This paper examines the financial sector preconditions for the successful development of high technology sectors. It argues that there is a close relation between types of activities undertaken in different countries and their institutional structures. A distinguishing characteristic of the...

Using a sample of 231 entrepreneurial firm successions in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan, we find that firms' unsigned discretionary accruals decrease while timely loss recognition increases subsequent to successions, suggesting a shift in accounting toward a less insider-based system. We...

This paper examines the ownership structure of listed Thai firms in 1996. The ownership structure is concentrated. In 82.59 percent of the firms in the sample, the largest shareholders are also controlling shareholders. The controlling shareholders are mainly families. Foreign investors form the...

The existence of the business groups has been associated with market failure in emerging economies, and thus their performance has been argued and found to have declined with development of market institutions surrounding them. This paper takes up this issue of long-term performance of the...

Data on corporate governance and disclosure practices reveal wide within-country variation that decreases with the strength of investors' legal protection. A simple model identifies three firm attributes related to that variation: investment opportunities, external financing, and ownership...

This paper investigates how business groups in Thailand had evolved since the 1950s. We argue that political connections and foreign capital among other factors were contributable to the emerging of Thai business groups. The business groups that owned banks developed fast during the late 1980s...

This paper investigates the ownership and control of Thai public firms in the period after the East Asian financial crisis, compared to those in the pre-crisis period. Using the comprehensive unique database of ownership and board structures, we find that the ownership and control appear to be...

We analyse controlling owners incentive to provide non-controlling owners with better protection against self-dealing through offering new shares with tag-along rights, - the private contracting alternative to equal price provision in takeover legislation. Our model identifies two counteracting...

The allocation of credit by banks and financial institutions on 'soft' terms to friends and relatives rather than on the basis of 'hard' market criteria in the years leading up to the East Asian crisis of 1997-98 has been widely noted. Using a detailed dataset on Thai firms prior to the crisis...

We argue that the size and composition of corporate boards are determined by tradeoffs involving the information that directors bring to boards versus the coordination costs and free rider problems associated with their additions to boards. Our hypotheses lead to predictions that firm size and...