Organizational downsizing has been a popular business strategy widely used by enterprises all over the world since the 80¡¦s. Unfortunately, according to the findings of many investigations and researches, the results of downsizing are both positive and negative. Not only the improvements of firms¡¦ performance can¡¦t be ensured, it also brings the devastated consequences to employees. They eventually create chaos to the employees¡¦ families and to the entire society. In order to solve this important issue of the societies, this research reviewed the relative literatures across different research fields, such as organization change, strategy and strategic human resource management field. It found that firm¡¦s dynamic strategy capability and strategic human resource management practices, asserted by strategy and strategic human resource management field as the essential mechanisms for ensuring firm¡¦s competitive advantage, are the two key interventional variables between downsizing strategies and post-downsizing firm performance. Therefore, 110 MNCs and local Taiwanese companies were chosen as the samples to empirically prove the relationships among these variables. The insights and findings in this research may contribute to the theory development in organization change, strategy and strategic human resource management field and to the managerial practice as well.

Abstract This research attempted to explain the relationship among HR investment, organizational human capital and firm performance. A positive link between a firm¡¦s HR investment and its performance through the mediating effect of overall human capital was proposed. Alternative hypotheses were presented to test the effect of different HR investment portfolios on various human capital dimensions, as well as the link between these human capital dimensions and firm performance outcomes. A review on the concept of human capital revealed several problems in the research of human capital at organizational level. Four new latent constructs (quantity of human capital, human capital-organization fit, complementarity of human capital, and specificity of human capital) were extracted from the literature to form a new paradigm in the measurement of organizational level human capital. This new paradigm represented a resource-based perspective. Data were collected from top executives of 105 companies located in the US and in Taiwan in the knowledge-intensive industry segments such as professional service, financial service, R&D, and hi-tech manufacturing, etc. Survey questionnaires were used as data collection instrument. Confirmatory factor analysis using LISREL was performed to test validity and reliability of new measurement scales. Hierarchical regression statistics were used to test the hypotheses. The results showed that HR investment had significant positive impact on firm performance and was significantly related to higher level of human capital in a firm as measured by the quantity of human capital, human capital-organization fit, complementarity of human capital, and specificity of human capital. Further, the mediating effect of firm-level human capital between HR investment and firm performance was substantiated. This study also tested a more complex model linking two HR investment portfolios to four dimensions of human capital and firm performance outcomes. The findings showed that higher level of acquisition investment was linked to higher level of human capital-organization fit, complementarity of human capital, and specificity of human capital. More significantly, a higher level of development investment was linked to higher levels of all four dimensions of human capital. In addition, each individual dimension of human capital, except the quantity of it, was found to positively predict firm performance outcomes.

In the recent years, a lot of Taiwan firms shut factories and turned to invest their capital in Mainland China. This situation reflects that the investment conditions in Taiwan are not as good as before. On the contrary, China has plenty of labor forces and their wage rate is much lower than Taiwan. Besides, China is an extensive market and abundant in natural resources. Many famous businesses in the world seize the chance of investing in China and get the market share. The first purpose of thesis is that analyzing the differences of HR values, competitive strategies, HRM systems, and firm performance between the indigenous firms in Taiwan and Taiwan firms in Mainland China. And the second purpose is that using all the samples to examine the effect of HRM systems on firm performance. This research collected data by issuing and mailing questionnaires. Effective questionnaires of indigenous firms in Taiwan sent back are 182 and effective rate is 10.11%; effective questionnaire of Taiwan firms in Mainland China sent back are 119 and effective rate is 19.01%. By using statistical method, the results are as follows: 1. There are significant differences in ¡§HR values¡¨ and ¡§firm performance¡¨ between indigenous firms in Taiwan and Taiwan firms in Mainland China. The result shows that Taiwan firms in Mainland China put more emphasis on HR values and has better performance than indigenous firms in Taiwan. 2. ¡§HR values¡¨ and ¡§competitive strategies¡¨ have positive effects on ¡§HRM systems¡¨. Besides, setting up an independent HR department also has positive effects on ¡§HRM systems¡¨. The result indicates that if the top managers put more emphasis on human resource management and adopt differentiation strategies, the firms are more likely to use ¡§make-organic¡¨ HRM systems. 3. ¡§HR values¡¨, and ¡§competitive strategies¡¨ have positive impact on ¡§firm performance¡¨. This result shows that if the top managers put more emphasis on human resource management and adopt differentiation strategies, the firms will get better performance. According to the results above, this study suggest that we should take human resource as the most important asset of the business, and set up an independent HR department to manage human resource and make good use of it. In addition, we should adapt the ¡§make-organic¡¨ HRM systems in order to improve performance. v

