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While recently introduced EU regulation on the statutory audit of public interest entities (PIEs) aims to improve audit competition and quality, its success and impact depends on the definition of a PIE applied across the various EU Member States. In the UK, even though little is known about their auditing choices, these changes will not apply to most private companies despite their importance to the wider economy. The purpose of this paper is to provide an in-depth analysis of the private company audit market and examine the lobbying behaviour of the accounting profession around the definition of a PIE in the UK.

Using a large panel of independent private company audits in the UK and a textual analysis of submitted comment letters to a government consultation on the new regulation, this paper presents a comprehensive analysis of the audit market for private companies by measuring supplier concentration using four different measures of market share, and of the lobbying behaviour of the accounting profession.

There are two main findings. First, the private company audit market is characterised by low auditor switching rates along with a tight oligopoly of the largest independent private company audits maintained by the Big Four audit firms. Second, the lobbying behaviour of accounting and audit firms sought, and succeeded, to limit the scope of the definition of a PIE in the UK, consistent with the theoretical predictions of monopoly capitalism and the theory of professions.

The paper shows that the definition and scope of a PIE needs revisiting both within the UK and across all EU Member States, with a view to including more of these economically important private companies and highlights the policy challenge of increasing competition and choice in a concentrated audit market.

The support for local initiatives by large organisations has become substantially institutionalised in the UK through Business in the Community. How much further it will go, and how much it will be supported by government, is the subject of debate and conjecture. An overview of how large firms support small and medium enterprise development — the motivations and how they are changing — is provided. The problems in evaluation and a case study of Shell UK Ltd are provided, and future directions, possible shifts and influences are considered.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between external integration and innovation outcomes in the Brazilian food companies.

Based on a survey questionnaire with 84 participants from large and non-large food companies of Brazil, the paper has used linear regression to examine the relationship between external integration and innovation outcomes. Next, the paper used the Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney Test to compare the two sets of companies, i.e. large companies (annual sales >US$5 million), and non-large companies (annual sales US$1-5 million).

The paper found that external integration with suppliers and customers is positively related to innovation outcomes in food companies. Besides, radical innovation is directly related to large companies rather than non-large food companies. Furthermore, customer integration is perceived in large food companies rather than non-large. To the best of the knowledge, this is pioneering information in food companies.

This research has been tested based only on participants’ perceptions. Therefore, the findings should also be verified through of a longitudinal fashion or in deep study.

The main practical implication lies with the embedding of these concepts in a research from the perspective of a developing economy. Seen in this light it is noteworthy that such findings may contribute to the understanding of innovation outcomes in other developing countries.

There are few empirical studies that explore the relationship between external integration and innovation outcomes in food companies. Besides, there is little knowledge about differences between large and non-large food companies regarding to incremental and radical innovation. Our research is the first study analyzing these issues in large and non-large food companies in the Brazil.

The purpose of this paper is to explain theoretically the relation between large shareholders, legal institutions, and capital structure, then empirically deduce how large shareholders and legal institution affected capital structure decision by integrating Chinese institutions.

This paper adopted cross‐section data of non‐financial listed companies in China and applied series of ordinary least square to empirically test the relationship between large shareholders, legal institution, and capital structure decision.

The empirical evidence provided by this paper indicates that large shareholders and legal institution do affect capital structure decision, specifically in seven areas.

This paper, based on the institutions of China, takes the largest shareholder, ultimately the controller, the relation of legal institution and capital structure into the research framework for the first time and systematically studies how the capital structure decision making is affected by the controlling shareholders, the nature of ultimately controllers, the concentration degree of shares held by a few large shareholders and legal institution. It is the first to empirically test whether the concentration degree of shares held by a few large shareholders and legal institution will affect the relation between controlling shareholders and capital structure, and compensates for the deficiencies in previous studies.

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of marketing capabilities on market orientation and sustained competitive advantage from the viewpoint of managers of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that supply large companies. This paper also analyzes the moderating role of exposure to external turbulence in the relationship between marketing capabilities and sustained competitive advantage, and between marketing capabilities and market orientation for SMEs.

