Uncertainty and insurance in strategic market games

Summary. For perfectly competitive economies under uncertainty, there is a well-known equivalence between a formulation with contingent goods and one with state-specific securities followed by spot markets for goods. In this paper, I examine whether this equivalence carries over to a particular form of imperfect competition. Specifically, I look at three Shapley-Shubik strategic market games: one with contingent commodities, one with Arrow securities traded under imperfect competition and one with Arrow securities traded under perfect competition. First I compare the feasibility constraints of these three games. Then I compare their equilibrium sets. As in Peck and Shell (1989), the only common equilibria between the first and the second game are those which involve no transfer of income across states. However, if the securities markets are competitive, then the set of equilibria of the contingent commodities game and the securities game coincide. Received: June 16, 1997; revised version: April 30, 1998     

Internal and external discipline following securities class actions

Companies are sometimes accused of misleading the market. The SEC can punish this with enforcement actions. Alternatively, shareholders can seek redress through a shareholder class action (SCA). Thus, using a sample of 416 securities class actions, this paper shows that SCAs are a catalyst to promote disciplinary takeovers, CEO turnover and pay-cuts, and harm CEOs’ future job-prospects.     

企业并购成本的战略效益分析

经过金融危机的洗礼,各国经济复苏发展,企业为了在市场发展中占领战略先机,纷纷通过兼并﹑重组来扩大市场规模,因此在并购过程中的付出成本成为企业管理层不得不重视的问题。论文试图从企业的战略发展角度出发,剖析企业的并购成本,分析成本对企业并购产生的战略效益,针对战略发展的需要提出减少企业并购成本的措施。     

Managerial optimism and search

This paper proposes and tests a model of the influence of managerial dispositional optimism on the propensity to search. The model developed in this article was tested using a business simulation exercise and survey method. Results show support for the positive influence of optimism on search; in addition, the relationship appears curvilinear.     

Integrating cumulative impacts into strategic environmental decision-making: Tourism development in Belek,Turkey

This paper focuses on the cumulative impacts of strategic proposals and projects, and searches how cumulative impact assessment (CIA) can be integrated into strategic decision-making. It reviews the CIA literature to address the shortcomings of impact assessments at both strategic and project levels. Subsequently, it suggests a synthesized approach bringing disturbance ecology and adaptive ecosystem approaches together to identify and predict impacts even in challenging data contexts. To illustrate how the synthesized approach can be utilized in CIA integration, it provides a case study from Turkey. The Belek tourism development plan is investigated by using the soft system methodology. Comparison of the actual and hypothetical situations of the case illustrates the possible and desirable changes to improve strategic decision-making. Accordingly, the paper addresses the key role of decision makers’ mindsets and approaches to utilizing experience-based and science-based knowledges in considering cumulative impacts at the strategic level.     

Strategic segmentation in front-line services: matching customers,employees and human resource systems

This paper examines variation in the use of high involvement work practices in service and sales operations. I argue that the relationship between the customer and front-line service provider is a central feature that distinguishes production-level service activities from manufacturing. In particular, through strategic segmentation, firms are able to segment customers by their demand characteristics and to match the complexity and potential revenue stream of the customer to the skills of employees and the human resource system that shapes the customer–employee interface. Unlike manufacturing, where high involvement systems have emerged in a wide variety of product markets, therefore, service organizations are likely to use high involvement systems only to serve higher value-added customers because of the high costs of these systems and the labour-intensive nature of services. Data from a nationally random sample of 354 call centres in US telecommunications documents this pattern: from classic mass production approaches for back office workers and increasingly for front office residential service agents, to greater involvement for small business service providers and high involvement practices for middle-market service agents.     

HRM professionals and their perceptions of HRM and firm performance in the Philippines

This paper reports the findings of a study conducted in the Philippines that examines the extent of adoption of human capital-enhancing human resource (HR) and industrial relations (IR) practices. Differences between locally owned and other organizations in these practices and their relationship to firm performance were also investigated. Questionnaire responses were obtained from managers and union representatives from 128 organizations located in the Philippines. The results indicated that there was, on average, a fairly high level of adoption of practices consistent with a strategic approach to human resource management (HRM), with foreign-owned firms tending to show a slightly higher level of adoption of such practices. A scale representing the adoption of a more conciliatory and union-friendly IR approach was found to be a significant predictor of perceived firm performance. Surprisingly, the level of strategic integration between HRM and business planning and most human capital-enhancing HR practices were not significant predictors of perceived firm performance. Research and practical implications in relation to the role of HRM in enhancing firm performance are discussed.     

境外战略投资者引入对两类商业银行绩效影响研究——基于面板数据的实证分析

本文分析了我国商业银行引进战略投资者的四种模式,及其积极与消极影响,利用国有商业银行与股份制商业银行2008~2010年面板数据,实证检验了境外战略投资者引入形式对两类商业银行绩效的影响。研究发现,国有商业银行的收益率总体高于股份制商业银行,境外战略投资者股权比例、董事会席位对商业银行绩效有显著正向影响,战略投资者是否担任行政领导对两类商业银行加权净资产收益率与全面摊薄净资产收益率的影响存在差异。基于实证研究结果,为优化商业银行引进境外战略投资者提供对策建议。     

Closing the innovative loop: moving from the laboratory to the shop floor in biotechnology manufacturing

Innovation is a hallmark of successful technology-intensive start-up companies. This paper considers manufacturing as a knowledge-generating activity integral to product innovation in entrepreneurial biotechnology firms. The model of the virtual corporation has been advocated as a means to focus on the resources of start-up companies; yet regional specialization in technical applications and product categories suggests that manufacturing may be a knowledge-generating activity that can provide a potential source of regional advantage. This paper considers the manufacturing strategies that bio-entrepreneurs would like to pursue and explores barriers to forward integration. While capital constraints may force firms to licence and subcontract manufacturing, it was found that entrepreneurs believe that it is important to undertake manufacturing and, when they are financially able, they invest in manufacturing facilities. The authors conclude by providing a framework for considering when it might be most appropriate for biotechnology firms to invest in manufacturing.     

Agency termination decisions by small to medium-sized charitable organizations

Discussion of the role of the communications function in the strategic decisionmaking process has been neglected in the strategy literature, which views communications as a primarily tactical function. This contrasts with the communications literature which posits a more overt role for communication (with particular reference to corporate communications and public relations) in the strategy process. This article reviews these two contrasting perspectives on the issue of the strategic potential of the communications function and introduces a conceptual framework which identifies a typology of communications roles under different strategy making process modes is advanced.