Information and communications technology infrastructure and firm growth: An empirical study of China's cities

Despite the importance of information and communications technology (ICT), previous studies of the business value of information technology have yielded mixed results. This study provides new empirical evidence that demonstrates the impact of cities' ICT on firm performance. A series of panel datasets are assembled to measure the improvement of city's ICT infrastructure and the change of firm performance during the years 2001–2016 in China. The findings demonstrate that city's ICTs positively promoted firm performance, including financial profitability, marketing performance and innovation performance. Instrumental variables are employed to verify the positive impact of city's ICTs infrastructure on firm profitability. Taking advantage of an exogenous variation of telecommunications upgrade as a natural experiment, this study uses the difference-in-difference approach to establish causality between cities' ICT infrastructure and firm profitability. Mechanisms are explored, which shows that better labour quality, lower costs and higher transparency are the three possible channels through which ICTs influence firm profitability.     

Outsourcing and firm performance nexus: An analysis using the conventional and panel double-bootstrap procedure

Industrial performance is an essential element of economic progress. In this study, we examine the impact of outsourcing on industrial performance using the firm-level data of 191 textile companies in India over the period 2000–2015. First, we follow the conventional non-parametric two-stage procedure and analyse the nexus between outsourcing and firm performance under a single-objective setting. We then test the influence of outsourcing on the performance of multiple-objective firms using reverse directional distance function scores. To address the bias in efficiency estimation and the serial correlation issue in the second-stage regression, we use truncated regression and the double-bootstrap procedure for panel data analysis. Our results show an improvement in industrial performance over the study period. Our analysis following the conventional two-stage procedure shows that the outsourcing of manufacturing activities and professional jobs contributes to industrial performance. The relation between outsourcing and firm performance essentially remains the same in a more reliable analysis using a panel double bootstrap procedure.     

Mutual monitoring and corporate governance

Mutual monitoring in a well-structured authority system can mitigate the agency problem. I empirically examine whether the number two executive in a firm, if given authority, incentive, and channels for communication and influence, is able to monitor and constrain the potentially self-interested CEO. I find strong evidence that: (1) measures of the presence and extent of mutual monitoring from the No. 2 executive are positively related to future firm value (Tobin’s Q); (2) the beneficial effect is more pronounced for firms with stronger incentives for the No. 2 to monitor and with higher information asymmetry between the boards and the CEOs; and (3) mutual monitoring is a substitute for other governance mechanisms. The results suggest that mutual monitoring provides important checks and balances on CEO power.     

Adaptation investments and homeownership

This article develops a model where ownership improves the efficiency of the housing market as it enhances the utility of housing consumption for some consumers. The model is based on an extended Hotelling–Lancaster utility approach in which the ideal variant of housing is obtainable only by adapting the home through a supplementary investment. Ownership offers low costs of adaptation, but has high contract costs compared with renting. Consumers simultaneously choose housing demand and tenure, and because of the different cost structure only consumers with strong preferences for individual adaptation of the home choose ownership. This article analyses the consumer’s optimization. The model provides an explanation for the observation that homeowners typically live in larger dwelling units than tenants. It also provides an explanation for a high price of housing services tending to reduce homeownership rates.     

卓炯市场导向改革思路与实践检验的再认识再评价

1979年春卓炯率先提出市场导向的改革思路,主张把产品经济体制改革成市场经济体制,经济体制改革是一个系统工程,包括把计划价格改革成市场价格,资源配置机制的行政机制改革为市场机制,重塑微观经济基础。这是卓炯对改革作出的重大理论贡献。实践证明,卓炯提出的市场导向的改革思路是完全正确的,但是也存在着一些难点。这些难点包括适应市场经济的公有制的实现形式、私营个体经济在市场经济中的地位、个人在市场经济中的主体地位,需要根据改革实践进行充实和丰富。     

Eco-efficiency and firm value

Eco-efficiency refers to a process that seeks to maximize the effectiveness of business processes while minimizing their impacts on the environment. Fundamental to eco-efficiency is adoption of a management philosophy that stimulates the search for environmental improvements that yield parallel economic benefits [President’s Council on Sustainable Development, 1996a. Sustainable America: A New Consensus for Prosperity, Opportunity, and a Healthy Environment. Government Printing Office, Washington DC; President’s Council on Sustainable Development, 1996b. Eco-efficiency: Task Force Report. Government Printing Office, Washington DC; World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), 2000. Eco-efficiency: Creating More Value with Less Input. Geneva]. Eco-efficiency is increased by activities that create economic value while continuously reducing ecological impacts and the use of natural resources [DeSimone, L., Popoff, F., 1997. Eco-efficiency: The Business Link To Sustainable Development. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA]. This study empirically examines the proposition that implementation of eco-efficient business strategies is associated with higher firm value. We posit that, firms which adopt eco-efficient business strategies and, as a consequence, achieve reduced costs and increased profits should be more highly valued by the market than similar firms that do not adopt eco-efficient business strategies. Our empirical testing supports this proposition.     

Ownership concentration and corporate governance practices: substitution or expropriation effects?

The objective of this study is to analyze the relation between ownership concentration and corporate governance practices of a group of Canadian companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange. We rely on the corporate governance index developed by the Report on Business (ROB) in 2002. Our empirical results are consistent with the expropriation effect argument that predicts a negative relation between deviation from the one share‐one vote rule and corporate governance best practices. In this context, the dominant shareholder has incentives to maintain weak internal controls in order to facilitate expropriation. In addition, consistent with prior research, our results give partial support to the substitution effect argument by showing a negative impact of ownership concentration on the board composition subindex. Copyright © 2007 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Corporate Demography and Empirical Industrial Organization: A Critical Appraisal

The emerging field of corporate demography views corporations and industries in a similar way to human or animal individuals and groups. In spite of a surprisingly large overlap of subject matter with economics, corporate demography is not well-known by, nor easily accessible to economists. An extremely useful recent book, The Demography of Corporations and Industries, by Glenn R. Carroll and Michael T. Hannan (2000) should change that. This review essay critically examines corporate demography from an economic viewpoint. The very different view of competition in corporate demography gets particular attention.     

Which firms benefit from robot adoption? Evidence from China

This paper investigates which firms benefit from robot adoption in a developing open economy such as China. First, we construct a unique comprehensive dataset to identify robot adoption in Chinese industrial firms. Second, we adopt difference-in-differences to provide empirical analysis after conducting the common trends tests. Third, we find that adopting robots significantly increases a series of firm performance indicators in robot adoption firms. Compared with adopting firms in the labor-intensive sector, firms in the capital-intensive sector significantly benefit from robot adoption in a series of firm performance indicators, e.g., employment, capital stock, output, total factor productivity, capital returns, and exports. Finally, we check the robustness, investigate the dynamic effects, and find persistent positive effects. Our findings shed some light on the impacts of robot adoption in developing and transition countries.     

Airport ownership and financial performance: Evidence from Italy

In the past few decades many countries have increased the presence of various forms of private sector involvement in airport ownership and management. This paper focuses on the financial performance of Italian airport companies. We present empirical evidence separately for two groups where public or private management majority prevails. The main findings indicate that companies with a private majority outperform the others in terms of financial indicators that are related to operating income.