In deciding how much information about their firms' customers to disclose, managers face a trade off between the benefits of reducing information asymmetry with capital market participants and the ...costs of aiding competitors by revealing proprietary information. This paper investigates the determinants of managers' choices to disclose information about their firms' customers using a comprehensive data set of customer-information disclosures over the period 1976-2006. We find robust evidence in support of the hypothesis that proprietary costs are an important factor in firms' disclosure choices regarding information about large customers.
We investigate the upstream and downstream product-market effects of a large sample of horizontal mergers and acquisitions from 1980 to 1997. We construct a data set that identifies the corporate ...customers, suppliers, and rivals of the firms initiating horizontal mergers and use this data set to examine announcement-related stock market revaluations and post-merger changes in operating performance. We find little evidence consistent with increased monopolistic collusion. However, we do find evidence consistent with improved productive efficiency and buying power as sources of gains to horizontal mergers. The nature of the buying power gains, i.e., rents from monopsonistic collusion or improved purchasing efficiency, is also investigated.
In a large panel of Compustat firms, we find that firm policy changes after exogenous CEO departures do not display abnormally high levels of variability, casting doubt on the presence of ...idiosyncratic-style effects in policy choices. After endogenous CEO departures, we do detect abnormally large policy changes. These changes are larger when the firm is likely to draw from a deeper pool of replacement CEO candidates, suggesting the presence of causal-style effects that are anticipated by the board. Our evidence suggests that managerial styles are not transferred across employers and that standard F-tests are inappropriate for identifying style effects.
We find that a new compensation disclosure item on expected payouts from performance-based stock grants reveals unique information regarding future firm performance. Extracting inferred performance ...expectations from the disclosures, we find that firms disclosing the highest expected grant payout significantly outperform in ROA, Q, sales growth, and profit margin over the next two years, while those disclosing the lowest expected payout underperform. The embedded information is not captured by other information channels, such as managerial earnings guidance, 10-K sentiment, insider selling activities, unexplained CEO pay, and analyst forecasts. Investors and analysts do not fully incorporate the information and are later surprised around earnings announcement days. A portfolio that buys firms with the highest performance expectation and shorts firms with the lowest expectation earns significantly positive abnormal returns. Our findings suggest that the enhanced compensation disclosure contains valuable information, but investors underreact to information that is difficult to collect and process.
•We study a new compensation disclosure item—“unearned shares” from outstanding performance-based stock grants.•Disclosed level of “unearned shares” reveals information of future firm performance.•Firms report high (low) level of “unearned shares” significantly outperform (underperform) over the next two years.•The forward-looking information embedded in “unearned shares” is not captured by other known information channels.•Forming a zero-cost portfolio based on disclosed level of “unearned shares” earns significantly positive abnormal returns.
We study management turnover for the top five executives in a sample of 443 large firms from 1993 through 1998. The rate of forced turnover for non-CEOs is at least as great as that for CEOs, but the ...sensitivity of turnover to firm performance is smaller for non-CEOs. The probability that a non-CEO leaves office is elevated around CEO dismissals, particularly when the replacement CEO is an outsider. Many dismissed executives obtain new employment, but on average their new positions are significantly inferior to their prior jobs. Labor market outcomes are related to past compensation and the circumstances around departure.
Due to anatomical complexity, ultrasound examination of the hamstring muscles is challenging, resulting in potential diagnostic uncertainty and under-confidence in the technique. This leads to a ...subsequent tendency to favour magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) evaluation, which can delay diagnosis and potential intervention. This article describes a comprehensive technique of ultrasound evaluation of the hamstrings complex, using key anatomical landmarks. A direct comparison of the sonographic landmarks with corresponding MRI appearances is also provided. If these landmarks can be identified successfully, the complex anatomy can be unlocked, thus improving the time and sensitivity of diagnosis of acute injuries, as well as providing a reliable framework for monitoring injury progress and helping to identify candidates for potential intervention. Many of the anatomical landmarks discussed are common areas of injury in elite athletes, encountered frequently in clinical practice.
