American Corporations Research Articles

Unpacking the dynamics in acquisition of capabilities: the role of identities during postmerger integration

PurposeDespite best intentions, mergers and acquisitions often do not live up to the expectations for performance. This study examined how the salience of multiple identities creates dynamics in postmerger integration processes and how these dynamics influence the acquisition of the target's capabilities.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conducted an in-depth case study of a large American consumer goods multinational corporation's acquisition of a family-owned German beauty business and examined responses to decisions and events during the postmerger integration process.FindingsThe results show how and why efforts to acquire unique target capabilities might not deliver the hoped-for results. The authors discovered multiple identities that became salient during the postmerger integration process which subsequently influenced interpretations and reactions to decisions and events and which created intergroup dynamics. The authors also noted the role of language in making these identities salient. Such dynamics pose challenges to managing the postmerger integration process and to acquiring sought after capabilities.Originality/valueThis study reveals how different identities become salient in the interpretation of particular events and decisions, resulting in emotional and behavioral reactions and intergroup dynamics. Furthermore, it uncovers the role of language in making identities salient. This study offers further insight into identity dynamics when the capability of the target firm is the motive of the acquisition.

Language Code Mixing in the Discourse of IT Companies

The mixing of English with national languages in business communication is a consequence of global processes: the development of transnational corporations, modern technologies, the intensification of communication flows and the dominance of English in intercultural communication. Mixing and switching of language codes is quite often observed in the corporate media discourse of IT companies. For organizations in this sphere, English is the main language of business communication, but its use goes beyond professional slang and terminology, creating characteristic forms of language codes mixing. The purpose of the research presented in the article is to identify and analyze situations of mixing English and Russian in the corporate media discourse of IT companies. The research material was corporate media texts in Russian and English posted on the pages of official websites, corporate blogs and in the social networks Twitter and Facebook. In the analyzed texts in Russian, English inclusions (phrases, individual words and their parts) are often observed to denote work programs and tools, corporate events. As part of the professional slang of IT professionals, English words are transmitted using the Cyrillic alphabet and in accordance with the rules of Russian grammar. The influence of English on Russian media discourse in the IT field is also observed in the expansion of the meanings of some words. In Russian media texts, there are also phrases that are not typical for the Russian language, but represent a literal translation of English phrases. English-language sentences are used in Russian texts as mottos or slogans of the company, as congratulations or advice. As a result of the content analysis of the selected media texts, it was also found that along with the English language, the values typical for the discourse of American corporations are being borrowed. It was found that the value dominants of the corporate discourse of IT companies are change and progress, success, equality, partnership.

The Education Trap: Schools and the Remaking of Inequality in Boston by Christina Viviana Groeger

In The Education Trap, Groeger explores how the modern American education system and corporate economy mutually constituted one another from 1880 through the Great Depression. Using Boston as a case study, she analyzes how schooling expanded and became the primary pathway to work across the employment structure in this period, replacing a wide array of pathways and informal training, including apprenticeships, kinship, and ethnic networks. This transformation took place within, and became part of, political and economic struggles for power in the workplace. Groeger traces these contests and their different outcomes within the fields of low-wage work, trades and craftwork, “pink collar” jobs in stores and offices, the legal and education professions, and corporate management.Whereas human-capital theory and popular narratives about this change equate more education with greater skills, opportunity, and equality, Groeger shows how employers and elites used education to assert control or status within changing workplaces and to impose new hierarchies, inequalities, and exclusions within education. While these education pathways may have opened opportunities for some, they also created and obscured new inequalities under a rhetoric of merit, as defined by those in power, with myriad gender, racial, ethnic, and class discriminations built into it. Groeger argues that education alone did not empower workers or reduce inequality; workers who had the power to control the nature of, and entry to, work fared the best in the new corporate economy. Now and in the past, we have fallen into a persistent “policy trap” when we posit education as the solution to inequality without attending to the larger dynamics of power within the economy.The Education Trap makes too many contributions to history, policy, education, and interdisciplinary social science about the relationship between education and the economy to be described adequately in this limited space. The book engages but challenges human-capital theory in economics and credentialing theory in sociology, exploring their strengths and limitations when subjected to rigorous historical, empirical examination. It offers an important historical interpretation of the corporate reconstruction of the economy and the systematization of education in the early twentieth century, including the development of high schools and relationship between public and private schools. It offers a compelling analysis of how and why myths about merit and mobility through education were constructed through these economic and educational transformations. Most of all, it critiques the way in which social scientists and policymakers assert education as an answer to social inequality without attending to the larger dynamics of power that structure work and education. These contributions are important not only to how we understand the past but also to how we understand the present.Many of these contributions come from Groeger’s innovative use of sources, her deep dive into institutional contexts, and the wide lens that she applies across educational institutions and the economy. The quantitative census data that provide the spine of the book enable her to trace the occupational, educational, household, and demographic characteristics of Boston workers from 1890 to 1940. As she notes in the book and explains in more detail on the book’s website, Groeger made particular use of historical census material from the recently released Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (ipums), with 100 percent samples of individual-level data for the years of her study. She contextualized these data with qualitative sources from seventeen archives, including school and university institutional records, occupational trade journals, employee personnel files, newspapers, personal correspondence, and student testimonials and yearbooks. These integrated data allow Groeger to explore large-scale trends as well as individual stories in the context of workplaces and educational sites. This deep context is essential to understanding how power operates, how it impacts individuals’ lives, and how changes and people are linked across these settings.Another methodological strength of the book is Groeger’s linking of domains usually treated separately—schools and workplaces, K–12 schools and universities, and public and private schools—which brings a holistic perspective to systems and change. The light that The Education Trap’s historical analysis sheds on contemporary theory and policy will interest a wide array of scholars who study the relationship between education and the economy and question the enduring trap of education as a cure for social inequality.