Today, gender quotation in the Board of Directors has become an important political question that is being discussed not only in Sweden but in several other countries as well. However, research on gender diversity and, for that matter, other forms of diversity in the corporate world is not something new. Diversity in Board of Directors and Top Management Teams and how it affects firm performance have been the topic of many researches the last two decades. Nevertheless, there are still many unanswered questions in this field that need to be answered. The purpose of this dissertation is to study how diversity in BoDs and TMTs affect firm performance. We used five different diversity variables, tenure, age, education, nationality and gender in our research and we tested them separately to see how they each affect firm performance. Because there is limited previous research conducted on diversity in Sweden and on Swedish firms, this dissertation attempts to fill that gap. This study is conducted on Swedish firms that are listed on large cap on Stockholm stock exchange. We used several ways to measure the five different diversity variables in both BoDs and TMTs. Firm performance was measured by using two well established measurements, Return on Equity and Return on Assets. We developed ten hypotheses to test how diversity affects firm performance; some diversity variables had positive effect on firm performance, while others had negative effect. The hypotheses are based on earlier research. There are mixed results from our study; seven out of ten hypotheses had to be rejected due to insignificant relationship between diversity and firm performance. Three hypotheses were rejected, even though they showed a significant relationship between diversity and firm performance, because the relationship was the opposite of our hypotheses. One reason for these results can be that there is low diversity in both BoDs and TMTs, and this makes it difficult to measure and establish a relationship between diversity and firm performance.

Product management as an organizational system has a long history of practice, which predates most modern academic management research. Its activities span the external environment of the firm, while simultaneously spanning across internal functional specialties of the organization. Thus product management obtains, codifies, simplifies and stores external information making it available to a responsive organization, which uses it to establish competitive advantage and ultimately superior performance. Building on the resource based view of the firm and boundary theory, these spanning activities, which are heterogeneously dispersed across firms, are considered organizational capabilities. Drawing upon the extant product management literature, this research uses product management as a proxy for boundary spanning capabilities of the firm. These capabilities are then empirically measured against two well established firm capabilities; market orientation and firm-level innovativeness. This research addresses a gap in the literature by establishing product management as a set of firm-level capabilities, distinct from the well established constructs of market orientation and innovativeness. Results indicate that external product management capability, defined as channel bonding activities, fully mediates the market orientation – firm performance relationship, while firm level innovativeness continues to have a small mediating effect on performance. Internal product management capabilities, defined as market and technical integration are shown to negatively moderate the external product management capability - firm performance relationship. Theoretical implications include establishing a link between boundary theory and the resource based view of the firm. Practical implications include the strong relationship between external spanning capabilities and firm performance and the dampening effect of cross-functional integration on firm performance. This empirical link between product management boundary spanning practices and how firms ultimately perform could assist practitioners in allocating resources and managing the relationship between the marketing and technological factions of the organization. Most importantly this research establishes the hereto untested link between product management capability and firm performance.

