Acquisition Premiums, Subsequent Workforce Reductions and Post-Acquisition Performance

abstract    This study suggests that paying acquisition premiums leads to workforce reductions in the merged firm, which in turn results in poorer post-acquisition performance. This issue is important to scholars and practising managers given the pervasiveness and importance of knowledge and human capital to competitive advantage. In a sample of 174 major related acquisitions completed in the period 1992–98, results show a positive relationship between the premium paid for an acquisition and subsequent workforce reductions, controlling for a number of alternative explanations. Additionally, workforce reduction mediates the negative relationship between premiums and post-acquisition performance. The results suggest that the effects of workforce reductions following large premiums paid for the acquired firm can be detrimental to the interests of the organization.     

The effectiveness of contractual and trust‐based governance in strategic alliances under behavioral and environmental uncertainty

Research summary: We examine the interplay of behavioral and environmental uncertainty in shaping the effectiveness of two key governance mechanisms used by strategic alliances: contractual and trust‐based governance. We develop and test hypotheses, using a meta‐analytic dataset encompassing over 15,000 strategic alliances across 82 independent samples. We find that contractual governance works best under low to moderate levels of behavioral uncertainty and moderate to high levels of environmental uncertainty, while it is detrimental to alliance performance when both types of uncertainty are low or high. Trust‐based governance is most effective at high levels of behavioral uncertainty and low levels of environmental uncertainty. It suffers a large loss of usefulness at high behavioral uncertainty as environmental uncertainty increases. Managerial summary: Strategic alliances allow firms to gain greater efficiency and create value. Yet, many such alliances fail because they are not able to deal with the twin challenges posed by behavioral and environmental uncertainty. Findings from our meta‐analysis imply that under conditions of high behavioral uncertainty and low‐to‐moderate levels of environmental uncertainty, the use of trust‐based governance alongside contractual governance might enhance the latter's effectiveness. The combined effectiveness of contractual and trust‐based governance under high levels of both behavioral and environmental uncertainty is not obvious. When both behavioral and environmental uncertainty are high, contractual governance hurts alliance performance while trust‐based governance does not function at its best either. Under these conditions, it might be better for firms to turn to hierarchy or vertical integration. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Knowledge management and innovation strategy: The challenge for latecomers in emerging economies

The success of latecomer firms from the emerging economies challenges the conventional wisdom on entry timing and resource-based competence. Building on research on institutions in emerging economies and the resource-based perspective in strategic management, we propose a model to explain how resource poor latecomer firms in emerging economies catch up with the multinational incumbents. We classify latecomers based on their strategic learning intent as either emulators or blind imitators. The strategic learning intent depends on a firm’s complementary assets and its absorptive capacity. Firms that choose emulation develop flexible routines, while firms that choose blind imitation end up with rigid routines. Over time, when there is a need for resource renewal, firms that have flexible routines are better positioned to respond. We take the Chinese mobile phone industry as an exemplar to illustrate the core issues in latecomer catching up of emerging economy firms.

Understanding supplier selection practices: Differences between u.s. And korean executives

Over the past decades, U.S. firms have increasingly explored strategic supply chain partnerships with Asian firms. Although shaken by the financial crises in 1997, Asian firms also continue to make significant investment in the U.S. and develop strategic supply chain partnership with U.S. firms. These trends have prompted academic researchers to start focusing on global supply chain management prac‐tices. One important domain of supply chain management is the selection of sup‐pliers. This research examines the differences in supplier selection practices between U.S. and Asian (in particular, Korean) executives. The results provide important implications for both U.S. and Korean firms to successfully manage global supply chain management. ? 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Correlation risk

Investors hold portfolios of assets with different risk-reward profiles for diversification benefits. Conditional on the volatility of assets, diversification benefits can vary over time depending on the correlation structure among asset returns. The correlation of returns between assets has varied substantially over time. To insure against future “low diversification” states, investors might demand securities that offer higher payouts in these states. If this is the case, then investors would pay a premium for securities that perform well in regimes in which the correlation is high. We empirically test this hypothesis and find that correlation carries a significantly negative price of risk, after controlling for asset volatility and other risk factors.     

