Determinants of firm compliance with environmental laws : A case study of Vietnam

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

Run or Hide:Changes in Acquisition Behaviour During the Covid-19 Pandemic

Purpose: M&A are an important strategic tool for continuous adaptation, sustainable corporate development, and external growth. At the same time, M&A involve high levels of risk with mixed performance results even under normal circumstances. Even though the M&A market was continuously growing for the last decade, it was abruptly ended by the Covid-19 pandemic as executives were more concerned about liquidity than with long term growth strategies. This raises the question how M&A behaviour is affected by the economic fall-out of the Covid-19 pandemic. Design/methodology/approach: Mixed method research design Findings: We particularly investigate how target selection as well as synergy management are affected by the pandemic. Our analysis reveals four archetypical responses to the Covid-19 crisis. We describe those responses in detail and analyze antecedents that seem to influence firms’ acquisition behaviour during the pandemic. Originality: The paper draws on survey and interview data of M&A practitioner

Triggering Innovation Through Mergers and Acquisitions:The Role of Shared Mental Models.

In this article, we analyze how shared team and task mental models, developed prior to an acquisition, affect exploration and exploitation activities in the postacquisition phase, and how these effects are dependent on relative size. With a sample of 101 transactions of acquirers from the German-speaking part of Europe, we provide empirical evidence that both shared team and task mental models positively influence exploitation activities following an acquisition, whereby only shared team mental models (TMMs) are beneficial for exploration. We provide empirical evidence that shared mental models in terms of task and team are an important informal source for enhancing exploration and exploitation innovation activities. However, this source of informal coordination is contextual. Although the relationships on exploitation are stable, the beneficial effect of TMMs on exploration is sensitive and devitalized by an increasing relative size. Implications for further research and management practice are given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR

How Industry Lifecycle Sets Boundary Conditions for M&A Integration

Value creation in acquisitions is tightly connected with actions taken during integration. However, research on integration mainly concentrates on integration typologies or on the autonomy vs. absorption debate, each stream with empirical evidence for respective benefits. We argue and give empirical evidence that there is no “one size fits all” approach for integration but rather an interdependency of the suitability of integration related decisions with the industry lifecycle. We demonstrate that beneficial or detrimental effects of degree of integration, formal, and informal coordination mechanisms are context-specific and differ significantly in growing, mature, and declining industries. We show that the degree of integration only has a significant beneficial effect in mature industries, while no effect in cases of declining and fast growing industries is observable. Here we indicate that in acquisitions with buyers in declining industries, formal coordination mechanisms are most beneficial, while in growing industries only informal coordination mechanisms are valuable

Examining Links between Pre and Post M & A Value Creation Mechanisms d Exploitation, Exploration and Ambidexterity in Central European SMEs

Value creation in acquisitions is a complex topic with divergent theoretical roots and mixed empirical evidence. In empirical research, the study of strategic fi t between an acquirer and target as an important indicator of synergy often yields ambiguous fi ndings, for two major reasons: the conceptualization of the fi t construct and that construct ’ s missing link with issues of post-merger integration. In this paper, we apply exploration and exploitation as different concepts of learning to conceptualize the strategic fi t among organizations involved. We do not draw a direct relationship regarding M & A performance, but instead treat the success of post-acquisition exploration and exploitation as a mediator in the fi t-performance relationship. With a sample of 101 acquisitions of small and medium-sized fi rms from the German-speaking part of Europe, we fi nd evidence for our proposed hypotheses. First, fi t regarding these two learning modes im- proves performance; second, a synergistic effect exists between exploration and exploitation; third, ambidextrous post-merger devel- opment in exploration and exploitation negatively affects M & A performance; and fourth, acquisition experience bene fi ts the transfer of pre-merger strategic fi t to the success of post-merger activity. Based on those fi ndings, we derive implications for theory and practice

Modeling the determinants of job satisfaction in Vietnam

The study focuses on a number of policy-relevant variables such as wage policy and training plans for workers, as well as absolute and relative wages, union membership, and job position. Possible differences in job satisfaction of workers in domestic versus Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) firms are examined. The research utilizes a unique employer-employee matched survey conducted by the North-South Institute (Canada) to investigate the determinants of job satisfaction, and survey data from the Center of Analysis and Forecasting, the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences

CYP1A1 Induction in the Colon by Serum: Involvement of the PPARα Pathway and Evidence for a New Specific Human PPREα Site

International audienceBackground: We previously showed that blood serum induced cytochrome P450 1A1 (CYP1A1) monooxygenase expression in vitro.Objective: Our purpose was (i) to identify the molecular mechanism involved and (ii) to characterize the inducer compound(s) in serum involved at least in part.Methods: Serum was fractionated on hydrophobic columns. PPARα involvement was demonstrated by gene reporter assays, DNA mutagenesis and EMSA. Gene expression was evaluated by qRT-PCR. Serum samples were analyzed using HS-SPME-GC-MS.Results: The inductive effect of serum did not depend on the AhR pathway and was enhanced by cotransfection of PPARα cDNA. Mutations in the PPAR response elements of the CYP1A1 gene promoter suppressed this effect. One of the PPRE sites appeared highly specific for human PPARα, an unreported PPRE property. A link was found between CYP1A1 inducibility and serum hydrophobic compounds. Characterization of sera showed that hexanal, a metabolite produced by peroxidation of linoleic acid, was involved in CYP1A1 induction by serum, possibly along with other serum entities.Conclusion: We demonstrate that serum induces CYP1A1 via the PPARα pathway and that hexanal is one of the serum inducers. The two PPRE sites within the CYP1A1 promoter are functional and one of them is specific for PPARα