DEA-based Nash bargaining approach to merger target selection

Mergers and Acquisitions (M&amp;As) are important business strategies in any industry, as they allow the parties involved to achieve, for example, higher market share, profits and influence in one or more industries. In any M&amp;A activity, the key challenge for an acquirer company is to select the target company that can most improve its performance through synergy. The goal of this research is thus to help acquirer companies model and optimally solve their merger target selection problems (MTSPs) in both horizontal integration and vertical integration settings. We apply both a data envelopment analysis (DEA) based performance evaluation framework and the Nash bargaining solution concept to mathematically model an acquirer company's MTSPs under the two types of integration settings. To the best of our knowledge, the proposed new models are the first DEA-based Nash bargaining models in the literature to help acquirer companies obtain their most desired target companies. Finally, this research provides numerical examples, including real-life examples, to illustrate various aspects and implementation details of the two types of models.</p

İstanbul’daki Vakıf Üniversitelerinin Kuruluş Dönemlerine göre Etkinlik Analizi

Bu çalışmada Veri Zarflama Analizi (VZA) yöntemiyle İstanbul’da bulunan vakıf üniversitelerinin etkinliklerinin belirlenmesi, etkin olmayan üniversiteler için referans alabileceği referans kümesinin belirlenmesi ve kuruluş dönemlerine göre etkinlik düzeyleri arasında farklılık olup olmadığının belirlenmesi amaçlanmıştır. Literatür taraması sonrası üniversitelerin etkinlik analizinde kullanılan girdi ve çıktı değişkenleri belirlenmiştir. İstanbul’da bulunan 31 vakıf üniversitesinin etkinlik analizleri yapılmıştır. İstanbul’da bulunan vakıf üniversitelerinden önlisans ve lisans bölümlerinden mezuniyet sayısına göre 2 tanesinin etkin, lisansüstü programlardan mezuniyet sayısına göre 1 tanesinin etkin, akademik değerlendirme puanına göre 3 tanesinin etkin ve genel olarak 9 tanesinin etkin olduğu belirlenmiştir. Ayrıca, kuruluş dönemlerine göre İstanbul’da bulunan vakıf üniversitelerinin etkinlik düzeyleri arasında anlamlı bir farklılık olmadığı görülmüştür

Modelo DEA para análisis de fusiones de entidades productivas

Este documento analiza el modelo de análisis por envoltura de datos (DEA) de fusión de entidades productivas propuesto por Lozano y Adenso-Díaz (2020). El objetivo del modelo estudiado es determinar las fusionas más ventajosas de entre un conjunto de unidades, así como estimar las mejoras de eficiencia que esta fusión puede producir. El modelo también determina qué parte de la mejora de la eficiencia producida por la fusión se debe a un efecto de fusión puro y qué parte al aprendizaje que se produce al replicar comportamientos de otras DMUs (Decision Making Units) similares. Esta división entre mejora de eficiencia de fusión y aprendizaje se utilizará para determinar la idoneidad de la fusión. En este documento también se estudiarán todas las posibles restricciones que se pueden aplicar al modelo para adaptarlo a un escenario real. Para ilustrar el método y poder extraer conclusiones se ha recurrido a un caso de fusión de granjas productoras de leche. Una vez resuelto este caso con el modelo original se determinarán los resultados introduciendo distintas restricciones para observar los cambios producidos.This paper analyses the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model for merging DMUs (Decision Making Units) proposed by Lozano and Adenso-Díaz (2020). The objective of this model is determinate the most advantageous mergers among a set of DMUs, as well as to estimate the efficiency improvements that these mergers can produce. The model also determines how much of the efficiency improvement is produced by pure merger effects and how much is produced by learning effect. The division between learning effect and pure merger effect will be used to determinate the suitability of the merger. This document also studies all the possible restrictions that can be applied to the model to adapt it to a realistic scenario. To illustrate the method and to be able to draw conclusions, a case of a merger of dairy farms has been used. Once this case is solved with the original model, the results will be recalculated by introducing different restrictions to observe the changes produced.Universidad de Sevilla. Grado en Ingeniería de Tecnologías Industriale

Essays on precision agriculture technology adoption and agricultural cooperative mergers

Doctor of PhilosophyDepartment of Agricultural EconomicsElizabeth YeagerUnderstanding how differences in precision agriculture (PA) technology adoption may impact crop productivity is important for assisting farmers to make more informed adoption choices. Also, examining if strategic alliances amongst agricultural cooperatives can provide benefits to farmers is relevant. This dissertation therefore consists of three essays that provide insights into how PA technology adoption choices may improve crop productivity, and how mergers or other forms of strategic alliances amongst agricultural cooperatives can provide additional benefits to cooperative-member farms. The first study of this dissertation evaluates potential crop productivity improvements that can be attributed to adoption of PA technologies. In this study, treatment effect estimators are incorporated into a stochastic frontier analysis framework to estimate the impact of PA technology adoption on technical inefficiency of corn production. Empirical estimations utilize data from the Kansas Farm Management Association consisting of 444 farms between 2002 to 2015. This includes non-adopters and adopters of two PA technologies¬¬: precision soil sampling (PSS) and variable rate technology (VRT). The sample data is pre-processed by using propensity score matching to account for potential underlying differences between adopters and non-adopters that may have spillover effects on the outcome of interest, technical inefficiency. Results suggest that adoption of PA technologies had no statistically significant impact on reducing technical inefficiency of corn production, in the presence of some degree of covariate imbalance. In the first study, differences amongst adopters are not considered, that is whether farms adopt PSS only or both PSS and VRT. However, estimates of technical inefficiency reductions may be masked by differences in adoption choices. The results of the first study therefore inspire the second study of this dissertation. The second study, accounts for differences in PA technology adoption choices by grouping adopters as either adopters of PSS only or adopters of both PSS and VRT. The methodology and data of the first study are adapted to estimate the impact of PA technology adoption on technical inefficiency of corn production under each adoption choice. In the presence of some degree of covariate imbalance, results suggest that, regardless of adoption choice (i.e., whether farms adopt PSS only or both PSS and VRT), adoption had no statistically significant effect on reducing technical inefficiency of corn production. The third study of this dissertation examines potential gains that agricultural cooperatives may accrue from mergers. An ex-ante data envelopment analysis approach is employed. Empirical estimations utilize data from CoBank, consisting of 749 midwestern agricultural cooperative observations from 2011 to 2015. Potential overall merger effects are decomposed into learning effects, scope effects, and scale effects. Findings show that generally, there are non-trivial overall potential gains from mergers. Overall merger gains are primarily driven by improvements due to learning effects and scope effects. Scale effect on the other hand tends to work against all merger combinations, with higher associated revenue reductions (or cost increases) for mergers between larger sized cooperatives compared to mergers between smaller cooperatives