This study primarily investigates the determinants of CEO membership of New Zealand (NZ) boards, and the effect of CEO board membership on firm performance, for publicly-listed NZ firms between 1997 to 2008. The project is conducted using a unique hand-collected panel dataset containing information about CEO participation on the board, firm characteristics, firm performance, ownership, and firm governance. The sample covers the twelve-year period. The sample statistics of CEO board membership reveal that on average, approximately 30% of NZ CEOs do not sit on their company board. In addition, the number (percentage) of incidences of CEOs off their company board has been increasing. Specifically, the percentage of CEOs off the board was approximately 20% in 1997 but 42% in 2008. Models examining the determinants of CEO board participation indicate that the probability of CEO board membership is significantly related to the opacity of firms' information environment and the strength of firms' governance environment. Specifically, the probability of CEO board membership is significantly affected by firm size, firm age, percentage of independent directors, board ownership, and multiple directorships in independent companies. In particular, firm size and percentage of independent directors on the board possess economic significance. The negative association between the probability of CEO board membership and the strength of firms' governance environment is consistent with CEO utility maximization. I also find that although CEO board membership is positively related to ROA, ROE and Jensen's alpha in basic regression models, the positive effect observed in accounting performance models disappears after controlling for self-selection. In other words, firms with better accounting firm performance tend to appoint their CEOs on the board. This may attribute to the possibility that CEO board membership is optimally determined by shareholders. The evidence from a market-based model also reflects shareholder interests after controlling for the negative self-selection behavior. As an additional analysis, I examine the determinants of different degrees of CEO board involvement where CEOs on the board are categorized into CEO-director and CEO duality (the CEO also holds the position of the chairman of the board). This analysis shows that a number of explanatory variables have a non-linear relationship with the degree of CEO board involvement. For example, CEO board involvement is negatively related to firm age and multiple directorships in independent companies but positively related to their squared terms. To the contrary, CEO board involvement is positively related to Tobin's Q ratio and percentage of independent directors but negatively related to their squared terms. Moreover, basic regression results examining the effect of the extent of CEO board involvement on firm performance reveal that dual firms and CEO-off-the-board firms are associated with lower accounting firm performance than CEO-director firms, but dual firms are associated with better Jensen's alpha and CEO-off-the-board firms are associated with lower Jensen's alpha. The robustness analysis finds that the negative effect of CEO duality on operating performance is significantly mitigated by self-selection and the effect of CEOs off the board on operating performance is intensified by self-selection. In other words, after taking into account the self-selection bias, CEO duality status provides strong evidence for CEO utility maximization whereas CEOs off the board are optimally chosen given the underlying characteristics. However, the results from the market-based models show the exact opposite story after controlling for the self-selection bias: CEO duality is optimally chosen whereas the costs of CEOs off the board are greater than their benefits in firms with CEOs off the board, providing evidence for CEO utility maximization.

This study investigates the relation between family firms and acquiring firm performance for our sample of Taiwanese mergers and acquisitions between 1999 and 2013. We find that cumulative abnormal returns of family acquirers on average outperform those of nonfamily acquirers by 2.17% three days around the announcement. Family acquirers obtain greater abnormal returns even after controlling for both firm characteristics such as firm size, book to market, prior return, public target and deal characteristics such as year dummy and mode of payment. Furthermore, we explore the potential impact of the deviation between voting rights and cash flow rights on family acquiring performance. In the sample of Taiwanese mergers and acquisitions, the deviation is not the significant factor to cause a negative influence. As a result, family acquirers with the advantage of eliminating agency problems may generate more benefits than nonfamily acquirers.

