This dissertation consists of three papers related to firms' resiliency to supply chain disruptions. The first paper seeks to evaluate the effects of supply chain disruptions on firms' performance by using a recent dataset of supply chain disruptions. To this end, we analyzed operating and stock market performances of over 300 firms that experienced a supply chain disruption during 2005 to the end of 2014. The results show that supply chain disruptions are still associated with a significant decrease in operating income, return on sales, return on assets, sales, and a negative performance in total assets. Supply chain disruptions are also associated with a significant negative abnormal stock return on the day of the supply chain disruption announcements. These results are in line with previous findings in the literature. In the second paper, in order to provide a more detailed characterization of negative impacts of disruptions on firms' performance, we develop three complementary measures of system loss: the initial loss due to the disruption, the maximum loss, and the total loss over time. Then, we utilize the contingent resource-based view to evaluate the moderating effects of operational slack and operational scope on the relationship between the severity of supply chain disruptions and the three complementary measures of system loss. We find that maintaining certain aspects of operational slack and broadening business scope can affect these different measures of loss in different ways, although these effects are contingent on the disruptions' severity. The third paper examines relationships between the origin of supply chain disruptions, firms' past experience, and the negative impacts of supply chain disruptions on firms' performance. This third study shows that the impact of external and internal supply chain disruptions on firms' performance can be different when firms do and do not have past experience with similar events. For example, the results show that past experience significantly decreases initial loss, recovery time, and total loss over time experienced by firms after internal disruptions, although past experience may not decrease initial loss, recovery time, and total loss over time in the case of external disruptions. / Ph. D. / Supply chain disruptions occur frequently in today’s complex and interdependent business environment. The Kumamoto earthquakes, Hanjin Shipping’s bankruptcy, and Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, are just a few events that led to major supply chain disruptions in the U.S. and other parts of the world in 2016 and 2017 alone. In this dissertation, we first use a recent dataset of supply chain disruptions to evaluate the effects of supply chain disruptions on firms' performance. The results show that supply chain disruptions are still associated with significant negative impacts on firms’ performance as they have been shown to be in previous studies of earlier datasets. Next, we provide a broader assessment of supply chain disruptions’ impacts on firms’ performance. To accomplish this, we specifically consider the negative impacts with respect to three complementary metrics borrowed from the systems resilience literature: the initial loss, the maximum loss, and the total loss over time. The initial loss and maximum loss metrics evaluate different characteristics of the magnitude of a disruption’s impact on a firm’s performance, whereas total loss over time gives a broader measure of the overall effect of that disruption on that firm, over time. By adopting a more comprehensive view of firms’ performance through the use of such systems resilience concepts, we develop new and expanded inferences about how and when maintaining operational slack and broadening operational scope can benefit firms by helping to reduce the negative impacts of disruptions. Finally, we study the relationships between the negative impacts of supply chain disruptions on firms’ performance, the origin of supply chain disruptions, and firms’ prior experience. The results show that the impact of internal and external supply chain disruptions on firms’ performance can be different when firms do and do not have past experience with similar events. In particular, the results show that past experience significantly decreases initial loss, recovery time, and total loss over time experienced by firms after internal disruptions. However, past experience may not decrease initial loss, recovery time, and total loss over time in the case of external disruptions.

The recent financial crisis has raised serious questions about the effectiveness of corporate governance (CG) in monitoring management and protecting investors’ interests. There is concern that ‘poor’ CG was, to a certain extent, a major cause of the current financial crisis. This thesis, therefore, investigates the crucial policy question of whether the quality of CG has any effect on financial performance, information asymmetry and on block shareholders’ investment decisions. This is achieved and presented in the form of three essays on CG practices in UK with a particular focus on the periods before and during the 2007/2008 financial crisis. The first essay aims to investigate the impact of firm-level CG on block shareholders’ investment decisions for a large sample of UK non-financial firms over the period 2005 to 2009. Using a panel data analysis, the results revealed the importance of CG for block shareholders’ investment decisions. Furthermore, the study results indicated that only institutional block shareholders consider CG to be important criteria for their investment decisions. Moreover, when the effect of CG on block shareholdings in both periods before and during crisis was examined, a significant difference in results appeared: an insignificant positive relationship in the pre-crisis period turned out to be significant during crisis. The result thus indicates that block shareholders viewed CG as particularly important during the crisis period. The second essay aims to examine the effect of CG on firm performance before and during the financial crisis. It also investigates the mediating effect of agency costs on the association between CG and firm performance. The results revealed that CG affects firm performance only in the period before the crisis, but no significant effect was found during the crisis period. Moreover, agency cost was proved to fully mediate the relationship between CG and performance in the pre-crisis period. The results point to an important issue, which is the need to re-evaluate CG not only in stable periods but also during turbulent times, and to evaluate its ability to perform effectively in such different conditions. The third essay investigates the effect of both CG and block ownership on information asymmetry. Further, the effects of CG in lessening the positive association between block ownership and information asymmetry is considered. The results revealed that CG affects information asymmetry only in the pre-crisis. In addition, block ownership was shown to have a significant and positive effect on information asymmetry during crisis periods suggesting that block shareholders benefit from their information advantage during crisis period which in turn worsens the information asymmetry problem. This suggests that block shareholders engage more in their private benefits rather than in efficient monitoring. The results also proved that CG is insignificant during turbulent period in lessening the negative effect of block ownership.

