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We study the role of having an audit committee (AC) as a signal of firm quality and as a monitoring device of the information quality contained in the listing prospectus.

Ordinary Least Squares regressions are used to examine the association between the presence of an audit committee and (1) the initial return (IR), and (2) the earnings forecast error in the listing prospectus in a sample of 55 Real Estate Investment Trusts that went public on the BME Growth market during 2013–2022. Heckman two-step estimation procedure to correct for endogeneity and bootstrap are used for robustness.

We show that IR and earnings forecasts are significantly affected by the presence of AC. The IR is higher and the earnings forecast included in the prospectus are of higher quality in firms with AC.

Our research provides (1) managers with new tools when deciding on their corporate governance structure in the listing process, (2) specific evidence for regulators on the role played by ACs in the process of going public, which may be useful in the context of the ongoing regulatory changes regarding admission processes in Europe, and (3) society with a sign that AC can enhance investor and public confidence in financial markets and foster a more stable and transparent investment environment.

The adoption of an AC is voluntary in this market, so this discretionary decision provides an exceptional opportunity to conduct such an analysis. Additionally, this issue has not been previously analysed in Europe.

我們擬探討審計委員會在作為是公司質素的一個信號, 以及在作為是監控上市招股書內資料質素的一個機制所扮演的角色。

研究人員使用普通最小二乘法回歸模型, 去探討審計委員會的存在與 (一) 初期回報、和 (二)上市招股書內收益預測的錯誤兩者之間的關聯。研究的樣本為55個於2013年 至 2022年間在 BME Growth 市場上市的不動產投資信託。研究人員使用自助法和可幫助修正內生性問題的赫克曼兩階段回歸, 以達數據的穩健性。

研究結果顯示, 審計委員會的存在會顯著地影響初期回報和收益預測。若公司採用審計委員會, 初期回報則會較高; 而且, 招股書內的收益預測也顯示較高的質素。

由於採用審計委員會與否在這研究的有關市場內純基於自主的決定、而非屬強制性, 因此, 與這決定有關的課題為學者提供了特殊的研究機會。再者, 在歐洲至今似仍未有學者曾嘗試探討這個課題。

本研究帶來以下實務方面的啟示: (一) 當經理需決定其在上市過程中的公司治理結構時, 本研究為他們提供了新的工具給他們使用; (二) 本研究為調控者就公司上市過程中審計委員會所扮演的角色提供具體的證據。而這因歐洲正進行更改與批核上市有關的規管而可能使其產生用處; (三) 本研究為社會提供一個信號, 顯示審計委員會不但可增強投資者和大眾對金融市場的信心, 而且還能培育更穩定和透明的投資環境。

公司治理、審計委員會、上市、初期回報、盈餘預測、不動產

This research aimed to conceptualize organizations as open and purposeful systems to study how organizational culture (OC) influences firms' Innovative Performance (IP). The authors proposed goal setting and internal integration/external adaptation paradox as central to explaining OC's mediating and suppressing effects on IP.

The authors collected data from 372 Costa Rican organizations and analyzed them with structural equations. This research used the Denison Model instead of the usual typology-based approaches.

The mission had a direct and high impact on IP. The mediated effect via adaptability was also elevated, as well as the suppressor effect through consistency. There was no effect on IP of involvement. According to these results, the Open and Rational Systems Framework emerge as the main theoretical explanatory concepts.

Disaggregating the OC through a performance-oriented dimensional model makes it possible to study the dynamics between the elements that compound it and facilitate integrating these findings with other research streams.

The purpose of this paper is to review cases of artificial reefs built through additive manufacturing (AM) technologies and analyse their ecological goals, fabrication process, materials, structural design features and implementation location to determine predominant parameters, environmental impacts, advantages, and limitations.

The review analysed 16 cases of artificial reefs from both temperate and tropical regions. These were categorised based on the AM process used, the mortar material used (crucial for biological applications), the structural design features and the location of implementation. These parameters are assessed to determine how effectively the designs meet the stipulated ecological goals, how AM technologies demonstrate their potential in comparison to conventional methods and the preference locations of these implementations.

The overview revealed that the dominant artificial reef implementation occurs in the Mediterranean and Atlantic Seas, both accounting for 24%. The remaining cases were in the Australian Sea (20%), the South Asia Sea (12%), the Persian Gulf and the Pacific Ocean, both with 8%, and the Indian Sea with 4% of all the cases studied. It was concluded that fused filament fabrication, binder jetting and material extrusion represent the main AM processes used to build artificial reefs. Cementitious materials, ceramics, polymers and geopolymer formulations were used, incorporating aggregates from mineral residues, biological wastes and pozzolan materials, to reduce environmental impacts, promote the circular economy and be more beneficial for marine ecosystems. The evaluation ranking assessed how well their design and materials align with their ecological goals, demonstrating that five cases were ranked with high effectiveness, ten projects with moderate effectiveness and one case with low effectiveness.

AM represents an innovative method for marine restoration and management. It offers a rapid prototyping technique for design validation and enables the creation of highly complex shapes for habitat diversification while incorporating a diverse range of materials to benefit environmental and marine species’ habitats.

