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    Ownership structure and firm risk : evidence from China : a thesis presented in fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Finance at Massey University, Manawatu campus, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2018) Xie, Feng
    This thesis investigates the effects of ownership structure on firm risk in China. The first essay of this thesis provides an overview of the Chinese privatisation programmes that profoundly shapes the ownership structure of Chinese listed firms, and it reviews and discusses the corporate governance and firm outcomes resulting from the privatisation programmes in China. In particular, it presents a detailed survey of China’s privatisation programmes from its Share Issue Privatisation (SIP) to the Non-tradable Share (NTS) reform, Overall, it reveals that the SIP has achieved limited success in China, which is mainly due to the partial trading policy and partial privatisation characteristics, while the NTS reform yields greater improvements of governance mechanisms and outcomes. This thesis then, examines the impact of ownership structure on firm risk in privatised firms. Essay two examines the effect of residual state ownership on stock return volatility following the NTS reform. The empirical evidence shows that residual state ownership mitigates the stock return volatility. It indicates that state ownership retention in the aftermath of sudden privatisation reform can signal the government willingness to bear the firm risk. The mitigating effect is especially pronounced in firms controlled by the government agents. Furthermore, firms with higher government ownership reduce stock return volatility through implementing more conservative corporate policies. However, the volatility-mitigating effect appears to be temporary, lasting only for three years after state shares become fully tradable. Essay three investigates the relationship between the shareholdings of the Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors (QFIIs) and stock price crash risk. This essay adopts a governance mechanism, threat of exit, to examine the role of QFIIs on stock price crash risk. The evidence shows that long investment horizon and existence of multiple QFIIs exert credible exit threat to discipline management, and in turn, reduce stock price crash risk. Further, it shows that the corporate site visits of portfolio firms by QFIIs is a channel through which the credible exit threat works effectively.
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    Toward competition in New Zealand telephony : for the degree of Master of Arts in Economics at Massey University
    (Massey University, 1995) Roddick, Anjanette Sarah
    Dramatic changes have occurred in the telecommunications sectors of most industrialised countries over the past decade. So too have their regulatory and government policy environments in the worldwide trend towards deregulation and open competition. The New Zealand market is now claimed to be the most deregulated, open, and competitive in the world with all government-imposed barriers having been removed. An economist's Utopian vision for telecommunications would be a set of highly competitive markets, subjected to very minimal interference, to enable the full impacts of technological change or demand variation to be reflected in market adjustments. Ideally, telecommunications would be a dynamic and demand-responsive industry subject only to the restrictions of capital and consumer markets. Progress towards a fully competitive telecommunications industry was never anticipated to be simple. The effectiveness and appropriateness of New Zealand's general competition legislation, namely the Commerce Act 1986, has regularly been called into question. One is often reminded of the Commerce Commission’s gloomy conclusion in 1992 that reliance upon the Commerce Act "may be of some help - but of a protracted, expensive and uncertain kind, and with definite limitations on its scope" (Commerce Commission, para. 437, 1992). The battle towards open competition in New Zealand telecommunications has clearly been impeded by the application of 'light-handed' regulation with primary reliance on the country's general competition legislation. New Zealand's experiences provide valuable lessons for other countries, in particular, the danger of placing too heavy a reliance on the judicial system operating under the country's general competition legislation, as industry regulators. In New Zealand, competition has become something akin to an ideology - a complete faith that if a market is structured so as to involve multiple participants, competitive conduct will result to bring about superior, efficient performance. We can but hope, that as competition becomes more widespread in all telecommunications markets, its real benefits in terms of overall economic efficiency, will indeed accrue to all sectors within society.
