The impact of equity ownership groups on investment: Evidence from Ukraine

We empirically investigate the impact of different ownership groups on companies’ investment in Ukraine with a novel dynamic investment model where investment is based on present and historical levels of profitability (market-to-book value of equity) and lagged investment. Groups include state, insider, non-domestic, financial and financial and industrial group (FIG) ownership. Contrary to the literature, we find that the past level of profitability significantly affects investment; the majority presence of and increases in state ownership have a negative impact on firms’ investment, as is the case for non-domestic and financial companies’ ownership. Insider and FIG ownership have no impact on investment. We explain the results by the extent of liquidity concerns (hard and soft budget constraints), measured by cash flow interacted with a dummy variable of majority ownership of the respective group, and the extent of asset stripping for the corresponding ownership group and relate them to over- and under-investment, and to the free cash flow or cash constraint hypothesis.     

Stage-gate process for life sciences and medical innovation investment

Life science innovation has led to significant improvements in clinical outcomes and has been a source of financial growth for individuals and institutions capable of performing appropriate investments in this sector. Several groups have developed methodologies to assist medical technology innovators in the design and development activities. Unfortunately, these tools have not aided the general investment community to profit from these enterprises. This situation has contributed to a general reduction in risk capital directed towards life sciences compared to other industries. We review the current investment practices in the life science sector and present a comprehensive stage-gate model that aims to captures this investment process. An analysis of best practices and in-depth interviews with 68 life sciences investors and entrepreneurs worldwide are used to support such model. A single case-control study comparing life science investment execution within two similar investment firms was conducted to evaluate feasibility in the implementation of these practices. The stage-gate model includes (I) General vision and investment strategy definition; (II) Venture search, screening and rapid pre-evaluation; (III) Due diligence and negotiation of terms; (IV) Portfolio management, evaluation, and exit. The difference in execution of investment and results from a post-performance Root Cause Analysis were consistent with a reduction in perceived risk from the case company trained with the proposed model compared to the control. This suggests that our developed model and process may be useful in encouraging life sciences investment via evidence-based evaluations.     

高管过度自信、研发投入跳跃与企业绩效——来自中国上市公司的经验证据

基于间断平衡理论和高阶梯队理论，以2007-2017年中国沪深两市902家制造企业为样本，实证分析研发投入跳跃对企业绩效的影响以及高管过度自信的调节作用。结果显示：研发投入正向跳跃和负向跳跃均有助于提升企业绩效，高管过度自信正向调节研发投入跳跃与企业绩效间的关系。引入高管过度自信这一重要高管特征作为调节变量，有助于重新认识管理者心理偏差对企业创新行为和绩效的影响，较好地弥补了研发投入跳跃对企业绩效影响机制的研究空缺，丰富了创新间断平衡理论研究。研究表明，企业应重视高管心理特征的影响并结合自身实际情况，合理选择研发投入策略以改善企业绩效。     

Smoking hot portfolios? Trading behavior,investment biases,and self-control failure

Self-control is a personality trait that explains undersaving and nonparticipation decisions. We show that self-control failure also affects trading behavior among individuals on capital markets. We use smoking as the most socially accepted example of self-control failure among 13,644 German brokerage clients and compare the trading behavior of 3,553 smokers and 10,091 nonsmokers. Smokers are associated with a higher portfolio turnover unexplained by financial sophistication or wealth effects. Self-control failure also exacerbates overconfidence, social contagion, sensation seeking, and attention grabbing. Overall, self-control failure is costly because it increases the gap between gross and net returns of smokers relative to nonsmokers.     

