Compensation of owner managers in Canadian family‐owned businesses: expropriation of minority shareholders

The aim of this paper is to test the hypothesis of owner managers expropriating minority shareholders by receiving excessive compensation. Using a sample of Canadian family firms, we found that when there is divergence between voting rights and cash flow rights, owner CEOs receive higher compensation than non‐owners. The higher the divergence between voting rights and cash flow rights, the higher the excess compensation. Further analysis shows that only poorly governed firms are affected by the expropriation problem. Copyright © 2010 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

PRICING AND HEDGING OF DERIVATIVES BASED ON NONTRADABLE UNDERLYINGS

This paper is concerned with the study of insurance related derivatives on financial markets that are based on nontradable underlyings, but are correlated with tradable assets. We calculate exponential utility‐based indifference prices, and corresponding derivative hedges. We use the fact that they can be represented in terms of solutions of forward‐backward stochastic differential equations (FBSDE) with quadratic growth generators. We derive the Markov property of such FBSDE and generalize results on the differentiability relative to the initial value of their forward components. In this case the optimal hedge can be represented by the price gradient multiplied with the correlation coefficient. This way we obtain a generalization of the classical “delta hedge” in complete markets.     

OPTIMAL DIVIDEND PAYMENTS WHEN CASH RESERVES FOLLOW A JUMP‐DIFFUSION PROCESS

We consider a model in which a firm faces two types of liquidity risks: a Brownian risk and a Poisson risk. The firm chooses a dividend policy to maximize shareholder value. We characterize the optimal firm value and we show that the optimal dividend policy is a barrier strategy: the firm keeps cash inside when the cash reserves level is less than a critical threshold and pays cash in excess of this threshold. We also analyze the problem of insurance against the Poisson risk. We find that it is optimal for the firm to buy full insurance when its cash reserves are above a critical threshold and not to insure otherwise.     

Changes of Thai economy since 19701 1

Within the last 30 years, the number of Thai population increased from 35 million to 62 million, the general price level went up 6 times, and Thai currency baht devaluated 2.2 times against the dollar. The industrial production increased 36 times nominally. The biggest industry of Thailand changed from agriculture to manufacture, and the total value of exports jumped by 192 times and that of imports grew by 95 times. Thai current account balance had recorded a deficit every year from 1970 to 1996. During the same period of time, however, the capital account balance had shown surplus. The inflow of foreign capital was the only stronghold of Thai economy at that time. In 1997, Thailand suddenly experienced a total change of its external environment From then on, Thai current account shifted from a deficit to a surplus and Thai capital account turned from a surplus to a deficit. The conclusion of this paper indicates that the future of Thai economy is heavily dependent on whether the amount of surplus in Thai current account could surpass the deficit in Thai capital account     

Supply Chain Management Competency and Firm Financial Success

Supply chain management (SCM) plays a major role in creating (or destroying) shareholder value by influencing the three major drivers of firm financial performance: revenue, operating costs, and working capital. Yet, the relationship between SCM competency and firm financial performance is not well‐established. Drawing on the resource‐based view of the firm, this study assesses this relationship using Delphi‐style opinion data from AMR Research’s Supply Chain Top 25 rankings to assess SCM competency and Altman’s (1968) Z‐score statistic as the measure of financial success. The study findings show that firms recognized by industry experts for SCM competency have significantly higher Z‐scores than their close competitors and industry averages.     

时间竞争条件下的时间与成本关系研究

一般认为，时间的缩短必然导致成本的增加。但目前来自世界各地基于时间竞争的诸多经验表明．快速的研发和交货有利于成本的降低和利润增加。针对这两种状况的不一致性．本文通过界定时间一成本的关系曲线和时间价格弹性的概念．同时从厂商和顾客的角度．构造了时间竞争条件下的时间和成本均衡模型。该模型从理论上解释了传统上的时间和成本的权衡关系和在时间竞争条件下两者之间一致性关系：也清晰描述了采用时间竞争策略的厂商获得较大市场份额、较高利润和明显竞争优势的现象。     

Does market orientation matter?: a test of the relationship between positional advantage and performance

A recent series of articles in the Strategic Management Journal has discussed the potential value of an organization developing a market orientation in its quest to achieve success. We posit that market orientation can enhance success, but that its potential value should not be considered in isolation. Specifically, we draw on the resource‐based view of the firm to suggest that four capabilities—market orientation, entrepreneurship, innovativeness, and organizational learning—each contribute to the creation of positional advantages for some firms. The data used are drawn from 181 large multinational corporations (MNC). The results indicate that positional advantages arising from the confluence of market orientation, entrepreneurship, innovativeness, and organizational learning have a positive effect on MNC performance (five‐year average change in ROI, income, and stock price). Overall, the results support the contention that market orientation can enhance success, albeit within the context of other important phenomena. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Leaders,laggards, and the pursuit of foreign knowledge

This paper analyzes how firms in different technological and market share positions use foreign R&D to augment their technological capabilities. Technology transfer issues and absorptive capacity arguments are examined to analyze the different technological capabilities of leading and lagging firms. In addition, a new strategic rationale (in terms of non‐dominant market share firms) that has not been considered in prior studies analyzing knowledge‐seeking FDI is offered. From a panel dataset which includes information on all foreign R&D investments made by publicly traded Japanese manufacturing firms (from 1974 to 1994), I show that Japanese firms investing in foreign R&D tend to be the non‐dominant market share firms, but also the technologically leading firms across fairly diverse industries. By considering both the technological and market share positions of firms, this study reveals important characteristics that influence when firms use foreign R&D as part of a strategy to augment their technological capabilities. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Reassessing the fundamentals and beyond: Ronald Coase,the transaction cost and resource‐based theories of the firm and the institutional structure of production

In this paper, three points are argued. The first is that Ronald Coase, best known as the forefather of transaction cost theory, foresaw many of the critical questions that proponents of the resource‐based view are concerned with today. The second is that resource‐based theory plays a potentially much more critical role in economic theory and in explaining the institutional structure of production than even many resource‐based scholars recognize. The last point is that a more complete understanding of the organization of economic activity requires a greater sensitivity to the interdependence of production and exchange relations. The arguments presented in this paper highlight important, but relatively ignored, elements in Coase's work that inform strategy research. More importantly, this paper makes the case for a triangular alignment between the triumvirate of governance structure, transaction, and resource attributes and demonstrates how the identity and strategy of a particular firm influences how its resources interact with the transaction and how the firm chooses to govern it. The general argument is then applied to the context of interfirm collaborative relations, where the key focus is broadened from just cost to also include skills/knowledge and the interdependence between cost and skills with respect to firm boundaries, both in terms of choice and nature. Such a broadening of focus enables us to additionally examine the transacting process as a productive endeavor, which underpins the co‐evolution of the competencies of partner firms. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Substitution Possibility between Unpriced Pulp and Wastepaper in the U.S. Paper and Paperboard Industry

A greater use of recycled wastepaper would preserve virgin forests as well as reducing the amount of wastepaper going to landfills. These environmental goals depend critically on the elasticity of substitution between pulp and wastepaper in producing paper and paperboard. Since most of the pulp consumed by U.S. paper mills and paperboard mills is transferred internally from vertically integrated pulp mills, the price data on pulp is not available. This paper constructs an econometric model which enables us to estimate the substitution possibility between unpriced pulp and wastepaper in the U.S. paper and paperboard industry. Empirical results show that the elasticity of substitution between unpriced pulp and wastepaper is positive, but not statistically significant.