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For the majority of manufacturers, computerisation can substantially enhance their competitive edge and stock control is one area in particular that lends itself to the rapid processing power of a computer system. A computerised stock control system can help the manufacturers by manipulating assembly data and providing requirements planning facilities, component costing, kit marshalling, and labour input costing. Software providing these facilities is not easily available and many organisations have written their own inventory packages. The alternative is to use an established package

Heart of England Community Energy (HECE) is 1 of 495 community energy companies with 331 MW of community-owned renewable electricity collectively generating 506 GWh renewable electricity, saving £3.35 million on energy bills, 143,000 tCO2e annually, powering 174,000 UK households and contributing over £21.5 million to community benefit funds (Community Energy, 2022). HECE’s 15-MW array, comprising 60,000 solar panels, is located outside Stratford-upon-Avon generating renewable electricity since 2016, raising £17 million to make this possible and through surplus revenues over a 20-year period will contribute £6 million back into local communities. Small UK community energy companies face a wide range of challenges compared with policies elsewhere. The biggest hurdle for community energy companies in becoming a licenced energy supply company is the cost (IPPR, 2016). Gaining a grid connection is challenging with Ofgem estimating that between 60% and 70% of high voltage schemes never connect to the grid and a large backlog of green power projects has accumulated (Lawson, 2023). In Germany, where there is a ‘Right to Local Supply’ set-up, costs are proportional to the size of the energy organisation (Croner-i, 2022).

Whilst the Climate Change Committee has stated, ‘it will not be possible to get close to meeting a net zero target without engaging with people or by pursuing an approach that focuses only on supply-side changes’, government’s focus remains very largely supply-side focussed (Community Energy, 2022).

Past decades have witnessed significant contributions to theories of the firm, innovation and economic growth from two closely related paradigms, namely, the Capabilities School and National Innovation Systems Approach. Unlike the neoclassical models of the firm and growth, these two paradigms place emphasis on the knowledge and learning process in understanding economic development. Despite being closer to reality in their treatment of economic issues than their neoclassical school counterpart, the two paradigms have not put human agency in the forefront of their analysis. This paper constructs a theory of national capabilities in the subjectivist perspective, which is then extended to understand firm and national capabilities and competitiveness. While this paper recognizes the influence of institutions on firms' decision making, unlike contemporary evolutionary literatures, the subjectivist perspective highlights the fact that all institutions are the coordinating effort of human actions which attempt to interpret external events or make sense out of social or economic interactions.

In this article we compare the performance of the traditional CAPM with the multi factor model of Fama and French (1996) for equities listed in the Shanghai Stock Exchange. We also investigate the explanatory power of idiosyncratic volatility and respond to the claim that multi factor model findings can be explained by the turn of the year effect. Our results show that firm size, book to market equity and idiosyncratic volatility are priced risk factors in addition to the theoretically well specified market factor. As far as the turn of the year effect is concerned we reject the claim that the findings are driven by seasonal factors.

Executive compensation packages are often valued in an inconsistent manner: while employee stock options (ESOs) are typically valued ex‐ante, i.e., before uncertain ties are resolved, cash bonuses are valued ex‐post, i.e., by discounting the realized cash grants. Such a lack of consistency can, potentially, distort empirical results. A related, yet mostly overlooked, problem is that when ex‐post valuation is used pay‐performance measures cannot be well defined. Consistent use of ex‐ante valuation for all components of a compensation package would simultaneously resolve both of these problems and provide a natural framework for the analysis of agency problems. In this paper, we perform ex‐ante valuation of cash bonus contracts as if the executive’s performance were measured by the company stock price, demonstrate how the shape of the bonus contract influences the executive’s attitude toward risk, and study the pay‐performance sensitiv ty of such contracts. We commence by demonstrating that a typical executive bonus contract with a linear incentive zone has a pay off structure equivalent to a portfolio of standard and binary European call options so that the ex‐ante contract value is given by the linear combination of Black and Scholes call and binary call prices, with the strike prices at the boundary points of the incentive zone. Assuming that a risk neutral executive can choose the level of stock price volatility by selecting a set of projects at origination, we show that bonus contract terms can dramatically affect the executive’s risk taking behavior and pay performance incentives. Our results are extended to bonus contracts with non‐linear incentive zones, and performance share contracts with vesting risk.

