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The purpose of this paper is to examine the shocks to firm's beta around the event of addition or deletion from the S&P 500 index.

The total derivative of beta and Campbell and Vuolteenaho decomposition of beta methodologies are used, on monthly and daily basis, to examine the behavior of beta around the event.

Results show a significant increase in correlations of the event firms' returns and the market proxy returns and cash‐flow betas, and decrease in discount‐rate betas for added firms and the opposite effects for deleted firms. Robustness tests indicate that the total derivative changes effects are typical for the event firms industry but that the cash‐flow correlation changes are specific to the firm. These findings suggest that addition or deletion from the S&P 500 index is not an information free event.

The Campbell and Vuolteenaho methodology has limitations – it is conditional on the selection of state variables. In future research it would be beneficial to use different state variables in the beta decomposition framework. Another relevant question for a future research is: what are the effects of the event on the Fama‐French factor model loadings?

The paper's findings contribute to the ongoing debate in the literature of the information hypothesis for addition or deletion from the S&P 500 index.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the nature, roles and dynamics of change of management accounting systems (MAS), in processes of continuous organisational learning and transformation. By studying the interaction between the accounting (and finance) function and the implementation of a Six‐sigma initiative, as the engine for organisational change, the authors seek to uncover the potential of measurement‐based systems of management for aligning business processes with corporate strategies. Such systems sustain continuous processes of transformation by infusing organisational culture with financial and non‐financial metrics of accountability.

The research is based on a longitudinal case study in which one of the authors had the opportunity to exercise what Schein called the clinical perspective; i.e. combining the role of researcher with that of helper‐consultant. There is mutual interdependence in the relationship between the authors' theoretical framework and the authors' longitudinal case study. While, on the one hand, the case research contributed to the search for an institutional explanation of the evidence experienced and collected, on the other hand, the empirical data are illuminated by the theoretical insights gained from that framework.

After first discussing cultural change, the authors rely both on the “clinical” position of one of the authors as researcher/helper‐consultant and on the insights provided by Schein's work on organisational culture and Giddens' structuration theory to develop an institutional framework for interpreting the ways in which routinised systems of accountability bind the ongoing processes of cultural transformation across time and space.

Possible limitations are: the conceptualisation of organisational culture as a shared and institutional phenomenon does not take account of wider anthropological aspects (such as the influence of national culture); the role of helper‐consultant as well as researcher may have influenced some of the authors' interpretations; the authors' analysis does not consider macro‐economic variables; and only a small percentage of shop‐floor workers were interviewed.

The paper sheds light on the role of management accounting within organisational processes of transformation far beyond their mere visible enactment. As a result, the authors develop an institutional framework to interpret the linkages between the cognitive dynamics which characterise organisational culture (viewed as shared cognitive schemas) and the behavioural and structural modalities through which they are drawn upon and reproduced by organisational members.

This paper reports preliminary evidence on pre to post‐event shifts in the estimated values of the parameters, alpha and beta, of the simple regression market model. Samples, of US and British firms engaged in cross‐country acquisition, during the period 1970–1980 are examined. Using pre, pooled, and post‐event estimation periods, both alpha and beta show pronounced shifts in estimated value from the pre to the post‐event period. It is shown that these parameter shifts result in companion shifts in estimated pre to post‐even excess residual estimates. It is further shown, in the context of the market model, that shifts in alpha value account for approximately 80% of the shifts in excess residual estimates. Shifts in estimated beta account for only approximately 20% of the changes in estimated excess residuals. This result is interesting in regard to the results reported in most of the event study literature, which primarily consider only beta estimates.

This study examines the ability of fundamental summary measure Pr to predict earnings change for the subsequent year, the association of Pr and stock returns, and the relationship between Pr and risk factors beta and size. Pr is a probability index generated by logistic model and financial statement data. Beta effect is minimized by grouping firms into beta portfolios while size is controlled through incorporating size as an independent variable in the regression models. Evidence from the study indicates that Pr has a strong ability to predict future earnings change and has a positive and significant association with adjusted market returns, after controlling for beta. Pr's association with adjusted market returns is mitigated when beta and size are controlled simultaneously.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how executives can rapidly gain employee acceptance for strategic change through reciprocal sensegiving. The author draw on a processual case study of a transformational European merger to study this question, highlighting the properties of reciprocity in making sense of urgent strategic change, then developing them through the lens of a gift exchange.

The author draws on several qualitative methods to study sensegiving and sensemaking processes in Alpha and Beta from 2011 to 2014: insider-outsider team meetings at the beginning, mid-way and at the end of the merger integration process, ethnographic field notes during a four-month research internship, one focus group meeting with Alpha and Beta managers after the announcement of the redistribution of managerial positions, interviews with a carefully selected sample of top and middle managers, participant observation in key sensegiving meetings with top managers and “custodians,” triangulation with secondary data from the database Factiva, and finally follow-up insider corroboration of the findings by the research intern who took up a management position at Alpha in 2014.

Likening executive and employee sensegiving to a gift-giving and gift-returning exchange, the author elucidates how executives induce employees to quickly “give in” to strategic change imperatives. the author single out the key third party role of custodians of reciprocity in the mechanism, using the metaphor of the Trojan horse to illustrate its executive use and point to the underexplored darker side of prosocial sensegiving dynamics.

Further research should clarify the long-term advantages and disadvantages of the mechanism. The Trojan horse mechanism possibly sacrifices long-term reciprocity for short-term purposes. Following the example of executives in this case study, use of the Trojan horse mechanism should be followed by attention to socio-political balance concerns, including new procedures that clarify the link between value creation aims and employees’ collective contribution. Without such a cohesion-building exercise, employees’ feelings of procedural injustice may build up, resulting in negative reciprocity in subsequent change projects.

