Kebin Deng, Haoyan Chen and Dongmin Kong
– The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of idiosyncratic risk on firm decisions.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of idiosyncratic risk on firm decisions.
Design/methodology/approach
By introducing managerial ownership as a key variable, the paper presents a parsimonious model to describe the consequences of idiosyncratic risk on firm decisions. Then the paper uses data from the Chinese stock market, in which the managerial ownership is very low (around 0.02 percent) to examine the model predictions.
Findings
The authors find that: first, the negative relation between idiosyncratic risk and firm investment, which is found in prior studies, tends to be insignificant when managerial ownership is very low; second, diversification, as an alternative firm decision to lower risk positively, relates to idiosyncratic risk despite lower managerial ownership; and third, this kind of positive relation is weaker for firms with more managerial incentives when diversification is endogenously modeled.
Originality/value
This paper provides new evidence to complement existing studies from developed markets, in which executives hold substantial stakes.
Details
Keywords
The purpose of this paper is to explore how multinationality affects multinational companies’ (MNCs) downside risk and the moderate effects of ownership structure in the setting…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore how multinationality affects multinational companies’ (MNCs) downside risk and the moderate effects of ownership structure in the setting of emerging markets based on Chinese publicly traded manufacturing MNCs.
Design/methodology/approach
The author derives hypotheses based on real options theory and agency theory, and tests hypotheses by using Tobit model and a unique data set of Chinese A-shared publicly traded manufacturing MNCs in the period of 2010–2016.
Findings
The empirical results suggest that multinationality is positively related to downside risk and this effect is subjected to ownership structure for firms in emerging markets. In particular, multinationality of MNCs with a high level of ownership concentration, managerial ownership and institutional ownership is more likely to reduce downside risk.
Practical implications
The main conclusion of this paper highlights the importance of ownership structure of MNCs in explaining the real options value of multinationality, and conveys to owners of MNCs in China and other emerging markets the need to strengthen firms’ governance if they want to maximize the benefits of multinational operations.
Originality/value
This study extends existing studies by taking ownership structure into consideration and highlighting the importance of agency problem in the examination of multinationality and downside risk, which provides a potential explanation for previous mixed evidence. This study also provides new evidence for the relationship between multinationality and downside risk by using a unique sample from China, an emerging market country.
Details
Keywords
This chapter builds on the authors’ research into the internationalization of China’s higher education (HE) as soft power with “Chinese characteristics” (Lo & Pan, 2020). It…
Abstract
This chapter builds on the authors’ research into the internationalization of China’s higher education (HE) as soft power with “Chinese characteristics” (Lo & Pan, 2020). It rethinks the “Chinese characteristics” in contemporary China’s internationalization of HE as soft power, by contextualizing them in the historico-cultural rootedness that legitimizes the sense of Chinese exceptionalism in the Party-state’s global re-emergence. It also sheds light on the tension and paradox therein through analyzing the conflicts generated by the Party-state’s attempts at re-globalizing the Chinese world order alongside the Westphalian system. In addition to integrating the soft-power concepts coined by Joseph Nye (1990) with the dimensional perspectives on the internationalization of HE framed by Jane Knight (1997), this study also puts in China’s perspectives that stand in contrast to, and yet in confluence with, some of the current norms and values being espoused by the West. In so doing, it demonstrates the potentiality of employing comparative lenses that cut across times, spaces and cultures in the research into internationalization of HE as soft power with national characteristics.