Premiums,announcement returns and desperation in high tech mergers: A growth options analysis

We examine the announcements of high tech mergers using a relatively new proxy for growth options we call “growth to book.” We find this adds significantly to help explain the premiums paid and announcement period abnormal returns when acquiring tech targets. Higher synergies are expected by managers and investors when targets have low growth options and acquirers have high growth options, resulting in higher premiums paid and either less negative or more positive abnormal returns. However, we find significant variation in the results by the relative size of the target and when low growth to book (GTB) firms acquire. While high GTB acquirers tend to pay more in premiums, low GTB acquirers can pay higher premiums and receive some of the most negative returns at announcement. We find evidence some acquisitions are motivated by desperation as these acquirers have the lowest GTB and do a disproportionate number of the relatively largest deals, receiving the worst abnormal returns at announcement.     

Estimated maturity status and perceptions of adult autonomy support in youth soccer players

Abstract

In this study, we examined the relations between biological maturity status, body mass index, age, and perceptions of adult autonomy support in the context of youth soccer. A total of 70 female and 43 male soccer players, aged 9 – 15 years, completed three adult-specific versions (i.e. mother, father, coach) of the perceived autonomy support subscale from the Interpersonal Style Scale. The participants' percent predicted adult stature was used as an estimate of biological maturity status. Multiple linear regression analyses revealed that advanced maturity status in male players predicted lower perceptions of autonomy support from the coach. Maturity status was unrelated to perceptions of autonomy support from the coach in female soccer players, and paternal and maternal autonomy support in male and female players. Age and body mass index were unrelated to perceptions of adult (i.e. coach, mother, father) autonomy support in male and female players.     

Wikipedia,Critical Social Theory,and the Possibility of Rational Discourse 1

Information systems researchers that apply critical social perspectives frequently emphasize the potential for information technology to serve as a mechanism for increased rationalization, domination, and control. Such theorists often overlook or discount the liberating aspects of information systems. In this study, we apply the ideal of rational discourse developed by Jürgen Habermas to the phenomenon of Wikipedia in an effort to explore empirically the emancipatory potential of information systems. We contend that Wikipedia embodies an approximation of the necessary conditions for rational discourse. While several challenges persist, the example of Wikipedia illustrates the positive potential of information systems in supporting the emergence of more emancipatory forms of communication. The corresponding implications for researchers and design professionals alike are discussed.     

An ethic of care and educational practice

This article explicates the theoretical framework of an ethic of care and outlines recommendations for applying the framework to practice in adventure education, offering possibilities for re-imagining organizations as centrally concerned with compassion and care. Focusing on the work of Gilligan and Noddings, we suggest an understanding of an ethic of care that is contextual, ungendered, and inclusive of both the private and public spheres of life, and draw parallels between this ethic and the philosophies underlying Outward Bound specifically, and adventure education more generally. Finally, we outline possibilities for organizing educational curricula around centres of care for self, others, and the natural world, using Noddings' suggested curricular components of modeling, dialogue, practice, and confirmation.     

Barriers to professional education of NSW correctional officers: A case of distance learning

This study aimed to determine whether NSW prison officers who attempt tertiary education are confronted with any unique cultural and contextual impediments during their studies and, if so, the effects of these impediments. Semi‐structured interviews were carried out, face‐to‐facc with 16 prison officers. The study also contrasts the experiences of commissioned and non‐commissioned correctional officers.

Three major thematic strands emerged from the data. The first clear theme involves the general barriers to learning encountered by prison officers engaged in tertiary studies. These barriers include time constraints and time management, family commitments and access to support mechanisms. The second major theme concerns the influence on the education process of the powerful occupational culture that has developed in the prison workplace. The third theme highlights the difficulties the occupation of prison officer presents for those individuals pursuing tertiary studies in the distance education mode. Geographically isolated work locations, a changing shift roster and high levels of job‐related stress all conspire against the success of prison officers as ‘distance learners’.     

Assessment of semi-empirical mass transfer correlations for pervaporation treatment of wastewater contaminated with chlorinated hydrocarbons

INTRODUCTION Chlorinated hydrocarbons, a class of widely used dry-cleaning liquids, industrial organic solvents, and degreasers, increasingly find their way into drinking water sources, thus posing a very serious health and environmental problem (Love and Eliers, 1982). These organic solvents are known for their stability in the environment and cancer-causing po- tency and cannot be effectively and economically eliminated by current conventional treatment tech- nologies. One of the few av…     

Integrated policies for the preparation of educational personnel

Drawing on the literature and developments in Lifelong Education in the 1960s and 1970s, this paper seeks to offera contribution to the updating of the concept to address the pressing new needs of the 1980s for integrated policies for the preparation of educational personnel. Such policies are seen as necessitating the ability to forge new curricula across sectoral boundaries, linking education and economic activity, school and community, and achieving delivery in different modes and locations. The article offers a conceptualization of policy options for such preparation, comprising four major dimensions, each comprehending tendencies to conservation and change. The author proceeds to illustrate the conceptualization by reference to programmes provided, often on an inter-agency basis, in the United Kingdom by the Manpower Services Commission. The paper concludes by highlighting the continuing disjuncture between education and training and between education and national needs in many developing countries, partly as a legacy of colonial concepts of schooling, and points to the requirement for comprehensive and coherent policies which can link education and the economy and schooling and training, harnessing them to the response to pressing national needs.

