Marc van Essen, Pursey P.M.A.R. Heugens, Patricio Duran, Sabrina F. Saleh, Steve Sauerwald, Hans van Oosterhout and En Xie
The purpose of this study is to investigate how concentrated owners add value to Asian firms. While prior research suggests that relational owners (i.e., business groups, top…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to investigate how concentrated owners add value to Asian firms. While prior research suggests that relational owners (i.e., business groups, top management team, board, government, banks, families, and corporation) may help firms fill institutional voids, this study proposes that it is transactional owners (i.e., foreign and institutional investors) lacking this ability who contribute most to firm performance. As these owners frequently hail from contexts with well-developed corporate governance traditions, they tend to have experience with the design and implementation of such governance practices.
Design/methodology/approach
This study involves a meta-analysis covering 276 studies from 17 Asian countries.
Findings
This study shows that transactional owners impose effective governance practices such as separating the chief executive officer (CEO) and Chair roles and assuring board independence. These practices promote decisions benefiting all shareholders, such as preventing diversification and financial over-leveraging.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the comparative corporate governance literature by showing that implementing internal governance practices helps improve firm performance in Asia. It also contributes to the owner identity literature by opening the black box of how transactional and relational owners differentially affect firms’ strategic behavior. Overall, this study yields a more nuanced understanding of what transactional owners contribute to Asian firms.
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Monica Singhania and Gurmani Chadha
As of 2022, the scope of the engagement and interest of debt capital providers in ESG reporting is mainly untapped. However, a vast amount of literature has produced conflicting…
Abstract
Purpose
As of 2022, the scope of the engagement and interest of debt capital providers in ESG reporting is mainly untapped. However, a vast amount of literature has produced conflicting findings about the importance of debt capital (leverage) as a factor in sustainability reporting (SR). This is the first meta-analysis reconciling the mixed results of 85 single country studies containing 131 effect sizes across 24,482 firms conducted over past three decades (1999–2022) investigating the influence of leverage on SR. The study emphasizes the significance of contextualizing research by identifying the macro-environmental elements modifying debt's impact on SR, through the use of the institutional theory. Eleven country variables were tested on the collected dataset, spread across 36 countries.
Design/methodology/approach
Meta-analysis technique for aggregation of existing extant empirical work. Continuous and categorical variable-based moderator analysis to demystify the influence of country characteristics affecting the leverage–SR relationship.
Findings
Results show positive significant impact of debt capital providers on SR. Country's level of development, GDP, extent of capital constraints in a country, financial sector development within a nation, country governance factors and corruption levels, country's culture, number of sustainability reporting instruments operational in a country and geographical location proved to be significant moderators.
Research limitations/implications
The study details relevant meaningful research gaps, worthy of uptake by researchers to produce targeted research.
Practical implications
Governments must increasingly go beyond their mandated disclosure role and acknowledge the important institutional factors that have contributed to the expansion of ESG reporting through the creation of nation-specific tools, incentive structures and disclosure-encouraging regulations. To secure a steady flow of funding and prevent negative effects on company value and cost of capital in the midst of prolonged global economic upheaval, businesses must address the information requirements of lenders. The limited total effect size emphasizes the necessity for debt providers to step up their ESG activism and exercise their maximum power and potential in stimulating extensive SR firm-level practices.
Originality/value
The present study is the first meta-analysis reconciling the mixed results of 85 single-country studies containing 131 effect sizes across 24,482 firms conducted over the past three decades (1999–2022) investigating the influence of leverage on SR and demystifying the macro-environmental factors affecting the leverage–SR association.
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The purpose of the study is to examine how operating efficiencies from incentive alignment compensate for rent extraction in family firms. The author asks whether ownership (1…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the study is to examine how operating efficiencies from incentive alignment compensate for rent extraction in family firms. The author asks whether ownership (1) improves operating efficiencies to increase firm value, (2) positively affects related-party transactions (RPTs), or (3) destroys firm value. Finally, the author assesses whether the incentive effect dominates the entrenchment effect.
Design/methodology/approach
This study employs a panel of 333 listed family firms (and 185 nonfamily firms) and handles endogeneity using a dynamic panel system GMM and panel VAR.
Findings
Ownership decreases discretionary expenses and increases asset utilization to add firm value. The efficiency gains generate more value in family firms, especially majority-held ones, than in nonmajority ones. However, ownership is also related to increased RPTs (especially dubious loans/guarantees), reducing firm value. RPTs destroy value more severely in the family (or group) firms than in nonfamily (nongroup) firms. It could be why ownership's positive impact on value is lower in family firms than in nonfamily firms. Overall, the incentive effect dominates the entrenchment effect and is robust to controlling private benefits of control in the dynamic ownership-value model.
