Search results

The purpose of this study is to explore the relationships among business strategy, market competition and earnings management.

This paper uses 2,037 Chinese A-share listed firms from 2010 to 2012 to test the research questions using regression analyses.

The firms that follow cost leadership strategy (cost leaders) are more likely to have a higher level of real earnings management. The firms that follow differentiation strategy (differentiators) are less likely to use real earnings management. For cost leaders, the market competition further increases the level of real earnings management, whereas the level of earnings management of differentiators is not significantly impacted by the market competition.

Results of this study indicate the feasibility of differentiation strategy in China and suggest that management should be encouraged to use such a strategy or to use a hybrid strategy to achieve its operational and financial goals.

The study contributes to the research of earning management by providing evidence on that business strategy has significant impacts on earnings management. It also shows an incremental influence of market competition on earnings management through its impacts on business strategy.

This paper aims to analyze the monitoring role of board and product market competition in relation to firm performance. Further, this paper analyzes the moderating role of product market competition in influencing the board monitoring and firm value relationship in the context of an emerging economy, India.

A large sample of 3,854 firm-year observations has been used over a period of 10 years (2007-2016). Industry and year-fixed effect regression methodology has been used to test the hypothesized relationships.

The empirical findings indicate that board monitoring adds negatively to the firm value. The results also indicate that product market competition bears an insignificant moderating effect on the effectiveness of board monitoring in India. However, a more in-depth analysis reveals that product market competition complements the weak board monitoring of business-group firms. Further, the effectiveness of the board monitoring (which is relatively stronger in business-group firms) is weakened by the increased level of product market competition for stand-alone firms.

A significant negative effect of board independence on the firm value raises the effectiveness of various policies advocating the board independence to strengthen the governance structure of the firms. The findings relating to the moderating role of product market competition for the business-group and stand-alone firms are helpful in understanding the governance behavior of the firms in relation to the external product market competition.

External governance mechanisms such as the market for corporate control and product market competition have been described as significant corporate governance mechanisms. However, the empirical efficacy of these governance mechanisms has not been explored in a greater detail in the context of the emerging markets. This study aims to address this research gap.

Despite the importance of marketing to the success of entrepreneurial ventures very few researchers have studied the links with new business performance. The purpose of this paper is to examine a number of marketing practices in relation to the performance of new firms. Furthermore, the study considers the moderating influence of market competitiveness on the marketing practice-performance relationship.

Both postal and web surveys were utilized to collect responses from 128 entrepreneurs in the early stages of business creation. The data were subjected to exploratory and confirmatory factory analyses to establish the marketing practices in new ventures. These results were then subjected to hierarchical regression analysis to study the marketing-performance relationship. Further analysis was conducted to explore the moderation hypotheses.

The results demonstrate that some practices generally associated with marketing – selective distribution, market segmentation and advertising – have limited impact on performance in new ventures. In contrast, other practices such as product/service innovation, market research and service quality and functionality – do help establish competitive advantage. The results suggest that marketing practices associated with “entrepreneurial behaviour” and not “hard” marketing techniques drive new venture success. The results also support the moderation hypotheses confirming that market conditions help explain the role of marketing in new venture success.

The paper offers a new theoretical framework to better understand the marketing-performance relationship in new ventures and offers suggestions as to the specific conditions for effective use of various marketing practices.

This is one of the first attempts to explore the underlying mechanisms that support marketing practices in new ventures. It reveals the hidden dimensions of the marketing-performance relationship and thereby makes a contribution to both the marketing and entrepreneurship literatures.

Antitrust legislation in the United States was originally enacted in 1890. This legislation and subsequent amendments established the historic precedent of government controlling the power of business by limiting its influence over markets. This paper reflects on why this unique set of laws was originally enacted, reviews these laws in the United States compared to other global competitors, and recommends revisions in the present legislation to more accurately reflect the competitive arena that United States based companies face in the global economy.

Aim – This empirical study explores the association between competition, business strategy, and the uses of a multiple performance measurement system in Bangladesh manufacturing firms.

Design/methodology – The study uses a questionnaire survey of 50 manufacturing companies. Data were analyzed using multiple regression analysis and other descriptive statistics.

Findings – The results suggest that greater emphasis on multiple measures for performance evaluation is associated with businesses that are facing high competition. The practices of multiple performance measures are also significantly related to the types of business strategy being followed. Specifically, firms pursuing a prospector strategy have relied more on multiple performance measures to rate business performance than the firms pursuing a defender strategy.

Practical implications – The article notes that the designers of performance measurement systems need to consider contingent factors that affect an organizations’ control system.

