Do Acquirer Capabilities Affect Acquisition Performance? Examining Strategic and Effectiveness Capabilities in Acquirers

This paper examines acquisition performance from the perspective of acquirer capabilities. It argues that the strategic capabilities underpinning a firm’s competitive strategy can be utilized to create economic value in acquisitions. Acquirers with strong cost leadership capabilities are expected to leverage these capabilities to reduce post-acquisition costs as they integrate acquisition targets. Acquirers with strong differentiation capabilities are expected to utilize their strategic capabilities to increase post-acquisition revenues by improving branding, product design, sales, and services in their targets. We also explore the affect of an acquirer’s effectiveness capabilities on acquisition performance. Lastly, we examine how acquirer’s organize these capabilities, either at the business unit or corporate-level, in order to maximize their affect on acquisition performance. Based on a sample of 204 horizontal acquisitions occurring in the banking industry, we find support for the link between acquirer cost leadership capabilities and post-acquisition cost reduction. Acquirer effectiveness capabilities are associated with improvements in post-acquisition revenues and profitability. We conclude that a better understanding of the competitive capabilities of acquirers is important to understanding acquisition performance. This contributes directly to horizontal acquisition research, but can be extended to several areas of strategy research on M&As including: diversifying acquisitions, acquirer experience, and how acquirers can avoid “synergy traps”.Acquisitions ; Acquirer Capabilities ; Strategic Capabilities ; Effectiveness Capabilities ; Acquisition Performance

Improving Dining for People with Dementia

The physical and social environments are important, but often not actualized, resources that can have a significant impact on the overall goals of nutritional intake and quality of life for people with dementia. The purpose of this pilot study was to examine the effect of improved lighting and enhanced table setting contrast on residents\u27 meal consumption, social interaction, independence, and behaviors during meals in both assisted living and long-term care environments serving people with dementia. A three-day nutritional intake record, footcandle measures, the Meal Assistance Screening Tool, and the Communication Outcome Measure of Functional Independence were administered at baseline and post-test four weeks after the intervention. Twenty-five residents with dementia at two long term care facilities participated in the pilot study. After a lighting and contrast intervention, there were improvements in oral intake, communication, and functional abilities at both facilities.https://dc.uwm.edu/caupr_mono/1016/thumbnail.jp

Meat makes the man : the hierarchies of masculinity and meat eating in Shakespearean drama.

This thesis explores how Shakespeare's dramatic works highlight the complex relationships between the hierarchies of masculinity and meat eating. The theoretical backing consists of both gender-based and ecocritical writings. The works of Carol J. Adams and Rasmus R. Simonsen focus on the basic, binary relationship between meat and masculinity and veganism and queerness; and the works of R. W. Connell and Julia Twigg, two scholars whose works neither Adams nor Simonsen discuss, explain the hierarchies of masculinity and meat eating, respectfully. By combining the hierarchies of masculinity and meat eating and using that combination as a gastromasculine lens through which to read the works of William Shakespeare, this thesis will argue that Shakespeare's use of meat often reflects the across-the-board connections between masculinity and meat eating

Microgravity robotics technology program

A research program to develop technology for robots operating in the microgravity environment of the space station laboratory is described. These robots must be capable of manipulating payloads without causing them to experience harmful levels of acceleration, and the motion of these robots must not disturb adjacent experiments and operations by transmitting reactions that translate into damaging effects throughout the laboratory. Solutions to these problems, based on both mechanism technology and control strategies, are discussed. Methods are presented for reduction of robot base reactions through the use of redundant degrees of freedom, and the development of smoothly operating roller-driven robot joints for microgravity manipulators is discussed

A simplistic pedagogical formulation of a thermal speed distribution using a relativistic framework

A novel pedagogical technique is presented that can be used in the undergraduate (UG) class to formulate a relativistically extended Kinetic Theory of Gases and thermal speed distribution, while assuming the basic thermal symmetry arguments of the famous Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution as presented at the UG level. The adopted framework can be used by students to understand the physics in a thermally governed system at high temperature and speeds, without having to indulge in high level tensor based mathematics, as has been done by the previous works in the subject. Our approach, a logical extension of that proposed by Maxwell, will first recapitulate what is taught and known in the UG class and then present a methodology inspired from the Maxwell-Boltzmann framework that will help students to understand and derive the physics of relativistic thermal systems. The methodology uses simple tools well known to undergraduates and involves a component of computational techniques that can be used to involve students in this exercise. We have tried to place the current work in a larger perspective in regard to the earlier works done and emphasize on it's simplicity and accessibility to students. Towards the end, interesting implications of the relativistically extended distribution are presented and compared with the Maxwell-Boltzmann results at various temperatures.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures, Publication accepted in Pramana - Journal of Physics (Indian Academy of Sciences). Revised version has an additional section, discussing previous work on relativistic Kinetic Theory in section 2.1 and comparison with these in section 6. Arguments for formulating a relativistic thermal speed distributions have been enriched and made more clear and categorical in section

CONTINUED EASTWARD RANGE EXPANSION OF BLACK PHOEBES (SAYORNIS NIGRICANS) IN SOUTHERNMOST TEXAS

ABSTRACT—We observed black phoebe (Sayornis nigricans) nests, breeding pairs, and juveniles in Cameron County, Texas, in 2017. Our first confirmed nesting records in Cameron County document a continued eastward range expansion by black phoebes. RESUMEN—En el 2017, observamos nidos, parejas reproductoras y juveniles del p´ajaro mosquero negro (Sayornis nigricans) en el condado de Cameron, Texas. Los primeros registros confirmados de reproducci ´on en el condado de Cameron son evidencia de una continua expansi´on hacia el este de la distribuci ´on geogr´afica del mosquero negro

Dynamic Stability of a Composite Circular Cylindrical Shell Subjected to Combined Axial and Torsional Loading

The dynamic stability of thin, clamped, composite circular cylindrical shells is studied for combined axial and torsional loading. Each load is taken to be har monically varying; the frequencies of the two loads differ, in general. For the case in which the frequencies are commensurate, the applied load function is periodic. The equa tions of motion for the shell are reduced to a system of Hill equations by means of Fourier series expansions. Instability regions of principal and combination parametric resonance are determined by use of the monodromy matrix. Numerical results are generated for boron-epoxy layered shells for various cases of pure axial, pure torsional, and combined loading. The width of the principal instability region is presented as a function of fiber ori entation for a laminate case. Stability diagrams are presented covering about 6 times the lowest natural frequency for various ratios of the applied axial and torsional frequencies.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/66879/2/10.1177_002199839302701802.pd

Surgical Treatment of Liver Trauma: Technical Considerations and Case Reports

The incidence of abdominal trauma, and thus that of liver trauma, has been increasing in the past few years. Improvements in the understanding of the anatomy of the liver and improvements in diagnostic techniques have resulted in shorter and better operations with less delay between injury and surgery. Improvements in transportation to adequate hospital facilities and vigorous resuscitative measures have also contributed to lowering the mortality rate for this type of injury. Suggestions are made for the surgical management of liver injuries, together with illustrative case reports

The Role of Surgery in Cecal Diverticulitis

Cecal diverticula, although rare, may result in acute or chronic diverticulitis. Rarely does acute hemorrhage arise from cecal diverticula. The diagnosis of acute diverticulitis usually is evident at operation and an appropriate resection is usually feasible, although the local status and general condition of the patient modifies treatment in some instances. Chronic cecal diverticulitis is usually difficult to distinguish from carcinoma and a resection is justified