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Periods of financial distress represent an episode during the firm’s life that requires an effective governance structure in the interests of shareholders. Changes in corporate governance structure are examined as firms approach and emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The purpose of this paper is to posit that firms alter their governance toward a more effective framework during restructuring, leading to emergence as a better performing firm.

The data set includes large firms that filed for bankruptcy between 1998 and 2013. Financial and governance characteristics prior to filing are compared to traits following emergence. The likelihood of emerging from bankruptcy is tested based on governance characteristics prior to filing and the change in these characteristics during bankruptcy.

The results show that firms use the bankruptcy process to significantly change their governance characteristics. These changes include smaller boards, greater board independence, unitary boards, the separation of the CEO and chairman positions, and changes in the ownership structure. Despite these changes, performance following emergence does not improve, and the changes in governance structure do not alter the likelihood that the firm will emerge.

This study, unlike previous studies, takes a broad look at governance characteristics for firms before and after bankruptcy. The findings imply that “better” governance, as defined in the literature, is not necessarily the pathway to better performance as many posit. The factors that influence the likelihood of emerging from bankruptcy and post-emergence performance require further study.

Firms issuing equity securities for capital must recognize that this issuance may alter the ownership concentration of the firm. Through this change in ownership structure, the market liquidity of the firm's stock may also change, which has implications for the cost of equity capital and firm value. This paper aims to examine a specific security, the common stock purchase warrant, within this context. It also aims to posit that the decision to issue warrants has important implications for the firm's subsequent ownership structure and market liquidity.

The paper's unique dataset of warrant‐issuing firms tracks the warrants from their issue through to their exercise. Based on the study of SEOs by Kothare, the ownership concentration and market liquidity of the underlying stock prior to and following warrant exercises are measured. The paper examines the causal relations between warrant exercises and ownership changes, and between ownership changes and market liquidity.

The paper shows that firms experience a statistically and economically significant decrease in ownership concentration following warrant exercises. Examining the liquidity effects of this change in ownership, it shows that market liquidity increases significantly after the exercise of warrants, consistent with the literature. The decrease in concentration following warrant exercises is experienced exclusively by firm insiders. The paper also finds that outsiders increase their holdings in firms with a high concentration of inside holdings and in firms with a low concentration of outside holdings prior to warrant exercises; that is, they use warrant offerings to increase their influence in the firm.

This study is the first to the authors' knowledge that investigates warrants through their entire life span, and the first to examine the effects of warrant exercises on the performance and market liquidity of the firm. The results contribute to securities issuance, ownership, and liquidity literatures.

A growing body of research outlines how to best facilitate and ensure methodological rigor when using dictionary-based computerized text analyses (DBCTA) in organizational research. However, these best practices are currently scattered across several methodological and empirical manuscripts, making it difficult for scholars new to the technique to implement DBCTA in their own research. To better equip researchers looking to leverage this technique, this methodological report consolidates current best practices for applying DBCTA into a single, practical guide. In doing so, we provide direction regarding how to make key design decisions and identify valuable resources to help researchers from the beginning of the research process through final publication. Consequently, we advance DBCTA methods research by providing a one-stop reference for novices and experts alike concerning current best practices and available resources.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the investment characteristics of works by leading Australian artists.

About 35,805 paintings by 45 leading Australian artists sold at auction are used to construct individual hedonic price indices. The attributes included in each artist's hedonic regression model include the size and medium of the painting and the auction house and year sold.

The indexes show that average annual returns across all artists range between 4 and 15 per cent with a mean of 8 per cent, with the highest returns for works by Brett Whiteley, Jeffrey Smart, Cecil Brack and Margaret Olley. Risk‐adjusted returns are generally lower, with reward‐to‐volatility and reward‐to‐variability ratios averaging 1.5 and 5.8 per cent, respectively. The portfolio βs for individual artistic works average 0.41. The willingness‐to‐pay for perceived attributes in the artwork show that works executed in oils and gouache, and those auctioned by Deutscher‐Menzies, Sotheby's and Christies are generally associated with higher prices.

