Capturing Relatedness: Comprehensive Measures based on Secondary Data

This paper presents new measures of technological and customer‐side relatedness constructed from widely available secondary data. Relatedness is a concept central to predicting the existence and nature of a relationship between corporate diversification and firm performance. Yet, finding appropriate measures has been an ongoing struggle. The widely used SIC‐based entropy measure has low construct validity, and survey‐based measures are hard to replicate across firms and industries and over time. The measures we develop significantly outperform established measures in explaining variation in firm performance across firms and over time, and both sources of relatedness are found to be independent and significant explanations of firm performance.     

Board of directors structure and firm financial performance: A qualitative comparative analysis

Previous research about the effects of board structure and process on the firm financial performance is based on conflicting theoretical perspectives, and empirical results, mostly based on regression analysis, are inconclusive. Building from Complexity Theory and configurational analysis, this study offers clarity to inconclusive previous empirical results about the link among several board features and firm financial performance. From a sample of 295 non-financial firms from Southern Europe for the period 2001–2010, and by using fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis, findings of this study show that firm financial performance depends on a complex configuration of several board features (board size, board independence, leadership structure and board activity) and several corporate characteristics (firm size, firm leverage and firm age). This paper has implications for academics. Despite different theoretical arguments and inconclusive results of the wide empirical literature addressing the effect of board characteristics on the firm performance, building from Complexity Theory this paper adds to our knowledge because it empirically explores under which circumstances different board features should contribute positively or negatively to firm performance. The results of this study have also implications for policy makers and practitioners by providing some useful hints to the controversial relationship between corporate governance and financial performance. In this sense, general corporate governance recommendations must be rethought.     

Sustaining the Financial Value of Global CSR: Reconciling Corporate and Stakeholder Interests in a Less Regulated Environment

In this article we examine the association between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and firm value. This line of research is important since firms continue to invest in CSR even though past studies reveal a limited linkage between financial value and CSR. However, the business case for CSR or “doing good while making a profit,” appears to be advancing within the business ethics literature as a preferred conception of CSR. We conjecture that the greater unification and refinement of both profit maximization and stakeholder interests through corporate acts, not statements alone, will sustain the financial value of CSR in a less regulated global business environment. We study the triangle of what companies say, what companies do, and firm financial performance. We analyze Fortune 250 firms and find a positive association between what companies do based on KLD Research and Analytics, Inc. (KLD) ratings, and what companies state about ethics in their CSR statements. We then employ regression analysis and find that companies’ socially responsible acts are positively associated with overall firm value and financial performance. Yet we do not find a statistically significant association between what companies say regarding ethics in their CSR statements and their financial outcomes. These results suggest that firm value and financial performance is associated with what companies do and not what they say. Our results seem to be driven by multinational corporations (MNCs) and not by non‐MNCs. This is possibly because MNCs generally operate in a less regulated global business environment that often necessitates strong ethical corporate leadership to further stakeholder interests. Overall, these results help reconcile corporate and stakeholder objectives since evidence of a link between financial performance and doing good sustains global CSR.     

财务困境、财务困境间接成本与公司业绩

本文研究了上市公司财务困境、财务困境间接成本及其与公司业绩之间的关系.通过实证研究企业陷入财务困境以后业绩变化的情况,本文认为,我国上市公司的间接财务困境成本显著为正,从总体来看,公司的间接困境成本大约为企业价值总额的25%-36.5%之间,资本结构对这种业绩的变化所引起的困境间接成本具有显著影响.负债率越高的企业,在困境期内将损失越大的市场份额和利润.     

Business model diversification: Demand relatedness,entry sequencing,and curvilinearity in the diversification-performance relationship

This study integrates research on business model diversification (BMD) and demand-side theory to examine the relationship of BMD to performance and the sequencing of business model additions. We begin by explaining and demonstrating that the overall degree of BMD has an inverted U-shaped relationship with firm performance. We next highlight the particular role that demand relatedness plays in BMD. We first provide evidence that the inverted U-shaped relationship flattens in times of financial shocks, consistent with arguments that the benefits of BMD from consumers’ willingness-to-pay for simultaneous use of multiple business models may diminish during shocks. Second, we argue that firms tend to sequence the addition of new business models based on demand relatedness, and we provide evidence that the degree of demand relatedness between a core and a target business model enhances the likelihood of diversification into that target business model.     

