Managed economy
Financial Slack, Strategy, and Competition in Movie Distribution
Gabriel Natividad
Organization Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Organizations that enjoy some slack are believed to make good use of it in their strategic decisions. Using panel data on firms in the U.S. film distribution industry between 1985 and 2007, this article examines how financial slack affects the volume of new product introductions, the competitive strategies for those releases, and their economic performance. Unexpectedly successful "sleeper" films are exploited as a source of exogenous financial slack in the econometric analysis. The results suggest that unexpected financial slack leads to more product introductions, less marketing support for the new products, and no improvement in performance. These findings are consistent with an attribution process in which managers attempt to replicate extraordinary success even if it is largely random, providing real-world evidence of a mechanism recently developed in theory and laboratory research.
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The power of imperfect imitation
Hart Posen, Jeho Lee & Sangyoon Yi
Strategic Management Journal, forthcoming
Abstract:
We examine the power and limitations of imitation. Naive intuition may hold that the efficacy of imitation would be diminished by imperfections in copying high-performing firms. Employing a computational model, we study the dynamics of imitation when firms are subject to bounded rationality that limits their ability to copy the market leader. We find that imperfect imitation can generate unexpectedly good outcomes for follower firms - indeed, better than the outcomes achieved if they were perfect imitators. Moreover, imperfect imitation, from time to time, enables follower firms to surpass superior firms. These findings suggest there is an adaptive role to mechanisms, such as bounded rationality, that make perfect imitation difficult.
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Are the Bankrupt Skies the Friendliest?
Federico Ciliberto & Carola Schenone
Journal of Corporate Finance, December 2012, Pages 1217-1231
Abstract:
We use data from the US airline industry to investigate whether firms that are under bankruptcy protection, as well as these firm's product market rivals, change the quality of the products they offer. We measure the quality of the services offered by a carrier using flight cancellations and delays, and the age of the aircraft used by the carrier. We find that delays and cancelations are less frequent during bankruptcy filings but return to their pre-bankruptcy levels once the bankrupt firm emerges from bankruptcy. We also find that firms use Chapter 11 filings to permanently reduce the age of their fleet. We do not find evidence of statistically and economically significant changes by the airline's competitors along any of the dimensions above.
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Riding the merger wave: Uncertainty, reduced monitoring, and bad acquisitions
Ran Duchin & Breno Schmidt
Journal of Financial Economics, forthcoming
Abstract:
We show that acquisitions initiated during periods of high merger activity ("merger waves") are accompanied by poorer quality of analysts' forecasts, greater uncertainty, and weaker CEO turnover-performance sensitivity. These conditions imply reduced monitoring and lower penalties for initiating inefficient mergers. Therefore, merger waves may foster agency-driven behavior, which, along with managerial herding, could lead to worse mergers. Consistent with this hypothesis, we find that the average long-term performance of acquisitions initiated during merger waves is significantly worse. We also find that corporate governance of in-wave acquirers is weaker, suggesting that agency problems may be present in merger wave acquisitions.
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Albert Link, Christopher Ruhm & Donald Siegel
NBER Working Paper, August 2012
Abstract:
There is great interest in evaluating the impact of private equity investments on innovation and economic growth. However, there is no direct empirical evidence on the effects of such transactions on the innovation strategies of entrepreneurial firms. We fill this gap by examining a rich project-level data set consisting of entrepreneurial firms receiving Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program research awards. We find that SBIR firms attracting private equity investments are significantly more likely to license and sell their technology rights and engage in collaborative research and development agreements. Our results suggest that private equity investments accelerate the development and commercialization of research-based technologies, thus contributing to economic growth. We conclude that both public investments and private investments are key to innovation performance.
