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Military technology is traditionally shrouded in secrecy. Even joint research between allies can be a marriage of convenience. But with the end of the Cold War and greater European integration, the technological landscape is changing, and a closer interface is emerging between military and civilian technologies. A worldwide stagnation in defence spending is accelerating the take‐up of commercial off‐the‐shelf technologies, while in the aerospace sector, the factors of safety and the environment are becoming at least as important as cost.

This research paper was written in the Summer of 1995 in partial fulfilment of the requirements for Management 524 within the MBA program at California State University at Fullerton. Its purpose was to determine the effective management strategies within the aerospace industry since the defense budget began to decline in the mid 1980s. Through research of the top aerospace companies (according to the 1995 Fortune 500) over the past decade, this paper examines the various long‐term management strategies employed during the recent recession.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate firm financial success across a broad range of performance measures and identify areas of the performance spectrum for which positive results were most difficult to achieve. Simultaneously, the authors identify the firms that most frequently ranked among the top five in terms of composite financial performance.

The dichotomous Rasch model was applied to 13 financial ratios for two industries for the years 2002‐2011. Of these ratios, the authors identify those that are consistent with the requirements of the Rasch model and suitable for ranking composite firm financial performance in each industry during the sample years. Ratio difficulty rankings are obtained, along with firm rankings reflecting managers' ability to achieve broad‐based financial success.

For the Foods and Aerospace/Defense industries during 2002‐2011, above average performance was most difficult to achieve in the areas of liquidity, financial leverage, and market valuation. Above average profitability and returns on investment seem to have been easier performance targets during this sample period. The authors also list the ticker symbols of firms with managers who consistently achieved top overall financial performance.

The performance data for each industry and time period have to fit the requirements of the Rasch model. In addition, it must be possible to translate continuous metric readings into binary measures without losing relevant information. Future research might explore the use of more sophisticated Rasch models, measures of non‐financial firm performance dimensions, additional industries and time periods.

This research offers managers, investors and regulators a fresh perspective on the evaluation of firm financial performance and managerial ability.

Rasch models are widely used in the human sciences. Application of this methodology to firms offers a more comprehensive view of firm performance and may reveal factors relevant to firm valuation that have previously been ignored, thus possibly impacting the allocation of capital across firms and industries.

To the authors' knowledge, this research represents a first attempt to apply the Rasch approach to an evaluation of managerial ability as reflected in a firm's overall financial performance.

To examine supply chain competences necessary to efficiently and/or effectively succeed in aftermarket support.

Using the aerospace industry as a context, this paper provides a brief overview of aftermarket support practices and trends and discusses the broader implications for aftermarket supply chain managers.

There are multiple approaches to aftermarket support. Which approach should be used depends on key variables including: technology, need for visibility and/or traceability, and need for collaborative product commerce.

This paper is a general review. Future research should examine resources necessary in individual industries, other forms of relationships, and the influence of new technologies.

In many industries, there are significant opportunities for incremental profit in aftermarket support. Collaborative product commerce, alliances, a number of new technologies (e.g. web commerce), and security needs may play critical roles in determining whether or not a company's aftermarket support practices will be profitable. Firms without competences in these areas should seek help from trusted partners to fill competence gaps.

This paper explores an often ignored but significant line of business – aftermarket support. Lessons demonstrated in this paper may be used in a number of industries that rely on aftermarket support for incremental profit.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the market response of the aerospace and defense industry and the airline industry to the ongoing conflict between Ukraine and Russia based on the sentiments from war-related news articles over the period from October 2021 to June 2022.

The study uses the news article database of Global Database of Events, Languages and Tone (GDELT) to create a new set of variables that reflect the news sentiment regarding war and conflict. By investigating the newly created sentiment variables in combination with traditional event study methodology, the authors seek to find out whether sentiment indicators can be helpful to rationalize the evolution of the different stock markets before and after the conflict.

The authors' results point out a significant negative impact of the war on the airline market and a positive impact on the defense market. The authors' study also introduces a new set of war-related news-based sentiment variables that is significant to explain the evolution of the two markets before and after the war. The relationships between this study's new set of variables and the performance of the two markets are also proven to be significantly impacted by the invasion.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first research to use the news sentiment related to the topic of war and conflict to explain the market movement of different industries during the Ukraine invasion.

Defines whistle blowing before considering the dilemma faced by the whistleblower. Outlines the typical responses to the whistle blower and provides case examples from the aerospace and defence industries. Questions why companies respond as they do and asks if there are malicious whistle blowers. Covers the legal protection afforded to them and provides recommendations for both the manager and the whistle blower. Concludes that whilst the industry has improved, there leaves much work to be done in the future.

