This paper examines the role that organization structure and contract design played in resolving economic and political problems that arose during Germany's privatization process. We find that German officials structured organizations and contracts in a way that made credible the government's...

There has been substantial research on both asset restructuring and top management changes. The connection between the two, however, has received little attention. Here, we examine spinoffs as events through which top management is restructured. Our main findings are: 1) both firm-specific human...

A hot growth stock in the 1980s, L.A. Gear's equity fell from $1 billion in market value in 1989 to zero in 1998. For over six years as revenues declined precipitously, management tried a series of radical strategy shifts while subsidizing the firm's large losses through working-capital...

A persistent and puzzling empirical regularity is the fact that many firms adopt conservative financial policies. These quot;under-leveragedquot; firms carry substantially less debt than predicted by dominant theories of capital structure (Graham (2000) and Myers (1984)). This paper examines the...

Academics and practitioners from a wide range of backgrounds agree that bringing about sustainable, productive changes in organizations is difficult. They disagree, however, on why this is the case. Consequently, they disagree on the most effective approaches to analyzing and solving...

This paper presents clinically-based studies of two acquisitions that received very different stock market reactions at announcements one positive and one negative. Despite the differing market reactions, we find that, ultimately, neither acquisition created value overall. In exploring the...

This paper examines the role that organization structure and contract design played in resolving economic and political problems that arose during Germany's privatization process. We find that German officials structured organizations and contracts in a way that made credible the government's...

We analyze Total Quality Management (TQM) from an economic and organizational perspective. We find that TQM is a new organizing technology that is science-based, non-hierarchical, and non-market-oriented. It improves productivity by encouraging the use of science in decision-making and...

Through a series of cases, articles and other readings this module develops the concepts of corporate governance and control, and examines their relation to the organizational rules of the game, and to the creation and distribution of value. The quot;organizational rules of the gamequot; refers...

Using data from private placement contracts, we analyze relationships between investors and issuers, and their impact on corporate governance and performance. Most investors have a relationship with the issuer pre-placement and many new relationships are formed through the placement agreement....