What shapes cross-border merger and acquisition negotiations in the automotive industry?

The research evaluated the impact of contextual, structural, and behavioural factors in shaping cross-border merger and acquisition (CBMA) negotiations between automobile manufacturers. Recent years have seen an increase in CBMA activity in the automotive industry, advanced by the necessity to share investments in alternative power sources for engines and realise economies of scale and scope. The significance of the topic is reflected by the essential role played by the automotive industry in the global economy. According to Fortune (2020), the combined revenue of the top 10 automakers exceeded 1.70 trillion in 2019. PricewaterhouseCoopers (2020) reported that Global Automotive M&A activity accounted for 100 billion and approximately 800 deals in 2018, and over $77 billion and around 850 deals in 2019. Despite the substantial deal value and volume, research has repeatedly determined that over 70 per cent of CBMAs fail to deliver the promised results due to the ineffective management of the negotiation process. Moreover, while the different stages of the M&A process have been extensively investigated, research on the M&A negotiation phase has been limited, and very few studies have attempted to incorporate contextual, structural, and behavioural factors in analysing inherently complex CBMA negotiations. The study followed a pragmatist standpoint and adopted a sequential mixed-method design integrating the macro-strategic and micro-behavioural levels of analysis. The first phase based on a qualitative small-N focused comparative analysis case study on identifying the type of precipitant originating turning points in CBMA negotiations between automobile manufacturers. The second quantitative phase entailed a factorial experimental design and questionnaires to evaluate motivational and relational factors' role in shaping the negotiators' response to the previously identified precipitants. The simulations extensively conformed to a real case, and the sample of experimental participants consisted of executives with at least seven years of negotiation experience. The findings indicate that negotiation outcomes are significantly influenced by elements internal to the negotiation process, with contextual factors (including culture) exhibiting only a marginal influence. The conclusions also highlight the critical role of coalition-building in shaping the negotiation process. The results supplement current literature and provide a roadmap for managers to better prepare, identifying the three crucial behavioural factors that shape negotiators' response to precipitants and significantly influence the outcome of CBMA negotiations between automobile manufacturers: the seller's motivation and power perception and the buyer's affective trust

Phosphorus fertilizing potential of biomass ashes and their effect on bioavailability of micronutrients in wheat (Triticum aestivum. L)

Ashes from agricultural biomass in agro-based industries have been found to have most of the plant nutrients except nitrogen and sulphur but are treated as waste material. The present study was conducted to evaluate the potential of biomass ashes as source of P and their effect on bioavailability of micronutrients in wheat crop. We conducted the pot experiment at glass house of the Department of Soil Science, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, India. The experiment consisted of combinations of four P sources [bagasse ash (BA), rice husk ash (RHA), rice straw ash (RSA), fertilizer P (Fert-P)] supplying P at three levels (10, 20 and 30 µg g-1) along with one zero-P control. This experiment was laid out in completely randomized design (CRD) having three replications. Application of P through RSA produced significantly higher grain yield (14.3 g pot-1) than BA (12.8 g pot-1) and RHA (12.9 g pot-1) but statistically at par with Fert-P (13.5 g pot-1). Grain Zn content decreased maximum than other micronutrients with application of P from all sources, hence maximum increased P/Zn ratio. Phosphorus applied from all the biomass ashes significantly increased biomass and yield over control. With increase in P application, micronutrients content in grain was significantly decreased, hence decreased bioavailability of micronutrients in wheat grain

A framework for refining soil microbial indices as bioindicators during decomposition of various organic residues in a sandy loam soil

Assessment of soil quality is an invaluable tool in determining the sustainability and environmental impact of agricultural ecosystems. Soil microbial indices like microbial biomass and microbial activity are important criteria for the determination of soil quality. Laboratory incubation study was undertaken to examine the influence of eight crop residues widely varying in biochemical composition on the periodic changes in important soil microbial indices {(microbial (Cmic: Corg), metabolic (qCO2), carbon mineralization (qC) and microbial biomass change rate (qM) quotients)} at 28 days and 63 days after incubation (DAI) in a sandy loam soil. A. sativa amended soil showed maximum soil respiration rate (14.23 mg CO2-C g-1 soil day-1) whereas T. aestivum amended soil showed maximum microbial biomass C (790 µg/g). The metabolic quotient among different crop residues ranged from 11.1 to 19.8 ?g CO2-C ?g-biomass-C-1 h-1 at 63 DAI. The results indicate that incorporation of different crop residues has positive effect on microbial flora and their activity. Microbial quotient (Cmic:Corg) was significantly positively correlated with microbial biomass carbon (MBC), qC and qM. The study suggests that the biochemical composition of different crop residues seems to be of better option for long term sustainable crop production with maintenance of soil quality in a sandy loam soil

