This study investigates the causes and consequences of acquisitions primarily foreign acquisitions undertaken by UK publicly listed firms. Firm- and country-specific factors are found to influence the propensity to acquire and the location of the acquired subsidiary. Indicators of a firm's organisational experience, such as firm size, profitability, and its investment history, increase the probability that an acquisition (relative to no acquisition) is undertaken. Larger and more profitable firms are also more inclined to invest abroad (rather than at home), as are firms engaged in RandD activities. In choosing among foreign locations, an increase in country-specific uncertainty (proxied by exchange rate and stock market volatility) deters a firm from investing in that location. Likewise, at the firm level, uncertainty is found to discourage a firm from acquiring (relative to not acquiring), and to deter an acquirer from undertaking a foreign (relative to a domestic) acquisition. Based on changes in industry-adjusted profit levels, acquiring firms in general perform poorly after making large foreign acquisitions. However, examining profit variability reveals interestingly that firms more likely to experience a decline in profit levels are also more likely to enjoy a reduction in profit variability, and vice versa, which suggests that a risk-return tradeoff could be a consideration when acquisitions are undertaken. When acquisition performance is evaluated on the basis of a firm's share price response to its acquisition announcement, the event study shows no evidence of negative performance. Resolving this discrepancy between the two performance measures leads us to examine the reliability of the stock market as an indicator of acquisition outcomes. On the one hand the immediate stock market reaction has some ability to predict a firm's postacquisition performance, while on the other post-acquisition stock returns are shown to be not completely consistent with market efficiency.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has a long history; as a matter of fact, it has been developing at an unprecedented pace in the recent years. The swift development might be tempting for observers to suppose that CSR is evolving into a permanent phenomenon, embodying a new form of business-society relationship at both national and international level. Naturally, the reality is always more complex than it might seem at first sight.

Master's thesis. / Format: PDF. Bibl.

Würzburg, Universität, Thesis (doctoral), 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (p. xxvi-liv).

Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 80-84). Also available online in Scholars' Bank; and in ProQuest, free to University of Oregon users.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Richard Ivey School of Business, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 229-248).

Frankfurt (Oder), Europa-Universität Viadrina, Thesis (doctoral), 2000. / Includes bibliographical references.

Resistance of subsidiaries of multinational corporations to global coordination efforts by their headquarters is an important contemporary research subject in the field of international business studies. This case study of sales and marketing organizations in five international subsidiaries of a highly divisionalized corporation illustrates how the capabilities and the willingness to adopt and pursue global strategies is strongly influenced by local situational and organizational factors. The defining business problem was different in each country organization, ranging from product related issues such as quick innovation cycles and price competition, to economic concerns like emerging market dynamics and economic crisis, and other problems related to cultural dissimilarity. A large degree of divisionalization seems to dilute central leadership, as central managers compete for the attention and the resources of the subsidiaries and local managers behave like independent distributors, picking and choosing the most favorable offerings. In order to establish successful leadership in the absence of hierarchical control, intermediate central sales and marketing managers need to first of all internally coordinate their activities towards their local counterparts. Top management needs to establish legitimate authority of intermediate managers by clear definitions of international matrix roles and management procedures. Central sales and marketing managers need to have enough international field experience to be able to correctly assess the different local situations, advance their initiatives in a diplomatic way on all local hierarchy levels and to become overall credible and accepted partners for the local teams. Directly engaging in field activities with local customers and sales teams seems to help achieving these objectives and thus to contribute to the successful enforcement of global strategies.

This thesis analyzes the development of Multinational Corporations and their changing position and effects on International Relations. The historical evolution of multinationals with important historical milestones in their development, the definition, the concepts and their changing power capabilities and effects on nation states, international organizations and international relations will be discussed in this study. This thesis will also put forward some important case studies from the biggest American multinationals giving answers to questions such as to what extend can American multinationals effect inter-state relations or do giant multinationals became equivalent actors as nation states, what kind of interdependence do multinationals create among other actors.

Resistance of subsidiaries of multinational corporations to global coordination efforts by their headquarters is an important contemporary research subject in the field of international business studies. This case study of sales and marketing organizations in five international subsidiaries of a highly divisionalized corporation illustrates how the capabilities and the willingness to adopt and pursue global strategies is strongly influenced by local situational and organizational factors. The defining business problem was different in each country organization, ranging from product related issues such as quick innovation cycles and price competition, to economic concerns like emerging market dynamics and economic crisis, and other problems related to cultural dissimilarity. A large degree of divisionalization seems to dilute central leadership, as central managers compete for the attention and the resources of the subsidiaries and local managers behave like independent distributors, picking and choosing the most favorable offerings. In order to establish successful leadership in the absence of hierarchical control, intermediate central sales and marketing managers need to first of all internally coordinate their activities towards their local counterparts. Top management needs to establish legitimate authority of intermediate managers by clear definitions of international matrix roles and management procedures. Central sales and marketing managers need to have enough international field experience to be able to correctly assess the different local situations, advance their initiatives in a diplomatic way on all local hierarchy levels and to become overall credible and accepted partners for the local teams. Directly engaging in field activities with local customers and sales teams seems to help achieving these objectives and thus to contribute to the successful enforcement of global strategies.