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The goal of this paper is to investigate the relationship between government control and firm value in China.

Government might extract social or political benefits from a state-controlled firm, thus decreases firm value. However, government’s monitoring on firm management reduces managers’ agency problem, which increases firm value. We first build a game-theoretic model to prove the existence of optimal government control given these two roles of government, and we then employ the OLS regression method to test the theory predictions using the length of intermediate ownership chains connecting the listed state-owned enterprises to their ultimate controllers as the measure of government control.

We find that firm values first increase then decrease as government control weakens. Moreover, we find that government usually retains a stronger control over state-owned enterprises than the optimal level. In addition, we show that government control can be further weakened in firms with good corporate governance mechanisms, which serve as a substitution of government monitoring.

Our results demonstrate that government control in China is still a necessary but costly mechanism to mitigate agency costs, especially when corporate governance system is underdeveloped.

We identify the substitution effect between government control and corporate governance using a unique measure of government control.

The purpose of this paper is to examine differences in underpricing for initial public offerings (IPOs) brought to market in Hong Kong, Singapore, and the United States. It intends to determine whether IPO pricing accuracy in Hong Kong is facilitated by the development and dissemination of pre‐deal research.

The study examines a broad sample of initial public offerings made between 2000 and 2004. The author conducts univariate and multivariate tests to assess the relationship between IPO underpricing and the dissemination of pre‐deal research.

The author finds that Hong Kong issues experience significantly less underpricing than issues listed in Singapore and the United States. The underpricing of Singapore IPOs, on average, is not significantly different from that of US new listings. Furthermore, the author finds underpricing experienced by Hong Kong issues after adoption of the 40‐day post‐IPO quiet period is significantly higher than underpricing in the pre‐regulation period.

The results may not be generalizable to different countries. They do, however, appear to be robust in the three markets throughout the five‐year sample period.

To the extent that pre‐deal research can enhance IPO pricing accuracy, the overall finding should be useful to regulators in Hong Kong and Singapore as they continue to evaluate the extent to which pre‐deal research should be allowed and other IPO related policy making.

The paper extends the IPO underpricing literature in a new direction and also documents a significant economic benefit to IPOs related to pre‐deal research.

The purpose of this research is to provide further evidence on the association between the IPO signaling mechanisms (i.e. retained ownership, auditor choice, and earnings forecast) by using a less restrictive sample and by performing additional empirical tests.

Single equations are used as the baseline approach to estimate the three models. In addition, Copley and Douthett's 2002 simultaneous equation systems are applied to examine whether the results remain the same. Moreover, ranked values of the risk proxies of IPOs are derived and general least squares are run on these ranked variables.

Findings indicate that auditor reputation and retained ownership are not substitute signals. It is observed that as firm risk increases, entrepreneurs are more likely to retain higher ownership to signal firm value. In addition, contended that positive earnings disclosure before IPO is not associated with retained ownership in a significant manner. An analysis of the economic implication of the results suggests that findings are more representative.

In this study the risk measures used (as well as those used in other studies) may not adequately proxy for offering firm risk. Additionally, the sample is restricted by missing values of the retained ownership variable. Further study can expand the sample using retained ownership obtained from other data sources. A study employing alternative approaches to control for the supply‐side effect of firm risk could be also productive.

Findings are of particular interest to firms that are planning to go to the public. They need to evaluate the benefit and cost of selecting a particular information system in signaling firm value to the market.

Using a larger sample, comprehensive testing periods, and ranked risk proxies contribute to the literature on evaluating singling mechanisms of IPOs.

The purpose of this paper is to theoretically analyze and experimentally demonstrate the investigation on and optimization of a distributed optical fiber sensor based on phase-sensitive optical time domain reflectometer (F-OTDR) for disturbance detection.

The F-OTDR system is investigated and optimized in two aspects: the hardware parameter and the interrogation scheme.

Based on the optimized hardware and the new interrogation scheme, the performances of the F-OTDR system have been improved greatly, compared with conventional F-OTDR system. A location accuracy of 2 m and a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 16 dB have been achieved under a spatial resolution of 8 m. On the other hand, four disturbances at four different locations have been detected and located simultaneously, which is the most effective detection system with the maximum detection capability reported to date, to the best of the authors’ knowledge.

Four disturbances at four different locations have been detected and located simultaneously, which is the most effective detection system with the maximum detection capability reported to date, to the best of the authors’ knowledge. With same hardware conditions, more existing disturbances can be detected by using the new interrogation scheme, which is helpful to reduce the miss report of disturbance.

For machine tools, the machining performance is mainly determined by the rigidity of the machine structure. How to design a machine tool with high rigidity is always a challenge issue. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

In this paper, the Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) technique is used to analyze the structure rigidity of a Computer-Numerical Control (CNC) turn-mill machining center. The considered structure parameters include static rigidity and vibration mode. Through the integral analyses of these two structure parameters in conjunction with the practical design experiences, an optimal structure is obtained.

Comparisons between the original prototype and the suggested new design structure via CAE technique under the guide of these two stiffness parameters show a great improvement on the maximal deformation of the machine structure under the action of cutting forces.

Through the proposed integrative examination of two structural parameters and the CAE technique, together with design experiences, an optimal CNC machine structure can be obtained.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between auditor industry differentiation (specialization) and the underpricing of initial public offerings (IPOs). The intention is to determine whether IPO firms – particularly those in the small firm segment of the market where information asymmetry is likely to be greatest – can benefit from significantly better IPO pricing by engaging the services of differentiated auditors.

The paper examines a broad sample of initial public offerings made between 1991 and 2000. It also conducts univariate and multivariate tests to assess the relationship between IPO underpricing and auditor industry specialization.

The paper finds that IPOs audited by Big 6 firms experience significantly less underpricing than IPOs audited by non‐Big 6 firms, particularly among small clients. It also finds an additional (and significantly larger) reduction in underpricing when the client engages an auditor that has established itself as the clear leader in its industry.

The results in this paper may not be generalizable to different countries. They do, however, appear to be robust in the USA throughout the ten‐year sample period.

The paper shows that it may not be feasible for all clients in the small‐firm segment of the market to engage specialist auditors. However, if they can, the results suggest that they could benefit from better IPO pricing.

The paper combines the auditor specialization literature with the IPO underpricing literature and also documents a significant economic benefit to smaller IPO firms.