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The purpose of this paper is to examine the association between company reputation and dividend policy.

In this study, sample of 98,809 firm-year observations from 22 countries covering 2005–2016 were used.

Firm reputation concerns are associated with higher propensities to pay dividends and payout ratios. Further, this positive effect is more pronounced for firms with high free cash flows, high information asymmetry and low institutional monitoring. The results are robust to an instrumental variable approach, propensity score matching and the Heckman two-stage correction approach while addressing endogeneity concerns.

These findings have significant implications for various stakeholders, such as existing and potential investors, managers, policymakers and regulators, by providing insights into the relationship between corporate reputation and firm dividend payout decisions. Corporate reputation is highlighted as crucial for accessing finance, emphasizing the role of national regulators and policymakers in facilitating firms' efforts to improve their reputation. The study highlights the dynamics of corporate reputation and dividend payout, calling for proactive engagement from regulators and policymakers. Crafting policies conducive to reputation-building can enhance firms' financial prospects, indicating the need for strategic interventions at managerial, regulatory and policy levels. Understanding the influence of economic context is crucial for firms to tailor reputation management strategies and optimize funding opportunities in different economic environments.

Overall, results suggest that reputation serves as a disciplining mechanism, where firms will pay dividends to maintain their reputations.

The purpose of our study is to investigate the effects of politically-connected boards (PCBs) on over-(under-)investment in labor. We also examine the impacts of the supervisory board (SB)’s optimal tenure on the association between PCBs and over-investment in labor.

We constructed the proxy for PCBs using a dummy variable set to 1 (one) if a firm has politically-connected boards and zero (0) otherwise. For the robustness check, we used the number of politically-connected members on the boards as the proxy for PCBs.

We find that the presence of PCBs reduces over-investment in labor. Consistent with our prediction, we found no significant association between PCBs and under-investment in labor. We also find that the SB with optimal tenure strengthens the negative association between PCBs and over-investment in labor. In our channel analysis, we find that the presence of PCB mitigates over-investment in labor through a higher dividend payout ratio.

Due to the unavailability of data in firms’ annual reports regarding the number of poorly-skilled and highly skilled employees, we were not able to examine the effect of low-skilled and high-skilled employees on over-investment in labor. Also, we were not able to examine over-(under-)investment in labor by drawing a distinction between general (generalist) and firm-specific human capital (specialist) as suggested by Sevcenko, Wu, and Kacperczyk (2022). Generally, it is more difficult for managers to hire highly-skilled employees, specialists in particular, thereby driving the choice of either over- or under-investing in the labor forces. In addition, in the firms’ annual reports, there is no information regarding temporary employees. Therefore, if and when such data become available, this would provide another avenue for future research.

Our study offers several practical implications and insights to stakeholders (e.g. insiders or management, shareholders, investors, analysts and creditors) in the following ways. First, our study highlights significant differences between capital investment and labor investment. For instance, labor investment is considered an expense rather than an asset (Wyatt, 2008) because, although such investment is human capital and is not recognized on the firm’s balance sheet (Boon et al., 2017). In addition, labor investment is characterized by: its flexibility which enables firms to make frequent adjustments (Hamermesh, 1995; Dixit & Pindyck, 2012; Aksin et al., 2015), its non-homogeneity since every employee is unique (Luo et al., 2020), its direct impact on morale and productivity of a firm (Azadegan et al., 2013; Mishina et al., 2004; Tatikonda et al., 2013), and its financial outlay which affects the ongoing cash flows of a firm (Sualihu et al., 2021; Khedmati et al., 2020; Merz & Yashiv, 2007). Second, our findings reveal that the presence of PCBs could help to reduce over-investment in labor. However, if managers of a firm choose to under-invest in labor in order to obtain better profit in the short-term through cost saving, they should be aware of the potential consequences of facing a financial loss when a new business opportunity suddenly arises which requires a larger labor force. Third, our findings help stakeholders to re-focus on the labor investment. This is crucial due to the fact that labor investment is often neglected by those stakeholders because the expenditure of labor investment is not recognized on the firm’s balance sheet as an asset. Instead, it is written off as an expense in the firm’s income statement. Fourth, our findings also provide insightful information to stakeholders, suggesting that an SB with optimal tenure is more committed to a firm, and this factor plays an important role in strengthening the negative association between PCBs and over-investment in labor.