社会责任的信号作用——基于中国市场的研究

承担社会责任能否提升未来公司绩效一直是国内外学者关注的焦点,大部分研究认为履行社会责任有助于提升公司未来绩效,将社会责任视为一种价值投资。在控制了当期绩效因素对企业承担社会责任的影响后,本文发现：（1）承担社会责任不能提升公司未来财务绩效,仅能对企业未来股票回报产生正向影响;（2）当期经济绩效较好的企业,社会责任会对未来财务绩效产生正向影响,而当期经济绩效较差的企业,社会责任会对未来财务绩效产生负向影响。文章结果表明：当期绩效较差公司承担社会责任存在更大成本,当期绩效较好公司可以通过履行社会责任向市场传达信号使其与当期绩效较差公司区分,但此信号行为本身不对公司绩效存在影响。早期研究发现社会责任与未来公司财务绩效的正向关系很可能是因未考虑当期公司绩效同时正向影响当期公司社会责任履行程度和未来财务绩效而产生的伪相关关系。本文实证结果一定程度上对现有社会责任促进公司绩效的理论分析框架构成了挑战。     

The Impact of Insider Power on Fraudulent Financial Reporting

This study examines the relationship between top management team duality and the decision to release false financial information. Using a matched sample of 103 firms that were convicted of issuing fraudulent financial statements in the period from 1992 to 1996, the results show that this form of illegal corporate behavior is more likely to occur when there is a concentration of power in the hands of insiders. For these firms, insiders control the top management team and the Board of Directors by simultaneously occupying the key managerial positions of clout within the firm while also sitting on the Board (duality), and through their ownership interest in the firm.     

研发投入对企业绩效的影响研究 ——基于企业金融化水平门限回归

本文选取1435家A股上市公司2011—2018年度的面板数据,以企业金融化水平作为门限变量,研究企业研发投入对企业绩效的非线性影响关系。研究结果表明:(1)企业金融化行为给研发投入对企业绩效的促进作用带来严重的时滞效应,研发投入对当年企业绩效不存在促进作用;(2)研发投入对未来一年企业绩效有双门限效应,二者呈倒N型关系,在第二区间内研发投入促进未来一年企业绩效;研发投入对未来二年企业绩效有单门限效应,在第一区间内研发投入促进未来二年企业绩效;(3)在适度的企业金融化水平区间内,研发投入才会促进未来企业绩效。本文指出上市公司金融化水平最优区间占比分布具有区域、行业和企业性质异质性,并进一步基于实证研究结果提出了相应的政策建议,有利于企业合理管理研发投入和防止企业脱实向虚。     

并购后高管变更、合法性与并购绩效——基于制度理论的视角

并购后的高管变更对于企业的并购绩效具有重要的影响,但目前的研究结论没有取得一致性。本文基于制度理论的视角引入合法性的概念,通过123份并购样本实证分析了并购后高管变更、合法性以及并购绩效之间的关系。研究结果显示:并购后高管变更与并购的外部合法性和内部合法性之间均存在显著的负相关;而外部合法性和内部合法性对于并购绩效具有显著的积极作用。本研究结论对于我国企业的并购后高管变更决策以及如何提升并购绩效具有理论指导意义。     

基于“Meta分析”视角的企业社会绩效与企业财务绩效之间的关系研究

随着企业社会责任理论体系逐步的发展与完善,国内外学者开始关注企业社会绩效(CSP)与企业财务绩效(CFP)之间的关系,但是其中大量有关的研究结果却是互相矛盾的。本研究首先提出了一个理论模型以及相关研究假设,以国内外有关的实证研究文献作为研究对象,采用Meta分析方法对各项独立研究结果进行综合统计分析。其研究结果表明:企业社会绩效常常与企业财务绩效是直接地相互作用和相互影响的;企业管理能力和企业声誉作为中介变量对CSP与CFP关系有着正向的影响,其中企业声誉有着高度的影响;大多数CSP测量方法与CFP测量方法之间有着显著的正向关系,其中CSP声誉排名测量方法与CFP测量方法之间显示出相当高的正向关系,而以市场基础和会计基础CFP测量方法与CSP测量方法之间的关系要低于感知(调查)CFP测量方法的。最后,将其研究结果与相关文献的研究结果进行了比较,并提出了研究结论和相关启示。     

Connecting the Dots: Do Financial Analysts Help Corporate Boards Improve Corporate Social Responsibility?

