Strategic management: lessons from success and failure.

Is Corporate Planning a failure or a success? In this article David Hussey assesses the research which has been done on the planning process and concludes that Corporate Planning obviously has the potential to improve business performance but for many reasons this potential has not been realized. He then examines the attempts which are currently being made to persuade managers to ‘think strategically’, to use portfolio analysis scenarios and other techniques of strategic analysis. He asserts that to succeed, the planner or the consultant in planning must use these and other analytical approaches to help managers ‘to change the perceptual boundaries of the strategic problem’ and generate strategies and action programmes which will enable them to compete successfully in world markets.     

Corporate governance and corporate social responsibility: lessons from the land of OZ

Australia corporate boards and senior management have been spirited from the Land of Milk and Honey (profit) to the Land of OZ. They are to embark on a journey, following the “yellow-brick road”, a proverbial path to a promised land of one’s hopes and dreams, in order to find brains, a heart and courage. The effect of new regulations introduced in Australia to curtail corporate misbehaviour is detailed by storytelling. The Wizard of OZ is the title of a story written by L. Frank Baum and published in 1899. In 1939, Metro Goldwyn Mayer Studios made a movie of the story. I have used The Wizard of Oz to argue that corporate boards and senior management need to make decisions using a balance of intellect (brains), emotionality (heart), and a sense of purpose (courage). The inspiration for using Baum’s story, as an analogy for the transformation needed in corporate boards and senior management, comes from Biberman and Whitty (Journal of Organisational Change Management 10(2):130–188, 1997). This research is based on interviews with Board members and non-executive directors from five companies listed in the Business Review Weekly (BRW) Top Twenty-five Companies in Australia (2007) and a range of secondary data sources. The financial and reputational success of the organisation and its members is out of balance with the human and social costs and benefits. Respondents confirmed that board members and senior management should willingly provide information about the corporation and its activities to its stakeholders, that information and data should be transparent, the true extent of director remuneration should be revealed and that financial reporting should be true and accurate. Board members and senior management can be assisted to operate in a way that observes socially responsible values and balances the obligation for profit maximisation with corporate social responsibilities (CSR). This study provides steps that organisations can take to achieve a balance of intellect, emotionality and sense of purpose and therefore realise their corporate social responsibility. The results of this empirical and secondary research suggest a method that may be used to make board members and senior managers more aware of their corporate social responsibilities and curtail corporate misbehaviour where the introduction of a range of new regulations has had little effect.     

公司治理结构信息披露:若干发现

本文以 “ 公司治理结构 ” 定性信息披露为观察对象,通过认真阅读 2001 年度 1160 家上市公司的公司治理结构信息披露的文本,我们发现上市公司治理结构信息披露总体上存在 “ 表述操纵 ” 的特征主要表现为:华而不实、 文字游戏、避重就轻、虚假披露等现象。     

Corporate responsibility: A review of international management research from 1998 to 2007

Our review of corporate responsibility (CR) research in International Management journals during the past decade identified 321 articles of interest. We categorized and bibliographically referenced these articles to provide a foundation for future research in this arena. Our categorization scheme consisted of categorizing articles into one of the four major CR themes: corporate social responsibility, environmental responsibility, ethics, and governance. We also categorized according to orientation (theoretical and empirical), and empirical studies were further categorized according to methodology and internationalization (countries included in the study). We provide a detailed analysis of the prevalence of CR research in International Management journals, the prominence of the major CR themes, the degree of emphasis placed on empirical versus theoretical research, and the breath of international coverage in these articles.     

Corporate planning in local government: Some measurement problems

A corporate planning system makes measurement demands on an organisation which it may not have met before. This paper describes these in the context of corporate planning in local government, and discusses some typical examples, especially as far as needs for services and the effects of providing them are concerned. It also deals with the extent to which choices can be measured, and with the constraints that a real-time decision system puts on the planner.     

