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In order to follow the international trend of increasing transparency in financial statements, Taiwan began to implement regulations on expensing employee bonuses in 2008, a process that involves the use of specific dates as the basis for issuing the bonuses but which may also have the drawback of resulting in some degree of unfairness. The purpose of this paper is to study and solve the above problem.

The present study used Markov regime-switching models to obtain durations of different states, thereby obtaining average stock durations for use as the basis to calculate the number of shares to be distributed.

Empirical results show that replacing share prices on specific dates with those of average durations when issuing employee bonuses could better reflect employee-deserved real wages while keeping a company’s managers and management teams from being motivated to manage real earnings and manipulate share prices. When stock prices are higher, companies will tend to issue cash rather than stock bonuses, and vice versa when the prices are lower.

This study proposes a different point of view with regards to the basis for the allotted number of shares for employee bonuses under current laws and regulations, and suggests using the concept of average stock prices in place of the single-price concept implemented under the current system in order to avoid incentives to manipulate by people, so as to fairly express the true state of the enterprise.

The main purpose of this paper is to investigate the relative firms’ performances of equity‐based compensation schemes using a panel regression approach from Taiwanese experience.

Previous theory considers executive stock options as an important input in the production process, but the empirical support for the performances of equity‐based compensation schemes is mixed in developed countries. This paper uses a panel data regression to analyze the influence of stock bonus and executive stock option on performance.

The evidences in Taiwan suggest that there exist positive associations between the amount of stock bonuses and firms’ operating performance. It is also found that firms with larger firm size or high growth opportunity tend to adopt stock bonus

The first limitation is that we the dataset over our sample period 1999‐2001 is still incomplete because the executive stock options allowed by the regulation are not prevalent in Taiwan over that period. The second limitation is the unique stock bonus system in Taiwan is not observed for developed countries.

The result imply a positive association between stock bonus and firm's operating performance. Companies with well‐designed bonus compensation may lead to better performance.

The unique stock bonus compensation schemes in Taiwan are used in general to contribute to the success of the high‐tech companies. This paper first addresses the importance of the stock bonus on compensation issue for high‐tech companies. This added knowledge is beneficial to practitioners and academics whose interest lies in equity‐based compensation and performance.

In Taiwan, an employee stock bonus (ESB) was accounted for as an earnings distribution rather than an expense – a remnant of the dominance of tax law over accounting standards. To enhance the usefulness of accounting information, the Securities and Futures Bureau (SFB) requires that public companies disclose imputed earnings per share (EPS) by deducting ESB from net income for the financial reporting, effective 30 January, 2003. Although the SFB‐imputed EPS considers ESB as firm expense, it ignores the resultant inflated number of shares outstanding. Therefore, it is expected that the disclosed ESB underestimates the dilutive effects of ESB and limits the intended purpose of the ESB disclosure. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how ESB dilutes EPS and how the SFB‐imputed EPS biases the price‐earnings relation.

Theoretical analyses and empirical tests.

First it was analytically illustrated that: the SFB‐imputed EPS, compared with the proposed EPS measure, underestimates the dilutive effects of ESB; the SFB‐imputed EPS downwardly biases the price‐earnings relation; and the proposed EPS preserves the relation between stock price and earnings. Controlling for firm growth and ESB issuance, empirical results were obtained that are generally consistent with the hypotheses. The SFB‐imputed EPS yields downward‐biased estimates of price earnings multiples. The downward bias is exacerbated as the dilution of ESB increases.

The proposed measurement of diluted EPS reflects the dilutive effect of ESB, upholds the price‐earnings relationship, and offers accounting standard‐setters a useful perspective for thinking about the dilutive effects of ESB.

The ongoing debate about the effects of bonuses on managers’ performance and the role of reward systems in organizations has still not led to a unanimous conclusion among academics and practitioners. Those in favor of bonuses state that applying bonuses and putting emphasis on monetary rewards increases productivity and organizational performance, while those against bonuses claim that use of bonuses and monetary rewards leads to counterproductive results. A key question often overlooked in the discussion is: How important is handing out bonuses for an organization to become and stay successful for a longer period of time? This paper seeks to address these issues.

This paper describes the results of research into the characteristics of “high performance organizations” (HPOs) and the role of bonuses and reward systems in creating and maintaining HPOs.

The research results show that use of bonuses or implementation of certain types of reward systems have neither a positive nor a negative effect on organizational performance. This may be explained by the fact that reward systems are a hygiene factor for an organization. If an organization does not have an appropriate reward system (whether or not including bonuses), it will run into trouble with its employees and have difficulty improving its performance. If it does – a situation which employees expect and consider to be normal – it can start working on becoming an HPO.