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Selection at the Gate: Difficult Cases, Spillovers, and Organizational Learning
Mihaela Stan & Freek Vermeulen
Organization Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
We analyze longitudinal data on British fertility clinics to examine the impact of "selection at the gate," i.e., the attempts of organizations to improve the success rate of their output by selecting promising cases as input. In contrast to what might be expected, we argue that more stringent input selection is likely to lead to lower overt performance compared with those firms that admit difficult cases, because the latter develop steeper learning curves. That is, difficult cases enable greater learning from prior experience because they promote experimentation, communication among various actors, and the codification of new knowledge. Our results confirm this prediction and provide clear evidence that organizations with more difficult cases in their portfolios gradually begin to display performance figures that compare favorably with those of firms that do select at the gate.
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Michael Abebe, Arifin Angriawan & Derek Ruth
Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, August 2012, Pages 273-283
Abstract:
This study explored the role of strategic leadership in declining firms by empirically examining CEOs' founder status and extensiveness of external board of director appointments as predictors of the likelihood of successful turnaround. The authors used the resource dependence and board interlock literatures to develop their hypotheses. Their analysis of data collected from a matched pair of 82 turnaround and bankrupt U.S. firms indicate that the extensiveness of CEOs' external board appointments significantly increase the likelihood of turnaround. Contrary to the authors' prediction, there was no significant relationship between founder status and likelihood of turnaround. Implications for research and practice are discussed.
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The Evolution of Boards and CEOs Following Performance Declines
John Easterwood, Özgür İnce & Charu Raheja
Journal of Corporate Finance, September 2012, Pages 727-744
Abstract:
This paper examines the evolution of corporate boards following a large performance decline. Over 40% of the original directors depart the board during the three years following underperformance. Measures of initial CEO influence over the board such as CEO ownership are associated with smaller increases in board independence and less board turnover. The underperforming firms undergo a strong recovery subsequently, with the largest performance improvement occurring among firms that experience no turnover on their boards and among firms that do not change their board independence. We conclude that the large board turnover experienced by underperforming firms presents significant challenges for subsequent recovery.
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Will corporate directors engage in bias arbitrage to curry favor with shareholders?
James Hunton & Jacob Rose
Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, July-August 2012, Pages 432-447
Abstract:
Bias arbitrage reflects a situation where agents engage in courses of action designed to take advantage of principals' misperceptions of risk for personal gain (Aviram, 2007). The current study investigates whether corporate directors will attempt to curry favor with shareholders by engaging in bias arbitrage; specifically, we examine whether directors will support a costly initiative that, at best, would insignificantly lower the estimated probable risk of financial reporting fraud to bolster their chances of being reelected to the board. A total of 71 corporate directors participated in an experiment that included a within-participant treatment (shareholders' perception of risk was the same as or higher than the director's estimate of probable risk) and two between-participant treatments (director's upcoming reelection risk was low or high; board meeting discussion transparency was low or high). When shareholders' perceived risk and directors' estimate of probable risk were the same, support for the initiative was relatively low across the reelection risk and discussion transparency treatments. When shareholders' perceived risk was higher than probable risk, a significant interaction term indicates that support for the initiative was (1) low when reelection risk was low, irrespective of discussion transparency, (2) moderate when reelection risk and discussion transparency were high, and (3) high when reelection risk was high and discussion transparency was low. We provide evidence of a potential threat to effective enterprise risk management and director objectivity that has not previously been investigated and evaluate a method for mitigating this threat.
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Daniel Rascher et al.
Journal of Sports Economics, August 2012, Pages 431-450
Abstract:
One of the absolutes in professional sports, and a reason for its success, is the uncertainty of the outcome of individual games, seasons, and championships. This uncertainty impacts a team's attendance and financial operation. While leagues cultivate uncertainty through various rules such as salary caps, revenue sharing, and the amateur draft, individual franchises have to manage the result of variability in annual revenues. Not only is this due to the parity in a league but also from injuries and changes in player quality that are unexpected. Whether uncertainty or winning or the perfect combination of the two, some aspects that affect revenues can be controlled by team management more so than others. Even though on-the-field success is not easily controlled by team management, the overall quality of the experience can be impacted from, among other things, a quality stadium with comfortable seating and delectable food. This research shows that the variability in annual team revenues decreases (relative to total revenues) once a team moves into a new stadium, all else equal. The increase in predictability lowers financial risk, impacting the cost of financing and other practical operational issues like game-day staffing.
