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This paper is a clinical examination of the October 2013 Management Buyout of Dell Inc. by founder Michael Dell and Silver Lake Partners for a total consideration of $13.88 per share. The proposed transaction was targeted by shareholders unhappy with the deal price and voting framework. Various shareholders went on to file an appraisal suit. Examining these events yields insights into shareholder rights issues in a major transaction.

The paper examines events surrounding the acquisition including the negotiation process, go-shop period, shareholder activist demands for a higher price, shareholder voting and the subsequent appraisal trial and appeal.

Despite suggesting Dell's board fulfilled its fiduciary duties, Delaware Vice Chancellor Travis Laster awarded petitioning shareholders $17.62 per share, a 27% premium to the final deal consideration. This article draws on Laster's decision and research examining topics raised by the surrounding events to argue minority shareholder interests were not sufficiently protected.

The Dell transaction represents only one data point. Moreover, Vice Chancellor Laster's decision was reversed on appeal.

Nevertheless, the paper discusses the nuances surrounding many issues of interest to practitioners involving large going private transactions. It could also be used to illustrate many “real world” perspectives in an advanced corporate finance or mergers and acquisitions class.

Going shopping is a major source of relaxation as well as a household chore. Associated with females, the activity is under pressure due to time constraints, changing social roles and technological advances. In this paper, the impact of changing social pressures on going shopping is examined among married households. Key constructs are sex and shopping context which determine shopping responsibility among household members. Based on a large scale survey that included statistically viable numbers of male as well as female respondents, the study finds a great deal of consensus regarding shopping responsibility among the sampled households. Although men are playing a significant role in shopping activities, particularly shopping for household groceries, shopping remains a gendered activity but it is not a pleasureless activity. We conclude that the supermarket is likely to be the retail setting where the changing roles will make the greatest impact.

During December 2012, Jorge Paulo Lemann, a co-founder and partner at 3G, proposed to Warren Buffett that 3G and Berkshire Hathaway acquire H. J. Heinz Company. Lemann and Buffett, who had known each other for years, jointly decided that the Heinz turnaround had been successful and that there was significant potential for continued global growth. 3G informed Heinz CEO William Johnson that it and Berkshire Hathaway were interested in jointly acquiring his company. Johnson then presented the investors' offer of $70.00 per share of outstanding common stock to the Heinz board.

After much discussion, the Heinz board and its advisors informed 3G that without better financial terms they would not continue to discuss the possibility of an acquisition. Two days later, 3G and Berkshire Hathaway returned with a revised proposal of $72.50 per share, for a total transaction value of $28 billion (including Heinz's outstanding debt).

Following a forty-day “go-shop” period, Heinz, 3G, and Berkshire Hathaway agreed to sign the deal. But was this, in fact, a fair deal? And what might be the future consequences for shareholders, management, employees, and citizens of Pittsburgh, the location of the company's headquarters? Last, what was the role of activist investors in bringing Heinz to this deal stage?

After reading and analyzing the case, students will be able to:

• Understand the influence of investment bankers on M&A transactions

• Consider synergies that drive M&A

• Consider the role of activist investors in corporate strategic decision-making

• Understand the impact of M&A on key corporate stakeholders

• Apply core valuation techniques to support M&A valuation

Understand the influence of investment bankers on M&A transactions

Consider synergies that drive M&A

Consider the role of activist investors in corporate strategic decision-making

Understand the impact of M&A on key corporate stakeholders

Apply core valuation techniques to support M&A valuation

This article aims to alert readers to the procurement and acquisition activities of police agencies, to the risks that these entail, and to mechanisms for their effective management.

The article explores the ways in which acquisition by police is conducted and regulated. It examines these relationships between police and the private sector from the perspective of their benefits, such as costs and efficiency gains, and the risks they entail, including overdependency, corruption and lack of accountability.

Shopping by the public police is on the increase. Through procurement and outsourcing, police harness resources needed to cope with increasing demands on their services. Increased police activity in the marketplace, driven by changing ideological, economic and pragmatic considerations, represents a fundamental structural shift in policing. The article identifies appropriate institutional and procedural safeguards, and raises questions about the implications of commercial relationships for the future of public policing.

This article makes a contribution by flagging the increased reliance of police on externally provided goods and services, and by suggesting ways in which the procurement process can be managed to ensure both accountability and value for money.

The purpose of this paper is to offer some insight into how siblings aged between 4 and 12, engaged in a collaborative drawing activity at home, recall the shopping trips they have experienced.

Using a Vygotskian perspective, the data collection consisted of engaging 15 pairs of siblings in the production of a joint drawing of a shop of their choice. Drawing in pairs opens a Zone of Proximal Development (Vygotsky, 1978) where the younger child benefits from verbal guidance by the older one to achieve the common task. This situation enables the researcher to gain close access to children’s knowledge about stores and to the words they use to describe their personal shopping experiences.

This exploratory research reveals some constitutive elements of children’s “shopscapes” (Nicol, 2014), i.e. the imaginary geographies they actively elaborate through their daily practices and experiences with regard to retail environments. In their communicative interactions when elaborating a joint drawing of the shop they have chosen, children demonstrate that they master a considerable body of knowledge about retail environments. Surprisingly, recalling their shopping practices sheds light on various anxiety-generating dimensions.

