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Long-term Investments (long-term + investment)
Selected AbstractsLong-term Investments and Financial StructureINTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF FINANCE, Issue 1 2000Noriyuki Yanagawa This paper examines how the financial structure of a firm affects the incentives of managers to act myopically. The paper shows that managers tend to choose investments that pay off too quickly if there is a possibility that shareholders will fire the managers in the future. However, this problem can be avoided if firms are appropriately financed. Since the gains from firing the managers accrue first to the creditors, the shareholders' incentive to fire the managers is reduced when the firm increases its debt ratio. The firm should thus choose an optimal financial structure to ensure that the level of incentive for shareholders to dismiss managers is appropriately controlled. [source] Exploring the profiles of nurses' job satisfaction in Macau: results of a cluster analysisJOURNAL OF CLINICAL NURSING, Issue 3-4 2010Moon Fai Chan Aims., To determine whether definable subtypes exist within a cohort of nurses with regard to factors associated with nurses' job satisfaction patterns and to compare whether these factors vary between nurses in groups with different profiles. Background., Globally, the health care system is experiencing major changes and influence nurses' job satisfaction and may ultimately affect the quality of nursing care for patients. Design., A descriptive survey. Methods., Data were collected using a self-reported structured questionnaire. Nurses were recruited in two hospitals in Macao. Two main outcome variables were collected: Predisposing characteristics and five components on job satisfaction outcomes. Results., A cluster analysis yielded two clusters (n = 649). Cluster 1 consisted of 60·6% (n = 393) and Cluster 2 of 39·4% (n = 256) of the nurses. Cluster 1 nurses were younger, more educated and had less work experience and more intention to change their career than nurses in Cluster 2. Cluster 2 nurses had more work experiences, were of more senior grade and were more satisfied with their current job in terms of peer supports, autonomy and professional opportunities, scheduling and relationships with team members than nurses in Cluster 1. Conclusions., Findings might help by providing important information for health care managers to identify strategies/methods to target a specific group of nurses in hopes of increasing their job satisfaction levels. Relevance to clinical practice., As a long-term investment, hospital management has to promote work environments that support job satisfaction to attract nurses and thereby improve the quality of nursing care. The results of this study might provide hospital managers with a model to design specified interventions to improve nurses' job satisfaction. [source] The Economics of an Efficient Reliance on Biomass, Carbon Capture and Carbon Sequestration in a Kyoto-style Emissions Control EnvironmentOPEC ENERGY REVIEW, Issue 3 2001Gary W. Yohe This note employs the economics paradigm to sort through the complications of relying simultaneously on biomass fuels, carbon capture with active sequestration and passive carbon sequestration to meet Kyoto-style carbon emission limits. It does so by exploiting the structure of a tax cum repurchase scheme for carbon. Under such a scheme, the carbon content of fossil fuel should be taxed at the point of purchase at a price that matches the shadow price of the carbon emission limit, but carbon embedded in biomass fuel should go un-taxed. The price of biomass fuel would, though, have to reflect the marginal cost of any externalities it might cause and the opportunity cost of its land-use requirements. Captured carbon could be repurchased at a price equal to the shadow price of carbon, net of the cost of active sequestration, itself the sum of private and social marginal costs. Finally, the price of the passive sequestration of carbon should equal the shadow price of carbon, net of the opportunity cost of setting those resources aside. Since a marketable permit system would support direct estimates of the requisite shadow price of carbon, such a system would also provide direct information about base prices for the tax cum repurchase scheme. To support long-term investment in biomass supply and sequestration, though, changes over time in emission limits must be accomplished in a smooth and predictable manner. [source] Why Do Some Family Businesses Out-Compete?ENTREPRENEURSHIP THEORY AND PRACTICE, Issue 6 2006Governance, Long-Term Orientations, Sustainable Capability This article seeks to link the domains of corporate governance, investment policies, competitive asymmetries, and sustainable capabilities. Conditions such as concentrated ownership, lengthy tenures, and profound business expertise give some family-controlled business (FCB) owners the discretion, incentive, knowledge, and ultimately, the resources to invest deeply in the future of the firm. These long-term investments accrue from particular governance conditions and engender competitive asymmetries,organizational qualities that are hard for other firms to copy, and thus, if tied to the value chain, create capabilities that are sustainable. Investments in staff and training, e.g., create tacit knowledge and preserve it within the firm. Investments in enduring relationships with partners enhance access to resources and free firms to focus on core competencies. And devotion to a compelling mission dedicates most of these investments to a core competency. When such investments are farsighted, orchestrated, and ongoing, capabilities will tend to evolve in a cumulative trajectory, making them doubly hard to imitate and thereby extending competitive advantage. Arguments are supported by making reference to the literature on corporate governance and agency theory and to