No description available.

No description available.

Oil is an important part of the Saudi economy. With the volatility of oil prices and the pressing needs of economic growth and development, the Saudi Arabian government has planned to diversify its sources of income. To this end, the majority of effort has focused on developing the non-oil export sectors, particularly in manufacturing. Despite government efforts to enhance the ratio of non-oil export to total exports, it remains weak, amounting to 15 per cent of total exports in 2010 (which compares unfavourably with the average for other Middle East and North Africa countries (MENA) which stood between 30-46 per cent in 2010). This research aims to provide a comprehensive assessment of non-oil exports and their financing in Saudi Arabia. This study uses unique, primary data, collected through a custom designed questionnaire and a unique sample of Saudi exports. There is currently no comparable database for Saudi firms, or for other MENA countries trying to engage in export diversification strategies. This dissertation comprises three main empirical parts which are; ownership structure and operations, finance, and business climate, respectively (chapters 3, 4 and 5). In the first, the econometric analysis shows multiple factors have a significant positive impact on export intensity, including: whether the firm is shareholding, the age of the firm, internationally and locally recognised quality certificate, length of export experience, supplies of domestic origin, independent retail stores, TV or radio advertising, a foreign language website and finally an export marketing plan. Regarding the impact of financial factors on exports at firm level, the econometric analysis showed that younger firms are more likely to be credit-constrained than older firms. Finally, this dissertation provides evidence of the relationship between the business environment, competition and firm’s exports. The main findings show that firm performance, measured as intensity of exports, is boosted by an increase in experience of export and hindered by a high level of labour, competition, custom and trade regulation, and the informal sector.

This thesis explores effects of uncertainty on firm investment that are described in estimates of firm level investment specifications which include proxies for uncertainty over expected future firm profitability. A panel data set of UK firms covering the period 1987-2000 is used to estimate firm level investment specifications. Within year volatility in stock returns - a common proxy for firm specific uncertainty in previous literature - is compared with covariance measures between stock returns and market returns representing un-diversifiable risk from the CAPM; and with alternative uncertainty proxies based on volatility in I/B/E/S securities analysts' forecasts of earnings per share. Within estimates of firm level investment specifications, the thesis investigates the sensitivity of coefficients on uncertainty terms to the choice of underlying investment specification: error correction model between the natural logarithms of capital and sales; or the Hayashi (1982) Q model of investment. Coefficients on stock return volatility measures of uncertainty terms are found to vary significantly between estimates of error correction and average q specifications. Differences between coefficients estimated on uncertainty terms across estimates of these two investment specifications are supported with simulated data. Uncertainty measures based on volatility in I/B/E/S securities analysts' forecasts of earnings per share are found to be much more informative of investment behaviour than within year stock return volatility in estimates of both error correction and average q specifications. Coefficients on I/B/E/S uncertainty proxies imply more consistent investment-uncertainty relationships across estimates of error correction and average q specifications for the UK panel data set.

Using a novel deal/patent dataset from 1986 through 2005, this paper explores the role of knowledge flow on the firm boundary decision. I use patent self-citations and cross-citations from the United States patent database as a proxy to measure knowledge flow between and within firms. When analyzing partnerships (strategic alliances and joint ventures), I find that firms with a higher percentage of patent self-citations are more likely to choose a more integrative boundary. Additionally, the level of integration chosen is positively related to the frequency of cross-citations between firms following the formation of the partnership. Firms in partnerships also see higher abnormal returns around the partnership announcement date when their partnering firm has a higher percentage of self-citations. I find weak to no evidence that these results hold for mergers/acquisitions. Overall, the evidence suggests that knowledge assets do play a pivotal role in the firm boundary choice.

