Nicola Miglietta

Shareholder value and open innovation: evidence from Dividend Champions

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyse the companies listed on the US stock market in order to investigate for the selected companies, called the Dividend Champions, the introduction of an open innovation practice. Design/methodology/approach This study is based on a mixed-methods sequential explanatory design. This research is based on an empirical analysis undertaken with 65 listed companies in order to examine, in the first phase, the Dividend Champions. These firms have increased their dividend yield for at least the past 40 years. In a second phase, this research studies the application of an open innovation practice for those listed companies that have systematically paid increased dividends for 60 years and have, at the same time, beat the market. Findings This study reveals seven listed companies that, for more than 60 years, have regularly paid growing dividends and, at the same time, have beat the yield of the market (i.e. six out of the seven companies). The latter include: American States Water, Dover Corporation, Emerson Electric, Genuine Parts Co., Parker-Hannifin Corporation and Procter & Gamble Co. All of these corporations have adopted or implemented a practice of open innovation. Originality/value To the authors’ knowledge, this is among the first pioneer research work, based on the potential relationship between shareholder value and open innovation. In particular, this paper highlights the fact that US-listed companies can create more value for shareholders over a long period and, at the same time, beat the market by adopting different open innovation practices.

Value maximization and open innovation in food and beverage industry: evidence from US market

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine listed companies, grouped by sector, that for decades have shown a dividend growth. Referring to the food and beverage (F&B) industry, the authors have investigated the adoption of an open innovation model in order to fill a gap in the existing literature. Design/methodology/approach This paper uses a multi-method design linking qualitative and quantitative approaches. The quantitative study was planned in order to identify some US-listed companies, called Dividend Champions that have distributed consistently growing dividends for over 50 years and have beaten the markets. The qualitative study was designed to provide insight into the adoption or not of an open innovation model by the listed companies in the F&B industry in the US market that were selected by the quantitative analysis. Findings The research is based on an empirical analysis undertaken with 816 listed companies in US markets. In particular, the authors underline 20 companies that over the past 50 years have systematically increased dividend paid, and at the same time, have beaten the market (Standard & Poor’s 500). In all, 30 per cent of the selected companies belong to the consumer goods sector, and F&B companies represent 50 per cent of them. All of these companies (The Coca-Coca Company, Hormel Foods Corporation, and Lancaster Colony Corporation) implement an open innovation model. Originality/value To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first exploratory study based on value maximisation and open innovation. An open innovation model increases competitiveness and the durability of competitive advantage, which are main sources of value creation. The paper highlights evidence from the F&B industry, referred to as Dividend Champions, and the adoption of an open innovation model.

Islamic and Traditional Corporate Finance: a Comparative Study on WACC

The paper represents a first exploratory study based on the comparison between the Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC) of a sample of companies listed on Malaysian Stock Exchange, classified and shared according to the principles of Islamic finance (i.e. riba, risk sharing, haram). In particular, the main aim of the analysis is to provide some evidences of the potential effect on the risk (measured by beta) on the WACC as result of the principles used to divide the companies between Shari’ah Compliant and not Shari’ah Compliant. Generally our findings are focused on a greater level of WACC related to the LCSC that belong to the majority of selected sectors and, according to the principles of Islamic finance, they have shown a leverage ratio lower than that of companies not Shari’ah Compliant.