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A study of the current practices for evaluating the ex-post performance of public-private partnership (PPP) school projects in Australia via literature review and qualitative case studies has found that no consistent approach exists for evaluating operational performance. A detailed critique of international PPP audits and practices has identified existing gaps in ex-post performance evaluation. Through a process of comparative analysis and industry confirmation, a performance analysis technique aligned with international practice has been developed that can be utilised by the educational departments across Australia to evaluate the ex-post performance of PPP projects (PPPs). The paper aims to discuss these issues.

This paper opted for qualitative archival analysis of case studies using pattern matching, explanation building, time series, and comparative analysis. The data used for document analysis included value reports, project summaries, and contract documents, as well as local and international audit guidelines.

This paper reviewed current practices, identified a range of processes, and reported the best practices. However, consideration of the approaches taken in the UK and Australia for evaluating operational performance indicates that current techniques lack consistency.

The developed ex-post performance measurement framework is limited to Australian PPP school projects and, at this stage, cannot be generalised to other social PPP projects.

The paper includes implications for the development of better performance evaluation practices and audits.

An enhanced framework for measuring operational performance will increase the accountability of taxpayers in the content of their utilisation by the government.

This paper presents an enhanced ex-post performance measurement framework for education departments across Australia.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of small- and medium-sized enterprises’ (SMEs) domestic network structural attributes on their ex post internationalisation strategic innovation and adaptiveness in the host country.

The model fit of SME domestic network structural attributes and their ex post international performance was examined using structural equation modelling on data gathered from a sample of 263 SMEs from Croatia, a transition and emerging economy. Hierarchical regression analysis was further performed to test both the direct and moderating effects.

The study revealed that domestic network informality (DNF) moderates the link between SME domestic network centrality and their international innovation. Similarly, the findings show that DNF strengthens the negative association between domestic network density and SME international innovation and strategic adaptiveness. Moreover, the study did not find any direct impact of these domestic networks’ structural attributes (density and centrality) on SME international innovation and strategic adaptiveness.

Scholars have emphasised the importance and urgency for further research attention on the role of networks on SMEs’ internationalisation activities from emerging economies. This study responds to this call, and to the knowledge of the authors, is the first to examine the role of domestic network attributes on SME international performance in emerging economies. The findings provide new insightful contributions to the social network perspective and the international entrepreneurship literatures.

The purpose of this paper is to close the transparency gap by comparing ex ante and ex post performance disclosure, thus providing important conclusions regarding the transparency of this important German market segment.

Closed-ended real estate funds (CEREFs) are one of the biggest segments of unlisted private equity funds in Germany. CEREFs have a central “profitability promise” that is based on ex ante forecasts given in the prospectus. Typically, equity is tied to these investments for up to 20-30 years, leaving investors highly insecure whether their expectations will be fulfilled and fund managers actually achieve prospected performances ex post.

The performance variance analysis of all German CEREFs outstanding during the global financial crisis reveals that prospect-performance disclosures as well as prospect-performance variances cause substantial problems in Germany due to overestimation biases of many fund managers.

As typical for the recent scholarly debate, also the past disclosure practice in Germany prohibits a long-term performance analysis, unless researchers apply instruments of modern investment analysis like comprehensive financial plans (“Visualisation of Financial Implications)”.

The transparency developments in CEREF-reporting of the last decade deliver precise recommendations regarding the internal and external performance variance analysis, risk-profiles and stress tests for the future fund management.

The introduced methodology would increase transparency in the segment of CEREF and, thus, improve investor protection. Since private households in Germany mainly acquire these funds, this is a contribution to sustainability in private asset management.

The paper develops a new methodological framework for performance measurement of unlisted funds. It then assesses for the first time the impact of transparency and trust on fund performances by applying a performance variance analysis.

This study aims to reconceptualize performance evaluation styles and reveal their performance effects.

Based on a literature review, this study conceptualizes performance evaluation styles on two dimensions: priority of budgetary targets when setting performance criteria and use of accounting information for ex-post performance evaluation. This study discusses two concepts – budget rigidity and discretionary adjustments – to explain these two dimensions, and their optimal combination is then investigated by considering environmental uncertainty. The empirical analysis uses survey data from Japanese firms.

The results indicate that suitable combinations of budget rigidity and discretionary adjustments differ depending on environmental uncertainty. As expected, a combination of lower budget rigidity and higher discretionary adjustments is optimal in an uncertain environment. Contrary to expectations, a combination of higher budget rigidity and higher discretionary adjustments is optimal in a stable environment. Moreover, higher discretionary adjustments complement budgetary targets’ motivational effects, regardless of environmental uncertainty.

This study’s theoretical and empirical analysis suggests that it is difficult to understand the performance implications of performance evaluation styles without recognizing their multidimensionality and interdependencies. Moreover, the results demonstrate that discretionary adjustments in budget-based performance evaluations seem to act rationally in practice.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of capital structure changes by target firms on the outcome and ex post performance of firms targeted by proxy contests.

The influence is examined by using predictions of control‐driven model developed by Harris and Raviv and signaling theory of debt in capital structure.

