HOW THE AMERICAN BUSINESS CULTURE IS BEING RESHAPED BY MERGERS, ACQUISITIONS AND OTHER QUESTIONABLE BUSINESS PRACTICES
A Final Paper
Presented to the
Faculty of the
School of Business Administration
In Partial Fulfillment
Of the Requirements for the Degree of
Bachelor of Science in
Business Management
ABSTRACT
The business world keeps on changing through the years, dictated by technological advancements and evolving market needs. Business principles and strategies may be formulated as a method of adapting to these changes, and the development of these strategies results in more transformation to the business environment; the cycle goes on. The phenomenon of Merger and Acquisition (M&A) is one of the revolutionary driving force standing at the forefront. In the US, M&A has initiated metamorphosis of the business structure. The fact that it has been categorized as a potentially questionable practice reinforces the need to explore its twist and turns.
This paper aims to emphasize the seriousness of M&A concerns regarding the direction it is leading American businesses. In a minor way, other questionable business practices that complicate the ethical way of doing business were given attention too. The main discussions however are inclined to be more on M&A transactions. To do this, this paper collected the details of M&A transactions and litigations, enough number of actual examples that would cover as much ground of the concept as possible. From these case studies, a general view can be deducted. It has been shown that M&A belongs to the issues trying to be solved by the Anti-trust laws enacted since 1890. However, the merger wave continued and still going strong. It seems that the attraction of stability and growth is greater than the fear of the possible legal attention.
The legal implication of M&A transaction is not without basis. A lot of legal suit has been filed due to allegations that a particular merger or acquisition transaction violated the provisions of the anti-trust laws. This shady side of M&A transaction arises from the possibility that the combined company becomes too big an opponent for the rivals to compete with. Aside from legal threat, the risk of failure after the merger or acquisition cannot be guaranteed. M&A transactions don’t usually go through smoothly. A lot of problems can occur throughout this period, from the conception of the plan to the actual completion of the transaction. There may not always be agreement and cooperation between the parties involved. It was observed that a real merger of equal seems to be rare, if not impossible. A common differentiation between acquisition and merger lies in this cooperation and agreement issue: Mergers are generally viewed as mutual decision of equal party while acquisitions are often associated with hostility of a small firm towards the big acquiring firm.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION………………………………………………1
Statement of the Problem…………………………………….2
Purpose of the Study………………………………………….3
Importance of the Study………………………………………3
Scope of the Study……………………………………………
Rationale of the Study………………………………………..
Definition of Terms……………………………………………
Overview of the Study………………………………………..
CHAPTER 2 REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE……………..……..
Overview of the Anti-trust Laws………………….
Overview of M&A…………………………………………….
Overview of Other Questionable Business Practices
The Enforcement of Anti-trust Laws..……………….…….
The Impact of M&A Activities…………………….………..
CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY……………………………………………
Approach………………………………………………………
Data Gathering Method……………………………………..
Database of the Study………………………………………
Validity of Data………………………………………………
Originality and Limitations of Data…………………………
CHAPTER 4 DATA ANALYSIS……………………………………………
CHAPTER 5 SUMMARY, RECOMMENDATIONS
AND CONCLUSIONS………………………………………
BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………………………
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
The business world of today can be compared to a battle field. And the battle is fierce. Globalization started out as colonial conquest, turned into cultural imperialism, and in the present times, the term is now related to global business competitiveness. Large business competitors strive for domination, while small entities on the sidelines just aim for survival. Just as warfare techniques and strategies are being formulated by high military officials, business executives are always searching for more business practices that will help them gain competitive edge over “opponents”.
Different business principles pops out one by one like mushrooms; some were effective, some significantly improved the firm’s performance, some brought a lot of firms to their downfall, some disappeared from management vocabulary, and some are here to stay. Examples of business philosophies that became mainstream tools in business arsenal are Cost Leadership, Product Differentiation, Business Process Reengineering/Restructuring (BPR), Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), Total Quality Management (TQM), and Merger and Acquisition (M&A), etc.
When reviewing the implementation of different business practices popular among firms in the United States, one would see that mergers and acquisitions takes more than a fair share of attention from US laws governing businesses. But this paper does not focus solely on the legal aspect. The observation was stated merely to point out that the concept of merger and acquisition is indeed a big issue. The mere fact that the government concerns itself with M&A activities shows that its impact is broader than most business actions. One would assume that companies might steer clear of such processes mired in legal complexities, but ironically, the statistics are up.
