With the rapid development of economy, Taiwan¡¦s enterprises become bigger and bigger. Hence, the huge business groups play an important role in business environment of Taiwan. However, enterprises collectivization usually causes earning management by cross-shareholding and the related party transaction between group enterprises. In addition, former research which discussing business groups did not include the factor of financial operating. Therefore, in order to confirm if the financial operating is the key factor of earning management, the study separates the total samples into ¡§active financial operating business groups¡¨ and ¡§inactive financial operating business groups¡¨ according to the relevant financial ratio. The period of research contains 2000~2009, and the total effective research tests are 570 copies. Finally, the study develops eight hypotheses in a basis of four kinds of common related party transactions in Taiwan and two kinds of financial operating business groups. The empirical results show that the percentage of disposal assets in active financial operating business groups and the percentage of purchase and sales in inactive financial operating business groups have positive impact on earning management. However, the rest hypotheses have no obvious significance. Therefore, the rest hypotheses will not established.

The purpose of this research is to explore the motivation of business group firms to adopt pyramidal ownership structures. The traditional approach claims that pyramids are useful in tunneling resources to other affiliates by transferring value to firms with high cash flow rights of controlling shareholders. Using a unique dataset of 7,180 Ecuadorian firms, I analyze the transmission of profits' shocks among group firms to assess the existence and the amount of tunneling. The comprehensive ownership information allows me to identify pyramidal and horizontally owned group firms separately and better understand the nature of their ownership structure. The results provide support for the existence of tunneling in Ecuadorian business groups. About 70% of the profits of the average group firm are transferred to another affiliate, although only half of this money shows up on its books. An alternative explanation for the flow of money among group firms is the existence of internal capital markets to substitute for imperfections in the external market. I test this hypothesis by comparing the impact of cash flow availability in the investment decision of group firms with that of stand-alone firms. Group firms' cash flow to investment sensitivity appears to be only half of the value for comparable standalone firms. Moreover, group liquidity is also a determinant of the average group firm's investment, especially for pyramidal firms. The analysis sheds light on the nature of business groups in Latin America, their ownership patterns, and their resource allocation decisions.

Family Matters – Essays of Families, Firms and Funding in the Philippines 1850–2014 is a study of family business groups in the Philippines. It consists of an introductory essay and four separate papers. The introductory essay frames the thesis in the vast literature on family firms and family business groups in emerging economies, discusses sources and methodology, and provides an overview of Philippine economic history to give the overarching economic context to the separate papers. The first paper deals with the role of institutions in understanding the dominance and prevalence of family business groups in the Philippines. The literature posits that weak institutions can help explain the predominance of family business groups in emerging economies. This paper takes a historical perspective to examine whether that explanation holds over time, examining the development of core property rights and core economic institutions over time and how family firms have responded. The second paper studies funding options in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and whether the rapidly growing financial system was driven from above or below. The paper examines the impact it had on the explicit goal of stimulating investment and growth in the early twentieth century and what that meant for family firms. The third paper studies capital market developments since the Asian crisis and in particular the growth of the corporate bond market in the Philippines; how this development and how it affected family business groups. The fourth paper deals with governance and management capabilities and examines professionalization of family firms over time to seek to answer the question of longevity. Management literature provides studies and models for family firms but these are fairly recent whereas the family firms that have been in business for several generations have found ways to manage for the long term. The paper analyses what three select groups have done in terms of professionalization and management.

Institutional voids are increasingly gaining precedence and research attention due to the increased participation of developing countries in global markets (Mair&Marti, 2009). This theory focuses on the identification of weaknesses in institutions and how these voids result in ineffective functioning of emerging markets (Mair&Marti, 2009). In this study, focus is on collaboration as a strategy used by the emerging markets to overcome the absence of institutional and regulatory frameworks, prevalent in their capital, labour and product markets.Forty (40) South African small-medium enterprises were analysed to determine what the priority collaborative benefits are for firms operating in the emerging market context. The research shows that in emerging markets, collaboration benefits are based on a need to overcome institutional voids i.e. to reduce the costs and risks associated with weak institutions. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

