[pt] Este estudo fornece uma análise da relação entre as práticas da economia circular (EC) e o desempenho nas pequenas e médias empresas (PME) na Europa, seguindo uma abordagem multinível. O projeto de pesquisa descreve as etapas envolvidas para atingir esse objetivo. A primeira etapa (artigo 1) examina as tendências da pesquisa existente. Verificamos as variáveis utilizadas, o tipo de dados, o método de análise, o tipo de indústria, o porte da empresa, o tamanho da amostra e o tema ao qual o artigo pertence. Os resultados indicam que não existe um consenso claro sobre a melhor forma de medir e operacionalizar as práticas de EC e o desempenho das empresas, no entanto as variáveis identificadas podem ser utilizadas como guia para futuras pesquisas sobre EC e o desempenho das empresas. Na segunda etapa (artigo 2), investigamos como os indicadores de desempenho econômico, social e ambiental do país PME moderam a relação entre as práticas de EC e o desempenho da empresa. Em resumo, os resultados apoiam que o impacto financeiro da adoção da EC é positivo e é afetado pelo nível de desempenho nacional econômico e ambiental. A terceira etapa (artigo 3) tem como objetivo desenvolver e testar o modelo empírico que inclui moderação por nível meso. Examinamos a função dos intermediarios no envolvimento das PME nas atividades de EC bem como a presença de Redes de Simbiose Industrial (ISN) afeta o desempenho das PME. As conclusões afirmam que as ISN s podem impulsionar a adopção da EC e os intermediários podem ajudar as PME a superar os obstáculos da EC. / [en] This study provides an examination of the relationship between circular economy (CE) practices and firm performance in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Europe, following a multi-level approach. The research project outlines the stages involved to reach this goal. The first stage (paper 1) examines the trends in the existing research. We verified the variables used, the type of data, the method of analysis, the type of industry, the size of the company, the size of the sample and the topic to which the article belongs. The results indicate that there is no clear consensus on the best way to measure and operationalize CE practices and firm performance, however the variables identified can be used as a guide for future research on CE and firm performance. The second stage (paper 2) we investigate how the economic, social, and environmental performance indicators of the SME country moderates the relationship between CE practices and firm performance. In summary, the results support that the financial impact of adopting CE is positive, and it is affected by the level of national economic and environmental performance. The third stage (paper 3) the aim is develop and test empirical model include moderation by meso-level. We examined the function of intermediaries in involving SMEs in CE activities, and how the presence of Industrial Symbiosis Networks (ISN) affects SMEs performance. The findings affirm that ISNs can boost CE adoption and intermediaries can assist SMEs in surmounting CE obstacles.

Increasingly there is debate concerning the number of board memberships a person can hold before loss of quality in their work. Previous research has not reached consensus regarding the effect of busy directors on firm performance. We therefore hypothesize there are modifying factors affecting that relationship, namely firm size and the presence of concentrated ownership. We designed a quantitative study to study first the effect of busyness on firm performance in Swedish listed companies, and secondly, to study the effect of the modifying factors on that relationship. It was found that busyness is positively related with firm performance measured by Tobin’s Q, and that concentrated ownership affects that relationship such that companies with more concentrated ownerships also have higher Tobin’s Q values. There was however partial support that firm size is a negative modifier on the relationship between busyness and firm performance. Overall our results indicate that more regulation that limits board busyness is not currently warranted. / Det debatteras alltmer hur många styrelseuppdrag en styrelseledamot kan ha innan det börjar påverka kvaliteten på deras arbete negativt. Tidigare forskning har inte nått ett enhetligt svar på frågan om effekten av många styrelseuppdrag och ett företagets prestation. Vi tror därför att det finns modifierande variabler som inverkar på detta förhållande, nämligen företagets storlek och om företaget har en koncentrerad ägarkrets. Vi genomförde en kvantitativ studie för att undersöka effekten av många styrelseuppdrag på företagens prestation bland Svenska bolag noterade på Stockholmsbörsen. Våra resultat tyder på att ledamöter med många uppdrag har en positiv inverkan på måttet Tobin’s Q och att bolag med en hög ägarkoncentration påverkar detta samband än mer positivt. Det fanns delvis underlag för att företagets storlek påverkade sambandet negativt. Överlag indikerar våra resultat att utökad reglering som begränsar antalet styrelseuppdrag inte är motiverat i dagsläget.

