Own-company stockholding and work effort preferences of an unconstrained executive

We develop a framework for analyzing an executive’s own-company stockholding and work effort preferences. The executive, characterized by risk aversion and work effectiveness parameters, invests his personal wealth without constraint in the financial market, including the stock of his own company whose value he can directly influence with work effort. The executive’s utility-maximizing personal investment and work effort strategy is derived in closed form, and a utility indifference rationale is applied to determine his required compensation. Being unconstrained by performance contracting, the executive’s work effort strategy establishes a base case for theoretical or empirical assessment of the benefits or otherwise of constraining executives with performance contracting.     

An empirical study of relationship between IT investment and firm performance: A resource-based perspective

The resource-based view of the enterprises generally attributes superior financial performance to organizational resources and capabilities. Firm-specific IT resources are classified as IT infrastructure, human-IT resources, and IT-enabled intangibles. This paper empirically examines the association between IT investment and firm performance. Results indicate that firms with high levels of IT infrastructure and human-IT resources have a strong positive relationship with IT-enabled intangibles, but not with firm performance. In addition, IT-enabled intangibles are strongly positively correlated with firm performance. The relationships between IT investment and corporate IT capability are also examined. The results suggest that IT investments have begun to show results, indicating that they can make a positive contribution to firm IT infrastructure. However, the various measures of IT investment do not appear to have a positive relationship with human-IT resources, and IT-enabled intangibles. Although IT investment is likely to improve organizational IT infrastructure, but the IT-enabled intangibles is the key factor to effect the business performance, and the human-IT resource is a driving force for the IT-enabled intangibles.     

A simple model of corporate international investment under incomplete information and taxes

This paper extends the theory of corporate international investment in Choi (J. Int. Bus. Stud. 20: 145–155, 1989) in an environment where the segmentation of international capital markets for investors or the presence of agency costs provide some independence to corporate decisions. The model shows that the real exchange risk, the competition between firms in different markets and diversification gains affect corporate international investment. By accounting for the role of information as defined in the models of Merton (J. Finance 42: 483–510, 1987), Bellalah (Int. J. Finance Econ. 6: 59–67, 2001a) and Bellalah and Wu (Int. J. Theor. Appl. Finance 5(5): 479–495, 2002), the model embodies different existing explanations based on economic and behavioral variables. We show in a “two-country” firm model that real exchange risk, diversification motives and information costs are important elements in the determination of corporate international investment decisions. The dynamic portfolio model reflects the main results in several theories of foreign direct investment. Our model accounts for the role of information in explaining foreign investments. It provides simple explanations which are useful in explaining the home bias puzzle in international finance. Using the dynamical programming principle method, we provide the general solution for the proportion of firm’s total capital budget. We also use a new method to get explicit solutions in some special cases. This new method can be applied to solve other financial control problems. The simulating results are given to show our conclusion and the influence of some parameters to the optimal solution. The economic results can be seen as a generalization of the model in Solnik (J. Econ. Theory 8: 500–524, 1974).     

The development and interaction of terrorist and fanatic groups

Through the mathematical study of two models we quantify some of the theories of co-development and co-existence of focused groups in the social sciences. This work attempts to develop the mathematical framework behind the social sciences of community formation. By using well developed theories and concepts from ecology and epidemiology we hope to extend the theoretical framework of organizing and self-organizing social groups and communities, including terrorist groups. The main goal of our work is to gain insight into the role of recruitment and retention in the formation and survival of social organizations. Understanding the underlining mechanisms of the spread of ideologies under competition is a fundamental component of this work. Here contacts between core and non-core individuals extend beyond its physical meaning to include indirect interaction and spread of ideas through phone conversations, emails, media sources and other similar mean. This work focuses on the dynamics of formation of interest groups, either ideological, economical or ecological and thus we explore the questions such as, how do interest groups initiate and co-develop by interacting within a common environment and how do they sustain themselves? Our results show that building and maintaining the core group is essential for the existence and survival of an extreme ideology. Our research also indicates that in the absence of competitive ability (i.e., ability to take from the other core group or share prospective members) the social organization or group that is more committed to its group ideology and manages to strike the right balance between investment in recruitment and retention will prevail. Thus under no cross interaction between two social groups a single trade-off (of these efforts) can support only a single organization. The more efforts that an organization implements to recruit and retain its members the more effective it will be in transmitting the ideology to other vulnerable individuals and thus converting them to believers.     