Metal laser-powder-bed-fusion using laser-beam parts are particularly susceptible to contamination due to particles attached to the surface. This may compromise so-called technical cleanliness (e.g. in NASA RPTSTD-8070, ASTM G93, ISO 14952 or ISO 16232), which is important for many 3D-printed components, such as implants or liquid rocket engines. The purpose of the presented comparative study is to show how cleanliness is improved by design and different surface treatment methods.

Convex and concave test parts were designed, built and surface-treated by combinations of media blasting, electroless nickel plating and electrochemical polishing. After cleaning and analysing the technical cleanliness according to ASTM and ISO standards, effects on particle contamination, appearance, mass and dimensional accuracy are presented.

Contamination reduction factors are introduced for different particle sizes and surface treatment methods. Surface treatments were more effective for concave design features, however, the initial and resulting absolute particle contamination was higher. Results further indicate that there are trade-offs between cleanliness and other objectives in design. Design guidelines are introduced to solve conflicts in design when requirements for cleanliness exist.

This paper recommends designing parts and corresponding process chains for manufacturing simultaneously. Incorporating post-processing characteristics into the design phase is both feasible and essential. In the experimental study, electroless nickel plating in combination with prior glass bead blasting resulted in the lowest total remaining particle contamination. This process applied for cleanliness is a novelty, as well as a comparison between the different surface treatment methods.

This paper analyses how firm births and deaths are influenced by previous firm births and deaths in related and unrelated sectors. Competition and multiplier effects are used as the theoretical lens for this analysis.

This paper uses 2008–2016 Irish business demography data pertaining to 568 NACE 4-digit sectors within 20 NACE 1-digit industries across 34 Irish county and sub-county regions within 8 NUTS3 regions. A three-stage least squares (3SLS) estimation is used to analyse the impact of past firm deaths (births) on future firm births (deaths). The effect of relatedness on firm interrelationships is explicitly modelled and captured.

Findings indicate that the multiplier effect operates mostly through related sectors, while the competition effect operates mostly through unrelated sectors.

This paper's findings show that firm interrelationships are significantly influenced by the degree of relatedness between firms. The raw data used to calculate firm birth and death rates in this analysis are count data. Each new firm is measured the same as another regardless of differing features like size. Some research has shown that smaller firms have a greater propensity to create entrepreneurs (Parker, 2009). Thus, it is possible that the death of differently sized firms may contribute differently to multiplier effects where births induce further births. Future research could seek to examine this.

These findings have implications for policy initiatives concerned with increasing entrepreneurship. Some express concerns that public investment into entrepreneurship can lead to “crowding out” effects (Cumming and Johan, 2019), meaning that public investment into entrepreneurship could displace or reduce private investment into entrepreneurship (Audretsch and Fiedler, 2023; Zikou et al., 2017). This study’s findings indicate that using public investment to increase firm births could increase future firm births in related and unrelated sectors. However, more negative “crowding out” effects may also occur in unrelated sectors, meaning that public investment which stimulates firm births in a certain sector could induce firm deaths and crowd out entrepreneurship in unrelated sectors.

This paper is the first in the literature to explicitly account for the role of relatedness in firm interrelationships.

The experiments of this study investigated the effect of the subgrade degree of saturation on the value of the stresses generated on the surface and the middle (vertical and lateral stresses). The objectives of this study can be identified by studying the effect of subgrade layer degree of saturation variation, load amplitude and load frequency on the transmitted stresses through the ballast layer to the subgrade layer and the stress distribution inside it and investigating the excess pore water pressure development in the clay layer in the case of a fully saturated subgrade layer and the change in matric suction in the case of an unsaturated subgrade layer.

Thirty-six laboratory experiments were conducted using approximately half-scale replicas of real railways, with an iron box measuring 1.5 x 1.0 × 1.0 m. Inside the box, a 0.5 m thick layer of clay soil representing the base layer was built. Above it is a 0.2 m thick ballast layer made of crushed stone, and on top of that is a 0.8 m long rail line supported by three 0.9 m (0.1 × 0.1 m) slipper beams. The subgrade layer has been built at the following various saturation levels: 100, 80, 70 and 60%. Experiments were conducted with various frequencies of 1, 2 and 4 Hz with load amplitudes of 15, 25 and 35 kN.

The results of the study demonstrated that as the subgrade degree of saturation decreased from 100 to 60%, the ratio of stress in the lateral direction to stress in the vertical direction generated in the middle of the subgrade layer decreased as well. On average, this ratio changed from approximately 0.75 to approximately 0.65.

The study discovered that as the test proceeded and the number of cycles increased, the value of negative water pressure (matric suction) in the case of unsaturated subgrade soils declined. The frequency of loads had no bearing on the ratio of decline in matric suction values, which was greater under a larger load amplitude than a lower one. As the test progressed (as the number of cycles increased), the matric suction dropped. For larger load amplitudes, there is a greater shift in matric suction. The change in matric suction is greater at higher saturation levels than it is at lower saturation levels. Furthermore, it is seen that the load frequency value has no bearing on how the matric suction changes. For all load frequencies and subgrade layer saturation levels, the track panel settlement rises with the load amplitude. Higher load frequency and saturation levels have a greater impact.