In the next few years, the cost of the distribution function is likely to rise from its 1979 figure of 16% of sales value to something like 17.5% in 1984. This sounds like a relatively small increase but in fact it represents a gigantic sum; to give some indication, the writer of this article suggests that the achievement of a 10% saving in our national handling bill (about £2,500m) would equal the discovery and development of another Brent oil field. In this special feature, Tony Lee looks at how the technique of distribution planning can be applied, and especially at the important part played by PDM in controlling stock and relating it to purchasing policy, manufacturing, and to sales and service.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of earnings forecast revisions by equity analysts in predicting Canadian stock returns

The sample covers 420 Canadian firms over the period 1998-2009. It analyses investors’ reactions to 27,271 upward revisions and 32,005 downward revisions of analysts’ forecasts for Canadian quoted companies. To test whether analysts’ earnings forecast revisions affect stock return continuation, forecast revision portfolios similar to Jegadeesh and Titman (2001) are constructed. The paper analyses the returns gained from a trading strategy based on buying the strong upward revisions portfolio and short selling the strong downward revisions portfolio. It also separates the sample into upward and downward revisions.

The authors find that new information in the form of analyst forecast revisions is not impounded efficiently into stock prices. Significant returns persist for a trading strategy that buys stocks with recent upward revisions and short sells stocks with recent downward revisions. Good news is impounded into stock prices more slowly than bad news. Post-earnings forecast revisions drift is negatively related to analyst coverage. The effect is strongest for stocks with greatest number of upward revisions. The introduction of the better disclosure standards has made the Canadian stock market more efficient.

The paper adds to the limited evidence on the effect of analyst forecast revisions on the returns of Canadian stocks. It sheds light on the importance of analysts’ earnings forecast information and offers support for the investor conservatism and information diffusion hypotheses. It also shows how policy can improve market efficiency.

This study draws on behavioral finance and signaling theory to investigate market reactions to Chinese acquirers when they made premium payments in large cross-border acquisitions. Paying high premiums has been considered an inferior acquisition decision that engenders negative market reactions in previous studies examining Western acquirers. Moving beyond previous work, this paper aims to propose that the premiums paid by Chinese firms in large international acquisitions will yield positive market reactions.

This paper applies an event study method and tests hypotheses on a sample that comprises large international acquisitions made by Chinese acquirers between 2007 and 2012.

The acquisition premium paid by a Chinese acquirer in a large cross-border acquisition positively affects its stock market return to the acquisition announcement. That is, investors rely on the managers’ judgment about the synergistic and value-creating potential of the acquisitions, as inferred from the premiums paid. Moreover, it was found that the relationship between acquisition premiums and stock market returns is moderated by whether the transactions are tender offers, in that the positive relationship is weaker when acquisitions are tender offers.

Different from previous research focusing on Western companies and proposing a negative linkage between premiums paid and investor reactions to the acquisitions, this study sheds light on Chinese acquirers who paid premiums in large international acquisitions and, based on the logic of behavioral finance and signaling theory, posits a positive association in the context of Chinese acquirers.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a generic framework for the assessment of VMI implementation. The framework is used for the analysis of multiple case studies in German hospitals to discuss the feasibility of VMI in the German blood supply chain.

The methodology is twofold. In a first step, the literature is reviewed and a generic theoretical VMI framework is developed. In a second step, the case study methodology is applied to 13 cases to assess the feasibility of VMI in the German blood supply chain.

The paper contributes a generic framework for assessing the implementation of VMI in seven steps. The research proposed that hospitals hesitate to enter a VMI relationship for critical resources such as blood. Hospitals fear losing control over critical resources.

The unit of analysis is hospitals in Germany and the case studies do not target the suppliers in the supply chain. The paper contributes three propositions regarding VMI in the healthcare/blood supply chain.

A generic framework for assessing the applicability and feasibility of VMI is provided which supports managers with the implementation of VMI in a supply chain.

The paper is one of the first papers targeting inventory and supply chain management in the German blood supply chain. It provides a generic framework for the assessment of the feasibility of VMI.

The Financial Reporting Review Panel (‘the Panel’) was set up in 1991 as part of the new regime under the Financial Reporting Council, with the objective of improving the quality of financial reporting in the UK. Arguably, the Panel was the most radical innovation since it was concerned with the previously not addressed issue of the enforcement of financial reporting regulations. However, it has no direct powers of enforcement and is funded at a level at which it can only react to complaints about company accounts rather than seek out problems. While the Panel has been granted powers to take companies to court with a view to compelling them to revise their accounts, these powers have not been exercised. Nevertheless, there is some evidence that its existence encourages companies to be more scrupulous about compliance with accounting standards and relevant company law before publishing their annual reports. Explanations for compliance include the possibility that adverse findings by the Panel result in economic damage or loss of reputation to the company or its management. This paper investigates a key aspect of possible economic damage: that press notices issued by the Panel about individual cases have an adverse effect on the share price of the company concerned. A share price event study was carried out on 33 companies that, since the inception of the Panel, had been the subject of press notices. We have found no evidence of an adverse share price reactions following the publication of press notices. Improvements in compliance may be attributable to other reasons, one possibility being the belief by management that an adverse finding will affect the share price.