During the past decades, CEO and board compensation has increased substantially. Top management compensation and firm performance has been an extensively researched subject, and a large amount of previous studies have examined the relation of top management pay and firm performance. However, the findings and discussions have been contradictory and inconsistent. The purpose of this thesis is to examine if there is a relationship between the top management variable compensation and firm performance. We aim to explore this subject in further depth by focusing on the Swedish context and by studying if contextual issues, in terms of different industries, have an impact on this relation. In order to examine this relation multiple regression analysis were performed. The empirical evidence displays that on a general level, incentive systems of the top management have no significant effect on firm performance. We also conclude that the relation of variable pay and performance is contingent on industry. We therefore argue that the context in which the firm operates has an impact on the investigated relation in this thesis. Furthermore, the Swedish context and the Swedish governance model can be considered as one of the main explanations of the attained result.

本研究以2001年至2005年為研究期間，從股權結構及董事會監督功能分別探討公股角色對投資標的公司經營績效之影響。本文之研究結果顯示：(1)股權結構變數中，公股投資標的公司之經營績效較無公股投資之公司為佳。(2)公股持股比率愈高，公股投資標的公司之經營績效則愈差。(3)董事會組成變數中，由公股代表出任董監之公股投資標的公司之經營績效較未派任公股代表之公司為佳。(4)當公股代表的席次比率愈高時，公股之投資標的公司之經營績效愈差。(5)公股持股比率偏離公股代表席次比率之程度愈高，公股投資標的公司之經營績效愈差。 / This research from 2001 to 2005 as research period, aim to explore the role of government ownership in the relationship between board composition and firm performance in the enterprises with government ownership. The empirical results document that from ownership structure variables, the effect of government shareholding on firm performance is found to be positive. Furthermore, firm performance decreases with an increased size of government shareholding. From board composition variables, the effect of the board with the government shareholding represents on firm performance is found to be positive. Furthermore, firm performance is worse with an increased size of government shareholding represents in the corporate board composition. Finally, when the government shareholding and the government shareholding represents’ seat ratio deviation degree is bigger, the firm performance would be worse.

This study aims to investigate the relative contribution of tangible and intangible resources, and capabilities on firm performance based on the measures of market share, sales turnover and profitability and explore the complex interaction and foundation of different resource sets and capabilities in the process of performance creation within the context of resource-based theory. In order to address these objectives, a mixed-methods research approach incorporating both qualitative and quantitative components was utilised. Hence, a sequential explanatory design is employed, commencing with qualitative methods including in-depth interviews along with the literature review to define and organise resources and capabilities in a coherent system that will form the basis of survey instrument, leading to quantitative methods which empirically test a series of hypotheses regarding the contribution of resources and capabilities on firm performance. Whilst qualitative data analysis indicated organisational culture, reputational assets, human capital, business processes and networking capabilities as the most important determinants of firm performance, the survey that was conducted on a total of 243 questionnaires obtained from 951 firms revealed that intangible resources and capabilities contributed more greatly to firm performance compared to tangible resources. However, in contrast to the proposition of resource-based theory that views capabilities as the most important skills that underpin the development and deployment of both tangible and intangible resources, capabilities offered rather limited additional explanatory power to the prediction of firm performance only with respect to profitability against the combined effects of tangible and intangible resources. All findings were explained especially within the context of Turkish business environment that shows typical emerging market characteristics. Moreover, some noteworthy results were elaborated based on the developed and emerging market differences. Overall, the study raises some questions with respect to resource contributions on firm performance and offers a fruitful avenue for further research.

