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The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether ex ante board connections and director retention result in agency costs to target company shareholders in the form of reduced payment in mergers and acquisitions transaction.

The authors employ detailed data of ex ante board connection and director retention in the mergers and acquisition in the UK from 1999 to 2015. Ex ante board connections are measured as proportion of target and acquirer companies’ directors worked on the same board at any time prior to the takeover, while director retention is measured as proportion of target companies’ directors remains on board after the takeover is completed. For mergers and acquisition payment characteristics, the authors examine takeover premium, cash payment percentage and offer price adjustment.

The authors find that ex ante board connections and director retention lead to reduced offer prices and lower proportions of cash payment. Notably, when there is no connection and target directors are not retained, the authors find that the bidding companies increase their final offer by £14m more than in other scenarios. The authors also document strong evidence that ex ante board connections lead to a higher probability of director retention.

The paper highlights that ex ante board connections and director retention will lead to a significant cost on target company shareholders. The authors recommend that a more detailed set of information on ex ante board connections and intended target board retention should be disclosed.

This paper reviews the evolving literature on top management team effects in mergers and acquisitions (M&As). Existing research has focused on understanding why incumbent top managers depart at higher rates than normal following an acquisition and why high turnover rates have negative postacquisition performance effects. We explore two new areas of inquiry. First, we discuss the role of newly hired executives – executives hired after the acquisition. Our research indicates that executives who join target companies after an acquisition also depart more quickly than executives who join companies not previously involved in an acquisition. Acquisitions appear to create long-term instability in the target firm’s top management team – both incumbent and new-hire executives depart at higher rates than normal well into the future. Integration of the target firm often intensifies instability within the target company’s top management team. This instability affects performance and leads to further integration efforts as the firm attempts to improve performance. These additional integration activities, in turn, lead to even higher subsequent executive turnover. Second, we examine the topic of director turnover and propose a theoretical framework for understanding the relationship between acquisitions and director retention. Future research that considers the role of directors as well as executives may lead to deeper insight into the nature of turnover and integration effects in mergers and acquisitions.

The objective of the firm is to maximise the wealth of its owners. If corporate managers can maximise the market value of the firm by manipulating dividend payments, then they should do so. The optimal dividend policy, if there is one, is the policy which maximises shareholder wealth. As the value of the firm depends upon anticipated operational cash flows, new investment, and risk, then it seems improbable that managers can create wealth by distributing cash flows generated by successful trading between dividend payments and retentions within the company.

Purpose – Through a description of changes in institutional approaches to academic advising, this case study provides strategies for improving retention rates of first-year students deemed ‘at-risk’ of leaving university before second-year enrolment.

Methodology/approach – The study targets first-years who have been identified as ‘at-risk’ in the College of Liberal Arts (CLA) at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Temple is a large public research institution in the United States, home to approximately 35,000 full-time equivalent (FTE) students, of whom, 6,000 are enrolled in the CLA. The current case study focuses on the systematic and intentional processes developed by academic advisors or tutors in CLA to ensure students' progression from their first to second year. Project 2013, named for the intended graduation year of the initial target population, is a proactive retention initiative, and this study delineates the evolution of the innovation, development of the target group, project objectives, implementation of retention strategies, outcomes of the project, successes, limitations and future considerations.

Findings – Through sustained highly personalised interventions with first-year ‘at-risk’ students, the retention rate for this population improved by nearly 7% over the University's average for similar students and met the overall retention rate of the University's general student population.

Practical implications – The outcomes of this project suggest that with careful, strategic planning, clear execution by facilitators and ongoing assessment of such interventions, student retention and, by extension, persistence to graduation should improve significantly enough to warrant strong, ongoing institutional commitment.

Rashidah N. Andrews is an academic advisor in the College of Liberal Arts at Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She earned an Ed.M. in higher education at Harvard University's Graduate School of Education and is currently a doctoral student in educational administration at temple. Before arrival at Temple, Rashidah spent three years as project manager for the Ethnic Minorities Student Achievement Grant (EMSAG) at Halesowen College in England, one year as director of College Retention at a non-profit in Philadelphia and two years as admission counselor at her alma mater. Her research interests include access, retention and persistence of low-income, first-generation students.

