Large US Companies Research Articles

Three Little Companies — the Birth of a Major Australian Scientific Instrument Industry

The atomic absorption spectrometer revolutionized chemical analysis in the 1960s. Invented by Alan Walsh of the CSIRO Division of Chemical Physics, its manufacture in Australia began with three small Melbourne companies making the necessary optical, mechanical and electronic components. Subsequently, one of these companies, Techtron Pty Ltd, made a complete instrument and became a major supplier to the international market. Techtron expanded rapidly and in 1967 was sold to a large US company, Varian Associates Inc., which still operates as Varian Australia Pty Ltd and manufactures atomic absorption spectrometers and other scientific instruments at Mulgrave, Victoria.

The Practice of Financial Risk Management: An International Comparison

AbstractThe objective of this article is to simultaneously survey the practice of risk management of large United Kingdom, United States, and Asia Pacific multinational companies (MNCs). We investigate whether risk management practices vary internationally. From 179 (30%) usable responses we find a number of interregional differences in the organization of risk management; a greater emphasis on decentralized structures in the Asia Pacific and less formal board control over risk management in U.S. MNCs. In terms of the tools of risk management there were differences internationally in the concerns in choosing derivatives, driven to some extent by differences in the accounting treatment internationally. In general, the size, degree of internationalization and industry sector of the respondent MNCs could not explain these regional differences. However, there was little variation in the methods of forecasting exchange rates and the majority of MNCs in all regions use a centralized risk management system. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Firms as the source of innovation and growth: the evolution of technological competence

It is argued that the firm is the principal source of innovation and growth, a device for the establishment of technological competence, and for its continued development over time. Markets, products and background knowledge may change quite dramatically over time. Yet as a result of the cumulative nature of learning in the production processes of firms, the profile of corporate technological competence will tend to persist over quite long periods, provided there is institutional continuity. Within the same firm, competence may evolve into related areas, but the firm's technological origins will remain identifiable in its subsequent trajectories. However, if the institution itself changes more dramatically, this technological persistence may be disrupted. Supporting evidence is provided from data on the patenting of 30 large US and European companies, which have been continuously active since the interwar period. The science and the knowledge base, and the composition of products and markets may shift quite radically, but the firm's productive and technological system itself is potentially more stable. The firm provides a vehicle for potential institutional continuity and a device for managing transitions within the economic system.

NOTE DE RECHERCHE: MANAGEMENT AND COMPLEX ADAPTATION: A RESEARCH NOTE

Large US companies are increasingly interested in complexity theory, especially what complexity can offer as a new management paradigm. The key to this new approach is an understanding of complex adaptive systems (CAS), especially the superior performance that can be achieved when such systems operate on the edge of chaos. Pushing an organization to these limits enables it to achieve new rates of innovation and to continuously reinvent itself. Whereas conventional economic discussions of the firm focus on the search for an efficient allocation of resources, the CAS paradigm is concerned more with adoption and rapid change. Four lines of inquiry into the competitive advantage of possible through a CAS approach are suggested: 1. comparing evolutionary strategies among companies in sectors where knowledge if growing exponentially, 2. examining ecosystem density as a source of strategic advantage, 3. charting evolutionary landscapes to explain innovation performance in the pharmaceutical and IT sectors, and 4. examining the tensions between adaptability and intentionally over multiple dimensions within firms managing with CAS principles, to chart boundaries in relation to performance.

Does Environmental Compliance Pay

This paper examines the relationship between the environmental compliance and financial performance of large US companies. The environmental performance is measured in penalties assessed for violations of environmental regulations. The financial performance is represented by the profit margins. The regression models developed in this paper suggest that the degrees of environmental compliance have a positive influence on the profit margins. Conventional economic wisdom is that regulations impose costs and restrictions and, therefore, put companies at a competitive disadvantage. However, this paper is consistent with the proponents of environmental regulations who argue that tough regulations force companies to be innovative and as a result make them more productive.