Most companies think that the advantage outweighs the difficulties and other negative implications. In fact, the recent years showed that the “merger wave” in America keeps growing, both in the number of transactions and the financial size of the merger. The discussions that will be presented in this paper focus on the observations, changes, and other issues arising from the increase in M&A activities in the U.S., covering the business, legal and social views.
Statement of the Problem
It cannot be denied that the new trend in merger activities is changing the face of business world in the U.S., in ways more than just skin deep. As New York Times has pointed out, the corporate environment of America is being reshaped today by merger activities in a way never seen since the boom of industrial takeovers in auto and steel firms occurred at the start of the century ( 1998, p.1). Indeed, acquisition strategy played a major part in the structural changes that US businesses had undergone in the 80s and 90s (, 2002). It is immediately evident that the larger scope of concern is due to the number of deciding party: most business strategy requires the decision of just one firm, but in the case of M&A, two businesses decide on the issue. But it could be more than that.
The effects of merger deals goes deeper than company management level, it reaches down to the smallest employee, to the streets, and to the courts. This paper does not contradict the observation that US merger deals are on the rise and transforming everything in its path; rather, this paper will reinforce it by elaborating on the nature of this “business face-lift”. In general, this paper aims to make a clear impression to the reader regarding the validity of the statement that M&A activities transform the way that U.S. firms are doing business, and that it motivates top management to rethink their business strategies.
Purpose of the Study
Revolutionary business principles are considered regular news in today’s trade environment. Some might say there’s no reason to get all excited. Some might say these are just fads that will wear off in time, or if it won’t, everybody’s going to get used to it, adapt, and will take it for granted. So when opinions say that this one is different, the question “how so?” needs to be cleared up. For this paper, the specific questions to be answered are:
- What is the magnitude of the merger wave?
- For some of these firms who did engage in M&A deals, what was the result for the company? For the employees?
- When does the impact manifest? Upon announcement? After closing the deal? Or both?
- How did the laws on business changed to accommodate any issues from those actual and expected results?
The overall purpose of the paper can be realized through the following sub-objectives:
1. Provide statistical data that shows the magnitude of the merger and acquisition practices in the US
2. Present details of some well known merger and acquisition deals, preferably, by large companies that have been around for many years.
3. Trace the changes in US laws related to merger and acquisition activities. In relation to this objective, the influence of M&A situation/results on the amendments or creation of new laws regarding mergers and acquisition will be investigated.
4. Present details of some examples of how merger laws are being enforced.
Importance of the Study
M&A cannot be taken for granted. It is not like those simple “projects” that a firm may launch in order to change some aspect of the business for improvement. It is not like a TQM approach where significant changes could be seen in company service and output, and yet, the firm stays basically the same. It is different from business process reengineering where the hierarchy, structure and core operation were modified but the company retain its identity. M&A will not be defined in this section, but it is worth pointing out that it requires a lot of adaptation from everyone connected to the company, it involves a lot of risk, and sacrifices, and thus, the study of how it makes life different for everyone involved is very important in deciding whether it’s all worth it in its current state.
This is a controversial concept, and as such, there is no uniform opinion, but instead, a diversity of perspectives. Like other revolutionary business strategy, the advantages and disadvantages of M&A activities are subject of debate. It is therefore important that arguments that supports and arguments that criticize M&A activities are presented to ensure that balance of view is maintained and prejudice is eliminated.
Scope of the Study
The scope of this paper covers the common questionable business practices, but since M&A activities are more numerous, financially significant, and popular, it is expected that more focus would be given on merger and acquisition details. This paper would concentrate on the actual application of M&A and less on the theoretical description and analysis of principles. This paper will not devote a full section on how it stated, nor discuss intensively the evolution of M&A. This paper will discuss the way that organizations evolved, but the development and stages of the process will not be traced out.
In the legal matters, the area of concern is the effect of M&A deals on the state of business laws, and not the other way around. Although the business laws control and regulate the execution of M&A transactions, the purpose of this paper is to show the way that M&A changes things, and not the way that M&A trends are being affected by external factors. In this regard, no in-depth analysis of theoretical explanation for the rise (and/or fall) in M&A transaction would be presented.