This paper reviews academic literature related to the consequences that outside directors and boards may face in the wake of earnings restatements and suggests directions for future research. We examine loss of board seats; recruitment of new directors; proxy recommendations and shareholder support; pre-emptive director departures; director wealth effects; director reputation, litigation, and sanction risks; international evidence; and legal proposals for reform. The overall picture that emerges from the literature is that directors’ primary risk in the wake of earnings restatements is loss of board seats, in part through adverse proxy advisor recommendations and reduced shareholder support. Directors typically face little risk of legal liability or SEC sanctions, and some directors pre-emptively leave a problem company’s board and reduce their loss of interlocked board seats. Some legal scholars have called for director liability to be increased so as to promote more vigilant board oversight. Companies often focus on increasing the independence of the board in the wake of a restatement in an effort to repair organizational reputation. While researchers have revealed a host of important findings to date, much more can be learned about the effects of restatements on outside directors and boards.

This paper aims to focus on the importance of ensuring that enough women take their place on boards of directors.

The paper provides statistics to underline the under‐representation of women in the higher echelons of companies. It looks at how the problem is being confronted in a number of countries. It examines what governments and companies could and should be doing to ensure adequate representation of women on boards of directors, and the advantages that flow from this.

The paper stresses the importance of career crunch points – particularly around childbirth – when women have to make the decision about how best to balance their home and working lives. It urges companies to support women through these periods through coaching.

The paper reveals that companies with strong representation of women on the boards of directors tend to perform better than those with all‐male boards.

The paper highlights the cost to society of the under‐representation of women at the top of companies.

The paper examines, from an international perspective, the problem of under‐representation of women on boards of directors.

Is there an alternative to the registry? Yes, of course — just look inside virtually every office. In the majority of organisations, outside those areas where the specialist nature and high volume of the records necessitates special filing units and dedicated staff, it is very much a matter of D.I.Y. and each man/woman for themselves. How many of you reading this use a registry to look after your own files? Alright then, how do you manage them? Do you have a logically developed, function‐based, hierarchically organised subject classification scheme linked, of course, to a regularly implemented retention schedule? If not, why not — after all, if charity begins at home, so should records management.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of leadership styles on different organizational outcomes and value structure such as: overall business performance, working style, motivation and trust of employees, management efficiency and corporate culture in the context of Vietnamese small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

The authors perform a qualitative analysis and gather data by conducting conversational semi-structured interviews with 51 SME managers from different industries. Data were analyzed using a step-by-step approach following Creswell.

The study explores the effects of leadership styles on various organizational outcomes. Given the features of SMEs, it sheds light on the significance of leadership styles in changing work environment, increasing staff retention, and promoting the viability of SMEs. It also discusses the selection of leadership styles in accordance with Vietnamese culture.

This study has practical implications on human resource management in the context of SMEs. SME managers, training providers and support agencies may utilize the research outcomes to raise the awareness of SMEs leaders. Based on the research findings, appropriate training programs should be developed to assist managers in tackling major problems.

Although several previous studies have tried to investigate the influence of leadership styles on organizational outcomes, this is the first research to explore the topic in the context of SMEs and in conjunction with the Vietnamese culture.

Given the increasing numbers of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) college students, it is critical to have a diverse group of faculty, staff, administrators, and student affairs professionals who are social justice minded and multiculturally competent to address their needs (Maramba, 2008b; Pope, Reynolds, & Mueller, 2004). However, higher education institutions are still faced with the challenge of increasing the racial, ethnic, and gender diversity at these professional levels. AAPIs are one such population whose representation in the field of student affairs administration is severely lacking. The purpose of this chapter is to acquire a better understanding of the AAPI women in the profession of student affairs administration.