An empirical study on the relationship between ownership and performance in a family-based corporate environment

This study examines the relationship between family ownership and firm performance in a family-based corporate environment in which managerial ownership is used as a proxy for family ownership. The relationship is in cubic form with a pattern of "entrenchment-alignment-entrenchment," which is the reverse of that found in earlier U.S. and U.K. studies. This confirms that research based on U.S. and U.K. evidence is not applicable to East-Asian corporations due to the differences in ownership concentration. Taking the endogeneity issue into consideration, the simultaneous equations regression analysis confirms that in a family-owned corporate structure, ownership affects performance and not vice versa. The wide range of alignment in the nonmonotonic relationship supports the classical "convergence of interest" hypothesis. However, at a very high level of ownership, the entrenchment effect becomes dominant. This indicates that if the family form of ownership can be controlled and made use of appropriately, firm performance can be optimized due to convergence of interest. It also follows that a company with high ownership concentration should pay even more attention to improving corporate governance practices in order to enhance its performance.link_to_subscribed_fulltex

Malnutrition in hospitalized geriatric patients

The incidence of hospital malnutrition has not been systematically studied in Hong Kong hospitals. This study was initiated to determine if malnutrition in geriatric patients is being under reported and to evaluate the efficacy of a modified monitoring and reporting procedure. Subjects (>65 yr) on congee or enteral diet were medically stable. In the control phase (3 months), newly admitted patients received standard hospital care and 9 out of 67 (13%) were identified as malnourished (CM). The study phase started one month after the last control subject was recruited. Plasma albumin (ALB) <28 g/l and the presence of diarrhea were used as criteria in identifying the malnourished (SM). 16 out of 51 (31%) newly admitted patients were SM. At identification, ALB levels were low (19.5 g/l) but similar between CM & SM. Prealbumin (PA) levels of the SM, however, were higher than that of the CM (0.117 vs 0.087 g/l, p<0.05). A similar trend was observed for plasma transferrin (TRF) (1.34 vs 1.03 g/l, p=0.07). Upon three weeks of nutritional intervention, PA levels were increased by 56% and 66% in the CM and SM, respectively. TRF levels were also increased significantly by 32% and 19%. These data suggest that malnutrition in geriatric patients is a serious problem. A routine but effective procedure should be enforced for early detection and intervention.link_to_subscribed_fulltex

Effectiveness of a two-tier family-oriented intervention in enhancing the family functioning and care capacity of the family caregivers of stroke survivors : protocol for a randomized controlled trial

202110 bcvcVersion of RecordPublishe

The influence of family ownership on SME performance: evidence from public firms in Taiwan

Family ownership, Family firm, Performance, SME, G32, L25, L26, M1,