Search results

This study aims to examine the influence of corporate governance variables on firm performance and also to find out whether the corporate governance mechanism is capable of mitigating the vertical agency crisis. Here the researcher uses corporate governance mechanisms such as board meeting frequency, board independence, percentage of non-executive directors, percentage of woman directors on board and the board size to measure the firm performance and, at the same time, tries to mitigate the agency crisis, which is measured through return on asset and asset turnover ratio.

The present study considers period from 2009 to 2020 with data corresponding to a panel of 271 non-financial firms listed in 500 NSE index, India. The study introduces a panel regression model to analyze the data collected from the sample firms.

The study detects a positive as well as a statistically significant relationship between board size and vertical agency cost. The study also observes a negative relationship between board independence and agency cost. Further, the study finds a positive relationship between corporate governance variables and firm performance, though it is non-significant.

As the study progresses, the study detects a negative relationship between non-executive directors and agency costs. This study tries to give policy prescription to the corporate policymaker regarding various measures to be taken by the firm for the improvement of firm performance and reduction of owner and manager conflict inside the company. The study fills the literature gap by revealing a significant relationship between corporate governance, vertical agency crisis and firm performance.

This study seeks to empirically examine the influence of corporate governance on corporate performance in Ghana.

The study employs data from 30 listed firms spanning from 2008 to 2018 and applies the generalized method of moments technique. The authors use economic value added, shareholder value added (SVA) and economic margin (EM) as measures of corporate performance.

The findings reveal that the presence of both inside directors and outside (nonexecutive) directors significantly improves corporate performance, lending credence to both the stewardship theory and the agency theory. The inclusion of women on the corporate boards and frequent meetings of the board reduce the economic profits of firms. The authors find that CEO duality impedes corporate performance, supporting the presumption of the agency theory. The study further reveals that audit committee size and ownership concentration positively drive the performance of quoted firms in Ghana.

Prior studies on corporate governance and firm performance nexus have chiefly adopted traditional accounting-based performance measures such as return on assets and return on equity to evaluate firm performance. However, these indicators are critiqued for being historic and fail to consider firms' cost of equity. In light of the shortcomings of the accounting-based proxies, this study takes a unique direction by using value-based metrics, which are considered superior measures of performance. Besides, to the best of the authors' knowledge, this study provides a first attempt to investigate the link between corporate governance and firm performance using SVA and EM as performance indicators.

Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some legal aspects concerning MNEs, cyberspace and e‐commerce as the means of expression of the digital economy. The whole effort of the author is focused on the examination of various aspects of MNEs and their impact upon globalisation and vice versa and how and if we are moving towards a global digital economy.

The purpose of this paper is to address the question of coordination by comparing two recent reforms schemes in Norway: internal security and the welfare administration. Both concern typically transboundary “wicked” policy problems where horizontal and vertical coordination is difficult. What kind of coordination problems did the reforms address, what kind of coordination solutions were provided, and what can explain the observed pattern?

The paper draws on organizational theory, distinguishing between a structural-instrumental and a cultural-institutional perspective. A comparative case study design is applied. The analysis combines insights from four large research projects.

Both cases represent broad government efforts to tackle “wicked” coordination problems when there is a mismatch between the problem structure and the organizational structure. In both cases, reorganization and structural changes resulted in hybrid and complex organizational arrangements. The welfare administration reform tried to solve a tension between ministerial responsibility and local self-government by introducing One-stop-shops. Within the area of internal security, coordination problems related to lacking ministerial capacity was tackled by introducing a formal principle of collaboration, a lead agency approach and network arrangements.

Effective coordination might ease wicked problems by enhancing the understanding of the problem and its underlying causes, increasing the probability of finding agreed-upon solutions and help implementation. Enhanced communication and strengthened mutual trust and commitment among actors might be a positive outcome. However, coordination implies dilemmas and trade-offs, and reformers often have to balance different interests.

The paper shows that different instruments of coordination are central for handling “wicked problems”.

The paper intends to identify and explain key managerial principles for vertical integration in the cattle industry during a key period of environment uncertainty.

Following Yin's advice on using case studies for exploratory theory development, this study builds on existing theories of vertical integration through a case study that explores potential prospects for cattle producers in a uniquely uncertain environment and the execution of a higher degree of vertical integration in a mature market.

The creation of NVF is a result of a well‐groomed uncertainty management scheme designed to attain a higher degree of vertical integration within an enterprising community. Some key managerial principles have been identified that can be applied to a thriving vertical integration endeavour in the cattle industry. History has proven that such an undertaking is taxing. Nevertheless, by looking at NVF's business model, it can be seen that environmental uncertainty can facilitate vertical integration projects in the cattle industry, given the right community‐oriented doctrine.

This case study does not include cases where cattle producers were not so successful.

It provides advice for managing vertical integration by networks of small business owners in the cattle industry. The BSE crisis seems to have triggered efforts to decrease dependency, especially by outside stakeholders. NVF focused its members on building a business model and long‐term objectives beyond the specific uncertainties created by bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), such as whether the border reopened or stayed permanently closed to foreign markets. Domestic consumers were their core marketing priority at the outset. In addition, future plans were set in motion to create a strategy to seek other foreign markets, including the EU.