Today, the effective management of people is assuming prominence as a source of sustained business performance improvement. The rationale for this trend is that other significant aspects of business, such as marketing, new technology, market niche, trademarks and brand image have generally been mastered. Therefore, business enterprises are being encouraged in seeking to gain comparative advantage by reliance on their human resources because this aspect of business is arguably more difficult to imitate or understand than the more conventional resources. As a result, there is an awakening of the need to introduce management practices that will concentrate on the added value which a highly motivated work force may provide to the organisation. The idea of added value from a highly motivated work force assumes even greater significance when the main business hinges almost entirely on the attitudes and approaches of people. This concept applies most forcibly to Barbados and the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (BOECS), the region covered by this study. This research therefore, explores the idea of gaining comparative advantage through appropriate people management methods and follows the trend in the developed and more industrialised nations of the world in an effort to determine whether there is a useful model of effective management practices which may be replicated in the BOECS and thus lead to improved business performance in the micro states which constitute this ii region. However, this study is mindful of the limitations of the research methodology which a vast number of contributors to this intriguing topic have employed. Nevertheless, this exploratory attempt examines the issue in the light of its possible positive effect on a previously uncharted area, viz., Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean (BOECS) as far as it relates to scholarly treaties on Human Resource Management. The idea is that even in the absence of clear unequivocal empirical evidence about its benefits, it may be useful to pursue the strategic approach to Human Resource Management including expansion of employee involvement, for it own sake.

本研究從家族治理、機構投資人持股、董事會組成、董事會效能之角度探討公司治理機制對企業績效與董監薪酬之影響。家族治理方面，家族持股愈多，企業績效愈好，但家族參與經營程度愈高，企業績效卻愈差；而家族治理下，董監薪酬水準、薪酬績效連結性均較低。機構投資者方面，本國金融機構持股愈高，企業績效愈高。董事會組成方面，董事長兼總經理下，企業績效較差、董監薪酬績效連結性較低，而執行董事、獨立董監席次比例愈高，企業績效、董監薪酬績效連結性均愈高；董事長兼總經理下及執行董事席次比例愈高時，董監薪酬水準愈低，而獨立董監席次比例愈高，董監薪酬水準愈高。董事會效能方面，正常營運下之企業，董事會開會次數愈多、出席率愈高，企業績效均提升；董事會出席率愈高，董監薪酬水準、薪酬績效連結性均愈高。 / The study uses family governance, institutional ownership, board structure, and board activities to empirically investigate the influence of corporate governance on firm performance and board compensation. Empirical result shows that the firm performance is higher when family ownership, institutional ownership, executive directors, independent board members, and board activities increase, and that the firm performance is lower when family involvement increase and when chairman and CEO is the same person. In addition, the board compensation is higher when independent board members and board activities increase, and the board compensation are lower when family governance, institutional ownership, executive directors increase and when chairman and CEO is the same person. Moreover, the pay-performance sensitivity is higher when institutional ownership, executive directors, independent board members, and board activities increase, and the pay-performance sensitivity is lower when family governance increase and when chairman and CEO is the same person.

This study investigates the relationship between firm performance and institutionalownership in Sweden. This study contributes to the ongoing debate between researchersregarding the potential benefit of institutional owners through increased monitoringcapabilities. A panel data analysis and a fixed effects model estimated with generalized leastsquares is utilized to investigate the relationship between performance and ownership structure,controlling for firm size, foreign ownership, leverage and return on equity. While having astrong theoretical foundation no correlation is found between institutional ownership and firmperformance. This is true even when institutional owners are further divided into pressureresistantand pressure-sensitive owners. This study indicates that institutional ownership has noimpact on firm performance. These findings are consistent with similar studies performed inother Nordic countries. / Master thesis

