Examining the effect of complexity in strategic group knowledge structures on firm performance

A developing stream of research in the strategy field explores the competitive structure of industries from the perspective of industry participants. This work has demonstrated that managers develop strategic group knowledge structures in order to make sense of their competitive environment. This study extends this line of research by examining the complexity evident in the strategic group knowledge structures developed by firms' top management teams and assessing the relationship between complexity in these knowledge structures and subsequent firm performance. Specifically, we examine the complexity of top managers' knowledge structures regarding their competition using a sample of 76 top management teams from banks in three U.S. cities. Using hierarchical regression, we find a significant relationship between the complexity of cognitive strategic groups and subsequent firm performance. These results suggest that the structure of the cognitive templates that top managers use to understand their environment and the actions of their competitor influence the degree of strategic success of their firm. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The takeover market in Europe: Control structures and the performance of large companies compared

This paper describes a number of significant differences which exist between countries with respect to the freedom of the take-over market of corporations. The basic division is that between, on the one hand, the oligarchically structured Germanic (and Japanese) firms, which are virtually impossible to take over against the will of the leadership of the company, backed up by various control structures. The Anglo-Saxon type of firm, on the other hand, is—save for some exceptions—democratically structured and subject to bids, even if these displace management. The third type—the one found in Latinic countries—lies in between these two, for various institutionalist reasons.The second part of the paper discusses whether theory can throw any light on the behavioural and performance consequences of these structural/institutional differences. The derivation from such considerations is that, indeed, important and systematic divergencies in corporate behaviour and performance are to be expected.     

Capital accumulation of a firm facing an emissions tax

In this paper we consider the dynamic behavior of a firm that is subject to environmental regulation. It is assumed that, in order to prevent firms from polluting the environment excessively, the government imposes an emissions tax. We determine how an emissions tax influences the firm's decisions concerning investments and abatement efforts. In the model we incorporate the realistic property that a given abatement expenditure leads to more pollution reduction when pollution is large. This property implies increasing returns to scale with respect to pollution reduction. It turns out that, together with the usual assumption of decreasing returns to scale with respect to production, this property leads to the occurrence of history-dependent equilibria in case the pollution tax rate is sufficiently large. It is possible to derive an explicit formula for the threshold tax rate above which these history-dependent equilibria can occur. We show that an investment grant by the government can influence the firm so as to approach the equilibrium with a higher capital stock. Finally, we compare our results with those of a related model where the firm faces a strict pollution standard rather than an emissions tax. Among other things, we show that growth is more suppressed under a tax than under a standard when the firm is small.     

华人家族企业公司治理综述

对华人家族企业公司治理的文献进行了梳理和评述,给出了华人家族企业的定义,指出,要建立介于传统家族企业治理结构与现代企业治理结构之间的现代家族企业治理结构,克服华人家族企业的"三代消亡律"。     

我国企业债券融资、财务风险和债券评级

影响我国债券评级的决定因素有以下三点:(1)影响债券评级最关键的因素是发债企业总资产的规模,即企业资产规模越大,其评级越高;(2)政府政策对该发债项目或行业支持与否时债券评级有正的影响,即发债项目或其所在行业是有国家政策明确支持的,其评级可能越高;(3)企业的财务风险如资产负债率和长期负债比率等对债券评级没有显著的影响,企业的绩效如资产收益率对债券评级也没有显著的影响.目前评级机构的评级不能反映企业财务风险与绩效的好坏,债券上市后评级的动态调整也几乎不存在.这说明我国目前企业债券市场的信用风险评级与欧美的债券市场存在极大的差异.     

技术进步、企业边界与外包决策——基于中国制造业数据的经验研究

技术进步通过节约企业的内部协调成本和市场交易成本影响着企业边界的变动。技术进步对企业边界的影响往往集中体现于外包行为。笔者首先通过选取中国制造业的典型企业和行业作为样本,针对技术进步对企业边界造成的影响进行了实证研究;同时对技术进步与制造业相关行业的外包决策之间的关系进行了进一步的研究。研究结果表明,技术进步使得中国制造业企业的纵向一体化程度呈现增大的趋势,企业边界逐渐扩大;技术进步与外包行为间存在正相关的关系。     

创造财富的财政政策分析

历史上的经济危机都是因为币值不稳定造成的,而最终的解决方法均是财富的创造.根据我国货币发行量M2和居民消费价格指数可计算出我国价格对货币供应量的滞后期,并由此说明只有在滞后期内采用积极的财政政策举办大型公共工程以吸收多发行的货币,才能避免经济危机的发生.     

高管人员报酬与企业规模变动关系的实证分析——来自中国上市公司的证据

利用中国上市公司数据,对企业规模与高管人员报酬之间的关系进行了实证研究,结果发现:如果企业业绩变动、企业初始规模等变量保持不变,则最高管理人员报酬与企业规模显著正相关,高管人员团队规模变动不改变这种正相关关系;内部人控制程度越严重,企业规模变动对高管人员的报酬影响越大。这说明,中国上市公司高管人员存在借用扩大企业规模名义来以获取更高报酬的情况。     

Exporting May Not Always Boost Firm Productivity

A large empirical literature suggests the performance characteristics of firms that export are different from firms that do not. Specifically, exporters tend to be larger, more productive and pay higher wages than non-exporters. This paper reports on an econometric analysis of the characteristics of exporters and non-exporters in Swedish manufacturing industry. We use matching and difference-in-differences analysis to investigate a panel data set on a large number of firms and spanning almost 20 years. Some of our results echo those reported elsewhere. However, in contrast to the findings for every other country analysed so far, we find that the performance characteristics of exporters and non-exporters are remarkably similar. In particular, we find no evidence of pre- or post-entry differences in firm level productivity. This is a striking outcome, probably driven by the extremely high openness of the Swedish economy. JEL no. F14     

Exploring the Complementarities Within High‐Performance Work Systems: A Set‐Theoretic Analysis of UK Firms

High‐performance work systems (HPWS) are important conceptual instruments in the human resource management literature. Yet our current understanding of the complementarities within HPWS remains limited for two reasons: First, the dominant theoretical perspectives on HPWS provide a landscape of theoretical possibilities rather than an understanding of different possibilities through which HPWS generate positive effects on performance; and second, the literature on HPWS merely proposes several seemingly equally important HR practices. This article explores the internal nature of HPWS by integrating a configurational perspective of core, peripheral, and nonessential HR practices with a typology of complementarities. Analyzing 530 UK‐based firms using fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA), I identify four frequently implemented HPWS consistently associated with high labor productivity. The complementarities within all HPWS combine pairs of core HR practices with sets of peripheral HR practices. Moreover, the complementarities within three of the four HPWS rely on firms’ avoidance of implementing certain HR practices. The results suggest that the synergies of HPWS arise from efficient complementarities and virtuous overlaps, and reveal the significance of achieving high performance by not implementing HR practices. This article thus advances a new perspective on HPWSs, highlighting the challenges involved in successfully designing HPWS. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.