Side-Payments and the Costs of Conflict

Conflict and competition often impose costs on both winners and losers, and conflicting parties may prefer to resolve the dispute before it occurs. The equilibrium of a conflict game with side-payments predicts that with binding offers, proposers make and responders accept side-payments, generating settlements that strongly favor proposers. When side-payments are non-binding, proposers offer nothing and conflicts always arise. Laboratory experiments confirm that binding side-payments reduce conflicts. However, 30 % of responders reject binding offers, and offers are more egalitarian than predicted. Surprisingly, non-binding side-payments also improve efficiency, although less than binding. With binding side-payments, 87 % of efficiency gains come from avoided conflicts. However, with non-binding side-payments, only 39 % of gains come from avoided conflicts and 61 % from reduced conflict expenditures

Embodied spatial practices and everyday organization: the work of tour guides and their audiences

This article introduces an interactional perspective to the analysis of organizational space. The study is based on the analysis of over 100 hours of video recordings of guided tours undertaken within two sites (an historic house and a world-famous museum), coupled with interviews and field observations. The analysis is informed by ethnomethodology and conversation analysis in order to focus on the everyday organization of these tours, and the lived experience of inhabiting museum spaces. We use an interactional lens to unpack the ‘embodied spatial practices’ critical to the work of tour guides and their audiences, which reveals how the sense and significance of the workspace emerges moment to moment, and in relation to the ongoing work at hand. As a result, for those with an interest in organizational space, the article introduces a novel perspective, and methods, to highlight the dynamic and interactional production of workspaces. Additionally, for those with an interest in practice, the article demonstrates the fundamental import of taking spatial arrangements seriously when analysing the organization of work

Integration of robotic surgery into routine practice and impacts on communication, collaboration, and decision making: A realist process evaluation protocol

Background: Robotic surgery offers many potential benefits for patients. While an increasing number of healthcare providers are purchasing surgical robots, there are reports that the technology is failing to be introduced into routine practice. Additionally, in robotic surgery, the surgeon is physically separated from the patient and the rest of the team, with the potential to negatively impact teamwork in the operating theatre. The aim of this study is to ascertain: how and under what circumstances robotic surgery is effectively introduced into routine practice; and how and under what circumstances robotic surgery impacts teamwork, communication and decision making, and subsequent patient outcomes. Methods and design: We will undertake a process evaluation alongside a randomised controlled trial comparing laparoscopic and robotic surgery for the curative treatment of rectal cancer. Realist evaluation provides an overall framework for the study. The study will be in three phases. In Phase I, grey literature will be reviewed to identify stakeholders' theories concerning how robotic surgery becomes embedded into surgical practice and its impacts. These theories will be refined and added to through interviews conducted across English hospitals that are using robotic surgery for rectal cancer resection with staff at different levels of the organisation, along with a review of documentation associated with the introduction of robotic surgery. In Phase II, a multi-site case study will be conducted across four English hospitals to test and refine the candidate theories. Data will be collected using multiple methods: the structured observation tool OTAS (Observational Teamwork Assessment for Surgery); video recordings of operations; ethnographic observation; and interviews. In Phase III, interviews will be conducted at the four case sites with staff representing a range of surgical disciplines, to assess the extent to which the results of Phase II are generalisable and to refine the resulting theories to reflect the experience of a broader range of surgical disciplines. The study will provide (i) guidance to healthcare organisations on factors likely to facilitate successful implementation and integration of robotic surgery, and (ii) guidance on how to ensure effective communication and teamwork when undertaking robotic surgery

Discutindo a educação ambiental no cotidiano escolar: desenvolvimento de projetos na escola formação inicial e continuada de professores

A presente pesquisa buscou discutir como a Educação Ambiental (EA) vem sendo trabalhada, no Ensino Fundamental e como os docentes desta escola compreendem e vem inserindo a EA no cotidiano escolar., em uma escola estadual do município de Tangará da Serra/MT, Brasil. Para tanto, realizou-se entrevistas com os professores que fazem parte de um projeto interdisciplinar de EA na escola pesquisada. Verificou-se que o projeto da escola não vem conseguindo alcançar os objetivos propostos por: desconhecimento do mesmo, pelos professores; formação deficiente dos professores, não entendimento da EA como processo de ensino-aprendizagem, falta de recursos didáticos, planejamento inadequado das atividades. A partir dessa constatação, procurou-se debater a impossibilidade de tratar do tema fora do trabalho interdisciplinar, bem como, e principalmente, a importância de um estudo mais aprofundado de EA, vinculando teoria e prática, tanto na formação docente, como em projetos escolares, a fim de fugir do tradicional vínculo “EA e ecologia, lixo e horta”.Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educació