Originality/value – Substantiating the connection between contingent variables and the use of multiple performance measures in manufacturing firms facilitate a better acceptance of firms’ tendency toward new measurement tools. The study contributes to the performance measurement and contingency literature since it presents empirical evidence of the state of multiple performance measures with organizational contingent variables using a developing country's manufacturing sector data.

The purpose of this study is to understand how IT capabilities for knowledge management and process integration can build a firm's agile process capabilities for sensing, strategic decision and responding. The study also investigates how the three agile capabilities affect firm performance in different competitive environments.

This study conducted a large-scale field survey with firms in the United States. Survey invitations were sent to business executives of the target firms. A total of 254 complete samples were collected for our hypotheses test.

The results confirm the overall significant roles of IT capabilities in the three agile capabilities. The results further reveal that the IT capability for knowledge management has a higher influence on sensing capability, while the IT capability for process integration has a higher influence on responding capability. Moreover, strategic decision and responding capabilities are more important in the high market competition. However, in the low market competition, sensing capability becomes more important while responding capability demonstrates a negative impact on firm performance.

This study helps both academics and practitioners better understand a firm's IT-agility-performance mechanism. Particularly, our findings guide how to achieve agile capabilities and what to focus on under the different levels of market competition.

This study aims to examine the impact of product market competition (PMC) from existing rivals and potential market entrants on earnings quality (EQ) in China.

This study examines the impact of PMC on EQ by using the EQ measure of Kothari et al. (2005), and it uses measures for competition from existing and potential rivals. This study analyzed Chinese firms for the period of 2000-2014 and also examined the impact of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) adoption and state ownership on the relationship between PMC and EQ.

This study found a positive relationship between PMC and EQ. It also documents that competition from existing rivals does not improve EQ by reducing real activity manipulation, but competition from potential entrants does. The findings propose that market competition from existing rivals is a relevant factor for determining EQ before and after IFRS adoption, but competition from potential entrants improves EQ only after IFRS adoption. Moreover, the results suggest that market competition plays no role in improving the EQ of state-owned enterprises (SOEs).

The results support the argument that PMC acts as a governance mechanism and influences managerial decisions regarding financial reporting. Our study also helps to understand the impact of change in the regulatory regime, i.e. IFRS adoption, on the relationship between PMC and EQ. This study also helps demonstrate the impact of competition on management decisions with respect to the EQ of SOEs.

What are the trade-offs between public and private ownership in the business and how does this impact industries responsible for providing and offering services on critical national infrastructure? The privatisation of British Telecom (BT), the UK telecommunications provider that was initially part of the British Post Office, is used to explore this question. By broadening the business perspective beyond the political goals and economic consequences of privatisation; this study aims to approach management history provides new perspectives of the benefits and challenges offered by both public and private ownership.

To fulfil its purpose, this paper examines how the UK telecommunications incumbent proactively adapted from being an organisation shaped by its unique position within the public sector, to one embracing the challenges offered by the private sector. The analysis is synthesised by linking an understanding of the customer’s requirements, services and technology with surveys of the secondary literature, supported where applicable by archival material, combining perspectives from authors both within the organisation and external to it. Sources include specialist and more general academic material and contemporary and reflective publications from practising engineers and managers; supplemented by material held at the BT Archives and the Guildhall Library in London. It links the debate on ownership to the evolution of the market under study and provides a balanced view across the business, its market, competition and technology.

The arguments surrounding public or private ownership, are complex, in particular, it is difficult to separate effects due to liberalisation and privatisation. Whilst the former provided the impetus for beneficial change, the latter reduced the level of detrimental entanglement with government policy and enabled the technology and structural changes that took the market forward.

A new and balanced view of the privatisation of BT is taken, with an emphasis on how the company needed to change to thrive in a liberalised market, noting how technological change both required organisational change and enabled it. In contrast to many studies, the emphasis is on what was driving the organisation rather than the policy of privatisation and its effectiveness.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the wide-ranging implications of the global economic crisis and provide a comprehensive assessment of the how the structure of the market and competition within it is changing as a result.

The research methodology draws on a “financialization” market construct and adapts it to include the public-private interfaces (PPIs) that have appeared since the global economic crisis.

The crisis has turned the global system on a dime. The decades-long surge of globalization, as characterized by market liberalization and ever more fast-paced investment flows, has abated and, in some cases, been dramatically reversed. It has altered the international investment paradigm. Firms have revised their risk functions and are re-arranging their stakeholder relationships.

Much needs to be done to assess the wide-ranging implications of the most recent crisis. This is just one set of “snapshots”, if you will, of the way in which market structure and competition are being altered.

The re-arrangement of stakeholder relationships of both privately owned firms and sovereign enterprises will have far-reaching effects on market structure in such areas as market access and competition, as well as on civil society, writ large.