The Value of Political Connections: Evidence from the Czech Republic Miroslav Palanský Abstract This thesis estimates the value of political connections in the Czech Republic and it is divided into two parts. The first one explores the recently extended, most advanced publicly available data set on political party financing in the Czech Republic, covering the time period 1995-2015. We analyze basic patterns in party funding and their development over time. We focus primarily on private funding from both legal and natural persons. The data show that there exists substantial heterogeneity in the volume of private funding across parties and over time, but contributions from the government budget remain the most important source of income for all larger parties. We analyze the available data on donations and discuss several issues regarding the notion that donors may view contributions as investment, yielding possible profits in the future. In the second part, we use the data set of corporate donations to construct a proxy variable for political connections and to estimate the effect of being connected to a political party on the financial performance of such firms. We find that the connected firms perform significantly better than the non- connected ones in the years following the establishment of the...

Diese Dissertation stellt empirische Evidenz zu den Fragen der Verguetung von Fuehrungskraeften. Analyse der Daten der US-Firmen auflistet, finde ich eine umgekehrte U-foermige Beziehung zwischen Management Ownership und Unternehmensperformance, aber diese Beziehung verschwindet, wenn Unternehmensperformance von den letzten Jahr kontrolliert wird. Ich finde auch, dass die Executive Option Awards positiv auf Unternehmensperformance bezogen, während Executive Stock Awards hat keinen statistischen signifikanten Einfluss auf den Unternehmensperformance. Statistische Evidenz zeigt auch, dass die Struktur der Verguetung von Fuehrungskraeften Vertraege zu Unternehmen Eigenschaften und Executive persoenlichen Merkmalen zusammenhaengt. / This dissertation provides empirical evidence on the issues of executive compensation. Analyzing data of U.S. listing firms, I find an inverted U-shaped relation between managerial ownership and firm performance, but this relation vanishes when firm performance from last period is controlled. I also find that executive option awards is positively related to firm performance, while executive stock awards has no statistically significant impact on firm performance. Evidence also indicates that the structure of executive compensation contracts is related with observable and unobservable firm attributes and executive personal characteristics.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-25T18:39:53Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Fabio Luiz Lourenco Favaron.pdf: 2666934 bytes, checksum: cbf4ba12d78382c5ffc580eca358bc71 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-12-14 / In today's context of extreme market competition, many companies aiming to achieve excellence in quality and customer satisfaction seek answers in implementing Quality Programs such as TQM (Total Quality Management), or in adhering to the Quality Awards of international recognition, with the goal of creating a culture of quality within the company. The present study aims to investigate whether, with this organizational management focused on quality, the financial performance of these companies are differentiated to the companies in which there is, or there is little, concern for an effective quality management that permeates the entire organization. In this scenario, the central question to be answered is: quality management brings higher financial results for companies which seek this culture of quality and organizational excellence?. For this analysis was specifically chosen the energy sector, because it is the sector that accumulates the highest number of winners in PNQ as well as it is a representative sector for the Bovespa and the Brazilian economy, on a total amount of 54 firms analysed. To measure company performance, it was used the approach suggested by Matarazzo (2010), which includes indicators of capital structure, liquidity and profitability, in order to arrive at a final grade of the overall performance of the firm in the period of 2007 to 2011. In response to the issue raised with the research problem, it is concluded that in fact the participation in PNQ, symbol of excellence in total quality management, implies higher average scores when compared to companies that do not adopt the prize. Moreover, as confirmed by statistical tests, we can also conclude that the mere participation in the quality awards, because it involves a development of a culture focused on quality, implies superior results, regardless of whether or not the company win the award. In fact, by testing, it founds no evidence to say that averages between winners and participants are different / No atual contexto de extrema competição mercadológica, inúmeras empresas visando alcançar objetivos de excelência em qualidade e de satisfação de seus clientes procuram respostas na implantação de Programas da Qualidade, como o TQM (Total Quality Management), ou na adesão aos Prêmios da Qualidade, de reconhecimento internacional, com o objetivo de criar uma cultura da qualidade dentro da empresa. O presente estudo pretende averiguar se, com essa gestão organizacional voltada à qualidade, o desempenho financeiro dessas empresas é diferenciado quando comparados a empresas em que não há, ou há pouca, preocupação com uma efetiva gestão da qualidade, que permeie toda a organização. Neste cenário, a questão central a ser respondida é: a gestão da qualidade traz resultados financeiros superiores para as empresas que buscam essa cultura da qualidade e uma maior excelência organizacional? Para esta análise foram escolhidas especificamente as empresas do setor de energia, por ser o setor que acumula o maior número de vencedores no PNQ (Prêmio Nacional da Qualidade), além de ser um setor representativo para a Bovespa e para a economia brasileira, num total de 54 empresas analisadas. Para se medir o desempenho da empresa, foi utilizada a abordagem sugerida por Matarazzo (2010), que contempla índices de estrutura de capital, liquidez e rentabilidade, de forma a se chegar numa nota final do desempenho global da firma para o período estudado de 2007 a 2011. Em resposta à questão levantada com o problema de pesquisa, conclui-se que a participação das empresas no PNQ, símbolo da excelência na gestão da qualidade total, implica em médias das notas maiores, quando comparados às empresas que não adotam o prêmio. Ademais, conforme confirmado pelos testes estatísticos, pode-se concluir também que a mera participação na premiação, por envolver um desenvolvimento de uma cultura voltada à qualidade, implica em resultados superiores, independente de a empresa vencer ou não a premiação. De fato, pelos testes realizados, não se constataram evidências para dizer que as médias entre vencedoras e participantes são diferentes

