Do corporate governance mechanisms affect cash dividends? An empirical investigation of UK firms

The study examines whether corporate governance mechanisms and the compliance with good governance practice are related to cash dividends. In particular, the study assesses the effect of institutional ownership and board structure on the decision to pay cash dividends. A study on UK firms is interesting because firms are expected to voluntarily structure governance mechanisms based on their own needs. We find that institutional owners positively affect cash dividend payments, suggesting that UK institutions are effective in forcing firms to disgorge cash. There is limited evidence that independent directors affect the cash dividends. The results also show that firm specifics affect the cash dividends, namely, business risk, firm size, and leverage ratio. The results are consistent across several robustness checks.     

Where do international board members come from? Country-level antecedents of international board member selection in European boards

In this paper, it is argued that boards internationalize by recruiting international directors in order to increase companies’ performance. However, increasing nationality diversity on a board can be costly considering that it potentially creates cooperative problems on a board due to fault-lines and separation processes. As a result, boards will prefer international candidates who are more similar to themselves on a variety of ‘distances’. Based on data collected regarding 5683 board members of 361 companies from 15 countries in 2005–2007, we discover that the greater the distance (cultural, institutional and geographical) between the candidates’ and the companies’ country-of-origin, the lower the fraction of board members of that nationality on boards. Subsequently, it is argued that historical ties between countries play a ‘distance compressing’ role and partially compensate for the effects of distance. A colonial tie between countries will make recruitment of these particular nationalities more likely than others.     

Audit committee performance: ownership vs.independence – Did SOX get it wrong?

This study documents a positive relationship between audit committee stock ownership and firm performance in large US firms from 1998 to 2008. This study also finds a positive relationship between changes in ownership and performance. These results persist throughout the sample period, do not weaken after Sarbanes–Oxley and are robust to controlling for endogeneity between ownership and performance. After testing shows that there is no relationship between audit committee independence and firm performance, these findings suggest that audit committee stock ownership is an important corporate governance mechanism and potentially a more relevant variable than audit committee independence from a policy perspective.     

中国企业对发达国家投资与自主创新能力的实证研究

当代国际直接投资实践表明,引进外国投资很难获得先进技术,而发展对外直接投资则是获得国外先进技术的重要途径之一。本文选取中国1995～2012年对20个发达国家的对外直接投资数据,对发达国家投资与自主创新能力进行检验,运用计量模型进行实证研究。结果显示,中国企业对发达国家投资与自主创新能力之间存在着紧密和稳定的正向关系,对发达国家的直接投资对中国的自主创新能力有提升作用。此外,研究与开发投入对于企业创新有明显的正向效应,而科技活动人员数量对发明专利授权量存在负向影响。     

Positive and negative synergies between the CEO's and the corporate board's human and social capital: A study of biotechnology firms

This paper contributes to the corporate governance literature by developing and testing theory regarding positive and negative synergies between the CEO's and the board's human and social capital. Using a sample of 360 biotechnology firms that went public between 1995 and 2010, we demonstrate that accumulated public company board experiences of the CEO and the board have positive synergistic effects on IPO performance whereas the current board appointments have negative effects. While scientific educational backgrounds have positive synergies, industry‐specific experiences produce either positive or counterproductive effects depending on the age and profitability of the firm. Thus, our paper contributes to the corporate governance and human and social capital literatures by describing the costs and benefits of specific types and combinations of CEO and board capital. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

National Health Service Boards of Directors and Governance Models

Abstract

This article reports the findings of a year-long research project focused on the activity of boards of directors of twenty-two trusts from the British National Health Service (NHS). The evidence gathered through the use of semi-structured interviews, focus groups, workshops, feedback questionnaires and document analysis indicates that the behavioural dynamics of boards, affected by the dominance of the expert model, act as antecedents of their statutory functions and the implementation of different governance models. Only a portion of the boards involved has effectively incorporated in its modus operandi post-New Public Management (post-NPM) principles of governance.     

山东半岛蓝色经济区新兴产业融资渠道及选择研究

本文首先对新兴产业融资渠道现状进行阐述，然后选择山东半岛蓝色经济区新兴产业上市公司的融资期限和融资结构进行分析，最后对山东半岛蓝色经济区新兴产业上市公司和山东省非新兴产业上市公司进行比较研究，发现山东半岛蓝色经济区新兴产业融资成本较低，融资结构相对合理，但其与非新兴产业相比没有显著性差异。     

独立学院非英语专业学生英语自主学习能力的培养

根据《大学英语课程教学要求》，很多高校都在实施基于计算机和课堂的英语教学模式，将课堂教学与学生的自主学习结合起来。在传统的教学中，学生对于教师的依赖很大。因此学生自主学习能力的培养需要很长一段时间，尤其是在独立学院。自主学习首先要想学，然后才能学习如何来学。因此自主学习能力的培养需要先培养学生自主学习的愿望，然后再培养其自主学习的能力。独立学院侧重于应用型人才的培养，因此在自主学习能力培养的过程中，要因人制宜，结合其专业、未来择业、个人兴趣爱好、学习特点制定不同的计划，进行有侧重的培养，以最大程度的发挥学生的特长，满足未来工作的需要。     

创意产业发展的知识产权保护

创意产业是基于个人创造力的经济部门,其产品都在知识产权法的保护范围内。知识产权保护是创意产业发展的关键环节。必须增强社会公众特别是创意产业自身的知识产权保护意识,完善创意产业知识产权制度建设,创新创意产业的知识产权服务模式。     

独立审计、公司外部治理与真实经营业绩——来自中国上市公司的经验证据

独立审计是公司治理的重要外部机制,但考察独立审计治理功能影响公司真实经营业绩的文献还较少。从减少信息不对称、提升治理效率与决策能力角度,提出了一个独立审计的公司外部治理功能影响公司真实经营业绩的理论框架。选取事务所规模、审计收费和审计意见作为审计质量的替代变量,以我国2007年-2009年上市公司为样本,实证研究发现事务所规模及审计收费均与公司真实经营业绩正相关;审计意见对公司滞后一年的真实经营业绩没有影响,这可能与我国监管及诉讼制度不完善导致＂非标＂意见未给公司及其内部人带来显著成本有关。