Mergers and acquisitions by Chinese firms: A review and comparison with other mergers and acquisitions research in the leading journals

In recent years, an increasing number of Chinese firms have been engaged in acquisitions both inside and outside of China. Nevertheless, our understanding of Chinese merger and acquisition (M&A) activity is limited because a majority of M&As in the past 100 years have been performed by firms from developed countries and it is those M&As that have been the focus of prior research. Thus this paper aims to address the following research questions: What are the new insights gained from Chinese M&A research? What are the emerging future directions of Chinese M&A research? To address those questions, this article provides a thorough literature review of the most recent M&A research in top journals and studies of M&As both inside and outside of China. Consequently, we identify both new insights from Chinese M&A research and the research gaps that Chinese M&A research needs to fulfill compared with general M&A research in top journals. We further highlight the important and unique characteristics of Chinese M&As and call for future research.     

Self-serving attributions,managerial cognition,and company performance

Past research using managers' attributions for good and poor performance in annual reports has repeatedly demonstrated that management takes credit for good outcomes. However, there is disagreement about whether this pattern of attributions reflects attempts to manage impressions in stakeholders or biased perceptions on the part of management, and whether it is associated with increases or decreases in future performance. In this study, attributions in letters to shareholders in the annual reports of public utilities were analyzed. The results showed the same general pattern of attributions as was found in previous studies. However, the relationship between this pattern of attributions and performance (earnings per share growth) was generally negative. Implications of these results for future research are discussed.     

Bankruptcy risk,firm-specific managerial human capital,and diversification

This paper proposes a model in which firm diversification acts as an efficient form of nonpecuniary compensation for the manager. In the model diversification rewards the manager by reducing the likelihood of bankruptcy which in turn increases the expected value of his firm-specific human capital. Unlike the principal-agent model of diversification, this model shows that diversification may be optimal even if the manager is risk neutral and his behavior can be observed by firm owners.I thank Nasser Arshadi, Susan Feigenbaum, David Hakes, Thomas Ireland, Roger Sherman, and Robert Sorensen for their comments and suggestions.     

Economics at the FTC: Mergers,Dominant-Firm Conduct,and Consumer Behavior

Economists at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) pursue the agency’s competition and consumer protection missions. In this year’s essay, in antitrust, we discuss the new Merger Guidelines, three exclusion cases, and R&D issues in the Thoratec/HeartWare merger and the Google/AdMob merger. In consumer protection, we discuss the FTC’s new rule on debt settlement, our efforts to improve disclosures, and our recent work on appliance energy disclosures.     

Economic Analyses of Mergers at the FTC: The Cruise Ships Mergers Investigation

This paper provides an overview of how economists atthe Federal Trade Commission assess the potentialcompetitive effects of mergers, with a focus on thetypes of quantitative analyses frequently employed.The paper first outlines the general approach employedat the Federal Trade Commission to review mergers.The paper then describes analyses done in theinvestigation of proposed mergers in the cruiseline industry as a specific example. Of particularinterest in this example are the analyses used toassess the potential for coordinated interaction asa result of the merger.     

经营杠杆的分析与应用

经营杠杆效应是由于固定成本的存在而产生的,企业必须充分认识经营杠杆的作用,以提高决策质量和经营效率。     

大力推进并购重组 增强钢铁企业竞争力

分析了世界钢铁工业的并购整合历程、原因和特点,我国钢铁企业并购重组的实践和战略意义,提出了推进我国钢铁企业并购重组的对策建议。     

Economics at the FTC: Hospital Mergers,Authorized Generic Drugs,and Consumer Credit Markets

Economists at the Federal Trade Commission pursue the agency’s competition and consumer protection missions. In this year’s essay, in antitrust, we discuss various aspects of our hospital merger analyses as well as the effects of authorized generic drugs on consumers and competition. In consumer protection, we describe two ongoing studies on the use of credit-based insurance scores to price homeowners insurance, and the accuracy of consumers’ credit reports that are provided by credit bureaus.     

Mergers: Significance for structure,performance and public policy session comment

Chief, Center for Economic Studies, Bureau of the Census.     

