Stacking the deck: the effects of top management backgrounds on investor decisions

Young firms going public are dependent upon the decisions of investors for a successful public offering. Yet convincing investors to invest is not easy, as young firms have limited track records and, thus, face challenges associated with gaining legitimacy in their respective industries. This paper examines ways in which select information about firms undertaking an initial public offering (IPO) can affect investor decisions. Building upon recent research on upper echelons and signaling theory, we propose that the composition of a firm's top management team can signal organizational legitimacy that in turn affects investor decisions. In the context of young firms undertaking an IPO, such signals are critical, especially when objective measures of firm quality are not easily available. We introduce a typology of signals of organizational legitimacy to elaborate on our hypotheses. Analyses of a comprehensive set of data on the career histories of the top management teams of young biotechnology firms show that investor decisions are affected by the extent to which a firm's top management team has employment affiliations with prominent downstream organizations (e.g., pharmaceutical companies), with a diverse range of organizations, and upon the role experience of one key member of the top management team—the Chief Scientific Officer. We assess and find that these effects are not mediated by the prestige of a firm's lead underwriter. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of our study for strategy research on upper echelons and organizational legitimacy. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

建立一个符合ISO标准的资产管理方法

说明一种方案,用于开发一种符合ISO 90012000要求的工业设备资产管理方法.资产管理可以称为是一种保证资产从需求报告到报废处理全寿命周期内的可用率和可靠性的方法.它包括设计、规划、协调以及实施维修、改造、修理等所需要的培训、分析和不断改进.也讨论ISO质量管理系统的好处.说明各种技术和推荐的最佳经验,指导读者如何开始研制资产管理方法.     

Different paths to universal access: The impact of policy and regulation on broadband diffusion in the developed and developing worlds

The authors examine the broadband digital divide by analyzing the impact of policy and regulation on broadband Internet diffusion. Their multiple regression analysis shows factors that determine broadband diffusion in technologically developed countries do not necessarily have the same impact in less developed countries. They show that in technologically developed countries, there is greater broadband diffusion in countries that make a higher financial investment in information and communication technologies (ICTs), have effective governing practices at the national level, have higher levels of education, and are more urban. In technologically developing nations, a competitive telecommunications sector and higher investment in ICTs lead to greater broadband diffusion, with investment having an even larger impact in the developing world than in the developed world. In addition, stronger democratic political institutions, higher levels of national income and lower levels of income inequality increase diffusion, but the presence of a national telecommunications regulatory authority has a negative impact. These results suggest that the path to widespread availability and use of broadband requires different strategies depending on a nation's level of technological development.     

Who Loses when Prices are Negotiated? An Analysis of the New Car Market

We establish that there are large and persistent differences in final transaction prices for identical new cars, and that demographic characteristics explain at least 20% of the observed variation. Older consumers perform progressively worse in negotiations, and the age premium is greater for women than for men. Our results suggest that the complex nature of vehicle transactions leads to price dispersion in this market, and that the worst performing groups—older women—have the lowest rates of market participation. We conjecture that the results are driven by the sharp increases in women's education and labor force participation in recent decades.     

Which ties matter when? the contingent effects of interorganizational partnerships on IPO success

This paper investigates the contingent value of interorganizational relationships at the time of a young firm's initial public offering (IPO). We compare the signaling value to young firms of having ties with two types of interorganizational partnerships: endorsement relationships such as those with venture capital firms and investment banks, and strategic alliance partnerships. We propose that, under different equity market conditions, potential investors in an issuing firm attend to different types of uncertainty; attention to these different types of uncertainty affects investors' perceptions of the relative value of a young firm's different kinds of endorsements and partnerships and, hence, IPO success. Results from a sample of young biotechnology firms show that ties to prominent venture capital firms are particularly beneficial to IPO success during cold markets, while ties to prominent investment banks are particularly beneficial to IPO success during hot markets; a firm's strategic alliances with major pharmaceutical/health care firms did not have such contingent effects. Implications for understanding the contingent value of interorganizational ties are discussed. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The nature of partnering experience and the gains from alliances

We examine the conditions under which the prior partnering experience of firms contributes to value creation in their new alliances. We propose that prior experience with the same partners, that is, ‘partner‐specific experience,’ provides greater benefits than ‘general partnering experience’ that encompasses all prior alliances with any partner. We further explore some of the boundary conditions for the effects of partner‐specific experience. We suggest that the effect of partner‐specific experience on value creation in alliances is moderated by the extent to which the assets of the new partner differ from those of the firm's prior partners. We also propose that the firm's own technological and financial resources increase the benefits of partner‐specific experience. Finally, we predict that the value of partner‐specific experience will increase under high levels of firm‐specific uncertainty. We test these hypotheses with comprehensive longitudinal multi‐industry data on joint ventures formed among Fortune 300 firms between 1987 and 1996. Based on stock market returns to joint venture announcements, the results provide support for the contingent value of partnering experience. The implications for managing alliances and advancing organizational learning are discussed. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.