Rationale of the Study
The issue of merger and acquisition in the US is a relevant subject to be discussed, not only due to the sheer volume of M&A transactions, but also due to the nature of the reverberations that occur after such transactions are completed. The media attention that big merger plans attracts tells us of the significance of this study. In recent business literatures, it is very likely that a section would be devoted to discussion of merger and acquisition practices. The M&A concept is not a management concern only. Employees and consumers are likewise affected, thus a need for a closer look at the intricacies of the M&A issue exists.
There are times that M&A activities are categorized as questionable business practice. It may not always mean negative, but the term “questionable” gives merger and acquisition the impression of being a strategy that needs more thought and analysis before implementing. After all, humanity tends to be a moral individual and thus there are things considered as more valuable than mere financial advantage.
Definition of Terms
· ACQUISITION
Acquisition has a similarity and difference from merger transactions. They are both a business process that involves two organizations. They both result in a single organization after the transaction is completed. However, in acquisition, one of the involved parties buys out the other firm, and absorbs it. The purchased company will no longer be recognized as an independent or individual company. The absorbed company will be a part of the buying firm, a subsidiary of the latter.
· ANTI-TRUST LAWS
These are series of U.S. laws in trade and commerce regulation, designed to enhance business competition and to protect public interest by restricting monopolies in business. As the name implies, these laws oppose “trust” (see definition of trust), more commonly known today as “cartel”.
· BUNDLING
Pure bundling involves selling two products together, that is, neither of the two products is available to be purchased alone. It may also be set that the bundled product can only be purchased in particular proportion to each other. In mixed bundling, both product may be sold individually but at a higher price than if they were part of the bundle.
· CARTEL
Cartel is a group of business organizations united for a common cause: to regulate the price and production quantity of the goods offered by the members in order to control the market against other non-member competitors.
· CELLER-KEFAUVER ANTIMERGER ACT
Passed in 1950, the Celler-Kefauver Act amended the Clayton Act of 1914. The purpose of the act is to prohibit a firm from acquiring the assets of its competitor if it would result in competition reduction.
· CLAYTON ACT
Enacted in 1914, the Clayton Act is an amendment to the Sherman Anti-trust Act. It added provisions for addressing four specific business issues: price discrimination, tying contracts, inter-corporate stockholding, and interlocking directorates (Martin, 1959, p. 3.
· CONGLOMERATE MERGER
Conglomerate merger involves the merger between two firms which operates in unrelated industry, and are not competitors.
· EXCLUSIVITY
Synonymous with “tying transactions”, exclusivity refers to a term in contract which requires one party to deal exclusively with the other party with respect to a specific function.
· HORIZONTAL MERGER
It is a merger deal (see definition of merger) between two firms that are producing the same product or offering the same service.
· HOLDING COMPANY
A holding company is firm that has the ability to control and influence the operation of another company by possessing sufficient voting stocks in the latter.
· INTER-CORPORATE STOCKHOLDING
A practice in which one firm possesses stocks in another company and utilizes those stockholdings to control and limit the other firm’s competitiveness.
· INTERLOCKING DIRECTORATE
Interlocking directorate pertains to the relationship between two different company’s boards of director when some of the board members of one company also sit as members of the other company’s board of directors; thus raising the possibility that the two firms are not acting independently from each other.
· MERGER
Merger is similar to acquisition (see definition of acquisition) in that two firms combine and one entity remains at the end. They differ from each other in the sense that in merger, no party is considered dominant. Both firms agree on integrating their operation co-equally (, 2003, p. 215). By co-equally, it is implied that both the individual firm would be disassociated with their current identity and be identified with the resulting union.
· MONOPOLY
A monopoly exists when a firm possesses the whole or almost whole of the market for a particular service or product due to the absence of competitor or severely restricted competition.
· MULTI-HOME
It refers to consumers’ attitude by which they do not look at a single source nor settle for a single brand (or platform) for services or goods that they need.
· OLIGOPOLY
It is a business situation where a market is controlled by more than one firm (as opposed to monopoly), but still few enough so that a business move by any one of them could have a very significant impact on the other competitors.
· PRICE DISCRIMINATION
Price discrimination is a practice by which a vendor assigns a different price for the same goods depending on who is buying the goods.
