Julia Porter Liebeskind

Block Share Purchases and Corporate Performance

This paper investigates the causes and consequences of activist block share purchases in the 1980s. We find that activist investors were most likely to purchase large blocks of shares in highly diversified firms with poor profitability. Activists were not less likely to purchase blocks in firms with shark repellents and employee stock ownership plans. Activist block purchases were followed by increases in asset divestitures, decreases in mergers and acquisitions, and abnormal share price appreciation. Industry-adjusted operating profitability also rose. This evidence supports the view that the market for partial corporate control plays an important role in limiting agency costs in U.S. corporations. Copyright The American Finance Association 1998.

THE EFFECTS OF CORPORATE RESTRUCTURING ON AGGREGATE INDUSTRY SPECIALIZATION

It has been widely argued that the purpose of corporate restructuring during the 1980s was to produce a population of more industry-specialized, competitive firms in response to intensifying global competition. A number of studies show that corporate restructuring resulted in increased corporate focus during the 1980s. However, no study has yet examined whether corporate restructuring resulted in increased specialization at the industry level during the 1980s. This study examines this issue. First, we examine whether or not aggregate industry specialization increased during the 1980s. That is, we ask: did the average firm in any given U.S. industry become more or less specialized to that industry during the 1980s? Second, we examine whether corporate restructuring was a significant determinant of change in aggregate industry specialization during the 1980s. Using a sample of 686 four-digit SIC industries and 64 two-digit industry groups, this study finds that aggregate industry specialization declined very slightly at both the four-digit and two-digit level between 1981 and 1989. This study also finds that sell-offs of establishments through corporate control transactions or interfirm asset sales had no significant effect on aggregate industry specialization.

Corporate Restructuring and the Consolidation of US Industry

This study examines the impact of corporate restructuring measured at the industry level on industry concentration in 695 four-digit U.S. industries in the basic, manufacturing, and services sectors between 1981 and 1989. The results show a modest increase in median industrial concentration in sample industries between 1981 and 1989. The authors find no evidence that selloffs of assets at the industry level through horizontal mergers, acquisitions, and interfirm asset sales increased U.S. industrial concentration during the 1980s. Copyright 1996 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Pattern in Corporate Evolution

Questions relating to the existence and nature of firms have become major issues in economics in recent years. In this major new work, Neil Kay provides original explanations for many individual phenomena in this area. The analysis is set in the context of an integrative framework for analysing the boundaries and structure of the firm. The book analyses the firm as a complex system in which links composed of shared resources constitute basic building blocks. The evolution of the firm from simple beginnings to complex system is then studied in a number of areas, including vertical integration, diversification, multi- national enterprise, joint venture, alliance, network, and internal organization. Neil Kays analysis advances current theories of the firm and will be essential reading for students and academics in the areas of business economics, strategic management, and organization theory.