Pre-certification: lessons from diagnostic imaging

Recently, managed care has received a great deal of criticism from the public and press, some of it richly deserved. One of the areas of greatest concern is pre-certification requirements and possible denial of services. Experience with programs of this sort in diagnostic imaging suggests that, implemented correctly, the consultative interface created by a pre-certification program can be of tremendous value in physician education. Appropriate behavior modification programs need to be crafted with an educational rather than economic bias and the methodology not be totally abandoned simply because it has been misused by some. The pre-certification process can be used as a vehicle to disseminate information about rapidly emerging new therapies and technologies.     

Corporate strategy at Admiram Manufacturing Company: An Iranian case study

In this article, corporate strategy is delineated for an Iranian firm, Admiram Manufacturing Company. Environmental and corporate resources are conceptualized upon which Admiram's corporate strategy formulation and implementation are based.     

Corporate compliance programs: risk management for the future

The Department of Justice has estimated that the government loses $100 billion annually in health care fraud. Consequently, the government's health care fraud enforcement activities with respect to all health care providers and suppliers continue to grow. Last year alone, the government collected more than $8 billion in settlements, fines, and penalties involving health care fraud. Recent settlements with the government have begun to include corporate compliance programs that require continued government oversight of the health care organization as an essential part of the settlement. The first section of this article describes the legal significance of health care companies' having corporate compliance programs. The second section provides a sample list of topics that should be included in any corporate compliance program. Finally, we describe various issues related to the creation and implementation of corporate compliance programs.     

The role of risk preferences and flexibility for risk management: lessons from a custom manufacturing environment

In this paper, we study the management of financial risks of a custom manufacturer in the specialty chemicals industry arising from increased volatility of profits caused by market uncertainty and growing competitive pressure due to globalization. We argue that such risk management can be established either by creating and utilizing flexibility or by adjusting the risk preferences. Using a model-based approach, we operationalize flexibility and risk preferences to show their effects on the profit/risk and the decision making of a firm through a stylized example motivated by the specialty chemicals business.

Solving physician-hospital administration conflicts: a physician strategy for the '90s

Today's health care climate creates increased potential for conflict between hospital administrators and hospital-based physicians. Voluminous regulations, increasing operating costs, professional liability exposure, changing methods of reimbursement, constraints on capital expenditures, and similar constraints on bed expansion have caused hospitals to explore new and innovative sources of revenue. Hospitals have become more eager to provide "bundled" services and health care "packages" in order to compete for discounted reimbursement contracts demanded by large-volume purchasers. While the impact of these changes is clearly felt in the private sector, similar fiscal constraints also may require university hospitals to modify their traditional role as leaders in education, research, and community service. In short, all hospitals are under intense pressure to increase revenues, reduce operating costs, and maintain the scope and quality of services provided.     

Corporate ethics: evidence from Islamic banks

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether banks’ management behavior is related to corporate ethics. We employ earnings-management and expense-preference measures to evaluate management behavior. Using a very large sample of banks from 15 countries and controlling for a number of bank- and country-level factors, we find that managers in Islamic banks are less likely to engage in unethical business practices compared to those in commercial banks. We also document that Shari’ah supervisory boards embedded in Islamic banks affect and shape managerial behavior and mitigate agency problems. These results establish a link between corporate ethics and management behavior through Shari’ah and Shari’ah supervisory boards.     

Green logistics management and performance: Some empirical evidence from Chinese manufacturing exporters

The value chain of many business enterprises is increasingly required to demonstrate the profitability of their primary activities, starting from inbound logistics to operations, outbound logistics, marketing sales, and finally to services. The adoption of green logistics management (GLM) presents an opportunity for Chinese manufacturing exporters to competently respond to the escalating expectation of the international community for resources conservation and to achieve environmental performance profitably. This study makes several important contributions to the literature on managing logistics with environmental considerations. First, the authors identify the components of GLM: (i) procedure-based practices, (ii) evaluation-based practices, (iii) partner-based practices, and (iv) general environmental management practices. Second, they relate GLM to environmental and operational performance in a developing country context. Third, they identify the institutional and operational antecedents that prompt the adoption of GLM by export-oriented manufacturing enterprises in China. Fourth, they examine the moderating effect of environmental regulatory pressure on the GLM-performance linkage. The results are based on a survey of manufacturing exporters in China. The commonly held view that economic motivation is related to the adoption of GLM is not supported. However, GLM positively affects both environmental and operational performance, and regulatory pressure enhances the GLM-performance relationship.     