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Zusammenfassung Gestützt auf die Literatur und Entwicklungen im Bereich des Lebenslangen Lernen in den 60er und 70er Jahren versucht der Verfasser dieses Artikels eine Aktualisierung des Konzepts, um auf die dringenden neuen Bedürfnisse der 80er Jahre für integrierte Richtlinien zur Vorbereitung des Erziehungspersonals einzugehen. Schwerpunkte dieser Richtlinien sind: neue Curricula über Sektorengrenzen hinweg zu entwickeln, Bildung und wirtschaftliche Aktivität sowie Schule und Gemeinschaft miteinander zu verbinden und auf verschiedene Art und Weise und an verschiedenen Standorten zu vermitteln. Im nachfolgenden Artikel wird eine Konzeptualisierung der Optionen bei Richtlinien für eine derartige Vorbereitung angeboten, die aus vier Hauptdimensionen besteht. Jede diese Hauptdimensionen enthält Tendenzen zu Erhaltung und Veränderung einschließen. Der Verfasser veranschaulicht die Konzeptualisierung mit einem Verweis auf die im Vereinigten Königreich von Manpower Services Commission angebotenen Programme, die häufig auf einer Vermittlungsbasis zwischen den verschiedenen Regierungsstellen beruhen. Abschließend betont der Verfasser die fortdauernde Trennung zwischen Bildung und Ausbildung sowie zwischen Bildung und nationalen Bedürfnissen in vielen Entwicklungsländern, die teilweise als ein Erbe kolonialer Entwicklungskonzepte weiterbestehen. Es besteht ein Bedarf nach umfassenden und kohärenten Methoden, die Bildung und Wirtschaft sowie Erziehung und Ausbildung verknüpfen und sie an eine Antwort auf dringende nationale Bedürfnisse koppeln.

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Résumé S'inspirant de la littérature et des développements de l'Education Permanente enregistrés au cours des années soixante et soixante-dix, cet article s'efforce d'apporter une contribution à la mise à jour de ce concept afin de présenter les nouveaux besoins pressants apparus dans les années quatre-vingts aux politiques intégrées pour la formation du personnel enseignant. On considère que de telles politiques nécessitent la capacité de forger de nouveaux curricula à travers les limites sectorielles, établissent des liens entre l'éducation et l'activité économique, l'école et la communauté, et opèrent de diverses manières et en différents endroits. L'article présent offre une conceptualisation des options politiques pour une telle préparation, qui englobe quatre grandes dimensions, chacune d'elles renfermant des propensions à l'invariabilité et à l'évolution. L'auteur illustre ensuite cette conceptualisation en se référant aux programmes offerts, sur une base interopérationnelle souvent, au Royaume-Uni par la Commission des Services de la Main-d'Oeuvre. Il conclut en soulignant l'incohérence constante entre l'éducation et la formation, l'éducation et les besoins nationaux que de nombreux pays en développement ont hérités en partie de concepts coloniaux d'éducation et il met en relief la nécessité de politiques générales et cohérentes capables de nouer des liens entre l'éducation et l'économie, l'instruction et la formation, les exhortant à répondre aux besoins nationaux urgents.

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I am indebted to a Unesco Seminar for a number of the ideas contained in this paper. See Unesco,Interregional Symposium on Integrated Policies and Plans for the Training of Educational Personnel. Paris: Unesco, 1985.     

The multimedia case as a tool for professional development: an analysis of online and face-to-face interaction among mathematics pre-service teachers, in-service teachers, mathematicians, and mathematics teacher educators

In this study, we consider the potential of multimedia cases as tools for teacher professional development. Specifically, we examined online and face-to-face discussions that occurred within groups composed of pre-service mathematics teachers, in-service mathematics teachers, mathematicians, and mathematics teacher educators. Discussions within these heterogeneous groups tended to focus on issues of classroom implementation of the tasks shown in the multimedia case. Secondary foci of discussion included task characteristics and appropriateness of tasks for engaging students in thinking about mathematical concepts and processes. Analysis of contributions to discussions across group member type revealed differences that suggest that the variety of backgrounds and experiences of group members can blend in ways that support rich and critical discussions of mathematics, teaching, and learning.