Showing papers on "Restructuring published in 1993"

Board of director involvement in restructuring: The effects of board versus managerial controls and characteristics

Abstract: Board of director involvement in restructuring reveals whether restructuring is brought on as an action by the board in its central oversight role or whether managers are purusing positive strategic action or correction Therefore, based on an integration of organization economics (agency theory and market for corporate control) and strategic management theory (internal control and strategic leadership contingencies), this research examines board involvement in restructuring Board involvement is hypothesized to be contingent on the governance mechanisms used by the board to monitor top management, control emphasis used by managers to process strategic information and board and managerial characteristics The basic premise of the paper is that, due to their oversight role, board members (especially outside directors) become involved in restructuring only when managerial strategy implementation appears to be deficient Top management team equity stakes are found to be negatively related to board involvement in restructuring, while outside director ownership is found to be positively related Emphasis on strategic controls by managers was found to be negatively related to board involvement in restructuring Top management team tenure and top management organizational tenure are negatively related to board involvement Outsider representation on the board is positively related to board involvement in restructuring, while board tenure was found to be unrelated Results imply that incentives to monitor (ownership) and emphasis on strategic controls reinforced by higher top management team tenure result in less board involvement in restructuring However, restructuring may be initiated by outsiders on the board when other governance and control mechanisms fail This implies a substitution process between governance tactics (ownership vs board monitoring) and internal controls (managerial vigilance)

The Challenge of organizational change : how companies experience it and leaders guide it

Abstract: In this book, the authors present case studies of organizational change at leading companies. Essays by the authors introduce each section and look at the cases as instructive models for how to institute change in the corporation - or in some situations - how not to. In the first section, on "emergent change", studies of Apple Computer, Sears and Bendix, among others, illustrate environmental and cyclical change. The second section on "forced change" draws on the examples of Safeway, AT & T, the Western-Delta takeover, downsizing at Xerox and restructuring at Lucky Stores, to show how companies change under intense pressure. The third section, on "engineered" change, shows the effect of "changemasters" on the evolution of Kodak, British Air, and General Electric, and the role of unions at General Motors and Eastern Airlines. The book concludes with the prospects for the future of deliberate change.

Costs of technical violation of accounting-based debt covenants

Abstract: SYNOPSIS AND INTRODUCTION: Costs associated with the violation of accounting-based covenants in debt agreements are presumed to be material by both accounting regulators and researchers. The Financial Accounting Standards Board, for example, delayed the implementation of its pronouncement on pension reporting, SFAS No. 87, for two years to allow firms sufficient time to "renegotiate or to obtain waivers of provisions of some legal contracts" (FASB 1985, par. 260). Numerous studies in accounting research hypothesize that it is costly for firms to violate accounting covenants in debt agreements, and this supposition figures in research on such issues as the economic impact of mandated and voluntary accounting changes (see, e.g., Holthausen 1981; Leftwich 1981; Lys 1984) and the determinants of accounting choice (see, e.g., Trombley 1989; Zmijewski and Hagerman 1981). Although research in financial economics has studied some of the costs shareholders bear when there are debt service defaults or bankruptcy filings, the costs associated with technical violation-the violation of covenants other than debt service-have not been documented. This study investigates the costs of technical violation for a sample of 91 firms that violated accounting-based covenants in debt agreements between 1983 and 1987. The sample includes firms for which the technical violation was sufficiently material to merit disclosure. We provide direct evidence of refinancing and restructuring costs by examining changes in terms of debt agreements, and changes in investing and financing

The effects of ownership structure on corporate restructuring

Abstract: This paper investigates the relationship between ownership structure and corporate restructuring in a sample of 93 surviving public Fortune 500 firms during the period 1981–87. The results show that blockholder ownership is associated significantly with corporate restructuring, suggesting that many managers restructured their corporations during the 1980s only when pressured to do so by large shareholders.

