Management accounting and corporate governance: An institutional interpretation of the agency problem

Challenging the dominant economic agency theory of corporate governance with a new discourse drawn from institutional theory, the paper analyses how management accounting is implicated in corporate governance. The proposed institutional theory of agency links the micro-institutions of the organization that are informed by the practices of management accounting with external institutional players and stakeholders. The paper identifies emerging narratives in which the management accounting profession has recognised a distinctive, post-Enron set of sensibilities. Although techniques drawn from strategic management accounting can be adapted to embed better corporate governance practices, the institutional theory of agency identifies tensions between the heroic CEO narrative and the routinization of strategy implicit in strategic management accounting.     

Board Members and Company Value

This essay surveys research about the value of individual members of boards of directors. When directors join or exit corporate boards, company stock prices respond, often in magnitudes of 1% of firm value or more. Related research shows that when a significant event impacts the stock price of one company, the effects are transmitted to other companies that share board members in common with the primary company. Share price reactions are sensitive to variables such as a director’s occupation, independence, and professional qualifications. Together, this evidence suggests that a well-functioning market for directors might already exist, making direct regulation unnecessary and possibly counter-productive.     

我国银行业改革与引进外资的开放竞争策略

针对我国银行业面临的问题和外资银行进入后的竞争压力,本文通过分析几种不同改革思路后认为,我国银行业改革的核心问题是产权和公司治理,两者紧密相连,产权改革是为了获得良好的公司治理,私有化和引入外资都是可供选择的产权改革方式之一,理论上不存在何者更优.国有商业银行改革的关键在于改变国有独资所有权结构为多元投资结构,可供选择的方案有不改变所有权性质的多个国有投资主体的单一所有制和引进包括国有、民营、外资参股的多元所有制.鉴于我国银行业目前的特点,外资参股并不是一种最优的选择,引进外资银行的正确策略是:独资优于合作,合作优于合资.     

国有商业银行费用偏好与组织绩效的实证分析

单一国有产权结构、出资人监督缺位和委托代理问题共同决定了国有商业银行费用扩张偏好.实证结果表明,费用规模扩张侵蚀了出资人利润性收益空间,成为国有商业银行利润率指标偏低的解释因素.因此,国有商业银行制度变迁必然包含能够抑制费用偏好的制度工具创新.政府宏观经济目标的退出可以使出资人硬化利润约束,但在政府效用函数不可能全面退出国有商业银行的现实背景中,通过引进在位寡头之间的竞争可以为国有商业银行利润目标约束硬化提供外在制衡条件;同时,产权多元化改革基础上的银行治理结构完善则是解决委托-代理问题下经营者费用偏好问题的彻底措施.     

公司治理中的中小股东权益保护机制研究

股东利益保护是公司治理的核心问题，对中小股东利益的有效保护更是公司制度公平与效率的前提。本文探讨了公司治理结构中市场主导型权力配置机制在保护中小股东利益方面的缺陷，比较分析了异议股东股份价值评估权制度与股东派生诉讼两种主要的中小股东司法救济手段之功效，指出异议股东股份价值评估权制度是一种更为有效的中小股东利益保护手段。最后，就我国公司立法引入该制度进行中小股东利益保护的问题提出了建议。     

高技术企业的权变治理、管理者更替与企业永续发展

高技术企业的治理与规范化公司的治理存在很大的差异,甚至是本质上的差异。这种差异主要来自于高技术企业的人力资本价值和团队合作价值。但从企业长期发展来看,高技术企业必须平衡权威治理和企业永续发展的关系问题。本文运用企业权力主体竞争力模型分析高技术企业控制权结构,剖析了高技术企业的“两人治理结构”现象,揭示出保持高技术企业永续发展的两大主题——权变治理和管理者更替问题。     

On the Relationship between Japanese Manufacturing Firms and their Domestic Subsidiaries

Much past research on ownership policy has dealt with foreign subsidiaries. In this paper, we study the ownership relationship between Japanese firms and their publicly-traded domestic subsidiaries. Using a transaction cost framework, we find that benefiting from high subsidiary profitability is not the sole motivation behind parent firms' decisions regarding equity control of their subsidiaries. Our results indicate that different policies are adopted by Japanese firms with respect to domestic and foreign subsidiaries.     

Corporate Governance and Expected Stock Returns: Evidence from Germany

Recent empirical work shows evidence for higher valuation of firms in countries with a better legal environment. We investigate whether differences in the quality of firm‐level corporate governance also help to explain firm performance in a cross‐section of companies within a single jurisdiction. Constructing a broad corporate governance rating (CGR) for German public firms, we document a positive relationship between governance practices and firm valuation. There is also evidence that expected stock returns are negatively correlated with firm‐level corporate governance, if dividend yields are used as proxies for the cost of capital. An investment strategy that bought high‐CGR firms and shorted low‐CGR firms earned abnormal returns of around 12% on an annual basis during the sample period.     

运用治国方略精神指导财政工作

我国在20世纪90年代提出依法治国和以德治国相结合的治国方略,本文在分析了我国治国战略的历史渊源和时代特征的基础上,提出应该运用治国方略的精神指导财政工作.     

Accounting development in Pakistan

This paper examines the origins, growth, and the development of accounting practices and disclosures in Pakistan and the factors that influenced them. We trace the early days of accounting in the Indian subcontinent and discuss the British colonial influence. We examine the development of accounting in Pakistan through three eras: Independence through 1971, Post 1971-1984, and 1984 to present. We describe how the colonial past and later the international financial institutions such as the Asian Development Bank and the International Monetary Fund played key roles in shaping accounting and reporting practices of the country. Pakistan's adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards as national standards has not led to improvement in the quality of financial reporting. We argue that Pakistan, even though classified as a common law country in literature, exhibits most of the properties of code law countries. We conclude that lack of investor protection (e.g., minority rights protection, insider-trading protection), judicial inefficiencies, and weak enforcement mechanisms are more critical to explaining the state of financial reporting in Pakistan than are cultural factors. This insight has policy implications for developing countries that are making efforts to improve the quality of the financial reporting of their business entities.