Research limitations/implications
(1) A family firm's ownership may not be optimal. (2) The firm's long-term commitment as a dynasty limits the scale of expropriation yet sustains impetus for long-term value creation. The paradox partly explains why large family holdings and firm-specific investments endure over generations. (3) This way, large ownership substitutes weak investor protection in India despite tunneling as skin in the game provides necessary investor confidence. (4) Future studies can examine whether extraction varies with family generations and how family characteristics affect the incentive effects.
Practical implications
(1) Concentrated ownership may not be a wrong policy choice in emerging markets to draw firm-specific investments. (2) Investors, auditors, or creditors must pay closer attention to loans/guarantees. (3) More vigorous enforcement, auditor scrutiny, and board oversight are needed.
Social implications
Family firms are not necessarily a bad organization type that destroys investor wealth. They can be valuably efficient due to their ownership and wealth concentration, and frugality. They matter in the economic growth of a developing market like India.
Originality/value
(1) Extends ownership-performance research to family firms and shows that although ownership facilitates tunneling, the incentive effect dominates; (2) family ownership is not impacted by firm value; (3) family ownership levels reduce discretionary expenses and increase asset utilization to create added value, especially in majority-held family firms; (4) RPTs and loans/guarantees increase with ownership; (5) value erosion from RPTs is higher in family (group) firms than in other firms.
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Bent Petersen and Rene E. Seifert
The chapter provides an economic explanation and perspectivation of strategic asset seeking of multinational enterprises from emerging economies (EMNEs) as a prominent feature of…
Abstract
Purpose
The chapter provides an economic explanation and perspectivation of strategic asset seeking of multinational enterprises from emerging economies (EMNEs) as a prominent feature of today’s global economy.
Approach
The authors apply and extend the “springboard perspective.” This perspective submits that EMNEs acquire strategic assets in developed markets primarily for use in their home markets.
Findings
The authors succumb that the springboard perspective is alluring theoretically as well as empirically as it suggests that when EMNEs acquire strategic assets, they experience liabilities of foreignness (LOF) that are low relative to those of MNEs from developed markets. The authors concede to this LOF asymmetry but also point out that liabilities of outsidership (LOO) can offset or weaken the home-market advantage of some EMNEs when competing with MNEs.
Research implications
LOO appears as the more relevant concept to use when explaining strategic asset seeking of EMNEs. A set of propositions are formulated to guide empirical testing.
Originality/value
The insights gained from using the springboard perspective and the LOO concept are non-trivial: They basically predict future dominance of ‘insider’ EMNEs at the expense of MNEs from developed markets.
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Daniel Michael Peat and Jaclyn Perrmann-Graham
The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of entrepreneurial passion, specifically venture obsession, in agentic relationships within entrepreneurial contexts. It aims to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of entrepreneurial passion, specifically venture obsession, in agentic relationships within entrepreneurial contexts. It aims to develop a new conceptualization of the role of the venture in these relationships and explore the negative impacts that can arise from the obsessive passion for the venture. The paper contributes to the literature by shedding light on the complexities of agency outside of large for-profit firms, unpacking components of self-interest in the agentic relationship and challenging the assumption that entrepreneurial passion is always beneficial for both the entrepreneur and the venture.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper employs theoretical framework development and conceptual mapping to explore the role of entrepreneurial passion, specifically venture obsession, in agentic relationships within entrepreneurial contexts. We conducted a comprehensive literature review and synthesis of existing research on agency theory, entrepreneurial passion and venture obsession. By integrating these insights, we developed a new conceptual framework that theorizes the negative impacts of venture obsession on agentic relationships and venture performance. This approach allows us to propose a nuanced model that highlights the complexities and potential maladaptive behaviors associated with obsessive passion in entrepreneurship.
Findings
Venture obsession can have detrimental outcomes, such as escalation of commitment and ignoring external feedback, due to the intense focus on protecting the venture at all costs.
Originality/value
The study highlights the impact of venture obsession on agentic relationships, emphasizing the balance between autonomy, competence and relatedness that entrepreneurs strive to maintain for their well-being. While previous research has explored the role of entrepreneurial passion and its effects on venture performance, this study extends the understanding by delving into the darker side of passion when it transforms into obsessive agency. By emphasizing the importance of maintaining a healthy balance in agentic relationships and considering the psychological well-being of entrepreneurs, this study adds nuance and depth to the existing knowledge on the subject.
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Elisabeth Hoff-Clausen and Øyvind Ihlen
The prime goal of this chapter is to discuss what the notion of rhetorical citizenship as a normative aspiration might entail for corporations.
Abstract
Purpose
The prime goal of this chapter is to discuss what the notion of rhetorical citizenship as a normative aspiration might entail for corporations.