Board Composition and Organizational Performance: Two Studies of Insider/outsider Effects

This paper presents two studies that examine the commonly held belief that corporate boards are more likely to have positive effects on organizational performance when composed of outside directors. The first study – a meta‐analysis of 63 correlations – indicates that, on average, the greater presence of outsiders is associated with higher performance, but so too is the greater presence of insiders. Instead of providing evidence of a positive outsider effect, these results suggest the existence of a curvilinear homogeneity effect in which performance is enhanced by the greater relative presence of either inside or outside directors. The second study – a hierarchical polynomial regression analysis of data from 259 large US companies – confirms the existence of a curvilinear relationship between insider/outsider composition and performance measured as return on assets.

Subjective experiences of stress workload, and bodily discomfort as a function of age and type of computer work

An increasingly older workforce and a growing emphasis on jobs involving interaction with computers have resulted in a need to more carefully examine the relationship between ageing and computer-based work. In this study, a sample of 394 subjects ranging in age from 20-75 years performed a computer task across a 3-day period. Three different types of computer-based jobs (data entry, information retrieval, and accounts balancing) performed at three large US companies were simulated. Age differences in the subjective experience of stress, workload, and bodily discomfort were evaluated. The results indicated that age effects for these measures varied according to task. The older subjects perceived greater workload for the more mentally challenging problem-solving oriented accounts balancing task (Which involved a graphical user interface) than the younger participants, even with increased exposure to the task. However, the older subjects generally experienced less stress than the younger subjects on an information retrieval task that involved a more socially interactive telephone component. A positive relationship between the frustration component of workload and the measure of stress was also found, suggesting an important link between the constructs of stress and workload. Overall, the outcomes of this study provide important insights into design interventions intended to accommodate older as well as younger persons in the workforce.

Does Environmental Compliance Pay

This paper examines the relationship between the environmental compliance and financial performance of large US companies. The environmental performance is measured in penalties assessed for violations of environmental regulations. The financial performance is represented by the profit margins. The regression models developed in this paper suggest that the degrees of environmental compliance have a positive influence on the profit margins. Conventional economic wisdom is that regulations impose costs and restrictions and, therefore, put companies at a competitive disadvantage. However, this paper is consistent with the proponents of environmental regulations who argue that tough regulations force companies to be innovative and as a result make them more productive.

A history of corporate finance

Jonathan Barron Baskin and Paul J. Miranti, A History of Corporate Finance (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997, 350 pp., $29.95). This book is a study of the role of institutions and organizations in the historical development of corporate in Western Europe and North America. A major goal of this book is to demonstrate the need for greater recognition of path dependence and historical evolution in the modern theory of finance [p. 3]. In addition, a number of writers have argued that the study of economic and financial history can be useful in understanding contemporary developments [North, 1978; Braudel, 1982]. However, there are relatively few books on the history of corporate and, thus, this book is a particularly welcome addition. This book consists of a preface and an introduction, seven chapters organized into three parts, and an epilogue and two appendices. The introduction notes that business institutions represent constraints that are, in effect, the rules of the game for pursuing opportunity...and their value lies largely in their ability to reduce uncertainty [p.4]. It is also noted that bolstered efficiency through financial [p. 5]. The introduction goes on to explain how contributed to business efficiency and growth. First, allowed firms the time and stable funding to exploit economies of scale and scope. Second, financial innovation often helped firms cope with and even take advantage of external economic shocks. Financial innovations also lowered perceived risks faced by investors and allowed better monitoring of managers. Finally, financial innovation also allowed better management of corporate resources and gave firms the ability to overcome market imperfections by internalizing high-cost market transactions. The rest of the introduction describes the development of the modern theories of asset pricing, agency costs, asymmetric information, and corporate debt policies. Curiously, in discussing the random behavior of market determined asset prices, this book cites the 1953 study by M.G. Kendall as the beginning of this recognition, ignoring the well-known and much earlier ( 19th century) work of Louis Bachelier and others (e.g., Bernstein, 1996). Part I consists of three chapters that review in the preindustrial world (actually just Europe). The two chapters in Part II cover the development of European during the era of industrialization. Part III traces the evolution of in Western Europe and North America into the modem era. Chapter one describes the development of in Italy in the late middle ages and the early Renaissance period. This chapter has some excellent descriptions of international banking and how business financial structures in Florence and Venice of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries were used to diversify risk and leverage returns on equity. However, it has very little about business financial arrangements prior to that period. Chapter two covers the fifteenth through the eighteenth centuries and traces the rise, along with international trade, of the Joint Stock Companies, like the East India Company, as precursors to modern limited liability corporations. Chapter three covers the early development of public securities markets in England and western Europe in the eighteenth century. Part II consists of two chapters and covers the development of corporate in the age of industrialization (late eighteenth to the mid twentieth centuries). Chapter four covers the financing of canals and railroads especially in the United States and chapter five describes the rise of equity markets and managerial capitalism in the first half of the twentieth century. Part III also consists of two chapters and traces the evolution of corporate into the modern era. Chapter six focuses on the financing of large US companies in the post-war era until the oil shock of 1973, while chapter seven covers the rise of the conglomerate firm and the leveraged buy-out phenomenon in recent years. …