Hollywood’s Embassies

Hollywood’s Embassies

A brief history of Canadian book publishing. Does the book publishing house need state support?

The article is devoted to the history and peculiarities of book publishing and book distribution in Canada, the changes that have taken place in the Canadian book industry in recent times, in particular under the influence of the COVID-19 epidemic. Intelligence focuses on government support for book publishing by the Government of Canada. The achievements and defeats of Canada's national book publishing program are analyzed.
 Іt is concluded that Canadian book publishing and book distribution have a specific history, national characteristics and characteristics of development. An analysis of the evolution of the industry shows that throughout its historical development, it has been greatly influenced by powerful American and British publishing corporations, which still dominate the country's book market.

Across the Pond: How US Firms' Boards of Directors Adapted to the Passage of the General Data Protection Regulation†

ABSTRACTOne of the prime responsibilities of the board of directors is to understand and oversee its firm's risk profile. We exploit a recent European Union (EU) regulation, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), as a quasi‐exogenous shock to the cyber risk landscape to assess whether boards of US firms changed their focus and governance structures to deal with this new challenge. The GDPR encompasses a sweeping set of regulations aimed at protecting EU citizens from unwanted uses of their personal Internet data. Although an EU regulation, the GDPR applies to all US public firms with at least one EU user. Adopting a difference‐in‐differences methodology, we use firms that already fall under a US data privacy regulation as a control group and find that boards of treated US firms, on average, increase their focus on cyber risk, add more directors with cyber/IT expertise, and more frequently assign cyber risk oversight to the board or to a board committee. In cross‐sectional tests, we show that these changes are positively associated with a firm's ex ante cyber risk, but are unrelated to whether a firm had a large EU presence, suggesting a more global reaction to the GDPR. In addition, we examine some of the consequences of these board changes. We find boards that promptly responded by changing their board focus, expertise, and monitoring assignment of cyber risk around the passage of GDPR had fewer future cyberattacks/data breaches and less related media attention. Our findings suggest that, on average, American corporate boards promptly responded to changes in the cyber risk environment in ways that reduced their firms' overall future cyber risk. Our results have implications for the efficacy and flexibility of US corporate boards to respond to unexpected changes in risk.

Big business in the USA in the context of the slowdown of the economy in 2022: problems and prospects

In the context of the slowdown in the recovery of the American economy in 2022 big US businesses faced a number of problems: ongoing difficulties with production in China, rising inflation and the conflict in Ukraine. Nevertheless, the rise in raw material prices that followed in connection with these events compensated for losses to a number of American corporations as a result of which they came out with record profits in the second quarter of 2022. Nevertheless, one of the negative consequences of this was the tendency to monopolization, in the field of housing construction, threatening problems for the US market economy.