Legionella pneumophila cell surface hydrophobicity and charge are important determinants of their mobility and persistence in engineered water systems (EWS). These surface properties may differ ...depending on the growth phase of L. pneumophila resulting in variable adhesion and persistence within EWS. We describe the growth‐dependent variations in L. pneumophila cell surface hydrophobicity and surface charge using the microbial adhesion to hydrocarbon assay and microelectrophoresis, respectively, and their role in cell adhesion to stainless steel using a quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation (QCM‐D) monitoring instrument. We observed a steady increase in L. pneumophila hydrophobicity during their lifecycle in culture media. Cell surfaces of stationary phase L. pneumophila were significantly more hydrophobic than their lag and midexponential counterparts. No significant changes in L. pneumophila cell surface charge were noted. Morphology of L. pneumophila remained relatively constant throughout their lifecycle. In the QCM‐D study, lag and exponential phase L. pneumophila weakly adhered to stainless steel surfaces resulting in viscoelastic layers. In contrast, stationary phase bacteria were tightly and irreversibly bound to the surfaces, forming rigid layers. Our results suggest that the stationary phase of L. pneumophila would highly favour their adhesion to plumbing surfaces and persistence in EWS.
Significance and Impact of the Study: The role of growth phase‐dependent variations in cell surface hydrophobicity and charge on adhesion of the opportunistic pathogen Legionella pneumophila to plumbing materials remains poorly described. In this study, we characterized the effect of L. pneumophila cell surface properties on adhesion to stainless steel, an increasingly used plumbing material in potable water systems. These results help us understand the persistence of L. pneumophila in engineered water systems. To our knowledge, this is the first report describing the role of growth‐dependent variations of L. pneumophila cell surface properties in adhesion to a plumbing material surface.
We assemble a sample of over 10,000 customer-supplier relationships and determine whether the customer owns equity in the supplier. We find that factors related to both contractual incompleteness and ...financial market frictions are important in the decision of a customer firm to take an equity stake in their supplier. Evidence on the variation in the size of observed equity positions suggests that there are limits to the size of optimal ownership stakes in many relationships. Finally, we find that relationships accompanied by equity ownership last significantly longer than other relationships, suggesting that ownership aids in bonding trading parties together.
We find that executives who jump to chief executive officer (CEO) positions at new employers come from firms that exhibit above-average stock price performance. This relationship is more pronounced ...for more senior executives. No such relationship exists for jumps to non-CEO positions. Stock options and restricted stock do not appear to significantly affect the likelihood of jumping ship, but the existence of an "heir apparent" on the management team increases the likelihood that executives will leave for non-CEO positions elsewhere. Hiring grants used to attract managers are correlated with the equity position forfeited at the prior employer and with the prior employer's performance.
The unicellular green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii is a biflagellated cell with two actin genes: one encoding a conventional actin (IDA5) and the other encoding a divergent novel actin-like protein ...(NAP1). Here, we probe how actin redundancy contributes to flagellar assembly. Disrupting a single actin allows complete flagellar assembly. However, when disrupting both actins using latrunculin B (LatB) treatment on the nap1 mutant background, we find that actins are necessary for flagellar growth from newly synthesized limiting flagellar proteins. Under total actin disruption, transmission electron microscopy identified an accumulation of Golgi-adjacent vesicles. We also find that there is a mislocalization of a key transition zone gating and ciliopathy protein, NPHP-4. Our experiments demonstrate that each stage of flagellar biogenesis requires redundant actin function to varying degrees, with an absolute requirement for these actins in transport of Golgi-adjacent vesicles and flagellar incorporation of newly synthesized proteins.
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•At least one filamentous actin required for full flagellar assembly•Transition zone flagellar gate affected upon actin disruption•Actin required for normal flagellar protein synthesis•Golgi-adjacent vesicles accumulate upon total actin loss
Prevailing knowledge tells us that intracellular trafficking of flagellar proteins occurs on microtubule tracks. In this study, Jack et al. discover that filamentous actin is required for full flagellar assembly, normal flagellar protein synthesis, an intact flagellar gating region, and vesicle transport in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.
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