One-to-One and One-to-Many Business Relationship Marketing: Toward a Theoretical Framework

ABSTRACT

Purpose. This work addresses mixed findings in relationship marketing literature regarding the importance of micro-level (interpersonal) relationships on firm outcome.

Methodology/Approach: The article leverages impression formation theory to advance a framework to understand one-to-one and one-to-many marketing relationships to better predict firm outcome.

Findings: The authors suggest that 5 framework moderators—the type and consistency of the encounters, relationship age, purchase frequency, relationship interruptions, and two customer side characteristics (i.e., need to evaluate [NTE] and need for cognitive closure [NFCC]”)—can qualify the relationship building process and impact the effectiveness of interpersonal and/or group relationships on firm outcome.

Practical Implications: The framework suggests that (1) highly consistent sales team behaviors reduce the risk of losing business in case of a sales team member leaving; (2) low frequency purchases are better suited for one-to-many selling relationships; (3) temporarily suspending relationships by individual salespeople is more harmful than suspending relationships by sales teams; (4) involving the customer in the acquisition process facilitates team selling; and (5) a positive first impression is more important for high (vs. low) NFCC and high NTE customers.

Originality/Value. The theoretical framework (1) distinguishes between individual-to-individual and individual-to-group relationships, (2) suggests a distinction between micro-level individual-to-individual and individual-to-group relationships and macro-level individual-to-firm relationships, (3) analyzes the impact of micro-level relationships under the influence of context-related and customer-related factors, and (4) provides managerially relevant guidelines for strategic sales planning.     

Organizational Adoption of Web 2.0 Technologies: An Empirical Analysis

While Web 2.0 technologies such as blogs, wikis, and social networks have been popular in the consumer space, there is significant variation in adoption of Web 2.0 technologies in business. Yet, little is known about why firms adopt Web 2.0 technologies. There is a paucity of empirical research examining the antecedents of the use of Web 2.0 technologies in organizations. Drawing on the Technological-Organizational-Environmental theoretical framework, our study presents and empirically tests a model of factors associated with organizational adoption of Web 2.0 technologies. We find that importance to open standards is positively associated with the propensity for adoption of Web 2.0 technologies. Further, larger organizations are found to have a higher propensity for adoption. Finally, industry knowledge intensity is found to be positively associated with a higher propensity for adoption. Our results suggest that open architectures, firm size, and industry knowledge intensity play pivotal roles in Web 2.0 technology adoption. The study sheds light on antecedents of organizational adoption of Web 2.0 technologies and can help researchers and practitioners build an understanding of what factors are likely to motivate firms to adopt Web 2.0 technologies.     

Estimating the determinants of stock price changes

I develop an approach for estimating the determinants of stock price changes that uses all eligible trade data and other observable parameters of market activity. This approach backs out the unobserved continuous price change distribution from the observable discrete price changes, and does not constrain the determinants to be proportions of the traded bid-ask spread. I show that theoretically impermissible results and skewed estimates of cost components are obtained when the model used for estimating the determinants of stock price changes does not attempt to uncover the mapping between the observed price changes and the underlying unobserved continuous price change process, and does not effectively use all eligible trade data.     

Audit Quality and the Market Valuation of Banks’ Allowance for Loan Losses*

The recent banking crisis has led market participants to focus on the adequacy and quality of banks’ balance sheet items such as the allowance for loan losses. Beaver and Engel (1996) document that the capital market prices the nondiscretionary component of loan loss allowance negatively and the discretionary component less negatively. Using data from the pre‐crisis period and three measures of audit quality, auditor type (i.e., Big 5 versus non–Big 5), auditor industry specialization/expertise, and audit and nonaudit fees paid to auditors, we examine the effect of audit quality on the market valuation of the discretionary component of the allowance for loan losses. We find that, relative to the nondiscretionary component, the market valuation of the discretionary component of loan loss allowance is higher for banks audited by Big 5 auditors than for banks audited by non–Big 5 auditors. We also find that the relative market valuation of the discretionary component of loan loss allowance is increasing in auditor expertise. Regarding the impact of fees paid to auditors, we find that banks paying higher audit fees have higher relative market valuation of the discretionary component of the allowance for loan losses, but banks that pay higher nonaudit fees do not.