Ownership structure, family control, and acquisition decisions

We investigate how ownership and family control influence the decision to take part in M&As as an acquirer or as an acquired company in a sample of 777 large Continental European companies in the period 1998-2008. We find that ownership is negatively correlated with the probability of launching a takeover bid, and family firms are less likely to make acquisitions, especially when the stake held by the family is not large enough to assure the persistence of family control. On the passive side of M&A deals, the effect of the largest shareholders' ownership on the decision to accept an acquisition proposal depends non-linearly on the voting rights they hold, and family control reduces the probability of being acquired by an unrelated party. We do not find evidence that family-controlled firms destroy wealth when they acquire other companies. Finally, we document that ownership and family control, while being negatively correlated with M&A activity, are not negatively correlated with growth in firm size.     

How to make enemies and influence people: anatomy of the anti-pluralist, totalitarian mindset

This essay outlines the characteristics of what I call the ‘totalitarian mindset’. Under certain circumstances, human beings engage in patterns of thinking and behavior that are extremely closed and intolerant of difference and pluralism. These patterns of thinking and behaving lead us towards totalitarian, anti-pluralistic futures. An awareness of how these patterns arise, how individuals and groups can be manipulated through the use of fear, and how totalitarianism plays into the desire in human beings for ‘absolute’ answers and solutions, can be helpful in preventing attempts at manipulation and from the dangers of actively wanting to succumb to totalitarian, simplistic, black-and-white solutions in times of stress and anxiety. I present a broad outline of an agenda for education for a pluralistic future. The lived experience of pluralism is still largely unfamiliar and anxiety inducing, and that the phenomenon is generally not understood, with many myths of purity and racial or cultural superiority still prevalent. Finally, as part of that agenda for education, I stress the importance of creativity as an adaptive capacity, an attitude that allows us to see pluralism as an opportunity for growth and positive change rather than simply conflict.     

A Framework for Teaching Business Ethics

What ethical framework should be used as a basis for teaching business ethics? Should business ethics be taught by ethicists in a separate course, by business faculty in business courses, or perhaps by both? These are some of the issues this paper will address. The paper begins with a review of the literature concerning approaches to teaching business ethics. Next, some ethical frameworks for teaching business ethics are considered. Finally, the paper proposes that students should apply their own personal values to business ethical issues in the classroom, thus providing future business leaders with a process for resolving ethical dilemmas.     

Strategic incentives to human capital

Motivating human capital in knowledge‐intensive activities is a serious managerial challenge because it is difficult to link rewards to actions or performance. Firms instead might motivate knowledge workers by offering them opportunities to increase personal benefits (e.g., learning, satisfaction) through autonomy in the decision‐making process. Our model shows that firms can offer less autonomy in projects closer to their core business: Because firm specialization raises the value of the project's outcomes, it also increases the benefits for knowledge workers, who derive motivation even though they make fewer decisions to support their realization of personal goals. Projects farther from the core offer weaker firm contributions, so firms can motivate knowledge workers by allowing them to benefit from greater autonomy. We discuss several implications of our analysis. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Creative Inquiry: Confronting the challenges of scholarship in the 21st century

It is becoming increasingly apparent that creativity and imagination are key to envisioning alternatives to the problems of postnormal times. At the same time, educational institutions all over the globe are still mired in assumptions from the machine/industrial age, preparing students for reproduction and conformity rather than creativity. This article outlines the philosophical foundations of an educational approach in which creativity is central to scholarship, where learners move from being consumers to creators and from bystanders to participants in the postnormal dance of knowledge.     

The economic value of patented inventions: Thoughts and some open questions

The economic value of upstream research outcomes has raised increasing attention. Not only are these outcomes central to the development of many innovations, but they are also the object of many transactions in technology. This note discusses a few representative papers that try to better understand the value of patented inventions. It deals with three topics: the value of patent rights, the value of patents as quality signals, and the value of patented inventions as a whole. In the latter case, it focuses on the creation of value through the number of inventions produced rather than increase in the value of individual invention. The note also sketches open questions for future research.     

Estimation of sample selection models with spatial dependence

We consider the estimation of a sample selection model that exhibits spatial autoregressive errors (SAE). Our methodology is motivated by a two‐step strategy where in the first step we estimate a spatial probit model and in the second step (outcome equation) we include an estimated inverse Mills ratio (IMR) as a regressor to control for selection bias. Since the appropriate IMR under SAE depends on a parameter from the second step, both steps are jointly estimated employing the generalized method of moments. We explore the finite sample properties of the estimator using simulations and provide an empirical illustration. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

New perspectives for the managerial entrepreneurship

Is the purpose of this speech to build in an eclectic and holistic way the bases of a theoretical mark that it describes, analyze and do interpret the phenomenon of the managerial entrepreneurship from the interdisciplinary point of view in such a way that the foundation is to respond to the question how to understand the entrepreneurship?, to build starting from their evolution diverse perspectives that you/they enrich their analysis and study that make understand that the entrepreneurship is a practical, simple and complex phenomenon that the managers experience directly in their activities and functions, as a breaking act and improvement of the conditions of life of the society. It is sought to analyze and to propose perspectives of study of the entrepreneurship of the managers, their personal characteristics, as their social, political, economic and cultural implications, from the interdisciplinary point of view in the mark of the investigation line entrepreneurship and Managerial Mentality that he/she interprets their purpose action, administration, innovation and mainly their relationship with the environment, so momentous for the growth of the companies.