Gender, Race, and Intersectionality in Campaign Cash to the U.S. Congress, 1990 to 2014

This data visualization presents trends and patterns in gender, race, and their intersection in campaign donations to U.S. congressional candidates by American corporate leaders during the 1990–2014 election cycles. On the basis of a new longitudinal database, this visualization shows consistent gender and racial disparities in corporate leaders’ propensity to donate and in their partisan preferences. Throughout the series, the authors find that women are less likely to contribute to congressional campaigns than men in U.S. corporate leadership. Conditional on contributing, women are overall more likely to donate to Democrats than men. In addition to a consistent gender gap in partisan preferences, we find that women of color are the most Democratic leaning, compared with their white counterparts. This latter finding implies a role for intersectionality in explaining the political behavior of these leaders.

Impact of business ethics and CSR on societal welfare: the case of BP oil spill

The blast of the BP-rented Deepwater Skyline and ensuing oil slick stand as a prosecution not simply of our public energy needs and ecological policing; similarly address a disappointment of Somewhat English American corporate regulation and what passes for corporate social obligation in business today. Involving BP and the catastrophe as a convincing contextual analysis, this Article looks at green promoting and corporate administration and recognizes components of every that urge firms to connect just cursorily in corporate social obligation yet trumpet those endeavors to enthusiastic purchasers and financial backers. This Article then proposes changes and assurances intended to increment corporate social obligation, root out greenwashing, and perceive risk for corporate social obligation fakes on shoppers and financial backers. One of these securities gets from the recently ordered Dodd-Straight to the point Act, whose Department of Purchaser Monetary Security could assume a main part in policing fake cases of corporate social obligation.

Business-centered versus socially responsible corporate diversity communication. An assessment of stakeholder (dis)agreement on Twitter

This study assessed the business-centered and CSR-centered diversity communication of five American corporations along with the ensuing responses on the microblogging platform Twitter, the present analysis contributes to the literature on online diversity communication and public relations. The results revealed that companies that had long-term consistency in approaching diversity as CSR received more agreeable responses than those that made swift changes in the aftermath of increased pressure from activist groups. In addition, companies that communicated to a greater degree about the impact of diversity on the bottom line engendered higher user agreement than those who discussed diversity primarily from a CSR perspective.The results shed light on the importance of message consistency throughout longer periods of time.

Carbon emissions and firm performance: A matter of horizon, materiality and regional specificities

The relationship between environmental and financial performance has been a source of great debate. While some scholars have exerted that enhanced environmental performance should generate competitive advantages and thus greater profitability, others have argued that the cost burden would not be offset by corporations. In this study, I reexamined the impact of carbon emission performance (CEP) on corporate financial performance (CFP) by studying the moderating effect of CFP horizon, CEP materiality and regional attributes. Using an international sample of firms between 2015 and 2020, the results suggested that (1) short-term CFP was negatively affected by CEP and (2) solely high materiality firms would derive heightened CFP in the long run. While the former finding was exacerbated for high materiality firms and those operating in regions with more stringent regulations, the latter was driven mainly by North American corporations. Thus, materiality appeared to reconcile diverging expectations of scholars regarding the CEP-CFP relationship. The findings reported in this study were robust to firm-year effects as well as endogeneity issues.

Financialization of American Corporations: A Revisit of the 1980s Takeover Wave

Studies of financialization have explored how shareholder value maximization became the guiding principle of American corporations. Conventional accounts stress that financiers successfully disciplined corporate managers during the 1980s takeover boom. However, the prevailing view exaggerates the centrality and efficacy of market forces. This study recounts the 1980s Deal Decade by focusing on the political dynamics that shaped the regulatory climate for takeovers and, consequently, the transition from managerialism to shareholderism. It demonstrates how local community leaders, workers, and the public, against the backdrop of America’s industrial decline and growing financial instability, strongly resisted takeover artists. The stigmatization of aggressive takeover practices induced financial practitioners and shareholders to change their strategies from the external market for corporate control to internal governance mechanisms by the early 1990s. This study highlights social forces and alternative narratives in the evolution of American financialization, offering further implications for the contemporary debate regarding corporate governance.

