THE IMPACT OF INSTITUTIONAL OWNERSHIP ON CORPORATE OPERATING PERFORMANCE

This paper examines the relationship between institutional investor involvement in and the operating performance of large firms. We confirm a significant relationship between a firm’s operating cash flow returns and both the percent of institutional stock ownership and the number of institutional stockholders. However, the positive relationship between the number of institutional investors holding stock and operating cash flow returns is found only for pressure-insensitive institutional investors (those with no business relationship with the firm). The number of pressure-sensitive institutional investors (those with an existing or potential business relationship with the firm) has no impact on performance. These results suggest that institutional investors that need to protect actual or promote potential business relationships with firms in which they invest are compromised as monitors of the firm, and lend credence to calls for greater independence of board members from firms

The Impact of Institutional Ownership on Corporate Operating Performance

This paper examines the relationship between institutional investor involvement in and the operating performance of large firms. We confirm a significant relationship between a firm’s operating cash flow returns and both the percent of institutional stock ownership and the number of institutional stockholders. However, the positive relationship between the number of institution al investors holding stock and operating cash flow returns is found only for pressure-insensitive institutional investors (those with no business relationship with the firm). The number of pressure-sensitive institutional investors (those with an existing or potential business relationship with the firm) has no impact on performance. These results suggest that institutional investors that need to protect actual or promote potential business relationships with firms in which they invest are compromised as monitors of the firm, and lend credence to calls for greater independence of board members from firms

THE IMPACT OF INSTITUTIONAL OWNERSHIP ON CORPORATE OPERATING PERFORMANCE

This paper examines the relationship between institutional investor involvement in and the operating performance of large firms. We confirm a significant relationship between a firm’s operating cash flow returns and both the percent of institutional stock ownership and the number of institutional stockholders. However, the positive relationship between the number of institutional investors holding stock and operating cash flow returns is found only for pressure-insensitive institutional investors (those with no business relationship with the firm). The number of pressure-sensitive institutional investors (those with an existing or potential business relationship with the firm) has no impact on performance. These results suggest that institutional investors that need to protect actual or promote potential business relationships with firms in which they invest are compromised as monitors of the firm, and lend credence to calls for greater independence of board members from firms

The Impact of Institutional Ownership on Corporate Operating Performance

This paper examines the relationship between institutional investor involvement in and the operating performance of large firms. We confirm a significant relationship between a firm’s operating cash flow returns and both the percent of institutional stock ownership and the number of institutional stockholders. However, the positive relationship between the number of institution al investors holding stock and operating cash flow returns is found only for pressure-insensitive institutional investors (those with no business relationship with the firm). The number of pressure-sensitive institutional investors (those with an existing or potential business relationship with the firm) has no impact on performance. These results suggest that institutional investors that need to protect actual or promote potential business relationships with firms in which they invest are compromised as monitors of the firm, and lend credence to calls for greater independence of board members from firms

A Critical Approach to Developing Culturally Relevant Leadership Curricula for Muslim Students

The secular and materialistic values imported to Muslim countries through globalisation and the uncritical application of Western models and theories are changing societies from being Muslim towards a materialistic and secular one where economic value is the most critical factor that drives people’s behaviour and decisions. The real challenge for Muslim countries, then, is to develop and implement higher education curricula that reflect Islamic and cultural values while incorporating global knowledge developed by Western and other scholars. This chapter aims to achieve this balance by proposing a theoretical model that can be used for developing culturally relevant and critically reflective leadership curricula. The model is derived from Habermas’ account of critical theory and offers a critical and holistic approach to leadership teaching. It adopts an intercultural and interdisciplinary approach to learning and aims to start a dialogue between Western and indigenous sources of knowledge. The model also proposes the content and teaching practices recommended by leadership scholars and leadership development literature internationally to provide students with a balanced and pluralistic learning experience that addresses both the spiritual and the intellectual aspects of knowledge

Revolution postponed? Tracing the development and limitations of open content filmmaking

Networked information technologies have brought about extensive changes in the production and distribution of creative cultural work. Inspired by the widespread success of Free-Libre/Open Source Software (FLOSS), many proponents of open access advocate reconceptualisation of existing legal protection frameworks in creative works. This paper traces the attempted appropriation of Creative Commons (CC) licences by filmmakers and the consequent formation of an Open Content Filmmaking (OCF) movement. OCF proponents articulated notions of technology-enabled transformation in content creation and distribution, similar to those that inspire the visions of FLOSS and CC advocates. It examines how these creators attempted to address the relevance of openness to their own activities and develop practical open models for filmmaking. Difficulties experienced in establishing viable livelihoods with OCF (as FLOSS developers had done), created tensions between those with a pragmatic or more ideological orientation. The initial vision of a consistent OCF movement, enabled by CC, thus became fragmented. In contrast to FLOSS, where many actors were able to find ways to develop sustainable careers within the industry while contributing to Open Source Software, such generic strategies have not readily emerged for OCF. Drawing insights from Sørensen’s (1996) Social Learning framework (Learning technology, constructing culture. Sociotechnical change as social learning: University of Trondheim, STS working paper 18/96) in this paper we untangle the elaborate but often messy strategies deployed by Open Content Filmmakers (OCFs) and trace the multiple and often partial ways they have worked out to utilise CC elements and tools in producing, monetising and distributing their films

Not Quite Right: Representations of Eastern Europeans in ECJ Discourse

Although the increasing responsiveness of the Court of Justice of the European Union (the ‘ECJ’) jurisprudence to western Member States’ concerns regarding Central and Eastern European (‘CEE’) nationals’ mobility has garnered academic attention, ECJ discourse has not been scrutinised for how it approaches the CEE region or CEE movers. Applying postcolonial theory, this article seeks to fill this gap and to explore whether there are any indications that ECJ discourse is in line with the historical western-centric inferiorisation of the CEE region. A critical discourse analysis of a set of ECJ judgments and corresponding Advocate General opinions pertaining to CEE nationals illustrates not only how the ECJ adopts numerous discursive strategies to maintain its authority, but also how it tends to prioritise values of the western Member States, while overlooking interests of CEE movers. Its one-sided approach is further reinforced by referring to irrelevant facts and negative assumptions to create an image of CEE nationals as socially and economically inferior to westerners, as not belonging to the proper EU polity and as not quite deserving of EU law’s protections. By silencing CEE nationals’ voices, while disregarding the background of east/west socio-economic and political power differentials and precariousness experienced by many CEE workers in the west, such racialising discourse normalises ethnicity- and class-based stereotypes. These findings also help to contextualise both EU and western policies targeting CEE movers and evidence of their unequal outcomes in the west, and are in line with today’s nuanced expressions of racisms. By illustrating the ECJ’s role in addressing values pertinent to mobile CEE individuals, this study facilitates a fuller appreciation of the ECJ’s power in shaping and reflecting western-centric EU identity and policies. Engaging with such issues will not only allow us to better appreciate—and question—the ECJ’s legitimacy, but might also facilitate a better understanding of power dynamics within the EU. This study also makes significant theoretical and methodological contributions. It expands (and complicates) the application of postcolonial theory to contemporary intra-EU processes, while illustrating the usefulness of applying critical discourse analysis to exploring differentiation, exclusion, subordination and power within legal language