This thesis is a contribution to our understanding of business groups in the small busi-ness sector. Specifically, its aim is to verify to what extent the consideration of entrepre-neurial processes can advance our understanding of this phenomenon. A ‘business group’ is a set of companies which are legally distinct but belong to the same person or people. Despite the significant presence of business groups in the small business sector, most of the literature on business groups addresses large groups. This study demonstrates that the available theories of business groups – the financial and the diversification theories – are not able to explain the presence and characteristics of business groups in the small business sector. Given the little work done on the issue, the research strategy involves the use of both, quantitative and qualitative methods. Quantitative methods are used to test propositions deduced from available models of business groups; qualitative methods, based on case studies and direct interviews, are used to get new insights about the phenomenon and develop theoretical propositions. Quantitative analyses refer to the population of Italian business groups; case studies and interviews refer to a sample of business groups in the Marche region (Italy). The business group is an organizational form used by portfolio entrepreneurs to grow and diversify the businesses under their control. By using cross sectional and longitudinal analyses this study shows that in the small business sector diversification is a substitute strategy for growth in the original business. Moreover, this study demonstrates that the diversification theory is not able to explain the setting up of a business group as in most cases the degree of diversification observed in small groups is very low. The thesis demonstrates that entrepreneurial processes associated with the exploitation of new business opportunities by portfolio entrepreneurs play a crucial role in explaining the formation and characteristics of business groups. The start-up phase is critical for the success of a new business as it requires complete dedication of time and attention by the entrepreneur to continuously adjust the planned actions to the unforeseen events and un-predictable contingencies that are typical of this phase. The legal autonomy granted to the new venture helps focus resources and monitor results. In addition to this and more than anything else, legal autonomy allows entrepreneurs to modify the ownership structure of the new business and give minority shares to people involved in the start-up. The financial explanation of business groups stresses the importance of legal autonomy as a way for manipulating the ownership structure of new businesses, to raise outside equity. The thesis demonstrates that the causal relationship is the opposite of that hypothesised by the financial explanation: it is not so much the aim of raising outside equity that determines the involvement of external shareholders as the need to involve and motivate people in the start up of the new business that induces entrepreneurs to sell minority shares in it, thus enlarging the entrepreneurial team. By involving other people in the start-up of new ventures, portfolio entrepreneurs enhance their ability to enter new businesses while retaining ownership and control of the ones already established. The empirical analysis revealed the existence of three different patterns: joint venture with established entrepreneurs, employee involvement and intrapreneurship. The first is when new ventures are set up with other established entrepreneurs. The second is when the entrepreneur gives a share of the new company to an employee to secure his/her involvement in the start-up of a new venture (employee involvement). The third is when the new business is established as a result of the inspiration of an ‘intrapreneurial’ employee who takes major responsibility for the development of the business. As well as the discovery and analysis of these three forms, the thesis provides a theoretical explanation of entrepreneurial team development in business groups, based on the problems faced by portfolio entrepreneurs in allocating time and attention between the running of established businesses and the exploitation of new business opportunities. By integrating the latter explanation with other models of business groups the thesis provides a more general framework for understanding the formation and dynamics of business groups in the small business sector. The thesis also provides contributions to explain the formation and dynamics of entrepreneurial teams in a multi business context and in situations where there is a ‘dominant’ or ‘lead’ entrepreneur and one or more ‘associate’ or ‘sub’ entrepreneurs. Studying the formation and evolution of business groups poses several methodological problems, as groups are complex systems, characterised by the presence of several companies, different architectural structures and a multi-business context. The thesis provides methodological contributions on the ways to represent the current structure of business groups and on how to analyse their evolution over time.

