Du fait de biais dont souffrent les dirigeants d’entreprises lorsqu’ils prennent des décisions d’acquisition, le M&A a une longue tradition de ne pas générer des retours positifs pour les acheteurs. Au travers de 3 essais, notre recherche explore l’impact de récentes évolutions de l’environnement économique et social, incluant 1) le déploiement des normes IFRS, 2) le développement des comités de conseil d’administration ou de surveillance, et 3) la publication de la Loi NRE, sur la performance M&A des acquéreurs en France. Analysant les rendements anormaux générés au moment où une acquisition est faite, nous trouvons que la performance M&A ne s’est pas améliorée, principalement du fait que les principaux changements intervenus ont laissé un important pouvoir discrétionnaire au management mais aussi parce l’adoption de nouvelles pratiques de marché ont pu être intégrées par les investisseurs dans leur évaluation de résultats d’acquisition. Nous trouvons aussi que les stratégies RSE ont un impact négatif. Cependant, nous trouvons que la mise en place de comités de conseil et l’entrée en vigueur de la Loi NRE, qui ont pu conduire à une transparence accrue de l’information, ont eu un impact positif. / Because management suffers from biases when making acquisition decisions, M&A has been having a longstanding reputation for providing acquirers with no or limited returns. Through 3 essays, our research explores the impact of recent evolution in business environment, including 1) the implementation of IFRS regulations, 2) the development of board committees popularized following SOX regulations, and 3) the implementation of the NRE Law, on acquirers’ M&A performance in France. Analyzing abnormal returns generated at the time of an acquisition is made, we find that M&A performance has not overall improved, mainly because most the changes reviewed can be assumed to leave a significant space for managerial discretion but also because new business practices become market standards integrated by investors when valuing acquisition outcomes. We also find CSR strategies to have a negative impact on M&A performance. We however find that the implementation of a board committee and the enforcement of the NRE Law in France, that may lead to more information transparency, have had a positive impact.

Sensemaking is often associated with processing large or complex amount of data obtained from diverse and distributed sources. Sensemaking enables leaders to have a better grasp of what the data represents and what insights they can get from it. Thus, sensemaking is considered extremely important in mature markets where the competition is fierce. To-date, the research base on sensemaking has not moved far from the conceptual realm, however. In response, this research provides a conceptual framework that explains the core processes of sensemaking - noticing, interpretation and action - and examines how emerging technologies such as Social Network Analysis (SNA) and Machine Learning (ML) techniques help to enhance the human sensemaking process in generating valuable insights during data analysis. Design Science Research (DSR) is adopted as a research methodology in the context of financial transactional data analysis, aiming to make sense of the data while exploring conceptions of customer value for a mainstream commercial bank alongside the perceived need for banking products. Three analytical models are introduced, examining Connected Customer Lifetime Value (CCLV), Network Relationship Equity (NRE) and product purchasing frequency based on customer 'personas'. The former models employ SNA techniques in providing novelty, the latter combines the outcomes of SNA with ML clustering algorithms to provide a base on which product holdings and purchase frequency analysis are overlaid - providing a novel form of recommendation. Ongoing evaluation of the developed models is used to explore the nuances of the sensemaking process and the ability of such models to support that process (in the given domain).

Selection of optimum nitrogen (N) fertilizer timing, rate, and placement strategies by corn (Zea mays L.) producers are among their most important annual management decisions. Much research has been conducted on pre-plant, at-plant, and one or more sidedress timings for N application to corn, but few public-sector studies employ modern technological approaches for N placement in their experimental designs. Research gaps on optimum placements for at-plant N systems are especially acute when N banding quantity exceeds 20% of the intended season-long N rate. Previous sidedress research has rarely utilized modern N placement tools with high clearance delivery devices for early and late in-season sidedress timings when >50% of the season-long N rate was already applied at planting. Therefore, this 2017 and 2018 Indiana-based field research addressed three questions i) are corn planters that deliver 50% to 100% of a full-season N rate at traditional or alternate band placements capable of matching or exceeding grain yields achieved by lower starter fertilizer N rates, ii) what is the impact of split N management on grain yield and/or N fertilizer recovery efficiency (NRE) when ≥50% of the total N rate is supplied at-plant, and iii) do alternate sidedress N placements (i.e. soil-surface streaming versus injection versus broadcast at multiple timings) in split-N sidedress applications influence grain yield and aboveground plant recovery of N fertilizer?<p></p> <p>To evaluate the consequences of moderate to high N rates banded at planting, urea-ammonium nitrate (UAN) was coulter-banded with a prototype Deere DB20 row-crop planter as close as 5cm x 5cm (5x5) (distance from soil surface x distance from seed row) to as far as 10x20 at planter applied N rates of 34, 101, and/or 202 kg ha-1. These at-plant applications were followed by a V5 to V6 stage mid-row sidedress application (if required) to achieve a uniform total N rate of 202 kg N ha-1. Analyses were primarily focused on 5x5 and 10x5 starter band positions as these were the only placements represented at the 34 kg N ha-1 rate. In these placement comparisons, 5x5 banding yielded similarly to 10x5 banding in 2017, but increased yield 6.6% (averaged across 34, 101, and 202 kg N ha-1 rates) in 2018. Corn grown in 2018 with at-plant rates of 101 and 202 kg N ha-1 produced grain yields statistically similar to or greater than that obtained with the 34 kg N ha-1 rate (averaged across 5x5 and 10x5 placements). In 2018, the 101 kg N ha-1 rate increased yields by 14.8% and NRE by 18.5 g g-1 compared to banding of 34 kg N ha-1. A secondary analysis included 6 placements (5x5, 5x13, 5x20, 10x5, 10x13, and 10x20) at just the 101 and 202 kg N ha-1 rates. Among these additional placement treatment combinations (averaged across 101 and 202 kg N ha-1 rates), both 5x13 and 10x20 banding reduced grain yield in 2018 by 12.5% and 10.1%, respectively, when compared to 5x5 banding. No yield differences among these 6 at-plant placements were found in 2017. Therefore, moderate to high N rates can be banded safely at-planting with the typically close starter fertilizer placements, but higher NRE and optimum yields can be achieved when a 50:50 split N fertilizer management approach is used.</p> <p>The optimal sidedress experiment targeted placement and/or timing impacts on corn yields and NRE when at-plant N was ≥50% and sidedress N was ≤50% of the total N rate. Single at-plant (AP) applications at total N rates of 26 (Zero), 112 (AP_112) and 224 (AP_224) kg N ha-1 were compared to split applications of 202 kg N ha-1 (with ~55% of total N applied at-plant plus the balance at sidedress). Sidedress N was applied at V5 or V12 timings with surface streamed versus subsurface injection of UAN, or via high-clearance broadcasting of urea at the V8-stage. In nearly every split sidedress approach, apart from the V12 injection treatment in 2017, grain yields and NRE with split-N sidedress responded similarly to AP_224 each year despite the reduced total N rate at 202 kg N ha-1. Both V12 streaming and AP_224 yielded 6.7% more than the V12 injection approach in 2017. The reduced yield in 2017 from late-season injection contributed to the 4.6% grain yield gain for surface-streaming applications (averaged across timings) with no apparent NRE advantage.</p> <p>These responses confirmed that in-season sidedress N placement influenced yield and, in our case, the surface-streaming advantage over injection was most evident at V12 where late vegetative to flowering rainfall was plentiful. Similarly, planter N placement was not influenced by N band depth as much as by N band distance from the seed row where 13 and 20cm distances occasionally decreased yield in 2018. This research provided evidence of modern placement technology impacts at planting and sidedress times where UAN placed near corn seeds in the seed-furrow and/or plants in the row never reduced, and occasionally increased, grain yield and/or N recovery in corn cropping systems.</p> <p> </p>

No / This paper presents a framework for high-level exploration, Register Transfer-Level (RTL) design and rapid prototyping of Network-on-Chip (NoC) architectures. From the high-level exploration, a selected NoC topology is derived, which is then implemented in RTL using an automated design flow. Furthermore, for verification purposes, appropriate self-checking testbenches for the verification of the RTL and architecture files for the semi-automatic implementation of the system in Xilinx EDK are also generated, significantly reducing design and verification time, and therefore Non-Recurring Engineering (NRE) cost. Simulation and FPGA implementation results are given for four case studies multimedia applications, proving the validity of the proposed approach.