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    Education privatisation policy reforms in Tanzania and New Zealand since the 1980s : a comparative critical policy analysis study : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Education, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 1999) Muganda, Cornelia Koku
    This thesis is a comparative study of contemporary education policy reforms in Tanzania and New Zealand. It explains why and how Tanzania and New Zealand introduced and implemented education privatisation policy reforms in the 1980s and 1990s. The study analyses the socio-economic and discursive influences on national education policies and discusses the implications of current market-oriented education policies for the state's provision of education and for social justice in education. Employing comparative education policy analysis (CEPA) approach, the thesis traces the genesis of contemporary education privatisation policy reforms in Tanzania and New Zealand within the contexts of wider transformations in the capitalist world system. It is argued, in the study, that national education policies have been changing according to the nature, functions and position of the state within the capitalist formation. The thesis also underscores the critical importance of analysing policy documents. The researcher argues that the analysis of the education policy documents enables the policy analyst to deconstruct the policy discourse and reveal the policy implications to various groups of people in the society. Through critical discourse analysis, (CDA) this study explicates how the discourse of privatisation supports and legitimates the development and implementation of market oriented education policies in Tanzania and New Zealand. The thesis further argues that the market panacea espoused in current education privatisation policy reforms has adverse implications for social justice in education and for the state provision of education, particularly in relation to "children at risk". Finally the thesis proffers suggestions for alternative policy interventions and identifies some of the areas that need further research.
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    The quest for efficiency : role of human resource management in public sector reforms in Uganda : a thesis presented in fulfilment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy in Development Studies at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2002) Bacwayo, Kukunda Elizabeth
    The context of this thesis is the development strategy of public sector reforms and privatisation. It uses Uganda as a case study, and argues for the need to integrate the issue of human resource management in the privatisation discourse in developing countries. Public sector reforms arose out of neo-liberal thinking that argues against state intervention and recommends market led economic growth. Privatisation is part of the attempt to scale back on the role of the state in economic development and has been integrated in the development policies of developing countries through the structural adjustment programs of the IMF and World Bank. It is required because of the belief that the private sector is more efficient in allocation and use of resources and is therefore the best medium for attaining development goals. Private sector companies in the developed countries which utilise modern techniques of management are comparatively more efficient than their public counterparts. Globalisation and market competition forced organisations to search for ways to be competitive and this partly led to organisations elevating human resource management issues to a strategic level because of the belief that a company's workers add value that make firms competitive. When privatisation is made a requirement by the multilateral aid agencies for developing countries it is based on the assumption that the conditions that make public enterprises inefficient do not exist in the private sector. No empirical evidence is available to confirm or refute these assumptions, particularly in the case of Africa's developing nations. This thesis has contributed to this area by examining the human resource management practices of seven Ugandan organisations, three public, two private and two privatised. The aim was to find out whether there are differences in the way in which private and public organisations manage their employees and if their practices are those associated with effective management of human resources. The practices that were examined were recruitment and selection of staff, training, compensation and employee attitudes. The results from this study did not provide evidence that the differences that were exhibited in the seven organisations were related to ownership. Rather they seem to be determined by the values and culture of managers and the labour market conditions in Uganda. Both private and public enterprises exhibited practices that human resource management literature and practice consider as obstacles to efficiency
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    An examination of the determinants of performance in relation to the divestiture of state-owned assets in China : a thesis presneted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
    (Massey University, 2010) Liao, Jing
    Compared with other countries, China’s privatization has not been fully successful, as profitability decreased following share issue privatization. This thesis focuses on two features that affect post-privatization performance in China: regional disparity and the inefficiency of board structure. It is argued that privatization does not mean just the transfer of ownership from the State to the private sector, but the combination of such ownership transfer with deregulation and the injection of domestic and foreign competition, as well as institutional changes. It is shown that performance varies with the extent of regional development proxies in China. In particular, the injection of foreign competition is significantly and positively related to Tobin’s Q. On August 16, 2001, the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) issued the “Guidelines on Establishing an Independent Director System in Listed Companies” to protect small shareholders from expropriation by dominant shareholders. It has been noted that under the highly concentrated ownership structure and insider-dominated boards of listed firms, independent directors cannot work efficiently as monitors in China. Besides satisfying the government and signalling the market, the main contribution of independent directors is to provide advice to top management. The results of this thesis show that large and diversified firms prefer larger boards with more independent directors; moreover, for large and diversified firms, Tobin’s Q increases with board size and board independence. iv It is found that Chinese-listed firms exhibit two types of connections provided by independent directors: 43.76% of the independent directors are university scholars or researchers, and 13.88% of them are politically connected. The empirical results show that the relationship between Tobin’s Q and the presence of scholars and politically connected outsiders on a board is significantly negative. But it has been found that scholars, commercial bankers, and politically connected independent directors can add value to large firms, highly leveraged firms, and firms without politically connected CEOs, respectively. Moreover, it is found that the recruitment of independent directors does not limit the related party transactions between the listed companies and their controlling shareholders.
