Merger and acquisitions in South African banking: A network DEA model

Banking in South Africa is known for its small number of companies that operate as an oligopoly. This paper presents a strategic fit assessment of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in South African banks. A network DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis) approach is adopted to compute the impact of contextual variables on several types of efficiency scores of the resulting virtual merged banks: global (merger), technical (learning), harmony (scope), and scale (size) efficiencies. The impact of contextual variables related to the origin of the bank and its type is tested by means of a set of several robust regressions to handle dependent variables bounded in 0 and 1: Tobit, Simplex, and Beta. The results reveal that bank type and origin impact virtual efficiency levels. However, the findings also show that harmony and scale effects are negligible due to the oligopolistic structure of banking in South Africa.     

Exploring the core factors of online purchase decisions by building an E-Commerce network evolution model

With the continuous development of the Internet and information technology, online shopping has become a popular purchase mode. The in-depth analysis of consumer decision-making in online shopping is an important issue. Our purpose is to study how the factors of the shopping web pages corporately affect online purchase decisions and determine which are the core factors that affect consumer purchase decisions. We screen the influencing factors on the shopping webpage and deploy e-commerce network evolution based on various weight combinations of these factors to generate sales distributions of online products. By comparing these simulated sales distributions to the real data, the optimal weight of each factor is obtained. The results show that sales volume and the number of high-quality negative comments are the most important factors influencing consumers' decision-making, the number of comments and the number of comments with pictures are relatively minor factors, store type and video presentation of the products have the least impact. The optimal simulated sales distribution is very close to the real case and verifies that the introduced network evolution technology is applicable. The proposed model can be used as a uniform evaluation platform for correlational study, which is an important link in the purchase research chain.     

An empirical investigation of director selection in movie preproduction: A two-sided matching approach

This paper examines how movie producers recruit directors in the preproduction phase as mutual choices in a two-sided matching model. It conceptualizes that movie attributes and filmmaker characteristics determine the matching outcomes (“who directed which movie”) and in turn indirectly affect movie box office. We exploit a dataset of 4,807 feature films from 1990 to 2010 to examine empirically the complementarities between the movie/producer side and the director side in terms of movie budget, filmmaker track records and social relations. A series of simulations suggest that social relations facilitate positive assortative matching. Further simulation analyses are conducted to quantify the financial implications of movie–director mismatches, as well as the indirect effects of production budget and producer characteristics. The simulation results show that: a) the financial implications of having a mismatched director can be substantial; and b) the indirect effect of production budget and producer characteristics affect movie box office in an interactive manner. These findings can help filmmakers to better understand the financial impacts of movie–director choices and make more informed decisions at the early phase of preproduction.     

网络环境下经济行为边界的确定

现代社会是信息社会,互联网和计算机应用是最明显的特征。人们基于网络参与经济决策与市场交易活动,道德理念、行为准则和行为安排发生了较大的变化。网络技术:一方面,极大地降低了交易费用;另一方面,由于经济行为的隐蔽性,追求经济利益的行为缺乏有效监督,人的趋利避害和机会主义倾向更容易诱发蓄意性诱导行为。在网络环境下,如何界定“经济人”的行为模式,怎样减少经济行为负的外部效应成为经济学理论研究的问题。本文主要讨论网络环境中“经济人”经济行为边界的确定。     

Of stars and galaxies – Co-authorship network and research

We examine the association between network centrality and research using the accounting research community setting. We establish co-authorship network using papers published in the five top accounting journals from 1980 to 2016. We find that the co-authorship network in accounting is a “small world” with some most connected authors playing a key role in connecting others. We use machine learning to label published papers with multiple topics and find patterns in topics over time. More importantly, we find that co-authorship network centrality is positively associated with future research productivity and topic innovation and that the impact of centrality on productivity is higher with more senior authors. Further, centrality of an author’s co-authors also has an incrementally positive impact. We conclude that network centrality positively influences research output.     

