Strategic research partnerships: Empirical evidence from Asia

This paper evaluates the role Strategic Research Partnerships (SRPs) play in Asia. Specific Asian institutional settings influence the roles of SRPs. Japan is regarded as a forerunner in the practice of SRPs. In Japan, lack of spillover channels, limited opportunities for mergers and acquisitions, weak university research and pressure for internal diversification motivate firms to form SRPs. In Korea, SRPs are regarded as a means to promote large-scale research projects. In Taiwan, SRPs are formed to facilitate technological diffusion. Empirical findings on SRPs, focusing on government-sponsored R&D consortia in Japan, are summarized. Issues regarding SRP formation, their effect on R&D spending of participating firms, and productivity, are examined. Reference is made to alternative forms of measurement of SRPs and their potential application to Asian countries is assessed. Enhancing the capacity of policy-makers to assess the extent and contribution of SRPs is considered to be a priority.

A model of seller holdout

We model a buyer who wishes to combine objects owned by two separate sellers in order to realize higher value. Sellers are able to avoid entering into negotiations with the buyer, so that the order in which they negotiate is endogenous. Holdout occurs if at least one of the sellers is not present in the first round of negotiations. We demonstrate that complementarity of the buyer's technology is a necessary condition for equilibrium holdout. Moreover, a rise in complementarity leads to an increased likelihood of holdout, and an increased efficiency loss. Applications include patents, the land assembly problem, and mergers.

Auditor independence and fee dependence

This study investigates whether fee dependence within the audit firms' offices jeopardises auditor independence. Fee dependence is examined at both the national audit firm level as well as the local office level and in a setting where public disclosure of fees is mandatory. We focus our tests on audit fee dependence and at the same time we control for the effects of non-audit service fee dependence post the 1989 mergers. We operationalise the exercise of independent judgement in auditing by the propensity to issue qualified audit opinions. If fee dependence affects auditors' independent judgement, then auditors are less likely to qualify the accounts. The study's results show that the level of auditor fee dependence does not affect auditor propensity to issue unqualified audit opinions. The findings remain robust to a number of sensitivity tests including the analyses controlling for the effects of non-audit service fee dependence and other settings in which there is heightened pressure on auditors to confront the effects of fee dependence on exercising independent audit judgement. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Geography's emerging cross-disciplinary links: Process, causes, outcomes and challenges

In Australian universities the discipline of Geography has been the pace-setter in forging cross-disciplinary links to create multidisciplinary departments and schools, well ahead of other disciplines in humanities, social sciences and sciences, and also to a greater extent than in comparable overseas university systems. Details on all cross-disciplinary links and on immediate outcomes have been obtained by surveys of all heads of departments/schools with undergraduate Geography programs. These programs have traced their own distinctive trajectories, with ramifying links to cognate fields of enquiry, achieved through mergers, transfers, internal initiatives and, more recently, faculty-wide restructuring to create supradisciplinary schools. Geography's `exceptionalism' has proved short-lived. Disciplinary flux is now extending more widely within Australian universities, driven by a variety of internal and external forces, including: intellectual questioning and new ways of constituting knowledge; technological change and the information revolution; the growth of instrumentalism and credentialism, and managerialism and entre-preneurial imperatives; reinforced by a powerful budgetary squeeze. Geographers are proving highly adaptive in pursuit of cross-disciplinary connections, offering analytical tools and selected disciplinary insights useful to non-geographers. However, this may be at cost to undergraduate programs focussing on Geography's intellectual core. Whereas formerly Geography had high reproductive capacity but low instrumental value it may now be in a phase of enhanced utility but perilously low reproductive capacity.

