CEO Ownership and Discretionary Investments

Abstract:  This study investigates empirically the relationship between CEO ownership and discretionary investments such as R&D and capital expenditures. We assert that the under-investment problem is high for R&D-intensive projects, while the over-investment problem is high for capital expenditures because of differences in risk between the two types of investments. Building on the linkages between investments and investment-related agency problems, we hypothesize that the relationship between CEO ownership and investments depends on whether increasing ownership mitigates or exacerbates the under- or over-investment problem. We find a non-linear association between CEO stock ownership and R&D investments; R&D investments increase and then decline across increasing levels of ownership. Further, we find that R&D investments and CEO stock options are positively associated at high levels of option holdings. In contrast, capital expenditures do not vary with CEO ownership (stock or options). Finally, consistent with our underlying assumption, we find that the influence of R&D investments on future firm risk is significantly larger than that of capital expenditures. Our findings indicate that managerial risk aversion affects discretionary investments.     

景区经营权转让的缔约分析——以碧峰峡和马万景区为例

目前我国景区整体转让有两种方式,一是整体转让经营权,一是整体转让特许经营权。本文选取碧峰峡和马万景区,通过对二者缔约过程进行对比分析,认为景区经营权的明晰是整体转让实现成功缔约的前提,受让者的经营能力对整体转让至关重要,同时授权者的影响力也直接关系着转让的缔约过程。     

Managers,Workers, and Authority

In this paper, I examine the case made by Christopher McMahon for managerial democracy. Specifically, I examine the extent to which McMahon’s account is able to address a series of objections against the case for managerial democracy as articulated by Thomas Christiano. Christiano articulates two sets of objections. First, Christiano argues that McMahon does not succeed in ruling out the possibility that managerial authority is best understood as promissory in its basis, in which case there is no presumption in favor of its democratic exercise. Second, Christiano raises a series of objections to the effect that even if we accept McMahon’s account of the nature of managerial authority, the conclusion for the democratic exercise of that authority by workers at the level of individual economic enterprises does not follow. In the end, I argue that McMahon’s account contains the resources to address these objections if one adopts a specific view about the moral limits to relationships that involve the submission of the will on the part of one person to another. Adoption of this view, however, appears to come at the expense of what I take to be the account’s commitment to liberalism. As such, what I understand this paper to reflect more generally is the apparent difficulty for liberals in arguing that there is something inherently morally troubling about capitalist work relations.     

El discurso directivo en la comunicación de los estados financieros El caso de dos empresas chilenas

The role of spokesperson played by company executives is a recurring object of study. In this context, the managerial discourse (either oral or written), is considered a management tool. The aim of this article is to identify, describe and understand the function of the managerial discourse as expressed in the letter of presentation of the financial statements of the companies Corporación Nacional del Cobre (Codelco) and Compañía Manufacturera de Papeles y Cartones, S.A. (CMPC), during the 2005–2009 period. The methodology used is based on the cross-sectional analysis of the discourse exposed in the letters, through the lexical identification of the statements. From the analysis performed, it can be inferred that the managers of the respective companies seek to align economic-financial outcomes obtained with the context which the company faces, hoping to exert influence in the building of sense on the members of some pressure groups. In parallel, two dimensions of managerial discourse are inferred: the first one is strategic, expressed in the dissemination of a desired image of the companies in the study; the second dimension is about marketing, i.e., focused on the promotion of the company as a “product” to their “clients”, a role that is assumed by the “shareholder”.     

MNE performance during a crisis: An evolutionary perspective on the role of dynamic managerial capabilities and industry context

As the likelihood of worldwide crises increases due to globalization and the resulting economic contagion, understanding why some multinational enterprises (MNEs) prevail in such environments becomes ever more critical. Drawing from the concept of dynamic managerial capabilities, we posit that MNE in-crisis performance is associated with the pre-crisis development of asset management capabilities, or the capacity of managers to orchestrate assets so as to extract more value from the firm’s resource pool. Specifically, we argue that because dynamic managerial capabilities evolve as a response to a firm’s task environment, MNEs that operate in dynamic industries develop stronger asset management capabilities. However, we also posit that whether these capabilities contribute to in-crisis performance is contingent upon the munificence of the industry environment in which the capability evolves. Asset management capabilities that evolve in munificent environments would encompass a wider spectrum of routine-altering activities, and thus increase the ability of the MNE to react to more revolutionary events, such as global economic crises. Conversely, asset management capabilities that evolve in resource-scarce environments will result in more strategic lock-in due to firms' constrained ability to experiment with novel resource configurations, resulting in poorer in-crisis performance. We test our hypotheses using a sample of 854 MNEs in the context of the global financial crisis of 2008, and find support for our hypotheses. We discuss implications for the dynamic capabilities view and MNE resilience.     

管理者过度自信对企业风险的影响——基于面板数据的格兰杰因果关系检验

选取管理者过度自信和企业风险的代理变量,利用2002—2009年我国上市公司的面板数据,通过单位根检验和格兰杰因果关系检验,研究管理者过度自信对企业风险的影响。结果表明,管理者过度自信是企业风险的格兰杰原因,且管理者过度自信引发的企业风险在管理者过度自信滞后的第二个经营年度表现显著;企业风险不是管理者过度自信的格兰杰原因。     

Toward more accurate contextualization of the CEO effect on firm performance

We introduce multiple refinements to the standard method for assessing CEO effects on performance, variance partitioning methodology, more accurately contextualizing CEOs' contributions. Based on a large 20‐year sample, our new ‘CEO in Context’ technique points to a much larger aggregate CEO effect than is obtained from typical approaches. As a validation test, we show that our technique yields estimates of CEO effects more in line with what would be expected from accepted theory about CEO influence on performance. We do this by examining the CEO effects in subsamples of low‐, medium‐, and high‐discretion industries. Finally, we show that our technique generates substantially different—and we argue more logical—estimates of the effects of many individual CEOs than are obtained through customary analyses. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Social networking relationships,firm‐specific managerial experience and firm performance in a transition economy: A comparative analysis of family owned and nonfamily firms

The effect of social networking relationships, firm‐specific managerial experience, and their interactions on performance between family owned and nonfamily firms are studied. Using data from 106 organizations in Ghana, the findings show that family owned firms benefit more from networking relationships with bureaucratic officials than do nonfamily firms. However, nonfamily firms benefit more from networking relationships with community leaders and firm‐specific managerial experience than do family owned firms. Networking relationships with politicians impede performance for nonfamily firms. Nonfamily firms are better able than family owned firms to use their firm‐specific managerial experience to manage the resources and capabilities obtained from networking relationships with community leaders to create value. Moreover, firm‐specific managerial experience attenuates the detrimental effects of networking with politicians for both types of firms. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

培训迁移影响因素分析及其管理策略研究

培训迁移作为培训的应用阶段,因为受到来自个人动机、组织学习氛围、培训迁移气氛、组织工作节奏等因素的影响,员工不能有效的将从培训中学到的知识、技能迁移到实际工作中,从而导致培训投入与产出严重失调.组织可以通过相应的管理策略控制影响因素的作用,促进培训迁移的发生,实现提高个人、组织绩效的目的.