The environmental performance of firms: The role of foreign ownership, training, and experience

In this paper we extend the debate on the environmental implications of foreign direct investment in developing countries by examining a new mechanism through which foreign influence can affect the environmental performance of firms. We focus on the extent to which key workers who have had previous training or experience in a foreign owned firm transfer and utilise their knowledge gained to the benefit of the local environment. To this end we use detailed firm-level data on manufacturing firms in Ghana. Our econometric results suggest that the foreign training of a firm's decision maker does reduce fuel use, particularly so in foreign owned firms. Foreign ownership per se does not influence fuel use or total energy use but is found to increase electricity use, perhaps the cleanest form of energy used by Ghanaian firms.     

Riding out of a financial crisis: The joint effect of trust and corporate ownership

We study how generalized trust shapes the ability of firms with different ownership forms to obtain trade financing and perform during a financial crisis. Exploiting geographic variations in trust across Italian regions and the occurrence of the 2008-09 financial crisis in a difference-in-differences setting, we show that generalized trust makes family firms less able to obtain trade financing during the crisis. This finding maps into performance results: trust alleviates the negative effect of a crisis for non-family firms, while it aggravates the negative effect for family firms. This latter result depends crucially on a firm's corporate governance: trust does not harm family firms whose board is open to non-family directors. Collectively, our findings illustrate how culture interacts with corporate attributes in shaping a firm's prospects.     

CSR and financial performance: complementarity between environmental,social and business behaviours

This article analyses the interactions between various dimensions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) that mediate the relationship between CSR and financial performance. We hypothesize that the absence of consensus in the empirical literature on the CSR–financial performance relationship may be explained by the existence of synergies (complementarity) and trade-offs (substitutability) between the different CSR components. We investigate such relationship using a final unbalanced panel sample of 1094 observations (around 300 firms per year) from 15 countries over the 2002–2007 period. Our results show that responsible behaviours towards employees (human resources dimension) and towards customers and suppliers (business behaviour dimension) appear as complementary inputs of financial performance, indicating mutual benefits and less conflict between those stakeholders. Conversely, responsible behaviours towards customers and suppliers and towards the environment appear as substitutable inputs of financial performance, suggesting more conflict between or over-investment towards those stakeholders.     

Risk allocation and uncertainty: some unpleasant outcomes of financial innovation

Financial innovation introduces the possibility of exchange on wider time-events sets. In this way, market incompleteness should be reduced with an overall advantage. The existence of this advantage also depends on other elements, like the degree of market competition, the level of information, and the presence of inefficiencies generated by moral hazard. One kind of behavior which has been widely common among banks consists in the reduction of risk taking in relation to credit activity. Credit risk tends to be covered through the packaging of credits into securities. This situation means that since the bank is not shouldering the risk, it does not invest in the acquisition of knowledge regarding the borrower, but only regarding his/her generic characteristics which are reflected in the evaluation of the assets in which the credits are packaged. Moreover, financial innovation was developed, in particular by investment banks, with non-standardized products, exchanged over-the-counter, and substantially lacking secondary markets. The greatest problems derive from the low liquidity of these products and from the uncertainty over their returns. This is why it would be good to stimulate the introduction of standardized products, whose risks are easy to determine, to be exchanged on organized markets, instead of complex products, which are substantially illiquid and exchanged over-the-counter.

Domestic and international competitive focus, technology strategy and company performance: an empirical analysis

This study empirically explores the association of a firm's approach to domestic and international operations with its technological choices and financial performance. The technological choices examined unclude the following: commitment to leading the creation of new technologies: emphasis on internal and external sources of technology: capital spending for technological pursuits: R&D investments. Cluster analysis of data from 180 US electronics firms produced four clusters of international and domestic operations. These clusters exhibited variaions in companies' technological choices and in the associations between technology variables and company financial performance. The results help to identify viable technolgical choices under different combinations of domestic and international competition.     

Reducing agency conflicts through bank dividend payout decisions: the role of opacity and ownership structure

We empirically examine whether banks’ dividend decisions are influenced by their degree of opacity and ownership structure. We find that banks with concentrated ownership structure pay lower dividends when they have high degrees of opacity, in line with the hypothesis that majority shareholders pay lower dividends to extract higher levels of private benefits. We do not observe such expropriation behaviour from managers in widely held banks. Further analysis shows that higher levels of shareholder protection and stronger supervisory regimes help to constrain opportunistic behaviour of majority shareholders. Our findings have critical policy implications for the Basel 3 implementation of restrictions on dividend payouts.     