A MODIS-based energy balance to estimate evapotranspiration for clear-sky days in Brazilian tropical savannas

Evapotranspiration (ET) plays an important role in global climate dynamics and in primary production of terrestrial ecosystems; it represents the mass and energy transfer from the land to atmosphere. Limitations to measuring ET at large scales using ground-based methods have motivated the development of satellite remote sensing techniques. The purpose of this work is to evaluate the accuracy of the SEBAL algorithm for estimating surface turbulent heat fluxes at regional scale, using 28 images from MODIS. SEBAL estimates are compared with eddy-covariance (EC) measurements and results from the hydrological model MGB-IPH. SEBAL instantaneous estimates of latent heat flux (LE) yielded r 2= 0.64 and r2 = 0.62 over sugarcane croplands and savannas when compared against in situ EC estimates. At the same sites, daily aggregated estimates of LE were r 2 = 0.76 and r2 = 0.66, respectively. Energy balance closure showed that turbulent fluxes over sugarcane croplands were underestimated by 7% and 9% over savannas. Average daily ET from SEBAL is in close agreement with estimates from the hydrological model for an overlay of 38,100 km2 (r2 = 0.88). Inputs to which the algorithm is most sensitive are vegetation index (NDVI), gradient of temperature (dT) to compute sensible heat flux (H) and net radiation (Rn). It was verified that SEBAL has a tendency to overestimate results both at local and regional scales probably because of low sensitivity to soil moisture and water stress. Nevertheless the results confirm the potential of the SEBAL algorithm, when used with MODIS images for estimating instantaneous LE and daily ET from large areas

Evaluating the Potential of Commercial Forest Inventory Data to Report on Forest Carbon Stock and Forest Carbon Stock Changes for REDD+ under the UNFCCC

In the context of the adoption at the 16th Conference of the Parties in 2010 on the REDD+ mitigation mechanism, it is important to obtain reliable data on the spatiotemporal variation of forest carbon stocks and changes (called Emission Factor, EF). A re-occurring debate in estimating EF for REDD+ is the use of existing field measurement data. We provide an assessment of the use of commercial logging inventory data and ecological data to estimate a conservative EF (REDD+ phase 2) or to report on EF following IPCC Guidance and Guidelines (REDD+ phase 3). The data presented originate from five logging companies dispersed over Gabon, totalling 2,240 plots of 0.3 hectares.We distinguish three Forest Types (FTs) in the dataset based on floristic conditions. Estimated mean aboveground biomass (AGB) in the FTs ranges from 312 to 333 Mg ha-1. A 5% accuracy is reached with the number of plots put in place for the FTs and a low sampling uncertainty obtained (± 10 to 13 Mg ha-1). The data could be used to estimate a conservative EF in REDD+ phase 2 and only partially to report on EF following tier 2 requirements for a phase 3

Phenology and Seasonal Ecosystem Productivity in an Amazonian Floodplain Forest

everal studies have explored the linkages between phenology and ecosystem productivity across the Amazon basin. However, few studies have focused on flooded forests, which correspond to c.a. 14% of the basin. In this study, we assessed the seasonality of ecosystem productivity (gross primary productivity, GPP) from eddy covariance measurements, environmental drivers and phenological patterns obtained from the field (leaf litter mass) and satellite measurements (enhanced vegetation index (EVI) from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer/multi-angle implementation correction (MODIS/MAIAC)) in an Amazonian floodplain forest. We found that ecosystem productivity is limited by soil moisture in two different ways. During the flooded period, the excess of water limits GPP (Spearman’s correlation; rho = −0.22), while during non-flooded months, GPP is positively associated with soil moisture (rho = 0.34). However, GPP is maximized when cumulative water deficit (CWD) increases (rho = 0.81), indicating that GPP is dependent on the amount of water available. EVI was positively associated with leaf litter mass (Pearson’s correlation; r = 0.55) and with GPP (r = 0.50), suggesting a coupling between new leaf production and the phenology of photosynthetic capacity, decreasing both at the peak of the flooded period and at the end of the dry season. EVI was able to describe the inter-annual variations on forest responses to environmental drivers, which have changed during an observed El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) year (2015/2016)

