Abstract

We investigate the political determinants of residual state ownership for a unique database of 221 privatized firms operating in 27 emerging countries over the 1980 to 2001 period. After controlling for firm-level and other country-level characteristics, we find that the political institutions in place, namely, the political system and political constraints, are important determinants of residual state ownership in newly privatized firms. Unlike previous evidence that political ideology is an important determinant of privatization policies in developed countries, we find that right- or left-oriented governments do not behave differently in developing countries. These results confirm that privatization is politically constrained by dynamics that differ between countries.

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Abstract

This article proposes and empirically tests a theoretical framework incorporating Reidenbach and Robin’s (J Bus Ethics 10(4):273–284, 1991) conceptual model of corporate moral development. The framework is used to examine the relation between governance and business ethics, as proxied by diversity management (DM), and financial reporting quality, as proxied by the magnitude of earnings management (EM). The level of DM and governance quality are measured in accordance with the ratings of Jantzi Research (JR), a leading provider of social and governance research for institutional investors. This DM score is part of an index developed by JR that investment managers use to integrate DM criteria into their investment decisions. As expected, a negative relation between corporate DM development and financial reporting quality is found while controlling for other factors known in the literatures on governance and accounting choices to affect earnings quality. Despite some caveats presented in conclusion, this study contributes to the ethics, governance, and financial reporting literatures by studying the dynamics between governance and ethics in the prevention of EM.

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Abstract

The aim of this contribution is to depict and analyze the dynamics of situated creativity by presenting an anatomy of the creative city and an understanding of the emergence and formation of creative processes in these particular local ecologies of knowledge. We propose to study the anatomy of the creative city by defining three different layers—the upperground, the middleground and the underground—as the basic components of the creative processes in local innovative milieus. Each one of these layers intervenes with specific characteristics in the creative process, and enables new knowledge to transit from an informal micro-level to a formal macro-level. In order to illustrate this point of view, the creative city of Montral is analyzed through two main case studies: Ubisoft and the Cirque du Soleil.

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Abstract

This paper identifies a new industry-equilibrium channel through which a firm’s productivity affects its organizational choice. In a two-country model with firm heterogeneity and incomplete contracts, we show that the degree of input specificity and the hold-up friction in an outsourcing relation become a function of the final good firm’s productivity when inputs are not completely specific. We examine the implications for the equilibrium international sorting pattern of firms.

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Abstract

In this article, we make use of a unique world electronics production dataset to assess China’s upgrading trajectory in the global electronics industry. Contrary to existing trade studies, we find no evidence that China’s electronics production activities are more sophisticated than one would expect from its level of development. We also find little evidence that China is rapidly upgrading into more sophisticated production activities.

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Abstract

Electricity trade across regions is often considered welfare enhancing. We show in this paper that this should be reconsidered if environmental externalities are taken into account. We consider two cases where trade is beneficial, before accounting for environmental damages: first, when two regions with the same technology display some demand heterogeneity; second when one region endowed with hydropower arbitrages with its “thermal” neighbor. Our results show that under reasonable demand and supply elasticities, trade comes with an additional environmental cost. This calls for integrating environmental externalities into market reforms when redesigning the electricity sector. Two North American applications illustrate our results: trade between Pennsylvania and New York, and trade between hydro-rich Quebec and New York.

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Abstract

We study the determinants of a firm’s decision to issue one of the four available ADR programs (Level I, Level II, Level III, and Rule 144A). We find that the firm’s attributes (size, income, asset growth, leverage, privatization, ownership structure, and country-of-origin) and the firm’s home-country institutional variables (accounting rating and legal protection of minority shareholders) condition this choice. We also examine the issuing activity and the determinants of the ADR choice before and after the enactment of the Sarbanes–Oxley (SOX) Act. Following this structural change, we provide evidence of a reallocation between ADR programs. Compared to the pre-SOX period, firms from emerging markets, and those from countries with weak legal protection of minority shareholders, are more likely after SOX to choose Rule 144A and Level III, respectively.

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Abstract

The study of how firms change their strategic behavior is extensive, yet little research has been performed on strategic change in a transitional context. This study seeks to broaden understanding of strategic behavior by contrasting the strategic choices of firms operating in the more-developed eastern China against firms operating in the less-developed western China. In these varying institutional settings, findings suggest that changes in a firm’s strategic pattern can be described using Miles and Snow’s typology. Change patterns are determined by institutional characteristics and are associated with firm capabilities. The findings also show that, even though capabilities appear to be similar, east-based firms tend to make choices that are less defensive and more risky, while west-based firms select more risk-averse options. These findings are important for the design of major change, in particular, in institutionally differentiated environments, such as those in Europe. The findings also suggest that future research on strategic change should take into account environment heterogeneity and the effect of change on firm performance.

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Abstract

PPP and managing complexity : new challenges for the state – PPPs tend to be seen as an ideal form of organisation, enabling the state to achieve economic and social objectives without releasing funds or having to manage the resulting services. This is a utopian view. It is in fact the case that PPPs are increasing the complexity of the state, as happened with state-owned enterprises. In this article, state management is compared to that of a diversified company and demonstrate that although PPPs are remarkable organisational innovations, they must be properly managed if they are to live up to their promise. They are managed in a similar way to state-owned enterprises and this can lead to the same problems. With regard to the developments proposed, this article also suggests how PPP management can be organised on a practical level.

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Abstract

The purpose of this contribution is to examine the evolutionary transformations that have characterised the UK defence innovation system since the mid 1980s. It focuses on the central and challenging issue faced by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) in implementing effective governance mechanisms emerging from the continuous trade-off between short-term market driven measures motivated by efficiency arguments, and more long term and relational considerations in terms of knowledge economics. Furthermore, in terms of technology transfer, this evolution has been accompanied by a gradual shift from an initial logic of spin-off to society expected from government driven military projects, to a logic of spin-in where the main concern of the military sector is to broaden its industrial and R&D base.

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