Managing in an economic crisis: The role of market orientation in an international law firm

This research paper contributes to the understanding of the relationship between market orientation and performance in the context of a law firm during a time of economic crisis. The contribution is twofold, adding to the fairly limited research on market orientation within law firms, and to the limited research on the role of market orientation in times of economic crisis. The findings, from the questionnaire survey and semi-structured interviews within practice groups of a large multinational law firm, conclude that market orientation is important during an economic crisis. Those practice groups with higher market orientation scores withstand the increased turbulence and outperform those practice groups with lower market orientation scores

Abandoned deals: the merger and acquisition process in the electricity and gas industry

High profile deals emphasize the costs of the merger and acquisition (M&A) process particularly when deals fail before closure. However, beyond anecdotal evidence, we do not know why some M&A deals in the electricity and gas industries are abandoned. We analyze a sample of over 5000 M&As in the electricity and gas industries. The three most important factors affecting M&A abandonment are if the acquirer engaged in a divestiture at the same time, whether the target firm was publicly owned, and if the acquirer already had a toe-hold (part ownership) in the target firm at the time of the M&A deal. An M&A deal is 10.17% less likely to be abandoned if the acquirer engaged in a divestiture at the same time. An M&A involving a publicly owned target firm is 9.87% more likely to be abandoned. Lastly, an M&A in which the acquirer had a toe-hold in the target company is 7.87% more likely to be abandoned. Our findings show that policy makers and practitioners should be aware that the M&A process is affected by often over-looked deal or firm specific factors