Managerial Decision Making and Capital Structure

Abstract: This article investigates leverage influence on project selection. First, the authors examine 428 mergers (1962-82) and then 389 acquisitions of all types (1982-86). Announcement-period acquirer returns are greater the higher the leverage of the acquirer. A third data set contains 173 acquisitions undertaken during 1978-90 for firms that underwent major increases in leverage, often forced by hostile takeover. Acquisition performance increases after restructuring. The evidence is invariant with respect to methodology--beta-adjusted abnormal returns, numeraire portfolio approach, and three-factor regression model residuals produce identical results. Overall, the data support the hypothesis that debt improves managerial decision-making. Copyright 1993 by University of Chicago Press.

Corporate restructuring: Reconfiguring the firm

Abstract: Corporate restructuring is an area of great interest to researchers in corporate strategy, finance and organizational studies. In this chapter, we briefly review prior research on corporate restructuring, and then introduce the articles in the special issue. In the papers in the issue there are indications that restructuring can be performance-enhancing for the firm, but it can also have significant unintended consequences. The papers in this issue apply a broad range of research methods and theoretical perspectives to corporate restructuring, its initiating forces, and its consequences.

Corporate Financial Distress and Bankruptcy: A Complete Guide to Predicting & Avoiding Distress and Profiting from Bankruptcy

Abstract: THE LEGAL, ECONOMIC, AND INVESTMENT DIMENSIONS OF CORPORATE BANKRUPTCY AND DISTRESSED RESTRUCTURINGS. Corporate Distress: Introduction and Statistical Background. Evolution of the Bankruptcy Process. Evaluating the Chapter 11 Bankruptcy-Reorganization Process. Emerging Trends in Bankruptcy Reorganization. Risks and Returns in the High-Yield ''Junk'' Bond Market. Firm Valuation and Corporate Leveraged Restructuring. Investing in Distressed Securities. TECHNIQUES FOR THE CLASSIFICATION AND PREDICTION OF FINANCIAL DISTRESS AND THEIR APPLICATIONS. Classifying and Predicting Corporate Distress: The Z -Score Models. ZETA Analysis and Other Attempts to Classify and Predict Business Failures. Application of Distress Prediction Models and Mortality Concepts in Banking. Distress Prediction Models: Catalysts for Constructive Change--Managing a Financial Turnaround. Distress Classification Models for Non-U.S. Countries (A Bibliography). UNDERSTANDING THE BANKRUPTCY REORGANIZATION PROCESS (CASE STUDIES). The Duplan Corporation Case. Wheeling Pittsburgh Steel Corporation. References. Index.

A diametric forces model of strategic change: Assessing the antecedents and consequences of restructuring in the higher education industry

Abstract: This study examines the environmental and organizational forces, counter-forces, and performance consequences of strategic restructuring in the higher education industry. The study proposes a diametric forces model to address the conflicting pressures for strategic change faced by these organizations, and uses extensive longitudinal data spanning the last two decades to examine the ways in which restructuring has been used as a successful adaptive response. The results suggest that, contrary to ecological predictions, restructuring is a predictable, common, and performance-enhancing response to changing environmental conditions. The study concludes by discussing the applicability of its findings for research on corporate restructuring and strategic change.

