Prior work on the performance consequences of corporate diversification treats all powerful owners as seeking the same benefits from diversification, i.e, higher profit rather than growth, and therefore limiting value appropriation by other stakeholders such as employees and managers. In contrast, we distinguish between domestic 'relational' owners and foreign 'transactional' owners in Japanese corporations to explain that although transactional owners seek profit rather than growth from diversification, relational owners seek growth rather than profit from diversification. Furthermore, relational owners also allow managers and employees to appropriate more of the rents arising from diversification than do transactional owners.

Compelling evidence in Caucasian populations suggests a role for copy-number variations (CNVs) in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and schizophrenia (SCZ). We analyzed 1,108 ASD cases, 2,458 SCZ cases, and 2,095 controls in a Japanese population and confirmed an increased burden of rare exonic CNVs in both disorders. Clinically significant (or pathogenic) CNVs, including those at 29 loci common to both disorders, were found in about 8% of ASD and SCZ cases, which was significantly higher than in controls. Phenotypic analysis revealed an association between clinically significant CNVs and intellectual disability. Gene set analysis showed significant overlap of biological pathways in both disorders including oxidative stress response, lipid metabolism/modification, and genomic integrity. Finally, based on bioinformatics analysis, we identified multiple disease-relevant genes in eight well-known ASD/SCZ-associated CNV loci (e.g., 22q11.2, 3q29). Our findings suggest an etiological overlap of ASD and SCZ and provide biological insights into these disorders.

Manuscript Type: ReviewResearch Question/Issue: Convergence in corporate governance across countries has been a subject of interest and controversy in a variety of disciplines. We attempt to address a number of related research questions: (1) what constitutes convergence? (2) what are the drivers that propel corporations in different nations towards convergence? (3) what are the major impediments that stand in the way of convergence? (4) what empirical evidence do we have to suggest that we are moving towards or away from convergence? and (5) what would be some productive avenues for further research on this topic? Research Findings/Results: Despite the vigorous intellectual position of the proponents of convergence, there is only limited evidence to indicate that such convergence is actually occurring. Even when there is ostensible convergence, much of it is convergence in form rather than substance, and governance convergence is not a context-free phenomenon. Theoretical Implications: Our review of the past literature suggests that increasing integration of product and capital markets is leading to changes in corporate governance around the world, but there is only limited evidence that such changes constitute convergence. Governance changes seem to be primarily attributable to the quest for greater efficiency in governance and enhanced legitimacy in capital markets. However, local forces such as institutional embeddedness and politics can hinder governance changes or create "hybrid" practices. Practical Implications: The ideal corporate governance may be institution-and firm-specific and an imposition of new practices or standards may not lead to intended policy or performance outcomes.

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This paper focuses on a type of firms that have been traditionally neglected in both family business and governance research, namely, family-controlled, publicly-listed firms. Although principal-agent conflicts may be less prevalent in such firms, family control can potentially give rise to principal-principal conflicts, leading to expropriation of the wealth of minority owners by family owners. Superior firm performance and the willingness to distribute the profits through dividend payments would suggest the absence of such expropriation. Based on a sample of 210 OTC firms in Japan, we examined the relationships between family control and dividend payouts and profitability. Our results indicate that family control was positively related to dividend payouts. Further, we found that while foreign ownership interacted with family control to reduce dividend payouts and increase profitability, bank ownership did not have such an effect. Copyright (c) 2009 The Authors. Journal compilation (c) 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and Society for the Advancement of Management Studies.