Based on the literature, this study develops a model to verify the proposed relationships. An online questionnaire collected data from 423 managers of SMEs that supply large companies to test the model. This paper analyzes the proposed model using structural equation modeling with partial least squares.

According to the surveyed managers, marketing capabilities tend to play a significant role in the market orientation and perceived sustained competitive advantage of SMEs that supply large companies. Better-developed marketing capabilities can strengthen the market orientation of SMEs, helping to achieve and maintain a sustained competitive advantage. They will, thus, attract more clients and minimize their risk, regardless of the environment in which they operate.

This research contributes to marketing theory by highlighting the marketing capabilities of SMEs that supply large companies and demonstrating the importance of such capabilities for their survival.

The study investigated the views of the SME managers that supply large companies about their company’s marketing capabilities. Traditionally, these companies have had little concern for marketing. This research focuses on an emerging market, that is not usually addressed.

The purpose of this study is to examine whether the influence of block ownership on firm performance depends on the identity of the largest investor.

The authors analyse the data for New Zealand companies for the period from 2002 to 2007 and develop multiple regression models which test the influence of block ownership on firm performance subject to the identity of the investor. A two‐stage least square approach is employed to test the effect of possible reverse causality between block ownership and firm performance on the relationship found in multiple regression models.

The authors find that the concentrated ownership has a positive, albeit decreasing, association with firm performance. This relationship is conditioned on the identity of the largest investor. Those companies whose block investors were financial institutions performed better than their peers. The superior influence of financial investors on corporate performance did not disappear even when the endogeneity of this relationship was accounted for.

The main contribution of this paper is the finding of a differential influence of various identities of block investors on firm performance. It questions the role that some domestic block investors play in the governance of New Zealand companies and the reason why the financial system has allowed corporate entities to be the main shareholders of the majority of firms when they underperform relative to their peers.

Examines the behaviour of the industrial buyer, and studies the purchasing of reprographic equipment. Looks at straight replacement purchases, first time purchases, rebuys involving high cost equipment and rebuys due to dissatisfaction, in terms of a perceived risk model. Accepts that the industrial communications practitioner receives much less planning guidance than his consumer‐based counterpart. States current research is founded on the belief that a theory of communication appropriate to industrial buying must take on 6 main points – these are itemised and discussed. Discusses research design; research methodology; the determinants of perceived risk in industrial buying; risk handling behaviour in industrial buying; and a perceived risk model of buyer behaviour and its implications for competitive industrial marketing policy – all these are examined in great depth and each one given individual conclusions. Concludes that these examples by no means exhaust all the possible empirical bases from which industrial marketing policies may be devised, they serve to illustrate the way in which the model can be realistically applied to derive such competitive policies.

The purpose of this study is to explore the effect of industry specialization on the absorption and competitive pricing (or lack thereof) of audits of large Andersen clients (S&P 1500 companies) who switched to the remaining Big 4 international accounting firms in 2002 due to the demise of Arthur Andersen LLP (Andersen). Did the audit clients pay a premium or discount in audit fees to their new auditor who specialized in their industry?

Ordinary least squares regression is used to test hypothesis of a positive association between industry specialization and audit fees charged to former Andersen's audit clients in 2002 following Andersen's demise. This study provides more control over size effects by design. Test variables are constructed based on national market share of audit fees within an industry. Logistic regression is used to examine the likelihood of choosing new auditor that is an industry specialist.

Results support hypothesis, consistent with auditor differentiation explanation. Proportion of clients that had engaged an industry specialist in 2001 increased from 38 percent (84 clients) to 48 percent (105 clients) in 2002. No evidence of price‐gouging in 2002 although clients who aligned with industry specialist paid a 23.2 percent premium in audit fees. Large clients lost bargaining power to negotiate lower fees. Findings are robust to the inclusion of additional alternative measures of company size.

Results of logistic regression analysis imply that large audit clients with former auditor of tarnished reputation, long auditor tenure and high leverage are more likely to switch to an industry specialist to possibly signal audit/financial reporting quality. Large sample companies may limit the ability to generalize findings to smaller companies.