Size and frequency of natural forest disturbances and Amazon carbon balance

Forest inventory studies in the Amazon indicate a large terrestrial carbon sink. However, field plots may fail to represent forest mortality processes at landscape-scales of tropical forests. Here we characterize the frequency distribution of disturbance events in natural forests from 0.01 ha to 2,651 ha size throughout Amazonia using a novel combination of forest inventory, airborne lidar and satellite remote sensing data. We find that small-scale mortality events are responsible for aboveground biomass losses of B1.28 Pg C y 1 over the entire Amazon region. We also find that intermediate-scale disturbances account for losses of B0.01 Pg C y 1 , and that the largest-scale disturbances as a result of blow-downs only account for losses of B0.003 Pg C y 1 . Simulation of growth and mortality indicates that even when all carbon losses from intermediate and large-scale disturbances are considered, these are outweighed by the net biomass accumulation by tree growth, supporting the inference of an Amazon carbon sink

Linking functional traits to multiscale statistics of leaf venation networks

Funding Information UK Natural Environment Research Council. Grant Number: NE/M019160/1 US National Science Foundation. Grant Number: DEB‐2025282 NERC Human‐modified Tropical Forest Programme. Grant Number: NE/M017508/1 Biodiversity And Land‐use Impacts on Tropical Ecosystem Function (BALI). Grant Numbers: NE/K016253/1, NE/K016253/1 Sime Darby Foundation Stability of Altered Forest Ecosystems (SAFE) Project Sabah Biodiversity Council Institute for Tropical Biology and Conservation (ITBC) at the University of Malaysia, Sabah (UMS) Sabah Forest Research Centre (FRC) at Sepilok Sabah Forestry Department SEARRP, Yayasan Sabah (Maliau Basin Conservation Area) Maliau Basin and Danum Valley Management Committees Acknowledgements Fieldwork was supported by Unding Jami, Matheus Henrique Nuñes, Rudi Saul Cruz Chino, Milenka Ximena Montoya, and South East Asia Rainforest Research Program (SEARRP) staff. Research was facilitated by Rob Ewers, Laura Kruitbos, Reuben Nilus, Glen Reynolds, and Charles Vairappan. Species identifications were made by Bernadus Bala Ola, Bill McDonald, Alexander Karolus, and MinSheng Khoo. This work also was supported by the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC; no. NE/M019160/1, to BB) and the US National Science Foundation (no. DEB‐2025282, to BB). This publication is a contribution from the NERC Human‐modified Tropical Forest Programme (no. NE/M017508/1, to YAT) and Biodiversity And Land‐use Impacts on Tropical Ecosystem Function (BALI) consortium (no. NE/K016253/1, to YM and no. NE/K016253/1, to YAT). The SAFE Project was funded by the Sime Darby Foundation and the UK NERC. The study areas are part of the Global Ecosystems Monitoring Network (GEM) via an ERC Advanced Investigator Award to YM (no. 321131). The project also was supported by the Stability of Altered Forest Ecosystems (SAFE) Project, the Sabah Biodiversity Council (SaBC, permits JKM/MBS.1000‐2/2 JLD.3‐126 and ‐154), the Institute for Tropical Biology and Conservation (ITBC) at the University of Malaysia, Sabah (UMS), the Sabah Forest Research Centre (FRC) at Sepilok, the Sabah Forestry Department, the SEARRP, Yayasan Sabah (Maliau Basin Conservation Area), and the Maliau Basin and Danum Valley Management Committees. Sean Gleason and several anonymous reviewers provided constructive feedback on the manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD