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Thesis advisor: Amy Hutton / I investigate the effects of private information acquisition from M&A due diligence on bidders’ subsequent actions. Using a sample of negotiated and announced M&A deals that fail to close, I find that, following the failed transactions, bidders achieve higher investment efficiency and higher innovation outputs. Cross-sectional cuts demonstrate that the effects are more pronounced when a bidder has greater opportunities to learn from the target firms’ proprietary information. While bidders benefit through M&A negotiations, target firms bear costs from sharing proprietary information, as shown by a modest decline in their innovation and product outcomes. Overall, my study contributes to the understanding of the real effects of learning from peers’ proprietary information. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2022. / Submitted to: Boston College. Carroll School of Management. / Discipline: Accounting.

In the early 1970s, Henry County, Virginia experienced rapid growth but by the late 1970s the population began to decline. In 1982, talks of building a new high school to consolidate two smaller high schools began with the school to be built on the North Carolina boarder. Between 1993 and 2003 approximately 10,523 jobs were lost in Henry County. At this time Henry County operated 20 public schools. In 2000, Dr. Sharon Dodson became the superintendent of Henry County. She was hired to make schools more efficient by using the best available spaces and closing facilities in need of structural repair. In 2001 the school board voted to close three schools but the board of supervisors refused necessary funding for consolidation. During the 2003/04 school year, the school board had no other choice but to revisit the idea of consolidation. In the fall of 2004, reconfiguration occurred which eliminated four facilities with a fifth building closing in the spring of 2008. Today, Henry County operates 14 schools. This study examined the politics associated with the consolidation process in Henry County and closure of five facilities. The literature associated with consolidation concerning divisions and schools within a division was reviewed to provide context and better understanding of the consolidation process. Historical case study methods where employed to conduct the study. Data were collected from primary sources and interviews were handled qualitatively. Triangulation verification techniques were used to describe and verify consolidation events in Henry County. The findings express the issues and challenges faced and met by Henry County during consolidation. The events that led to school closings and some course offerings and programs are described. The findings indicate that consolidation can be successful even when some stakeholders reject the idea and plan of consolidation. Continued research in the field of consolidation could possibly benefit educational and community leaders considering reconfiguration within a school division. Additional research comparing the cost of operating a division before and after consolidation of schools may provide insights that educational and community members should consider before embarking on consolidation. / Ed. D.

Many factors can threaten the financial viability of communities, including an aging population and a lack of viable local industries and job opportunities that result in the out-migration of the workforce—both of which can result in a reduction of school-aged children within certain towns and regions. Hence, communities facing such challenges must consider ways to economize so that they can provide as many essential services as possible, and of a quality that best serves the local population. The consolidation of school divisions is one strategy to consider when localities are struggling financially and the numbers of students are declining. School consolidation is not a common occurrence in the U.S., which is why there is limited available research on the topic. In late-January 2021, the Virginia Board of Education voted unanimously in favor of the consolidation of Alleghany County and Covington City school divisions within the Alleghany Highlands, which is a region in Western Virginia beset by economic challenges and a declining population. This is the first consolidation of school divisions to be approved in the Commonwealth of Virginia since 2014, and only the third consolidation to occur since 1982. The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand the factors that led to the consolidation of Alleghany County Public School and Covington City Public Schools through an analysis of historical artifacts and interview data obtained from two composite groups of respondents with deep knowledge of the process: (a) current and/or former school employees (e.g., former and current superintendents and finance directors), and (b) current elected or appointed officials and community members from either Alleghany or Covington (e.g., council members and school board members). Three research questions guided this study: (1) What factors led to the decision to consolidate the school divisions of Alleghany County and Covington City? (2) Since this is not the first time that school division consolidation has been proposed in the Alleghany Highlands region, what factors were different or why were the factors weighed differently this time? (3) What role did funding made available by the General Assembly play in this decision? The findings obtained from interviewees were analyzed based on the most-cited factors to the least-cited factors. Among the prevalent themes that emerged from the qualitative data were the importance of trust and open lines of communication from the inception of the process, the good working relationships of those driving the process, community buy-in, and taking into account the regional identity and pulse of the community in decision-making. Also found to be important was illustrating how the consolidation would benefit students in increased course offerings. Given that only three school division consolidations have occurred in the Commonwealth of Virginia in almost four decades, it is expected that a record of the events and essential factors that were found to be pivotal in the decision to consolidate these two school divisions in the Alleghany Highlands could be useful to other school divisions, both in Virginia and elsewhere in the U.S. that might be considering a similar decision for both the fiscal health of the local communities and the best pedagogical outcome for students. / Doctor of Education / Many factors can threaten the financial viability of communities (e.g., an aging population and reduced job opportunities), which can result in a reduction in the number of school-aged children within certain towns and regions. Hence, many smaller, often rural, communities look to school consolidation as one strategy to consider when localities are struggling financially, and the numbers of students are declining. The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand the factors that led to the consolidation of Alleghany County Public School and Covington City Public Schools (located in the Alleghany Highlands region in far Southwest Virginia) through an analysis of historical artifacts and interview data obtained from two composite groups of respondents with deep knowledge of the process: (a) current and/or former school employees (e.g., former and current superintendents and finance directors), and (b) current elected or appointed officials and community members from either Alleghany or Covington (e.g., council members and school board members). Three research questions guided this study: (1) What factors led to the decision to consolidate the school divisions of Alleghany County and Covington City? (2) Since this is not the first time that school division consolidation has been proposed in the Alleghany Highlands region, what factors were different or why were the factors weighed differently this time? (3) What role did funding made available by the General Assembly play in this decision? The findings obtained from interviewees were analyzed based on the most-cited factors to the least-cited factors. Among the prevalent themes that emerged from the qualitative data were the importance of trust and open lines of communication from the inception of the process, the good working relationships of those driving the process, community buy-in, and considering the regional identity and pulse of the community in decision-making. Also found to be important was illustrating how the consolidation would benefit students in increased course offerings. Given that only three school division consolidations have occurred in the Commonwealth of Virginia in almost four decades, it is expected that a record of the events and essential factors that were found to be pivotal in the decision to consolidate these two school divisions in the Alleghany Highlands could be useful to other school divisions, both in Virginia and elsewhere in the U.S. that might be considering a similar decision for both the fiscal health of the local communities and the best pedagogical outcome for students.

The mid 1980s and the mid 1990s both saw an incredible amount of merger activity, however, the characteristics of both were very different. Research seems to inidcate that the 1980s merger wave was primarily stimulated by the desire to eliminate corporate inefficiencies. Acquirers of this time period were highly leveraged and encountered a great deal of hostility from target management. After a short decrease in merger activity the mid 1990s intensified to number comparable to those of the 1980s. Noticeable absent was the hostility, leverage and inefficiency that was so prevalent in the 1980s. Instead the 1990s mergers were friendlier and were not as leveraged. In order to determine the origin of these differences the characteristics of targets from both time periods are examined and further research was conducted into the macroeconomic conditions. The results indicate the beneficial affects of the 1980s merger wave indirectly affected the stimulus and the characteristics of the 1990s.

Au vu de la différence de densité entre les composants minéraux solides et l’eau entrant dans la composition d’un béton, une instabilité gravitaire peut apparaître et provoquer une séparation de phase. Cette séparation est à l’origine de la formation d’une pellicule d’eau à la surface du béton et est appelé ressuage. Malgré le fait que le ressuage peut directement ou indirectement nuire aux propriétés finales du béton durci, les connaissances existantes ne permettent pas de prédire ce phénomène ou de le corréler à la formulation du béton. L’objectif de cette thèse est d’identifier la physique mise en jeu lors du phénomène de ressuage de façon à proposer à la fois une méthodologie de mesure adaptée et un cadre théorique prédictif.La démarche retenue consiste à commencer par l’étude d’un matériau simple tel qu’une pâte de ciment en laboratoire pour terminer à l’échelle plus complexe d’un béton de fondation coulé sur chantier.Dans une première partie, nos résultats expérimentaux sur pâte de ciment suggèrent que le ressuage ne peut pas être considéré comme un simple phénomène de consolidation homogène d'un matériau poreux déformable mais comme un phénomène de consolidation hétérogène conduisant à la formation de canaux préférentiels d'extraction d'eau. Nous montrons ainsi l'existence de trois régimes de ressuage : une période d'induction, une période d’accélération et une période de consolidation. Seuls les deux derniers régimes avaient été observés et discutés jusqu'à maintenant dans la littérature. Nos résultats suggèrent que la formation de ces canaux préférentiels semble être initiée par les défauts du système (les bulles d’air au premier ordre).Dans une seconde partie, les deux essais normalisés utilisés à ce jour dans la pratique industrielle pour la mesure du ressuage des bétons sur chantier, l’essai ASTM et l’essai Bauer, sont étudiés. Nous montrons que ces essais capturent des aspects différents du ressuage et qu’ils ne peuvent donc être corrélés. Nous montrons par ailleurs l’existence de limites dans la capacité de ces essais à capturer le risque de ressuage pour un béton donné. Des modifications de protocole sont alors proposées pour améliorer ces essais et leur permettre de fournir les données nécessaires à la prédiction du ressuage à l’échelle de la fondation.Enfin, nous étudions à la fois les différences entre ressuage d’une pâte de ciment et ressuage d’un béton et l’influence de la hauteur totale de matériau soumis au ressuage. La forte dépendance de la vitesse de ressuage à la profondeur est mise en évidence dans le cas des bétons. Un modèle permettant d’extrapoler une vitesse de ressuage dans une fondation à partir d’une mesure de ressuage à l’aide de l’essai ASTM est proposé. Ce modèle est validé sur des essais de laboratoire et des fondations réelles.Mots clés : ressuage, béton, pâte de ciment, consolidation, effet d’échelle / Due to the density differences between the solid mineral components and the suspending water, gravity can induce