The Effect of Restructuring Charges on Executives' Cash Compensation

Abstract: Top executives' compensation contracts typically provide for annual incentive awards that link executives' cash compensation and reported earnings. This link has been confirmed empirically by Lambert and Larcker (1987), who document a positive association between the cash compensation of chief executive officers (CEOs) and their firms' contemporaneous earnings performance. The widespread use of earnings-based incentives has prompted concerns that executives may select real decisions and accounting procedures to maximize their earnings-based compensation, irrespective of the impact on the economic well-being of the firm (Kaplan and Atkinson 1989, 724; Watts and Zimmerman 1986, 204). These concerns presume that the earnings-based performance measures specified in compensation contracts are strictly adhered to in setting executive compensation. In practice, however, these plans are administered by compensation committees, who could adjust compensation to prevent executives rom engaging in opportunistic behavior. Existing research provides mixed evidence as to whether compensation committees adjust earnings-based compensation. For example, Abdel-khalik (1985) finds evidence that CEO compensation is adjusted in response to accounting procedure changes. In contrast, Healy et al. (1987) find no evidence that CEO compensation is adjusted forthe effects of accounting procedure changes on reported earnings. This study provides evidence suggesting that compensation committees do adjust earnings-based incentive compensation. It documents reliable and systematic evidence that CEOs' cash compensation is adjusted for restructuring charges. between 1982 and 1989. The short-term incentive plans of the sample firms do not include explicit provisions for restructuring charges to be excluded from the definition of earnings used to determine executives' incentive compensation. The empirical analysis, however, indicates that CEO cash compensation is shielded from restructuring charges relative to other components of earnings. The results also suggest that the degree to which executive compensation is adjusted for a restructuring charge depends on the characteristics of the restructuring. Our evidence is consistent with the hypothesis that compensation committees systematically override the provisions of incentive plans to avoid providing executives with incentives to behave opportunistically. Restructurings typically require a large charge to earnings but can have a positive impact on the economic well-being of a firm. By adjusting executive compensation for restructuring charges, the compensation committee ensures that executives are not deterred from undertaking value-enhancing restructurings.

Executive Defense: Shareholder Power and Corporate Reorganization

Abstract: A quiet revolution came to corporate America during the late 1980s and early 1990S. Large shareholders - pension funds, insurance companies, money managers, and commercial banks - exercised new-found muscle, pressuring senior managers to meet heightened financial expectations by reshaping their organizations. Michael Useem attempts to reveal how those shareholder pressures have transformed the inside structures of many corporations. Useem draws on numerous sources, including interviews with senior managers and intensive studies of seven large corporations representing a range of restructuring experiences and industries - including pharmaceuticals, transportation, chemicals, retailing, electronics, and financial services. He shows that organizational changes have affected many areas of corporate life: headquarters staffs have been reduced, authority has filtered down to operating units, and compensation has become more closely tied to performance. Change also extends to corporate governance, where managers have sought legal safeguards against takeovers and board terms have been staggered. Companies have made significant commitments to building more effective relations with their major investors. As Useem demonstrates, this revolution has reached even beyond the corporation, influencing American politics and law. As new ownership alignment has caused companies to focus attention on shareholders, corporate political agendas have shifted from fighting government regulation to resisting shareholder intrusion. This book aims to be useful reading for managers, economists, lawyers, financial analysts, and all observers of American business.

Constructing The Countryside

Abstract: Rural restructuring restructuring the countryside - key conceptual developments in assessing rural change agricultural regulation and the development of rural Britain property rights and interests in land planning and the rural land development process - the reconstitution of the public interest locality and power in the analysis of rural change researching the rural land development process - key conceptual and methodological issues constructing the countryside.

Determinants of corporate restructuring: The relative importance of corporate governance, takeover threat, and free cash flow

Abstract: This study seeks to estimate the relative importance of free cash flow, corporate governance, and takeover threat in determining financial and portfolio restructuring. The free cash flow hypothesis and agency theory prescriptions are used as the basis for developing a model of restructuring. A simple analysis of variance method is used to decompose restructuring transactions and outcomes into the three effects. The results support the hypothesis that financial and portfolio restructuring are motivated, in part, by agency costs. Decomposition of variances indicates that restructuring is equally explained by free cash flow and interaction of governance and takeover threat with free cash flow.

