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1 – 10 of over 44000Ken Richardson, Andrew Tarr, Sonja Miller, Nokuthaba Sibanda, Liz Richardson, Kirikowhai Mikaere, Shona de Sain, Hazel Phillips and Vivian Wei
Māori (Indigenous New Zealanders) and Pacific students tend not to attain the same levels of educational success as New Zealanders of European descent. Addressing this problem is…
Abstract
Māori (Indigenous New Zealanders) and Pacific students tend not to attain the same levels of educational success as New Zealanders of European descent. Addressing this problem is a particular challenge at tertiary level in science, engineering, and architecture and design (SEAD). Te Rōpū Āwhina (Āwhina), an initiative at Victoria University of Wellington (VUW), aims to produce Māori and Pacific professionals who contribute to Māori and Pacific development and leadership. The objective of this analysis was to summarise quantitative results from the first 11 years of Āwhina and to show they are consistent with an Āwhina ‘effect’; that is, a positive influence on (combined) Māori and Pacific success in the SEAD disciplines. Individual-level records held in the VUW student database were used to generate smoothed trends in SEAD and non-SEAD graduate and postgraduate degree completions since 1991. Substantial improvements in SEAD Māori and Pacific completions occurred between 1999 and 2010, including a 50%- increase in Māori and Pacific postgraduate completions relative to all SEAD postgraduate completions. In the same period, non-SEAD Māori and Pacific postgraduate completions increased at a similar rate to all non-SEAD postgraduate completions. Results were consistent with a strong Āwhina effect, which has important implications for the nature of tertiary institutions, their cultural and social disconnection with Indigenous and minority students, and their social obligations and responsiveness. This analysis did not account for students who did not complete a qualification or include key confounders such as entry qualifications and gender. Definitive confirmation of an Āwhina effect is the subject of ongoing research.
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Alexis T. Franzese, Kaitlin Stober and Amy L. McCurdy
Within the field of medical sociology, there is an extensive body of literature on notable family transitions and stages in the reproductive cycle, such as getting married or…
Abstract
Within the field of medical sociology, there is an extensive body of literature on notable family transitions and stages in the reproductive cycle, such as getting married or becoming a parent, as they relate to mental health and well-being. However, the transition to becoming a completed family, that is, the process of determining or recognizing that one’s family is complete, is notably absent. In response to this empirical gap, this chapter presents findings from 114 semi-structured interviews with participants who reported having at least one child and who considered their family to be complete. First, the concept of “family completion” is introduced and conceptualized based on the qualitative considerations of participants and the contextual medical sociology literature. Then, thematic considerations around the process of family completion, related emotional preparations, and factors associated with mental health and well-being are explored. Findings suggest that family completion can be an important transitional period for parents and can be associated with emotional hardship for some individuals. Participants described experiencing conflict with their partner if they disagreed on the completion decision, frustration and sadness related to infertility, and/or feelings of loss or depression when completion was regarded as the end of a personal or familial life phase. This chapter concludes that creating a cultural context in which family completion is a recognized family transition period may spur intentional consideration among parents and promote the design of intervention services for parents experiencing changes in mental health or well-being.
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Mohammad Fuad and Ajith Venugopal
Mergers and acquisitions (M&As) are important strategic actions undertaken by firms to access resources and markets. However, firms face substantial challenges in M&As during deal…
Abstract
Purpose
Mergers and acquisitions (M&As) are important strategic actions undertaken by firms to access resources and markets. However, firms face substantial challenges in M&As during deal completion. While prior literature reviews synthesize the studies on the post-merger consequences of M&As, the literature on deal completion is largely fragmented. In this paper, the authors synthesize prior literature on deal completion into the antecedents and consequences framework and map various studies across the international business and management, finance and accounting literature at the macro-, meso- and micro-levels.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors adopt a content analysis-based methodology to conduct the review. First, the authors identify existing literature on deal completion based on keyword searches. Next, the authors propose a framework that integrates the extant literature from a multi-theoretic perspective across four broad themes: concepts, antecedents, implications and moderators. In this study, the authors consider not only empirical but also conceptual papers to strengthen the theoretical foundations of M&A literature. Finally, after synthesizing various studies, the authors highlight a future research agenda on deal completion.
Findings
Based on the review, this study provides important avenues for future research on M&A deal completion.
Originality/value
This study theoretically integrates multi-disciplinary and multi-country research on acquisition completion.
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Jingyu Jia and Ping Wu
State-owned firms play important roles in Chinese cross-border acquisition (CBA) activities. However, compared with private firms, state-owned firms have a lower likelihood of…
Abstract
Purpose
State-owned firms play important roles in Chinese cross-border acquisition (CBA) activities. However, compared with private firms, state-owned firms have a lower likelihood of acquisition completion and take longer to complete a deal. This paper aims to determine why this phenomenon exists and how state-owned firms can overcome the constraints of their identity.