From exploiting to investing: A survey of us firms doing business in russia

AbstractUS companies have been accused by the Russian media of flooding the Russian markets with their exports, repatriating their revenues or using them to buy Russian resources cheaply, and, as a result, increasing Russia's unemployment and decreasing its standard of living. Russia, argue many Russian experts interviewed in the past several years, is being badly exploited and its culture cheapened with Western candy, which in 1994 took $5 billion from consumers in Russia.On the other hand, US companies, which have been entering the Russian market in increasing numbers, argue that exporting products and services to Russia enhances the satisfaction of Russian consumers and contributes to the country's economy. They further say that as they become more familiar and comfortable with the Russian market, they change their strategies and increase their investment in Russia.Are US companies exploiting Russia or investing in its economic expansion? In this study the author investigated the entry strategies to Russia of 87 large US companies starting in 1989. These were randomly selected corporations, including a cross‐section of consumer goods, industrial goods, computers, oil and gas, fast food, and consulting companies.What emerged was a captivating, historical drama, which changes rapidly from making money through exporting to Russia, to commitment through investment in plants and employment. For example, while the most popular entry doors to Russia have been exportlimport and joint ventures, most strategy changes since 1989 have been to wholly‐owned subsidiaries, which usually require substantial investment. Yesterday's Snickers Bars exporter, Mars Candy, created a wholly‐owned subsidiary, Masterfoods, and spent $70 million to build a chocolate and pet food factory that employs many Russians. In addition, a greater number of US companies entered the Russian market after the 1992 Yeltsin economic shock therapy and had a much needed stabilizing effect on the Russian economy. So, what may have been perceived as a one‐sided relationship has been evolving to growth and mutual commitment. And as the Russian economy continues to grow, these companies will grow and prosper, too.Executives who are interested in the Russian market are advised that this market is real, growing, and worth considering. To enter and grow in this market, however, executives are cautioned that business deals in Russia must be structured in unfamiliar ways, and that they must employ local workers and respect Russia's culture and history. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Retail Insights ‐ Winter 1996

Downsizing is a necessary evil when times get tough or when corporations get bloated. It is not, however, a viable long‐term business strategy. Even in the short run, downsizing produces relatively weak returns. A Mercer Management Consulting study of the 1,000 largest US companies, comparing the stock market performance of successful cost‐cutters with that of successful growth companies, found that investors will pay considerably more for a dollar of profits generated through revenue growth than for that same dollar generated through cost reduction. The message is clear: a company cannot shrink to greatness. It has to grow.

