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This paper aims to investigate the influence of over-allocation and under-allocation of family board seats on the corporate investment efficiency.

Based on the perspective of altruistic behavior, this paper theoretically analyzes the relationship between the preference of family board seats allocation and corporate investment efficiency, and designs the research. On this basis, we use STATA14.0 as an analysis tool to empirically test the relationship between the preference of family family board seats allocation and corporate investment efficiency, and consider the impact of different governance scenarios.

This study finds that firms with a higher over-allocation degree of family board seats invest more efficiently, evidenced by significantly suppressed over-investment rather than mitigated under-investment. However, we do not find evidence that the higher degree of under-allocation of family board seats contribute to lower corporate investment efficiency. Additionally, this study finds that the positive relationship between the over-allocation degree of family board seats and corporate investment efficiency is more pronounced for firms with higher separation of cash flow rights and control rights, and weaker regional law system environment. Our mechanism discussion shows that the higher over-allocation level of family board seats contributes to the mitigation of agency costs for family firms by reducing the tendency for non-family boards to vote “against board proposals” and the appropriation behavior of the controlling family, and eventually improving corporate investment efficiency.

This paper examines the relationship between the preference of family board seats allocation and corporate investment efficiency from the perspective of altruistic behavior. Unlike previous studies, this paper distinguishes the governance effects arising from over-allocation and under-allocation of family board seats. Additionally, different governance scenarios are incorporated into the decision-making mechanism of the board of family firms, and the influences of the divergence of cash-flow and control rights and a weaker regional law system on the governance effect of the preference of family board seat allocation are analyzed.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on the efficiency of Dutch secondary schools. In particular, the size of the schools' management is benchmarked.

The methodology used is an advanced micro‐econometric technique called stochastic frontier analysis.

The method used is applicable for identifying the optimum allocation, in particular the size of management. The overall result is that there is no systematic over or under allocation of management in Dutch secondary schools.

Each school received an individual benchmark. Schools can position themselves in respect with other schools and have information on how to adjust allocation of resources.

The paper contributes to the discussion about the size of management costs of Dutch secondary schools. The analysis is based on state‐of‐the‐art methodologies and has not been applied to the educational process.

Although scholarly inquiry into entrepreneurial stress has existed for nearly 40 years, little is known about how events drive stress responses in entrepreneurs, and how entrepreneur coping responses impact their well-being, relationships, and venture performance. In response to these deficiencies, the authors propose a stress events theory (SET) which they apply to an entrepreneurial context. The authors begin by providing a brief review of existing literature on entrepreneurial stress, which highlights unique stressors and events that entrepreneurs encounter. The authors then introduce event systems theory as developed by Morgeson, Mitchell, and Liu (2015). From this foundation, the authors develop SET, which describes how entrepreneurs react to particular event characteristics (novelty, disruptiveness, criticality, and duration). Additionally, the authors propose that how entrepreneurs interpret events drives coping choices, and that the accuracy of these coping choices subsequently differentiates the quality of entrepreneur well-being, interpersonal relationships, and venture-related consequences. The authors conclude with a discussion of contributions and areas of future research using our proposed theory.

Since 1980, property cycles have emerged emphatically as a phenomenon of urban development in both developed and developing countries. Among the many things which need to be explained is the continuing high levels of financial investment in property sectors, even well past the time when supply exceeds demand and vacancy rates continue to grow. Various intellectuals have put forward new theories and some situational explanations of the periodic over‐capitalisation in property. The economic adversities are not confined to the property and finance sectors. They extend into the socio‐economic performance of national economies, and in some cases they have international linkages and impacts. Gives exposition and evaluation relating to cyclicity in the USA, the UK, Japan, and some developing countries in Asia. The aim is mainly centred on explanation and theory, extending earlier published work in the authors’ research programmes in property cycles, urban development, and experience in both developing and developed countries. The economic, social, and political significance of property cycles is enormous.

The target of this research is to develop a mathematical model which combines the Resource-Constrained Multi-Project Scheduling Problem (RCMPSP) and the Multi-Skilled Resource-Constrained Project Scheduling Problem (MSRCPSP). Due to the importance of resource management, the proposed formulation comprises resource leveling considerations as well. The model aims to simultaneously optimize: (1) the total time to accomplish all projects and (2) the total deviation of resource consumptions from the uniform utilization levels.

The K-Means (KM) and Fuzzy C-Means (FCM) clustering methods have been separately applied to discover the clusters of activities which have the most similar resource demands. The discovered clusters are given to the scheduling process as priori knowledge. Consequently, the execution times of the activities with the most common resource requests will not overlap. The intricacy of the problem led us to incorporate the KM and FCM techniques into a meta-heuristic called the Bi-objective Symbiosis Organisms Search (BSOS) algorithm so that the real-life samples of this problem could be solved. Therefore, two clustering-based algorithms, namely, the BSOS-KM and BSOS-FCM have been developed.

