训,理顺公司治理结构与理财目标的关系,防范金融机构可能出现的道德风险,建立有效的风险管理组织体系和风险报告制度,才能确保最终理财目标的实现。     

The different roles played by venture capital and private equity investors on the investment activity of their portfolio firms

Venture capital (VC) and private equity (PE) investors play different roles in their portfolio companies. We argue that this will translate in a recognizable difference in the investment sensitivity to cash flows of portfolio companies and its evolution after the first investment round. We hypothesise that VC, thanks to its ability in overcoming asymmetries in information, will entail a reduction in the financial constraints which hampered the growth of investee firms. We predict, instead, a greater dependency of investments to cash flow for PE-backed companies, driven by the renewed interest for growth of their management combined with higher leverage. We find evidence confirming our hypotheses on a large panel of Spanish unlisted firms in low and medium technology sectors, where both VC and PE firms are active.     

Earnings management and firms' investment behavior: The threshold effect of ROE

This paper, on the basis of a sample of Chinese listed firms, investigates the relationship between both real and accrual-based earnings management activities and firms' capital investment behavior. We apply the threshold model proposed by Hansen (1999) and find firms managing earnings can either over or underinvest, depending upon firms' return on equity (ROE) level. The study results show an inverted relationship between earnings management and firms' investment, which changes from negative to positive with ROE rising beyond certain threshold levels. We also find that the level of ROE affects whether managers use real and accrual manipulations jointly or as substitutes in affecting firms' investment. Our evidence is important because it sheds new light on the relationship between earnings management activities and firms' investment behavior by showing that ROE may act as an important determinant in this relationship. This finding has important implications for policymakers such as the Chinese Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) as it shows that the regulatory benchmarks they set may have a significant impact on firms' investment behavior.     

Real estate and real options — A case study

Real estate investments in emerging economies are characterized by low liquidity, slow payback and high sunk costs; enduring uncertainties about demand, price/m² and land costs. The introduction of the real options methodology in their analysis considers a housing development as an investment opportunity encompassing several options regarding information acquisition, deferral and abandonment.The model proposed values these managerial flexibilities and shows improved risk management, identifying the optimal strategy (simultaneous vs. sequential) and timing for the construction phases. The maximum rent to pay for the exclusive rights on the land is also determined, a less capital intensive alternative to land ownership.     

营运资金管理策略的理论研究

任何企业在经营发展中都应加强对营运资金的管理,一个取得进步和成功的企业必定制定了一种有效的营运资金管理策略,而且这种政策有利于企业的发展。企业应结合自己的实际状况,选择适合自己的投资和筹资策略,可以根据环境的变化和发展的情况,将宽松的投资策略和紧缩的筹资策略结合起来,或者将宽松的筹资策略和紧缩的投资策略结合起来,这样有利于企业的风险和收益都保持在一个合理水平,促进企业的发展。     

A Model of Community–Based Venture Capital Formation To Fund Early–Stage Technology–Based Firms

This paper suggests a model of capital formation that concurrently establishes a mechanism to fund early–stage technology–based firms and meets the economic development needs of rural communities. Investors in a community capital investment fund can gain high rates of return on investment while firms realize all of the benefits associated with the investment, community support, and expanded network. The model includes factors associated with the community environment (community–based factors that impact community members' participation) and external support environment (factors that facilitate the accumulation of investment capital within a community). The result of a community effort can be an environment in which members of the community contribute to an investment fund, cooperate in attracting firms, and provide networking assistance to new business owners. Communities benefit through job creation and economic stability. Community members benefit through wealth creation.     

Market-oriented institutional change and R&D investments: Do business groups enhance advantage?

Emerging market firms (EMFs) are increasingly relying on innovation to find their competitive advantage, but our understanding of how institutional change affects firm innovation has been limited. We analyzed Korean manufacturing firms from 1994 to 2006 to test the proposition that market-oriented institutional change in an emerging economy alleviates firms’ financing constraints and monitoring problems and improves the effectiveness of their innovation activities. Institutional evolution in the economy was found to affect Korean business groups and independent firms differently. Institutional change reduced the financing constraints on independent firms more than for business group affiliates in R&D investment. Independent firms, however, appeared less capable than group affiliates of translating the benefits of improved institutional environments into efficient R&D investment. This asymmetry may lead to a wider gap in the efficiency of R&D investment between business group affiliates and independent firms.