Understanding Employee Ownership in the Context of French Family Firms

Family firms, in which a family controls a majority stake in the organisation, are often considered characteristically different from non-family firms. However, our understanding of employee ownership in the specific context of family firms suffers from the concerns raised by owners of several family firms about such ownership. The decision to open the capital to its employees goes beyond the question of the ownership of family business. Nevertheless, it impacts the governance of the company and raises several concerns including the transmission of information, transparency, increased formalism, and taxation. This study aims to analyze how family firms benefit from an employee ownership plan and how governance practices impact the mechanism of employee ownership plans. This study examines the financial communication of French family firms in terms of mployee ownership activities.

What Are We Worried About? Mid-life Couples’ Financial Concerns About Their Retirement

Retirement is an expected stage of life that couples plan for far in advance. Despite knowing that years of life without regular income are anticipated, some underprepare, leading to financial uncertainty in later years. In this study we explore financial concerns for retirement expressed by a sample of 335 midlife (Mage=44) couples that participated in the Flourishing Families study. We also examined predictors of those concerns across a 1-year period. Results suggested that both husbands and wives worried about insufficient income, excess spending, and heavy debt in retirement. Minor concerns included being worried about paying for their children’s education, net worth, and general expenses. Lower income was predictive of both husbands and wives being worried about having insufficient income in retirement. Higher income was predictive of husbands having concerns about excess spending. Although having retirement benefits was not predictive of any worries, having retirement savings was associated with wives having a greater likelihood of reporting worries about heavy debt and net worth in retirement. Better financial communication was associated with fewer husbands reporting concerns about excess spending and fewer wives reporting concerns about heavy debt. Having concerns about a spouse not being financially responsible were associated with more husbands reporting worries about excess spending and heavy debt in retirement. When wives reported higher social connection with a child, they also were more likely to report worries about expenses. Findings suggest that saving for retirement, communicating well about finances, and being financially responsible are associated with fewer financial concerns in retirement.

Insights into Barriers and Educational Needs for Farm Succession Programming

Planning for farm succession is vital to the longevity of the farm business. To understand the challenges with succession planning, the University of Wisconsin - Division of Extension facilitated focus group meetings across the state. These authors classified the information from the focus groups into eight codes, and each code was further subdivided into themes. The codes included Financial, Communication, Control, Change, Fair vs. Equal, Delivery, and Support, Strategies, and Educational Needs. University of Wisconsin Division of Extension Agriculture Educators utilized the information obtained from the focus groups to create a workbook that provides practical assistance when working with families planning a farm succession.

Social entrepreneurship finance: the gaps in an innovative discipline

PurposeSocial entrepreneurship is gaining increased attention from academia and practitioners worldwide. Owing to its financing challenges, academic pedagogies are seeking methods to strengthen the social financing dimension of this emerging discipline. This paper bridges the gap in social entrepreneurship education by portraying diverse perspectives on this topic from multiple actors in two cross-cultural contexts.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative case analysis was conducted to explore financing aspects of social entrepreneurship in France and the United States. The authors interviewed academicians and practitioners to learn about their current experiments and thoughts on integrating finance into the curriculum for social entrepreneurship.FindingsThe authors found multiple facets of the social entrepreneurship finance construct, focused not only on specific financial skills but also on a general approach to venture designs. Multidisciplinary knowledge is sought not just on the topic of finance but also in other disciplines that can broaden its scope of financing to a larger investor domain. While in France, this came out as a need for integrating the financial communication skills to personify the social value creation process; in the US, it was pointed out as the need for having a contractual knowledge to differentiate investment opportunities and comprehend their risks levels.Originality/valueBy bringing perspectives from multiple actors who have had experience in social entrepreneurship financing in regions with the fastest development, this paper is seminal in bridging the financing skill gaps that exist in social entrepreneurship discipline. The main theoretical contribution of this article concerns the skills, financial and otherwise that are useful in social finance.

Measuring investor relations and financial communication: an empirical test of scales of public relations

Models of public relations became one of the most researched paradigms in public relations. Yet, after their reconceptualization into dimensions, researchers focused on developing models/dimensions virtually disappeared. This study proposes to continue this research by reconceptualizing models/dimensions into the public relations scales. This paper reports the first empirical test of the Scales of Public Relations by applying them to one of PR specializations – investor relations.

Using of the Circularity Indicators in the Financial Communication of Listed Companies in the Construction Industry

Purpose: The Building and Public Works sector is experiencing remarkable growth due to the increase in infrastructure needs. Because it is one of the most waste-generating sectors. This growth will explode in the coming years, especially with a linear economy model. Thus, the transition to a circular economic model is necessary and financial communication practices must be aligned with it. Under this objective, this paper seeks to explore the financial communication practices of listed companies in terms of circular economy. Design/Methodology/Approach: The annual reports of seven (7) Moroccan construction companies listed on the Casablanca Stock Exchange were analyzed and discussed in the light of theoretically approved circularity indicators. Findings: The content disseminated by the listed construction companies through their annual reports in relation to the circular economy is often limited to the description of broader actions. Some listed companies communicate numerical indicators particularly in relation to energy and water consumption, recycling and recovery of waste, substitution of natural resources by alternative materials. Practical implications: This paper is a benchmarking tool for listed and unlisted companies in the construction sector, with the aim of improving the quality of the indicators disseminated and increasing the environmental performance of companies.

XBRL and Smart Technologies

Today, companies manage increasing amounts of data. Companies that want to manage their data better must also adapt their information and reporting system to the current scenario of intelligent technologies. The market requires companies to have a financial communication that allows immediate comparison between the efficiency of reading the data and the effectiveness of the form in which they are presented. The information that the market requires is not only quantitative and temporal, but solutions that help speed up the extrapolation of the most strategic information to support business strategies. XBRL appeared in the beginning of the 21st century, and it represents one of the most important technological innovations in financial statement. On the basis of these premises, the idea of this work was born with which the authors analyze the importance of XBRL in the accounting environment of companies. The results of the study conducted allow us to conclude that XBRL can improve the quality of information of companies and at the same time can influence the choices of stakeholders.

The Evaluation of the Communication of the Romanian Listed Companies with the Investors

Investor relations and financial communication are an ongoing challenge for a company's governance. Good communication and a close relationship with the investors contribute to strengthening the company's image and confidence of all stakeholders. Research on this topic has identified the requirements underlying the effective communication of companies, namely the existence of a department on investor relations, communication strategy, practices used, the content of the communication and its effects. The purpose of the paper is to make an assessment of the level of communication registered by the Romanian companies listed on the main market at the Bucharest Stock Exchange, starting from the assessment made by the Romanian Investor Relations Association in correlation with factors that may influence communication, respectively the trading category in which the company is listed, profitability, dividends paid, form of ownership of the majority shareholder, existence of non-financial reporting. From the proposed econometric model, it resulted that all the variables tested influence the level of communication, of which the trading category and the existence of non-financial reporting are most closely related. The level of communication with investors of Romanian companies is still low, but it has an upward evolution over time, so that at the next evaluation it will be possible to ascertain the amplitude of this evolution and other influencing factors will be identified.