Entrepreneurial Human Capital, Complementary Assets, and Takeover Probability

Gaining access to technologies, competencies, and knowledge is observed as one of the major motives for corporate mergers and acquisitions. In this paper we show that a knowledge-based firm’s probability of being a takeover target is influenced by whether relevant specific human capital aimed for in acquisitions is directly accumulated within a specific firm or is bound to its founder or manager owner. We analyze the incentive effects of different arrangements of ownership in a firm’s assets in the spirit of the Grossman-Hart-Moore incomplete contracts theory of the firm. This approach highlights the organizational significance of ownership of complementary assets. In a small theoretical model we assume that the entrepreneur’s specific human capital, as measured by the patents they own, and the physical assets of their firm are productive only when used together. Our results show that it is not worthwhile for an acquirer to purchase the alienable assets of this firm due to weakened incentives for the initial owner. Regression analysis using a hand collected dataset of all German IPOs in the period from 1997 to 2006 subsequently provides empirical support for this prediction. This paper adds to previous research in that it puts empirical evidence to the Grossman-Hart-Moore framework of incomplete contracts or property rights respectively. Secondly, we show that relevant specific human capital that is accumulated by a firm’s founder or manager owner significantly decreases that firm’s probability of being a takeover target.ownership structure, property rights, mergers & acquisitions

Funktionelle Insulintherapie (FIT) beim Typ-1-Diabetes

Zusammenfassung: Das Ziel der Insulinbehandlung bei Patienten mit Diabetes mellitus Typ 1 besteht darin, eine nahezu normoglykämische Blutzuckereinstellung unter Vermeidung von schweren Hypoglykämien zu erreichen, um einerseits die Entwicklung von mikro- und makrovaskulären Spätkomplikationen zu vermeiden und andererseits ein optimales körperliches Wohlbefinden zu ermöglichen. Die funktionelle Insulintherapie zusammen mit den heute verfügbaren kurz und lang wirksamen Analoginsulinen stellt eine Therapieoption für Patienten mit Diabetes mellitus Typ 1 dar, die dem physiologischen Insulinersatz sehr nahe kommt. Eine weitere Verfeinerung der Insulinabgabe lässt sich mit einer Insulinpumpentherapie erreichen. Die funktionelle Insulintherapie bietet dem Patienten eine größere Autonomie in der Selbstbehandlung und erheblich mehr Flexibilität in der Lebensgestaltung. Umgekehrt ist für ihre erfolgreiche Anwendung eine vermehrte und regelmäßige Blutzuckerselbstkontrolle unabdingba

First evidence of anisotropic quenched disorder effects on a smectic liquid crystal confined in porous silicon

We present a neutron scattering analysis of the structure of the smectic liquid crystal octylcyanobiphenyl (8CB) confined in one-dimensional nanopores of porous silicon films (PS). The smectic transition is completely suppressed, leading to the extension of a short-range ordered smectic phase aligned along the pore axis. It evolves reversibly over an extended temperature range, down to 50 K below the \textit{N-SmA} transition in pure 8CB. This behavior strongly differs from previous observations of smectics in different one-dimensional porous materials. A coherent picture of this striking behavior requires that quenched disorder effects are invoked. The strongly disordered nature of the inner surface of PS acts as random fields coupling to the smectic order. The one-dimensionality of PS nano-channels offers new perspectives on quenched disorder effects, which observation has been restricted to homogeneous random porous materials so far.Comment: Submitted to Phys. Rev.

Vibrational effects in laser driven molecular wires

The influence of an electron-vibrational coupling on the laser control of electron transport through a molecular wire that is attached to several electronic leads is investigated. These molecular vibrational modes induce an effective electron-electron interaction. In the regime where the wire electrons couple weakly to both the external leads and the vibrational modes, we derive within a Hartree-Fock approximation a nonlinear set of quantum kinetic equations. The quantum kinetic theory is then used to evaluate the laser driven, time-averaged electron current through the wire-leads contacts. This novel formalism is applied to two archetypical situations in the presence of electron-vibrational effects, namely, (i) the generation of a ratchet or pump current in a symmetrical molecule by a harmonic mixing field and (ii) the laser switching of the current through the molecule.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures, RevTeX4 require

Cosmology and prospects for sub-MeV dark matter in electron recoil experiments

Dark matter is poorly constrained by direct detection experiments at masses below 1 MeV. This is an important target for the next generation of experiments, and several methods have been proposed to probe this mass range. One class of such experiments will search for dark matter--electron recoils. However, simplified models with new light degrees of freedom coupled to electrons face significant pressure from cosmology, and the extent of these restrictions more generally is poorly understood. Here, we perform a systematic study of cosmological constraints on models with a heavy mediator in the context of an effective field theory. We include constraints from (i) disruption of primordial nucleosynthesis, (ii) overproduction of dark matter, and (iii) the effective number of neutrino species at recombination. We demonstrate the implications of our results for proposed electron recoil experiments, and highlight scenarios which may be amenable to direct detection.Comment: 21 pages, 7 figures. Matched published versio