基于行为金融视角的基金申赎行为实证研究

以开放式证券投资基金申购、赎回行为背后的行为金融机理为研究对象,通过分析相关变量作用于基金投资者心理的方式和路径,探讨其对基金申购、赎回所产生的影响。在理论分析的基础上,提出基金业绩、规模、存续时间、价位、分红等变量能够各自基于信号传递、心理账户、预期框定偏差、预期惯性、处置效应等多元化路径影响投资者心理,并作用于基金申购、赎回和基金流量,并据此提出了相关假设。进一步地,通过建立结构方程模型,以我国327只股票型开放式证券投资基金为样本,对2011至2013年三组年度截面数据进行了检验。实证结果表明信号传递、预期框定偏差路径始终稳定存在,预期惯性路径仅在2011、2013年实证检验中存在,处置效应路径只在2012年检验中存在、且呈现非对称性特征,而心理账户路径则无法得到证实,据此得出结论认为基金业绩对基金申赎影响最为显著但不具稳定性。最后,从投资者行为模式和基金市场发展环境等角度对实证结果进行了分析。     

市场与规制双重不确定下企业环境投资行为选择

通过主体适应性规则构建企业环境投资行为模型,从政府环境规制和市场波动等方面刻画企业环境投资决策面临的不确定性,基于计算实验方法探寻企业在基准、震荡、上涨与下跌等4种情景下的环境投资行为规律。研究发现:政府规制强度越强,企业环境投资越充分,但投资偏差现象越明显。在震荡情景中,企业的环境投资行为表现出非理性状态,在上涨情景中,企业环境投资表现出过度反应。当市场产品价格波动处在单边行情,政府可以通过较为宽松的环境规制实现目标,而当市场产品价格处在震荡波动时,政府需要通过较为严格的环境规制刺激企业进行环境投资。企业的环境投资受到政府规制与市场信号的共同影响,政府的环境规制稳定的持续刺激并不会让企业盲目投资,但政府环境规制的频繁变动却会使企业无所适从。     

The role of coherent supply chain strategy and performance management in achieving competitive advantage: an international survey

The results of a major international survey into the relationship between corporate strategy, supply chain strategy and supply chain performance management are reported. Five clearly defined groups are identified: Supply Chain Leaders, Strong and Weak Players, Lagging Players and Non-players. Those business units that report a close link between their supply chain strategy and their supply chain technology, in comparison with those that report a weaker link, displayed a consistent set of characteristics. They rate supply chain strategy as more important for corporate strategy. They have a relatively sophisticated definition of their supply chain strategy. They think their supply chain is more important in achieving competitive advantage, they have invested more in supply chain infrastructure and IT support and they have more formal means of assessing their supply chain performance. There is evidence of inconsistency in the way many businesses relate their supply chain, corporate, and investment strategy.     

The co-evolution of integrated corporate financial networks and supply chain networks with insolvency risk

In this paper, we develop a modeling framework that integrates supply chain networks and corporate financial networks, and studies the co-evolution of the two types of networks. The framework allows one to investigate the following questions: (1) How do the physical product flows, demands and prices interplay with the corporate financial networks, and evolve over time with varying financial and economic conditions? (2) How do the financial flows, profits, and insolvency risks interplay with the supply chain networks, and evolve over time with varying financial and economic conditions? We illustrate the modeling framework with computational studies. In particular, the computational results demonstrate how the two types of networks interplay and evolve in a business environment similar to the one during the 2008–2009 financial crisis in which the credit markets tightened up and the product demands continued to decline.     

Valuing the flexibility of investing in security process innovations

In this paper, we develop a decision model of a firm’s optimal strategy for investment in security process innovations (SPIs) when confronted with a sequence of malicious attacks. The model incorporates real options as a methodology to capture the flexibility embedded in such investment decisions. SPIs, when seamlessly integrated with the organization’s overall business dynamics, induce organizational learning and provide the flexibility of switching to more suitable technologies as the environment of malicious attacks changes. The theoretical contribution of this paper is a mathematical model of the invest-to-learn and switching options generated upon early investment in flexible SPIs. The practical significance of the paper is the application of a binomial lattice model to approximate the continuous-time model, resulting in an easy to use decision aid for managers.     