Ethical Leadership and the Code of Ethics in American Corporate Firms: Wells Fargo & Company

Every company has core values and principles that guide the actions of that specific company. These values inform the decisions that are made and how they are made within that company, these values form the company's code of ethics. A company's code of ethics is specially designed for that company, and more often than not, cannot be implemented into other company without alterations. This is because companies have different cultures and therefore need different guidelines to guide their behavior and decision making. The paper evaluates the ethical concerns within Wells Fargo & Company, analyze its code of ethics, and evaluate the consequences that are faced by companies that engage in unethical and illegal activities. In conclusion, it is very important for an organization's culture to be based on ethics. An ethical decision making ensures that a company runs smoothly, is always in line with laws and regulations, and provides safe working conditions for employees who are more productive because of it. Organizations also benefit from running a business based on ethical decision making because this leaves the protected from the consequences that come with illegal and unethical business conduct and practices. Keywords: Ethical Leadership, Code of Ethics, Corporate Firms and Wells Fargo & Company

Navigating Financial Frontiers: Corporate Finance Management and the Evolving Banking System

This comprehensive exploration delves into the dynamic landscape of corporate finance management and the banking system, meticulously examining their historical roots, current state, and future trajectories. The article offers a nuanced understanding of the intricate interplay between corporations and the banking sector, encompassing key aspects such as the pivotal role of technology, emerging trends, persistent challenges, and the potential evolution of financial systems. The analysis begins with an insightful review of foundational works, such as Schmidt and Tyrell's examination of financial systems' impact on corporate decision-making and governance frameworks, and Boot and Marinč's study on the evolving nature of banking institutions. These foundational perspectives set the stage for a deeper exploration into the strategic shifts within corporate and private banking, as articulated by Hamzaee and Wold, shedding light on the adaptive strategies required for financial institutions in the face of a rapidly changing economic environment. Further, the article delves into contemporary issues with a focus on the Squam Lake Report, where influential economists collaboratively present a roadmap for fixing systemic flaws in the financial system. This forward-looking approach aligns with Stulz's examination of the crucial link between financial structure and economic growth, providing a comprehensive cross-country perspective that considers diverse banking systems and their impact on national economic development. A critical examination of the Japanese and Australian financial systems by Hoshi and Edey respectively adds a regional dimension to the exploration, uncovering the unique characteristics, challenges, and evolution of financial landscapes beyond the global mainstream. Simultaneously, Kamath et al.'s analysis of the challenges and opportunities within the Indian banking sector contributes a granular perspective on a rapidly growing and dynamic financial ecosystem. The review also spotlights the political underpinnings of American corporate finance, as expounded by Roe in his seminal works. Roe's political theory lens provides a thought-provoking analysis of the power dynamics shaping corporate governance structures in the United States, offering valuable insights into the historical roots that continue to influence the American financial landscape. In conclusion, this article aims to provide a comprehensive and forward-looking exploration of the dynamic landscape of corporate finance and the banking system. By synthesizing historical perspectives, contemporary analyses, and future trajectories, it offers a holistic understanding of the multifaceted relationships and forces shaping the intricate world of finance. Researchers, policymakers, and practitioners stand to gain valuable insights into the complexities and opportunities that define the present and future of corporate finance and banking.

From Disestablishment to Dartmouth College v. Woodward: How Virginia's Fight over Religious Freedom Shaped the History of American Corporations

This article clarifies the precise connection between two early national Supreme Court decisions, the little-known Terrett v. Taylor (1815) and the landmark Dartmouth College v. Woodward (1819). The missing link between these cases is incorporation. Both disputes arose in the turmoil of post-Revolutionary disestablishment as state legislatures directly challenged the rights of colonial corporations. While Dartmouth College had been incorporated by a royal charter in colonial New Hampshire, the litigant in Terrett, a parish vestry, had been incorporated under common law in colonial Virginia. After the Revolution, Virginia's legislature disestablished the Anglican Church, disregarded its customary incorporation, revoked its post-revolutionary act of incorporation, and seized parish property. These radical policies set Virginia apart from other states and made these disputes a critical litmus test for the rights of all corporations. John Marshall opposed these policies while serving as a delegate in Virginia's legislature, and his views on these issues prefigured his opinion in Dartmouth College. Virginia's highest court upheld these policies as lawful, but the US Supreme Court's rejected them as unconstitutional in Terret. The Court's ruling in Terrett set a significant precedent for the standing of all private corporations vis-a-vis state legislatures and laid the groundwork for the Court's decision in Dartmouth College.

