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The paper aims at extending extant research on sources of divestiture gains by suggesting a novel program‐based perspective on divestitures and analyzing the performance of program divestitures in comparison to single “stand‐alone” divestitures.

Based on event study methodology, the authors analyze the abnormal returns of 160 divestiture announcements within the global insurance industry between 1998 and 2007. In contrast to prior research which relied on ex post statistical clustering to identify transaction programs, ad hoc corporate press releases issued with the divestiture announcements are used to categorize program divestitures.

Empirical results suggest that program divestitures generate higher abnormal returns than stand‐alone divestitures. Further analyses into the sources for these higher gains, however, do not provide support for experience effects as significant explanatory factors. Instead, results suggest that the scheduling of divestitures significantly impacts announcement returns.

The scope and single industry setting of the study suggest future cross‐industry research on the influence of divestiture program characteristics on divestiture performance and the conditions under which these programs improve divestiture performance.

Managers are advised to refrain from piecemeal divestiture behavior lacking clear strategic focus. Instead, they are encouraged to bundle their divestitures as part of a divestiture program with a clear strategic intent and shared business logic.

While prior research on divestitures has treated divestitures as isolated events, the paper directs attention towards the analysis of divestiture programs. Further, experience and timing effects, which have been widely absent from prior divestiture studies, are considered.

The purpose of this research is to explore the potential role and the measurement of the effectiveness of boards of directors in strategy formulation and implementation – two aspects that have so far been left largely unaddressed by corporate governance research and practice.

Based on insights from strategy process literature, the paper suggests that, by ensuring consistency between resource allocation processes and the firm's intended strategy, boards could fulfil a meaningful role in strategy implementation. The proposed outside‐in analysis of resource allocation decisions is illustrated by a single case study of a major Swiss pharmaceutical company.

The proposed approach enables corporate governance scholars to look at how boards fulfil their role in strategy implementation from a perspective similar to that of financial analysts. It might thus be suited to complement existing methods in empirical corporate governance research.

The presented outside‐in analysis of resource allocation decisions helps board members to prevent role conflicts with executive management. In addition, boards may benefit from an analysis of implementation consistency, because it enables them to detect weak early warning signals of strategic divergence that require early intervention.

The paper contributes to the discussion of alternative methods for exploring strategy issues in corporate governance research. The suggested approach outlines a potential new vantage point to investigate board involvement in strategy implementation in the event that action research is not feasible. The tentative findings from the case study put forward a set of indicators for measuring the effectiveness of boards in guiding strategy implementation.

Misconduct allegations have been found to not only affect the alleged firm but also other, unalleged firms in form of reputational and financial spillover effects. It has remained unexplored, however, how the number of prior allegations against other firms matters for an individual firm currently facing an allegation. Building on behavioral decision theory, we argue that the relationship between allegation prevalence among other firms and investor reaction to a focal allegation is inverted U-shaped. The inverted U-shaped effect is theorized to emerge from the combination of two effects: In the absence of prior allegations against other firms, investors fail to anticipate the focal allegation, and hence react particularly negatively (“anticipation effect”). In the case of many prior allegations against other firms, investors also react particularly negatively because investors perceive the focal allegation as more warranted (“evaluation effect”). The multi-industry, empirical analysis of 8,802 misconduct allegations against US firms between 2007 and 2017 provides support for our predicted, inverted U-shaped effect. Our study complements recent misconduct research on spillover effects by highlighting that not only a current allegation against an individual firm can “contaminate” other, unalleged firms but that also prior allegations against other firms can “contaminate” investor reaction to a focal allegation against an individual firm.

In many industrial applications of magnetic fluid dynamics it is important to control the motion of the surface of liquids. In aluminium electrolysis cells, large surface deformations of the molten aluminium are undesired, and it would be useful to have the possibility to recognize the surface deviation. This includes the problem of reconstructing a free boundary between the conducting fluids. We have investigated how the interface between two fluids of different conductivity assumed in a highly simplified model of an aluminium electrolysis cell could be reconstructed by means of external magnetic field measurements. Forward simulations of the magnetic field generated by the impressed current are done by applying the FEM software code FEMLAB. Several interface shapes which can be realized in experiments are investigated and a strategy for identifying the main interface characteristics using magnetic field measurements as an initial guess to the solution of the inverse problem is proposed.

The purpose of this paper is to present a novel electromagnetic non-destructive evaluation technique, so called Lorentz force eddy current testing (LET). This method can be applied for the detection and reconstruction of defects lying deep inside a non-magnetic conducting material.

In this paper the technique is described in general as well as its experimental realization. Besides that, numerical simulations are performed and compared to experimental data. Using the output data of measurements and simulations, an inverse calculation is performed in order to reconstruct the geometry of a defect by means of sophisticated optimization algorithms.

The results show that measurement data and numerical simulations are in a good agreement. The applied inverse calculation methods allow to reconstruct the dimensions of the defect in a suitable accuracy.

LET overcomes the frequency dependent skin-depth of traditional eddy current testing due to the use of permanent magnets and low to moderate magnetic Reynolds numbers (0.1-1). This facilitates the possibility to detect subsurface defects in conductive materials.

Considering working in the digital age, questions on the consequences for the individual workers are, so far, often neglected. The purpose of this paper is to deal with the question of whether the digital competences of the workforce is a research topic. The authors argue for the thesis that it is indeed a research topic.

In addition to a literature analysis of the top IS, HR, and learning publications, non-scientific sources, as well as the opinions of the authors, are included. The authors’ thesis is challenged through a debate of corresponding pros and cons.

The definition of digital competences lacks scientific depth. Focussing on the workforce is valid, as a “lifelong” perspective is not mandatory for research. Digital competence research is a multidisciplinary task to which the IS field can make a valuable contribution.

Although relevant references are included, some aspects are mainly driven by the opinions of the authors. The theoretical implications encompass a call for a scientific definition of digital competences. Furthermore, scholars should focus on the competences of the workforce, including occupations, roles, or industries. The authors conclude by providing a first proposal of a research agenda.

The practical implications include the alignment of multiple stakeholders for the design of “digital” curricula and the integration by HR departments of the construct of digital competences, e.g. for compensation matters and job requirements.

This paper is one of very few contributions in the area of the digital competences of the workforce, and it presents a starting point for future research activities.