This paper presents an examination of the joint impact of board structural elements at firm level and financial analysts as market-level corporate governance (CG) on corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance. Our study contributes to the CG–CSR literature by adopting the bundling approach, a perspective that has recently attracted researchers’ attention as an answer to any heterogeneity and fragmentation in existing findings. It is based on an extensive sample consisting of 7,739 firm-year observations of US firms for the 2006–2015 period. The findings suggest that financial analysts complement the corporate board with more independence, gender diversity and a specialized CSR committee to realize a certain level of CSR performance of a firm. The findings also indicate that analysts substitute for those internal governance factors that are associated with weaker boards – larger sizes and dual-role CEOs. We also draw implications for research and practice from our findings.     

Corporate Political Activity and Firm Performance: The Moderating Effects of International and Product Diversification

Prior research has found that corporate political activity (CPA) can both positively and negatively impact firm performance. Combining agency theory with the resource-based view, we examine the relationship between domestic lobbying (a key form of CPA) and firm performance by explicating the moderating effects of international and product diversification. We argue that expansion into international and product markets increases a firm's resources and reduces agency costs in domestic lobbying. Our results, based on a sample of 737 firms, show that lobbying is positively associated with performance for firms that are diversified in both international markets and along product-lines; whereas lobbying is counter-productive for purely domestic and undiversified firms. Our results contribute to the literature on the firm performance implications of corporate political activity by highlighting the roles of international and product diversification.     

Does strategic corporate performance depend on corporate financial architecture? Empirical study of European,Russian and other emerging market’s firms

Performance of the firm depends on its structural dimensions: capital structure, ownership structure and corporate governance. Their interactions are known as corporate financial architecture according to S. Myers. In this paper we analyze financial architecture which is a mix of ownership structure, capital structure, control and board’s composition, and therefore, provides the given framework for improving corporate performance. We contribute to the literature by different attributes of our study. In contrast to most empirical papers on performance, we develop integrated rather than segmented approach combining the intrinsic components of corporate financial design in one research model. We introduce new variable to capture the structure of ownership for the purpose of performance analysis. Our third contribution is based on comparative analysis of the influence of financial architecture over corporate performance in rather different capital market environment: developed European and emerging (developing) capital market’s countries. We start with a classic empirical model of the impact of ownership structure, capital structure and other components of financial architecture on the corporate performance. Further we verify the validity of exogenous nature of key variables of the classic model when applying it to companies in developed and emerging market environment. Our results could have some important policy implications for the firms in normal economic environment as well as in the period of global economic crisis. We found that the higher proportion of related ownership which indicates investors with significant voting power and the board’s composition affect firm performance positively. The related shareholders and independent directors seem to add more value to firms while the impact of government ownership differs depending on the country. The emerging market’s sample versus the one from developed countries proves the stronger influence of corporate financial architecture over performance.     

投资机会（IOS）设定下公司内部治理对经营绩效的影响——基于中国上市公司的经验研究

传统的公司治理研究将处于不同组织环境的企业等同对待,造成了研究结论的较大分歧.本文依据投资机会集(IOS)理论,运用我国上市公司的经验证据,在设定投资机会集的条件下,考察了不同成长性的企业其公司治理对经营绩效的影响.研究结果表明:成长性较高的公司,其经营绩效的改善与独立董事比例、高管层的持股比例显著正相关,但与高管层年薪相关关系不显著;成长性较低的公司.其经营绩效的提高与独立董事比例和高管层的持股比例相关关系均不显著,但与高管层年薪存在弱的正相关关系.     

A cyclical view of the relationship between corporate governance and strategic management

The vast majority of research on the relationship between corporate governance and strategic management focuses on the impact of corporate governance on strategic management. In this article we propose a cyclical model, highlighting that strategic decisions can also affect corporate governance through shaping firm ownership structure. We discuss the impacts of strategic decisions on firm ownership structure and corporate governance in the contexts of publicly traded firms, private firms, and the privatization of state-owned enterprises. We hope that our cyclical model can promote researchers to develop a more complete view about the relationships between strategic management, ownership structure, and corporate governance.     