Design/methodology/approach
By integrating organizational learning theory with institutional theory, this paper attempts to answer the research questions from a legitimacy perspective. Employing Chinese CBA data from 1982 to 2014, the authors use a logit model and a random effects model to test the hypothesis.
Findings
The results show that a state-owned identity easily causes legitimacy concerns among host country regulatory agencies; thus, it may result in longer and more uncertain evaluation behaviors, which lead to a lower likelihood of CBA completion and a longer deal duration. Only experience with failed acquisitions can increase CBA completion probability. Furthermore, in very complex decision-making environments, such as that surrounding deal duration, only specific types of experience (i.e. experience of failed international acquisitions) can trigger learning behavior, whereas general experience (i.e. failed acquisition experience) has little influence. Favorable bilateral relationships may not improve the completion rate and efficiency of state-owned firms, but high-quality host country institutions lead to a higher likelihood of CBA completion among state-owned firms; however, this may be not conducive to decreasing the time needed to complete an acquisition deal.
Originality/value
First, by discussing the completion rate and duration of CBAs conducted by state-owned firms and analyzing the factors that influence them, this paper enriches and develops the theory of organizational overseas mergers and acquisitions (M&As). Second, by adopting a legitimacy perspective and integrating institutional theory, the authors theorize how state-owned status influences firms’ M&A completion rate and time and test the hypotheses empirically; thus, this paper improves and deepens institutional theory. Third, by discussing how different types of experience (i.e. successful experience vs failed acquisition experience) influence the acquisition completion rate and duration and how general experience and specific types of experience affect these two dependent variables differently, this paper explains how state-owned firms can learn effectively from experience, contributing to organizational learning theory.
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Sugandh Ahuja, Shveta Singh and Surendra Singh Yadav
The purpose of this study is to examine the differential impact of qualitative and quantitative informational signals within the merger and acquisition (M&A) press releases on…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine the differential impact of qualitative and quantitative informational signals within the merger and acquisition (M&A) press releases on deal completion and duration. A significant percentage of deals by emerging market acquirers get abandoned before completion, and those that are completed have a longer duration. The limited information about the operations of acquirers from emerging markets creates suspicion among the stakeholders involved in deal resolution, hindering the completion of deals. Thus, using the signal-feedback paradigm, authors investigate how informational signals in the M&A press release impact the deal resolution.
Design/methodology/approach
The study employs content analysis on M&A press releases announced by firms from five emerging economies: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The technique is applied based on the exploration-exploitation framework developed by March (1991) to categorize the announced deal motives (qualitative information). Next, the authors identify the percentage of relevant quantitative information disclosed in the press release, following which results are obtained using logistic and ordinary least square regressions.
Findings
The study reports that deals with declared exploratory motives take longer to complete. Additionally, deals disclosing higher percentage of quantitative disclosure exhibit lower completion rate and increased deal duration.
Originality/value
This is the first study to provide evidence that familiarity bias impacts deal duration as relative to exploitation deals that are familiar to the stakeholders; exploratory deals take longer to conclude. Further, our analysis indicates that a greater percentage of quantitative disclosure may not always reduce information risk but rather be interpreted negatively in the form of the acquirer’s overconfidence in the deal’s potential.
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Chandanie Wijayalatha Navaratna, Gunadya Bandarage, Dilsha Nimmi Rajapaksha Appuhamilage, Hemali Pasqual, Joseph Calistus Nihal Rajendra, Menaka D.D. Ranasinghe and Uditha W. Ratnayake
The purpose of this study is to identify the learner characteristics attributable to the likelihood and the duration of programme completion in the Bachelor of Science (BSc) and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to identify the learner characteristics attributable to the likelihood and the duration of programme completion in the Bachelor of Science (BSc) and Bachelor of Technology Honours in Engineering (BTech) degree programmes of the Open University of Sri Lanka (OUSL).
Design/methodology/approach
Data were gathered from the re-registrants for the degree programmes in the academic year 2020/2021, using a questionnaire developed as a Google form. The sample consisted of 301 and 516 re-registrants from the BTech and BSc programmes respectively. Influential factors were identified using Kruskal Wallis test (for duration of completion), binary logistic regression (for likelihood of completion) and Chi-squared test (associations between presage and process factors).
Findings
Entry qualification, age and time management skills at entry had significant effects on duration of completion. Attendance at academic activities, organizing time for self-studies and the competency in English at enrolment had significant effects on the likelihood of completion. Prior open and distance learning (ODL) experience had no significant effect on any of the product factors considered.
Research limitations/implications
Inaccessibility of dropouts and using only the responses from the first administration of the questionnaire are limitations. Active learners are more likely to respond, in the first administration and may bias the results.
Practical implications
Findings are useful for designing future studies to identify at-risk students and thereby enhance the programme completion and reduce prolonged time for completion.
Social implications
Effective strategies to control the identified factors will uplift programme completion and reduce drop-out rates.
