Optimal monitoring in family-owned companies? Evidence from Asia

Manuscript Type: Empirical Research Issue: We propose that high levels of monitoring are not always in the best interests of minority shareholders. In family-owned companies the optimal level of board monitoring required by minority shareholders is expected to be lower than that of other companies. This is because the relative benefits and costs of monitoring are different in family-owned companies. Research Findings: At moderate levels of board monitoring, we find concave relationships between board monitoring variables and firm performance for family-owned companies but not for other companies. The optimal level of board monitoring for our sample of Asian family-owned companies equates to board independence of 38%, separation of the Chairman and CEO positions and establishment of audit and remuneration committees. Additional testing shows that the optimal level of board monitoring is sensitive to the magnitude of the agency conflict between the family group and minority shareholders and the presence of substitute monitoring. Practitioner/Policy Implications: For policymakers, the results show that more monitoring is not always in the best interests of minority shareholders. Therefore, it may be inappropriate for regulators to advise all companies to follow the same set of corporate governance guidelines. However, our results also indicate that the board governance practices of family-owned companies are still well below the identified optimal levels. Keywords: Corporate Governance, Board Independence, Board of Directors, Family Firms, Monitoring.

Service staff attitudes, organisational practices and performance drivers

We provide conceptual and empirical insights elucidating how organizational practices influence service staff attitudes and behaviors and how the latter set affects organizational performance drivers. Our analyses suggest that service organizations can enhance their performance by putting in place strategies and practices that strengthen the service-oriented behaviors of their employees and reduce their intentions to leave the organization. Improved performance is accomplished through both the delivery of high quality services (enhancing organizational effectiveness) and the maintenance of frontline staff(increasing organizational efficiency). Specifically, service-oriented business strategies in the form of organizational-level service orientation and practices in the form of training directly influence the manifest service-oriented behaviors of staff. Training also indirectly affects the intention of frontline staff to leave the organization; it increases job satisfaction, which, in turn has an impact on affective commitment. Both affective and instrumental commitment were hypothesized to reduce the intentions of frontline staff to leave the organization, however only affective commitment had a significant effect.

The efficacy of the Sortino ratio and other benchmarked performance measures under skewed return distributions

This paper will investigate the suitability of existing performance measures under the assumption of a clearly defined benchmark. A range of measures are examined including the Sortino Ratio, the Sharpe Selection ratio (SSR), the Student’s t-test and a decay rate measure. A simulation study is used to assess the power and bias of these measures based on variations in sample size and mean performance of two simulated funds. The Sortino Ratio is found to be the superior performance measure exhibiting more power and less bias than the SSR when the distribution of excess returns are skewed.

Impromptu : an interactive programming environment for composition and performance

Interactive development environments are making a resurgence. The traditional batch style of programming, edit -> compile -> run, is slowly being reevaluated by the development community at large. Languages such as Perl, Python and Ruby are at the heart of a new programming culture commonly described as extreme, agile or dynamic. Musicians are also beginning to embrace these environments and to investigate the opportunity to use dynamic programming tools in live performance. This paper provides an introduction to Impromptu, a new interactive development environment for musicians and sound artists.

Regional performance : mapping "The North"

Paul Makeham’s work in AusStage Phase 3 has centred on regional mapping of live performance activity. A pilot mapping project was developed to identify regional clusters of performance as well as key regional organisations. In designing this pilot project, reference was made to two other ARC-funded projects. The first of these was Talking Theatre, an audience development research initiative for Queensland and the Northern Territory supported by an ARC Projects-Linkage grant. Talking Theatre was funded between 2004 and 2006 as a Linkage between the ARC, NARPACA (the Northern Australian Regional Performing Arts Centres Association), Arts Queensland, Arts Northern Territory, and QUT. The second project was the Creative Digital Industries National Mapping Project, operating through QUT’s Centre for Excellence in the Creative Industries (CCi). The NMP is designed to develop and publish a range of accurate and timely measures of the Creative Digital Industries in Australia.

Dramatic teaching : focussing on drama, theatre, and performance in higher education

This 90 minute panel session is designed to explore issues relating to the teaching of drama, performance studies, and theatre studies within Higher Education. Some of the issues that will be raised include: developing an understanding of the learning that students believe they are experiencing through performance; contemporary models for teaching; and the suggestion that the body can be an important site for acquiring a variety of different knowledges. Paul Makeham will present a general position paper to commence the session (15 minutes). Maryrose Casey, Gillian Kehoul, and Delyse Ryan will each speak briefly (15 minutes) about aspects of their research into Higher Education teaching before opening the floor for a round-table discussion of issues affecting the teaching of these disciplines.