IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/lrc/larjob/v3y2018i1p1-12.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Hedge Fund Activism and Corporate Life Stage: Case Studies of High-technology Companies

Author

Listed:
  • Sixiao Xu

    (University of Warwick, 28-34 Corporation Street, Coventry, CV1 1GF, UK.)

Abstract

Hedge fund activism refers to hedge funds’ attempt to change how the company is operated. Hedge fund activism can improve the governance of target companies. But it might also be myopic and increase short-term returns by reducing corporate value in the long term. This paper argues that the real effect of hedge fund activism depends on specific characteristics of target companies and examines one of such factors, corporate life stage. By conducting case studies on hedge fund activism at Apple, eBay and HP, it shows that companies at later life stages are less vulnerable to myopic hedge fund activism, have more corporate governance concerns and thus are more likely to benefit from hedge fund activism.

Suggested Citation

  • Sixiao Xu, 2018. "Hedge Fund Activism and Corporate Life Stage: Case Studies of High-technology Companies," Journal of Business, LAR Center Press, vol. 3(1), pages 1-12, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:lrc:larjob:v:3:y:2018:i:1:p:1-12
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.journalofbusiness.us/index.php/site/article/view/108/32
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Holmstrom, Bengt, 1989. "Agency costs and innovation," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 12(3), pages 305-327, December.
    2. Bent Flyvbjerg, 2013. "Five Misunderstandings About Case-Study Research," Papers 1304.1186, arXiv.org.
    3. Henry G. Manne, 1965. "Mergers and the Market for Corporate Control," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 73, pages 110-110.
    4. Jensen, Michael C. & Meckling, William H., 1976. "Theory of the firm: Managerial behavior, agency costs and ownership structure," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 305-360, October.
    5. April Klein & Emanuel Zur, 2009. "Entrepreneurial Shareholder Activism: Hedge Funds and Other Private Investors," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 64(1), pages 187-229, February.
    6. G. M.P. Swann, 2009. "The Economics of Innovation," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 13211.
    7. Raghuram Rajan & Henri Servaes & Luigi Zingales, 2000. "The Cost of Diversity: The Diversification Discount and Inefficient Investment," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(1), pages 35-80, February.
    8. Morten T. Hansen, 2002. "Knowledge Networks: Explaining Effective Knowledge Sharing in Multiunit Companies," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 13(3), pages 232-248, June.
    9. David S. Scharfstein & Jeremy C. Stein, 2000. "The Dark Side of Internal Capital Markets: Divisional Rent‐Seeking and Inefficient Investment," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(6), pages 2537-2564, December.
    10. Holmström, Bengt, 1989. "Agency Costs and Innovation," Working Paper Series 214, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    11. David S. Scharfstein, 1998. "The Dark Side of Internal Capital Markets II: Evidence from Diversified Conglomerates," NBER Working Papers 6352, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Henry G. Manne, 1965. "Mergers and the Market for Corporate Control," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 73, pages 351-351.
    13. Fama, Eugene F, 1970. "Efficient Capital Markets: A Review of Theory and Empirical Work," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 25(2), pages 383-417, May.
    14. Yael V. Hochberg, 2011. "Venture Capital and Corporate Governance in the Newly Public Firm," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 16(2), pages 429-480.
    15. Sudi Sudarsanam & Tim Broadhurst, 2012. "Corporate governance convergence in Germany through shareholder activism: Impact of the Deutsche Boerse bid for London Stock Exchange," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 16(2), pages 235-268, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Iskenderoglu, Cansu, 2021. "Managerial discretion and efficiency of internal capital markets," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    2. Palash Deb & Parthiban David & Jonathan O'Brien, 2017. "When is cash good or bad for firm performance?," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(2), pages 436-454, February.
    3. Maximilian Sturm & Stephan Nüesch, 2019. "Strong shareholder rights, internal capital allocation efficiency, and the moderating role of market competition and external financing needs," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 13(1), pages 93-111, February.
    4. Ly, Kim Cuong & Liu, Hong & Opong, Kwaku, 2017. "Who acquires whom among stand-alone commercial banks and bank holding company affiliates?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 144-158.
    5. Luc Renneboog & Peter G. Szilagyi, 2008. "Corporate Restructuring and Bondholder Wealth," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 14(4), pages 792-819, September.
    6. Szu-Wen Chou, 2002. "Flattened Resource Allocation, Hierarch Design and the Boundaries of the Firm," Levine's Working Paper Archive 618897000000000056, David K. Levine.
    7. Wang, Yolanda Yulong, 2023. "Corporate diversification, investment efficiency and the business cycle11This work is supported by Shenzhen Humanities & Social Sciences Key Research Bases," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    8. Gérard Charreaux, 2000. "L'approche économico-financière de l'investissement: une vision critique," Working Papers CREGO 1000501, Université de Bourgogne - CREGO EA7317 Centre de recherches en gestion des organisations.
    9. Delis, Manthos D. & Iosifidi, Maria & Kazakis, Pantelis & Ongena, Steven & Tsionas, Mike G., 2022. "Management practices and M&A success," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    10. repec:ipg:wpaper:2014-591 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Don Goldstein, 2000. "Hostile Takeovers as Corporate Governance? Evidence from the 1980s," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(4), pages 381-402.
    12. Justin Law & Wayne Yu, 2018. "Corporate spinoffs and executive compensation," Frontiers of Business Research in China, Springer, vol. 12(1), pages 1-25, December.
    13. Johannes Lundberg, 2022. "Agency Theory’s “Truth Regime”: Reading Danish Pension Funds’ Decisions Regarding Shell from the Perspective of Agency Theory," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(22), pages 1-15, November.
    14. Parui, Pintu, 2021. "Financialization and endogenous technological change: A post-Kaleckian perspective," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 221-244.
    15. Jeffrey M. Lacker & John A. Weinberg, 1990. "Takeovers and stock price volatility," Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, vol. 76(Mar), pages 29-44.
    16. Patrick Bolton & David S. Scharfstein, 1998. "Corporate Finance, the Theory of the Firm, and Organizations," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 12(4), pages 95-114, Fall.
    17. Styhre Alexander, 2018. "The Making of the Shareholder Primacy Governance Model: Price Theory, the Law and Economics School, and Corporate Law Retrenchment Advocacy," Accounting, Economics, and Law: A Convivium, De Gruyter, vol. 8(3), pages 1-31, December.
    18. Claudio Loderer & René Stulz & Urs Waelchli, 2013. "Limited Managerial Attention and Corporate Aging," NBER Working Papers 19428, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Yolanda Yulong Wang, 2023. "Corporate diversification, investment efficiency and the business cycle," Post-Print hal-04005692, HAL.
    20. Wulf, Julie, 2009. "Influence and inefficiency in the internal capital market," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 72(1), pages 305-321, October.
    21. Sven Kunisch & Markus Menz & David Collis, 2020. "Corporate headquarters in the twenty-first century: an organization design perspective," Journal of Organization Design, Springer;Organizational Design Community, vol. 9(1), pages 1-32, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Agency Costs; Corporate Life Stage; Hedge Fund Activism; Short-Termism. Classification JEL: G34; K22; O31.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G34 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Mergers; Acquisitions; Restructuring; Corporate Governance
    • K22 - Law and Economics - - Regulation and Business Law - - - Business and Securities Law

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:lrc:larjob:v:3:y:2018:i:1:p:1-12. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: R Martin (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journalofbusiness.us .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.