Comparisons between the BSOS-KM, BSOS-FCM and the BSOS method without any clustering approach show that the clustering techniques could enhance the optimization process. Another hybrid clustering-based methodology called the NSGA-II-SPE has been added to the comparisons to evaluate the developed resource leveling framework.

The practical importance of the model and the clustering-based algorithms have been demonstrated in planning several construction projects, where multiple water supply systems are concurrently constructed.

Reviewing the literature revealed that there was a need for a hybrid formulation that embraces the characteristics of the RCMPSP and MSRCPSP with resource leveling considerations. Moreover, the application of clustering algorithms as resource leveling techniques was not studied sufficiently in the literature.

The purpose of this paper is first, to investigate the effective governance structure in early stage of offshore business process outsourcing (BPO), especially in the case where service provider's language is different from client's language, and second, to explore some of the conditions at the adoption of BPO that are likely to influence the shape of the governance structure.

Ground theory building methodology that builds theory in a grounded and inductive fashion is used for this study. First, a genetic framework to analyze offshore BPO governance structure is derived from extant literature. Then, the framework is applied to an exploratory case analysis to explore an effective form of the governance mechanism.

The hybrid governance structure consists of inter‐organizational coordination mechanisms, inter‐organizational systems and social control. Companies that wish to offshore their business process should select the service providers that can facilitate setting up such hybrid governance structure.

As offshore BPO is expected to be booming in the next few years, this study helps both academics and practitioners to understand the effective governance structure of offshore BPO.

Scarce resources can be allocated to budget categories by processing a set of goals to be achieved, alternative budget categories and relations between each budget category and each goal expressed in whatever terms with which the user is comfortable. A concrete example is given involving the allocating of a $500,000 budget to the police and the courts in the light of the goals of crime reduction and fair procedure in separating the innocent from the guilty. The police do better than the courts on crime reduction, but the courts do better than the police on fair procedure. Fair procedure, it is suggested, is considered more important than crime reduction. With that tentative assumption one can determine what proportion of the budget should be allocated to the police and what proportion to the courts. Initial allocations may be changed in the light of whatever constraints exist concerning minimum amounts that need to be allocated to the police or the courts. The initial allocations can also be subjected to a sensitivity analysis, to see how responsive they are to changes in the inputs concerning the relative importance of the goals and the nature of the relationships between each budget category and each goal.

It was not until the late 1960s that housing attracted much attention from academic social scientists. Since that time the literature has expanded widely and diversified, establishing housing with a specialised status in economics, sociology, politics, and in related subjects. As we would expect, the new literature covers a technical, statistical, theoretical, ideological, and historical range. Housing studies have not been conceived and interpreted in a monolithic way, with generally accepted concepts and principles, or with uniformly fixed and precise methodological approaches. Instead, some studies have been derived selectively from diverse bases in conventional theories in economics or sociology, or politics. Others have their origins in less conventional social theory, including neo‐Marxist theory which has had a wider intellectual following in the modern democracies since the mid‐1970s. With all this diversity, and in a context where ideological positions compete, housing studies have consequently left in their wake some significant controversies and some gaps in evaluative perspective. In short, the new housing intellectuals have written from personal commitments to particular cognitive, theoretical, ideological, and national positions and experiences. This present piece of writing takes up the two main themes which have emerged in the recent literature. These themes are first, questions relating to building and developing housing theory, and, second, the issue of how we are to conceptualise housing and relate it to policy studies. We shall be arguing that the two themes are closely related: in order to create a useful housing theory we must have awareness and understanding of housing practice and the nature of housing.

SUITABILITY of materials and their usage can be a profitable source of investigation for the methods engineer. And an important function too, for it implies not only an examination of the most suitable material in relation to the product to be processed, but also, methods of storage, inspection, and the economic utilisation of that material at all stages. Any of these aspects involves a major investigation if the firm is interested in discovering untapped sources of economy. It is one of the avenues not often explored by work study, but there is no valid reason why it should remain a sort of no‐man's‐land.

Exchange‐based societies widely disperse their day‐to‐day decisions among their members and components. They arrange pluralistic social processes by means of economic exchange. In such societies, the fundamental dynamic of exchange should be a central consideration of any social welfare doctrines. Retirement entitlements should be considered a structural element of the exchange system itself. Current retirement entitlement and benefits programs are immediately and continuously a part of monetary‐fiscal policy management, and, as such, highly politicized. Such programs may be structured in a way that removes them from such short‐term influences. This study examines some ways in which retirement entitlement programs may be restructured and suggests that such restructuring should be undertaken in exchange‐based societies.