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    The transformation on an icon in the new economy : a theoretical and empirical exploration of the New Zealand reforms : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2004) Baird, Samuel William
    This thesis is concerned with the impact of neo-liberal reforms, initiated in response to the exigencies of a new technologically-driven global economy, on a conservative interventionist state. It is a sociological work, which encompasses history, politics, economics, organisations, social action and societal change. Between 1984 and 1990, the Fourth Labour Government embarked upon the reform of the structure and operation of the New Zealand economy. That reform ranks amongst the most radical and far-reaching in twentieth century New Zealand. Not only were the scope and magnitude of the changes significant but they were also implemented with a rapidity that took most of the country by surprise. Consequently, New Zealanders were exposed to a new and flexible economy, where market forces provided a major contrast with the ideals of equity and consensus that had shaped social conditions since the 1950s. This new environment had significant implications for the career expectations and working environment of many people, and for the delivery and content of public services. This thesis adds to the existing body of knowledge on the New Zealand reforms by capturing and investigating the perspectives of key actors who were involved, in a number of ways, with the transformation of the economy. It explores the theoretical and empirical basis of the reform programme, the restructuring process, the nature and scale of an intense commercialisation strategy, the attitudes of a new generation of workers and the reactions of New Zealanders when their ontological security came under threat. Key aspects of the reforms are framed and analysed through the transformation of the New Zealand Post Office from an icon of the interventionist state, a major employer and key service provider - to a commercial enterprise which sought to be a competitive, flexible, profit-driven organisation typical of the new economy. The experiences of politicians and senior managers who were responsible for this transformation through to individuals who depended on the organisation for services and jobs, are represented in the thesis as indicative of the actions and responses of New Zealanders, generally, regarding much broader social and organisational changes brought about by the reforms.
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    Maloafua : structural adjustment programmes : the case of Samoa : a thesis submitted to Massey University in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Sociology Programme, School of Social and Cultural Studies, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Massey University, Albany Campus, Auckland
    (Massey University, 2007) Kerslake, Maria Talaitupu
    Structural adjustment programmes have been promoted globally by international financial institutions as an answer to the financial problems of developing countries like Samoa. This thesis is a study of the history of structural adjustment programmes in the Independent State of Samoa, and focuses specifically on a case study of one particular programme: the restructuring and privatisation of the former Public Works Department (PWD). It seeks to compare the claims made for the reform process by development economists, development consultants and planners, politicians and reform managers, with the experiences of those who were involved in various roles in a particular type of reform: the privatisation of a Government utility. The PWD was chosen by the Samoan Government to kick-start its institutional reform programme. The Department had, over the years, suffered from poor management, corrupt practices, overspending and unaccounted funds which were all revealed in an Auditor General's Report tabled in Parliament in Samoa in 1994. This caused great embarrassment to the Government which had then to respond to these accusations. Government saw the reform of the PWD as a means to respond to public criticism of its lack of oversight, and discontent with the standard of the department's services in public works, institutional construction, repair and maintenance programmes. The study used a case study methodology to interview the people that were involved in the privatisation of the old Public Works Department (PWD). Various people who were, and are still, involved in the process of reforming Government institutions were interviewed. These included the politicians who both advocated and opposed the implementation of the reforms, the consultants who managed them for the Government and international agencies, and employees at all levels of the former Public Works Department. It explored PWD employees' personal and institutional experiences of the period before, during and since the reform of the agency. Despite the propaganda on the benefits that reform programmes have for the countries that implement them, the study has revealed different findings. It identifies and examines some important differences between the claims made by various stakeholders about the reforms, and the experiences of those who were directly involved in various ways. It has shown that people in different positions have different experiences of the same programmes, and that their experiences are significantly influenced by their social location and, specifically, whether they are "insiders" or "outsiders." It concludes by suggesting that since the structural reform project is likely to continue in Samoa for the foreseeable future, it is useful to identify those lessons from the PWD privatisation which might be applied to future projects to mitigate their social and organisational impact.