emerging research on FCBs. [source] Ethical issues in biotechnologies and international tradeJOURNAL OF CHEMICAL TECHNOLOGY & BIOTECHNOLOGY, Issue 5 2002Joseph H Hulse Natural and physical sciences are based on determinable facts. What is ethical, as distinct from illegal, is largely a matter of opinion. Scientific and industrial activities related to ancient and modern biotechnologies are among the most critically scrutinised for ethical probity by social activists and journalists. The practices and products of biotechnologies should be judged both deontologically , by motivation and intention, and teleologically , by determinable consequence. Bioethical criteria have been proposed by governments, medical practitioners and philosophers for many centuries. During the past decade, various scientifically competent organisations, national and international, have formulated comprehensive protocols by which to determine effectiveness and safety of novel foods, pharmaceuticals and other biologicals, including those derived from genetically modified organisms. Means and opportunities by which to satisfy the health and nutritional needs of impoverished nations and communities differ significantly from those who enjoy greater affluence. It is distinctly unethical for Europeans and North Americans, whose food and health securities are not at risk, to impose their ethical predilections on poorer nations. Equally reprehensible are the diverse tariff and non-tariff barriers to equitable international trade, and acts of biopiracy inflicted upon poorer nations. As a wise Asian sage has observed, the planet's resources and scientific ingenuity are sufficient to satisfy everyone's need, but not everyone's greed. Present and predictable world-wide demand for bioscientists and bioengineers exceeds best estimates of supply. Systematically planned, long-term investments by governments and bioindustries to generate adequate qualified men and women are urgently needed. © 2002 Society of Chemical Industry. [source] Geschäfts- und Risikopolitik von Hedgefonds im Vergleich zu anderen Finanzintermediären: Sind Hedgefonds besonders gefährlich?PERSPEKTIVEN DER WIRTSCHAFTSPOLITIK, Issue 3 2000Günter Franke Hedge funds are characterized by short-term investments in over- or undervalued financial instruments. Their policy is highly dynamic as opposed to the more long-term investments of mutual funds. On average, the risk taken by hedge funds appears to be higher than that taken by mutual funds, although quite risky mutual funds also exist. Banks sometimes take large default risks, as evidenced by various banking crises. Also banks trade heavily on the term structure of interest rates. Hence, in these respects it appears that banks take risks that are at least as high as hedge funds. In short-term proprietary trading, banks and hedge funds face similar challenges. Overall, hedge funds cannot be regarded as more dangerous than banks. Since hedge funds trade with professional investors and banks, there is little reason to protect these counterparties by special regulation. Moreover, most hedge funds are rather small players and do not seem to act in herds. Therefore, the probability of systemic risks created by hedge funds appears to be very low. As a consequence, market control of hedge funds supported by more transparency appears to be preferable to specific hedge fund regulation. [source] EXPLAINING THE EQUITY RISK PREMIUM,THE MANCHESTER SCHOOL, Issue 6 2006LAURIAN LUNGU We develop a simple overlapping generations model in which the young have a choice in investing in equities or index-linked bonds. Projections of share price uncertainty over a 30-year period show that the risk associated with such long-term investments predicts an equity premium that matches historical values. Moreover, we calibrate the model and show that it can predict up to the fourth moment of both the observed risk premium and the real rate of interest. [source] The Challenges of Socially Responsible Investment Among Institutional Investors: Exploring the Links Between Corporate Pension Funds and Corporate GovernanceBUSINESS AND SOCIETY REVIEW, Issue 1 2009LAURA ALBAREDA VIVÓ ABSTRACT During the last few decades, globalization of finance markets has come under increasing pressure to manage the many risks that companies face due to the negative impact that certain financial crises have had on securities quoted on the stock exchange. Simultaneously, there is a growing tendency among different institutional investors to take into account nonfinancial aspects,social, environmental, and ethical values,of company management. In this respect, increasing numbers of asset managers are aware of the importance of nonfinancial aspects of company management for finance markets. Asset managers integrate corporate social responsibility, sustainability policies and corporate governance strategies as indicators in risk management and the search for long-term investments. The largest segment of socially responsible investment (SRI) screened and mutual funds are portfolios that are privately managed on behalf of institutions. Socially responsible investors include private and public pension funds, mutual funds, and private accounts that are managed on behalf of institutional investors such as corporations, universities, hospitals, religious institutions, and nonprofit organizations, among others. The aim of this paper is to analyze the development of SRI-screened management corporate pension plans in the Spanish finance market. Spain is one of the European countries with a less developed SRI institutional market. Since SRI is still at the fledgling stage in the Spanish institutional market, this analysis is restricted to the awareness of SRI among a sample of the total number of corporate pension funds or schemes in Spain. The paper concludes with some proposals to encourage wider SRI acceptance and practice in Spain. [source] | ||||||||||||||||||||||