Taïeb Hafsi

What Makes Better Boards? A Closer Look at Diversity and Ownership

This study investigates the joint effect of corporate ownership and board of directors’ diversity configurations on the success of strategic mergers and acquisitions (M&A) decisions. Board diversity is defined as the extent to which its demographic diversity as measured by the culture, nationality, gender and experience of its directors complements its statutory diversity. A theoretical framework linking ownership, board diversity and M&A strategic decision making is proposed and tested. Based on a sample of 289 M&A decisions undertaken by Canadian firms over the period 2000-2007, demographic diversity is found to have a clear and non linear effect on M&A performance while statutory diversity is of limited influence. Ownership is found to influence the effect of diversity, making the relation finer and more precise. This has practical implications. First, statutory diversity is not sufficient for well-performing boards. Also, ownership is an important factor. The mostly advocated board diversity aimed at insuring the board’s independence is not valid across all ownership configurations. From a public policy perspective, results provide support for the principles-based approach in governance. Governance regimes should encourage the search for a balance between board diversity and the need for cohesion that best serves the firm’s purpose and obligations.

R & D spending among Chinese SMEs: the role of business owners’ characteristics

Purpose – Given that organizational decisions are made by individuals and thus shaped by their subjective and objective characteristics, the purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of SME business owners’ characteristics on their firms’ research and development (R & D) spending in a transition economy. Design/methodology/approach – The authors first build the arguments that, among small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), business owners’ perceived importance of R & D-related activities, their education, related experiences, and social connections, should affect their firms’ R & D spending positively. Then the authors use a Chinese nationwide survey of private SMEs to test the arguments. Tobit regression analyses are conducted by taking Stata 12.0 as the statistic tool. Findings – The authors find that business owners’ perceived importance of R & D-related activities is positively associated with their firms’ R & D spending. In addition, better-educated owners and owners who have technology-relat...

Competition in corporate philanthropic disaster giving

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to demonstrate how firms compete with each other in philanthropic giving in the context of a natural disaster. In particular, the authors want to investigate: Which firms act faster in disaster relief giving? How do late movers react? In the end, which firms donate most at the competitive equilibrium, first or late movers? Whether and how firm visibility will affect the relationships proposed based on the former three questions? Design/methodology/approach – The Chinese listed companies that donated to the May 12, 2008, Sichuan earthquake are taken as a sample. A negative binomial regression analysis is first conducted to identify the first movers. Then, linear regression analysis is conducted to identify the competition between first movers and late movers. Findings – The authors find that large firms and firms with a high financial performance tend to be first movers in disaster relief giving. Late movers donate amounts that are similar to those of first movers in ...

How to get evidence? The role of government–business interaction in evidence-based policy-making for the development of Internet of Things industry in China

ABSTRACT This paper provides theoretical bases and a framework to describe the incremental process of macro-level innovation policy-making for emerging industry in China and the role of government–business (G–B) interactions in generating policy-making evidence. By analyzing the decision-making processes of three macro-level innovation policies for the Internet of Things as a mode of industry development, the paper finds that the macro-level innovation policy-making resulted from a gradual sub-issue solving in each of several sub-processes. The specific micro-level policy tools are formed and implemented through G–B interactions to generate evidence, and these processes are gradual and incremental, helping policy-makers to overcome the high levels of uncertainties in emerging industry development. Five interactive approaches in this research are identified: inspections, investigations, soft lobbying, conferences, and cooperation. The patterns of interactions vary with the nature of the innovation policies. Our findings contribute to the evidence-based policy-making perspective, by clarifying the innovation policy-making sub-process and the evidence-generating mechanism of G–B interactions in dealing with emerging industry development uncertainties.

Entrepreneurs in Development: Vectors for Society’s Progress

Chandler (1977), a business historian, has shown in his acclaimed book that the market alone does not ensure economic development. America, he argued, has developed economically and institutionally as a result of business entrepreneurs’ initiatives and management agency. In developing countries, there is often the belief that the state as entrepreneur, rather than the market, is the determinant of economic and social development. This is a misguided belief. A brief overview of what is happening in these countries would convince anyone that the state is not the dynamic factor. Rather, its bureaucratic behavior and related corruption, are often a problem for society’s sustainable development. In this chapter, we build on cases from Algeria to show that economic and institutional development is produced by entrepreneurs. Furthermore, it appears that entrepreneurs not only build firms and create wealth, they also build communities. Their business philosophy, although built around ambition and universal values, is also rooted in local traditions, and contributes to their communities’ well-being. Concerned about social health, these entrepreneurs succeed economically beyond expectations. The chapter relates a few cases and proposes an entrepreneur-centered theory of socio-economic development.

Business Challenges in Turbulent Lands: The Case of the Middle East and North Africa

An organization’s strategy can be seen as an attempt to respond to environmental challenges (Andrews 1987; Seguin et al. 2008). A large body of research in strategic management has provided insights into the dynamics of the interaction between the organization and its environment. In particular, contingency theory (Lawrence and Lorsch 1967; Thompson 1967) provided the key principles that firms follow in responding to task environment and competitive challenges. The need for a fit between environment, strategic choice and structure has been documented first by Chandler (1962), and then by a large number of studies (see Miles and Snow1978; Mintzberg 1979, for early syntheses). The fit has also been conceptualized as a configuration (Miller 1987). This configuration clarifies the prescribed managerial decisions, thus simplifying the strategic challenges, and reducing the cognitive strains that managers may feel when the task environment is complex or more dynamic.