Resumo em Inglês:

Abstract This study analyzes the influence of composition of the Board of Directors and their social relations (board interlocking) on performance of Brazilian companies. A descriptive study based on documentary research was conducted with a total of 1,163 companies' observations and 18,119 standardized observations regarding directors. Simultaneous equations were applied to the data analysis. The survey results showed that, regarding the influence of composition of the Board of Directors on the performance of the companies, among variables used to identify its characteristics, that some showed endogeneity. Among the characteristics of the Board of Directors, the duality of the board was exogenous when comparing market performance (Tobin's Q) and the outsiders were also exogenous for internal performance (Return on Equity). Thus, the duality of the board is more influenced by the specificities of each company than by the market value of the companies. The characteristic outsiders are more influenced by the institutional environment than by the ROE. The practice of board interlocking proved to be insignificant in relation to the market value, indicating natural selection. Therefore, it is not possible to infer that the board interlocking can increase the dependency of the management, compromising the role of monitoring. Also, it is not possible to state that better positioned and central companies in the corporate relationships network show better performance.

Resumo em Inglês:

Abstract The Brazilian Unified National Health System (Sistema Único de Saúde [SUS]) is in a prominent position compared to the existing social policies. One of the new tools used by SUS is known as Performance Index of the Unified Health System (Índice de Desempenho do Sistema Único de Saúde [IDSUS]), which is intended to measure the performance of each municipality. Therefore, the aim of this study was to propose a model of cost-effectiveness to compare IDSUS performance against total revenues achieved in Homogeneous Group 2, consisting of 94 municipalities and analysed using data from IDSUS and the System Information of the Public Budget for Health Care (Sistema de Informação do Orçamento Público em Saúde [SIOPS]) for the year 2011. After structuring this data, we carried out descriptive statistical and cluster analysis in order to group similar municipalities in accordance with established variables: IDSUS performance, population and total revenue in health per capita. Even with the division of municipalities into homogeneous groups and after using variables such as population and revenue to regroup them, the results showed there are municipalities with heterogeneous characteristics. Another finding is in the use and intersection of two distinct databases (IDSUS and SIOPS), which allowed for visualizing the impact of health care revenue on the municipalities performance.

Resumo em Inglês:

Abstract This study investigates determinants for the demand and supply for PE/VC funds. Six factors were identified through Factor Analysis: Economic Activity, Development of Stock Markets, Corporate Governance, Social and Environmental Development, Entrepreneurship and Taxation. These factors were defined through 25 variables and transformed into five factors by factor analysis. The resulting factors were used in econometric models for investigating relationships among said factors and the fundraising of PE/VC funds first, and then with the amount invested by PE/VC funds. The results indicate that investments are adversely affected by the depth of the capital market: the PE/VC funds seek an exit strategy which the stock market offers through IPOs (Initial Public Offering). Other significant factors were protection of investors, social and environmental development and level of entrepreneurship. Different from expected, the economic activity was of low impact on demand. The result seems controversial but its lack of significance highlights the importance of the capital market (through IPOs as a way of disinvestment) as a key driver of the PE/VC market. Taxation was also not significant to the demand side, a fact which denotes that the government can influence the local PE/VC market, and that it should offer high enough discount rates or tax incentives to mitigate the effect of other barriers faced by the PE/VC market.

Resumo em Inglês:

Abstract This study analyzes the impact of imminent reclassification of credit rating on the decision-making regarding capital structure of non-financial corporations listed in Latin America. Despite the importance attributed by the market agents and the existence of empirical evidence of the effect caused by rating in the capital structure of companies in developed countries, this issue is still incipient in Latin-American countries. For this purpose, all the non-financial corporation owners of, at least one corporate rating issued by an international rating agency were taken into account, with the requirement of being listed on a stock exchange in at least one Latin-American country. Through a data panel analysis comprising the period between 2001 and 2010 and by making use of the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM), the main results that were achieved did not indicate that non-financial corporations listed in Latin America, with imminent reclassification of ratings, adopt less debts than those without an imminent reclassification of their ratings. These findings suggest that the imminent reclassifications of credit ratings do not present important information for managers of non-financial corporations in Latin America when making decisions about capital structure.

Resumo em Inglês:

Abstract Regional clusters and innovations in product and processes are found in the literature as important determinants of firms' export performance. However, this relationship is still controversial and very highly constrained by industry, and by regions. Based on a more integrative perspective, the aim of the present article is to investigate the role of agglomeration economies of a regional cluster on the export performance of firms. Furthermore, we will test the mediating effect of innovation and the extent by which the technological intensity of the industry can perform a moderating effect between the constructs. Based on a sample of 100 export companies operating in the manufacturing industries, we use structural equation modeling to estimate the determinants of export performance. The results reveal that the agglomeration economies of a regional cluster have been found determinant factors of the export performance, as well as a significant source to generate innovations by firms. However, we found no evidence between the innovations in products and processes and export performance. The results have also shown that there are no differences among technological intensity of the industries, suggesting that the firms will access agglomeration resources of regional cluster in a complementary way to their internal resources.