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Firm Owners (firm + owner)
Selected AbstractsRegulating labour management in small firmsHUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT JOURNAL, Issue 3 2002Susan Marlow There is a relative paucity of evidence on the management of labour in smaller firms. Research that has been undertaken, while recognising the heterogeneity of the sector, does note the prevalence of informality regarding employee relations. Such informality could be challenged by the increasing regulation of the employment relationship following the election of successive Labour governments since 1997. To illuminate this discussion further, evidence drawn from a study of employment regulation is offered. A number of smaller firm owners and their employees were interviewed to ascertain their views on the impact of regulation on the employment relationship. Owners were largely resistant to it but felt they could accommodate changes with relatively little disruption to their existing approach to labour management. Meanwhile, most employees felt the effect of regulation would be muted due to their position as smaller firm labour. [source] On the Relation between Conservatism in Accounting Standards and Incentives for Earnings ManagementJOURNAL OF ACCOUNTING RESEARCH, Issue 3 2007QI CHEN ABSTRACT This paper studies the role of conservative accounting standards in alleviating rational yet dysfunctional unobservable earnings manipulation. We show that when accounting numbers serve both the valuation role (in which potential investors use accounting reports to assess a firm's expected future payoff) and the stewardship role (in which current shareholders rely on the same reports to monitor their risk-averse manager), current firm owners have incentives to engage in earnings management. Such manipulation reduces accounting numbers' stewardship value and leads to inferior risk sharing. We then show that risk sharing, and hence contract efficiency, can be improved under a conservative accounting standard where, absent earnings management, accounting earnings represent true economic earnings with a downward bias, compared with under an unbiased standard where, absent earnings management, accounting earnings represent true economic earnings without bias. [source] Support for Rapid-Growth Firms: A Comparison of the Views of Founders, Government Policymakers, and Private Sector Resource ProvidersJOURNAL OF SMALL BUSINESS MANAGEMENT, Issue 4 2003Eileen Fischer The paper contrasts the perspectives of firm owners, government policy advisers, and external resource providers on how rapid-growth firms should be supported. Qualitative data were analyzed to identify similarities and differences in groups' perspectives. The research indicates that each group sees its roles as critical. Policymakers and external resources providers have incentives to interact with rapid-growth firms. Rapid-growth firms have incentives to obtain advice from government sources and external resource providers but prefer to obtain advice from their peers. These findings suggest a network-based approach to the support of rapid growth that is consistent with a new Ontario-based program, the Innovators Alliance. [source] SUNK COSTS OF CAPITAL AND THE FORM OF ENTERPRISE: INVESTOR-OWNED FIRMS AND WORKER-OWNED FIRMS,ANNALS OF PUBLIC AND COOPERATIVE ECONOMICS, Issue 1 2010Kazuhiko Mikami ABSTRACT,:,This paper examines implications of sunk costs of capital for efficient forms of enterprise. It is assumed that firm owners and outside traders are asymmetrically informed of venture risks, and that there are sunk costs associated with investment in physical and human capital. We then make an efficiency comparison between investor-owned and worker-owned firms. We find that the firm is efficient when it is owned by the input supplier (the investor or worker) who incurs large sunk costs. This is because such an input supplier can credibly signal to the other input supplier that he in fact has a safe project. An empirical study based on the Japanese manufacturing industry seems to support the theoretical result. [source] An Empirical Analysis of the Relationship Between Capital Acquisition and Bankruptcy LawsJOURNAL OF SMALL BUSINESS MANAGEMENT, Issue 1 2009Howard Van Auken Ineffective capital acquisition decisions at start-up may lead to business failure and bankruptcy; a result which is both costly and disruptive to the owners and other stakeholders of the firm. To cope with the risk of failure, owners embark on a variety of risk-reducing activities whereas the U.S. government attempts to moderate the downside effects of such failures through the rules surrounding bankruptcy. Previous studies imply that as owners become more aware of the protections offered through the government regulation of bankruptcy, they should become less concerned with the effects of failure and be willing to raise higher levels of initial capital. Raising higher levels of initial capital, in turn, leads owners to take actions intended to reduce firm risk and to minimize the threat to their personal financial security. Data from a sample of small firms confirm our hypothesis by showing that as the level of initial capital acquisition increases, owners embark on activities intended to reduce firm risk. However, capital acquisition is not associated with the owner's familiarity with bankruptcy regulations. As a result, governmental objectives in establishing these regulations may not be achieved. Our findings have implications for firms' owners, consultants, and policymakers, in terms of the relationship between an entrepreneur's knowledge of bankruptcy laws and the financing of their enterprises. [source] An investigation of innovation antecedents in small firms in the context of a small developing countryR & D MANAGEMENT, Issue 3 2000Athanasios Hadjimanolis The present research was conducted in Cyprus, a small developing country. A large number (n=140) of manufacturing small and medium sized firms were surveyed, via a questionnaire administered during personal interviews with the firms' owners or managers. A research model based on the antecedent factor approach was used. The main variables affecting innovation according to the survey results include: strategy, expenditure on R&D, co-operation with external technology providers, use of technological information sources and overall performance of the firm. Contrary to expectations and literature claims, some environmental variables, e.g. intensity of competition, were not correlated to innovation. Managers and public policy makers in similar contexts can increase the innovativeness of firms by paying attention to its main determinants, as identified by the above research. [source] | ||||||||||