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Doing Well While Doing Bad? CSR in Controversial Industry Sectors
Ye Cai, Hoje Jo & Carrie Pan
Journal of Business Ethics, July 2012, Pages 467-480
Abstract:
In this article, we examine the empirical association between firm value and CSR [corporate social responsibility] engagement for firms in sinful industries, such as tobacco, gambling, and alcohol, as well as industries involved with emerging environmental, social, or ethical issues, i.e., weapon, oil, cement, and biotech. We develop and test three hypotheses, the window-dressing hypothesis, the value-enhancement hypothesis, and the value-irrelevance hypothesis. Using an extensive US sample from 1995 to 2009, we find that CSR engagement of firms in controversial industries positively affects firm value after controlling for various firm characteristics. To address the potential endogeneity problem, we further estimate a system of equations and change regression and continue to find a positive relation between CSR engagement and firm value. Our findings support the value-enhancement hypothesis and are consistent with the premise that the top management of US firms in controversial industries, in general, considers social responsibility important even though their products are harmful to human being, society, or environment.
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Roberto Fontana et al.
Journal of Evolutionary Economics, September 2012, Pages 785-810
Abstract:
This paper examines the relationship between Schumpeterian patterns of innovation and the generation of breakthrough inventions. Our data source for breakthrough inventions is the "R&D 100 awards" competition organized each year by the magazine Research & Development. Since 1963, this magazine has been awarding this prize to 100 most technologically significant new products available for sale or licensing in the year preceding the judgment. We use USPTO patent data to measure the relevant dimensions of the technological regime prevailing in each sector and, on this basis, we provide a characterization of each sector in terms of the Schumpeter Mark I/Schumpeter Mark II archetypes. Our main finding is that breakthrough inventions are more likely to emerge in ‘turbulent' Schumpeter Mark I type of contexts.
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Do stock prices influence corporate decisions? Evidence from the technology bubble
Murillo Campello & John Graham
Journal of Financial Economics, forthcoming
Abstract:
We study the capital investment, stock issuance, and cash savings behavior of non-tech manufacturers (old economy firms) during the 1990s technology bubble. Our empirical results show that high stock prices affect corporate policies because they relax financing constraints. During the tech bubble, constrained non-tech firms' investment responded strongly to "high stock prices" (specifically, the component of price that is not captured by fundamentals). They also issued stock in response to that overvaluation effect, saving part of the proceeds in their cash accounts. We find no such patterns for unconstrained non-tech firms, nor for tech firms. Our findings are not consistent with the notion that managers systematically issue overvalued stocks and invest in ways that transfer wealth from new to old shareholders. More broadly, they suggest that what appears to be overvaluation in one sector of the economy may have positive externalities for other sectors.
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The Effect of Going Public on Innovative Productivity and Exploratory Search
Geraldine Wu
Organization Science, July/August 2012, Pages 928-950
Abstract:
This paper investigates whether and how going public affects firm innovation. I propose that initial public offerings (IPOs) fundamentally reshape core organizational structures and processes, and I consider implications for firms' overall innovative productivity and their exploratory search strategies. Using longitudinal data on U.S. medical device firms funded by venture capital and inverse probability of treatment weights to account for self-selection into IPOs and the presence of time-dependent confounders, I find that a firm's overall innovative productivity increases after the firm goes public. Going public also decreases the proportion of innovation search that explores new and recently developed knowledge and increases the proportion of exploratory search building on scientific knowledge. Estimates represent population average treatment effects.
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Ion Bogdan Vasi & Brayden King
American Sociological Review, August 2012, Pages 573-596
Abstract:
Although risk assessments are critical inputs to economic and organizational decision-making, we lack a good understanding of the social and political causes of shifts in risk perceptions and the consequences of those changes. This article uses social movement theory to explain the effect of environmental activism on corporations' perceived environmental risk and actual financial performance. We define environmental risk as audiences' perceptions that a firm's practices or policies will lead to greater potential for an environmental failure or crisis that would expose it to financial decline. Using data on environmental activism targeting U.S. firms between 2004 and 2008, we examine variation in the effectiveness of secondary and primary stakeholder activism in shaping perceptions about environmental risk. Our empirical analysis demonstrates that primary stakeholder activism against a firm affects its perceived environmental risk, which subsequently has a negative effect on the firm's financial performance.