The role of risk management in mergers and merger waves

We show that merger activity and particularly waves are significantly driven by risk management considerations. Increases in cash flow uncertainty encourage firms to vertically integrate and this contributes to the start of merger waves. These effects are incremental to previously identified causes of wave activity. Our risk management hypothesis is further supported by cross-sectional differences in the likelihood that a firm vertically integrates, and by the post-acquisition characteristics of vertically integrating firms. These results are consistent with the view (from the industrial organization literature) that vertical integration is an operational hedging mechanism that reduces the cost of increased uncertainty.Merger waves Vertical integration Risk management

At The Market (ATM) Offerings

ABSTRACT We study a new form of equity offering that emerged in 2008: "At-the-market" (ATM) offerings. Their use has increased significantly, and in 2011 total announced ATM issuance plans were nearly 10% that of traditional SEOs. The key differentiating characteristics of ATMs are their "best-efforts" issuance approach and the ability of firms to "dribble-out" equity issuance at opportune times, often over many months. We document some notable differences in characteristics between ATM and SEO firms. Moreover, ATM issuers appear to experience lower explicit issuance costs (fees), less negative event returns and less negative long-run returns, compared to standard SEO issuers. Finally, we find that firms adjust their dribble-out to reflect time-varying stock return characteristics. Keywords: At-the-market offerings, ATMs, Private equity placements, equity issuances, secondary offerings, seasoned equity offerings, SEOs, external finance, best efforts offerings, issuance costs JEL Classification: G32, G34, G38 We thank Jeffrey Emrich and Dongping Xie for excellent research assistance. All errors are our own. *Kelley School of Business, Indiana University. [email protected] ** Iowa State University and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, [email protected] *** Tippie College of Business, University of Iowa. [email protected] Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2178052 2 Equity issuance in the U.S. has traditionally followed the firm commitment process (Eckbo, Masulis, Norli However, firms' needs for certification and/or a sufficient mass of investors to absorb particular issue sizes, likely vary over time and by the anticipated use of proceeds. For example, an IPO almost certainly requires more certification than an SEO (Smith (1986)); some SEOs require less certification than others (Bayless and Chaplinsky (1996)); and larger projects obviously require more capital which augurs for an SEO. 1 Given this variation, it is reasonable to expect that even within the set of firms seeking additional equity capital, there will be different levels of certification and different quantities of capital needed. Nevertheless, until recently there appears to be at best marginal variation in firms' approaches to raising equity through follow-on issues to the public. amendments to forms S-3 and F-3) opened the door to a new form of follow-on equity offering: "at-themarket" (ATM) issues. These are best-efforts offerings with an additional wrinkle -firms may issue equity via ATMs in a "dribble-out" fashion where they sell shares directly into the secondary market over months or even years. The firm pulls these shares "off the shelf" in any quantity they wish, 3 at any time during the "life" of the ATM program. 4 They may issue smaller quantities or larger quantities, but these issues are always sold directly into the secondary market (using a placement agent strictly as a 1 Eckbo, Masulis and Norli (2007) note that average IPO size is 21% smaller than average SEO issuance amounts. 2 The growth in PIPEs is an exception to this. However, our focus is on issues to public investors as they likely face different information problems than private ones. 3 There is a cap, which we discuss below, but it appears to be far less binding than prior to 2008. 4 Firms either specify an ATM program's life at announcement, or they may issue the ATM shares up until the shelf (that the ATM shares were registered under) expires. Below, we analyze firms' take-down behavior of share issuance over the ATM program lives (section V). 3 broker) at prevailing market prices. These transactions therefore forego certification and they rely on the existing stock market demand for the firm's shares. This paper analyzes the ATM issuance approach and market. To facilitate our analysis, we compare ATMs with SEOs. We begin with a basic description of the anatomies of the two markets, including their size and growth since ATMs appeared. ATMs are frequently used with 307 announced for over $45 billion during the period 2008-2011. This equates to roughly 10$2 billion in 2008 to nearly $10 billion in 2011. Total SEO issuance activity over the same window declined from approximately$120 billion in 2008 to $101.6 billion in 2011. Thus the ATM market size has grown in relative importance compared to SEO issuance activity. 5 Importantly, we continue to see growth in this market during 2012. Through the first ten months of this year, total dollars announced under ATMs (there were 108 events) is already near$12 billion, suggesting a significant rise in activity from last year. We discuss this below. Given the size and growth of this market, it is important to understand the economic motivations of participants. Thus we focus on the key differences between ATMs and SEOs. First, a