Exploiting existing resources or exploring new ones is an old dilemma. As exploitation consists in “the refinement and extension of existing competences, technologies and paradigms” (March, 1991, p. 85) and exploration means “experimentation with new alternatives” (March, 1991, p. 85),...

This work shows how long-term investors can benefit from adding volatility as an asset class to their portfolio. Two types of "structural" exposure – long implied volatility and long volatility risk premium – are now simple to implement. Implied volatility exposure can be used to...

Shareholder agreements govern the relations among shareholders in privately held firms, such as joint ventures and venture capital-backed companies. We provide an economic explanation for key clauses in such agreements—namely, put and call options, tag-along and drag-along rights, demand and...

Since the energy markets liberalization at the beginning of the 1990s in Europe, electricity monopolies have gone through a profound evolution process. From an industrial organization point of view, they lost their monopoly on their historical business, but gained the capacity to develop in any...

Investors often fail to incorporate all relevant information when they make decisions. This is a consequence of both information overload and investors’ limited cognitive abilities. The first essay shows that firms take advantage of investors’ inattention by managing the advance notice...

Is an implementation of a management control system in a public company a lever of change ? A case study was carried out with the French National Railway Company between 1996 and 1998. The management control adapts to the strategic and structural change. The objectives are to decentralize the...

This paper describes an exploratory field study which was carried out at the SNCF. In a network company like SNCF it is more difficult to adopt the assumptions on which traditional management control is based. Now this company is entering into a new process of change of its control system. Is a...

This paper examines issues related to the explanation of the budgeting practices variety. The framework chosen to explain diversity is the contingency theory. It gives us the opportunity to determinate the explanatory factors of budgeting practices: uncertainty, technology, organization, and...