The influence of industry concentration on merger motives—empirical evidence from machinery industry mergers

By linking industrial organization theory and capital market research, we provide empirical evidence that merger motives of firms are influenced by underlying industry concentration. Analyzing wealth effects on target, acquirer and rival firms in the machinery industry, we observe significant different capital market reactions among merger announcements in dependence of underlying industry concentration. suggesting that different takeover motives prevail in fragmented and concentrated industries. In contrast to previous studies, we find besides efficiency motives evidence for monopolistic collusion motives in fragmented industries. Mergers in concentrated industries are primarily motivated to achieve productive efficiency gains. The absence of collusion motives may be an indication for a successful enforcement of antitrust legislation. Our results suggest that the magnitude of the influence of industry concentration in empirical merger motive research may have been previously under-estimated leading to a potential distortion of results.     

Managing in conflict: How actors distribute conflict in an industrial network

IMP researchers have examined conflict as a threat to established business relationships and commercial exchanges, drawing on theories and concepts developed in organization studies. We examine cases of conflict in relationships from the oil and gas industry's service sector, focusing on conflicts of interest and resources, and conflict as experienced by actors. Through a comparative case study design, we propose an explanation of how actors manage conflict and manage in conflict given that they tend to value and maintain relationships beyond episodes of exchange. We consider conflicts in relationships from a network perspective, showing that actors experienced these while adapting to changes in their business setting, modifying their roles in that network. By identifying conflict with the organizing forms of relationship and network, we show how actors formulate conflict through pursuing and combining a number of strategies, distributing the conflict across an enlarged network.     

Expatriate staffing in foreign subsidiaries of Japanese multinational corporations in the PRC and the United States

This study examines expatriate staffing in foreign wholly-owned subsidiaries and joint ventures of Japanese firms located in the People's Republic of China and the United States. Expatriates are conceptualized as performing two primary functions. The first is a control function in which the expatriate works to align the operations of the subsidiary with that of the Japanese parent. The second function is a knowledge role. In this role, either the expatriate acts to transfer the Japanese parent's knowledge to the subsidiary or the expatriate is an agent for the acquisition of host-country knowledge. We tested for these two functions using subsidiary-level data on Japanese firms' operations in China and the US. Our results indicate that the control function was more prominent in joint ventures in China than in the US. The results also indicate that expatriates played a more significant knowledge-transfer function role in technology and marketing-intensive industries in China than in the US. A lack of MNC experience in China was found to be associated with limited use of expatriates. Finally, expatriate employment was negatively related to the number of subsidiaries of the parent company worldwide.     

Media Effects on the Formation of Negotiator Satisfaction: The Example of Face-to-Face and Text Based Electronically Mediated Negotiations

Recently, scholars have highlighted the importance of subjective negotiation outcomes such as negotiator satisfaction for future negotiations and the relationship between negotiators. This study considers the major antecedents of satisfaction formation in negotiation and analyses how the communication medium, i.e. the face-to-face (FTF) and the text based electronically mediated (TBEM) mode, influence satisfaction formation. Drawing on grounding in communication (Clark and Brennan in Perspectives on socially shared cognition. American Psychological Asociation, Washington DC, pp 127–149, 1991), hypotheses are developed and tested in an experimental gaming simulation in which graduate students negotiated in n = 52 dyads. The empirical analysis supports the notion that the communication medium has a mediated and a moderating effect on negotiator satisfaction. Aspirations, individual profit and positive relational messages mediate the medium’s effect on satisfaction. Furthermore, the impact of contentious behaviour and positive relational messages on negotiator satisfaction is stronger in TBEM than in FTF negotiations. This study also contributes to the wider negotiation literature by employing a context-rich gaming simulation for experimental purposes.     

The importance of considering optimal government policy when social norms matter for the private provision of public goods

We study optimal government policy in a reference model (Rege, 2004, Journal of Public Economic Theory, 6, 65–77) of public good provision and social approval in a dynamic setting. We show that even if complete adherence to the social norm maximizes social welfare it is by no means necessarily optimal to push society toward it. We stress the different roles of social externality and the public good problem. We discuss the problem with the standard crowding in and out argument and analyze the relationship with Pigouvian taxes. We discuss the role of the cost of public funds and show how it can create path dependency, the multiplicity of both optimal equilibria and optimal paths, and discuss the role of parameter instability.     

Panel data models with spatially correlated error components

In this paper we consider a panel data model with error components that are both spatially and time-wise correlated. The model blends specifications typically considered in the spatial literature with those considered in the error components literature. We introduce generalizations of the generalized moments estimators suggested in Kelejian and Prucha (1999. A generalized moments estimator for the autoregressive parameter in a spatial model. International Economic Review 40, 509–533) for estimating the spatial autoregressive parameter and the variance components of the disturbance process. We then use those estimators to define a feasible generalized least squares procedure for the regression parameters. We give formal large sample results for the proposed estimators. We emphasize that our estimators remain computationally feasible even in large samples.     

HAC estimation in a spatial framework

We suggest a non-parametric heteroscedasticity and autocorrelation consistent (HAC) estimator of the variance–covariance (VC) matrix for a vector of sample moments within a spatial context. We demonstrate consistency under a set of assumptions that should be satisfied by a wide class of spatial models. We allow for more than one measure of distance, each of which may be measured with error. Monte Carlo results suggest that our estimator is reasonable in finite samples. We then consider a spatial model containing various complexities and demonstrate that our HAC estimator can be applied in the context of that model.     

Insider trading around auto recalls: Does investor attention matter?

Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting - Using a comprehensive sample of customer complaints filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, we examine the...