Private benefits extraction in closely-held corporations: The case for multiple large shareholders*

This paper investigates how multiple large shareholders share control and extract private benefits in closely-held corporations. We find that ownership structures with multiple large shareholders are common and very stable. Moreover, they seem to be, to a large extent, exogenously given. The structure of the controlling group of shareholders has a very significant impact on performance. Performance improves as the control group’s ownership stake increases and, for a given ownership stake, as the number of members increases. The economic significance of the effects indicates that minority expropriation is a very important problem in closely-held firms.

Impact of the Operations Manager's dual role on inventory policy

In modern corporations, the Operations Manager’s role in defining of firm’s strategy is becoming more important. In this paper we describe how firms can use this tendency for Operations Managers to make strategic decisions as a mechanism to prevent inventory mismanagement. These managers have incentives to speculate with inventory cost reductions, thereby avoiding sharp reductions in a single period, because it would hinder further reductions in the future. Remarkably, firms may prevent such behavior by stimulating the Operations Managers’ strategic orientation, without losing sight of inventory-efficient management.

CORPORATE ETHICAL IDENTITY AS DETERMINANT OF FIRM PERFORMANCE: A TEST OF THE MEDIATING ROLE OF STAKEHOLDER SATISFACTION

In this article, we empirically assess the impact of the Corporate Ethical Identity (CEI) on the firm’s financial performance. Drawing on formulation of both normative and instrumental stakeholder theory, we argue that firms with a strong ethical identity achieve greater degree of stakeholder satisfaction, which in turn, positively influence the firms’ financial performance. We further analyze two different dimensions of the CEI of firms: corporate revealed ethics and corporate applied ethics. Our results indicate that while revealed ethics has informational worth and enhance shareholder value, applied ethics has a positive impact through the improvement of stakeholder satisfaction. However, revealed ethics by itself (i.e. decoupled from ethical initiatives) is not sufficient to boost economic performance.

EARNINGS MANAGEMENT AND CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

Drawing on stakeholder-agency theory and the earnings management framework, we explore the relationship between discretionary accounting accruals and corporate social responsibility. We hypothesize a positive connection between corporate social responsibility and earnings management. We argue that managers may satisfy the interest of stakeholders as an entrenchment strategy once these managers have followed earnings management practices, thereby damaging the long-term interests of shareholders. Also, we expect that the positive connection between corporate social responsibility and financial performance is negatively moderated when combined with earnings management practices. We empirically demonstrate our theoretical contention making use of a database comprising of 599 firms from 32 different nations for the period 2002-2004.

Influencia de los bancos y cajas como accionistas y acreedores en la manipulación contable de las empresas

En este trabajo utilizamos una base de datos formada por 13247 empresas españolas para el periodo 1996-2000 y estudiamos el efecto de la presencia de instituciones financieras –bien sea como accionista o como acreedor- en las practicas de manipulación de beneficios (earnings management) de las empresas. Encontramos que las instituciones financieras como accionistas estimulan las prácticas de manipulación contable en sus empresas participadas. Sin embargo, al actuar como acreedores, el efecto es el contrario. Además, al distinguir entre bancos y cajas, encontramos que los primeros promueven en menor medida que las segundas la manipulación en los beneficios en las empresas participadas. De hecho, a diferencia de las cajas, la participación de los bancos como accionistas, si además se combina con su presencia como acreedores acaba siendo desincentivadora en la adopción de prácticas de manipulación de beneficios en las empresas participadas. Por último, también hemos obtenido que al aumentar el número de instituciones financieras relacionadas con una empresa, bien sea como accionistas o acreedores, esto acaba desincentivando las manipulaciones de sus beneficios. En síntesis, la recomendación para acotar las prácticas de earnings management en las empresas es que debe tratarse de promover la dimensión acreedora de las instituciones financieras que participan en estas empresas, y además, se debe incentivar a las empresas a que tengan relaciones con diversas instituciones financieras.