After going through the literature on entrepreneurship we found that very little studies have been done whether culture and family business traditions influence the decisions of entrepreneurship. Most people from the South and Southeast Asia had cultural and family business backgrounds. The purpose of our study is to investigate if culture and family business traditions of South andSoutheast Asian immigrants affect their decision to become self-employed and if so how. This will enhance the understanding of whether this factor is also important to motivate the entrepreneurs to be self-employed. Most of the studies have pointed out the motivational factors such as pull factors and push factors as being the main influencing factors for immigrant entrepreneurs to choose self-employment. Although, there are various literatures on entrepreneurship and its motivating factors, cultural and family based business traditions, limited study has focused on showing how the cultural and family business background affect the decision making abilities of the entrepreneurs. We have focused on the immigrant entrepreneurs born in South and Southeast Asian region operating their businesses in Umea city. For conducting this study we have used semi-structured interviews from our six respondents to collect the data. Based on our findings we found that the entrepreneurs are influenced by culture and family business traditions. Their social identity plays an important role in motivating them to become entrepreneurs. These immigrants are exposed to business environment from a very early age which helps shape up their business minds. The experience gained from their parents and the cultural and family business traditions act as business opportunity for them in the host country. We believe that this study would be helpful in the future for other scholars who are willing to conduct further research on this particular topic of interest. Our findings have increased the understanding of how the cultural and family business traditions of South and Southeast Asian region do affect the entrepreneurs’ decision to become self-employed in Umea.

Abstract Human resources have always been recognized as an important factor in determining the core competitiveness of a business. Business groups with a large organization have the relative advantage of flexibility in human resources utilization. As a result, personnel transfer among member companies within a group has become a normal behavior. In this research, we try to identify the key factors influencing the adaptive performance of employees after such inter-company job transfer, focusing on the pressures faced by the transferees and their career potential; i.e., whether the achievement motivation and role stress of transferees will influence their adaptive performance to the job after the inter-company job transfer, Also, understanding that the Perceived organization supporting by transferees may vary when different human resources approaches are adopted, we will also probe whether the Perceived organization supporting is a moderating factor on the adaptive performance of transferees. The targets of this research are employees of business groups in Taiwan who have experienced inter-company job transfer. A total of 406 questionnaires were distributed and 174 valid questionnaires were collected (The adaptive performance of the employee was assessed by their direct supervisors). Diversified statistical analysis has been conducted, including gap, correlation, regression and multiple regression analysis. The following specific results have been achieved: 1. The employment status of the employee after the transfer, as well as the terms and conditions for the transfer, both lead to different results in various aspects of the research: i. Employees transferred to work at the head office have obtained higher scores in various aspects relating to adaptive performance. ii. Employees offered less favorable conditions for the transfer normally have a higher score in the perception of role ambiguity. iii. Employees offered more favorable conditions for transfer normally have a higher score in terms of the Perceived organization supporting. 2. Achievement motivation shows a negative influence rather than a positive influence on the adaptive performance of the transferees. 3. role stress has no impact on the adaptability of the transferees. 4. Perceived organization supporting shows no significant moderating effect in this research.

Submitted by Maick William Oliveira Costa (maickw@gmail.com) on 2012-03-30T18:37:04Z No. of bitstreams: 1 dissertação_Maick FINAL.pdf: 682351 bytes, checksum: 7ac1ecbbce77bd743e573ba86c41404f (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Gisele Isaura Hannickel (gisele.hannickel@fgv.br) on 2012-03-30T18:43:36Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 dissertação_Maick FINAL.pdf: 682351 bytes, checksum: 7ac1ecbbce77bd743e573ba86c41404f (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2012-03-30T18:44:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 dissertação_Maick FINAL.pdf: 682351 bytes, checksum: 7ac1ecbbce77bd743e573ba86c41404f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-02-29 / Business groups são formas organizacionais diversificadas comuns em países emergentes (Khanna; Yafeh, 2007; Schneider, 2008). Várias pesquisas tentam explicar a formação dos business groups e várias são as abordagens teóricas: institucional / custos de transação (Leff, 1978; Khanna & Palepu, 2000), economia política (Schneider, 2008), sociológica (Granovetter, 1994), da agência (Yu, Lu, Bruton, 2007) e resource-based view (Guillén, 2000). As teorias apresentam mecanismos para a existência desse tipo de organização nas economias emergentes. No Brasil, o governo tem grande influência na formação e desenvolvimento dos grupos, assim como em outras economias emergentes. A teoria de diversificação (Hoskisson, et al., 2005) versa sobre a reestruturação dos grupos e tem como foco a diversificação dos grupos. Baseado na teoria de custos de transação, a teoria de reestruturação argumenta que com a melhoria das instituições, os grupos tendem a diminuir seu poder econômico. Já a abordagem da economia política deixa claro que os grupos influenciam e são influenciados pelo governo. Uma das formas de conexão política entre os grupos e o governo é a doação às campanhas políticas. Esse estudo tem por objetivo, por conta disso, analisar a influência da conexão política, via doações às campanhas, na reestruturação de ativos dos grupos econômicos no Brasil. A abordagem da economia política é central nesse estudo para efetuar essa análise. Os dados dos grupos foram obtidos do anuário Valor Grandes Grupos (jornal Valor Econômico) e a amostra final contou com 760 observações ao longo de 8 anos dos grupos econômicos no Brasil. A análise foi feita sob modelos de efeito fixo controlando para fatores econômicos/financeiros e institucionais. Os resultados trazem forte relacionamento positivo das conexões políticas com o crescimento dos grupos econômicos no Brasil. Questões levantadas a partir desse estudo sugerem que no Brasil os grupos crescem para aumentar sua força política.