First, our findings provide a valuable understanding of the effects of PCBs on over-(under-)investment in labor. Stakeholders could use information disclosed in the financial statements of a publicly-listed firm to determine the extent of the firm’s investment in labor and PCBs, and compare this information with similar firms in the same industry sector. Second, our findings give a better understanding of the association between investment in labor and political connections , which are human and social capital that could determine the long-term survival and success of a firm. Third, for shareholders, the appointment of board members with political connections is an important strategic decision to build political capital, which is likely to have a long-term impact on the financial performance of a firm; therefore, it requires thoughtful consultation with firm insiders.

Our findings highlight the role of PCBs in reducing over-investment in labor. These findings are significant because both investment in labor and political connections as human and social capital can play an important role in determining the long-term survival and success of a firm.

In recent years, the concept of logistics clusters has attracted the attention of several researchers and practitioners. It is an agglomeration of different types of companies and operations, notably those providing logistics services, such as supply chain organization, storage and distribution. The paper focuses on this concept by examining the factors influencing LSPs to enter the logistics clusters.

An exploratory qualitative study based on semi-structured interviews was conducted. Regarding the sample size, the author interviewed 31 professionals belonging to logistics clusters located in the Moroccan economic metropolis of Casablanca.

The results show that the cost reduction, the reputation of the cluster, the learning from other LSPs, the communal services, the geographical proximity and the role of public authorities are the main factors impacting the entry of logistics service providers into these clusters.

This theme has never been investigated. Therefore, this research expands the literature review and tries to examine this gap of literature by studying the factors that can affect the adhesion of logistics service providers to these clusters.

In recent years, the concept of logistics cluster has attracted the attention of several researchers and practitioners. It is an agglomeration of different types of companies and operations: notably, those providing logistics services, such as supply chain organization, storage and distribution. The paper focuses on this concept by examining the factors influencing logistics service providers (LSPs) to enter the logistics clusters.

An exploratory qualitative study based on semi-structured interviews was conducted. Regarding the sample size, the author interviewed 31 professionals belonging to logistics clusters located in the Moroccan economic metropolis: Casablanca.

The results show that the cost reduction, the reputation of the cluster, the learning from other LSP, the communal services, the geographical proximity, and the role of public authorities are the main factors impacting the entry of LSPs into these clusters.

The findings of this study provide several practical insights for LSPs, government authorities, and cluster managers. For LSPs, understanding the key factors influencing their entry into logistics clusters—such as cost reduction, proximity and the role of public authorities—enables them to make strategic decisions that optimize their operations and enhance competitiveness. For cluster managers, the study highlights the importance of maintaining a strong cluster reputation and fostering collaboration between LSPs to attract new entrants. Finally, public authorities can leverage the insights to design policies that incentivize LSPs to join clusters by providing infrastructure, financial support and governance structures that align with industry needs.

This theme has never been investigated. Therefore, this research expands the literature review and tries to examine this gap of literature by studying the factors that can affect the adhesion of LSPs to these clusters.

This study aims to explore the extent to which Chinese multinational enterprises (MNEs) rely on supranational institution – the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) – versus host country institutional quality to navigate their foreign location choice.

This study uses a conditional logit regression model using a sample of 1,302 greenfield investments by Chinese MNEs in 54 BRI participating countries during the period 2011–2018.

The results indicate that as a supranational institution, the BRI serves as a substitution mechanism to address the deficiencies in institutional quality in BRI participating countries, thereby attracting Chinese MNEs to invest in those countries. In addition, the BRI’s substitution effect on host country institutional quality is more pronounced for large MNEs, MNEs in the manufacturing industry and MNEs in inland regions.

This study expands the understanding of the BRI as a supranational institution for MNEs from emerging markets and reveals its substitution effect on the host country institutional quality. Furthermore, it highlights that MNEs with diverse characteristics gain varying degrees of benefits from the BRI.

This study aims to empirically investigate how knowledge paradox affects collaboration performance. Knowledge paradox, which arises from the simultaneous need for knowledge sharing and protection, is common in interorganizational collaboration. Using the ambidexterity perspective, this paper aims to reexamine the effect of the knowledge paradox on collaborative performance to explore the moderating roles of structural and contextual ambidexterity.

This study used a sample of 153 firms involved in vertical and horizontal collaboration, collected via questionnaires. Hypotheses were tested using hierarchical regression analysis.