The case study presented in this paper provides an example of vertical integration as a strategic response to market uncertainty enhanced by a political and economic crisis in a rural community. This paper also outlines key events of the Canadian BSE crisis, the Canadian beef industry and surrounding communities, and the relevance of past research on environmental uncertainty and vertical integration in explaining why vertical integration has been strategically unnatural to cattle producers but occurred in this situation.

The Bureau of Economics in the Federal Trade Commission has a three-part role in the Agency and the strength of its functions changed over time depending on the preferences and ideology of the FTC’s leaders, developments in the field of economics, and the tenor of the times. The over-riding current role is to provide well considered, unbiased economic advice regarding antitrust and consumer protection law enforcement cases to the legal staff and the Commission. The second role, which long ago was primary, is to provide reports on investigations of various industries to the public and public officials. This role was more recently called research or “policy R&D”. A third role is to advocate for competition and markets both domestically and internationally. As a practical matter, the provision of economic advice to the FTC and to the legal staff has required that the economists wear “two hats,” helping the legal staff investigate cases and provide evidence to support law enforcement cases while also providing advice to the legal bureaus and to the Commission on which cases to pursue (thus providing “a second set of eyes” to evaluate cases). There is sometimes a tension in those functions because building a case is not the same as evaluating a case. Economists and the Bureau of Economics have provided such services to the FTC for over 100 years proving that a sub-organization can survive while playing roles that sometimes conflict. Such a life is not, however, always easy or fun.

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to understand the effectiveness of national crisis response networks (NCRN) in a broad sense, including the domains of governance, and strategic and tactical management. The chapter thus moves beyond views considering crisis response a reactive, tactical level effort. Specifically, it focuses on the role of military organizations in NCRNs.

Methodology/approach – After building a research framework based on organization and military studies, this case study examines the organizational response to the disaster that was caused by the tropical cyclone “Katrina”; the data used are qualitative.

Findings – The results highlight the ex-ante lack of preparedness of organizations to cooperate in a NCRN. Once Katrina hit in 2005, confusion and tensions permeated interorganizational relationships for a number of days.

Research limitations/implications – Implications for researchers and practitioners center on the NCRN's backbone organizations and communities potentially affected. Through tension management and network-level investments in knowledge and routines they can contribute to effective crisis response. The framework could be applied to other national crises. Case studies can be generalized in a conceptual sense.

Originality/value of paper – Katrina has been studied quite extensively yet from a crisis response perspective. This chapter offers a reflection that broadens the scope of our understanding of NCRNs, with an emphasis on the military.

The build-up of large-scale COVID-19 testing required an unprecedented effort of coordination within decentralized healthcare systems around the world. The aim of the study was to elucidate the challenges of vertical policy coordination between non-political actors at the national and regional levels regarding this policy issue, using Sweden as our case.

Interviews with key actors at the national and regional levels were analyzed using an adapted version of a conceptualization by Adam et al. (2019), depicting barriers to vertical policy coordination.

Our results show that the main issues in the Swedish context were related to parallel sovereignty and a vagueness regarding responsibilities and mandates as well as complex governmental structures and that this was exacerbated by the unfamiliarity and uncertainty of the policy issue. We conclude that understanding the interaction between the comprehensiveness and complexity of the policy issue and the institutional context is crucial to achieving effective vertical policy coordination.

Many studies have focused on countries’ overall pandemic responses, but in order to improve the outcome of future pandemics, it is also important to learn from more specific response measures.

The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, it aims to contribute to the theoretical discussion on shared service centres (SSCs) for public sector accounting by putting forth a novel typology of different SSCs and their creation modes, and outlining the challenges these specific models are likely to face. Second, it uses the Estonian case study to test the theoretical conjectures.

Since in the Estonian central government different reform models for creating SSCs for public sector accounting have been tried out, the Estonian case offers an opportunity for exploring what the motives behind the creation of different forms of SSCs can be and what kind of challenges reform actors can face when opting for different reform models. The sources of data for the qualitative case study included official documents, media articles and interviews.

The Estonian case study demonstrates that the distinct reform models for creating SSCs in public sector accounting can indeed have different motives and also face various challenges to different degrees. Some challenges, however, are present in all reform models (e.g. difficulties in achieving customer orientation and reduced input to managerial decision making).

This paper puts forth a novel typology of public sector SSC reform models and analyses the challenges these different reform models are likely to face. The theoretical contribution and the Estonian case study are valuable for both academics and practitioners analysing or considering the creation of SSCs.

Sensemaking models generally lack an objective determinant to distinguish between CEO fault and changes in systematic risk caused by exogenous negative shocks like a banking crisis. The interdisciplinary approach of this paper combines attribution theory with econometric time series analyses to provide an objective measure of exogeneity and persistence of a negative shock to an organization. The purpose of this paper is to address the exploratory research question, of how scapegoating by managers can be avoided by the use of an objective and empirical measurement and if the recent financial crisis can be seen as an exogenous shock to manufacturing firms.

By testing for stationarity with a structural break with an econometric time series analysis, the model helps to reduce agency costs during organizational crisis by effectively determining crisis causation and avoid scapegoating by managers.

By combining the sensemaking models of Haleblian and Rajagopalan (2006), Staw (1980), and Weick (1988), an integrated model of sensemaking in performance crises under the specific context of simultaneously occurring external crises is provided. By applying the authors approach the results suggest that the financial crisis of 2008/2009 has true exogenous adverse effects on US manufacturing firms.

The interdisciplinary approach encourages the integration of econometric time series analysis as an objective determinant in sense making models.