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Monitoring Managers: Does it Matter?
Francesca Cornelli, Zbigniew Kominek & Alexander Ljungqvist
Journal of Finance, forthcoming
Abstract:
We study how well-incentivized boards monitor CEOs and whether such monitoring improves performance. Using unique, detailed data on boards' information sets and decisions for a large sample of private-equity-backed firms, we find that gathering information helps boards learn about CEO ability. ‘Soft' information plays a much larger role than hard data, such as the performance metrics that prior literature focuses on, and helps avoid firing the CEO for bad luck or in response to adverse external shocks. We show that governance reforms increase the effectiveness of board monitoring and establish a causal link between forced CEO turnover and performance improvements.
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Going overboard? On busy directors and firm value
George Cashman, Stuart Gillan & Chulhee Jun
Journal of Banking & Finance, forthcoming
Abstract:
The literature disagrees on the link between so-called busy boards (where many independent directors hold multiple board seats) and firm performance. Some argue that busyness certifies a director's ability and that such directors are value enhancing. Others argue that "over-boarded" directors are ineffective and detract from firm value. We find evidence that 1) the disparate results in prior work stem from differences in both sample composition and empirical design, 2) on balance the results suggest a negative association between board busyness and firm performance, and 3) the inclusion of firm fixed effects dramatically affects the conclusions drawn from, and the explanatory power of, multivariate analyses. We also explore alternative empirical definitions of what constitutes a busy director and find that commonly used proxies for busyness perform well relative to more complex alternatives.
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Corporate Governance and Innovation
Matthew O'Connor & Matthew Rafferty
Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, April 2012, Pages 397-413
Abstract:
We use Tobin's q models of investments to estimate the relationship between corporate governance and the level of innovative activity. Simple ordinary least squares (OLS) models suggest that poor governance reduces innovative activity. However, OLS results are sensitive to controlling for serial correlation, unobserved effects, or using instrumental variables to control simultaneity. Controlling for these effects substantially reduces or eliminates the relationship between governance and innovative activity.
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Cash is King - Revaluation of Targets after Merger Bids
Ulrike Malmendier, Marcus Matthias Opp & Farzad Saidi
NBER Working Paper, July 2012
Abstract:
We provide evidence that a significant fraction of the returns to merger announcements reflects target revaluation rather than the causal effect of the merger. In a sample of unsuccessful merger bids from 1980 to 2008, targets of cash offers are revalued by +15% after deal failure, whereas stock targets revert to their pre-announcement levels. This result holds for the subsample where deal failure is exogenous to the target's stand-alone value. We also show that cash bidders revert to their pre-announcement levels, while stock bidders fall below. The results suggest that cash bids signal target undervaluation and stock bids indicate acquirer overvaluation.
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Who Times the Foreign Exchange Market? Corporate Speculation and CEO Characteristics
Alessandro Beber & Daniela Fabbri
Journal of Corporate Finance, forthcoming
Abstract:
This paper shows that managers' personal beliefs and individual characteristics explain a large share of the substantial time-variation of derivatives use beyond firm, industry, and market fundamentals. We construct a panel data set of foreign currency derivatives holdings and currency exposures for U.S. non-financial firms. We use a novel approach to build a firm-specific foreign exchange return. We find that managers adjust derivatives notional amounts in response to past foreign exchange returns, as if they were forming views on future currency prices. We then construct an empirical measure of speculative behavior for each firm to investigate the profile of the speculator. Firms where the CEO holds an MBA degree, is younger, and has less previous working experience speculate more. These results are consistent with overconfident managers taking more risk.
