Showing papers on "Divestment published in 2023"

A Research Agenda Pending Revolution

Abstract: Abstract This essay responds to David Imbroscio’s “Beyond Opportunity Hoarding: Interrogating Its Limits as an Account of Urban Inequities” by suggesting questions that researchers might ask about opportunity hoarding if they considered the concept through a Black epistemic lens. I propose that investigating cultural, cognitive, and psychological commitments to hoarding as a key feature of Whiteness and racial capitalism might lead to insights on how to divest from and ultimately dismantle these systems.

Navigating pharmaceutical product decisions: A comprehensive review

Abstract: Product management in the pharmaceutical industry is a complex and challenging role that involves overseeing the entire life cycle of a drug product, from development through commercialization and beyond. It requires a deep understanding of the regulatory environment, market dynamics, and patient needs, as well as strong leadership and management skills By classifying product decisions into these categories, businesses can prioritize their efforts and allocate resources effectively. Strategic decisions, for example, may require more resources and involve more stakeholders than operational decisions, but they can also have a greater impact on the success of the product. By making informed product line and product mix decisions, businesses can effectively meet customer needs and grow their market share. By using product portfolio analysis, businesses can make informed decisions about which products to invest in, which to divest or improve, and which new products or markets to pursue. This analysis helps businesses align their product offerings with their overall business strategy and maximize their profitability and growth potential.

Political Ideology and Consumer Psychology

Abstract: The present chapter proposes an organizing framework for understanding the effects of political ideology on consumer behavior. We first summarize how political ideology is conceptualized and operationalized in the literature. We then describe three levels at which political ideology shapes consumption decisions. At the individual level, the political ideology of consumers has wide-ranging effects on their acquisition, consumption, and divestment decisions. At the company level, the political ideology of companies with which consumers interact influences corporate political actions (such as lobbying) and activism (such as taking a stand on sociopolitical issues and events), with tangible implications for consumer behavior and company outcomes. At the system level, the political ideology of systems, reflected in the media, cultural, policy, and social environments that consumers and scholars navigate, has far-ranging implications for consumer decision-making, well-being, and even the body of knowledge generated on the topic of political ideology.

Net-Zero Transition and Divestments of Carbon-Intensive Assets

Abstract: An unfamiliar term in the not-too-distant past, “net zero” has become a headline-maker in the business and financial world with the growing importance of climate change. Succumbing to increasing pressure, companies and financial institutions around the world have come to adopt net-zero transition plans and targets, pledging to hit certain emissionreduction targets in a long-term period. Moreover, regulators around the world have started to require the disclosure or adoption of net-zero transition plans and targets. However, an unintended consequence of net-zero transition commitments has been the increased popularity of divestments. That is, many firms seeking to fulfill a net-zero plan are passing on carbonintensive assets (i.e., oil, gas, and coal assets) to other firms that are likely to be non-committal to environmental goals or that operate under less pressure from investors, stakeholders, and regulators. Such divestments, technically mergers and acquisitions (“M&A”) transactions, present an ideal opportunity to improve a divesting firm’s environmental record and reach ambitious net-zero goals, creating the impression that an emission reduction has occurred. However, the key is how acquiring firms handle these assets. If they continue operating as before, there will not be an overall improvement for the global climate. Worse, such assets can be operated by new owners in a way that causes more emissions. In any case,

Israel’s Response to Boycotts and Soft-Power Warfare

Abstract: In parallel to military conflict and terrorism, Israel has been subject to different forms of economic warfare, boycotts, and delegitimization even before the formation of the state. In recent years, this soft-power warfare emphasized BDS (boycotts, divestment, and sanctions) campaigns, accompanied by UN resolutions and legal actions through the International Criminal Court (ICC). This chapter describes and analyzes the threats and responses including the main actors, strategies, and outcomes in this conflict dimension. Launched at the 2001 UN Durban Conference on Racism, the campaigns are led by the Palestinian leadership, Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and an influential network of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). The strategy copied mechanisms and terminology used against the South African apartheid regime. The Israeli government’s response began slowly and inconsistently, reflecting the low-level threat perception and capacity regarding soft-power conflict compared to hard power. The boycott and lawfare efforts received little attention in the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. However, as IDF officials became concerned over potential impacts, including measures in the UN and ICC, the government increased the resources allocated to countering the campaigns. In 2015, the Ministry of Strategic Affairs was tasked with coordinating these efforts but with limited success. The NGO-led campaigns using terms such as “apartheid” to single out Israel increased, as well as more UN condemnations, pension fund divestment, and corporate responsibility ratings that relied on the same mechanisms. To a significant degree, this outcome reflects the inherent difficulties governments face in soft-power warfare.