Efici��ncia e concentra����o na ind��stria banc��ria

O objectivo deste trabalho �� a an��lise da efici��ncia produtiva e dos efeitos da concentra����o sobre os custos banc��rios, tendo por base a ind��stria banc��ria portuguesa. O car��cter multiproduto da empresa banc��ria sugere a necessidade de se adoptar formas multiproduto da fun����o custo (tipo Fourier). Introduzimos vari��veis de homogeneidade e de estrutura que permitem o recurso a formas funcionais uniproduto (Cobb-Douglas) �� banca. A amostra corresponde a 22 bancos que operavam em Portugal entre 1995-2001, base n��o consolidada e dados em painel. Para o estudo da inefici��ncia recorreu-se ao modelo estoc��stico da curva fronteira (SFA), para as duas especifica����es. Na an��lise da concentra����o, introduziram-se vari��veis bin��rias que pretendem captar os efeitos durante quatro anos ap��s a concentra����o. Tanto no caso da SFA como no da concentra����o, os resultados encontrados s��o sens��veis �� especifica����o funcional adoptada. Concluindo, o processo de concentra����o banc��rio parece justificar-se pela possibilidade da diminui����o da inefici��ncia-X. This study addresses the productive efficiency and the effects of concentration over the banking costs, stressing its focus on the Portuguese banking market. The multiproduct character of the banking firm suggests the use of functional forms as Fourier. The introduction of variables of structure and of homogeneity allows the association of the banking activity (multiproduct) with a single product function (Cobb-Douglas type). The sample covers 22 banks which operated in Portugal from 1995-2001, non consolidated base with a panel data structure. The study about inefficiency is elaborated through the stochastic frontier model (SFA), for the two specifications selected. As a methodology to analyze the concentration, we introduced binary variables, which intend to catch the effects through four years after the concentration process. The results obtained, through SFA and concentration approach, are influenced by the kind of specifications selected. Summing up, the concentration process of the Banking Industry sounds to be justified by the possibility of the X-inefficiency.

Expectativas dos stakeholders para as fus��es e aquisi����es: um estudo de caso: aquisi����o do Finibanco pelo Montepio

Disserta����o apresentada ao ISCAP para a obten����o do Grau de Mestre em Auditoria Orientada por: Prof. Doutora Alcina Dias

O Impacto contabilistico da concentra����o de empresas: um estudo de caso

Disserta����o para obten����o do Grau de Mestre em Contabilidade e Finan��as Orientadores: Doutor Jos�� Manuel Veiga Pereira Professor Adjunto da ��rea cient��fica de Contabilidade, Grupo de disciplinas de Contabilidade Financeira Doutora Deolinda Maria Moreira Apar��cio Meira Professora Adjunta da ��rea cient��fica de Direito, Grupo de disciplinas de Direito Comercial

A neutralidade fiscal no caso da fus��o inversa

Mestrado em Fiscalidade

Fus��o de hospitais em centros hospitalares : impacto no seu desempenho operacional e financeiro

Mestrado em Contabilidade e An��lise Financeira

The Farrell and Shapiro condition revisited

The purpose of this paper is to study the consequences of using the Farrell and Shapiro (1990) sufficient condition for merger approval to sectors in which a downstream horizontal merger may also affect upstream firms. As will be shown below, in some circumstances the sign of the relevant external effect can no longer be established by considering the merger as a sequence of in finitesimal mergers, each corresponding to a marginal change in output.

Processos de reestrutura����o como elemento de combate �� crise financeira nas empresas do PSI-20 do sector n��o banc��rio no per��odo de 2009 a 2012

Mestrado em Gest��o e Empreendedorismo

Efici��ncia e concentra����o na ind��stria banc��ria

O objectivo deste trabalho �� a an��lise da efici��ncia produtiva e dos efeitos da concentra����o sobre os custos banc��rios, tendo por base a ind��stria banc��ria portuguesa. O car��cter multiproduto da empresa banc��ria sugere a necessidade de se adoptar formas multiproduto da fun����o custo (tipo Fourier). Introduzimos vari��veis de homogeneidade e de estrutura que permitem o recurso a formas funcionais uniproduto (Cobb-Douglas) �� banca. A amostra corresponde a 22 bancos que operavam em Portugal entre 1995-2001, base n��o consolidada e dados em painel. Para o estudo da inefici��ncia recorreu-se ao modelo estoc��stico da curva fronteira (SFA), para as duas especifica����es. Na an��lise da concentra����o, introduziram-se vari��veis bin��rias que pretendem captar os efeitos durante quatro anos ap��s a concentra����o. Tanto no caso da SFA como no da concentra����o, os resultados encontrados s��o sens��veis �� especifica����o funcional adoptada. Concluindo, o processo de concentra����o banc��rio parece justificar-se pela possibilidade da diminui����o da inefici��ncia-X.

