| 211. |
- Siming, Linus
(författare)
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Private equity and advisors in mergers and acquisitions
- 2010
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This doctoral thesis contains three empirical research papers that center on the topics of private equity and the role of advisors in mergers and acquisitions. "Your Former Employees Matter: Private Equity Firms and Their Financial Advisors” is a study of how social networks that are formed by previous employment relations affect private equity firms’choice of financial advisors. A financial advisor is more likely to advice on a transaction if a former employee is one of the private equity professionals who constitute the deal team for the particular transaction. In turn, information and deals are sourced to private equity firms from sell-side financial advisors within the previous employment network. "Dual Role Advisors and Conflicts of Interest” focuses on the potential conflicts of interest that may arise when an advisor to a firm targeted in a merger or acquisition is simultaneously involved in financing the bidder. Overall, the results suggest that investment banks in these situations may not have fulfilled their obligation of obtaining the highest possible price on behalf of the seller. "Private Equity Firms and Quick Flip Sales” examines the particulars of quick flip investments and three hypotheses that may explain their prevalence. Private equity firms typically are long term investors, but occasionally exits take place in less than 18 months. Results point to that such quick flips may partly be due to conflicting interests between the limited and general partners.
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| 212. |
- Steigenberger, Norbert
(författare)
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Ergebnisheterogenität in der strategischen Managementforschung : Analyse und Lösungsmöglichkeiten
- 2011
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Die Arbeit befasst sich mit Methodenproblemen in der Strategischen Managementforschung. Auf Basis einer Meta-Analyse zum Zusammenhang zwischen Ressourcen im Sinne des Resource-based view und der Performance von Unternehmen werden verschiedene Erklärungen für die zu beobachtende Ergebnisheterogenität in den Primärstudien empirisch gegenübergestellt. Es kann gezeigt werden, dass die Operationalisierung des Konstrukts "organisationale Leistung" den größten Beitrag zur Erklärung der Varianz der Studienergebnisse erbringt. Die Appropriationstheorie liefert einen überzeugenden Erklärungsansatz zum systematischen Zusammenhang zwischen Leistung und Studienergebnissen.
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| 213. |
- Sunesson, T. Daniel
(författare)
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School networks and active investors
- 2010
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Alma mater matters: The value of school ties in the venture capital industry. This paper examines the role and estimates the economic value of social networks tied to academic institutions in the venture capital industry. I show that having a shared academic background increases the likelihood of matching between entrepreneurs and venture capitalists by 57%. Similarly, a shared academic background increases the likelihood of matching between different venture capitalists by 42% when they syndicate portfolio company investments. Finally, a shared academic background improves portfolio company performance. For example, when an entrepreneur and a venture capitalist attended the same Top 3 academic institution, the likelihood that the investment will result in an initial public offering or acquisition increases by 42%. This is the incremental effect of having attended the same Top 3 academic institution. Taken together, these results provide strong evidence that shared academic backgrounds help reduce information gaps in the venture capital industry. Unveiling the secrets of the academy: Alumni networks and university endowment success. This paper shows that when university endowments become limited partners with venture capital firms, the performance of their connected portfolio companies improve relative to non-connected ones. Portfolio companies are connected when any of their entrepreneurs attended the corresponding universities for undergraduateor graduate studies. In a differences-in-differences design I compare initial public offering rates between connected- and non-connected venture capital investments in a treated- and an untreated cohort and estimate this effect to be 6%. Since the unconditional sample mean of initial public offerings is 10%, this is commensurate to a 60% increase in the unconditional initial public offering probability. This effect consists of two separate and potentially different effects, however. First, the effect of obtain a new university endowment as a limited partner, second, the effect of losing an already existing university endowment as a limited partner. Further analysis shows that the main effect is mostly driven by the latter. These results continue to hold in a rich set of robustness checks. Goldrush Dynamics of Private Equity. We present a simple dynamic model of entry and exit in a private equity market with heterogeneous fund managers, a depletable stock of target companies, and learning about investment profitability. Its predictions match a number of stylized facts: Aggregate fund activity follows waves with endogenous transitions from booms to busts. Supply and demand in the private equity market are inelastic, and the supply comoves with investment valuations. High industry performance precedes high entry, which in turn precedes low industry performance. Differences in fund performance are persistent, firsttime funds underperform the industry, and the first-time funds that are raised in boom periods are unlikely to be succeeded by follow-on funds. Fund performance and fund size are positively correlated across private equity firms, but negatively correlated across consecutive funds by the same firm. Finally, boom periods can make ”too much capital chase too few deals”. Ownership Matters: A Clinical Study of Investor Activism. This paper studies the involvement and engagement objectives of an activist investor in an institutional environment characterized by concentrated ownership. It highlights the heterogeneity of the investor’s activism and its focus on operational improvements. It emphasizes the ownership structure of the portfolio companies as important determinants of investor activism. Using a carefully selected set of peer companies, it is possible to show that the investor targets undervalued companies with operational slack that maintain open ownership structures. In particular, by avoiding to invest in companies with other active owners, e.g. families and industrial owners, and seeking to invest in companies with more institutional holdings, the investor ensures that there is not only scope for improvements. There is also a reasonable chance of exercising control.