Executive pay research has traditionally focused on salary, severance payments and longterm incentives. A systematic rigorous empirical examination of short-term annual bonuses is lacking. To address this omission, this research empirically examines the relationship between short-term bonuses and firm performance (TSR and EPS), in the UK. It also considers the association between form of bonus payment (i.e. cash/shares), and type of performance target (i.e. hard/soft and simple/complex) with bonus and performance. Furthermore, firm size and particular corporate governance factors are included (i.e. NED ratio on remuneration committee, CEO presence on nominations committee, CEO/Chair duality, tenure, and power) to examine their relationship with bonus value. From a sample of 299 firms listed in the FTSE-350 (1,542 executives including 300 CEOs), this study uses two competing theories (i.e. agency and power theory) to provide a fuller explanation of the subtleties of the pay-performance relation. The main findings support the agency view, since bonus is positively and significantly associated with financial performance. As with previous studies on executive bonus pay this association remains weak. By implication, power theory is not supported. However, other findings indicate: (1) although firm size may change, the proportion of bonus pay relative to salary does not vary. This suggests that large and small firms pay out proportionally similar bonuses; (2) cash bonuses are not positively related with the total value of bonus pay, suggesting that they are not any more open to abuse than other methods of compensation, as agency theory would predict; (3) cash bonuses encourage short-term achievement, as predicted by power theory; (4) consistent with agency theory, share-based bonuses are positively related to bonus pay and performance (weak association), suggesting that share-based bonuses (rather than cash bonuses) may be more effective at aligning pay with performance; (5) in line with agency theory, transparency (i.e. hard (external/published) and simple bonus conditions) is positively associated with performance, providing support for the alignment between principals' and agents' interests; (6) detailed bonus scheme characteristics are generally insensitive to performance and are becoming increasingly softer (i.e. more internal/unspecified targets) and complex (i.e. multiple targets). On the power view, these may create opportunities for executives to mask weak performance and extract greater rents; (7) governance factors are insignificant, suggesting that efforts to improve this area may be wasted, since they mainly leave pay-performance sensitivities unaffected. However, based on power theory, weak governance may foster the rise of powerful executives and widen the pay-performance gap. Therefore, it is suggested that close monitoring of executive pay must continue and shareholders should remain vigilant.

A pesquisa trata da relação entre as transações com partes relacionadas (RPT\'s) e o desempenho nas companhias do Novo Mercado. Teve como objetivo identificar se esta relação pode ser afetada pelos mecanismos de governança corporativa, especificamente de supervisão e monitoramento por elas adotados voluntariamente. Foram consideradas as hipóteses dicotômicas apresentadas por Gordon, Henry e Palia (2004), denominadas de \"conflitos de interesse\" e \" transações eficientes\". Na tentativa de mensurar estas relações, adotou-se o modelo de análise de dados em painel por permitir a incorporação de informações temporais e reduzir o problema do viés de variáveis omitidas. Evidências sugerem que há relação entre as transações com partes relacionadas operacionais e o desempenho das companhias estudadas. No entanto, os resultados a respeito do efeito de moderação dos mecanismos de supervisão e monitoramento na utilização de tais contratos foram inconclusivos. / The study deals with the relationship between related party transactions (RPT\'s) and firm performance in the Brazilian \"Novo Mercado\", and its goal is to identify whether this relationship can be affected by mechanisms of corporate governance. Audit committee was used to measure corporate governance mechanisms. The two assumptions made by Gordon, Henry and Palia (2004), called \"conflicts of interest\" and \"efficient transactions\" were considered in this study. In an attempt to measure these relationships, it was adopted the model of panel data analysis to reduce the problem of omitted variable bias. The empirical results provide evidence that there is a relationship between related party transactions and firm performance. However, the results regarding the moderating effect of the mechanisms of supervision and use of such contracts have been inconclusive.

Syftet med denna studie är att ta reda på huruvida det föreligger en skillnad i företagsprestation mellan familjeföretag och icke-familjeföretag. För att göra detta har en kvantitativ metod tillämpats. Undersökningsåren är 2003-2011 och företagen som har undersökts har varit små och medelstora företag på den svenska marknaden. Slutsatsen är att det inte föreligger någon prestationsskillnad mellan familjeföretag och icke-familjeföretag. / The purpose with this study is to find out whether there is a difference in firm performance between family firms and non-family firms. In order to fulfill the purpose we have used a quantitative method. The examined period was 2003-2011 and the investigated firms have been small and medium sized firms on the Swedish market. The conclusion drawn is that there is no significant difference in the firm performance between family firms and non-family firms.

We study an empirical analysis of financial characteristics for product diversification and internationalization of degree of corporate in the Taiwan listing comapny. This is paper evaluation multinational and product diversification performance from four aspect that included return, capital structure, company value and system risk. The empirical conculsion found (1).High degree of international company will be have high return of sales,company value and system risk. (2).In debt ratio negatived with high degree of international and product diversification.(3).Company established year positived to connec ompany value and system risk. (4). Company size positived relation with return, capital structure, company value and system risk.

In this study we investigate the impact of trust on the performance of cooperating firms, taking into account two core aspects: First, we look at environmental uncertainty, which shows in the degree of change there is in business freedom. Second, we account for behavioral uncertainty-captured as the average level of freedom from corruption in a country. Based on survey data from 791 firms engaged in national cooperation in Austria, the Czech Republic, Finland, Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia, we find that behavioral coordination based on trust impacts on cooperating firms' performance positively in dynamic and negatively in stable contexts. Freedom from corruption enhances firm performance in dynamic contexts but is not a significant predictor in stable contexts. Further, we find the trust-performance relationship to be moderated by freedom from corruption in dynamic but not in stable contexts. The findings contribute to a more contextualized research on trust and interorganizational cooperation, as has been called for recently. (authors' abstract)