双层网络嵌入下结构洞对企业二元创新的影响研究

网络结构特征影响企业知识转移与知识组合效果,进而对创新绩效产生复杂作用。利用我国165家上市企业2007—2018年专利面板数据,实证检验企业知识与协同双层网络嵌入对二元创新绩效的影响,并分析战略柔性和开放度对上述关系的调节作用。研究结果表明,企业知识网络结构洞正向影响利用式创新绩效,负向影响探索式创新绩效;协同网络结构洞与二元创新均存在负相关关系。同时,战略柔性和开放度调节双层网络结构洞与二元创新的关系,且变量间存在有效匹配关系：知识网络结构洞—开放度促进利用式创新绩效提升,而协同网络结构洞—战略柔性促进探索式创新绩效提升。研究结论为解决结构洞与企业创新关系的分歧带来新思路,同时为企业创新绩效提升提供理论借鉴。     

外部研发合作广度与新产品开发绩效：一个有调节的中介模型

基于企业外部合作伙伴分布广泛的特点,从外部研发合作广度的两个维度（市场广度和研究广度）出发,选取2010—2018年160家中国制造业上市企业数据,运用多元回归分析法探讨外部研发合作广度对企业新产品开发绩效的影响。结果表明,外部研发合作的市场广度和研究广度正向影响新产品开发绩效,其中,研究广度的作用更为显著;网络学习在外部研发合作广度对新产品开发绩效的影响机制中存在部分中介作用;知识库同质性正向调节外部研发合作广度与网络学习的关系。结论丰富了新产品开发绩效前因变量研究,对企业制定外部研发合作战略,提升新产品开发绩效具有重要管理启示。     

网络嵌入、绿色动态能力与企业绿色创新——环境规制和管理者环境注意力的调节作用

基于动态能力理论、社会网络理论和制度理论等,探讨网络嵌入对企业绿色创新的影响,并进一步考察绿色动态能力在其中的中介作用以及环境规制、管理者环境注意力的调节作用。运用多元回归和Bootstrap方法进行实证检验,结果显示：结构嵌入和关系嵌入对企业绿色创新均具有显著影响;绿色动态能力在结构嵌入、关系嵌入与绿色创新之间起中介作用;环境规制、管理者环境注意力均正向调节绿色动态能力与绿色创新间关系。     

技术多元化、发明者网络嵌入与军民融合企业技术创新效率

采用随机前沿模型对2015—2020年中国内地107家军民融合企业技术创新效率进行测算,并基于军民融合企业专利数据构建技术多元化、发明者网络嵌入（结构洞和网络密度）等指标。运用社会网络分析与多元线性回归方法,实证分析技术多元化、发明者网络嵌入及两者交互作用、结构洞与网络密度的互补关系/平衡关系对军民融合企业技术创新效率的影响。结果发现：技术多元化、结构洞及两者交互作用对军民融合企业技术创新效率具有正向影响;网络密度及其与技术多元化的交互作用对军民融合企业技术创新效率具有负向影响;网络密度和结构洞的互补关系会抑制军民融合企业技术创新效率提升,但两者在军民融合企业内部的平衡关系能够促进军民融合企业技术创新效率提升。     

创新支持感对来华境外人才创新行为的影响——创新网络嵌入的中介作用

由于兼具创新要素集成、知识流动和共享、竞争合作创新氛围等工具性、情感性创新支持制度功能,创新网络嵌入成为继股权激励保健化趋势后异质性人力资本的一种有效激励模式。运用创新网络和网络嵌入理论,对来自高新技术产业开发区、科技企业孵化器、留学人员创业园等创新网络的315份有效问卷样本进行统计分析,探究工具性、情感性创新支持感对来华境外人才创新行为的影响及作用机理,阐释网络嵌入的中介效应。研究结果表明：情感性创新支持感对来华境外人才创新行为具有显著正向影响,但工具性创新支持感呈现保健化趋势;情感性创新支持感对结构嵌入、关系嵌入均具有显著正向影响,而工具性创新支持感仅对关系嵌入具有显著正向影响;结构嵌入在情感性创新支持感与创新行为间发挥部分中介作用,而关系嵌入不起作用。