The results of this study further the discussion about the role of bonuses.

Agency problems are more severe for multinational corporations (MNCs) and multinational enterprises compared to their domestic counterparts. As companies develop diversified operations, their managers face more challenges. An incentive compensation structure has been designed to align the benefits of managers with those of shareholders. Additionally, corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become increasingly crucial for companies. MNCs must gain the trust of more investors to improve their corporate reputation and financial performance. CSR enables MNCs with a high sense of social responsibility to expand their investor base, reduce perceived risks, and decrease information asymmetry. Our empirical findings reveal that Taiwanese MNCs can enhance their performance by implementing cash-based compensation and pursuing CSR activities.

This case study focuses on key personnel leaving an IT firm (TT Inc.) which possesses specialized knowledge and skills that could not be replaced internally. This problem and event created a major critical knowledge gap. The individuals who left expressed dissatisfaction with the increasing workload, limited resources, impossible deadlines, and unrealistic expectations from management. The remaining team members in the data networking group also shared their dissatisfaction. The methodology used to collect the data included a survey, interviews with key players, and from exit interviews. Productivity and job satisfaction at TT Inc.'s Telecom Engineering Department have declined. The dependant variables that are being explored are job satisfaction and productivity. Results of the surveys led to recommendations in the form of alternative solutions to the problems.

One way that firms attempt to innovate is through investment in R&D activity. However, there is much heterogeneity in innovations among firms making comparable R&D investments. This article explores employee ownershipʼs moderating effect on the relationship between R&D intensity and innovative output. The basis for the moderation is that ownership increases motivation and commitment to the innovation agenda of the company, and retains employeesʼ entrepreneurial efforts for internal opportunities. Using hierarchical regression, the data support the hypothesis that employee stock ownership positively moderates the relationship between R&D intensity and innovative output. Implications for future research and practice are addressed.

To survive in the turbulent, global business environment, companies must apply strategies to increase their competitiveness. Expectancy theory indicates that salary rewards can motivate employees to achieve company objectives (Vroom, 1964). First, we develop an analytical model to predict that companies using a high-reward strategy could outperform those using a low-reward strategy. Then, we obtain archival data from banking firms in Taiwan to test the proposed model empirically. We control the effects of operating scale (firm size) and assets utilization efficiency (assets utilization ratio). Empirical results show that salary levels and assets utilization efficiency significantly affect banks’ profitability.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the managerial views on the corporate financing practices of firms in the emerging market of Sri Lanka.

A survey approach was employed using chief financial officers (CFOs) from the top non-financial firms listed on the Colombo Stock Exchange.

CFOs’ views on corporate financing practices are not fully consistent with the theory: financial hierarchy appears to be more important and firms are less leveraged. Most Sri Lankan CFOs perceive some policy factors as important and theoretically support: volatility of earnings and cash flows, tax advantages of interest deductibility, transaction costs, timing of interest rates, low foreign interest rates and debt equity targets. These factors are high priority in emerging markets but either not important at all or less important in developed markets. Matching debt maturity with the life of assets is equally important in both markets. Most CFOs adhere their financing to the local debt market, while a few firms use foreign debt. CFOs are concerned about earnings per share (EPS) dilution, providing a natural hedge in foreign debt issues, credit ratings, under/overvaluation of stocks and corporate control, whereas they are significantly important in developed markets. Age and education mostly explain the differences.

The study is restricted to large companies in a relatively smaller market. Hence, sample size is relatively small, even though it shows a higher response rate.

The study offers insights for corporate financing decision-makers that could impact on firm value through a shift in emphasis toward capital structure theories.

The paper focuses on corporate financing practices in Sri Lanka in search of emerging market features that could mitigate the gap in the emerging market literature through survey evidence.

This chapter takes a socioemotional wealth (SEW) perspective to explain the adoption of human resource (HR) practices in family-controlled firms. Previous studies on human resource management (HRM) in family firms have focused only on a small range of HR practices and have rarely utilized strong conceptual frameworks. As a result, these studies have overlooked important factors that contribute to the distinctiveness of HRM in these organizations. Based on ample evidence that shows family businesses' preference for non-economically motivated objectives collectively labeled as SEW, we propose that the presence of SEW influences HR practices in family firms.

Consequently, we reexamine existing empirical evidence of the determinants of HRM in family-controlled firms under the SEW approach. We also reinterpret existing theoretical models of family-controlled firms and their implications for HRM under the SEW umbrella. Our final goal is to establish an integrated framework through a set of sound propositions on HRM in family businesses. By integrating the literature, we aim to fill theoretical gaps in our understanding of the determinants of HR practices in the family business context and direct future research in this area.