Mandatory audit firm rotation (currently being debated in the profession) will have costly effect on the pricing of Big 4 audits for companies wanting to signal audit and financial reporting quality to affect market perception, and large companies would likely lose their ability to bargain for lower audit fees.

The paper focus on the alignment of Andersen clients and impact on audit fees with Big 4 industry specialists resulting from the sudden increase in audit market concentration. Prior to Andersen's collapse, evidence on the association of audit fees premium and industry specialists was mixed, and little attention has been given to the influence of auditor industry specialization on both audit fees and alignment of former Andersen clients with a Big 4 specialist. This paper fills that void.

This study aims to provide a better understanding into how large-scale companies overcome their rigidity and bureaucracy, and transform entrepreneurial orientation (EO) into organizational responsiveness (e.g. interdepartmental collaboration [IDC]). It also clarifies the double-edged role of organizational culture in shaping IDC, specifically within the Chinese economy that is deeply influenced by Confucianism.

Datas were randomly collected from companies that reside in the Yangtze River Delta region. With a sample of 115 large-scale EO Chinese firms, consisting of 402 department managers and 115 executives. The study aggregates the scores to create an overall measurement for EO, collectivism, power distance and IDC in the analysis. Further, confirmatory factor analyses were used to measure the structural model fitness, and multiple regression analysis was used to assess the hypotheses.

The results show that in competitive environments, IDC, as a strategic response to EO and a risk aversion of inertia and bureaucracy, fully mediates the positive relationship between EO and organizational creativity. Furthermore, the positive association is more pronounced under high cultural collectivism or low power distance in large-scale firms.

This paper contributes to the understanding of EO approach at the organizational level. The results posit that when large companies adopt EO, they are proactive rather than passive and would exhibit IDC as an important strategic responsiveness. Moreover, different organizational cultural orientations (i.e. high collectivism and low power distance) help to build IDC before cultivating innovation.

The results in this study suggest that large companies should focus on developing IDC to overcome knowledge fragmentation, bureaucracy and inertia. Also, large firms should develop Human Resource Management practices, such as creating job rotation and workflow, as well as cultural trust and common beliefs. In contrast, they should be on guard against status differences and workplace hierarchy’s cultural context.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that considers the roles of IDC and organizational culture and examines how large-scale entrepreneurial-oriented companies breed innovation.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationship between ownership concentration and company performance in China private listed companies.

By taking into account of the difference of managerial positions of large shareholders in listed companies (whether they assume the posts as presidents or general managers), and based on the two agency theories, the paper analyzes the state dependency of the relationship between ownership concentration and the company performance of listed companies with the samples of China private listed companies from 2003 to 2011.

The paper finds that if the large shareholders assume no posts in the listed companies, there is an inverted U shape relation between shareholding ratio of the largest shareholders and the company performance. This result indicates the inadequate or excessive monitoring to the companies by the large shareholders according to different shareholding ratios. If large shareholders assume posts in the listed companies, there is a U shape relation between shareholding ratio of the largest shareholders and the company performance. This result indicates the tunneling and propping to the small shareholders by the large shareholders according to different shareholding ratios.

This paper has not taken the influence of earnings management of the listed companies.

For strengthening the protection of investors, proper distinction shall be made among shareholders of different conditions, and difference of roles large shareholders play in the company under different conditions shall be understood correctly, so as to formulate and perfect market rules for corporate governance, rather than just restraining the power (rights) of large shareholders. The study in this paper is for helping understand the different roles large shareholders play under different corporate governance conditions.

First, different from the research paradigm of relationship between ownership concentration and company performance in existing literature, the paper discriminates the study background with the post-assuming conditions of large shareholders in listed companies and believes that relationship between ownership concentration and company performance shall be presented differently under different post-assuming conditions. Second, by using monitoring theory and tunneling and propping theory to explain the behaviors of large shareholders under different post-assuming conditions respectively, a new theory explanation view is provided for explaining the relation between ownership concentration and company performance.