Top management turnover following mergers and acquisitions

Little is known about the effects of a merger or an acquisition on an acquired company's management team. This research follows the employment status of target companies' top managers for 5 years from the date of acquisition. Results indicate that turnover rates in acquired top management teams are significantly higher than ‘normal’ turnover rates, and that visible, very senior executives are likely to turn over sooner than their less-visible colleagues. Variations in top management turnover rates, however, are not accounted for by type of acquisition (i.e. related or unrelated).     

Unilateral Competitive Effects of Mergers: Upward Pricing Pressure, Product Quality, and Other Extensions

This paper lays out and extends a derivation of the ??upward pricing pressure?? (??UPP??) tool for analyzing unilateral competitive effects of horizontal mergers on differentiated products that is featured in the 2010 Guidelines. In the most novel extension, the merger alters the differentiated products?? qualities. The resulting tool analyzes whether the merger creates upward pressure on quality-adjusted or ??hedonic?? prices. Another extension applies where one firm acquires just a partial equity stake in a competing firm. The paper also develops the Gross Upward Market Power Pressure Index (GUMPPI) that generalizes UPP measures to include output as well as price effects.     

钢铁企业并购中的知识整合

企业并购中真正的协同效应是通过无形资产的使用来实现的，而知识就是最为重要的隐性资产。随着钢铁企业竞争的加剧和并购规模的扩大，知识整合将成为钢铁企业并购整合的关键。从知识和能力的角度研究了并购中钢铁企业的知识整合问题，提出了并购过程中的知识整合模式，对并购整合的成功具有一定的参考意义。     

Leveraging brand equity in business-to-business mergers and acquisitions

Every acquisition provokes a branding decision—should the acquirer absorb the acquired business by renaming it under its own name to convey to the market that ownership and the way of doing business has changed, or should it allow the acquired company to continue trading under its old name so as to avoid damage to its existing customer franchise? This is a complex management decision but one which apparently receives little attention. This paper draws on the B2B branding and M&A literatures to create a model of brand equity transfer. The model assumes that rebranding of an acquired company under the name of the new parent can yield positive benefits if the new parent has higher brand equity than the acquired company. A case study of an acquisition of a national construction materials company by a larger international group provides an illustration of the transfer process.     

Absolute and relative resources as determinants of international acquisitions

Although it is established that firms sometimes expand abroad to augment their capabilities, previous studies have generally focused on technological determinants of foreign expansion. We analyze capability‐seeking aspects of foreign direct investment by examining the relationship between upstream (technological) and downstream (marketing) capabilities and the choice between acquisition and greenfield modes of international entry. In analyzing 2175 entries by British, German, and Japanese investors into the United States, we find that for downstream capabilities, which tend not to be geographically fungible, the absolute level of capabilities in the entered industry explains the mode choice. However, for upstream capabilities, which tend to be geographically fungible, the acquisition motive stems from a relative capability differential between host and home country firms. These results have implications for the concept of fungibility in the resource‐based view of the firm as well as for the literature on sourcing of resident assets by foreign firms, which has thus far ignored issues of entry mode and downstream assets. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Mergers and economic performance: The experience abroad

The authors test the hypothesis that weakening the nation's antimerger law, and encouraging corporate concentration, will enhance American competitiveness, by examining these claims in the light of the postwar experience of Western Europe and Japan. The evidence strongly suggests that policies encouraging merger-induced corporate size and high industrial concentration have generally failed to improve economic performance in Western Europe, and that they have not been prime determinants of the postwar Japanese economic "miracle."     

美国药品安全与价格管理趋势

“化学与工程新闻”（C＆EN）驻华盛顿通讯记者BETTE HILEMAN,发表了一篇文章（C＆EN／JUNE19,2006）,对当前美国在药品安全和价格方面存在的问题与管理趋势进行了讨论。笔者认为,药品的安全性和价格是当前世界各国普遍关注的一个问题,美国在药品安全和价格管理方面的争论和趋势,具有一定的代表性和前瞻性。