LEGAL ENVIRONMENT,INTERNALIZATION, AND U.S. ACQUIRER GAINS IN FOREIGN TAKEOVERS

In examining takeovers of foreign targets by U.S. firms, we investigate the effect of the target country's legal environment on acquiring firm value. Our results indicate that acquirers of target firms located in civil law countries experience significant positive abnormal returns, especially when the acquirer possesses a high level of intangibles. Furthermore, we find that acquirers with high levels of intangibles are more likely to acquire target firms in civil law countries. These findings suggest that the transfer of intangibles overseas provides relatively larger efficiency benefits for multinational corporations in cases where the alternative, contracting in external markets, is more difficult.     

Friend or Foe?— Farmer Perceptions of Biotechnologh1

This paper is the result of survey investigation the attitudes of Western Canadian farmers toward two biotechonological products, ENFIX-L and PB-50. Farmers were asked to rate both the importance and the performance of 21 attributes of the products. Soil depletion was found to be an important concern to many farmers. personal and environmental risks were less of a concern. Overall, it was found that the non-biotech-nological aspects of a product would prevail in purchasing decisions.     

Portfolio selection subject to experts' judgments

Since Markowitz [Markowitz, H. M. (1952). Portfolio selection. The Journal of Finance, 7, 77-91.], mean-variance theory has assumed that risky-asset returns to be random variables. The theory deals with this uncertainty by further assuming that investors hold homogeneous beliefs regarding the probability distribution governing return uncertainty. While the theory deals with return uncertainty, it fails to address measurement imprecision. In his original work, Markowitz recognized the need to combine randomness with heterogeneous expert judgment resulting in such imprecision. The main objective contributions of the paper are (i) to explore the implications of fuzzy return indeterminacy on mean-variance optimal portfolio choice, (ii) to use bid-ask spread as a proxy measure of the indeterminacy or “fuzzy” nature of random returns, and (iii) to introduce a brief, self-contained glimpse of empirical representations to practitioners unfamiliar with the fuzzy modeling field. Exposition, such as this one, is expected to open new collaborations between other branches of fuzzy mathematics and asset-pricing theories.     

A PRACTITIONER'S DECISION MODEL FOR THE TOTAL COST OF OUTSOURCING AND APPLICATION TO CHINA,MEXICO, AND THE UNITED STATES

Outsourcing of manufacturing to Mexico and China includes costs that are not always considered and benefits that are not always correctly quantified. An analytical model for determining outsourcing costs was developed and results from that model are presented. Using that model, the sensitivity of outsourcing costs to several variables was modeled and analyzed. Guidance is provided regarding factors to consider in an outsourcing decision.