Thesis (MBA.) -- University of Limpopo, 2016 / This paper evaluated the relationship between the Chief Executive Officer’s gender and firm performance. This study was conducted by evaluating the differential effect of CEO’s gender and sales turnover, share price and net profit. The study was deemed necessary because related researches in South Africa did not address the relationship between gender and variables such as turnover, share price and net profit. Hence this research focuses on the evaluation of the differential effect between CEO's gender and the corporate turnover, share price and net profit. The methodological approach used in this study was the quantitative approach. Data were collected from the archives of Socially Responsible Investing Index companies in the JSE. The T-test of difference was applied for data analysis of sixteen (16) selected companies. Three specific objectives were examined as follows: (1) To evaluate the relationship between the CEO's gender and company turnover (2) To assess the relationship, the CEO's gender and share price (3) To examine the relationship between the CEO's gender and net profit. Findings from the statistical analysis revealed that there is no significant relationship between CEO gender and sales turnover. It was further identified that no relationship exists between CEO gender and share price. It was also discovered that there is no differential effect between CEO gender and net profit. Findings from statistical analysis revealed that P-Value was greater than 5 percent indicating that there was no significant relationship between CEO gender and sales turnover, share price and net profit. This means that within the companies examined, CEO gender had no influence on sales turnover, share price and net profit. Based on the findings above, women CEOs can perform as well as the men CEOs. Therefore, women should be afforded the CEO’s positions as their presence have no negative effect on firm performance. Key words: CEO gender, firm performance, sales turnover, share price, net profit, JSE listed companies, corporate profitability, shareholder value and gender stereotyping.

Information is a significant asset to organizations, and a data breach from a cyberattack harms reputations and may result in a massive financial loss. Many senior managers lack the competencies to implement an enterprise risk management system and align organizational resources such as people, processes, and technology to prevent cyberattacks on enterprise assets. The purpose of this Delphi study was to explore how the managerial competencies for information security and risk management senior managers help in managing security objectives and practices to mitigate security risks. The National Institute of Standards and Technology framework served as the foundation for this study. The sample was made up of 12 information security practitioners, information security experts, and managers responsible for the enterprise information security management. Participants were from Fortune 500 companies in the United States. Selection was based on their level of experience and knowledge of the topic being studied. Data were collected using a 3 round Delphi study of 12 experts in information security and risk management. Statistical analysis was performed on the collected data during a 3 round Delphi study. The mean, standard deviation, majority agreement, and ranges were used to determine the final concensus for this research study. Findings of this study included the need for managerial support, risk management strategies, and developling the managerial and technical talent to mitigate and respond to cyberattacks. Findings may result in a positive social change by providing information that helps managers to reduce the number of data breaches from cyberattacks, which benefits companies, employees, and customers.