Divestment Movements over Environmental Issues: The Brazilian Amazon Case

Abstract: Devastating forest fires in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest, one of the most important biomes for Earth’s climate balance, have captured the world’s attention in 2019 and 2020. Foreign governments, non-governmental organizations, and institutional investors pressured Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro to act and control the situation. Within this context, institutional investors threatened to divest from companies potentially linked to the wildfires and to sell government bonds, creating a divestment movement. Against this background, this article shows that Bolsonaro’s responses varied for each of the groups criticizing the handling of the environmental situation. It is argued that the Brazilian government adopted a more conciliatory tone and took more concrete actions when responding to institutional investors’ demands, compared to the responses for foreign governments and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Based on fifteen in-depth interviews conducted in 2021 with professionals involved in this divestment case, the paper concludes that institutional investors played a key role in Bolsonaro’s winning coalition and electoral aspirations. Moreover, the shortage of financial capital due to the COVID-19 pandemic created further incentives for Bolsonaro to avoid conflicts with institutional investors. KEYWORDS: Divestment; Amazon Rainforest; Wildfires; Investors; Climate Change; Brazil; Politics

Examining the effect of technology-related divestitures on exploratory innovation: evidence from China

Abstract: PurposeThis study aims to test the effects of Technology-related Divestitures (TRDs) on firms' exploratory innovation. The moderating effects of firms' internal and external resource coordination activities, resource buffering and bridging, are also explored.Design/methodology/approachA set of data including 1,372 Chinese listed firms from 2009 to 2018 is adopted. Based on propensity score matching sample, random-effect Tobit models were employed to test the hypotheses.FindingsThe empirical results indicate that TRDs inhibit firms' exploratory innovation, while both resource buffering and bridging can mitigate this negative effect. This implies that to promote exploratory innovation, resource coordination activities are the essential.Originality/valueThe research findings can contribute to both the exploratory innovation and technological divestiture literature. The test on the moderating roles of resource buffering and bridging can also extend our understanding of the effect of TRDs on firms' exploratory innovation. Accordingly, several practical implications can be provided. This is especially important for strategic decisions of firms from emerging and developing countries, which often lack sufficient internal resources and strong technological capabilities to develop exploratory innovation.

Global trends and the latest schemes of mergers and acquisitions

Abstract: The article examines and analyzes the concepts of “merger” and “acquisition”, which are often used as synonyms, but even more often they are used in the phrase “mergers and acquisitions” to denote one phenomenon characteristic of the corporate control market. Mergers and acquisitions are a multiplicity of agreements between economic entities, in which there is a change of owner, the unification of enterprises of further operation under the auspices of the enterprise-initiator of the agreement, or the transfer of a controlling stake of one of the parties to the agreement to another. The reasons for mergers and acquisitions of enterprises are highlighted. The emergence of mergers and acquisitions, which has its roots in the history of the development of US industrial production in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, is explained. The role and importance of competition in this process, as well as its influence on the acceleration and expansion of mergers and acquisitions, are shown. Various theoretical approaches in research by world and domestic scientists on the causes and consequences of mergers and acquisitions of leading companies for the world economy are characterized. However, it should be noted that today there is no consensus in scientific circles regarding the interpretation of this concept. An analysis of the consequences on global processes of mergers and acquisitions during the period of COVID-19 was carried out. These developments have been found to lead to both strategic acquisitions and divestitures, as companies redirect management resources and funds to those parts of the business with the highest growth potential and where they enjoy a distinct competitive advantage. Companies are shown to use mergers and acquisitions to acquire capabilities they do not have (often in technology) to expand existing capabilities and strengthen that advantage. The priorities of the global mergers and acquisitions industries in the post-war period are demonstrated. The most attractive, from the point of view of the implementation of mergers and acquisitions, in the economy of Ukraine for foreign investors have been analyzed. Obstacles to the formation of the attractiveness of the Ukrainian investment market are shown. A number of advantages in financing the modern Ukrainian economy have been studied, despite the really difficult political and economic situation in the country. A number of advantages of financing for modern Ukrainian realities have been studied despite the difficult political and economic situation in the country.