Jefferson’s Revolutionary Theory of American Entrepreneurial Capitalism

We argue that Jefferson’s economic model of entrepreneurial capitalism is a more fair and just system. The main tenet of the Marxist hoax is to replace the current American corporate crony capitalist system with the state communist crony corporatism of China, which would, supposedly, end the White supremacist reign of terror.

The core – the periphery in global capitalism: from hegemony to multipolar order

The article analyzes the present order, called neoliberal globalization. It serves American corporations from the arms, mining, financial and ICT sectors to accumulate the capital. They made Wall Street the financial center of the world where the surplus of Europe, Japan and Latin American is transformed into the American bonds. This order is embedded in the institutions created and steered by the American state. The competitive advantage in this phase of the evolution of capitalism is given not only by control over so-called intellectual property but also by conquering a possibly large market. That is the reason for the competition between huge mega-corporations such as American GAFA or Chinese BATX. Capitalism is affected by the planetary crisis. A decline of the economic growth rate will take place as a result of natural limits from 3% to the anticipated 1%, including a decreased productivity of the computer revolution. Mechanisms of the functioning of the world economy will change: reconstruction of energy industry and transport, pressure on recycling of minerals, transformation of the labour market together with the use of robotics and artificial intelligence, the end of consumptionism. The daily issues include the problem of supplementing economic globalization with a political control mechanism and including a new civilizational power, which China is becoming. The latter opt for a multipolar order, where local civilizations will preserve their separate character and where they will be able to create a system of supplying their economies with deficit raw material and outlets but without military bases and without following the USA in recognizing certain areas to be the “zones of vested interests”. The world will be different but will it be worse?

Activist Hedge Funds and Board Representation: A Comparative Analysis of the European and American Fiduciary Duties in the Context of Activist-Nominated Directors

Recently, a new breed of representative director has featured European and American corporate boards: activist-nominated directors. Activistnominated directors are sponsored by hedge funds in course of an activist campaign targeting a listed corporation in a bid to amplify hedge funds’ direct influence in board deliberations. Constituency directors are deeply rooted in (Continental) European corporate governance and activist-nominated directors may find that the decision-making processes and deliberations of multi-stakeholder (two-tier) boards are markedly different from majority-independent (unitary) boards, commonly featured at British and American firms. This dynamic in the (Continental) European corporate governance may significantly curtail activist directors’ influence in gaining support for their demands that are at odds with the interests of other (board-represented) stakeholder interests at (Continental) European firms. activist-nominated director, constituency director, nominee director, representative director

Financial Engineering in Mergers: The Historical Experience of American Corporations

Financial Engineering in Mergers: The Historical Experience of American Corporations

OPERATIONAL (ONLINE) ANALYTICS: REALITIES AND PROSPECTS

The goal of the work. The scientific problem is covered in order to systematize, generalize new knowledge about modern analytical technologies in terms of the present and prospects for their development. The research scientific novelty of the work lies in the generalization and systematization of new knowledge about operational analytics in terms of the present and prospects for its development within one study. Conclusions. The article highlights the current views of researchers on operational analytics and its information technology - Big Data technology. The works of famous experts - Bill Franks, Tom Davenport and Joanna Harris, Victor Mayer-Schoenberger and Kenneth Cookier, Karl Anderson, Brian Clifton, Sergei Kovalev, Oleg Veres - are analyzed.Their modern views on operational analytics formed the basis of the presentation of the main material. It is emphasized that we have an objective process of society development. And it depends on our choice whether we will have a competitive advantage at the start. The essence of operational analytics, its advantages and possibilities of application in the Ukrainian realities are described. In addition, the American electronic corporation IBM («Blue Giant»), which in the «Analytics» section offers seven categories of analytical products that will satisfy the most demanding consumers because they meet the world’s standards. The paper focuses on the fact that in modern management, operational analytics is carrying out an «electronic revolution». Ittakes analytics beyond the traditional limits of application. It takes analytics beyond the traditional limits of application. It turned out that we have a qualitatively new tool, a new level of evolution of analytical technologies. At the same time, it is emphasized that traditional analytical methods and technologies should not be thoughtlessly rejected, as they are basic, ie the foundation on which operational analytics is built and maintained. Emphasis is placed on the fact that operational analytics opens wide possibilities for integration with various sources of information (for example, the Internet of Things) through appropriate applications, communications and electronics, while providing a single, joint provision and presentation of informationbased on Big Data.Keywords: operational analytics, technology, management decision.