Alan Gregory and Yuan‐Hsin Wang
This paper investigates the Jensen's free cash flow (FCF) hypothesis in the context of UK cash acquisitions. Under this hypothesis, financial slack induces mangers to acquire…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper investigates the Jensen's free cash flow (FCF) hypothesis in the context of UK cash acquisitions. Under this hypothesis, financial slack induces mangers to acquire targets for cash if such behaviour generates either pecuniary or non‐pecuniary rewards for them, giving rise to a potential agency problem around cash takeovers. We argue that the stronger position of shareholders, as opposed to firm managers, in the UK should help in constraining such potential agency problems around such mergers. Compared to the USA, position, this should make the FCF hypothesis less relevant in the UK.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper uses short‐run announcement period returns and long‐run calendar‐time returns in testing our hypotheses.
Findings
This paper shows that low leverage and high FCF may be advantageous provided shareholder monitoring is adequate. By analysing both announcement period and long‐term returns, we show that acquirers with high levels of FCF are superior performers, and that any long‐run under‐performance of cash acquirers appears to be associated with low cash resources and low institutional ownership.
Research limitations/implications
Inevitably, long‐run returns measurement is contentious, although we present results from alternative models to mitigate this. Limitations are necessarily imposed by the sample size, meaning that multi‐way partitioning of the data is not feasible.
Practical implications
The practical implications are that the UK regulatory and institutional ownership regime may actually protect the interests of shareholders and mitigate agency problems.
Originality/value
As far as we are aware, this is the first paper to systematically test FCF, leverage and institutional ownership effects in the context of UK cash acquisitions.
Details
Keywords
Shu-Hao Chang and Hsin-Yuan Chang
The development of oil shale has become a popular technique in the energy industry in recent years. Although more research attention has been paid to this topic, there are scanty…
Abstract
Purpose
The development of oil shale has become a popular technique in the energy industry in recent years. Although more research attention has been paid to this topic, there are scanty studies on patent portfolios. This study aims to explore this current mainstream technique and the patent portfolios of oil shale developers and investigates the major assignees at present to find the technical development trend of oil shale as a reference for government, policy makers, investors and industrial strategic development.
Design/methodology/approach
This study applies correspondence analysis and K-means clustering analysis on data mining and probes into the competitive techniques and strategic groups of the main enterprises in the oil shale industry. In addition, by approval dates, this study analyzes technical directions and the development trends of the current main oil shale enterprises.
Findings
The findings show differences in the enterprises regarding technical positions and patent portfolio strategies.
Originality/value
Differential positioning analysis suggests the relative technical advantages of the various enterprises and evaluates the competition among oil shale enterprises.
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Keywords
Shu-Hao Chang, Hsin-Yuan Chang and Chin-Yuan Fan
In the current knowledge-based economy era, national innovation ability is crucial. Abundant information can be obtained through patent analysis, and such information can help in…
Abstract
Purpose
In the current knowledge-based economy era, national innovation ability is crucial. Abundant information can be obtained through patent analysis, and such information can help in the formulation of policies and the making of R&D decisions; numerous researchers thus continue to make patent analyses. The quality of patents possessed by a country indicates the level of innovation and technology in the country, and this study aims to assess the quality of patents possessed by various countries.
Design/methodology/approach
In this study, the authors determined patent quality in various countries from the perspective of the reflective measurement model and used a novel method to construct a structural model of patent quality.
Findings
This study discovered that patent family, number of claims, number of international patent classifications, forward citations, nonpatent references and maintenance time are the structural factors that affect patent quality. Forward citations and the number of claims are particularly highly explained by patent quality, which is a latent construct.
Originality/value
The results of this study provide valuable information to the government and help in the assessment of patent quality in various countries. In addition, the assessment model proposed in this study can be used in the investigation of patent quality in academic research and can predict patent quality, which will be of interest to the government and industry.