Corporate planning in the Netherlands

This article is the result of an investigation into the practice of corporate planning in 20 major Dutch companies. The results emphazise some of the problems regarding the corporate planner and his role in the firm. Those problems are such that it is not unrealistic to speak of some sort of “identity crisis”.     

产品市场竞争、融资约束与公司现金持有:基于中国制造业上市公司的实证分析

本文采用我国制造业上市公司2001年-2007年共2401个公司年的平衡面板数据,利用行业间竞争、行业内竞争两个维度的产品市场竞争变量,实证分析了我国制造业上市公司产品市场竞争对现金持有水平的综合影响。实证结果显示,对于所有制造业上市公司来说,产品市场竞争对公司现金持有存在显著的掠夺风险效应。在考虑公司融资约束的情况下,产品市场竞争对公司现金持有的掠夺风险和代理成本两种竞争效应被有效区分开来。融资约束公司表现为显著的掠夺风险效应,非融资约束公司则表现为显著的代理成本效应。这些研究结论不仅丰富和补充了产品市场竞争与公司现金持有之间的相关研究,也为公司实施积极的现金流风险管理和持有现金的高效利用提供了实践支持。     

Strategic planning—Which style do you need?

Strategic planning is now a large and diverse activity practised in many different kinds of organizations. This article provides an overview of the field with a summary of the five main schools of thought each with its own business philosophy and a range of practical approaches and techniques. These basic styles are concerned with planning as a central control system, a framework for innovation, an organizational change process, a political activity, and a way of exploring the future. Most planning systems have a dominant style or focus and this emphasis needs to be adjusted in response to changes which are occurring continually in the organization and in the external environment. The article is designed to help the senior manager or corporate planner to assess the state of planning in his organization and to see where there are important gaps in the enterprise's capability for planning which might be filled by the launching of new initiatives. The article also offers an agenda of approaches for consideration by the executive who wishes to move his enterprise from a conventional 5-year planning and budgeting system towards a more comprehensive process of managing organizational change and development.     

Corporate planning a review of questions and answers

This paper is about corporate planning, seen primarily but not exclusively from the viewpoint of operational research. The reasons for the rise of interest in corporate planning are examined, as are the contributions which O.R. has made or can make to corporate planning problems. An abstract discussion of these problems concentrates on those posed by increasing “connectedness” in the environment. After comparing the responses of the “commonsense manager”, the model-oriented operational researcher, and the cybernetician, the question is posed: “How can the operational researcher or planner enhance the adaptive capability of his organization?” A case study illustrates one possible form of solution, the “modular” approach; and another, the “zoom-lens” is outlined. The relevance of global system modelling to the widening problems of the corporate planner is also considered, and related to the concepts previously discussed.     

Corporate social responsibility as a source of employee satisfaction

Corporate social responsibility has received an increasing amount of attention from practitioners and scholars alike in recent years. However, very little is known about whether or how corporate social responsibility affects employees. Because employees are primary stakeholders who directly contribute to the success of the company, understanding employee reactions to corporate social responsibility may help answer lingering questions about the potential effects of corporate social responsibility on firms as well as illuminate some of the processes responsible for them. To begin our chapter, we provide a brief history of scholarship on corporate social responsibility and highlight some of the major challenges researchers in this area currently face. We then discuss why corporate social responsibility may represent a special opportunity to influence employees’ general impression of their company. Next, we identify four distinct paths through which corporate social responsibility may affect employees’ relationship with their company that correspond to four universal psychological needs: security, self-esteem, belongingness, and a meaningful existence. Finally, we offer an agenda for micro-level research on corporate social responsibility.     

非标准审计意见对上市公司投资行为的影响

文章利用沪深两市A股非金融类上市公司2007—2015年数据,检验了非标准无保留审计意见(以下简称“非标意见”)对公司投资规模和投资效率的影响。结果发现,就投资规模而言,非标意见会导致公司投资规模显著降低;就投资效率而言,非标意见可以抑制公司的过度投资行为从而提高投资效率,但其也会加剧投资不足从而降低投资效率。因此,非标意见对投资过度和投资不足的影响是不同的。进一步研究表明,非标意见对投资的影响与公司产权性质、所在地区金融环境、融资约束有关。并且,非标意见对投资的影响具有长期性;此外,不同类型的非标意见对投资的影响是有差异的。其中,无法表示意见对投资的影响最为明显。     

基于上市公司高管人员过度自信的股利分配决策模型研究

在现有相关研究成果的基础上,在假设公司高管人员过度自信的条件下,建立恰当数学模型研究上市公司高管人员过度自信对公司股利分配决策和外部融资决策的影响机理。研究结果表明,当上市公司高管人员对未来经营环境比较乐观时,其现金股利分配水平和债务融资数量将随着其过度自信程度的提高而增多;当上市公司高管人员对未来经营环境比较悲观时,其现金股利分配水平和债务融资数量将随着其过度自信程度的提高而减少。上市公司的现金股利分配水平和债务融资数量随着公司股票价格上涨和债务融资利息率上升而减少;股权融资数量随着公司股票价格上涨和债务融资利息率上升而增加。论文研究工作在理论上扩展和深化了Deshmukh、Goe和Howe等人的相关研究成果。     

The theory of the corporate life cycle

There appears to be a widespread management belief that the corporation is endowed with an inbuilt elixir for survival and growth, despite recent major corporate declines.In this article, the author outlines and illustrates the operation of one of the newest theories on corporate activity—the corporate life cycle—and its use as a planning aid in determining where the company is and where it is going and as a relationary tool in predicting corporate trends for comparison with corporate objectives and the future operating environment.     