Mergers and Acquisitions can be very exciting events for organizations. The promise of top and bottom line growth through synergy with another company can excite executives. Unfortunately, research has shown, this promise very seldom realizes as acquisitions are complex process that require understanding and commitment from all parties, both from the acquiring firm and the acquired firm. The study will start off reviewing the processes that define, in general terms, implementation of mergers and acquisitions. This will be following by a review of the experience of the SASOL Oil acquisition of EXEL Petroleum. A detail investigation of the actual process adopted by the latter organizations will be investigated through empirical research. And finally, the focus of this review is to identify gaps, a lack of certain process and their implementation and statements and actions of ambiguities and ambiguous situations. The resultant outcome of this investigation will assist the researcher, in establishing whether the acquisition of EXEL Petroleum by SASOL Oil provided synergistic value, and whether the implementation of the integration process was thorough and successful. / Prof. A. Boessenkool

Family firms are ubiquitous around the world. Family involvement in family businesses gives rise to unique features that not only make family firms behave distinctively from their nonamily counterparts but also lead to great variations among such firms. From an innovation perspective, while family firms are regarded as conservative businesses that lack an innovation spirit in some studies, others recognize family firms as key economic drivers demonstrate entrepreneurial spirit. This dissertation is an attempt to advance the understanding of family firm innovation heterogeneity by focusing on the role of family CEOs. In particular, this research explores what idiosyncratic resources and capabilities are generated from family management, specifically when a family member holds the CEO position. Employing a capability-based perspective of firm innovation, this research posits that the impact of a family CEO on firm innovation is twoold. Family CEOs have a direct impact on firm innovation due to the distinctive resources possessed and the unique goals pursued. Family CEOs also have an indirect impact on firm innovation via the configuration and orchestration of other top management team (TMT) members’ competencies, which manifests as high-order, idiosyncratic managerial capabilities. Therefore, superior or inferior family firm innovation is the result of both TMT members’ unique competencies acquired and developed by family firms as well as family CEOs’ idiosyncratic managerial capabilities. A randomly selected sample of 250 high-technology firms was used for the empirical tests. Findings suggest that family CEOs have a direct impact on firm innovation input and output and that family CEOs configure and orchestrate TMT resources distinctively compared to their professional counterparts. The results reveal theoretical implications for both family business and firm innovation and offer practical implications for leaders of family firms.

No description available.

This thesis consists of a summary and five self-contained papers addressing dynamics of firms in the Swedish wholesale trade sector. Paper [1] focuses upon determinants of new firm formation in the Swedish wholesale trade sector, using two definitions of firms’ relevant markets, markets defined as administrative areas, and markets based on a cost minimizing behavior of retailers. The paper shows that new entering firms tend to avoid regions with already high concentration of other firms in the same branch of wholesaling, while right-of-the-center local government and quality of the infrastructure have positive impacts upon entry of new firms. The signs of the estimated coefficients remain the same regardless which definition of relevant market is used, while the size of the coefficients is generally higher once relevant markets delineated on the cost-minimizing assumption of retailers are used. Paper [2] analyses determinant of firm relocation, distinguishing between the role of the factors in in-migration municipalities and out-migration municipalities. The results of the analysis indicate that firm-specific factors, such as profits, age and size of the firm are negatively related to the firm’s decision to relocate. Furthermore, firms seems to be avoiding municipalities with already high concentration of firms operating in the same industrial branch of wholesaling and also to be more reluctant to leave municipalities governed by right-of-the- center parties. Lastly, firms seem to avoid moving to municipalities characterized with high population density. Paper [3] addresses determinants of firm growth, adopting OLS and a quantile regression technique. The results of this paper indicate that very little of the firm growth can be explained by the firm-, industry- and region-specific factors, controlled for in the estimated models. Instead, the firm growth seems to be driven by internal characteristics of firms, factors difficult to capture in conventional statistics. This result supports Penrose’s (1959) suggestion that internal resources such as firm culture, brand loyalty, entrepreneurial skills, and so on, are important determinants of firm growth rates. Paper [4] formulates a forecasting model for firm entry into local markets and tests this model using data from the Swedish wholesale industry. The empirical analysis is based on directly estimating the profit function of wholesale firms and identification of low- and high-return local markets. The results indicate that 19 of 30 estimated models have more net entry in high-return municipalities, but the estimated parameters is only statistically significant at conventional level in one of our estimated models, and then with unexpected negative sign. Paper [5] studies effects of firm relocation on firm profits of relocating firms, employing a difference-in-difference propensity score matching. Using propensity score matching, the pre-relocalization differences between relocating and non-relocating firms are balanced, while the difference-in-difference estimator controls for all time-invariant unobserved heterogeneity among firms. The results suggest that firms that relocate increase their profits significantly, in comparison to what the profits would be had the firms not relocated. This effect is estimated to vary between 3 to 11 percentage points, depending on the length of the analyzed period.

No description available.