Suchergebnisse

Allegations of British capital market failure are numerous, but frequently contentious. This paper revisits the literature by highlighting the post‐1945 market for initial public offerings (IPOs) as a clear instance of capital market failure. Despite the tender method delivering substantially lower underpricing than the traditional fixed‐price offer method, it was adopted by only one in 10 firms going public. This missed opportunity cost issuing firms between £1.7 billion and £3.5 billion in real proceeds forgone between 1960 and 1986, excluding privatizations, and was symptomatic of a lack of competition in equity underwriting before Big Bang.

Some planning activities of organizations operate happily; others are muddled or ritualistic. A review of the activities which operate happily suggests a useful distinction between the performative sense of planning as doing something (plans as promises) and the indicative sense of planning as describing something (e.g. plans as forecasts). This distinction is important in the context of the management of public enterprises, where an inaccurate view of what'corporate planning' can achieve has distracted attention from unresolved problems of gaining commitment to agreed targets.