Economias de escala em centros hospitalares

RESUMO - Perante o actual contexto de conten����o de gastos no sector da sa��de e consequente preocupa����o com a efici��ncia do sistema, tem���se assistido a mudan��as v��rias no modelo de gest��o e organizacional do sistema de sa��de. Destaca���se a altera����o da estrutura hospitalar, com vista �� racionaliza����o dos seus recursos internos, onde as fus��es hospitalares t��m assumido um papel determinante. Em Portugal, nos ��ltimos 10 anos, assistiu���se a uma significativa redu����o do n��mero de hospitais (de sensivelmente 90 para 50 unidades), exclusivamente atrav��s das fus��es e sem quaisquer altera����es no n��mero de estruturas f��sicas existentes. N��o obstante os argumentos justificativos desta reforma, a avalia����o dos objectivos impl��citos �� insuficiente. Neste ��mbito, pretendeu���se com este estudo contribuir para a an��lise do impacte da cria����o de centros hospitalares na redu����o de gastos, isto ��, verificar se a consolida����o e consequente reengenharia dos processos produtivos teve consequencias ao n��vel da obten����o de economias de escala. Para esta an��lise usou���se uma base de dados em painel, onde se consideraram 75 hospitais durante 7 anos (2003���2009), n��mero que foi reduzindo ao longo do per��odo em an��lise devido ��s in��meras fus��es j�� referidas. Para avaliar os ganhos relativos ��s fus��es hospitalares, ao n��vel da efici��ncia t��cnica e das economias de escala, recorreu���se �� fronteira estoc��stica especificada fun����o custo translog. Estimada a fronteira, foi poss��vel analisar tr��s centros hospitalares espec��ficos, onde se comparou o per��odo pr�����fus��o (2005���2006) com o per��odo ap��s a fus��o (2008���2009). Como vari��veis explicativas, relativas �� produ����o hospitalar, considerou���se o n��mero de casos tratados e os dias de internamento (Vita, 1990; Schuffham et al., 1996), o n��mero de consultas e o n��mero de urg��ncias, sendo estas vari��veis as mais comuns na literatura (Vita, 1990; Fournier e Mitchell, 1992; Carreira, 1999). Quanto �� vari��vel dependente usou���se o custo vari��vel total, que compreende o total de custos anuais dos hospitais excepto de imobilizado. Como principais conclus��es da investiga����o, em consequ��ncia da cria����o dos centros hospitalares, s��o de referir os ganhos de escala na fus��o de hospitais de reduzida dimens��o e com mais servi��os complementares. --------ABSTRACT - Driven by the current pressure on resources induced by budgetary cuts, the Portuguese Ministry of Health is imposing changes in the management model and organization of NHS hospitals. The most recent change is based on the creation of Hospital Centres that are a result of administrative mergers of existing hospitals. In less than 10 years the number of hospitals passed from around 90 to around 50, only due to the mergers and without any change in the existing number of physical institutions. According to the political discourse, one of the main goals expected from this measure is the creation of synergies and more efficiency in the use of available resources. However, the merger of the hospitals has been a political decision without support or evaluation of the first experiments. The aim of this study is to measure the results of this policy by looking at economies of scale namely through reductions in the expenditures, as expected and sought by the MoH. Data used covers 7 years (2003���2009) and 75 hospitals, number that has been reduced my the enoumerous mergers during the last decade. This work uses a stochastic frontier analysis through the translog cost function to examine the gains from mergers, which were decomposed into technical efficiency and economies of scale. It was analised these effects by the creation of three specific hospital centers, using a longitudinal approach to compare the period pre���merger (2003���2006) with the post���merger period (2007���09). To measure changes in inpatient hospital production volume and length of stay are going to be considered as done by Vita (1990) and Schuffham et al. (1996). For outpatient services the number of consultations and emergencies are going to be considered (Vita, 1990; Fournier e Mitchell, 1992; Carreira, 1999). Total variable cost is considered as the dependent variable explained the aforementioned ones. After a review of the literature results expected point to benefits from the mergers, namely a reduction in total expenditures and in the number of duplicated services. Results extracted from our data point in the same direction, and thus for the existence of some economies of scale only for small hospitals.

Cria����o de valor em fus��es e aquisi����es horizontais

O aumento verificado nos ��ltimos anos em fus��es e aquisi����es (F&A) resulta da op����o dos gestores para fazer face ao aumento da press��o competitiva e ou �� necessidade de crescimento r��pido. A literatura sobre os efeitos dos processos de F&A �� diversificada e as conclus��es s��o contradit��rias. Neste trabalho pretendemos verificar se o processo de F&A se traduz na cria����o de valor para o acionista da empresa adquirente. Como m��trica de avalia����o utilizamos o m��todo de an��lise dos fluxos de caixa atualizados ou o Discounted Cash-Flow (DCF). Para o efeito efetuamos um estudo de caso que vai incidir sobre uma empresa seguradora portuguesa ��� A Lusitania Companhia de Seguros, S.A. ��� que recentemente adquiriu, por fus��o por incorpora����o, a Real Seguros, S.A. Efetuamos uma an��lise de natureza quantitativa atrav��s dos dados do relat��rio e contas e encontramos evid��ncia de que o desempenho diminuiu ap��s a transa����o.

The optimum size of the portuguese public hospital

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Economics from the NOVA ��� School of Business and Economics