The influence of socio-economic characteristics on the political attitudes of American Indians

We examine the political attitudes of American Indians in eastern Oklahoma where they make up almost 20% of the population. We argue that American Indians in the region play the same role that other minorities in the southern states—notably blacks and Hispanics—do in resisting the region's realignment from the Democratic to the Republican Party. American Indians in the region are populists in that they are economically liberal and religiously conservative. The results of our analysis suggest that the socio-economic characteristics of American Indians play a greater role in explaining American Indians’ political attitudes than their ethnic identification.     

自然的城邦和城邦的自然——亚里士多德政治观中的张力分析

亚里士多德通过目的论路径和自然主义的演进方式塑造了具有内在紧张关系的政治观,这种紧张关系主要表现为:目的论路径展示了城邦超越、自足、理想的自然,而自然主义方式蕴涵着城邦现实性、多样化和变动性特征。好人和好公民之间的不一致是亚氏政治观紧张关系的深层体现,哲学沉思是好人(哲学家)最优良的生活方式,而城邦政治是好公民获得幸福生活的根本保障。     

Social capital,guanxi and political influence in Chinese government relations

Social capital has emerged as a promising theoretical approach to understanding political influence in the public relations literature. However, the rationale of using social capital to influence corporate government relations in authoritarian societies is indistinct. To remedy this, we integrate Bourdieu’s (1986) and Lin’s (2001) social capital theories to explore how applying a variant form of social capital (e.g., guanxi) might shape corporate government relations in authoritarian China. A multi-method, qualitative approach was employed involving 44 interviews, participant observation and document review. The findings highlighted an underexamined “vertical” dimension of social capital (i.e., links with authority in a hierarchy), which enables corporations to exercise agency over the pre-existing and often vague regulatory environment. This study adds a new perspective to social capital with hierarchical guanxi that enriches our understanding of guanxi-based political influence in Chinese corporate government relations.     

The political position generator—A new instrument for measuring political ties in China

This paper proposes a novel instrument – the political position generator - for measuring individuals’ political ties, or personal, affective connections to state officials and other political actors. It adopts and adapts the more general position generator framework in social capital research to capture three key dimensions of political ties – upper reachability, network diversity, and tie strength. The measure is validated with data from a representative survey of the Chinese population and three scales representing the three political ties dimensions are created. In correlational and multivariate regression analyses, we find initial evidence of the instrument’s criterion-related (discriminant and concurrent) validity.     

The impact of managerial political ties on corporate governance and debt financing: Evidence from Ghana

In this study, we draw upon insights from agency theory to examine the impact of managerial political ties on cost of debt and also to explore whether corporate governance mediates this impact. We hypothesize that political ties reduce financial reporting quality, disclosure of non-financial information and board independence, and are therefore associated with higher interest rates. We also hypothesize that the negative effect of political ties on the cost of debt will be stronger if firms borrow from privately-owned banks versus government-owned banks. Using data from Ghana, we find support for our direct and moderation hypotheses; political ties are associated with high interest rates and poor corporate governance. However, we do not find evidence of mediation. Altogether, the findings reveal the dark side of political connections and highlight the cost of political embeddedness in emerging credit markets.     

Data relaying with constraints in hierarchical sensor networks

In this paper we present and discuss several optimisation problems that arise in the management of data flow in wireless sensor networks (WSNets). We consider a hierarchical architecture for WSNets composed of sensors, relays, and relay gateways. Sensors send data they generate at a known average bit rate to relays in one hop. The relay nodes use a multi-hop mechanism to reach a set of assigned gateways which then forward the data directly to the base station. We are concerned with finding an assignment of relay gateways to relays so that certain constraints are satisfied. We define a unified model in which constraints such as lifetime, data delay, and data flow splitting are formulated in terms of four optimisation problem in graphs.     

The role of political ties and political uncertainty in corporate innovation

We examine the relationship between firms' political connections and corporate innovation in a European context. We also consider the moderating effect of political connections on the relationship between political uncertainty and firms' innovation. We use two different metrics of innovation: R&D (an input measure), and patent counts (an output measure). We find that firms with former politicians on their board of directors invest less in R&D than their counterpart firms. However, the presence of this type of director on the board is positively associated with the number of a firm's patent applications. It seems that, although political ties reduce the amount of resources devoted to R&D activities, they increase the effectiveness of intellectual rights protection. Results also show that political uncertainty decreases R&D investment but exacerbates the need for legal protection of innovation through patents. According to our results, political connections attenuate the effect of political uncertainty on firm innovation such that the negative (positive) effect of uncertainty on R&D intensity (patents) weakens when the firm is politically connected.     

政治联系、银行贷款与公司价值

以中国民营上市公司为样本,考察政治联系以及制度环境差异对民营企业获取银行贷款的影响,并进一步分析银行贷款对企业价值和社会资源配置效率的影响。研究结果表明:(1)民营企业的政治联系影响了银行的放贷决策,与政府建立政治联系的民营企业可以获取更多的银行贷款;(2)制度环境越差的地区,政治联系越有助于民营企业获取银行融资便利,构建政治联系是民营企业克服市场制度缺陷的一种非正式替代机制;(3)建立政治联系的民营企业,其背负的银行债务促进了企业价值的提升,能够发挥一定的债务治理作用,政治联系为企业带来的银行资金是有效率的资源配置。本研究为加深理解政治联系对公司价值和社会资源配置效率的影响提供了一个有意义的视角。     

股价信息含量与资本投资效率——基于投资现金流敏感度的视角

本文以2001-2008年在沪深证券交易所上市的制造业公司为研究样本,基于投资现金流敏感度的视角研究了股价信息含量与资本投资效率之间的关系,得到以下研究结论 :富含信息的股价有效降低了资本投资对现金流的敏感程度。进一步研究后发现,富含信息的股价不仅能够有效降低融资约束导致的投资现金流敏感度,而且也能够有效降低代理冲突导致的投资现金流敏感度问题,以上结论在添加了诸多影响资本投资的控制变量及稳健性检验后仍然成立。本文的研究从一个全新的视角证明,富含信息的股价通过缓和融资约束和代理冲突问题,有效地改善了企业的资本投资效率。     

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。