Oral single high-dose aspirin results in a long-lived inhibition of anodal current-induced vasodilatation

1. Acetyl salicyclic acid (aspirin) irreversibly blocks cyclo-oxygenase (COX). This effect is short-lived in endothelial or smooth muscle cells due to resynthesis but long-lived in platelets devoid of synthesis ability. Aspirin blocks the anodal current-induced vasodilatation, suggesting participation by prostaglandin (PG). We analysed the time course of the effect of aspirin as an indirect indicator of the origin of the PG possibly involved in anodal current-induced vasodilatation. 2. In healthy volunteers, vasodilatation, estimated from the peak cutaneous vascular conductance (CVC(peak)), was recorded in the forearm during and in the 20 min following 5 min, 0.10 mA transcutaneous anodal current application, using deionized water as a vehicle. CVC(peak) was normalized to 44°C heat-induced maximal vasodilatation and expressed in per cent values. Experiments were performed before and at 2 and 10 h, 3, 7, 10 and 14 days after blinded 1-g aspirin or placebo treatment. 3. CVC(peak) (mean±s.d.mean) after aspirin vs placebo was 13.6±14.5 vs 65.0±32.1 (P<0.05) 14.7±4.2 vs 87.5±31.9 (P<0.05), 18.1±10.2 vs 71.6±26.8 (P<0.05), 42.5±23.4 vs 73.3±26.8 (non significant, NS), 60.2±24.3 vs 75.2±26.9 (NS), 52.1±18.5 vs 67.9±32.1 (NS) at 2 and 10 h and at days 3, 7, 10 and 14 respectively. 4. Aspirin inhibition of anodal current-induced vasodilatation persists long after endothelial and smooth muscle cyclo-oxygenases are assumed to be restored. This suggests that the PG involved in this response are not endothelial- or smooth muscle-derived. The underlying mechanism of this unexpected long-lived inhibition of vasodilatation by single high dose aspirin remains to be studied

Outside Directors, Ownership Structure and Firm Profitability in Korea

The contribution of outside directors to firm performance has been shown to be inconsistent. Korean companies first began in 1998 to introduce outside directors to carry out governance reform. This paper analyses the impact of outside directors on corporate performance during the governance reform movement undertaken in Korea in 1999 as well as the moderating effect of the large shareholder and managerial ownership rate. We hypothesised a positive relationship between outside director effectiveness (outside director participation rate) and firm profitability, a negative moderating effect in terms of large shareholder ownership and managerial ownership, and a positive moderating effect when it comes to blockholder ownership. This moderating relationship is considered in order to investigate the role of large shareholders under the Korean governance structure. Our empirical analysis showed that outside directors had a weak positive impact, and that a large shareholder ownership rate and a block shareholder ownership rate moderated this relationship in a negative fashion. The managerial ownership rate did not show any significant moderating effects. We thus conclude that it is too early to assess the impact of outside directors on corporate performance, and that Korean companies exhibit an "owner-controlled" governance structure; that is, they are governed by large shareholders who have demonstrated a resistance to attempts to bring about governance reform through such means as the introduction of outside directors. Outside shareholders were found to possess insufficient power to monitor large controlling shareholders. This paper seeks to make a contribution to the field by conducting an analysis of governance structure in Korea in the aftermath of the currency crisis, as well as of outside directors in emerging economies, a subject rarely dealt with in governance studies. Copyright (c) 2007 The Authors; Journal compilation (c) 2007 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Mind the Gap: The Age Dissimilarity between the Chair and the CEO

We study the relation between the chair of the board of directors and the CEO. We argue that substantial age dissimilarity between the two − giving rise to cognitive conflict − increases board monitoring and firm value for firms with greater monitoring needs. We find evidence for our hypothesis using data on German two-tier boards. German law mitigates endogeneity concerns as it prevents CEO duality and also restricts CEO power in other ways. Additional identification attempts include CEO-firm and chair-firm fixed effects, random effects, dynamic panel data estimations, and the use of the 2007 financial crisis as an exogenous shock to monitoring needs. We find that during the crisis, when fast decision making and managerial discretion were needed, the link between age dissimilarity and firm value changed

Die Entwicklung der betriebswirtschaftlichen Corporate Governance-Forschung im deutschsprachigen Raum – Eine State of the Art-Analyse auf der Basis bibliometrischer Daten

Corporate Governance hat in der betriebswirtschaftlichen Forschung in den letzten beiden Dekaden kontinuierlich an Bedeutung gewonnen. Ungeachtet dessen wird die Corporate Governance-Forschung nach wie vor als weitestgehend unsystematischer, in viele Einzelthemen zerfallener Strang der betriebswirtschaftlichen Literatur wahrgenommen. Der vorliegende Beitrag analysiert empirisch die Entwicklung der betriebswirtschaftlichenCorporate Governance-Forschung im deutschsprachigen Raum. Als Datenbasis für eine Zitations-, Kozitations- und Clusteranalyse dienen 267 Corporate Governance-Beiträge mit mehr als 10.000 Zitationen. Die erhobenen Daten werden in sechs Cluster zur Darstellung der thematischen Schwerpunkte der betriebswirtschaftlichen Corporate Governance-Forschung unterteilt und als Kozitationsnetzwerk visuell dargestellt. Zudem wird die historische Entwicklung der betriebswirtschaftlichen Corporate Governance-Forschung herausgearbeitet, indem die 267 herangezogenen Corporate Governance-Beiträge den sechs Clustern unter Berücksichtigung des Publikationszeitpunkteszugeordnet werden