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This paper studies how a firm reacts to the threat from product market competition. Consistent with the strategic equilibrium model, we find that a firm increases investment in response to external product market threats. Further, the paper analyzes whether product market threats lead to an improvement in investment efficiency. When faced with product market competition, we find that firms that are otherwise likely to underinvest (overinvest) increase (increase) their investment significantly (less than the firms that are likely to underinvest) in the next period. However, firms that are predisposed to overinvest do not make cuts in capital expenditure, which indicates that strategic investment is a critical countermeasure for addressing competitive threats for all firms, their inclination to make suboptimal investment decisions notwithstanding. Overall, the evidence supports the predatory risk of waiting as well as competition and investment efficiency hypotheses. Additional tests suggest that product market threat partially substitutes for other external monitoring mechanisms designed to manage agency problems.

We examine the market valuation of targets with multiple large shareholders (MLS) and single large shareholder (SLS) structures, in an international sample of M&A announcement in 19 countries outside North America. We find that the presence and power of MLS in these firms are negatively associated with abnormal returns and first-bid-to-merger-completion returns, suggesting that MLS mitigate agency problems in the target, and hence their acquisition is perceived as “a loss of good governance.” The negative association between MLS targets and returns is stronger in widely held firms suggesting that MLS indeed curb expropriation of minority shareholders. By contrast, when the second largest shareholder in the MLS structure of the target is a family, we find positive cumulative abnormal returns at the merger announcement, suggesting exacerbated agency problems in these firms that should benefit from the “acquisition of good governance.” Our evidence is robust to a battery of tests and to addressing potential endogeneity.

Electronic word of mouth (eWOM) is a digital marketing method that has been considered by some companies as an effective and efficient approach to enhance social learning and the environment for the customers. A social media user could benefit from gaining information from other users to aid their decision-making process. Instagram is an example of a social media platform that could be utilized for the application of eWOM. It could serve as a source of quality, credible and detailed information, and a channel to increase customer interactions and trust. This study aims to determine the effects of eWOM information generated through Instagram on patients’ intention to join the in vitro fertilization (IVF) programs. By adopting the information acceptance model (IACM) theory, several parameters were evaluated: information quality, credibility, usefulness, adoption, attitude toward information, and purchase intention. The structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to analyze as many as 200 respondents of Morula IVF Jakarta and were active Instagram users. The results showed that the adoption of information and attitude toward information had considerably influenced patients’ intentions to join the IVF programs. Such circumstances might have occurred as a result of the increase in information exchange about IVF, through the discussions and sharing of experiences by patients on Instagram. Furthermore, information usefulness was demonstrated to affect information adoption and was influenced by the credibility of information and attitudes toward information. Nonetheless, one variable which did not display any effects on the usefulness of information was the quality of information. In summary, the characteristics of eWOM information that were conveyed on Instagram could affect the intention of patients in joining the IVF program.

This study examines how creditor interventions after debt covenant violations affect corporate tax avoidance. Using a regression discontinuity design, we find that creditor interventions increase borrowers' tax avoidance. This effect is concentrated among firms with weaker shareholder governance before creditor interventions and among those with less bargaining power during subsequent debt renegotiations. Our results indicate that creditors play an active role in shaping corporate tax policy outside of bankruptcy.

For decades, the fast population growth worldwide was interrelated with the adopted rapid lifestyle behavior that relies on the extensive use of fossil fuels. This primary energy source has caused various urban and environmental impacts, such as global warming, air pollution, and so forth. Consequently, the identified circumstance issues have caused many health, social, and economic hindering effects for global citizens. It poses an existential threat to humanity and the global earth's ecosystem. The alarming levels of urban pollution emissions are putting enormous challenges to the related stakeholders (governments, businesses, investors, automakers, and citizens) to admit the need to decarbonize the global economy and reach sustainable development goals (SDGs) for cleaner and smarter cities across borders. As such, a vital part of a smart city is the transport sector. The road transport sector, precisely, is one of the primary consumers of fossil fuels that contribute to high carbon dioxide emissions. Accordingly, it is essential to adopt novel and sustainable urban transport solutions and promote the achievement of the SDG's eleventh goal for sustainable cities and communities. This chapter provides insight into the present global energy situation with particular attention to the road transport sector. Indeed, it highlights different emerging technologies for a sustainable and smart urban mobility future that will mitigate the environmental situation thanks to the development of drive and internet telecommunication technologies. Furthermore, we aim in this chapter to study the international progress of the transition project using the Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental, and Legal (PESTEL) analysis methodology. This study is to pinpoint opportunities for project development and the challenges that set back its evolution.

This chapter examines the complex dimensions of the role of community college global counterparts in the context of higher educational global flows. Data from a comparative literature review that covers over 40 years, explores “who” has been involved in the borrowing process, the variations of the “types” of borrowing that exist in terms of dependency and localization contexts, and “how” community college global counterparts have become ingrained in a variety of countries. The idea that the community college concept is a sole ownership of the United States that was then transmitted to nations around the world is not defensible. Indeed, when taken into consideration the context of the politics of borrowing, such as receiving and sending political, economic, and cultural systems, it is evident that multiple countries have and continue to affect the discourse of other countries on various levels. In particular, this chapter (a) describes historic and contemporary global patterns in terms of both “north” and “south” flows from which community college global counterparts proliferate; (b) discusses the types of these flows in relationship to purposeful or spontaneous adoption; and (c) highlights a contemporary reinvention of form that arises from current global flows.