Ownership and ownership concentration: which is important in determining the performance of China’s listed firms?

This article investigates the impact if ownership and ownership concentration on the performance of China's listed firms. By recognizing the differences between ownership and ownership concentration, and between total ownership concentration and tradable ownership concentration, we find that ownership concentration is more powerful than any category of ownership in determining firm performance and that it has approximately positive linear relations with firm value. The tradable ownership concentration has a more significant and positive influence on firm performance than total ownership cocncentration. The highest level of firm performance is approached when a firm is characterized with both total ownership concentration and tradable ownership concentration. Thus, we conclude that it is a rule that ownership concentration enhances firm performance regardless of who the concentrated owners are.

Managerial ownership, capital structure and firm value

This paper extends prior research to examine the managerial ownership influences on firm performance through the choices of capital structures by using a new sample of S& P 500 firm in 2005. The empirical results of OLS regressions replicate the nonlinear relationship between managerial ownership and firm value. However, we found that the turning points had moved up in our sample compared with previous papers, which implies that the managerial control for pursuing self-interst, and the alignment of interests between managers and other shareholders can only be achieved now by management holding more ownership in a firm than that found in previous studies. Managerial ownership also drives the capital structure as a nonlinear shape, but with a direction opposite to the shape of firm value. the results of simultaneous regressions suggest that managerial ownership affects capital structure, which in turn affects firm value. Capital structure is endogenously determined by bith firm value and managerial ownership; while managerial ownership is not endogenously determined by the other two variables.

Does ownership affect a firm’s performance and default risk in Jordan?

This paper seeks to examine the impact of ownership structure on firm performance and the default risk of a sample of publicly listed firms.

Ownership concentration and product innovation in Chinese private SMEs

Product innovation is extremely important to the growth, success, and ultimate survival of firms. Although its unique features in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have gained growing attention in the literature, there is limited knowledge as to how ownership concentration moderates the relationship between product innovation and its determinants. Based upon insights from agency and institutional theories, we examine the moderating effects of ownership concentration on the relationship between product innovation and its key determinants in Chinese SMEs, utilizing a large dataset of 43,728 Chinese firms over the period 2005-2006. We focus on examining the differences between single-owner SMEs, where there is dominant control of one family member, and multiple-owner SMEs, where principal-agent conflicts and principal-principal conflicts are more likely to occur. Our findings indicate that single-owned firms tend to convert research and development into product innovation more efficiently than firms with multiple owners, who are typically better at utilizing external sources of knowledge and human capital.

Biodegradable Eri silk nanoparticles as a delivery vehicle for bovine lactoferrin against MDA-MB-231 and MCF-7 breast cancer cells

This study used the Eri silk nanoparticles (NPs) for delivering apo-bovine lactoferrin (Apo-bLf) (~2% iron saturated) and Fe-bLf (100% iron saturated) in MDA-MB-231 and MCF-7 breast cancer cell lines. Apo-bLf and Fe-bLf-loaded Eri silk NPs with sizes between 200 and 300 nm (±10 nm) showed a significant internalization within 4 hours in MDA-MB-231 cells when compared to MCF-7 cells. The ex vivo loop assay with chitosan-coated Fe-bLf-loaded silk NPs was able to substantiate its future use in oral administration and showed the maximum absorption within 24 hours by ileum. Both Apo-bLf and Fe-bLf induced increase in expression of low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein 1 and lactoferrin receptor in epidermal growth factor (EGFR)-positive MDA-MB-231 cells, while transferrin receptor (TfR) and TfR2 in MCF-7 cells facilitated the receptor-mediated endocytosis of NPs. Controlled and sustained release of both bLf from silk NPs was shown to induce more cancer-specific cytotoxicity in MDA-MB-231 and MCF-7 cells compared to normal MCF-10A cells. Due to higher degree of internalization, the extent of cytotoxicity and apoptosis was significantly higher in MDA-MB-231 (EGFR+) cells when compared to MCF-7 (EGFR-) cells. The expression of a prominent anticancer target, survivin, was found to be downregulated at both gene and protein levels. Taken together, all the observations suggest the potential use of Eri silk NPs as a delivery vehicle for an anti-cancer milk protein, and indicate bLf for the treatment of breast cancer.

Non-wage benefits, corporate ownership and firm performance in post-communist economies: evidence from Ukraine

The economic reforms in the transition economies of Central and Eastern Europe have fundamentally reshaped ownership and governance of economic production, notably through the privatization of former state-owned enterprises. These reforms were expected to transform management practices by displacing ‘cradle-to-grave’ welfare arrangements administered by state-owned enterprises. Using data drawn from two large samples of Ukrainian establishments, we investigate, in two different time points, the relationship between non-wage benefits and firm performance during the period of transition to a market economy (1994–2004). We found that non-wage benefits continued to be a critical feature of HRM practices in Ukraine during this period, and were positively associated with firm performance.

Vehicle motion simulators, a key step towards road vehicle dynamics improvement

Real road vehicle tests are time consuming, laborious, and costly, and involve several safety concerns. Road vehicle motion simulators (RVMS) could assist with vehicle testing, and eliminate or reduce the difficulties traditionally associated with conducting vehicle tests. However, such simulators must exhibit a high level of fidelity and accuracy in order to provide realistic and reliable outcomes. In this paper, we review existing RVMS and discuss each of the major RVMS subsystems related to the research and development of vehicle dynamics. The possibility of utilising motion simulators to conduct ride and handling test scenarios is also investigated.

Secure ownership transfer for multi-tag multi-owner passive RFID environment with individual-owner-privacy

In this paper we propose a secure ownership transfer protocol for a multi-tag multi-owner RFID environment that provides individual-owner-privacy. To our knowledge, the existing schemes do not provide individual-owner-privacy and most of the existing schemes do not comply with the EPC Global Class-1 Gen-2 (C1G2) standard since the protocols use expensive hash operations or sophisticated encryption schemes that cannot be implemented on low-cost passive tags that are highly resource constrained. Our work aims to fill these gaps by proposing a protocol that provides individual-owner-privacy, based on simple XOR and 128-bit pseudo-random number generators (PRNG), operations that are easily implemented on low-cost RFID tags while meeting the necessary security requirements thus making it a viable option for large scale implementations. Our protocol also provides additional protection by hiding the pseudo-random numbers during all transmissions using a blind-factor to prevent tracking attacks.

Nonlinear controller design for vehicle-to-grid systems with output LCL filters

This paper presents a nonlinear controller design for vehicle-to-grid (V2G) systems with LCL output filters. The V2G systems are modeled with LCL output filters in order to eliminate harmonics for improving power qualities and the nonlinear controller is designed based on the feedback linearization. The feasibility of using the appropriate feedback linearization approaches, either partial or exact, is also investigated through the feedback linearizability of V2G systems. In this paper, partial feedback linearization is used to design the controller with a capability of sharing both active and reactive power in V2G systems. The performance of the proposed controller controller is evaluated on a single-phase full-bridge converter-based V2G system with an LCL output filter and compared to that of without any filter. Simulation results clearly demonstrate the harmonic elimination capabilities of the proposed V2G structure with the proposed control scheme.