Firm specific assets

In the same line. Minority may have been expected to be more common for international transactions compared to domestic because of the acquirer s lesser familiarity with foreign markets. This is however not the case, since Minority is almost always higher for domestic than cross-border M As. A possible explanation for this latter finding is that multinational firms prefer to retain full managerial control of the their foreign subsidiaries. This is consistent with the idea that multinationals seek to avoid the diffusion of their firm specific assets to actual or potential competitors when going abroad. 

In a balance sheet, total assets and total liabilities should be used as denominators to determine the percentage of specific assets, liabilities, and owner s equity, respectively. All financial statement users, including shareholders, will exhibit concern because this drop in gross profit may make the firm report a net loss on the current income statement. Table 9.9 illustrates a sample of vertical analysis for a balance sheet. 

Buvik, A. and T. Reve, 2002. Inter-firm governance and structural power in industrial relationships the moderating effect of bargaining power on the contractual safeguarding of specific assets. Scandinavian Journal of Management 18, 261-284. 

With regard to the relationship between vertical coordination modes and pork firms performance, empiriccd work hcis confirmed that investments in relation-specific assets are often correlated with superior performance (Parkhe, 1993 Dyer, 1996). One fundamental assumption underlying the trcuisaction cost cuialysis perspective is that the alignment of governance forms does reduce transaction costs (Wilhamson, 1985). Therefore, it is hypothesized ... 

In the US states in which electricity markets have been liberalized, there are a variety of electricity firms historical suppliers which have retained part of their generation assets, independent producers which sell their electricity on the power exchange and bilaterally, municipal utilities which retain their legal monopolies, and new suppliers which compete with historical suppliers in specific market segments. 

Based on the above literature review, the following conceptual model (Figure 1) can be drawn. The model has five constructs asset specificity, uncertainty, vertical coordination, quality management practices and firm performance. Firm performance will be measured by tangible and intangible variables. They are used as latent dependent (endogenous) variables. The other four variables will be used as latent-independent (exogenous) variables. For operationalization, each construct contains a set of indicators (See Appendix). 

The balance sheet (Table 2.1) reports the financial position and condition of the firm at a point in time, on a specific date. It shows what assets the firm holds and who owns them. The three parts of the balance sheet are as follows ... 

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