THE market for composite materials in the aerospace and defence industries in W. Europe is the subject of a new study by IAL Consultants Ltd. The report which is over 200 pages long, brings together in one volume the results of a number of recent studies into advanced composites, including the views of over one hundred experts in the polymer supply, fabrication and end use markets. Design engineers and technical managers have contributed to the chapters on prospects for composites in the context of a changing aerospace market. High performance applications such as fighters, helicopters, space and satellite vehicles, missiles and passenger aircraft are discussed in detail. Declining real expenditure on defence equipment but an expansion in civil air traffic has affected the types of components made from advanced composites. Production costs and reproducibility of finished components have been the important development areas for fabricators, while raw materials suppliers have concentrated on producing stronger or stiffer fibres, and high temperature and highly impact tolerant resins.

This paper aims to offer an original analysis of how three of the largest aerospace and defense (A&D) companies equipped their organizations for merger integration success.

Through a multi-case study, this paper explores the post-merger integration process for large-scale transactions completed over a 25-year period. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with industry executives and leading management consultants. The process involved collection of primary data, analysis of secondary data drawn from publicly available company documents and identification of key factors that led to success.

Five interdependent success factors (Figure 1) support integration teams and capture deal value. Managing the process as a megaproject further facilitates the effectiveness of post-merger integration, enabling leaders to remain laser-focused on integration activity while driving toward a long-term vision for the newly formed organization.

Merger integration has been identified as a primary source of deficiency that prevents acquirers from achieving anticipated results, negatively affecting merger success. Based on the findings of this paper, firms are more likely to create a compelling long-term value creation agenda when five essential factors are combined with a megaproject approach to manage the post-merger integration process.

This study advances current knowledge in the field by responding to requests to further explore the dimensions of merger integration that facilitate success and improve shareholder value, contributing new data to inform extant theories regarding merger integration and megaproject management and adding to the limited research on post-merger integration within the A&D industry.

A long controversial issue that divides academics, government officials, elected representatives, and the U.S. defense industry is whether defense contractors earn abnormal or excessive profits at the expense of taxpayers. Using an innovative industry-year-size matched measure of excessive profit, we demonstrate three findings. First, when compared with their industry peers, defense contractors earn excessive profits. This result is evident when profit is measured by Return on Assets (ROA), Return on Common Equity (ROCE), and Profit Margin Ratio (PMR). The evidence of excessive profit is less consistent if profit is measured by Operating Margin Ratio (OMR). Secondly, defense contractorsʼ excessive profit is more pronounced after 1992, consistent with the conjecture that the post-1992 significant industry consolidation enabled superior profitability due to both the improved bargaining power and increased political influence of the newly combined firms. Finally, defense contractorsʼ excessive profitability increases with poorer corporate governance, as measured by the duality of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and the Chairman of the Board.

In a typical strategy course, growth strategies like mergers and acquisitions (corporate strategy) are introduced in the second half of the course. To analyze the case, students will use strategies such as Porter’s five forces and resource-based view and will discuss why firms pursue mergers as a growth strategy, along with sources of synergies and risks in mergers. Finance theory used includes analyzing a given discounted cash flow analysis and perform a comparable multiples analysis to find the value of a merger target.

The industry and financial information in the case comes from publicly available sources, including company 10K reports, business press reports and publicly available industry reports. The information about Lockheed Martin’s strategy comes from interviews with Peter Clyne, former vice president for Lockheed Martin’s IS&GS division. He then held the same position for Leidos Holding Corp., after the IS&GS division was divested and incorporated into Leidos.

This case is an interdisciplinary case containing aspects of strategy and finance. Lockheed Martin made a strategic move in 2016, to divest its Information Systems & Global Strategies Division (IS&GS), which engaged in government consulting, primarily in the defense and aerospace industries. Lockheed wanted to reassess its decision to divest consulting, given the high growth rates expected in this business, particularly in cybersecurity consulting. On the other hand, if Lockheed decided to maintain its hardware focus, it wanted to expand its offerings. In addition to a strategy analysis, two possible target firms can be analyzed: Fortinet and Maxar.

This case raises a broad set of issues related to the evaluation of M&A transactions across two different industries and corporate strategy, as it relates to strategic fit of the potential targets and LM’s current capabilities. It is appropriate for the core course in strategy at the MBA or senior undergraduate level. It can also be assigned to specialized courses in Mergers and Acquisitions. It is not appropriate for a lower level strategy or finance course, as it requires students to have prior knowledge of basic finance valuation techniques.