What operational factors can explain the performance differences between manufacturing firms? Scholars have produced a significant volume of research that examines the linkages between operational factors (resources and practices) and firm performance. There is agreement that organizational capabilities mediate the relationship between operational factors and firm performance. However, due to the numerous and sometimes contradictory definitions of organizational capabilities in the literature and because organizational capabilities includes non-operational factors, it has been suggested that operational capabilities, as a sub construct of organizational capabilities, is more appropriate for establishing an empirical relationship between operational factors and firm performance. Scholars have argued that process improvement practices facilitate the development of operational capabilities, which can consequently lead to improved firm performance. Other scholars have argued that process improvement practices facilitate organizational knowledge creation, which can also influence firm performance. We integrate these two theoretical perspectives into a single conceptual model that better explains the relationship between knowledge-creating practices and firm operational performance. Specifically, we argue that knowledge-creating practices play a significant role in developing a firm’s operational capabilities, which in turn, influence firm operational performance. This research investigates the existence of a relationship between organizational knowledge creation and firm operational performance that is mediated by operational capabilities.

This paper determines the relationship between the crude oil price and the financial performance of International Oil Companies (IOCs) of the Eurozone during the last decade (from 2004 to 2013). This study is conducted around a multiple regression model with panel data with the financial performance ratios (ROA, ROE, Profit Margin) as dependent variables and the crude oil price as independent variables. A knowledge gap is visible since the crude oil price was never used as an independent variable in relation to the financial performance ratios of IOCs. In addition, the IOCs in the Eurozone have not been studied since most studies focuses on the United States and Asia. Moreover these studies focus on stock returns rather than financial performance. The research follows a quantitative approach by assessing the relationship of the crude oil price with financial performance of IOCS during the 10-year period (from 2004 to 2013) for 11 companies from 10 countries. The purpose of the study is to determine the effect of the crude oil prices on the financial performance of oil producer companies on a 10-year period using a multiple regression model with panel data. The research question therefore is:What is the relationship between the crude oil price and the International Oil Companies’ financial performance in the Eurozone during the last ten years (2004-2013)?The empirical results show that the crude oil price has a negative relationship with the financial ratios and that the crisis had an impact during that time period on the financial performance of the IOCs. It is also noted that the debt level and the size of IOCs have a strong relationship with their financial performance. The findings on the relationship between the crude oil price and the financial performance of IOCs are opposed to the results of Dayanandan & Donker study (2011). The findings of this research paper are relevant for investors and researchers looking to assess the performance of the Oil & Gas Industry so as its determinants.

My dissertation focuses on foreign entrepreneurs—individuals who establish firms outside of their native countries. Despite the prevalence of foreign entrepreneurs, their strategic choices have received little attention in the research literature. For example, when starting a firm, an entrepreneur must decide whether to manage the business personally or hire a local manager, yet we know little about how this choice affects firm performance. To examine this issue, in the first study I use a novel dataset of foreign entrepreneurial firms in Russia and a visa policy change as an instrument for the owner-manager choice. Contrary to the expectation that foreign entrepreneurs would underperform local managers due to the liability of foreignness, I find that foreign owner-managers can benefit their firms: Exogenous assignment of a local manager in place of a foreign owner-manager reduces profits. Foreign owner-managers benefit their firms by hiring cheap native-country labor as well as through reduced agency costs. The second study examines how private benefits of occupying a managerial position affect an entrepreneur’s choice between owner-management and hiring an agent. I show that foreign entrepreneurs with a strong desire to reside in a host country are more likely to become owner-managers. These results are consistent with the idea that entrepreneurs expecting to gain private benefits from managing their firms are more likely to become owner-managers. Moreover, I demonstrate that entrepreneurs are willing to substitute the non-pecuniary benefits associated with relocation for firm profit. These findings add to a growing literature exploring the role of personal preferences in entrepreneurs’ strategic decisions, such as location choice and ownership structure. The third study examines the impact of media coverage on the location choices of foreign firms. Publicly available media information has largely been ignored by the location literature, perhaps because its impact on location choice is expected to be trivial. This study challenges this assumption: Using a new instrument for media coverage (a major anniversary of a city’s establishment date), I show that extensive foreign media coverage of a city increases the number of foreign entrants. Moreover, this effect is strongest for socially and geographically distant firms and entrepreneurs.