文档介绍：EUROPEAN
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ELSEVIER European Economic Review 41 (1997) 783-796
What makes firms perform well?
Stephen Nickel1 aT* , Daphne Nicolitsas a, Neil Dryden b
a Institute of Economics and Statistics, St. Cross Building, Manor Road, Oxford, OXI 3UL, UK
b Nujield College, Oxford, OXI INF, UK
Abstract
In this paper, we investigate the role of three external factors in generating improved
productivity performance in companies. These are product market competition, financial
market pressure and shareholder control. We have found, using data from around 580 UK
manufacturing companies, that ah three of these are associated with some degree of
increased productivity growth. More specifically, average rents normalised on value-added
(an inverse measure of competition) are negatively related to (total factor) productivity
growth, interest payments normalised on cash flow are positively related to future produc-
tivity growth and firms with a dominant external shareholder from the financial sector have
higher productivity growth rates. Furthermore, there is some evidence to suggest that the
last two factors can substitute for competition. 0 1997 Elsevier Science .
JEL classification: G3; L2
Keywords: Firms; Performance; Corporate governance; Competition; Debt
1. Introduction
Firms maximise profits, so economists like to think. In practice, however, some
firms appear to be doing more maximising than others. Taking the constraints of
technology into account, some firms are very efficient whereas others are not and
some firms have much faster rates of innovation and productivity growth than
others. Are these differences due to historical accidents - who happens to have
* Corresponding author.
0014-2921/97/$ Copyright 0 1997 Elsevi