Executive development: History lessons learned from Barnard

The purpose of this paper is to derive practical lessons from Barnard's less well-known contributions to our understanding of leadership, leadership development and executive education. The main contributions of this paper are the introduction of Bevir's logic to the leadership studies and revelation that Barnard might have established the early foundations of pragmatic leadership. The introduction of Bevir's logic from the history of ideas may be instrumental to overcoming biases toward historicism and presentism, which are latent, yet common in leadership studies. The recognition of Barnard's historical contributions to the conceptualization of leadership, leadership development, and executive education is significant. These contributions are not widely known because they are not a part of his well-known book The Functions of the Executive. Barnard has much to say about these issues and we should listen and heed his suggestions.     

管理者代理行为、公司过度投资与公司治理——基于企业生命周期视角的实证研究

通过建立企业生命周期新的划分指标,从企业发展的动态层面研究管理者代理行为与公司过度投资之间关系随企业生命周期的演变,并检验公司治理机制随企业生命周期的治理效果。结果表明,我国上市公司管理者代理行为随企业生命周期动态变化,其对公司过度投资的影响随企业生命周期发展不断减弱。不同公司治理机制的治理效果随企业生命周期也发生变化,其中董事长总经理兼任在成长阶段能够有效抑制公司过度投资,而独立董事在成熟阶段及大股东在衰退阶段均显著没有发挥应有的监督作用。成长阶段中的公司监事会能够对代理行为引致的过度投资起到显著的监督作用,而董事长总经理兼任则显著加剧代理行为引致的过度投资,成长阶段中管理层持股、成熟阶段中独立董事与外部机构持股以及衰退阶段中大股东均显著没有起到应有的治理作用。     

Implementing corporate strategy: Using management education and training

This article surveys a wide area—all of it relevant to the chief executive and the corporate planner—in linking management training and education to corporate strategy. Some companies are well aware of the benefits of using training as a means of implementing strategy. Unfortunately the management of many firms does not seem to be aware that the option exists and they are not able to use training this way because of their organizational and control systems. Training is a powerful weapon for implementing strategy. All the evidence suggests that it works, so who can afford to ignore it?     

Stories from the circle: Leadership lessons learned from aboriginal leaders

While much has been written about leadership, very little research has examined North American Aboriginal leadership. Drawing upon a qualitative methodology, our findings suggest several differences in how Aboriginal leaders view leadership; compared to non-Aboriginals or mainstream approaches to leadership. We found that Aboriginals view leadership as a spiritual endeavor that is holistic and egalitarian in nature. Aboriginal leaders use a more indirect style of communication that frequently invokes traditional imagery, story-telling and animal-based metaphors. Aboriginal leaders also draw from the Medicine Wheel as a guide. In conclusion, we discuss several challenges shared by Aboriginal leaders including the tall poppy syndrome and walking in two worlds and accordingly, offer managerial implications of our findings.     

机构投资者持股与上市公司违规行为的实证研究

本文采用部分可观测的Bivariate Probit估计方法,对2001年至2009年中国1729家上市公司进行回归检验,发现机构投资者持股比例降低了公司违规行为倾向,同时增加了公司违规行为被稽查的可能性。该结论在控制了机构投资者变量内生性的因素后仍旧稳健。进一步研究表明,相比公司经营违规,机构投资者对信息披露违规倾向的影响更强。另外,相比证券机构投资者,养老保险基金、社保基金、企业年金持股的公司中违规公司比例更低。除此以外,机构投资者对公司违规的抑制与检举作用并不受其它公司治理变量的影响。本文的研究表明中国机构投资者在预防与打击上市公司违规行为方面发挥了重要的作用,并且也为上市公司与监管部门提供了治理和防范企业违规的线索。