Syfte: En ökad konkurrens mellan företag och ökad diversifiering har lett till ett ökat intresse av olika tillväxtstrategier, där företagsförvärv är en vanlig strategi med synergieffekter som motiv. Flera faktorer påverkar synergieffekter och tidigare studier brister i att ge konkreta och enhetliga svar. Syftet är att undersöka om det finns ett samband mellan hur koncernens dotterbolag påverkas av synergieffekter och något av kriterierna: storlek (omsättning) eller bransch.Metod: Studien tar en deduktiv ansats och har en kvantitativ karaktär med tvärsnittsdesign för datainsamling, med redovisningsdata från svenska icke-noterade aktiebolag där urval har gjorts på omsättning och bransch. Redovisningsdatan är från senaste räkenskapsåret och är hämtad från databasen Retriever Business. Efter insamling har datan analyserats genom statistikprogrammet Minitab 21.Resultat & slutsats: Resultatet stödjer idén att synergieffekter kan identifieras hos dotterbolagen inom koncerner. Resultaten indikerar att såväl bransch som omsättning påverkar synergieffekten. Det är möjligt att identifiera en bransch eller nedre gräns av omsättning hos företag för att uppnå synergieffekter. Studiens slutsats är att företagens motiv till koncernbildning kan bero på synergieffekter hos dotterföretagen.Examensarbetets bidrag: Studien bidrar till att komplettera tidigare litteratur om synergieffekter där nya ingångsvinklar testats.Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Förslag till fortsatt forskning är att undersöka fler branscher, att undersöka mindre aktiebolag eller andra ägandeförhållande som komplement till urvalet.

International Business research overwhelmingly tends to focus on firms that are perceived as rising international stars. This study, on the other hand, is motivated by the desire to examine other types of business organizations as they navigate the globalization process. In particular, a holistic view of family business groups (FBGs) and mainstream internationalization models governed by the concept of firm-specific advantages (FSAs) are con­fronted with the empirical findings of actual business expansion via personal connections. This serves as the conceptual framework of the study when investigating the nature of competitiveness of FBGs. Thailand is chosen as the research setting because of its both distinct and relevant economic and cultural background. The analysis begins by quantitatively exploring the population of the 139 largest Thai FBGs. Then, more fine­grained explanations are developed as a series of comparative case studies are carried out. Overall, the findings shed light on the study of emerging multinational corporations (EMNCs) in general by detailing and probing the evolution of Thai FBGs. Focus is on the internationalization process(es) and the subsequent need for organiza­tional adjustments; the latter involving imposing a measure of discipline on family affairs as well as modernizing business operations. This adds to the hitherto established notion of latecoming EMNCs simply scaling the techno­logical ladder. In essence, the tension between the "easy" path of relying on connections (i.e., what here is termed "the bamboo network") and the more "difficult" path of building competitiveness (i.e., going beyond the bamboo network) is exposed and explained. This study thus contributes to our understanding of the firm internationalization process. / Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögskolan i Stockholm, 2011