Entrenchment in publicly traded family firms: Evidence from the S&P 500

Family involvement in corporate governance through ownership, management, and board membership presents a unique dilemma for understanding the strategic impetus and costs of entrenchment decisions. The presence of shared family ties and the family-centered goals of firm principals call to question the applicability of extant agency arguments regarding the nature and antecedents of managerial entrenchment. Exploring this, we develop and test a model of family firm-specific determinants (i.e., family ownership and family's involvement in management and governance) of entrenchment in publicly traded firms by drawing upon principal-principal agency theory. Findings of the empirical analysis of family owned S&P 500 firms suggest family firms are motivated to entrench managers when doing so supports the pursuit of family-centric goals. However, the extent to which entrenchment supports such goals varies at different levels of family ownership.     

中国制造业企业创新行为的观测和实证研究 ——基于浙江省制造业1454家企业问卷调查的分析

 本文在浙江省制造业1454家企业大样本调查问卷的基础上,在微观层面研究了企业创新行为以及影响因素。首先利用统计分析的方法考察了企业创新投入的特征、创新投入的行业分布以及创新投入的产出绩效,并且发现了企业规模与R&;D强度之间呈现倒U型关系,这与安同良等人发现的倾斜V型关系的结论不同。其次运用计量分析的方法在有效控制了企业所处行业的技术水平差异、企业产权结构、政府资金扶持、企业品牌和企业设备技术水平后,研究发现：企业规模与企业创新投入之间也呈现较明显的倒U型关系,并且存在规模“拐点”;企业知识产权战略对企业创新投入具有明显的促进作用;出口贸易对企业创新投入并不显著,但发达国家特别是针对发展中国家设置的技术性贸易壁垒的技术标准化要求对企业创新投入有比较明显的促进作用;而企业集聚对企业的创新投入的影响并不确定。     

Managing dependency in China outsourcing relationships

Abstract

This paper examines manufacturing firms’ use of guanxi and formal control to address dependence on suppliers and achieve desired outsourcing performance in China. Using survey data collected from manufacturing firms operating in China, a structural equation model is used to test the research model. The results suggest that manufacturing firms with high dependence on suppliers build Chinese guanxi with those suppliers to overcome the dependence and enhance outsourcing performance. In addition, Chinese guanxi also appears to facilitate the use of formal control, which was also found to have a positive relationship with outsourcing performance. This paper contributes to the literature by illustrating the importance of guanxi in achieving desired outsourcing performance in the China context, particularly in the case where a manufacturer perceives high dependency on its major supplier.     

Building interfirm leadership: A relational identity perspective

While leadership has been recognized as an approach to facilitating network orchestration, little is known about the mechanism through which a hub firm enhances interfirm leadership. Grounded on the theory of social identity and network orchestration, we develop a framework of the enhancement of interfirm leadership, proposing that the tendency of building leadership rests on the hub firm's ability to shape the partners' relational identity. We identify three types of role-adoption that indicate seven actions a hub firm might take to establish such an identity. We suggest that the mechanism through which leadership emerges is contingent on relationship duration, dependence asymmetry, and competition intensity.     

Economics of the firm and economic growth: a hybrid theoretical framework of analysis

Abstract

The main goal of this study is to achieve a critical discussion around the conceptualization of the firm and its role in the dynamic process of economic growth. By reviewing the theoretical matrix of the economics of the firm we go beyond the mainstream economics of the firm proposing a hybrid approach combining evolutionary and population ecology, which is likely to constitute a fruitful path for the conceptualization of the firm in the process of economic growth. Specifically, the analysis confronts the distinct theoretical perspectives around some imperative and controversial issues such as the nature of knowledge and learning and the cognitive capacities of economic agents within the firm. We argue that the economic understanding of growth and development of human societies will strongly benefit from a conceptualization of the firm capable of capturing the spirit of the Knightian firm. Overcoming the shortcomings of the mainstream growth models, which conceive firms as a black box, the proposed hybrid approach recalls the true nature of the firm as an organization. Issues related to the organizational arrangements that sustain the feasibility of productive activities and to the incentive contracts are also taken into account. Although acknowledging some recent important contributions within mainstream economic growth theory to adopt more realistic concepts of the firm, we believe that evolutionary and organizational population perspectives include crucial pointers in developing further research aimed at the construction of economic growth models based on a micro-economic perspective that is closer to the reality of firms.     

论企业效率的理论发展

企业的存在以效率为前提,古典经济学对企业生产的解释始终贯穿着效率思想;在新古典经济理论中,企业被抽象为生产函数,为企业效率的考察提供了很大便利,但它以企业技术与制度因素的"固化"为前提;新制度经济学在企业效率的制度方面作了精辟论述,使对企业效率的认识更加完整和深入.     

创新型人力资本及其集成决定论--一种对企业绩效差异成因认识的新视角

经济与管理学界对企业绩效差异成因的认识主要可概括为两大流派：企业绩效差异成因外生论和企业绩效差异成因内生论。其中,企业绩效差异成因内生论又可以分为企业绩效差异成因契约论和企业绩效差异成因能力论。作者在对这两大流派进行分析和评述的基础上,论述了企业绩效差异成因契约论和企业绩效差异成因能力论相融合的必要性、可能性与模型构建,得出了创新型人力资本及其集成才是企业绩效差异的最根本原因的结论。     

我国中小企业国际化成长相关因素的实证分析

选取深圳证券交易所中小企业71家上市公司为样本，考察了我国中小企业国际化成长的影响因素。研究结果显示我国中小企业国际化成长与企业创业时间无关，与企业高管层的国际化知识经验水平及企业外资背景正相关，与企业资本／劳动比率和技术水平负相关。劳动密集型企业的国际化进程要优于资本密集型和高技术型企业。我国中小企业应提升高管层的国际化知识和经验水平，充分发挥“新生学习优势”，从国际化的过程中增强对国际市场机会的判断和利用能力；同时，利用外资开展内向国际化，是提高外向国际化水平的有效途径。     

Organisation et institution: vers une socioéconomie de la firme?

The paper aims at showing that beyond its economic nature the firm is an organized social institution. The theory of the firm does not succeed in unifying in a single analytical framework both its institutional and organizational dimensions. In contrast, organization theory – notably organizational sociology – deals with the intertwining of these two existential elements of firms. The cross-fertilization which occurs between these two social sciences can be used to propose a real socio-economic theory of the firm.     

终极所有权结构和代理问题的严重性与公司业绩

文章讨论了上市公司终极所有权结构、代理问题严重性及公司业绩三者相互之间可能存在的内生性问题,并以2004-2010年118家涉农上市公司面板数据为基础,构建三阶段最小二乘模型对三者关系进行分析.结果表明,两类代理问题严重性对终极所有权结构具有显著的负向影响,终极所有权结构对第二类代理问题严重性的负向作用显著,但对第一类代理问题严重性影响甚微;公司业绩明显地对两类代理问题严重性产生负面影响,但两类代理问题严重性对公司业绩的作用尚不明了;终极所有权结构对公司业绩的正向作用以及公司业绩对终极所有权结构的负向影响均很显著.