外部大股东退出威胁与企业投资效率:理论模型与实证检验

外部大股东在公司治理中的作用一直是学术界和实务界重点关注的话题。本文以退出威胁作为切入点,考察外部大股东影响企业投资决策的机理。实证结果表明:外部大股东退出威胁可以有效地提高企业的投资效率,退出威胁每上升一个标准差将提高3.941%的投资效率;外部大股东退出威胁的治理效应主要是依赖于管理层对于自身持股财富和股权质押爆仓风险的担忧;长期型外部大股东退出威胁的治理作用更为显著,而短期型外部大股东退出威胁的作用不显著。     

MIN-MAD life: A multi-period optimization model for life insurance company investment decisions

This paper presents a model, called the MIN-MAD Life Model, for managing the investments of a life insurance company over a multiperiod planning horizon. The MIN-MAD Life Model is a linear programming under uncertainty model based on Markowitz portfolio theory. Given the insurance company's current position and its forecasts of possible future developments with their associated probabilities, the model helps determine the set of efficient investment decisions over the planning horizon subject to market constraints and to the insurance company's legal and policy constraints. The senior executives of the life insurance company need examine only the set of efficient investment decisions to determine their optimal investment decisions.     

基于面板数据模型的研发投入影响因素区域异质性研究——基于医药制造业样本的实证分析

基于面板数据模型研究了新产品经济产出、税收优惠、人力资本等因素对我国东中西部地区医药制造业研发资金投入强度影响.研究发现:1)东中西部地区在R&D投入影响因素上存在差异,其中人力资本、企业内部研发资金投入、税收优惠因素对东部地区R&D投入的显著作用依次增强;2)政府研发资金投入、人力资本、税收优惠、盈利能力对中部地区R&D投入的显著作用依次增强,而新产品经济产出呈现负向作用;3)企业内部研发资金投入对西部地区R&D投入显著作用强于人力资本因素,企业规模、税收优惠呈现出负向作用.建议我国应因地制宜采取相应对策,有效提高东中西部地区医药制造业R&D研发投入,进一步促进我国医药制造业创新能力和水平.     

The decision to raise firm value through a sports-business exchange: How much are Real Madrid’s goals worth to its president’s company’s goals?

Global brands emerging from the world of sports are becoming commonplace, and firms invest in the realm of sports, usually through sponsorship initiatives, to get a link with these global brands. Over and above just a mere business link, what if a company makes a personal commitment to get into the core of a renowned, celebrated sports team? This article provides managers with a procedure to analyze, in a weekly basis, how valuable this type of decision is. A conceptual model shows that the personal involvement of a firm’s figurehead in a first-class sports club can impact positively on firm value if the person is doing well in the task s/he is entrusted with by the club. The empirical application to the soccer club Real Madrid, over 1,409 days and 215 matches, finds that the club’s performance on the field has a significant impact on the economic returns of its president’s company, with asymmetrical effects on firm value in a “loss aversion” pattern, that is, lost matches have a greater effect on firm value than games won.     

Evaluating foreign direct investments: new challenges for strategic planners

Business and hence strategic planning is becoming increasingly international. Within that internationalisation, foreign direct investment (FDI) has become increasingly important, especially in E/SE Asia. A logical step then is to seek appropriate methods for modelling and evaluating those FDIs. Excluding the core financial appraisal the literature is sparse. This paper describes an empirical examination of these issues based on a sample from the UK's top 250 listed companies. The results of responses to a questionnaire are described with elaboration gleaned from eight detailed, follow up interviews. The picture to emerge is one of systematic treatment of the basic financial calculations but fairly rudimentary modelling of non-financial aspects. The treatment of risk was most typically through amendment of cash flows for core business risks and adjustment of the hurdle rate for ‘wilder’ risks. There is discussion of some of the subtler points of ‘wild’ risk's treatment and some outline suggestions for models to tackle other non-financial aspects of overall project evaluation. It is also suggested that the thinking developed may be applicable to a wider class of investment proposals.     

