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In the rapidly changing and globalizing environment, mergers and acquisitions (M&As) have become increasingly important. In this study, we paid specific attention to the voluntary announcements of M&A budgets by Japanese firms. We discussed the antecedents and consequences of such announcements by incorporating the context of Japan, which has experienced an enduring economic downturn since 1990 and is in the process of adopting a Western style of governance. Drawing on signaling theory and impression management theory, this exploratory study intended to contribute to the literature by incorporating the influence of the social context and by arguing for the possibility that announcements of M&A budgets may be used not only for strategic purposes but also for impression management and to reduce information asymmetry.

Induction heating is widely used in the industry due to high efficiency, precise control, rapid heating and low pollution properties. To process a semiconductor of high quality, uniform heating is necessary, but it is not easy to heat uniformly by using the conventional induction heating equipment. For this purpose, the zone control induction heating equipment is jointly developed with Mitsui Engineering Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. In this paper, the optimization of current in each coil is carried out using the finite element method and the optimization method in order to obtain a uniform eddy current loss distribution on graphite.

The purpose of this paper is to locate the role of local standard setters in institutional complexity, where multiple sources of pressure for change and continuity coexist. The existing research does not fully explore this since it tends to illustrate the way in which a particular interpretation concerning certain accounting standards prevails over time (Archel et al., 2011; Murphy and O’Connell, 2013; Pelger, 2016; Young, 2014).

It empirically examines and critiques the Japanese experience through the concepts of institutional complexity and translation that specify the relationship between the name and types of practice of accounting standards in the local context (Czarniawska and Sevón, 1996, 2005; Erlingsdóttfr and Lindberg, 2005; Røvik, 2016; Sahlin and Wedlin, 2008). Data sources are texts produced (between 2001 and 2015) by the local accounting standard setter and relevant organisations that represent firms, the certified public accountants and regulatory agency, respectively.

The local accounting standard setter in Japan was exposed to competing pressures between change and maintenance, which was translated by the standard setter in Japan. Consequently, the translation led to an “explosion” of local accounting standards (“pure” International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), Japanese Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), modified IFRS and US GAAP).

This paper is the first attempt to systematically examine the role of a local standard setter under institutional complexity. It illustrates how institutional complexity is turned into divergent outcomes against the assumption of previous research that indicates multiple interpretations of particular accounting standards finally merging into a specific one.

The purpose of this paper is to propose the speed-up of the fixed-point method by updating the reluctivity at each iteration (this is called a modified fixed-point method).

A modified fixed-point method, which updates the derivative of reluctivity at each iteration, is proposed. It is shown that the formulation of the fixed-point method using the derivative of reluctivity is almost the same as that of the Newton-Raphson method. The convergence characteristic of the newly proposed fixed-point method is compared with those of the Newton-Raphson method.

The modified fixed-point method has an advantage that the programming is easy and it has a similar convergence property to the Newton-Raphson method for an isotropic nonlinear problem.

This paper presents the formulation and convergence characteristic of the modified fixed-point method are almost the same as those of the Newton-Raphson method.

Trade credit (TC) is a financing provision by non-financing firms. The multi-disciplinary research field has sustained scholarly attention for long. Pursuant to the gap for a comprehensive summary of the literature confined to the areas of Finance and Economics, this study aims to provide quantitative and qualitative insights not fully captured or analysed in previous reviews.

Contextualized systematic literature review (SLR) and bibliometric techniques are used to map the thematic, intellectual and conceptual structures latent in 138 articles published in top journals.

The top authors, top journals and major themes are recognized using bibliometric techniques followed by an in-depth bibliographic-network-based-content-analysis. Five major clusters indicating the five research dimensions within the specialized field are identified and extensively reviewed. Empirical validation of key theories is discussed in the contents and a conceptual model is developed. Finally, the study has identified key research gaps to set the direction for future research.

The scope of the literature selection is confined to the areas of finance and economics. Future studies could elaborate on a broader perspective.

The study contributes by offering a conceptual model latent in the literature on TC. It derives major research gaps to set the direction of future research. Also, the combination of SLR and bibliometrics is a methodological contribution in this research domain.