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| 214. |
- Sällberg, Henrik
(författare)
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Customer Rewards Programs : Designing Incentives for Repeated Purchase
- 2010
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Firms have since long given their regular customers special treatment. With the help of IT, many firms have established formal ways to do this. An example is a so-called customer rewards program (CRP), by which the firm rewards the customer for repeated purchase. Firms allocate large resources in these programs with millions of customers enrolled. Hence, it seems important that the CRP works effectively. By effective we mean that it increases sales. Whether it is effective or not is a matter of how it is designed. A CRP typically comes with membership levels. We study how many membership levels the firm should offer in an effective program. We also study if customers prefer individual or group rewards and whether a CRP can break and create habitual purchasing behavior. In the study, we also analyze under what conditions the customer prefers a CRP over a sales promotion. In general, the study adds to the understanding of Customer Rewards Programs as an incentive structure. There are many different ways to design these incentives and especially the continuing development of IT is expected to influence the future design and role of these types of programs. This study is part of the Swedish Research School of Management and Information Technology (MIT) which is one of 16 national research schools supported by the Swedish Government. MIT is jointly operated by the following institutions: Blekinge Institute of Technology, Gotland University College, Jönköping International Business School, Karlstad University, Linköping University, Lund University, Mälardalen University College, Stockholm University, Växjö University, Örebro University, IT University of Göteborg, and Uppsala University, host to the research school. At the Swedish Research School of Management and Information Technology (MIT), research is conducted, and doctoral education provided, in three fields: management information systems, business administration, and informatics.
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| 215. |
- Tolstoy, Daniel
(författare)
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International entrepreneurship in networks : the impact of network knowledge combination on SMEs’ business creation in foreign markets
- 2010
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) face numerous challenges to stay competitive in the international marketplace. They have to align their business models to suit the needs and wants of customers in different markets. They also have to counter the competition of larger, more affluent firms. To meet these challenges, firms must continually create new business solutions. Whereas larger firms may tap into extensive internal knowledge bases for business creation, SMEs often have to reach outside themselves for creative input. This thesis contends that international entrepreneurship can be fostered in constellations of firms and individuals; in some instances, it may even be more accurate to talk about entrepreneurial networks than about entrepreneurial firms. The bedrock assumption of this thesis is that entrepreneurial opportunities are virtually ingrained in the network structure. Relationships across national borders provide multiple avenues for knowledge to intersect, thus creating new business solutions. It is argued that the internationalization of SMEs can unfold as an ongoing pursuit of entrepreneurial opportunities that emerge in everchanging networks. The findings suggest that network knowledge combination can be addressed as a capability that strongly shapes SMEs’ competitiveness in foreign markets.
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| 216. |
- van Heerden, Gené
(författare)
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Collaborating and communicating in new media - wiki's, social networks and blogs : a qualitative and quantitative approach
- 2010
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The Web 2.0 environment has created a platform where the power and voice have shifted from organization to market. Communities, networks and the developments in information communication technologies have enabled the average consumer to become an active participant in creating and recreating value. This thesis identified three categories of the Web 2.0 environment Open Source, social networks and blogs to illustrate that valuable information exists in these platforms. This information is at the core of the collaboration activities and provides opportunities to develop competence in market knowledge. New ways of doing research and creating dialogue are needed in these collaborative platforms. This thesis reports on the five studies conducted in the Web 2.0 environment and the impact on collaboration and communication with the market. In the first instance, the nature of Open Source projects creates opportunities for organizations to collaborate and create value. Secondly, networks provide organizations with valuable information specifically with regards to structure and relationships. Lastly, this thesis discusses the importance of learning about blogs and the collaborative nature of these tools by including the perceptions of both blog readers and bloggers. Furthermore organizations need to understand the structure of such tools in order to leverage on its collaborative capabilities. The thesis concludes with the insights gained from these issues to provide organizations the opportunity to listen to the voice of the market in an attempt to optimize on the opportunities that exist.
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| 217. |
- Vella, Joseph
(författare)
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Determinants in the adoption of a customer relationship management system : a study among bank managers
- 2011
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Customer relationship management, better known as CRM, has become synonymous with business practices nowadays. Technology advancement has made it both possible and feasible for organizations to develop individual and intimate business relationships with their customers, irrespective of the size of their customer base or geographic dispersion. Unfortunately research has uncovered a significant number of cases in which CRM implementations simply failed to meet organizational expectations. Moreover, user resistance has been found to be a significant cause for this anomaly.This study aims to fill an existing gap in the literature by identifying a number of salient cognitive and behavioural constructs that, when grounded in a theoretical framework made up of the Technology Acceptance Model together with Equity Theory, can help us to gain a better understanding of the mechanics behind user resistance and identify ways to overcome it.A sequence of five separate yet interdependent studies has been conducted among the managers of a large bank. The studies focus on behavioural activation and inhibition, equity sensitivity, emotional labour as well as users’ perception of CRM systems’ usefulness, ease of use and firm performance. Findings suggest that a lot can be gained by recruiting the right employees and investing in them, in terms of training and empowerment, thereby creating teams of satisfied, highly competent service providers who would be willing to adopt and use their organization’s CRM system to enhance customer loyalty.