Automated assistance for program restructuring

Abstract: Maintenance tends to degrade the structure of software, ultimately making maintenance more costly. At times, then, it is worthwhile to manipulate the structure of a system to make changes easier. However, manual restructuring is an error-prone and expensive activity. By separating structural manipulations from other maintenance activities, the semantics of a system can be held constant by a tool, assuring that no errors are introduced by restructuring. To allow the maintenance team to focus on the aspects of restructuring and maintenance requiring human judgment, a transformation-based tool can be provided—based on a model that exploits preserving data flow dependence and control flow dependence—to automate the repetitive, error-prone, and computationally demanding aspects of restructuring. A set of automatable transformations is introduced; their impact on structure is described, and their usefulness is demonstrated in examples. A model to aid building meaning-preserving restructuring transformations is described, and its realization in a functioning prototype tool for restructuring Scheme programs is discussed.

Outsourcing and the Search for `Flexibility':

Abstract: Organizational restructuring during the 1980s consisted in part of efforts by large and small firms alike to achieve functional, wage or numerical `flexibility' in their relationships with employee...

Whatever happened to local government

Abstract: Local government as welfare state the "end" of local government? from state to market? towards the "enabling" authority? post-Fordism and local government restructuring the local welfare state from local government to local state - the impact of restructuring.

Balancing Corporate Power: A New Federalist Paper

Abstract: How complex modern organizations can achieve unity without uniformity THE PROSPECT OF applying political principles to management issues makes a great deal of sense, given that organizations today are more and more seen as minisocieties rather than as impersonal systems. But the concept of federalism is particularly appropriate since it offers a well-recognized way to deal with paradoxes of power and control: the need to make things big by keeping them small; to encourage autonomy but within bounds; to combine variety and shared purpose, individuality and partnership, local and global, tribal region and nation state, or nation state and regional bloc. Change a few of the terms and these political issues can be found on the agendas of senior managers in most of the world's large companies. It is therefore no accident that Percy Barnevik, the CEO of Asea Brown Boveri, has described his sprawling "multidomestic" enterprise of 1,100 separate companies and 210,000 employees as a federation. Nor is it accidental that former CEO John Akers has called IBM's restructuring a move to federalism. Basel-based Ciba-Geigy recently moved from a management pyramid with a matrix designed around businesses, functions, and regions to an organization with 14 separate businesses controlling 94 percent of the company's spending -- a federal organization. Although they do not always call it federalism, businesses in every country are moving in the same direction: General Electric, Johnson & Johnson, and Coca-Cola in the United States; Grand Metropolitan and British Petroleum in Great Britain; Accor in France; and Honda in Japan. Older global companies, such as Royal Dutch Shell and Unilever, went federal decades ago, pulled that way by the demand for autonomy from their overseas subsidiaries. But they, too, are always flexing their structures and fine-tuning the balance of power because federalism is not a static system. Neither, however, is federalism just a classy word for restructuring. The thinking behind it, the belief, for instance, that autonomy releases energy; that people have the right to do things in their own way as long as it is in the common interest; that people need to be well-informed, well-intentioned, and well-educated to interpret that common interest; that individuals prefer being led to being managed: these principles reach into the guts of the organization or, more correctly, into its soul -- the way it goes about its business day by day. Federalism properly understood is not so much a political structure or system as it is a way of life. Coping with paradox It is, however, the structure that changes first, as organizations twist and turn in their attempts to cope with the paradoxes of modern business. To understand federalism at work, we first need to examine these paradoxes and the ways in which organizations are evolving to deal with them. Then a look at the five key principles of federalism will show how this particular political theory can illuminate these paradoxes and point the way to some practical action. Every organization is different, so there will be no common or even constant solution to each dilemma. And a federal organization can be particularly exhausting to govern since it relies as much on influence, trust, and empathy as on formal power and explicit controls. But in today's complex world of interrelationships and constant change, the move to federalism is inevitable. And that which is inevitable it is best to understand so that we may profit from it. Size The first paradox is that organizations need to be both big and small at the same time, be they corporations or nations. On the one hand, the economies of scale still apply. The discovery and development of new sources of oil and gas require resources that no small niche player could contemplate. Big is essential as well for pharmaceutical companies if they are to finance the massive research programs on which their future depends. …

Students as Partners in Research and Restructuring Schools

Abstract: (1993). Students as Partners in Research and Restructuring Schools. The Educational Forum: Vol. 57, No. 4, pp. 386-393.

