1,721,013 research outputs found
Chinese acquisitions in Italy: performance of target companies, political reactions and public perception, future prospects
Full text linkThe rapid growth of Chinese FDI is raising many concerns. The most important is the fear of
predatory investments with a one-sided transfer of technology and other strategic assets from acquired
Italian firms to China. New regulations in Europe and Italy add to this the risks to national security or
public order arising from FDI in specific industries, particularly when the investor is controlled by the
government of a third country. This is making the screening of inward FDI increasingly more restrictive.
By using detailed post-acquisition performance data, we show that in the last decade Chinese acquisitions in
Italy had an overall positive impact on target companies. The majority of them experienced an increase in
turnover, employment, and other performance variables. Some case studies illustrate the factors that can
turn a Chinese takeover into a success story.
We also show how a more cautious attitude of the Italian government towards China is affecting Chinese
investments in the country. In particular, the use of the so-called “golden power” has blocked or constrained
some recent Chinese takeovers. Some political parties and stakeholders are pressing the government to
extend the use of the “golden power” to block foreign acquisitions in "strategic" industries or national
champions, even if there are no strict security reasons. This could significantly reduce the opportunities for
Chinese investors in the future. On the other hand, greenfield investments are always welcome, but China
probably needs more market appeal and technological updating to increase this type of investments in Italy
and Europe
Should we fear or hope for Chinese acquisitions? Evidence from Italy
Full text linkIn 2016, Chinese outward FDI exceeded inward investment flows, making the country a net exporter of capital, like the large advanced economies. The majority of Chinese investments are M&As, with the aim to acquire strategic assets (advanced technology and know-how) and access to markets (brands). The rapid growth of Chinese direct investments has raised many concerns among the advanced economies. The most important one is the fear that these investments will not produce the positive effects on the host economy typically associated with FDI from advanced countries, but a one-sided transfer of technology and know-how from acquired European firms to China.
However, there does not seem to be any evidence so far of a negative impact of Chinese investors on the acquired companies and the host economies. In particular, accurate studies on the pre and post-acquisition behaviour of European companies acquired by Chinese investors are still lacking.
This research intends to offer a contribution in this direction by providing new and detailed data on Chinese investments in Italy and by trying a first and tentative assessment of the performance of Italian companies recently acquired or controlled by Chinese investors. To this purpose, we have built an original database gathering detailed company information on more than 7.000 Italian companies with Chinese shareholders. Second, we have studied the pre- and post- acquisition performance of 198 Italian target firms.
Overall the results appear quite positive. Roughly 2/3 of the acquired companies have seen an increase in turnover, total assets, and shareholder’s funds and 50% has had an increase in fixed assets. Revenues show a decrease soon after the acquisition followed by a steady growth starting from the third year. Employment and profitability results appear more balanced. The number of companies which has registered an increase in employment is roughly similar to the number
of those that have experienced a decline, but there is some evidence that Chinese shareholders prefer to avoid layoffs even in front of severe reductions in turnover. This attitude is reflected in profitability, which especially in the first years soon after the acquisition tend to decrease, followed by a recovery in the following years. Overall, the analysis suggest a long
term orientation of Chinese acquirers which deserves further investigation
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
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