Measures of Marketing Success: A Comparison Between China and the United Kingdom

Despite the importance of assessing business performance, there is little research on the measures used to evaluate marketing effectiveness. This paper replicates in China some UK research into the relative importance of categories of marketing metrics, e.g., financial and non-financial, customer and competitive. The Chinese results are compared with those from the UK. In China, respondents saw financial metrics as less important than their UK counterparts and they appeared to be more marketing oriented, but the difference of consumer orientation across departments of firms in China appears larger than in UK. In both countries the importance given to metrics categories were consistent with orientation, while in China there is no relationship between consumer orientation and the important of direct customer metrics as in UK, but the relationship between competition orientation and the measurement of direct customers was found in China.     

Antecedents and consequences of corporate governance reform: the case of Germany

The paper examines the antecedents and consequences of the voluntary adoption of corporate governance reform in firms embedded in a relationship‐based governance system with less protection of minority shareholders. In such locations, ownership structure should be a key determinant of governance reform. Firms with dispersed ownership are likely to face agency problems but may lack sufficient ownership power in the hand of external owners for adoption to occur. Extensive ownership by external parties facilitates adoption but decreases the need and motivation to adopt governance reform. We examined the adoption of stock‐based incentive plans and transparent accounting regulations (e.g., greater disclosure to shareholders) among large German firms (DAX 100) during the late 1990s. We found an inverse ‘U’‐shaped relationship between ownership concentration and governance reform. In addition, we found that firms adopting governance reform were more likely to engage in corporate divestitures and achieve higher levels of market performance than firms not adopting governance reform. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Ethical Unit Trust Financial Performance: Small Company Effects and Fund Size Effects

Recent papers which have examined unit trusts have controlled either for a 'fund size effect' or for the 'small firms effect' in the investment portfolio. The contribution of this paper is an analysis of the 'small firms effect' whilst simultaneously controlling for the 'fund size effect'. We show that the ethical unit trusts have significantly greater exposure than general unit trusts to the 'small firms effect', and that net of this there is no significant evidence of over or under performance by ethical trusts using an adjusted Jensen measure. Using two cross-sectional approaches, we demonstrate that whilst a 'small firms effect' has a role to play in explaining unit trust performance, fund size is not correlated with the financial performance of unit trusts. This cross-sectional analysis also provides some evidence that ethical unit trusts may perform less well than general unit trusts.     

双向沟通在绩效管理中的作用机制研究

绩效管理是企业将战略转化为行动的过程。绩效管理有别于传统的绩效考核，是一个完整的系统，具备完善的工作流程。绩效管理成败与否的关键在于管理者和员工之间双向沟通的过程，在于过程的连续性与有效性。本文分析了绩效管理各个环节中的沟通目的和作用机制以及就如何保证绩效管理中双向沟通的有效性提出了策略建议。     

商业银行分支机构绩效评价系统的设计与实证分析

本文回顾了商业银行分支机构绩效评价理论的发展和实践现状,从追踪战略实施效果和评价流程角度建立了一套完善的绩效评价系统。具体包括按照商业银行经营的安全性、流动性、盈利性和发展性要求建立了基本指标及其修正体系,并引入评议指标完善评价体系;运用Delphi法和AHP相结合的方法设置权重;借鉴分段函数取代传统直线型处理“倒U型”指标的不利做法;基于相对绩效评价思想,建立了评价标准体系和功效系数法评价模型;并以某商业银行为例进行了实证分析。最后给出了本文研究的局限性和后续研究建议,并特别就引入效率评价维度来完善绩效评价系统设计进行了比较分析。     

Do executive stock option grants have value implications for firm performance?

Consistent with predictions of agency theory, we find direct evidence that executive stock option grants have value implications for firm performance. This inference is drawn from evaluation of various motivations for the use of such grants in executive compensation: value enhancement, risk taking, tax benefit, signaling and cash conservation. We find consistent evidence for the value enhancement motivation to reduce agency costs. As well, they signal for positive price sensitive information. Our results reject the tax benefit and cash conservation motivations. This finding is robust after controlling for the endogenous character of executive stock option grants and other equity-based grants. JEL Classification G32 • J33 • M52     

Global marketing of industrial products: Are interpersonal relationships always critical?

The present paper examines the issue of whether interpersonal relationships are critical for global marketing of industrial products. The fields of relationship marketing, IMP group research, sales research, and network theory have stressed the importance of interpersonal relationships in the business-to-business or industrial marketing context. In contrast to this emphasis on interpersonal relationships, we argue that industrial firms can both conceive and enhance marketing strategies based on developing high quality and consistent processes, products, services or outcomes (consistent processes and outcomes). Such strategies are especially important given the fact that developing interpersonal relationships is expensive due to their reliance on frequent and/or face-to-face communications. In this paper, we examine industry and country contexts that lead to the choice of alternative industrial product marketing strategies and highlight some future research directions and managerial implications.     

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.     

Market orientation and customer satisfaction: Evidence from British machine tool industry

This paper examines empirically the relationship between market orientation and business performance in the context of British machine tool industry. An industry-specific market orientation scale was developed. Factor analysis revealed that there were four latent dimensions underlying the market orientation: customer orientation, competitor orientation, departmental responsiveness, and customer satisfaction orientation. Findings suggest that customer orientation and customer satisfaction orientation have a stronger impact on performance than the other dimensions, and that competitor orientation has a U-shape relationship with performance. Departmental responsiveness did not appear to be significantly related to the business performance. Managers could use the multidimensional conceptualization to develop particular kinds of orientations required for better performance.     

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.