Boundary spanning leadership,resource mobilisation,and performance of university-industry R&D projects: a study in a Japanese university

Acquisition of university knowledge has grown significantly for firms to complement an internal knowledge base of technological innovation. Recognising the significance, an increasing body of literature has analysed the performance of university-industry R&D projects by adopting managerial and social approaches. Despite the important role played by project leaders, existing research paid scant attention to the critical ability and quality of successful project leaders in acquiring university knowledge. To address these limitations, this study performed a survey of firms that collaborated with the Ritsumeikan University in Japan and investigates the influence of boundary spanning leadership of project leaders in firms on both knowledge and commercial performance of R&D projects. Furthermore, it also evaluates the mediation effect of university resource mobilisation that links boundary spanning leadership and project performance.     

The effect of leadership on performance management, good governance, internal and external satisfaction in study programs

Rapid changes in business environment have increased the needs of graduates who have capabilities of anticipating to the changes. The faculty, especially at the level of study program, has an important role in affecting the quality of graduates, because the study program is the core element in the higher education institution which involves directly in planning, organizing, executing and controlling the teaching and learning activities. This dissertation is to examine the effect of leadership on performance management and good governance, and also to examine the effect of performance management and good governance on internal and external satisfaction. The data for this causal research is collected by questionnaire. Unit of analysis in this research is all study programs in all accredited faculty of economics in East Java. The respondents are academic staffs, students and administrative staffs in the study program. There were 83 of 125 accredited study program which has been successfully contacted and agreed to participate in the research. There were 900 students and 285 academic staffs filling up the questionnaires. The data analysis is conducted by Path Analysis with the SPSS 11.5 version software to measure construct validity and reliability and to test causal relationships between variables in the model. The findings of the research showed that： （1） Leadership affects performance management significantly; （2） Leadership affects good governance significantly; （3） Leadership affects internal satisfaction significantly; （4） Performance management affects internal satisfaction; （5） Good governance significantly affects external satisfaction; （6） Internal satisfaction does not affect external satisfaction. Based on the findings in this research, it is suggested that the study programs take into account the implementation of performance management in order to undertake improvement continuously considering that performance management supports the quality assurance activity. It is also suggested that the faculty implements good governance formally. However, the implementation should empower the study program to undertake the improvement.     

R&D strategy and innovation performance: the role of standardization

Firms now increasingly recognise the important role of R&D strategy in building technological advantage. However, few attempts have linked standardisation with specific R&D strategies in explaining innovation performance. To bridge this gap, this study empirically examines the relationships between R&D strategies, standardisation, and firms’ innovation performance. Based on a sample of 371 firms in China, we use structural equation modelling (SEM) and find that novelty-oriented R&D strategy generates greater accumulation of standardisation knowledge and standards diversity, while R&D openness only positively relates to this standardisation knowledge accumulation. Moreover, standardisation knowledge accumulation is positively related to both administrative and technical innovation performance, while a greater variety of standards only leads to higher administrative innovativeness. More importantly, our results reveal that accumulation of standardisation knowledge mediates the relationships between R&D novelty and administrative and technical innovation performances. Both the theoretical and practical implications that arise from these findings are discussed.     

The social costs of gun ownership: a reply to Hayo,Neumeier, and Westphal

We respond to the new article by Hayo, Neumeier, and Westphal (HNW), which is a critique of our 2006 article. The principal contribution of that article wa     

Expanded role of nursing in ambulatory managed care. Part II: Impact on outcomes of costs, quality, provider and patient satisfaction

This evaluation project used a triangulation of methods and data sources to link the expanded role nurse clinician (NC) to outcomes of costs, quality, and satisfaction in managed care. Results of patient surveys, case studies, cost-benefit analyses, interviews, focus groups, and HMO documents suggest that the impact of the role has benefit far beyond its costs. This article builds on an earlier article (Nursing Economic$, Vol. 17, No. 1). Part I reviewed literature on expanded role nursing in population management, and described the development of the NC role. In Part II, the NC expanded role is linked to organizational outcomes of costs, quality, and satisfaction. Results here could be used by managers and planners to provide rationale for implementing expanded nursing roles in managed care in order to improve ambulatory care processes, recruit and retain nurses, reduce costs, and increase patient and provider satisfaction.     

