Kulturunterschiede bei Mergers & Acquisitions: Entwicklung eines Konzeptes zur Durchführung einer Cultural Due Diligence

Several investigations came to the conclusion that, considering in retrospect, most Mergers & Acquisitions were not successful. Differences in the corporate cultures are often quoted as being responsible for the failures. So, the question arises how such failures can be prevented in future. Conducting a Cultural Due Diligence is a possibility to examine differences in corporate cultures, even before a merger takes place. That is why, after a description of general culture concepts, we discuss various attempts at Cultural Due Diligence of consultancy firms. Referring to these attempts at Cultural Due Diligence as well as to the general culture concepts, we draft a further developed concept at the end of this working paper

Kulturunterschiede bei Mergers & Acquisitions: Entwicklung eines Konzeptes zur Durchführung einer Cultural Due Diligence

Several investigations came to the conclusion that, considering in retrospect, most Mergers & Acquisitions were not successful. Differences in the corporate cultures are often quoted as being responsible for the failures. So, the question arises how such failures can be prevented in future. Conducting a Cultural Due Diligence is a possibility to examine differences in corporate cultures, even before a merger takes place. That is why, after a description of general culture concepts, we discuss various attempts at Cultural Due Diligence of consultancy firms. Referring to these attempts at Cultural Due Diligence as well as to the general culture concepts, we draft a further developed concept at the end of this working paper. --Culture,cultural due diligence,mergers & acquisitions

Human capital in Unternehmen: unterschiedliche Ansätze zur Messung des Humankapitals

After a short review on the history of human capital measurement we describe and discuss different approaches that are in use to assess the intangible assetts of an organisation based on knowledge and behaviour. While deductive indicators help to rise the questions on the value of intangible assests, they are inapproriate to build any managerial decision on them. Inductive methods like the Intangible Assets Monitor or the Intellectual Capital Navigator pathed the way to a better understanding of human capital. In the future more holistic appraoches like Balanced Scorecard and the assessments based on the Business Excellence Model of EFQM seem to be even more promising. Nevertheless none of the approaches can yet fulfill the demands of accounting standards

Human capital in Unternehmen: unterschiedliche Ansätze zur Messung des Humankapitals

After a short review on the history of human capital measurement we describe and discuss different approaches that are in use to assess the intangible assetts of an organisation based on knowledge and behaviour. While deductive indicators help to rise the questions on the value of intangible assests, they are inapproriate to build any managerial decision on them. Inductive methods like the Intangible Assets Monitor or the Intellectual Capital Navigator pathed the way to a better understanding of human capital. In the future more holistic appraoches like Balanced Scorecard and the assessments based on the Business Excellence Model of EFQM seem to be even more promising. Nevertheless none of the approaches can yet fulfill the demands of accounting standards. --Human Capital , Intellectual Capital

Latin Hypercube Sampling with Dependence and Applications in Finance

In Monte Carlo simulation, Latin hypercube sampling (LHS) [McKay et al. (1979)] is a well-known variance reduction technique for vectors of independent random variables. The method presented here, Latin hypercube sampling with dependence (LHSD), extends LHS to vectors of dependent random variables. The resulting estimator is shown to be consistent and asymptotically unbiased. For the bivariate case and under some conditions on the joint distribution, a central limit theorem together with a closed formula for the limit variance are derived. It is shown that for a class of estimators satisfying some monotonicity condition, the LHSD limit variance is never greater than the corresponding Monte Carlo limit variance. In some valuation examples of financial payoffs, when compared to standard Monte Carlo simulation, a variance reduction of factors up to 200 is achieved. LHSD is suited for problems with rare events and for high-dimensional problems, and it may be combined with Quasi-Monte Carlo methods

A Spatial Interpretation of the Persistency of China's Provincial Inequality

China's rapid economic growth in recent decades has not led to balanced income distribution: inter- and intra-provincial income inequality have been increasing and their respective contribution to the total income inequality remains relatively stable. Based on a new set of prefectural database during a relatively longer period from 1994 to 2008 on Chinese economic development, this paper investigates the nexus between the spatial dependence and income inequality in China on a prefectural level. Using the decomposition results of the inequality and spatial dependence of inter- and intra-provincial groups, and also the choropleth maps of clusters in China, this paper reaches the conclusion that clusters of prefectures and provinces with high positive spatial association are persistent over years in China, and the resulting highly correlated income disparity on both inter- and intra-provincial levels might be lasting for a relatively longer period, implying that spatial dependence is a contributing factor to the regional income inequality in a spatial context

Embedded Interests and the Managerial Local State: Methanol Fuel-Switching in China

This paper analyzes the determinants of alternative automobile fuel regulation and development support with a particular focus on methanol fuel. We find that embedded interests, bureaucratic reforms, and political circumstances in the Chinese national, provincial, and municipal governments have all shaped policy outcomes in this area. The paper seeks to explain why at, the national level, support for alternative fuels has waned and finds that the concerns of state oil majors and disorganization during the process of national bureaucratic restructuring have been the deciding factors. Interestingly, at the sub-national level promotion of methanol continues unabated in some places. At the local level, business relationships as well as the embedded economic and personal interests of local leaders help to explain managerial local government behavior and sheds light on why government officials actively create and manage methanol fuel business opportunities through local standardization, subsidies, and hands-on management of SOE opposition. The switch towards methanol fuel was more successful in localities where individuals, either government officials or enterprise managers, formed an alliance and made this their 'pet projects'. The analysis draws on 55 interviews conducted between June and October 2010 in Shanxi, a major coal-producing province which has supported methanol fuel-switching programs for over ten years. The findings contribute to debates about the condition of the local state in China. The argument put forward in this paper is that because of limited state capacity at the central level and insufficient concerns for the development of alternative fuels in the short-term, some sub-national governments with strong embedded interests promote certain alternative fuels by taking on active managerial roles, adopting creative and ad-hoc strategies to fill in the national level policy gap at the local level

The Theory of Real Options as Theoretical Foundation for the Assessment of Human Capital in Organizations

The human capital represented by corporate employees involved in the information and knowledge economy is becoming an increasingly central value-creating factor in global competition. However, in contrast to other value-creating factors, human capi-tal is more difficult to measure, evaluate and manage. Due to human capital’s great importance for economic value creation, a series of studies on human capital evalua-tion have been published during the last few years. This paper discusses why so many traditional evaluation methods are only partly appropriate for categorizing, analyzing and evaluating human capital’s special characteristics. In particular, it is difficult for many traditional approaches to integrate notions of flexibility and options with regard to the human capital of companies. Our result shows that the real options theory provides a theoretical framework for the evaluation of human capital and allows a differentiated analysis that, on a qualitative basis, enables investments in uncertainties that are associated with human capital. This theory thus forms the foundation for the quantification of human capital’s inherent opportunities and risks. Consequently, this paper provides approaches for the future evaluation of human capital and a conceptual context for empirical studies.Human Capital, Real Options, Company Evaluation, Immaterial Assets, Company Value, Investment