Searching for managerial opportunism faint traces in French diversifying acquisitions

We are looking for traces of managerial opportunism in french diversifyingacquisitions. Indeed, following various theories, diversification is seeking by managers.Furthermore, recent empiric evidences show that corporate diversification is valuedestructive for shareholders. Using classical OLS methodology with diversification,management ownership and performance variables, we find some evidence of managerialopportunism. But classical methodology presents two shortages. First, it supposed a uniquesense of causality. In particular, firm diversification is supposed to impact firmperformance without considering the inverse relationship (from performance todiversification). This one-way analysis can create biases in the estimated results. Second,this OLS methodology doesn't permit to take simultaneously the relationship between ourvariables. Noticing that this classical methodology is not well adapted to the problem, wesubmit our data to a system of simultaneous equations. Using this system, according to usbetter adapted, the faint traces of managerial opportunism vanishes. This is the case inparticular because the negative impact of diversification on performance disappears whenwe consider a non recursive relation between the variables. We derive others surprisingresults from our simultaneaous equations framework. Management stake in the equity caninfluence or be influenced by the performance depending on wether the performance ismeasured at the firm or at the operation (acquisition) level. Together, these results suggestthat we have to be cautious when searching for managerial opportunism in sample andstatistical studies. If manager opportunist inclination can be suspected in this kind ofstudies, it has to be distinguished from manager opportunist behavior which is far moredifficult to exhibit.managerial opportunism;acquisition;corporate diversification;agence;performance

Integrated Delivery Networks: In Search of Benefits and Market Effects

Integrated Delivery Networks (IDNs) have very different stated purposes than mere collections of hospitals: to coordinate care across the continuum of health services and to manage population health. IDN advocates claim that these complex enterprises yield both societal benefits and performance advantages over less integrated competitors. The purpose of this analysis is to evaluate the evidence to support these claims.For the study, researchers performed a review of the academic literature on IDN performance, as well as an analysis of publicly available quality and financial data from 15 of the biggest not-for-profit IDNs in the U.S., including Sutter Health in Northern California. The authors compared the publicly available performance information on the IDNs' flagship hospital in its principal regional market with that flagship's most significant in-market competitor. The study found that it is possible for integrated delivery networks to offer meaningful benefits, but there is little evidence they have reduced costs or improved the quality of care. Findings include:Hospital-physician integration has raised physician costs, hospital prices and per capita medical care spending;Hospital integration into health plan operations and capitated contracting was not associated either with clinical efficiency or financial efficiencyProviders are likely to see a decrease in operating margins and return on capital as they invest in IDN developmen

CHORUS Deliverable 4.5: Report of the 3rd CHORUS Conference

The third and last CHORUS conference on Multimedia Search Engines took place from the 26th to the 27th of May 2009 in Brussels, Belgium. About 100 participants from 15 European countries, the US, Japan and Australia learned about the latest developments in the domain. An exhibition of 13 stands presented 16 research projects currently ongoing around the world

The resource-based view within the conversation of strategic management

Includes bibliographical references

Exploring Entrepreneurial Skills and Competencies in Farm Tourism

Diversification to farm tourism is increasingly seen as a viable development strategy to promote a more diverse and sustainable rural economy and to counter declining farm incomes. However, our understanding of the dynamics of the modern farm tourism business and the entrepreneurial and competitive skills farmers require in making the transition from agriculture to a diversified - and service based - enterprise remains limited. Hence, the aim of this paper is to explore the range of skills and competencies that farmers in the North West of England identify as important when adopting a diversification strategy to farm tourism. With the findings indicating that that whilst a range of managerial skills are valued by farmers, they lack many of the additional business and entrepreneurial competencies required for success. Moreover, this paper acknowledges the need to generate consensus on the requisite skill-set that farm tourism operators require, along with a need for a currently fragmented rural tourism literature to acknowledge the significance of rural entrepreneurship and the characteristics of successful farmers and farm tourism ventures

Distributed enterprise search using software agents

In this paper we introduce a distributed information retrieval system using agent-based technology. In this multiagent system, each agent has its own specific task and can be used to handle a specific document repository. The system is designed to automatically comply with access restriction rules that are normally enforced in companies. It is used in the administration offices of the German capital city Berlin where it serves as a testbed for further research on aggregated search in an enterprise environment with roughly 50,000 employees

The impact of trade promotion services on Canadian exporter performance

We evaluate the impact of the programs delivered by the Canadian Trade Commissioner Service (TCS) on export performance by Canadian firms. We draw on a unique set of microdata created by linking three separate firm-level databases: Statistics Canada’s Exporter Register and its Business Register, which provide information on export activity and firm characteristics, and the TCS client management database maintained by Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, which contains details on trade promotion services provided to Canadian firms. We apply the treatment effects analytical framework to isolate the effects of public sector trade promotion. We find that TCS programs have a consistent and positive impact on Canadian exporter performance. Exporters that access TCS services export, on average, 17.9 percent more than comparable exporters that do not. Furthermore, we also find that TCS assistance benefits exporters in terms of product and market diversification.Export Promotion, Heterogeneous Firms, Canada

The impact of trade promotion services on Canadian exporter performance.

We evaluate the impact of the programs delivered by the Canadian Trade Commissioner Service (TCS) on export performance by Canadian firms. We draw on a unique set of microdata created by linking three separate firm-level databases: Statistics Canada’s Exporter Register and its Business Register, which provide information on export activity and firm characteristics, and the TCS client management database maintained by Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, which contains details on trade promotion services provided to Canadian firms. We apply the treatment effects analytical framework to isolate the effects of public sector trade promotion. We find that TCS programs have a consistent and positive impact on Canadian exporter performance. Exporters that access TCS services export, on average, 17.9 percent more than comparable exporters that do not. Furthermore, we also find that TCS assistance benefits exporters in terms of product and market diversification.

Evidence of Scope Economies in Australian Agriculture

Scope economies can be used in studies of farming systems to provide a measure of synergies between different farm enterprises and between activities within farm enterprises. In this paper, they are reported for farms in three benchmarking groups in Australia by estimating stochastic input distance functions and calculating an 'economies of scope parameter'. Evidence of significant scope economies between sheep and crop enterprises, and between beef and crop enterprises, is presented and discussed. Similar evidence is reported between wool and lamb activities and wool and mature sheep trading activities within the sheep enterprise.Australia, Crops, Livestock, Sheep, Scope Economics, Crop Production/Industries, Livestock Production/Industries, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods, Industrial Organization,