Beyond Common Sense in Educational Restructuring: The Issues of Content and Linkage

Abstract: Common sense proposals for restructuring schools suggest promising directions, but in order for this potential to be fulfilled, two major issues must be addressed: What content is needed to give educational direction to the structures, and how can the many factors that influence this content be linked? This article proposes an agenda of content for teacher commitment and competence, and it identifies four problems of systemic linkage that restructuring "theory" has yet to address. Solutions to each of these issues will require resolution of persisting conflict over education goals.

Finding the Way: Structure, Time, and Culture in School Improvement.

Abstract: To Mr. Donahoe's mind, restructuring means the formal rearrangement of the use of time in schools to allow them to create and sustain the kind of interactive culture and supporting infrastructure they need to improve student learning. AS I WORKED in the field of school improvement during the past four years, I became increasingly struck by the failure of those who write about and those who are directly involved in school restructuring to confront a critical question: How does a school generate and sustain the characteristics of effectiveness? During my immersion in school reform I have read about, been told of, and seen firsthand the inadequacy of the factory model, the egg crate, the cellular structure of schools. I am familiar with the characteristics of effective schools as identified by research -- strong leadership, clear and ambitious goals, strong academic programs, teacher professionalism, and shared influence. I have seen lists of desired states, such as school-based management, shared decision making, schools-within-schools, integrated curriculum, interactive/cooperative learning, authentic assessment, performance-based testing, and parent involvement. But I have not read about, heard, or seen how a school takes on these features and, in so doing, differs from the traditional school in the way it functions -- in the way it's organized, in the way it structures time, in the roles and interrelationships of its staff. What has been missing, I think, is an adequate consideration of the crucial relationship in schools between structure, time, and culture. To be fair, the literature and practice of school restructuring nips at the heels of these factors. When a school implements the programs of Theodore Sizer, James Comer, or Henry Levin, something has to change in the way the school functions. But those changes, in Joseph Schumpeter's terms, tend to be adaptive responses -- major changes that stay within the range of current custom rather than creative innovations that go beyond existing practices and procedures.[1] Maybe an evolving series of adaptive responses will get schools where they need to go eventually, but the more likely result is what Yevgeny Yevtushenko calls "fatal half-measures." As long as the responses only bend, rather than break, the traditional model, any changes brought about in a school are living on borrowed time. It is easier to go back than to go forward because the system that envelops the school was created to support the traditional model and is thoroughly inhospitable to any other form. It has taken me some time to put these three elements -- structure, time, and culture -- together. When I began thinking about school improvement four years ago, my attention was attracted by the way schools were formally organized. Gradually, however, I found that time and culture had stronger roles to play in school effectiveness than I was accustomed to seeing in other settings. The best way to bring the roles of structure, time, and culture into focus is by describing my own progression of experience and thought. SCHOOL ORGANIZATION In the fall of 1989 the Pacific Telesis Foundation, of which I was then president, began working with three California elementary schools in a comprehensive restructuring project. By January 1990 I had formed what I thought at the time was an original insight into school organization. I began saying that schools had no organization, describing them as just convenient locations for a bunch of individual teachers, like independent contractors, to come to teach discrete groups of children. I noticed that teachers did not talk about themselves as belonging to an organization; they were more likely to think of themselves as being at the outer reaches of a large bureaucracy. Nevertheless, I expected them to take offense at my description of schools. But no one did -- in fact, every educator I spoke to agreed rather enthusiastically. …

Establishing Urban Land Markets in the People's Republic of China

Abstract: While the world's attention focuses on the monumental reforms underway in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, the People's Republic of China has been systematically restructuring its socialist economy, gradually introducing market mechanisms to improve the allocative efficiency of its institutions. This article examines reforms in urban land management. It reviews and assesses current land management practices, describes urban land market reform experiments, and offers specific recommendations for improving land market efficiency.

