Critical success factors determining performance of cross‐border acquisition: Evidence from the African telecom market

This study investigates the factors affecting Bharti Airtel's cross‐border postacquisition performance in an African market. This study describes the relationships among various factors such as technical capability, affiliated firm's absorptive capacity, and organizational learning capabilities, which determine the successful operations of the Zain acquisition deal in South Africa. This paper adopts a qualitative approach to identify factors that influence the postacquisition performance. Seven factors are identified based on the literature. Consequently, it has become a necessity to encapsulate these factors in suitable proportions. In this study, we have developed a total interpretive structural modeling (TISM) to analyze the postacquisition performance of Bharti Airtel in South Africa. Our research has highlighted six dynamic factors (organizational learning capability, knowledge management, technology capability, technology relatedness, acquirer's absorptive capacity, and national culture difference) that affect the firm's postacquisition performance. The interpretive structural model (ISM) and total interpretive structural model for postacquisition performance are built‐up. The developed TISM will support academics and practitioners to develop their understanding of acquisition performance of parent companies in the context of telecom business in the South African market.     

Interactive Technologies and Retailing Strategy: A Review,Conceptual Framework and Future Research Directions

During the past decade, a number of interactive technologies, including the Internet, have fundamentally transformed how retailers compete in the marketplace. In a similar vein, emerging interactive technologies can be expected to significantly alter the retailing landscape through their impact on retailing strategy and operations. Furthermore, it is conceivable that certain emerging interactive technologies will be perceived by some retailers as enablers (tools to more effectively compete in the marketplace) and by other retailers as disruptors of the present ways of doing business. Interactive technologies can either be generic, a technology that is readily available from an information technology (IT) vendor and is widely adopted by retailers, or proprietary. An interactive technology that is proprietary can enable a firm to generate economic rents from the innovation for an extended duration of time. Investing in a generic interactive technology, however, may be perceived as a cost of doing business for a retailer, and not a potential source of sustainable competitive advantage. However, a retailer's complementary resource endowments may enable the retailer to more effectively leverage a generic technology relative to its competitors and thereby achieve a sustainable competitive advantage. In this paper, we review the related literature, develop a process model delineating the mechanisms by which an interactive technology can affect and necessitate changes in retailers' strategies and identify directions for future research.     

Do source of mailing and monetary incentives matter in international industrial mail surveys?

To date there has been only a handful of studies on response rates of industrial mail surveys in the international setting. These studies have essentially dealt with either source of mailing effects or monetary incentives, and not a single study has dealt with both issues. Further, the results have been equivocal. In an attempt to resolve these equivocal findings, the authors report the results of a study wherein the impact of source of mailing effects and two types of monetary incentives on industrial mail survey response rates were investigated. Specifically, the hypotheses that a monetary incentive is better than a mailing effects incentive, a prize giveaway is better than a dollar incentive, and joint effects is better than only domestic mailing effects in enhancing response rates, were tested. Six hundred randomly selected Indian companies were systematically assigned to one of four groups, with a mailing size of 150 for each group. The four groups were the dollar incentive group, the prize giveaway group, the joint effects group, and a control group. The results indicate that the prize giveaway type of monetary incentive yielded a response rate of 25% that was significantly higher than the 7% of either the joint effects or the control group. Considering that prize giveaway had the least cost per response, it clearly appears superior to the other two tactics in enhancing response rates. More importantly, because joint effects fared no better than the control group in terms of response rates, it is difficult not to conclude that any attempt to sensitize respondents to a joint, domestic and foreign, affiliation in the context of research sponsorship would likely be a wasted effort.     

What they know vs. what they do: how acquirers leverage technology acquisitions

Existing research suggests that in acquisitions of small technology‐based firms by large established firms post‐merger integration both enables and hinders acquirers' efforts to leverage the technology of acquired firms. This apparent paradox can be resolved once we account for the qualitatively distinct ways in which acquirers leverage technology acquisitions. Integration helps acquirers use the acquired firm's existing knowledge as an input to their own innovation processes (leveraging what they know), but hinders their reliance on the acquired firm as an independent source of ongoing innovation (leveraging what they do). We also show that experienced acquirers are better able to mitigate the disruptive consequences of the loss of autonomy entailed by integration, though we find no evidence that they achieve greater coordination benefits from integration. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Retailing Innovations in a Globalizing Retail Market Environment

In recent years, the combination of economic growth and population growth in emerging markets and less developed markets has accelerated the progression of globalization of retailing and globalization by retailers. The challenges faced by global and globalizing retailers (retailers who currently have or intend to establish a market presence in mature markets, emerging markets and less developed markets) can be more daunting compared to those faced by firms in other industries such as automobiles, steel, and computers. Retailing innovations that are responsive to the characteristics of distinctive national markets and broader aggregations of markets such as mature, emerging and less developed markets are critical to the success of global and globalizing retailers. Against this backdrop, this paper focuses on retailing innovations in the context of a globalizing retailing environment. It attempts to shed insights into the characteristics of retailing innovations conducive to superior performance in distinctive national markets and across broader aggregations of markets. Towards this end, we first examine the environmental conditions of markets in different development stages, namely mature, emerging and less developed markets, and explore consumer based, industry based, and legal/regulatory based challenges faced by globalizing retailers in these markets. Second, we show how these challenges can be transformed into opportunities with retailing innovations. We conclude with a roadmap for future research and present propositions on future development with respect to retailing innovations in these markets.     

Conservatism correction for the market-to-book ratio and Tobin’s q

We decompose the market-to-book ratio into two additive components: a conservatism correction factor and a future-to-book ratio. The conservatism correction factor exceeds the benchmark value of one whenever the accounting for past transactions has been subject to an (unconditional) conservatism bias. The observed history of a firm’s past investments allows us to calculate the magnitude of its conservatism correction factor, resulting in an average value that is about two-thirds of the overall market-to-book ratio. We demonstrate that our measure of Tobin’s q, obtained as the market-to-book ratio divided by the conservatism correction factor, has greater explanatory power in predicting future investments than the market-to-book ratio by itself. Our model analysis derives a number of structural properties of the conservatism correction factor, including its sensitivity to growth in past investments, the percentage of investments in intangibles, and the firm’s cost of capital. We provide empirical support for these hypothesized structural properties.     

Understanding bilateral FDI flows in developing Asia

Unlike trade flows, there has been little to no detailed examination of foreign direct investment (FDI) flows between Asian economies. This paper uses bilateral FDI flows data to investigate trends in intra-Asian FDI flows over the period 1990–2005. It employs an augmented gravity model to identify the main determinants of intra-Asian FDI flows. Possible drivers of FDI flows, including transactional and informational distance (proxied by distance), real sector variables, financial variables and quality of institutions are examined.     

Product portfolio analysis and market share objectives: An exposition of certain underlying relationships

Market share plays a central role in a number of portfolio planning models. This article presents an exposition of the underlying relationship between market share, market size, market growth rate, product sales volume and product sales growth rate. Three constructs—the market share multiplier, the physical volume multiplier, and the dollar volume multiplier—which aid in the strategic analysis of the product portfolio are proposed. The linkages between inter-related growth constructs such as the volumetric and dollar sales growth rate, and the nominal and real dollar sales growth rate are discussed. Certain generalizations regarding market share and its sensitivity to various environmental conditions are highlighted.