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| 218. |
- Zawadzki, Michal
(författare)
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Kultura organizacyjna w perspektywie nurtu krytycznego w naukach o zarządzaniu
- 2011
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Modern management sciences cope with serious epistemological problems, which are the result of the lack of critical autoreflection in this sciences. This situation especially aplies to the conception and knowledge of organizational culture, where we can recognize a kind of epistemological and cognitive crisis connected with the dominance of one-sided, functionalistic and instrumental approach in the scientific discourse. Knowledge and epistemological assumptions about organizational culture are significant for the quality and the way of analyzing and managing the organization as a kind of complex entity constituted by a human activity. That is why the main subject of this work is the critical reflection about epistemological assumptions about organizational culture - reflection which is conducted in the perspective of "Critical Management Studies". This reflection is strongly focused on denaturalization of the functionalistic paradigm in management sciences in order to constitute an emancipatory perspective. Using deepened theoretical research, the specificity of critical approach in management studies was shown, consequences of functionalistic and emancipatory approach to the organizational culture, and educational conditions upon which there is a possibility to socialize managers to the emancipatory way of participating in the organizational culture. Using empirical research based on the critical analysis of the text and discourse, an epistemological profile and popularity of the conception of organizational culture in Polish and Western discourse was shown. In this work the analysis of Polish and English-language literature was used and it covered mainly scientific books and journals.
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| 219. |
- Zawadzki, Michał
(författare)
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Kultura organizacyjna w perspektywie nurtu krytycznego w naukach o zarządzaniu [Organizational culture in the perspective of critical management studies]
- 2011
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Modern management sciences cope with serious epistemological problems, which are the result of the lack of critical autoreflection in this sciences. This situation especially aplies to the conception and knowledge of organizational culture, where we can recognize a kind of epistemological and cognitive crisis connected with the dominance of one-sided, functionalistic and instrumental approach in the scientific discourse. Knowledge and epistemological assumptions about organizational culture are significant for the quality and the way of analyzing and managing the organization as a kind of complex entity constituted by a human activity. That is why the main subject of this work is the critical reflection about epistemological assumptions about organizational culture - reflection which is conducted in the perspective of "Critical Management Studies". This reflection is strongly focused on denaturalization of the functionalistic paradigm in management sciences in order to constitute an emancipatory perspective. Using deepened theoretical research, the specificity of critical approach in management studies was shown, consequences of functionalistic and emancipatory approach to the organizational culture, and educational conditions upon which there is a possibility to socialize managers to the emancipatory way of participating in the organizational culture. Using empirical research based on the critical analysis of the text and discourse, an epistemological profile and popularity of the conception of organizational culture in Polish and Western discourse was shown. In this work the analysis of Polish and English-language literature was used and it covered mainly scientific books and journals.
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| 220. |
- Henriques, Sofia
(författare)
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Energy Transitions, Economic Growth and Structural Change: Portugal in a Long-run Comparative Perspective
- 2011
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This book analyses, in an international comparative context, Portugal´s energy transition from organic sources to fossil fuels in the period 1856-2006. It investigates the role that energy played in the industrialization of the country and how the relationship between energy and economic growth changed with the transition from an industrial to a service society. A unique dataset of energy quantities and prices reveals that Portugal´s transition to fossil fuels and high-energy quantities was exceptionally late in comparison with early industrializers. Until the early 1950s, high energy costs played an important role in delaying industrialization, determining Portugal´s low historical energy intensity path. The lack of domestic coal, iron reserves and suitable alternative energy sources were important factors that prevented industrialization in the age of steam. During the Second Industrial Revolution, the incentives to turn to hydro-power did not arise with the same intensity as in other coal-poor countries. Neither capital nor demand was present to guarantee the viability of large-scale hydro-power. Thermo-power stations were more adaptable to the small size of demand, but this technical choice created a vicious circle of high energy prices and labor intensive industrialization. Institutional changes and the emergence of a high-quality and cheap energy carrier, oil, in the post war period, were essential factors that broke the vicious circle of energy prices and contributed to rapid economic convergence. The notion of a transition from industry to services leading to the decline of energy intensity is based on a misconception of what the service transition was really about. It was rather modest in real terms and the major drivers of the decline of energy intensities in industrialized countries rested within the manufacturing sector. Portugal was a country with larger structural changes towards the service sector, but the rise of personal transportation, increasing demand for comfort in the service sector and technological and structural changes within the manufacturing sector contributed to an overall energy intensity increase. The diverging patterns of industrial energy intensities across countries points to the possibility that Portugal, having failed to converge during the energy-intensive phases of industrialization, is at risk of losing the advantages of the knowledge economies of the Third Industrial Revolution.
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