This study demonstrates that the stronger the knowledge paradox is, the higher the potential for value creation. Thus, knowledge paradox has a positive impact on collaborative performance. The functions of structural ambidexterity and contextual ambidexterity strengthen this positive relationship.

This paper not only expands the theoretical application of the knowledge paradox and ambidexterity theory in the context of interorganizational relationships but also provides significant managerial implications. By comprehending the dynamics of the knowledge paradox and the role of ambidexterity, managers can make well-informed decisions to enhance their collaborative performance.

This paper aims to investigate the following issues: the mechanisms through which different types of top management team’s social capital influence the innovation quality of high-tech firms, and the moderating effect of organizational knowledge utilization on the relationship between top management team’s social capital and innovation quality in high-tech firms.

This study categorizes top management team’s social capital into political, business and academic dimensions, investigating their impact on innovation quality in high-tech firms. Furthermore, a research model is developed with organizational knowledge utilization as the moderating variable. Data from Chinese high-tech firms between 2010 and 2019 are collected as samples for analysis.

The innovation quality of high-tech firms shows an inverted U-shaped trend as the top management team’s political capital and business capital increase. The top management team’s academic capital has a significantly positive correlation with the innovation quality of high-tech firms. Moreover, organizational knowledge utilization plays a significant moderating role in the relationship between the top management team’s social capital and innovation quality in high-tech firms.

This study explores the relationship among different dimensions of top management team’s social capital, innovation quality and organizational knowledge utilization. It holds significant theoretical value in enriching and refining the interactions between top management team’s social capital, knowledge management theory and innovation management theory. In addition, it offers important practical implications for firms to rationally approach top management team’s social capital, emphasize top management team configuration management and establish a comprehensive and efficient organizational knowledge utilization mechanism.

The inherent variability on process times and demand are the factors that prevent the efficient application of lean philosophy in multi-project product development (PD) environments. Considering this variability, a hybrid push–pull project control system is developed, and value stream costing (VSC) analysis is performed to reflect the relation between project lead time, capacity and project cost. The assessment of the push/pull project control on lead time improvement and long-term savings on capacity have been aimed with the proposed complete design structure.

In a team-based structure, formed through clustering, push control techniques for planning tasks within cross-functional teams and pull control techniques for planning tasks between cross-functional teams are developed. The final step evaluates the proposed structure through VSC and long-term savings have been pointed out, especially in terms of freed-up capacity. For the validation of the proposed methodology, an office furniture manufacturing firm’s PD department has been considered and the performance of the hybrid system has been observed through simulation experiments and based on the simulation results, the lean system is evaluated by VSC.

The results of simulation experiments show a superior performance of the proposed hybrid push/pull project control mechanism under different settings of cycle time between projects or shortly project cycle time, dispatching rules within teams and variability levels. The results of the Box-Score (tool to apply VSC) indicate increased capacity in the long term to add extra projects during the planning period with the same project lead time and without additional cost.

Although extensive simulation experiments have been performed to quantify the effect of project control structure and positive results have been reported on lead time and cost, the proposed design structure has not been tested in all existing PD environments.

To the best of authors’ knowledge, the quantification of the effect of hybrid project control with VSC is the first attempt to be applied in lean PD projects.

In developing countries, rapid industrial growth frequently results in companies with high pollution levels, which in turn exhibit characteristics such as elevated emissions, increased energy consumption and overcapacity. In order to promote sustainable development among these heavily polluting firms, it is essential to implement a system of incentives and penalties that encourages environmentally responsible behaviour. China's environmental protection tax has replaced the previous pollution discharge fee (PDF) system. This tax aims to guide enterprises towards continuous adjustments and improvements in their production methods, increased investments in green technology, adoption of environmentally friendly production methods, reduced pollutant emissions and promotion of high-quality development. This chapter analyses how China's Environmental Protection Tax Law, enforced in 2018, affects the sustainable development capabilities of A-share listed companies in China. We utilise a difference-in-differences (DiD) model and measure total factor productivity (TFP) to quantify the impact of the tax law on these enterprises. TFP is a key indicator used to measure the effectiveness of resources utilised by enterprises in the production process. Our empirical analysis provides compelling evidence that the implementation of environmental protection taxes has significantly enhanced the TFP of heavily polluting enterprises. Importantly, the impact of these taxes is more pronounced for state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in comparison to their private counterparts in this sector. These findings offer valuable insights for policymakers in developing countries as they consider the design of environmental protection tax systems and supportive measures to promote sustainable development of companies with significant environmental impacts.