连锁董事、财务绩效和公司价值

从企业和投资者两个视角分析连锁董事与财务绩效、公司价值之间的关系,采用最小二乘法进行实证检验。以1999年至2008年中国上市公司为样本构建纵列截面数据,分年度建立联通连锁董事网络,借鉴社会网络分析和图论理论,采用居中中心度和中介中心度测度连锁关系的数量,采用向量中心度测度连锁关系的质量。研究结果表明,连锁关系质量和数量的相关性低,涵盖的信息不同;连锁关系越多、越重要,上市公司后续3年的资产收益率越高,并且连锁关系的变动和资产收益率的变化呈动态一致性。用营业利润率代替资产收益率,实证结果也是稳健的。进一步研究还发现,连锁关系对上市公司的Tobin's Q值有正向影响,说明公司价值能有效地捕捉连锁关系带来的长期增长效应及其作为无形资产和实物期权的经济价值。     

To fit in or stand out? How optimal distinctiveness in technological diversification affects firm performance

Previous research has observed technological diversification from a strategic viewpoint and regarded it as a strategy used by firms to differentiate themselves from competitors. This perspective, however, overlooks the fact that firms' strategies can also be understood as conformity to institutional pressure to gain legitimacy. In order to study the technological diversification–firm performance relationship from a more comprehensive viewpoint, this paper starts from a strategic balance perspective and investigates how technological diversification conformity enhances firm performance. Using a unique dataset of Chinese listed firms' patenting activities from 2003 to 2014 and adopting ordinary least squares (OLS) regression, we produce empirical findings that reveal a curvilinear (inverted U-shaped) relationship between firms’ conformity in technological diversification and their performance. Our results further delineate the boundary conditions that influence this relationship. We find that firm age positively moderates the relationship, that is the conformity-performance relationship is steeper with the older firms. Moreover, the result suggests that state ownership negatively moderates the relationship, that is, the relationship is flatter when firms are controlled by the state.     

Effect of the board of directors and the audit committee on firm performance: a panel data analysis

This research examines the relationship between independent directors, the audit committee (AC), and firm performance, taking into account the impact of the chief executive officer’s powers and block shareholders. We use the maximum likelihood estimator, based on agency theory assumptions and cylindered panel data, to examine three models of firm performance. The results show that the independence of the board is reflected clearly by increased economic and equity performance of the firm. However, an AC that is fully independent or meets frequently is associated with lower firm performance. Unlike pension funds, institutional shareholders can be considered an effective control mechanism in the context of France. Our results development includes advanced explanations for market liquidity and shareholders’ portfolios. The study period ends before the European regulation on ACs came into effect in 2008. This allows for an appreciation of soft law in French corporate governance. It also lets us compare the data with the way firms operate their boards one decade later. The evidence provides useful guidelines on the supremacy of soft law in corporate governance and suggests that the composition and functioning of the board of directors should be moderated based on the firms’ context. The specificity of the cylindered panel data helps to better examine the impact of the board and AC’s independence and functioning in French corporate governance structure.     

Corporate risk management and pension investment policy

In this paper, we study whether firms manage their pension risk exposures within an integrated corporate risk management framework or they manage their pension and firm risk exposures independently following the adoption of fair value pension reporting regulation (IAS 19). Controlling for known factors affecting the risk-taking in pension plan investments, we document a robust negative association both at the cross-section and over time between pension risk and firm systematic risk and operating asset risk during the post-IAS 19 adoption period. The findings suggest that firms manage pension risk as an integral part of firm risk, consistent with a coordinated risk management explanation. Overall, our evidence highlights that pension investment strategy is a dynamic process that is ultimately determined by sponsoring firms' strategic corporate risk management considerations and the important role that changing pension reporting regulation plays in shaping these dynamics. Our conclusions have potential wider implications for ongoing reforms in financial reporting and disclosure policy settings.     

连锁董事与公司绩效:针对中国的研究

关于连锁董事对公司绩效产生正面影响还是负面影响的争论一直存在.一种假设认为,连锁董事在转型经济中能够弥补市场失灵和制度漏洞,从而有助于改善公司绩效.而另一相对的假设则认为,转型中的公司治理失灵催生了连锁董事作为一种社会凝聚的工具,有利于实现管理层利益的最大化.但是,还尚未有在制度变迁背景下对这一问题的研究.利用中国当前制度变迁的大环境,我们建立了284家上市公司连续八年的面板数据库,并针对以上两个假设进行了实证检验.研究结果发现,连锁董事的网络核心度与企业绩效呈负相关关系,即处于连锁董事网络中越核心位置的企业其绩效越差.该结果支持了治理失灵假设.本研究对连锁董事网络研究、公司治理以及转型经济研究具有重要借鉴.