The work indicates that a leader’s visionary credentials are not the main source of her norm-shaping power in a project of urgent strategic change. Visionary credentials are welcomed by the dominant group of employees as long as they are framed as a symbolic management exercise that will not substantially impact socio-political balance. Substantively, employees make sense of the justice of urgent strategic change primarily through the lens of custodians and their “power from the past.”

All in all, executives should use the Trojan horse mechanism sparingly, in contexts of urgent strategic change and institutionalized employee behavior. Working with sources and voices of resistance from lower levels of management is more likely to yield symbiotic integration benefits.

Applied to the problem of rapid strategic change in a non-crisis context, the Trojan horse mechanism is a solution to the question: how can executives avoid lengthy socio-political confrontations and quickly induce employee ownership of painful strategic changes?

In his article “Diversifying Mergers and Risk: Some Empirical Tests”, Thompson (1983) modelled the change in the systematic risk of the acquiring firm before and after merger. We propose a modification to this method which considers the difference between the systematic risk of the merged firm and that predicted by capital market theory on the basis of the constituent firms' betas. Furthermore merger will probably lead to a change in the structure of the acquiring firm, both intrinsically and financially. Thus in order to remove any complications caused by debt restructuring of the combined firm after merger, we suggest that the analysis is carried out using ungeared or intrinsic betas. An empirical study which follows that of Thompson but implements the above modifications is performed, and conclusions are drawn which have implications for studies that have considered the benefits of merger to the acquiring and target firms.

The basic aim of any training intervention is to effect some form of change. In assessing change that occurs after a period of training, researchers may tap one or all of three conceptually different kinds of change: alpha, beta and gamma. In alpha change, the participant′s report of change is unbiased between time one and time two (the pre – and post‐ratings) because it is based on an instrument that has been continuously calibrated. Beta change refers to an apparent change where the measuring instrument has been recalibrated by the participant during the measurement intervals, that is, individual perceptions of the response scale have changed. Gamma change refers to a situation where the participant redefines or reconceptualizes some other relevant information. Although pre‐test, post‐test evaluation designs continue to be used, the problems of beta and gamma change are apparent in the majority of experimental interventions looking at individual change using self‐report pretest and post‐test ratings. Discusses alternative ways of avoiding the problems which might result from beta and/or gamma change.

The paper seeks to examine changes in daily return volatility associated with open market share repurchases.

Univariate analyses, control sample analyses, and multiple regression analyses are employed to explore relations between daily return volatility and a number of variables.

This study finds evidence that an open market share repurchase firm, by actively buying back its shares when the share price falls, reduces daily return volatility. The results suggest that it is the subsequent actual buyback trading activity, not the announcement, that is significantly negatively associated with changes in daily return volatility. CAPM beta, a measure of systematic risk, decreases only when the firm is in the market actively repurchasing its shares.

To the best of the author's knowledge, this study is probably the first to connect changes in daily return volatility to actual buyback trading activities of share repurchase announcing firms. Changes in daily return volatility, or total risk, not only affect systematic risk, but also are important to underlying option holders, arbitrageurs, and investors who hold undiversified portfolios.

The paper examines the conditional capital asset pricing model (CCAPM) of Jagannathan and Wang using the UK data and develops a data-driven measure of beta instability risk that is pertinent to the UK stock market. In contrast to the view that the main part of the Jagannathan and Wang's model is the inclusion of human capital, however, the paper finds that human capital remains insignificant in most tests.

Data were taken from the London Share Price Database and Datastream. This paper therefore examines the premium labour (PL) model of Jagannathan and Wang using the UK data, while the paper attaches particular importance to the measure of beta instability as a source of time variation in betas. In analysing the measure of beta instability risk, this study considers a testable measure of instability risk that varies across markets and across time as the interaction between the stock market and the economy varies across different time periods. Hence, this paper develops a data-driven measure of beta instability risk that is pertinent to the UK stock market.

The results confirm the premium version of the model, that is, the CCAPM without a proxy for human capital. In particular, the paper finds that over the entire time period of this study, the measure for beta instability risk and market portfolio has significant explanatory power for the variations of returns. More specifically, when using the average earnings index as a proxy for human capital in the PL model, the premium model performs better than the PL model. When total income from employment is used as a proxy for human capital, the performance of the PL model improves for the full period. However, the results for the two sub-periods are less favourable for the PL model as, again, labour income is not priced for these periods. These results indicate that the PL model is sensitive to proxies used for human capital.

The results revive the importance of beta instability risk in CCAPM of Jagannathan and Wang's model and suggest that the beta instability drives this model.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of mergers and acquisitions (M&As) on acquiring company systematic risk using a global sample of 34,221 completed deals that occurred between the years 1977 and 2012, covering 163 countries and 85 industries.

Acquirers’ systematic risk (beta) is calculated using the capital asset pricing model. The change in acquirers’ beta post-merger is obtained using event study and tested for mean differences across various sub-categories of deals. Cross-sectional regressions are then performed to test several hypotheses relating to the impact of diversification, method of payment, target status and prior experience on acquirers’ risk.

For the overall sample, the evidence suggests that acquirers’ beta tends to increase post-merger, but only in cases where their pre-merger risk is relatively low in relation to the risk of the market. The authors also show that cash payment deals for publicly listed targets contribute to reducing acquirers’ risk while stock payment increase risk. Diversification, whether global or across industry, has no significant impact on risk. On the other hand, for serial acquirers, the risk is increased significantly with more M&As.

This study contributes in a unique way by providing global evidence on acquirers’ systematic risk using a very large and diverse sample of M&A deals and investigating not only the impact of diversification on risk but also of other deal characteristics (e.g. method of payment, target status, acquirers’ prior experience) which have not been previously examined.