Supply Targets Research Articles

Shareholders versus stakeholders in investor activism: Value for whom?

Is reduction in supplier costs a significant channel for value creation by activist investors? Using a comprehensive sample of shareholder activism during 1994–2015, and addressing endogeneity concerns, we find significant economics effects on the profits and capital investment of the target's suppliers after intervention. Consistent with the predictions of the incomplete contracting and bargaining literatures, factors that weaken (strengthen) the bargaining power of suppliers relative to targets amplify (dilute) the spillover effects on suppliers. The results are robust to the alternative hypotheses of latent industry effects on suppliers and stock picking by activist investors.

Bait phishing: the next frontier

Last year, 2013, ended with a Target-shaped bombshell affecting the financial details of 40 million customers – with some estimating the real figure to be much higher. 1 The subsequent investigation of the breach at the major US retailer appears to have identified a phishing email, sent to a third-party contractor, as the most likely avenue that allowed these criminals to infiltrate Target's network. Unfortunately Target isn't the first and is unlikely to be the last victim of this type of attack. This year, 2014, has started with record levels of phishing activity coupled with an even greater increase in email activity distributing malware. These attacks work, as one red-faced employee of Target's supplier Fazio Mechanical can testify. Are we on the cusp of a new ‘phishing frontier’?