The results are consistent with the predictions of both control‐driven model and signaling theory. Significant differences are found between two groups of target firms – management victory targets and dissident victory targets. Specifically: management victory targets feature proxy contests that are accompanied by leverage increasing changes in target firms' capital structure; the same group also realizes better long‐run stock performance compared to dissident victory targets; and the long‐run abnormal stock performance of management victory targets is significantly positively related to the increases in leverage in the capital structure during proxy contest period.

This paper is the first to directly address the relationship between leverage change and the outcome and long‐run performance of proxy contest targets, thus confirming both the defensive and the signaling role of debt on firm's capital structure decision.

What academic and managerial elements are particularly influential regarding performance? This study aims to address these questions as part of a broader longitudinal study. The current paper focusses on the results relating to performance management and measurement, and how the sectorial developments impacted on individuals and institutions.

An interpretive research methodology was used, which illustrates the institutional performance management and measurement system. The first part of the interpretive study was a single case study, focussing on one “old” research-intensive university. The second part included five institutions, three UK top-tier universities, focussing on top-level research and education, and two “new” universities with a greater teaching than research portfolio.

The current paper focusses on the results relating to performance management and measurement, and how higher education (HE) developments impacted on individuals and institutions, reflected in the notion of performance habitus. The qualitative element of the study sought to gain insight into which factors influence performance management and measurement and what changing effect these have on academic members of staff. The findings illustrate how academic values and managerial control practices create an academia-specific performance management approach, measured by particular key performance indicators that are used for the institution as a whole and then applied to units and individuals within institutions. With regard to institutional performance, more established and institutionalised performance management and measurement practices are relied upon. Both elements are addressed in this study, and the authors conclude that the interplay of human capital and institutional structure creates the most successful performance-related outcome.

The current study adds additional insights on how the changing HE context affects academic members and how the future of the UK HE sector is perceived. Insights can be derived for other HE sectors, as the contextual factors of international competition, tightening of resources and nature of the academic sector transcend national borders. Thus, practices illustrated in the current study are useful for institutions and academic managers of other HE sectors as well.

The current credit rationing strongly influences the viability of SMEs innovation projects. In this context, the practice of screening borrowers by project success probability has become a paramount consideration for both lenders and firms. The aim of this paper is to test the screening role of loan contracts that consider collateral-interest margins simultaneously.

This paper presents an empirical analysis that uses a unique data set composed of 323 bank loans granted by 28 banks to SMEs backed by a Spanish Mutual Guarantee Institution.

The results show that appropriate combinations of collateral and interest rates can distinguish between borrowers with different project success probability: low success probability borrowers finance its projects without collateral and with high interest rates, whereas high success probability borrowers accept loans with real estate collateral and low interest rates.

This screening mechanism reduces credit rationing, thus increasing good projects' access to credit.

This study provides the first empirical evidence on the effectiveness of collateral-interest pairs as a self-selection mechanism.

This study explains variance in one‐year abnormal returns of corporate stockholder investees. Results indicate that investee abnormal returns are negatively associated with the extent of the corporate stockholder's initial percentage of ownership, but the investee abnormal return is positive when the investee is larger and the firms are contractually related.

This paper aims to capture the effects of access to information and deadlines on empowerment and subordinate managers’ effectiveness. The purpose is to contribute to the growing empowerment-related discourse within the management control discipline.

To test the hypotheses derived from empowerment theory, this paper collects survey data from 103 middle-level managers. Using a path model that describes all the potential theoretical relations, this study tests the survey data using a boot-strapped linear regression approach.

This study finds evidence for both direct and indirect positive effects between access to information and subordinate managers’ performance, which supports the view that empowerment has a partial mediating effect on performance. The study also finds that though the effect of access to information on empowerment is not moderated by the specification of deadlines, empowerment is negatively affected when priorities change with new deadlines.

This study offers two new insights as follows: First, in addressing the concern relating to the lack of clarity in the extant literature on the role of empowerment, this study finds that empowerment partially mediates the relation between access to information and performance. Second, the study finds that time-based performance targets per se do not affect empowerment as much as the task uncertainty, which arises with frequent changes to such a target.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the determinants, transactional alignment and performance outcomes of franchise contract length using transaction costs theory (TCT) and resource-based theory (RBT).

The author hypothesizes that franchisors choose contract length according to TCT and RBT arguments. TCT explains the safeguarding function of contracts: the franchisors will offer longer contracts when franchisees’ specific investments are high and environmental uncertainty is low. RBT highlights the knowledge leverage function of contracts: the franchisors will offer longer contracts when the brand name and intangible knowledge assets are high. Franchise companies that design contract length aligned with transactional attributes will perform better. The author tests the misalignment hypothesis and comparative performance of franchise contracts by estimating two-stage least squares regression and Heckman two-stage procedure that control for endogeneity and self-selection.

Empirical data from the German franchise sector support the hypotheses. In addition to the safeguarding function, franchise contracts have an important knowledge leverage function. Longer contracts perform better due to the development of relational strategic assets and stronger commitment.

Franchisors must offer longer contracts when specific investments of franchisees, brand name, intangible knowledge assets are high, and environmental uncertainty is low. Franchisors should invest in the development of relational strategic assets and offer longer contracts for the benefit of superior performance.

The study addresses the significant question of transactional alignment and comparative performance of franchise contracts. It empirically confirms the importance of RBT in explaining contractual choices and performance.