Methodology/approach
The chapter draws on a pilot study of the Facebook pages of two banks. A rhetorical criticism of these pages was conducted.
Findings
We suggest that while corporations are assuredly entities very different from the individual citizens who hold civil, social, and political rights – which do not directly apply to corporations – rhetorical citizenship is nevertheless a suggestive and constructive metaphor for corporations to communicate by.
Research limitations/implications
Rhetorical citizenship for corporations must, we argue, be(come) rooted in organizational reality, and should involve a continued critical questioning as to what might constitute citizenly communication for corporations under any given circumstances. The chapter is, however, built on limited data from a pilot study and needs to be complemented.
Practical implications
We suggest from our pilot study that the active engagement of corporations in social media may currently be seen as one form of rhetorical citizenship that the public expects corporations to enact. Thus, we argue, corporations in general might as well attempt to do their best to act as rhetorical citizens.
Originality/value
The chapter highlights how communication is a set of practices in which social responsibility must be enacted. We find that this is not a prevalent perspective in the existing literature on CSR and communication.
Li Wang, Longwei Wang and Min Zhang
Based on social capital theory and the institutional theory, this paper aims to explain how a firm’s business ties and political ties affect contractual governance in an interfirm…
Abstract
Purpose
Based on social capital theory and the institutional theory, this paper aims to explain how a firm’s business ties and political ties affect contractual governance in an interfirm cooperation, and under which institutional conditions they can play a better role.
Design/methodology/approach
This study tests conceptual model using questionnaire survey data collected from 227 firms in China. Hierarchical regression analysis is used to test the hypotheses.
Findings
This study finds that business ties have significant effect on contract completeness, while political ties have significant effect on contract enforcement. Moreover, these effects are contingent on some institutional factors. Market information transparency strengthens the effect of business ties on contract completeness and weakens the effect of political ties on contract completeness. Legal system completeness weakens the effect of political ties on contract enforcement.
Practical implications
This study suggests that managers could actively and selectively use their managerial ties to enhance contractual governance in an interfirm cooperation.
Originality/value
This study adds to the current understanding of how an interfirm cooperation is shaped by the firm’s social capital derived from external network relationships and extends the research on what social antecedents affect contractual governance. Moreover, this study sheds new light on when managerial ties can play a more beneficial role in emerging economies.
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Randy Kurniawan, Dyah Budiastuti, Mohammad Hamsal and Wibowo Kosasih
This study aims to examine the effect of networking capability through market orientation and business process agility on the firm performance of medium and large…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine the effect of networking capability through market orientation and business process agility on the firm performance of medium and large telecommunication technology providers in Indonesia.
Design/methodology/approach
Research data was collected from the executive management of telecommunication technology providers in Indonesia via a questionnaire survey to obtain 150 valid questionnaires for analysis. This study analysed the overall model fit and hypotheses through confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling.
Findings
The results reveal that networking capability has a positive and significant effect on market orientation. However, networking capability does not have a significant direct effect on business process agility. The results also indicate that market orientation does not have a significant direct effect on firm performance but through the mediating role of business process agility.
Practical implications
The findings provide a practical foundation for the organisation’s networking capability to be framed by market orientation and business process agility to enhance firm performance.
Originality/value
The results indicate that market orientation mediates the relationship between networking capability and business process agility. The findings also reveal that business process agility mediates the relationship between market orientation and firm performance. This study also reconceptualises market orientation to embody the inter-partner coordination dimension and reconceptualise business process agility to embody business partner switching capability.
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Randy Kurniawan, Adler Haymans Manurung, Mohammad Hamsal and Wibowo Kosasih
This study examines the collaborative impact of networking capability and balanced agile project management (APM) on firm performance through the mediating role of market…
Abstract
Purpose
This study examines the collaborative impact of networking capability and balanced agile project management (APM) on firm performance through the mediating role of market orientation and business process agility of medium and large telecommunication technology providers in Indonesia.
Design/methodology/approach
Research data were collected from the executive management of telecommunication technology providers in Indonesia via a questionnaire survey to obtain 150 valid questionnaires for analysis. This study analyzed the overall model fit and causal relationship using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM).
Findings
The results indicate that market orientation fully mediates the link between networking capability-business process agility and balanced APM-business process agility. Furthermore, business process agility mediates the relationship between market orientation and firm performance.
Research limitations/implications
This study is based on a cross-sectional nature and might fail to capture the dynamic of the studied variables over an extended period.
Originality/value
The study extends the knowledge that dynamic capabilities, represented by networking capability and balanced APM, must be framed by market orientation to create customer value and improve bargaining position. However, market orientation alone is not enough in a highly dynamic business environment. Organization also requires business process agility, responsiveness and adaptability to timely address customers' needs and requirements.