Evolucion de la relacion banca-industria en España

Definir el papel que juega el sistema financiero en general, y los bancos en particular, a la hora de facilitar las inversiones y crecimiento de las empresas, impulsar la adopc ión de innovaciones tecnológicas y las mejoras en la productividad, o en la mejor supervisión de la actuación de los directivos ha sido siempre un tema que ha generado encendidos debates y para el que se han elaborado numerosas comparaciones internacionale s. Se observan dos soluciones extremas a este problema: por un lado, el modelo anglo-americano, con mercados financieros importantes e instituciones financieras no tan involucradas en la propiedad o financiación de las empresas; y por otro lado el modelo germano-japonés, con un número reducido de bancos, de tamaño importante y que han jugado un papel más activo en la supervisión y control de las entidades no financieras con las que colaboran. El caso español correspondía, tradicionalmente, a una situación intermedia con bancos importantes pero no excesivamente involucrados y con la presencia de mecanismos de mercado de una cierta importancia, especialmente cuando lo comparábamos con la situación presente en otros países europeos. En este trabajo intentamos ver hasta qué punto los bancos siguen siendo importantes en la financiación de las empresas, analizando sus participaciones accionariales y determinando hasta qué punto son accionistas activos y alternativos al mercado. En este sentido, una de las preguntas claves consiste en entender qué ha pasado con la estructura de propiedad de las empresas españolas y, en particular, de aquellas que cotizan en bolsa. Este es un elemento crucial ya que en la mayoría de países europeos es habitual una estructura de propiedad altamente concentrada y donde la caracterización de los grandes accionistas resulta relevante. Otra cuestión que merece nuestra atención es la evolución de las grandes empresas de propiedad estatal, que durante la última década han experimentado importantes procesos de privatización, por otro lado generalizados en todas las economías. Los sectores de la energía, telecomunicaciones y transporte, entre otros, han visto cambios dramáticos en su propiedad. Dado su importante peso específico en la economía y mercados nacionales, analizaremos cómo ha afectado dicha privatización a los diferentes mecanismos de gobierno, la eficiencia y el valor de las empresas.

Is managerial entrenchment always bad and corporate social responsibility always good? A cross‐national examination of their combined influence on shareholder value

Research summary: Building on the comparative capitalism's notion of institutional complementarities, we examine whether firms’ simultaneous adoption of managerial entrenchment provisions (MEPs) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) reinforces or undercuts one another in influencing firm financial performance. We propose that the financial impact of such configurations is contingent on the country's institutional setting. In Liberal Market Economies (LMEs), where firms face strong pressures to achieve short-term goals, the combination of MEPs and CSR creates shareholder value, particularly when firms engage in internally oriented CSR projects. Conversely, in Coordinated Market Economies (CMEs), where institutions already curb short-term demands, the combined adoption of MEPs and CSR initiatives destroys shareholder value, particularly when this CSR is external. Overall, our study enhances understanding of the institutional complementarity between corporate governance and CSR. Managerial summary: This study examines how two organizational practices, managerial entrenchment provisions (MEPs), and corporate social responsibility (CSR), combine between them to improve or reduce firms’ financial success. Our analysis demonstrates that institutional framework has a strong influence on their combined effect. When the institutional context supports solutions to coordination problems among economic agents through market-based arrangements, MEPs allow the implementation of strategies directed to promote long-term investments and relationships. In this case, MEPs when paired with CSR allow generating intangibles that contribute to create shareholder value. Contrarily, in frameworks with coordination mechanisms based on nonmarket arrangements, the joint adoption of MEPs and CSR destroys value by increasing the power of managers and blockholders to extract rents at the expense of firms’ minority shareholders

Banks as firms' blockholders: a study in Spain

This article analyses how a firm's returns are affected when a bank becomes a large blockholder. We investigate this issue by taking into consideration the types of blockholders that build coalitions with banks in order to control a firm. We find that the effect on a firm's returns is negative when a bank buys the largest stake and forms coalitions with other banks. However, this negative effect does not apply in other situations. We underscore our theoretical conjectures based on an empirical analysis of a panel dataset comprising a representative sample of listed and unlisted Spanish firms over the period 1996 to 2000.

Rainbow Wash or Rainbow Revolution? Dynamic Stakeholder Engagement for SDG-Driven Responsible Innovation

The United Nations’ increasing involvement in global sustainability culminated in 2015 with the release of the 2030 Agenda. This agenda puts businesses in the spotlight, and their innovation and stakeholder partnering activities are portrayed as essential strategies for achieving an ambitious set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In this study, we identify six distinct dynamic stakeholder engagement strategies—resilient specialists, opportunity explorers, uncommitted diversifiers, rainbow warriors, rainbow washers, and progressive learners—and distinguish two approaches to innovate, depending on the range of SDG targets aimed to achieve simultaneously. On the one hand, for firms that take a narrow approach intended to achieve a reduced set of SDG targets, we predict that successful dynamic stakeholder engagement strategies are those that end up with an intensive collaboration with a reduced number of stakeholder groups. On the other hand, for firms adopting a broad innovation approach to satisfy a wide set of SDG targets, we predict that successful dynamic stakeholder engagement strategies are those that end up interacting with a wide number of stakeholder groups. Longitudinal analysis of more than 3900 Spanish firms supports our predictions and suggests clear implications for responsible innovation research and the advancement of sustainable development through collaboration