Intranet Web System, a Simple Solution to Companywide Information-on-demand

Intranet, a private corporate network that mirrors the internet Web structure, is the new internal communication technology being embraced by more than 50% of large US companies. Within the intranet, computers using Web-server software store and manage documents built on the Web’s hypertext markup language (HTML) format. This emerging technology allows disparate computer systems within companies to “speak” to one another using the Internet’s TCP/IP protocol. A “fire wall” allows internal users Internet access, but denies external intruders intranet access. As industrial microscopists, how can we take advantage of this new technology? This paper is a preliminary summary of our recent progress in building an intranet Web system among GE microscopy labs. Applications and future development are also discussed.The intranet Web system is an inexpensive yet powerful alternative to other forms of internal communication. It can greatly improve communications, unlock hidden information, and transform an organization. The intranet microscopy Web system was built on the existing GE corporate-wide Ethernet link running Internet’s TCP/IP protocol (Fig. 1). Netscape Navigator was selected as the Web browser. Web’s HTML documentation was generated by using Microsoft® Internet Assistant software. Each microscopy lab has its own home page. The microscopy Web system is also an integrated part of GE Plastics analytical technology Web system.

Towards a Sociology of Standards: Problems of a Criterial Society

Abstract. In recent years, we have witnessed widescale quality problems in industries, professions and institutions, accompanied by arguments over causes of decline, and confusion over systems of assessment. Because there has been no general systematic attempt to comprehend -- their meaning, operation, decline -- across different institutions, I have suggested models for understanding the dynamics of standards, focusing upon the growth and problems generated by bureaucratized criterial systems in institutions such as medicine, law, education, science, mass culture, which clash with values and standards. Based on these issues, a proposal is made for the development of a social science of standards. Resume. Dans les dernieres annees des problemes de qualite a grande echelle ont surgi dans les industries, professions et institutions. En constatant ces problemes, on a invoque des causes de declin et la confusion causee par les systemes d'evaluation selon des normes. Parce qu'il n'y a pas eu d'essai systematique general de comprendre les normes -- leur signification, leur mode d'operation et leur declin -- dans les differentes institutions, j'ai suggere des modeles pour comprendre la dynamique des normes. Je me suis concentre sur la croissance et les problemes generes par les systemes de bureaucratisation dans les institutions de medecine, de droit, d'education, de science et de culture de masse qui sont en conflit avec les valeurs et les normes. De ce fait, on propose de developper une science sociale de normes. Social critics argue that societies pass through periods in which the of major institutions crumble. (1) During the past decade, for example, medicine, law, education, industry, accounting and science have been criticized for declining (Brinkley, 1985; Drill, 1985; Katz, 1984; Sullivan, 1987; Van Harrison, 1986). Government agencies and concerned physicians have estimated that as many as 45,000 incompetent physicians were practicing in the US (Brinkley, 1986); malpractice claims have risen sharply (Van Harrison, 1986: 3), medical schools have expanded too rapidly, recruiting too many students and inadequately testing them (Bergen, 1988). In science, repeated allegations of shoddy research and fraud have filled the pages of newspapers and journals (Singer, 1989; Goldstein, 1991). In education, the decline in standards, from elementary schools to universities, has been documented through extensive research on student and teacher proficiency testing (De Witt, 1991; Henry, 1994). Judges and lawyers have complained of the lack of competence of contemporary lawyers (Strehlow, 1981) and have criticized the excessive numbers turned out by law schools. (2) The accounting industry -- watch guard of fiscal matters in the largest US companies -- has come under unprecedented attack, spearheaded by Congressional hearings, for failure to meet professional standards in the massive collapse of savings and loan associations during the late 1980s (Wayne, 1989; Feinberg, 1987; Buchanan, 1991; Robinson, 1988.) American industry has suffered substantial losses because of the decline in quality (the largest auto maker, in spite of being defined as excellent lost nearly half its domestic market in the 1980s). The service industries have followed other industries and institutions in decline according to academic and business analysts (Quinn and Gagnon, 1986). During this period, many books and articles dealing with the problems in quality have appeared, offering diverse and often disparate diagnoses and nostrums for what has appeared to be a widespread decline in (Peters and Waterman, 1982; Gabor, 1992; Dobyns and Crawford-Mason, 1991). Major professions and institutions have been rethinking and debating the way in which are developed, assessed and applied. In education, for example, Albert Shanker, spokesperson for American teachers, has publicized the debate over educational in a series of editorial advertisements in leading newspapers and magazines (Shanker, 1988, 1990); there has been spirited debate concerning the examinations produced by Educational Testing Service, and upon which much of the US educational establishment depends; and the way in which are applied in decisions on graduate fellowships in Canada has been questioned (Singer, 1994). …