技术进步与效率改善的一种新测度方法

本文利用非参数路径收敛设计,建立了测度政府投入驱动经济增长效率的方法。基于浙江省级公立医院2005~2008年的数据,本文发现经典的Malquist指数和线性回归估计方法无法识别政府投入对技术进步和效率改善的影响。研究表明,2005年5月至2006年10月和2008年7月至2008年12月期间,政府投入显著促进了浙江省级公立医院技术进步,生产率大幅提升;然而,在2006年10月至2008年7月期间政府投入失败。这一结果不仅论证了本文测度方法的有效性和应用的可行性,同时也纠正了投入产出比导致的直观错误判断。     

媒体治理、政治关联与研发投资

以深圳证券交易市场2009-2013年创业板上市公司为样本，检验了媒体治理、政治关联与研发投资之间的关系。实证分析结果显示，媒体治理作用越强，公司的研发投资就越多。这表明，媒体能够有效发挥监督治理作用，促进公司创新。进一步分析显示，政治关联对媒体治理与研发投资之间的关系具有明显的反向调节作用。这意味着，政治关联抑制了媒体的治理作用。     

Equities of scope as merger incentives under capital regulation: narrow versus synergy banking valuation

The call options theory of corporate security valuation is applied to narrow-banking contingent claims of one bank, while the cap options theory is applied to synergy-banking contingent claims of another bank. This article investigates efficiency gains specified as equities of scope associated with the likelihood of the two banks involved in merger under capital regulation. We find that merger incentives are encouraged when the narrowing banking is conducted by the consolidated bank, whereas discouraged when the synergy banking is conducted. Raising bank capital requirement leads to an increased interest margin of the consolidated bank with the narrow banking valuation; however, to a decreased margin of the consolidated bank with the synergy banking valuation. An increase in the capital regulation reduces the merger incentives in the narrow banking valuation whereas increases the merger disincentive in the synergy banking valuation. These findings are consistent with the organizational theory that predicts a comparative advantage of narrow banking proposals in bank mergers.     

The influence of political risk on the scope of internationalization of regulated companies: Insights from a Spanish sample

Political risk not only constitutes a threat for multinational enterprises but can also be a source of opportunities. Exposure to and accumulated experience dealing with political risk allows firms to better implement a wide set of political actions such as negotiation of entry conditions, lobbying, litigation, campaign contributions and coalition formation, leading to preferential conditions, reduced environmental uncertainty, reduced transaction costs and increased long-term sustainability to the firm. These advantages facilitate investments in countries with higher and more diverse levels of risk and make political risk to be positively associated with the firm's scope of internationalization. This effect is not homogeneous across firms. Drawing from a sample of 164 Spanish companies with investments in 119 countries, we find that the impact is greater for companies in industrial sectors that are the object of greater governmental regulation than it is for firms in non-regulated manufacturing or service sectors, with less frequent interactions with home and host-country institutions.     

Debt enforcement,investment, and risk taking across countries

We argue that the prospect of an imperfect enforcement of debt contracts in default reduces shareholder–debtholder conflicts and induces leveraged firms to invest more and take on less risk as they approach financial distress. To test these predictions, we use a large panel of firms in 41 countries with heterogeneous debt enforcement characteristics. Consistent with our model, we find that the relation between debt enforcement and firms’ investment and risk depends on the firm-specific probability of default. A differences-in-differences analysis of firms’ investment and risk taking in response to bankruptcy reforms that make debt more renegotiable confirms the cross-country evidence.     

外资影响我国出口产品质量的差异性研究:从一个地区市场化程度的视角

我国正在经历从出口成本优势向质量优势转型的重要时期。外资对我国出口产品质量的影响及其差异性成为政府和学界关注的问题。本文从市场化水平、政府与市场的关系以及知识产权保护等三个方面检验了制度因素对外资质量溢出的影响。回归结果表明:(1)市场化程度低确实抑制FDI质量溢出;(2)政府干预对外资质量溢出效应产生了负面影响。在低市场化程度或者高政府干预样本组中,FDI质量溢出效应不显著;(3)知识产权保护对FDI质量溢出的影响程度非常有限。本文的结论为政策制定者提供了决策参考依据。简政放权、降低企业面临的行政成本是促进我国本土企业改善其出口产品质量的重要抓手。