Denominational Uncoupling in a Divestment Age

Abstract: This chapter examines the fraught relationship between religiously founded universities and their current boards of trustees to show that market-driven secularization has not robbed these universities of moral intention but has rather shifted the grounds of their moral discernment. In the course of becoming a product in a higher education marketplace, university standards for discernment shifted to identifying their respective graduates with passing on a particular, luxury brand of socio-cultural status, not moral fitness. Thus, universities are caught, it argues, between a stated commitment to foster a more democratic society and the need to maintain financial viability and an exclusive brand through profitable investments in the marketplace. The chapter concludes with a case study on market-driven secularization in the context of conflicting arguments for and against asset divestment.

Reminder on Common Valuation Techniques

Abstract: The purpose of this chapter is to introduce the two most widely used asset valuation methods, which comprise the discounted cash flow (DCF) approach and the valuation approach based on multiples (relative approach). The reader will be provided with the main steps of the valuation process and some common tools and techniques, enabling them to carry out their own valuations. This chapter is intended to be a practical guide and therefore, only goes into the theory to a limited extent. However, the main concepts underlying the valuation will be discussed: After a brief definition of the company’s value and its sharing among the different stakeholders, a few accounting reminders will permit an understanding of how a company generates profits and cash flows. The focus will then be placed on the cost of capital from both a theoretical and practical perspective. Finally, the last two sections cover the implementation of the DCF and relative approaches, illustrated with concrete examples. The tools, guidelines, and caveats given in this chapter are based on several years of practical experience advising corporates and funds on their mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures (M&A).

Food security and political instability-foreign divestment analysis

Abstract: Purpose Prior studies have found evidence for the role of political instability on foreign divestment (FD) where a high level of instability encourages FD decisions. Therefore, this paper aims to examine how the food security level explains the linkage between political instability and FD. Design/methodology/approach The current study adopts the system generalised method of moment (GMM) to achieve accurate and reliable empirical evidence for 60 developing countries in the period 2011 to 2020. Findings The results demonstrated a negative and significant relationship between political instability and FD on food security. This suggests that political instability’s impact on divestment tends to be lower in countries with better levels of food security. Other controlled variables, such as economic growth, human capital and trade openness, also have a negative effect on FD, discouraging FD. Practical implications As a result, policymakers could take steps to ensure that food security levels reach acceptable levels, as food security has been linked to a country’s political stability. Originality/value To the authors limited knowledge, no studies have looked at the relationship between political instability and food security in determining a country’s FD. Our study aims to analyse this issue because the current global crisis, which is being caused by high food prices, will push millions of more people into severe poverty and exacerbate hunger and malnutrition

Stripping path optimization decision-making of non-performing asset based on integration methods of SUMDII, fuzzy rough sets and PP

Abstract: Aiming at the problem that manufacturing enterprises that rely more on asset projects currently lack effective means of divestiture of non performing assets, starting from incomplete information theory, this paper derives an optimal decision-making model for the divestiture path of non performing assets caused by the quality and safety crisis of manufacturing enterprises in an incomplete information environment, and uses the comprehensive method of SUMDII to establish a comprehensive integrated optimization model that reflects subjective evaluation and objective information. In addition, this study provides specific decision-making methods and implementation steps for optimizing the stripping path of non-performing assets. The empirical analysis results verify and demonstrate the feasibility, operability, accuracy, and applicability of the established model. The results show that the model designed in the study exhibits strong stability in sensitivity testing. When the parameter vectors are taken as (1,0,0,0), (1,1,0,0), (1,1,0,0), and (1,1,1,1), respectively, the ranking results corresponding to the first three parameter vectors are stable, all of which are A2 > A4 > A1 > A3. At the same time, the applied decision-making result of the model is A4 > A1 > A2 > A3, which is consistent with the best scheme evaluated by experts and superior to most comparative models. At the same time, in the analysis of decision-making characteristics, the research and design model has the most comprehensive review of decision-making elements, which is superior to other comparative models. It can be seen that the model designed by the research can lead to higher quality NPL divestiture schemes, which can help manufacturing enterprises improve asset quality and weaken the negative impact of the quality and safety crisis in manufacturing enterprises.

Oil majors’ transition plans face conflicting demands

Abstract: Significance The US majors were less aggressive in their decarbonisation plans and performed better in 2022; their European counterparts are now looking to do the same. Impacts Ethical funds are more likely to divest from Big Oil as plans to transition from fossil fuels are scaled back. Public policies supporting renewable energies aid energy investment but policies to tax ‘Big Oil’ profits disincentivise energy investment. The oil majors will continue to buy promising new energy transition technologies.