Evaluating Executive Development: A Case Study

Describes an effort by a large US company, GTE, to evaluate the impact of a major management development effort and to decide how best the group responsible for the course should operate in the future to be most effective in performing its role. The results of the study provided insight on how various operations respond to an internal supplier of management development and how that group could be more effective in meeting the needs of its internal customers.

The new and the old of business process redesign

Business process redesign (BPR) has become one of the most seductive management ideas of the 1990s. It has been associated with information technology and accordingly information systems (IS) academics are expected to have a view on it, and IS practitioners are expected to be knowledgeable about it. This article seeks to decompose BPR into its principal elements, suggesting what is novel and what is not so new. Questions for research are suggested, frameworks for analysis proposed and implications for IS raised. Evidence is drawn from recent research studies and the experiences of some large US and UK companies.

Management Discussion and Analysis: An Evaluation of Practice in UK and US Companies

Abstract The Accounting Standards Board has proposed the inclusion of an Operating and Financial Review in the annual reports of large UK companies, similar to the Management Discussion and Analysis (MD&A) required by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the USA. This paper explores the nature of the MD&A reports already existing in the case of 42 UK companies which report to the SEC and compares these with a sample of 42 large US companies. Techniques of content analysis and a subjective scoring system were used to quantify the differences between observed practice of UK and US companies within the same set of regulations. UK companies were found to provide more informative reports with respect to disclosure of aspects of risk and uncertainty, as well as providing more forward-looking information. In both the UK and the USA there was no evidence of homogeneity of form and content within or between industry groupings. It is concluded that it is feasible for UK companies to produce the type of r...

UNCOUPLING THE TOXICOLOGICAL MORASS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF NEW ANTIRHEUMATIC DRUGS—IS THERE ANY HOPE?

ALL classes of anti-arthriti c drugs are very toxic. The high incidence of severe adverse reactions among these drugs is well known, and the mortality and morbidity therefrom is among the highest of all drugs reported to national drug regulatory authorities [1—4]. This is related, partly, to their widespread use, untoward reactions from combinations with other drugs (e.g. antihypertensives, antidiuretic agents), and patterns of use [1-5]. It is also possible that there is a lack of respect on the part of the medical community resulting from the apparently innocuous appearance of the various pills and capsules readily prescribed at the stroke of the pen; the influence of sales techniques and the demands from patients for a quick cure all.giving the ingredients to this lack of respect for the drugs being nothing more than poisons. Aside from these aspects, there is no doubt we have reached the stage where something has to be done about preventing the occurrence of toxic reactions to anti-arthriti c drugs, especially the newer range of agents in development which are perched on the horizon to join the large and, to many, an everbewildering therapeutic armamentarium. Thus, some major re-thinking is required in the ways in which preclinical and early-stage clinical toxicology is undertaken in drug development; the evaluating criteria employed by drug-regulatory authorities (DRAs); and the political and legal criteria set by government agencies which form the inevitable umbrella under which DRAs, industry, and the medical and scientific professions are forced to act. On the latter aspect, it must be said that the politicolegal criteria are too often enforced from without the medicoscientific community and that it is high time that more appropriate sound scientific criteria be established, the more realistically and critically to set the basis upon which the toxicology and overall therapeutic evaluation of drugs is performed by DRAs. Admittedly, some efforts have been made in the past few years to inject more science into the decision-making progress, but the progress is slow and inflexible. Some 3-4 years ago at a symposium on rheumatoid arthritis in London I espoused some of these ideas, and one of my close colleagues who is a senior vice-president of a research division of a large US company quickly pointed out to me afterwards that if I thought there was any prospect of changing the way of thinking of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) then I had no hope. The same comments could be addressed,