Restructuring hegemony in the global political economy : the rise of transnational neo-liberalism in the 1980s

Abstract: Since the late 1970s, the spread of Neo-liberalism and the failure of socialist economies and systems in Eastern Europe have resulted in a practically unchallenged hegemony of international capital across the globe. Neo-liberalism is now the dominant ideology, legitimizing the privatisation of state-controlled economies and the substitution of the market for social provision and basic welfare. In Restructuring Hegemony in the Global Political Economy the authors argue that this process began with the defeat of the New International Economic Order, the Euro-Communist ascendency in Western Europe, the overthrow of the Allende government in Chile, and culminated in the collapse of practical socialism. They assert that the victory of neo-liberalism is now so complete that its radical features have come to be accepted as the new normality.

Outcomes-based education

Abstract: Outcomes-based education (OBE) 1s a controversial model of educational restructuring that defines learning as what students can demonstrate that they know. This document reviews four journal articles and one bulletin that reflect a range of perspectives on OBE's potential promise and problems. In "Organizing for Results: The Basis of Authentic Restructuring and Reform," William G. Spady contends that the time-based structure prevalent in education favors administrative custody and convenience over student mastery. He offers OBE as an alternative model, outlining the principles and premises of the system, and presenting it as a blueprint for restructuring. In "Perspectives and Imperatives: Some Limitations of OBE," Jim McKernan argues that the notion of predetermined outcomes is antithetical to the nature of education, which he considers to be process-oriented and exploratory. He offers an alternative model that is more compatible with his concept of a liberal education. Gwennis McNeir, in "Outcomes-Based Education: Tool for Restructuring," clarifies the concept of OBE, explores the primary objections, and identifies elements that educators believe are crucial to its successful implementation. In "One District Learns About Restructuring," Charles E. Sams and Randy Schenkat describe how moving to an OBE model was the missing piece in a restructuring process in their district that included innovation but lacked a clear purpose. Kathleen A. Fitzpatrick provides an indepth account of how her district successfully implemented an OBE system, in "Restructuring To Achieve Outcomes of Significance for All Students." She offers examples of how to draft visionary outcomes, develop performance indicators, and shift instructional focus to match OBE

Restructuring Schooling: Learning from Ongoing Efforts.

Abstract: The editors of this volume aim to help educators make better decisions about their efforts at restructuring by showing what has and has not worked in some of the most widely known experiments. Because the programmes examined have been in place for several years, the cases offer richness of detail and a wealth of ideas. This book's insights and practical detail will benefit educators both in schools and at district level, as well as students and academics in the field.

The impact of corporate turbulence on: Managers' attitudes

Abstract: This cross-level study tested the relationship between organizational turbulence as reported by 49 strategic business unit managers from 17 Fortune 500 companies and the attitudes of 679 midlevel managers in these companies. The results indicated that turbulence clustered into four dimensions that were differentially related to managers' attitudes. Incremental negative turbulence was negatively associated with satisfaction with job security. Financial restructuring was positively associated with career loyalty. Growth was positively associated with career loyalty and with job involvement. Organizational breakup was positively associated with career loyalty. The long-term implications for companies of the career-loyallcompany-loyal, job-involved but job-insecure management cadre produced by the corporate turbulence of the 1980s are discussed.

Branch Plants and the Evolving Spatial Division of Labour: A Study of Material Linkage Change in the Northern Region of England

Abstract: PHELPS N. A. (1993) Branch plants and the evolving spatial division of labour: a study of material linkage change in the Northern region of England, Reg. Studies 27, 87–101. Recent literature has suggested that manufacturing industry including that in peripheral regions–is becoming more locally embedded as a result of processes of externalization and localized linkage formation. This paper explores the hypothesis that branch plants have, in terms of spatial patterns of material linkages, become more locally embedded as a result of recent industrial restructuring. Evidence from a survey of manufacturing establishments in the Northern region of England is used to explore hypotheses regarding the contribution of new greenfield investments and in-situ restructuring to aggregate changes in spatial patterns of linkages. The results suggests that, despite processes of externalization, Northern region branch plants continue to be poorly integrated into the regional economy. Consequently it is argued that the cont...