Developing a company's strategic management capability

Companies vary widely in their strategic management capabilities. Some still rely almost entirely on ‘fire-fighting’. Many others are slowly developing their capabilities but there are only a few which do give due attention to strategic issues and implement their decisions effectively. To be effective a corporate planner must assist this process of development of strategic ability and must adapt his role as the company's capability changes. In the most successful corporate planning units it is clear that this change in role is occuring, but is there not also a largely untapped market for consultants to assist companies in developing these capabilities?     

SWAPCO Nuclear Corporation (SWAPCO)

SWAPCO is a nuclear fuel brokerage company which has managed to survive in a highly competitive niche market for fourteen years. The market is currently declining and the company must develop a strategy for survival and future growth. The case is designed to enable students to think about the effects of a rapidly changing market on a company's business and the effect of changes in the external environment on the company. It leads to discussion of market strategies, the role of government in business, the effects of competition and other external factors in the survival and growth of a business. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Power and control in professional partnerships

Strategic management controls in professional partnership firms are different from controls in companies. A recently developed model of strategic management controls in the partnership firm was applied in a modified form to a sample of 60 firms in three traditional professions—law, accounting and architecture. Strategic management in the partnerships was broadly consistent with the model but we identified three adaptations in 10 of the sample of firms: corporate planner, corporate monitor and operations monitor. This article explains these adaptations and suggests that the form which strategic control takes in a partnership depends on the distribution of power in the firm.     

The organisation and practice of corporate planning in the U.K.: Some recent survey results

This article reports some relevant results from a recent survey of the corporate planning practices of a number of leading British organizations. The sample spanned turnovers from £2000m. Within this range, the functional areas involved show considerable variation: for example, 95% of companies perform financial planning, but only 52% production planning. Organization too, quite naturally, displays great variety: thus one company operates with only a single planner whereas another employs thirty. Ratings are quoted for the main advantages and disadvantages of corporate planning as assessed by the chief executives; in general, the benefits dominate.     

Interface,Inc.: Taking the lead toward sustainability

Four years ago, CEO Ray Anderson of Interface began to confront his company's impact on the environment. The factories and suppliers of his interior furnishings company used 1.2 billion pounds of raw materials to produce $802 million in products. Of these materials, two thirds were exhaustible fuels. Anderson has set Interface on a mission—to became a sustainable enterprise. However, rather than dictating specific initiatives from the top down, his corporate strategy has been to use a seven-point program to provide guidance for each plant and business to create its own agenda. CES continues its exploration of what defines environmental leadership by exploring how Anderson has implemented this new type of corporate direction, and how Interface measures its progress towards this ambitious mission.     

对公司影像的勾画

本文认为,经济学家有必要更加多层次和全方位地勾画企业的图景。为此,从三维角度观察企业管理而形成的影像,构成了本文“理想化的维度”。这些维度分别是公司的利润、社会需求以及社会责任。一家企业类似一幅画,是企业家个人创造力与管理艺术的体现。它拥有自身的形式与结构,而且旨在体现和满足社会需求。在以三维角度对企业前景分析中,利润、社会需求以及企业和企业家社会责任等维度,应是企业管理理念与实践的主要维度。由于管理不同,企业性质和体制的色彩极其丰富。随着企业社会责任的不断增加,企业活动图景的维度也在不断扩展。     

上市公司融资偏好的内部治理机制研究

面对弱效率的资本市场,如何有效地解决国内上市公司在融资选择时对股权融资的过度偏好成为实务和理论界关注的一个重要问题。本文认为除了现行研究所提出的完善资本市场的规范性和有效性,加强上市公司的外部调控和管制以外,还有一个很重要的方面就是从微观的公司治理角度来分析上市公司的融资行为。在这一思路的基础上,本文利用一个多任务委托代理模型来解释影响企业融资方式的内部因素,并从公司治理结构的角度来提出完善融资激励和约束机制的要素。     

The Role of Financial Institutions in the Corporate Governance of Listed Chinese Companies*

This paper explores the role of Chinese financial institutions in the corporate governance of listed companies through interviews with both senior managers of financial institutions and board directors of listed companies. Our results show that, while most securities companies are passive investors, a good proportion of the active mutual funds help their portfolio companies prepare financial forecasts, standardize their operations, raise external funds, strengthen their company image in the capital markets, and sometimes intervene in corporate issues. This limited role can be attributed to a number of factors specific to the Chinese context including highly concentrated state ownership, an immature regulatory environment, inadequate transparency and disclosure of financial information, and weak corporate governance within financial institutions themselves. It could also be affected by several other factors that are considered to cause institutional passivity in developed countries such as conflicts of interest, monitoring costs and lack of expertise.     

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.     

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?