Originality/value
Decision making using inferential techniques makes the study distinct among studies undertaken on the same population. The study enriches the limited current research on factors affecting programme completion in ODL mode.
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Reinaldo Guerreiro, Edgard Bruno Cornachione and Armando Catelli
This paper focuses on the determination of the cost completion rate used to calculate the equivalent units of production in a continuous process costing system. The paper aims at…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper focuses on the determination of the cost completion rate used to calculate the equivalent units of production in a continuous process costing system. The paper aims at two research questions. What procedures do companies utilize in practical terms? How should the completion level percentage be calculated conceptually?
Design/methodology/approach
The study is a qualitative exploratory survey. The companies targeted were those noted in “Melhores e Maiores,” a ranking of the best and biggest Brazilian companies. A total of 175 questionnaires were sent to pre‐selected enterprises, each with revenues of more than US$100 million per year, and 50 usable responses were returned.
Findings
A literature review of the theoretical procedures used for continuous process costing revealed no indication of an objective method for determining the completion level. The empirical research in the present study confirmed that, in practice, companies do not adopt the general procedures proposed by the theory. The best practices applied by the companies have been shown to be an adequate alternative, because the results are identical to those obtained with the proposed method.
Research limitations/implications
The study bears the usual limitations of a qualitative exploratory survey regarding its generalization to other companies.
Originality/value
The originality of the study is based on the assumption that cost accounting theory does not offer an objective solution for the computation of the completion level percentage and, consequently, that companies in continuous process production system do not adopt the theoretical concepts with respect to inventory evaluation of goods‐in‐process and finished goods.
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Abrahim Soleimani and K. Michelle Yang
Drawing on the institutional theory and organizational learning literature, the purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between prior acquisition experience and…
Abstract
Purpose
Drawing on the institutional theory and organizational learning literature, the purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between prior acquisition experience and the duration of the deal completion stage in cross-border acquisitions and the impacts of the quality of business institutions in the host country and the institutional distance between home and host countries on this relationship.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses the sixth wave of mergers and acquisitions, the first truly global wave that covered a wide range of institutional settings, to test the hypotheses. Using a panel data regression method, it analyzes 8,175 cross-border acquisitions from 2003 to 2009, conducted by acquirers from 47 advanced and emerging economies in 56 advanced and emerging economies.
Findings
This study finds that host-country acquisition experience has more impact on shortening deal completion duration. Home-country acquisition experience is more effective in host countries with less developed business institutions than in those with more developed ones. The results of this study show that the quality of business institutions in the host country and the institutional distance between the home and host countries amplify or attenuate the effect of past acquisition experiences, depending on their origin and the quality of business institutions and institutional distance of where they are used.
Originality/value
The growing popularity of cross-border acquisitions among emerging country acquirers calls for a systemic study of the cross-border acquisition process. One of the critical and less understood stages in this process is the deal completion stage. This study examines how the institutional environments in the home and host countries impact the effectiveness of past acquisition experiences on shortening this stage.
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Given the ways in which the research pressures on university staff are becoming seemingly ever greater, an issue of the European Journal of Marketing that is given over to a…
Abstract
Given the ways in which the research pressures on university staff are becoming seemingly ever greater, an issue of the European Journal of Marketing that is given over to a survey of the kinds of research initiatives which are currently being carried out is timely. The study which provides the basis for this was conducted between December 1994 and February 1995, with questionnaires being sent to staff in universities throughout Europe. At the time the final selection was made, a total of 150 responses had been received from 18 countries.
Deepak Kumar and Keya Sengupta
The purpose of this study is to provide a broad understanding of the pre-completion stage and subsequent abandonment of mergers and acquisitions (M&As).
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to provide a broad understanding of the pre-completion stage and subsequent abandonment of mergers and acquisitions (M&As).
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 117 peer-reviewed, English language articles published in scholarly journals were considered in the review. The approach includes a descriptive evaluation of the literature, coupled with content analysis. The paper uses both positivist and constructivist approaches to qualitative research. The analysis is conducted with the help of R programming and Gephi visualization software. The authors organize the work around the event of outcome/closure of deal proposal.
Findings
It is found that earlier studies sampled on domestic M&As in developed economies (DEs). However, the interest of scholars has increased in cross-border deals and emerging economies (EEs) in the last decade. Various factors interact and facilitate the completion/abandonment of good and bad deals. The authors find that complex non-linear relationships exist, and there is a need for studies with other classification techniques focusing on predictive accuracy.
Research limitations/implications
The literature review is limited to articles available to the researcher using search terms related to M&A completion/termination. The databases accessed were: ProQuest, Scopus and Web of Science. However, backward snowballing was performed to avoid the omission of relevant articles.
Originality/value
The findings and subsequent discussions familiarize researchers and practitioners with an overview of research undertaken in the field of M&A abandonment. The authors find voids within the literature and suggest future research agendas.
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