境外机构投资者持股周期与公司治理绩效关系的实证研究

选取2003-2015年我国沪深A股上市公司中有境外机构投资者(QFII)持股的公司作为研究样本,将QFII持股周期划分为短期、中期和长期三类,通过理论分析和实证分析研究QFII不同持股周期对上市公司治理绩效的影响,研究结果表明,QFII短期持股时,奉行财务投资理念,通过买卖价差获取投资收益,不会对公司治理绩效产生影响;QFII中期持股时,会对公司治理绩效产生影响,但影响作用较微弱;QFII长期持股时,主要奉行价值投资理念,通过积极参与公司治理影响公司治理绩效,获得高额投资收益。本文的研究结论对我国境内机构投资者和上市公司具有一定的借鉴作用,同时可以为我国引入QFII提供政策建议。     

企业经营敏捷性的评价指标体系和模糊综合评价

企业经营敏捷性由一系列指标来体现．4个一级指标分别是市场反应程度、企业组织桑性、企业管理适应性与企业文化创新性、企业经营业绩．4个一级指标又包含19个二级指标．运用模糊综合评价方法,构建了企业经营敏捷性的评价模型．依托实际案例,使用所建立的评价指标体系和评价模型,对实例企业进行了模糊综合评价,根据评价结果判断企业是否具备经营敏捷性．     

核心人力资源对企业动态能力影响分析

企业动态能力是企业获取和发展可持续竞争优势的主要来源.面对当今激烈的市场竞争和不断变化的外部环境,如何培育企业的动态能力,已成为国内外学者所关注的热点问题.大量的研究表明,构建企业动态能力的关键要素在于企业的核心人力资源.因此,主要侧重于从核心入力资源管理的角度分析企业动态能力与核心人力资源的关系,包括核心人力资源如何影响动态能力的形成,以及在动态的环境下,核心人力资源应该怎样配合企业的总体战略提升企业竞争力提高企业的绩效.     

Corporate governance and firm performance: Evidence from Japanese manufacturing industries after the lost decade

This study investigates whether a series of recent economic reforms on corporate governance influence the operational performance of Japanese manufacturing industries after the bubble economy. This study finds that stable shareholding is an important aspect of traditional Japanese corporate governance. Many Japanese corporate leaders still believe that the stable shareholders are important for their governance. However, the stable shareholding enhances their operational performance only when the ratio of shares held by stable shareholders is more than 61.21%. This result is inconsistent with the previous governance strategy of Japanese management. Moreover, the foreign investment enhances the operational performance of Japanese firms until the ratio of shares held by foreign shareholders becomes 19.49%. Japanese corporate leaders are very afraid of the foreign investment. This result is inconsistent with their opinions, as well. The second result indicates that Japanese firms need to accept more foreign investment and pay attention to the opinion of foreign investors. Finally, it is important for Japanese firms to make a balance between the traditional stable shareholding and the foreign investment.     

Do investors like to diversify? A study of Markowitz preferences

We study rankings of completely and partially diversified portfolios and also of specialized assets when investors follow so-called Markowitz preferences. It turns out that diversification strategies for Markowitz investors are more complex than in the case of risk-averse and risk-inclined investors, whose investment strategies have been extensively investigated in the literature. In particular, we observe that for Markowitz investors, preferences toward risk vary depending on their sensitivities toward gains and losses. For example, it turns out that, unlike in the case of risk-averse and risk-inclined investors, Markowitz investors might prefer investing their entire wealth in just one asset. This finding helps us to better understand some financial anomalies and puzzles, such as the well known diversification puzzle, which notes that some investors tend to concentrate on investing in only a few assets instead of choosing the seemingly more attractive complete diversification.     

A general model of insurance and investment risk diversification

This article presents a model of insurance and investment risk diversification. An in-depth analysis of the mathematical formulation of the risk is presented. In this regard, we introduce a new concept called the substitution principle to formulate the model rigorously. We show that, if the investment risks are normally non-linear, the insurance risks are linear in nature. This proves that the well-known diversification principle has to be viewed differently in finance and in insurance.