The data collection is based on a remembering exercise performed at home and does not bring information about what children actually do in retail environments. Moreover, the children were asked to focus on buying a present for a friend’s birthday, therefore the information gathered essentially relates to toy stores.

This research underlines the necessity for retailers to endeavour to reduce some of the anxious feelings depicted and verbalized by children, by improving the welcome for children into their stores.

There are also opportunities for retailers to invest in the consumption education area by guiding young visitors so that they learn how to behave as apprentice consumers in retail outlets.

The child-centric perspective of the study reveals new and surprising insights about the way children report their memorised shopping experiences.

Explores the role and experience of compensatory consumption in women’s lives. Conducts the research from a feminist perspective and asks “what are women’s lived experiences of compensatory consumption?” This is an under‐researched area and yet there are numerous links with other more widely researched areas of consumer research, such as addictive consumption, self‐gift giving and compensatory eating behaviour. Compensatory behaviour and consumption is a difficult area to research, however, and therefore reviews the subject in the light of existing literature, so that a research framework may be advanced to enable a greater understanding of the concept. Presents an overview of this research, together with preliminary findings based on phenomenological interviews. Clearly demonstrates the significance of this area of study within consumer research and proposes an agenda for further research.

COVID-19 has been challenging for many in the UK. This is no different to many with autism spectrum disorder. Based on the experiences and issues raised by a small group of autistic women in an ongoing support group, consideration if this holds true for the wider adult autistic community across further lockdowns and restrictions to public life was explored.

An online questionnaire was created based on the issues raised. Participants indicated the degree to which they agreed or disagreed with each statement.

Autistic adults experienced an increase in anxiety and poor mental health, which in turn has exacerbated autistic features, such as rigidity. The data indicates that autistic adults can adapt to change provided there is support in maintaining routines.

The research is limited due to the small number of participants (N = 120), as well as national variations in service provision.

Our data raises wider questions about the nature of support for autistic adults without cognitive impairments during times of crises and how services can respond and may even be shaped in the future to provide support that is cost-effective and relevant to autistic adults.

To ensure that services have an awareness of how crises impact on autistic adults and how relatively simple changes may avert poor mental health.

That the creation of local support networks, and the ability to access these, is a key feature of autism-specific support.

Based on observations made during a field visit to Poland in July/August 1990, the current changes taking place in the Polish retail scene are explored, both by sector and in terms of the marketing mix. The major issues facing potential entrants – domestic, as well as foreign – into the newly emerging private Polish retail sector, are placed into the historical and political context. Recommendations are made for a possible direction the management of the changes could take. In this the importance of developing staff attitudes and expertise is emphasised: Polish. retailing success must build on the empowerment of native Polish retail managers.

The present experiment aimed to test the impact of a self‐regulatory strategy of goal pursuit – called mental contrasting with implementation intentions (MCII) – on an integrative bargaining task.

Participants were randomly assigned to dyads and negotiated over the sale of a car. Before negotiating, participants were prompted to engage in MCII, or one or the other of its two component strategies: to contrast mentally achieving success in the integrative bargaining task with the reality standing in the way of this success (MC), to form implementation intentions on how to bargain (i.e. if‐then plans) (II), or both to contrast mentally and form implementation intentions (MCII).

The strategy of mental contrasting with implementation intentions led dyads to reach the largest joint agreements, compared to dyads that only used mental contrasting or if‐then plans. Moreover, participants who mentally contrasted formed more cooperative implementation intentions than participants who did not mentally contrast, mediating the effect of condition on joint gain.

The findings suggest that the self‐regulatory strategy of mental contrasting with implementation intentions (MCII) leads to higher joint gain, and that this effect is mediated by mental contrasting's promotion of cooperative planning. More research should be done to understand the specific negotiation behaviors engendered by MCII, as well as its applicability to other negotiation scenarios.

These findings have implications for both self‐regulation and negotiation research. The result that MCII fosters integrative solutions reflects its potential to help people form cooperative plans and reach high joint‐value agreements in integrative scenarios. For negotiation research, the paper identifies an effective self‐regulatory strategy for producing high‐quality agreements.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to a better understanding of the organic apparel consumer. Is the recent upsurge in organic cotton products another fashion trend or is there a segment of consumers genuinely interested in purchasing organic cotton apparel based on the benefits of organic agriculture to the environment?

Data were collected with a mail survey of US health and natural foods consumers. Conjoint analysis revealed salient product attributes and cluster analysis identified segments of consumers with different attribute preferences. Factor analysis uncovered latent variables from among the large number of items and the clusters were examined for differences in their psychographic profiles.

It was found that the 38 percent of consumers who found used organic cotton content salient had positive attitudes toward organic and sustainable agriculture, preferred to “buy locally” and had a strong self‐identity as environmental, organic, and socially responsible consumers.

The sample of US health and natural foods consumers means that the results cannot be generalized too widely. Research is currently under way to relate the self‐reported purchase behavior of organic apparel consumers discussed here to actual purchase behavior.

Survey respondents interested in purchasing organic cotton apparel agreed that organic farming is good for the environment, suggesting that consumers would be receptive to marketing messages that place an emphasis on the environmental benefits of purchasing organic cotton apparel.

The paper provides insight into the attitudes and motivations of environmentally concerned US consumers of organic apparel and provides information on focusing marketing to these consumers.