phase separation in concrete. This phase separation is at the origin of the formation of a film of water on the upper surface of fresh concrete, commonly known as bleeding. Although bleeding is known to directly or indirectly affect the final properties of hardened concrete, the existing knowledge does not allow for the prediction of this phenomenon or its correlation to mix proportions. The objective of this thesis, therefore, is to identify the physics behind the bleeding phenomenon in order to propose both an adapted measurement methodology and a predictive theoretical framework.The approach adopted is to start from the study of a simple model material, a cement paste in the laboratory, and upscale to the more complex scale of concrete poured into a real foundation on site.In the first part, our experimental results on cement paste suggest that bleeding cannot be simply described as the consolidation of a soft porous material, but, in fact, is of an obvious heterogeneous nature leading to the formation of preferential water extraction channels within the cement paste. We thus show the existence of three bleeding regimes: an induction period, an acceleration period, and a consolidation period. Only the last two regimes had been observed and discussed in the literature. Our results suggest that the formation of these preferential channels seems to be initiated by system defects (air bubbles at first order).In the second part, the two industrial standard tests used for the measurement of bleeding on site, the ASTM test and the Bauer test, are studied. We show that these tests capture different aspects of bleeding, and therefore, cannot be correlated. We also show the existence of limits in the capacity of these tests to capture the risk of bleeding for a given concrete. Changes and improvements are proposed in order to enable these tests to provide the data necessary for the prediction of bleeding at the concrete foundation scale.Finally, in the last part, we study the differences between the bleeding of a cement paste and the bleeding of a concrete and the influence of the total height of material subjected to bleeding. The high dependence of the bleeding rate on the depth of the foundation is captured in the case of concretes. A model is proposed to extrapolate a bleeding rate in a foundation from a bleeding measurement using the ASTM test. This model is validated on laboratory tests and on onsite measurements of real concrete foundations.Keywords: bleeding, concrete, cement paste, consolidation, scale effect

by Lung Tak-chung, Ng Chau-leung. / Abstract also in Chinese / Bibliography : leaves 48-49 / Thesis (M.B.A.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1982

by Pun Kam Wai, Peter. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1990. / Bibliography: leaves 45-47. / ABSTRACT --- p.ii / TABLE OF CONTENTS --- p.iv / LIST OF TABLES --- p.v / ACKNOWLEDGEMENT --- p.vi / Chapter I. --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Chapter II. --- LITERATURE REVIEW --- p.3 / Chapter III. --- RESEARCH METHODOLOGY --- p.9 / Selection of Target Companies --- p.9 / Selection of Control Companies --- p.10 / Time Span of Study and Data Collection --- p.10 / Computation of Financial Ratios --- p.12 / Empirical Methods --- p.12 / Multiple Discriminant Analysis --- p.16 / Factor Analysis --- p.18 / Splitting Data by Year --- p.19 / Chapter IV. --- RESULTS OF EMPIRICAL STUDY --- p.21 / Discriminant Analysis on Whole Data Set --- p.21 / Factorization and Further Analysis on Whole Data Set --- p.23 / Discriminant Analysis on Split Data Set --- p.27 / Chapter V. --- ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION --- p.36 / Chapter VI. --- CONCLUSION --- p.40 / Conclusion of Study --- p.40 / Limitations of Study and Recommendations for Further Study --- p.40 / APPENDIX --- p.44 / BIBLIOGRAPHY --- p.45

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 2006. / Title proper from title frame. Also available in printed format.