Do boards pay attention when institutional investor activists “just vote no”?

We examine “just vote no” campaigns, a recent innovation in low-cost shareholder activist tools whereby activists encourage their fellow shareholders to withhold votes toward a director's election to express dissatisfaction with management performance or the firm's corporate governance structure. Grundfest [1993. Just vote no: a minimalist strategy for dealing with barbarians inside the gates. Stanford Law Review 45, 857–937] argues that a substantial withheld vote motivates directors to take immediate action to avoid further embarrassment. We find a variety of supportive evidence, including operating performance improvements and abnormal disciplinary chief executive officer (CEO) turnover, indicating that such campaigns induce boards to take actions in shareholders’ interests. Furthermore, abnormal turnover is robust to controlling for concurrent events and firm- and CEO-specific controls.     

Merging Professional Service Firms

Accountants, lawyers, consultants and advertising agents have all been merging as their clients demand global and diversified services from their professional advisors. This article reports on a three-year study of three such mergers. Notwithstanding the widespread belief that business now moves @ the speed of thought, the author concludes that, in most cases, managers should allow the process of integration to evolve gradually. However, this does not mean doing nothing: she identifies eight ways in which managers can facilitate the process.     

The Determinants of Foreign Direct Investment in the CEECs: New evidence from sectoral patterns

This paper investigates the determinants of European Union FDI in the CEECs at sectoral level. The aim is to understand whether and to what extent FDI undertaken in different sectors reacts to the characteristics of the host countries. The analysis is based on a dataset created specifically for this purpose. It concentrates on the manufacturing sectors, classified according to the Pavitt taxonomy. Firstly, data summarizing the recent trend of FDI in the CEECs is presented and then empirical evidence given to account for differences between sectors. The estimated model is a generalization of a three-way fixed effect model incorporating 'classic' variables, such as labour costs as well as country-specific variables, i.e., the stage reached in the transition process. The results confirm the presence of heterogeneity at sector level.     

Evaluating the Impact of Conditional Cash Transfer Programs

Several developing economies have recently introduced conditionalcash transfer programs, which provide money to poor familiescontingent on certain behavior, usually investments in humancapital, such as sending children to school or bringing themto health centers. The approach is both an alternative to moretraditional social assistance programs and a demand-side complementto the supply of health and education services. Unlike mostdevelopment initiatives, conditional cash transfer programshave been subject to rigorous evaluations of their effectivenessusing experimental or quasi-experimental methods. Evaluationresults for programs launched in Colombia, Honduras, Jamaica,Mexico, Nicaragua, and Turkey reveal successes in addressingmany of the failures in delivering social assistance, such asweak poverty targeting, disincentive effects, and limited welfareimpacts. There is clear evidence of success from the first generationof programs in Colombia, Mexico, and Nicaragua in increasingenrollment rates, improving preventive health care, and raisinghousehold consumption. Many questions remain unanswered, however,including the potential of conditional cash transfer programsto function well under different conditions, to address a broaderrange of challenges among poor and vulnerable populations, andto prevent the intergenerational transmission of poverty.      

Consumer-perceived risk model for the introduction of genetically modified food in Spain

Since the last part of the 20th century, the search for new forms of cultivation and food has basically centred on the application of biotechnology, giving rise to GM foods. Consumer acceptance is conditioned by the risk that they perceive from introducing food into their consumption habits processed through technology that they hardly understand. Besides, information is insufficient in the consumer ambit and moreover, it is influenced by ideological and ethical determining factors. The factors were analysed that influence this consumer-perceived risk through a structural equation model. This study was conducted in Spain, concretely in the province of Alicante, located in the southeast of this country.     

ICT introduction in the city councils. A regional analysis

The peculiarities and heterogeneity of city councils hinder the homogenous implementation of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in all Spanish regions. This study investigates some city council websites and its aim is to enhance the degree of ICT integration, relating it to municipality size. The websites of six Spanish regions have been analyzed and aspects such as accessibility, e-participation, transparency, website design, and use of channels as well as the usefulness to the user have been investigated. In certain aspects, some regional differences and deficiencies have been observed, particularly in small municipalities. Other issues such as participation or use of languages besides the official ones do not seem to be related to size.     

CEO Regulatory Foci,Environmental Dynamism,and Small Firm Performance

This research proposes and tests that regulatory foci of small business chief executive officers (promotion focus and prevention focus) relate to firm performance differentially when levels of environmental uncertainty vary. Results suggest that a promotion focus is positively related to firm performance, whereas a prevention focus is negatively related to firm performance. Further, these relationships are moderated by the degree of environmental dynamism such that in more dynamic environments, the relationship between promotion focus and firm performance is strengthened, whereas the relationship between prevention focus and firm performance is negatively affected. The reverse was found for less dynamic environments. Theoretical and practical implications as well as future research avenues are offered.