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Falling Flat: Failed Technologies and Investment under Uncertainty
J.P. Eggers
Administrative Science Quarterly, March 2012, Pages 47-80
Abstract:
This study theorizes about the behavioral and knowledge creation implications of betting on the losing technology in a competing technology situation and focuses on three main outcomes. First, in a situation with competing technological options, firms that invest initially in the losing technology will be less successful subsequently in building new knowledge in the winning technology because their experience with failure will lead them to update their expectations of the industry and choose to pursue less risky alternatives. Second, two classic risk-reducing strategies - investing in both technologies or entering after uncertainty is resolved - will not be completely effective. Firms investing in both technologies are likely to suffer the incentive and coordination-driven innovation penalties of generalists, while late entrants will suffer learning disadvantages. Third, the possession of key and relevant complementary assets - upstream and downstream - will positively moderate the observed inertial effect on firms that backed the failed technology and generalists that backed both technologies, as these complementary assets will increase incentives to adapt to the winning technology. I find empirical support for my hypotheses using a novel data set on the evolution of the global flat panel display industry from 1964 to 2003 to investigate the technological competition between plasma and liquid crystal displays. Results show that firms initially pursuing plasma generated less subsequent knowledge in liquid crystal displays, and that firms betting on both technologies were also slow to build knowledge in liquid crystal displays. Meanwhile, firms with upstream and downstream complementary assets were able to moderate, but not overcome, this barrier to knowledge creation. The findings have implications for our study of technological evolution and adaption, for learning from failure and reinforcement learning, and for the relationship between resource partitioning and adaptation.
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The Size and Composition of Corporate Headquarters in Multinational Companies: Empirical Evidence
David Collis, David Young & Michael Goold
Journal of International Management, September 2012, Pages 260-275
Abstract:
Based on a six country survey of nearly 250 multinationals (MNCs), this paper is the first empirical analysis to describe the size and composition of MNC headquarters and to account for differences among them. Findings are that: MNC corporate headquarters are more involved in "obligatory" and value creating and control functions than in operational activities; there are no systematic differences in the determinants of the size and composition of corporate headquarters between MNCs and purely domestic companies; as the geographic scope of an MNC increases two offsetting phenomena occur - headquarters decrease their influence over operational units which ceteris paribus reduces the size of headquarters, but the relative size of obligatory functions at headquarters increases with increased country heterogeneity. The net effect is that the size of corporate headquarters expands as MNC geographic scope increases. The notion of "administrative heritage" is validated as MNCs from different countries have substantially different corporate headquarters - US headquarters are large (255 median staff for a 20,000 FTE MNC) and European headquarters smaller (124). Implications are drawn that countries will lose activities if domestic firms are acquired by foreign MNCs, and that MNCs need to allow more subsidiary autonomy as their geographic scope increases.
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Internalization of Congestion at U.S. Hub Airports
Itai Ater
Journal of Urban Economics, September-November 2012, Pages 196-209
Abstract:
I study delays and congestion patterns in U.S. hub airports during periods of high flight volume. I find that these periods are longer when the share of flights operated by the hub airline is greater, and these longer periods exhibit shorter delays. These results lend support to recent theoretical work on congestion, implying that hub-airlines take into account the impact of their scheduling decisions on the congestion that they bear. The results may suggest that congestion management solutions implemented at hub airports dominated by one airline could have only a limited impact on congestion in general.
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Long-run performance of mergers and acquisition of privately held targets: Evidence in the USA
Shao-Chi Chang & Ming-Tse Tsai
Applied Economics Letters, August 2012, Pages 520-524
Abstract:
In this study, we examine the long-run performance of firms acquiring privately held targets. Past studies have documented a positive market reaction to the announcement of Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) of privately held targets. The M&As of privately held targets involve uncertain information, which investors are more likely to misestimate. In this study, we tested the long-run performances of acquiring firms and found negative results. We further found that the stock performance of acquiring firms was superior prior to the M&A. Our results suggest that investors may over-extrapolate prior good performance and that the long-run reversed return corrects the overestimation in response to announcements of M&A.