Corporate group

About: Corporate group is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 1747 publications have been published within this topic receiving 46868 citations.

Parenting Styles and Value Creation: A Management Control Approach

Abstract: At then end of the 1980's, Goold & Campbell (1987) helped to generate new interest in the subject of management's ability to create value. According to Goold et al (1994) this ability is manifested in different so-called parenting styles in which the corporate strategic planning and follow-up processes play an important part. While strategic planning and follow-up are emphasized, other parts of the corporate management control system are treated in less detail. Nor do Goold et al discuss in any detail how management needs, in regard to the systems of control, may be different at the business-unit level than at the corporate level. These divergent requirements can make co-ordinated planning and follow-up more difficult for the corporate group as a whole and thus limit the chances of establishing a distinct parenting style. To improve our knowledge and understanding of the relationships between parenting style, the design and use of management control systems and value creation, four Swedish corporate groups have been studied. These case studies show that a successful parenting style is characterized by established principles for balancing corporate management's need for co-ordinated control systems against the needs of the business units for situation-specific control systems. The study shows that these principles vary with the type of parenting style. Key Words: Business strategy; Corporate strategy; Management control systems; Strategic control systems; Parenting style; Value creation

From Cotton Mill to Business Empire: The Emergence of Regional Enterprises in Modern China

Abstract: The demise of state-owned enterprises, the transformation of collectives into shareholding co-operatives, and the creation of investment opportunities through stock markets indicate China's movement from a socialist, state-controlled economy toward a socialist market economy. Yet, contrary to high expectations that China's new enterprises will become like corporations in capitalist countries, management often remains under the control of the onetime bureaucrats who ran the socialist enterprises. The concepts, definitions, and interpretations of property rights, corporate structures, and business practices in contemporary China have historical, institutional, and cultural roots. In tracing the development under founder Zhang Jian (1853-1926) and his successors of the Dasheng Cotton Mill in Nantong into a business group encompassing, among other concerns, cotton, flour, and oil mills, land development companies, and shipping firms, the author documents the growth of regional enterprises as local business empires from the 1890s until the foundation of the People's Republic in 1949. She focuses on the legal and managerial evolution of limited-liability firms in China, particularly issues of control and accountability; the introduction and management of industrial work in the countryside; and the integration and interdependency of local, national, and international markets in Republican China.

Innocents Abroad: The Hazards of International Joint Ventures with Pyramidal Group Firms

Abstract: The fundamental unit of production in microeconomics is the firm, and this mirrors reality in the United States and United Kingdom But elsewhere, business groups can be the more important unit, for business strategy is often formulated at the business group level, not the firm level In many countries, this is legally enshrined in corporate governance codes that assign officers and directors a duty to act for their business group, not their firm or its shareholders Even where a duty to individual firms' shareholders exists, business groups often have pyramidal structures of intercorporate blockholdings that entrench controlling shareholders, usually wealthy families, who run their groups to maximize their utility This can impose exacerbated agency problems In either case, foreign joint venture partners who expect domestic firms to maximize shareholder value can be sorely disappointed We explain agency behavior in business groups and how controlling insiders can divert resources between firms they control, including joint ventures, to enrich themselves; and highlight differences between this behavior and agency problems in freestanding firms We then examine the telecoms industry in Brazil, a country in which most large businesses belong to pyramidal business groups controlled by wealthy families We find that joint ventures between Brazilian telecoms firms and partners from countries where business groups are rarer have significantly elevated failure rates; while joint ventures with foreign partners from countries where pyramidal groups are more common are more likely to succeed We then present clinical examples illustrating the mechanisms that drive such divergent performance in joint venture partnerships While our results are based on a single industry in a single country, we believe they highlight a previously unexamined important issue in international business strategy

Reflections on modern doctoring.

Abstract: The conditions of assumptions about medical work are now being questioned, reexamined, and transformed, but without the benefit of empirical studies. The new conditions are changes in the organization of practice; the new assumptions hold that organization determines physician behavior and the quality of care that once was promised by properly educated physicians alone. Large numbers of medical practitioners—now approaching 60 percent—have moved into group practices of various forms, as corporate group organization becomes the major mode of medical work. Technology is a second powerful influence on modern medical work. The care of the individual has become a more divided task and, under the best of circumstances, a collective collaboration, as has the doctor-patient relationship as well. The doctor's job can be viewed as a large and varied number of decisions that are discretionary, based on the physician's individual judgment.