Evaluation of a client care delivery model, Part 2: Variability in client outcomes in community home nursing

Using similar variables, Part II explores variation in client outcomes such as OMAHA knowledge, behavior, and SF-36 scores. Medical and nursing diagnoses explained large variations in client outcomes. Clients cared for by degree-prepared nurses improved knowledge and behavior scores. Unanticipated case complexity was negatively associated with client outcome even with nursing intervention. The study revealed that "for every unit increase in assignment of baccalaureate-prepared nurses, clients will on average demonstrate an 80% greater likelihood of improvement in knowledge scores and a 120% greater likelihood of improvement in behavior scores in relation to their health condition at discharge." This two-part study has offered insight into the controllable variables influencing the cost and quality of home care services.     

Service quality,scale economies and ownership: an econometric analysis of water supply costs

Issues related to service quality are crucial for water utility management and regulation. Omitting these aspects, especially when they are treated as exogenous, can lead to large biases in estimating cost functions as well as to misleading information concerning technology. In this article, we integrate the output multi-dimension in the cost function, considering delivered water volume and service quality as being endogenous. Network-related scale measures and private versus public ownership are investigated with the objective of evaluating how endogenous quality may affect their impact on costs. A translog cost model is estimated from a dataset of US water utilities. It is shown that including the quality level of the delivered services has a significant impact on scale economies and ownership effects. Significant economies of scope confirm the existence of trade-offs between water production and service quality.     

Bank competition, financial reform, and institutions: The importance of being developed

In this paper, I estimate the degree of market power at the bank-level for 84 banking systems worldwide. Subsequently, I analyze the sources of bank competition, placing emphasis on the impact of financial reform and the quality of institutions. I find that financial liberalization policies reduce the market power of banks in developed countries with advanced institutions. In contrast, banking competition does not improve at the same pace in countries with weaker institutions and a lower level of institutional development. The results hold across a wide array of identification tests and estimation methods. The main policy implication to be drawn is that a certain level of institutional development is a precondition for the success of reforms aimed at enhancing the competition and efficiency of banking markets.     

Taxation,corporate financial policy,and the cost of capital: A comment

Theoretical models of the incidence of the corporate profits tax differ as to whether the tax distorts the allocation of resources, or is a lump-sum tax on the owners of capital. These differences derive from the assumptions made about the special provisions of the tax system with regard to the deduction of interest payments and investment expenditure. Two non-distortionary systems are identified which are shown to be equivalent to a capital levy when the tax is introduced and a zero tax on profits. Under the present UK system, however, a higher rate of corporation tax stimulates investment.     

Clinical nursing practices and patient outcomes: evaluation, evolution, and revolution (legitimizing radical change to maximize nurses' time for quality care)

Today's environment demands revolutionary as well as evolutionary changes in practice patterns. All clinical practices must be critically examined in terms of their contributions to quality patient outcomes, and their effects on nurses' time and morale.     

The propagation of financial turbulence: interdependence,spillovers, and direct and indirect effects

We investigate the propagation of financial turbulence via trade, capital flows, and distance channels in the pre-crisis and Global Financial Crisis periods by modeling spillover and interdependence effects, using spatial econometric techniques. Financial turbulence is proxied by the ratio of nonperforming loans to total loans in a country. Spillover effects are defined as significant changes in the linkages between countries due to a shock, and interdependence effects as strong linkages among pairs of countries independent of shocks. Using annual data of 40 countries from 2003 to 2010, we find that interdependence and spillover effects should be jointly analyzed. Furthermore, our results suggest that the capital flows channel is more important than the other two channels in capturing propagation of financial turbulence. By deriving what is known in the spatial econometrics literature as direct and indirect effect estimates, we show that the marginal effects of macroeconomic variables (like GDP growth, inflation, and credit growth) on financial turbulence take different forms during a crisis than in tranquil periods.     

企业"走出去":成绩、趋势与对策

跨国公司的形成和发展体现了作为经济单元的企业在全球范围配置资源、获取利益的要求,促进了投资母国和东道国经济的发展.1998年,中国政府正式提出"走出去"战略,鼓励企业对外投资、积极参与国际经济合作."走出去"战略实施几年来已经取得了显著的成绩.     

Incentives,pay, and performance: a study of Australian employees

The paper analyses the determinants of self-reported work effort using a 1988 survery of Australian employees. While controlling for the endogeneity of the firm's choice of incentives and pay, it is found that direct incentive schemes have predicted effects, and the efficiency wage hypothesis is supported: pay and work effort are positively correlated. Two efficiency wage models are tested: Akerlof's gift exchange model, and work discipline arguments regarding monitoring difficulties and threats of dismissal. The latter argument is broadly consistent with the data.