Implications of Modern Portfolio Theory for Investment Management. The general principles of portfolio management are explained by Dobbins and Witt, Sprecher, Francis, Van Home and Fama and Miller. Portfolio theory is concerned with the choice of efficient combinations of assets and its...

Previous articles have demonstrated the extent to which financial institutions have come to own a growing proportion of ordinary shares in industrial and commercial companies. In the present article we examine the implications of this development for two areas of particular concern: corporate...

The objective traditionally attributed to firms is maximisation of profits. In more recent years this has been replaced with the financial objective of maximisation of shareholder wealth.

The continuing growth in the size and importance of very large joint‐stock companies in the modern economy has prompted a search for new theories of the firm which are more relevant in explaining the behaviour of giant enterprises. For whilst the traditional profit‐maximising theory of the...

Many modern theories of managerial behaviour are based on the initial observation of the separation of ownership and control. This article is concerned with the ownership of British industry. Statistics are presented relating to the pattern of UK share ownership both now and in the future....

Are directors remunerated as administrators or entrepreneurs? The theory of finance suggests that the objective of the firm is to maximise shareholder wealth or the current market value of the firm. Company law informs us that directors are appointed to manage the business on behalf of...

Mounting public criticism of big business has forced the managers of large companies to reappraise their relationships with employees, consumers and the community as they have come to recognise that companies have to work within the limits imposed upon them by public opinion and political...

In the past few years there has been a radical transformation of international monetary relations. Since 1973 a large number of countries have abandoned the Bretton Woods system of fixed par values for their currencies and have adopted a variety of exchange rate arrangements. These new practices...