Macroeconomic Context,Relationships with Stockholders and Strategic Factors in the Determination of Brazilian Corporations' Performance

ABSTRACT

With the purpose to identify the intensity of the existent relationships in the explanatory topology of corporations' financial performances, comprised by the three dimensions of macroeconomic context, resource management strategies and relationships with stockholders, Brazilian corporations which were active from the year of 1996 to 2000 were analyzed. Based on the understanding of the relationships among the three dimensions previously mentioned, a structural model was adopted and as the methodology for the measurement and analysis of the relationships among constructs, the parameters estimation method used was the Partial Least Squares. As a result, the resource allocation strategies were identified as the critical factor in the performance of the analyzed corporations.

RESUMEN. Las empresas brasileñas de capital abierto fueron estudiadas a lo largo del período 1996 a 2000, con el objeto de identificar la intensidad de las relaciones existentes en la topología explicativa del desempeño financiero de dichas organizaciones, constituida por las dimensiones, el contexto macroeconómico, las estrategias de gestión de sus recursos y su relación con sus stockholders. Cubriendo especialmente la comprensión de las relaciones entre las dimensiones presentadas, adoptamos un modelo estructural y, como metodología de mensuración y análisis de las relaciones entre los constructos, la estimación de parámetros en base al método Partial Least Squares. Como resultado, logramos identificar que las estrategias de asignación de recursos son un factor determinante del desempeño de las organizaciones estudiadas.

RESUMO. Com o objetivo de identificar as intensidades das relações existentes na topologia explicativa constituída pelas dimensões ambiente competitivo, estratégias competitivas, relações com stakeholders e o desempenho das organizações, foram estudadas empresas brasileiras de capital aberto, ativas no período entre 1996 e 2000. Com foco no entendimento das relações entre as dimensões apresentadas, foi adotado um modelo estrutural e como metodologia de mensuração e análise das relações entre os constructos, a estimação de parâmetros pelo método Partial Least Squares. Como resultado, as estratégias competitivas foram identificadas a como fator determinante do desempenho das organizações estudadas.     

THE IMPACT OF DEMAND UNCERTAINTY AND CONFIGURATION CAPACITY ON CUSTOMER SERVICE PERFORMANCE IN A CONFIGURE‐TO‐ORDER ENVIRONMENT

This paper examines the simultaneous impact of demand variability, demand skew, and configuration capacity on customer service in a configure‐to‐order environment. Simulation is done in ARENA and data are analyzed using ANOVA and MANOVA. The findings indicate that the factors studied have differential impact on performance both individually and interactively.     

Comparison of exact and heuristic methods for a transfer line balancing problem

Transfer line balancing problems (TLBP) deal with the optimization of serial machining lines. At every machine, the operations are performed by blocks. The operations within each block are executed simultaneously by the same multi-spindle head. In the lines considered here, the spindle heads of each machine are activated sequentially. The objective of TLBP is to group the operations into blocks and to assign the blocks to machines in order to minimize the total amount of the required equipment (spindle heads and machines). This problem is described and all the most promising exact and heuristic algorithms, recently suggested for it, are compared via detailed computational experiments.     

An economic evaluation of SPREAD on Rwanda’s rural population

Sustainable Partnerships to Enhance Rural Enterprises and Agricultural Development (SPREAD) was a programme to enhance the value chain for commodities in Rwanda including coffee. The implicit concept was that improving the value chain would increase the incomes for smallholders and, hence, reduce the poverty rate. The results indicate that Rwanda coffee prices increased relative to an index price for traded coffee with the implementation of SPREAD. In addition, the results indicate that participation in the coffee market at this time was associated with higher household income and lower rates of poverty.     

An Extended Analytical Approach to Credit Risk Management

Among the 'reduced form models' for measuring the credit risk of a bank's portfolio is CreditRisk+, which provides a closed–form solution for calculating the portfolio loss distribution based on an actuarial approach. The limitations of this model are well known, but they are often misinterpreted as being deeply embedded within the model. Dismantling the mathematical components of the model allows one to modify and extend it in several ways while remaining within an analytical approach. One of the most unattractive features is the orthogonality of the background factors or sectors as it hinders any resemblance to real–world macroeconomic indexes or industrial sectors and geographical areas. Among other extensions, which we mention briefly, we present in more detail how the original model can be amended to consider correlations among default risk sectors and among severity risk segments. These extensions are applied to real–life data, based on mortality rate data produced by the Italian Central Bank.
(J.E.L.: C00, C51).     

Careers and human resource management—a European perspective

Although many of the principal milestones of current career research are of U.S. origin, the influence of European contributions slowly grows. Drastic changes of careers and career contexts surfacing in the early 1990s have renewed the interest in career issues. In addition, new concepts such as the boundaryless career propelled the European career discourse and triggered career studies in Europe. Despite the difficulty to give a comprehensive picture because of the differences within Europe and the many possible measures of comparison, this paper identifies three major characteristics of European career research and practice: (1) Substantial heterogeneity in terms of career practice; (2) The use of theoretical concepts usually coming from social sciences in career research; (3) The emphasis on social structures in conceptualizing influencing factors of career. After identifying and explaining these characteristics, the paper discusses their implications for human resource management research and practice.     

On optimal steady states of n-sector growth models when utility is discounted

This paper contains results on local and global stability of n-sector growth models when utility is discounted mostly for small rates of discount. It is well known that when future utility is not discounted one can prove precise results about optimal steady states (OSS's) under fairly general assumptions. In particular, existence, uniqueness, and turnpike properties have been established by several authors. The counter examples presented by Kurz, Sutherland, and Weitzman, however, show that when utility is discounted, additional assumptions are required to obtain turnpike results. In general, it would be interesting to know how the submanifolds of stability change as δ changes. One hopes that certain conditions on the utility function would be sufficient to “classify” the submanifolds of stability and instability. Such a question is apparently very difficult to answer, but we think that the results obtained here will help in this task.The proof that the turnpike theorem holds for discount factors near one is divided in two parts. First, we prove that optimal paths “visit” neighborhoods of the modified OSS's. Then, we prove that local stability holds for such neighborhoods.In order to show this fact, we must prove that the local “stable manifold” varies continuously with the discount factor. This roundabout method is necessary since our problem is similar to proving uniform continuity with respect to a parameter of solutions of a differential equation in a noncompact interval of time.Other problems analyzed here include uniqueness and continuity of OSS's. We also discuss the relation between the saddle-point property and the local stability of infinite horizon optimal growth paths.     

Fundamental Investors Reduce the Distraction on Management from Random Market “Noise”: Evidence from France

The authors find that financial markets have real effects on corporate decisions but that, unfortunately, some temporary market enthusiasm, unrelated to firm intrinsic value, may cause management to make value‐destroying decisions as the result of random and uninformed stock market volatility. In particular, they are prone to making bad decisions after stock market overreactions to “surprise” earnings announcements. This study shows a positive effect of greater long‐term ownership on French listed firms. Fundamental investor ownership reduces the degree of market mispricing which serves long‐run shareholder value maximization. A fundamental investor is one that, on average, hold his shares for at least two years, is in the top quartile of a firm ownership, and has an active allocation strategy. They are about 8% of all investors. Compared to non‐fundamental investors, fundamental investors hold their positions on average three times longer and have positions 1.5 times larger. Fundamental investors are more present in firms which have more liquid stocks, which pay dividends, and which are relatively poorer performers and have relatively lower market‐to‐book than their industry peers.