The returns on a buy‐and‐hold strategy in the Australian art market are at least comparable to the Australian stock market. While total risk is greater, the very low market risk found in almost all artistic portfolios is suggestive of the possible benefits of portfolio diversification through art investment. Moreover, a number of artist's works offer very superior market and non‐market risk‐adjusted performance.

This is the first Australian study to construct measures of risk, return, β and Sharpe and Treynor ratios for individual Australian artists.

Historically, a transactional perspective has dominated the business negotiation literature. This perspective includes the notions that business negotiations are a linear process that follows episodic or stage models, business negotiations are geared toward an outcome in the form of a one-time transaction, business negotiations focus on a single negotiator or negotiation in a dyad and the research has historically viewed negotiation as a “zero-sum” game. Inspired by a long tradition of empirical studies of business relationships, there is good reason to apply a conceptual analysis to challenge these four assumptions and propose an alternative view on the negotiation process. The purpose of this paper is to contrast how aspects of business negotiations are commonly conceptualized with the industrial marketing and purchasing (IMP) perspective and develop propositions that will contribute to future research by offering guidelines for the development of business negotiation literature.

To contribute to a discussion on the relation between conceptualization and research results, definitions within the existing literature regarding business negotiation are contrasted with similar definitions of concepts from the IMP perspective.

Four propositions have been formulated that further the conceptual understanding of business negotiation. Moreover, a need for future methodological deliberations is demonstrated, and suggestions for future research in the field are offered.

Introducing a relational perspective into the conceptually rather underdeveloped stream of research would help to develop the existing critique within the business negotiation literature of its transactional, linear and dyadic focus.

We examine gender diversity in Spanish multinational companies to test whether their policies in the different countries (i.e. institutional contexts) in which they operate (mainly Latin American countries) are consistent with institutional norms.

After reviewing the relevant literature, we compare longitudinal gender employment data for some of the largest Spanish multinationals. We then extend the analysis to different organizational levels as well as cross-sectionally, to their Latin American subsidiaries.

While not universal, the largest Spanish multinationals show progress in their compliance of gender recommendations within their national borders, in spite of the voluntary character of the relevant legislation. In addition, their subsidiaries sometimes exhibit better gender proportions than the national averages in Latin American countries.

The study’s emphasis on some of the largest Spanish multinational corporations cannot be considered representative of all Spanish companies or of subsidiaries in those host countries.

This study may be of use for politicians, boards of directors, and other decision makers that need to be factually aware of the way these firms manage workplace diversity.

This study shows that some of the largest Spanish firms are slowly exhibiting responsible behavior with respect to female employment, both longitudinally and in their subsidiaries. The fact that this is not a consistent tendency lends support to the argument that existing legislation should have stronger normative pressures, such as fines and penalties for noncompliance.

There are two broad approaches in the literature to studying challenges faced in multicultural teams. One approach is to examine the effects of demographic differences among individual team members (e.g., gender, ethnicity, age) on group process. This literature supports the notion that compositional heterogeneity can be both positive and negative in terms of successful group process (Ely & Thomas, 2001). On one hand, heterogeneity increases the chances that a group will bring a wide range of experiences and consider multiple perspectives in solving problems (Ancona & Caldwell, 1992; Jehn et al., 1999). On the other, heterogeneity makes it more difficult for groups to establish effective group process. For example, it is more difficult for heterogeneous groups to communicate and to develop work norms (Bettenhausen & Murnighan, 1985). They are also more prone to conflict (Jehn & Mannix, 2001; Jehn et al., 1999). So, although the theoretical benefits of diversity to pool unique perspectives and resources exist, they are more difficult to attain and sustain in practice.

Understanding how dyadic negotiations and group decision processes evolve over time requires specifying the basic elements of process, modeling the configuration of those elements over time, and providing a theoretical explanation for that configuration. We propose a bead metaphor for conceptualizing the basic elements of the group negotiation process and then “string” the beads of behavior in a helix framework to model the process by which group negotiations evolve. Our theorizing draws on the group decision development literature (e.g. Bales, 1953; Poole, 1981, 1983a, b; Poole & Roth, 1989a, b) as well as on the negotiation process literature (e.g. Gulliver, 1979; Morley & Stephenson, 1977). Our examples are from our Towers Market studies of negotiating groups.