Managing Financial Distress and Valuing Distressed Securities: A Survey and a Research Agenda

Abstract: The role of high leverage in corporate restructuring, popularity of junk bonds (original-issue, high-yield bonds) and the savings & loan crisis have been important aspects of the finance scene in the 1980s A very active academic literature has developed in recent years on dealing with financial distress and the private and court-supervised mechanisms of resolving default The purpose of this article is to survey the empirical and theoretical research on (i) managing financial distress, and (ii) valuing corporate securities incorporating payouts in troubled reorganizations New research on both topics is contained in the nine papers presented in this Financial Distress Special Issue of Financial Management These papers are also surveyed in the context of related past research

Organization as strategy: restructuring production in the film industry

Abstract: Few changes in the structure of firms have attracted as much attention during the last decade as the movement away from integrated production and toward cooperative relations among independent organizations. Despite recent emphasis on these strategies of 'disaggregation' and 'network' organization, little quantitative research exists on the impact of this type of reorganization on economic performance—at least in part due to the difficulty of obtaining appropriate data. The economic impact of disaggregation is examined in this paper using data on film production in the period after World War II.

Corporate Financial Strategy

Abstract: Setting the context What does the share price tell us? Linking corporate and financial strategies Corporate governance and perceived risk Making the case Financial strategy and the corporate lifecycle-Start up businesses and venture capital rowth companies: marketing focused Mature companies-to divi or not? Declining businesses-a case for euthanasia? Financial instruments: the building blocks Types of financial instrument Dividends and buybacks Transactions and operating issues-Floating a company Acquisitions mergers and selling a business Restructuring a company Management buyouts and other leveraged transactions Strategic working capital management Executive compensation International corporate finance Appendices-Review of theories of finance Valuing options and convertibles Glossary Discount and option tables

Restructuring Schools: An International Perspective on the Movement To Transform the Control and Performance of Schools.

Abstract: Part 1 Concepts and definition - clarifying the themes and their meanings: an international perspective on the restructuring movement in education, B. Caldwell a political theory of educational reform, J. Guthrie and J. Koppich centralization and decentralization, R. Slater "restructuring" school management - an American perspective, R. Elmore "restructuring" school management - an Australian perspective, H. Beare the politics of privitization in education, B. Cooper privatization and the dilemma of public and private schools, D. Anderson a framework for allocatin authorities in a system of schools, A. Swanson a basis for analysis, W. Boyd and D. Smart. Part 2 Cases of reform: the education reform movement in the US, J. Guthrie the education reform movement in Great Britain, H. Thomas the restructuring of Australian education, W. Loudon et al the reconstruction of New Zealand education, R.J.S. MacPherson education reform in the 1980s in Canada, S. Lawton educational reform in Japan since 1984, Takeshi Sasamori. Part 3 Conclusion: speculations and commentary, H. Beare and W. Boyd.

Restructuring in the global economy: The consequences of strategic linkages between Japanese and U.S. firms

Abstract: Global corporate restructuring often involves U.S. and Japanese alliance partners in interlinked portfolio choices. This paper develops theory and propositions that study U.S. and Japanese restructuring as a process of strategic choice, and introduces the concept of the restructuring profile. Japanese-U.S. strategic linkages create choices in the form of a call option on portfolio reconfiguration for the Japanese firm, and a put option on financial restructuring for its U. S. partner. While Japanese competition forms an initiating force for U. S. restructuring, it also offers a source of capital for that purpose-a unique situation in which the Japanese firm is a part of both the problem and the solution in its U. S. partner's restructuring.