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This paper explores the influence of acquisition costs on the choice between the takeover and joint venture modes of obtaining the resources required for diversifying expansion. It uses the conditions created by privatisation in the UK utility sector as a natural experiment to examine the determinants of mode choice across groups of firms with unusually homogeneous opportunity sets. The empirical design is able to incorporate acquirer, target and geographical market variables as explanatory factors in mode choice. It is shown that the form of diversifying expansion adopted is highly sensitive to the anticipated costs of using the acquisition process.

Abstract
A new strategy is introduced for estimating population size and networked population characteristics. Sample selection is based on a multi-wave snowball sampling design. A generalized stochastic block model is posited for the population's network graph. Inference is based on a Bayesian data augmentation procedure. Applications are provided to simulated populations and an empirical population. The results demonstrate that statistically efficient estimates of the size and distribution of the population can be achieved.

This paper explores the impact of turnover and restructuring on labour productivity in the Polish economy over the period 1988-1993. Changes in aggregate productivity are decomposed into elements corresponding to productivity growth among survivors, market share growth by survivors and the contributions of entering and exiting firms. The traditional entry and exit effects begin to work as transition to a market economy progresses. However, initial productivity improvements are due to changes to market shares of the existing firms following the break-up of large enterprises. Regression analysis shows that changes in the firm-level productivity are affected by restructuring and a more competitive economic environment.

ABSTRACTUsing a matched sample of 1959 firms and 27,263 employees from the UK Workplace Employee Relations Survey, we examine the effects of the management buyout (MBO) organizational form on employee discretion and supervision. Our findings suggest that for MBO firms, supervision is lower where there is a higher proportion of craft and skilled service workers but is not lower for other occupational groups. Using random effects ordered probit analysis, we find that employees' discretion over their work practices is higher in MBO firms; and that the probability of higher discretion is greater where there is a higher proportion of craft and skilled service employees. Our findings are consistent with: (i) MBOs reducing hierarchical tiers and the number of supervisory staff, which increase employees' span of control and their discretion; and (ii) organizational change via an MBO being 'skill biased' in favour of craft and skilled service employees.

This paper examines corporate governance in management buy‐outs and buy‐ins and in particular considers the problems faced by venture capitalists as active investors. Evidence is presented based on large scale surveys and case studies. The study suggests the importance of achieving a balance between the independence of venture capitalists as monitors of management and the need for cooperation in their relationships with managers in buy‐outs and buy‐ins. The study also questions the adequacy with which financiers as active investors have taken account of the differing attributes of each type of transaction, particularly in relation to access to information and the roles of management. The costs of closely monitoring smaller investments may often exceed the benefits, which helps explain why the greater control found in buy‐ins is more likely to be indirect rather than greater board representation. The evidence suggests the need for a flexible approach to governance under which the forms adopted take account of the specific circumstances of a particular enterprise.

What is the function of the market for corporate control? Mike Wright and two colleagues outline the advantages of an active market in corporate control and review the consequences of leveraged buyouts.

Incremental innovation plays an important role in competitive conduct in high‐tech industries. This paper explores the impact of new model introduction by employing a nested logit specification to investigate the determination of market shares across and within submarkets for a panel of 336 digital cameras. Our results confirm the existence of pronounced life cycle effects and the existence of statistically significant market stealing and cannibalization effects, particularly associated with the introduction of a technologically superior entrant into the model's market segment. The paper reveals significant differences in market outcomes, in both elasticity and response to entry, across submarkets.

This paper examines the effect that the 'Cadbury reforms' have had on the pay determination process of executives in the UK. Our results suggest that, on average, the impact has been disappointing. The relationship between pay and performance remains weak and the link to firm size has, if anything, been strengthened. However, our results suggest considerable heterogeneity in the impact of the reforms, and for those firms above median employment the link between pay and profits appears to have been reinforced.