· ROBINSON-PATMAN ACT
Robinson-Patman act was a statute passed in 1936 to amend the Clayton Act of 1914. It prohibits all sellers or suppliers to sell the same goods to different purchasers at unequal prices (see definition of price discrimination) if it results in stifling of competition.
· SHERMAN ANTI-TRUST ACT
First among the series of anti trust laws, it was passed by the US Congress in 1890 to prevent economic power from being concentrated in large corporations, as well as restrict the execution of other questionable contracts which restrains trade or commerce (, 2004, p. 43512).
· TRUST
Trust refers to corporate monopolies in the late nineteenth century. The term was derived from the word trusteeship, wherein industry control is being maintained by mutual agreement between industry giants to fix the prices and production outputs. The modern form of this concept is the “cartel”.
· TYING
A practice by which a customer, in order to buy a particular product, is required to buy another product.
· TYING CONTRACTS
Also called exclusive dealing contracts or exclusivity, this refers to a deal wherein a vendor, agrees to sell goods or offer other incentives, on the condition that the buyer will cease doing transactions with the vendor’s competitors.
· VERTICAL MERGER
It is a merger deal (see definition of merger) where in the two firms involved, one is the supplier and the other is the customer prior to merging.
CHAPTER 2: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
The area of business management is a well developed field of industry. New business phenomenon undergoes a wait-and-see period, after which the reaction of the market becomes predictable enough to make conclusions and logical inferences. These observations become standard and anyone interested may refer to them at anytime, given that information is now readily stored and distributed, thanks to the modern times. For any business aspect of interest, related literatures are sure to exist.
This paper tackles a delicate subject which requires the inclusion of contemporary ideas in order to reinforce objectivity and reliability. Relevant papers were searched to look deeper into the nature of anti-trust laws, which governs the whole process of M&A and other business practice. Business literatures that provide an overview of M&A practices were also cited. Even though M&A activities takes more of the limelight than other questionable business practices, it is also important to refer on other sources that touches the latter concept. Authors have written about the application of the law regarding M&A practices, and some of their works are included here, as well as opinions on the impact of M&A deals.
Overview of the Anti-Trust Laws
Prior to the enactment of the Anti-trust laws, there were existing statutes and common laws that governs business but due to conflicts in interpretation, the inability to regulate business organization in a national scope, and the uneasiness of the people towards the concentration of economic power, the Sherman Anti-trust act was enacted on July 2, 1890 (, 1929, p. 26). This was the first federal action against formation of business monopolies and trusts that threatens the fairness of trade. Trusteeship refers to the practice by which firms group together and agree to set a standard, controlled price among them selves.
The book “Merger and the Law” was a result of the investigation conducted by the National Industrial Conference Board to study the relationship between the Anti-trust act and business conduct. It was an old publication but relevant since it provides first-hand insights about the early years of the anti-trust laws. The book describes the Sherman Anti-trust act as flexible since Congress used common-law terms in defining the policy, allowing a variety of practices to fit into the general prohibited business methods: trade agreements, predatory business practices, and corporate mergers (., 1929, p. 27). The book pointed out that several more legislation followed which in one way or another, affects the anti-trust laws’ applicability (., p. 101). Among them was the Clayton Act.
The Clayton Act of 1914 was an amendment to the Sherman Act. After the Sherman Act, the concept of holding company replaced the practice of combination by trust (, 1959, p. 4). However, the new provisions in the Clayton Act were not solely for the purpose of addressing merger issues, but for prevention of the negative consequences associated with intercorporate stockholding (., p. 20). In section VI of the Clayton Act, exemption of agricultural cooperative organization and trade unions from the anti-trust law (with limitation) was indicated (, 1929, p. 105).
Aside from the exemption, four sections of the Clayton Act proposed that four specific practices, which were (1) price discrimination, (2) exclusive dealing and tying contracts, (3) holding companies, and (4) interlocking directorates, be declared illegal (, 1959, p. 31). (1959, p. 7) noted that in a conference called out by the Civic Federation of Chicago in 1899, a legislation proposal very similar to the Clayton Act was presented. Still, a need to further strengthen the Clayton Act resulted to the passing of Robinson-Patman Act in 1936 and the Celler-Kefauver Act in 1950.
The Robinson-Patman Act was enacted to supplement the Clayton Act, and the main purpose is to prevent price discrimination when the intention of the seller is to create a monopoly or reduce the competition (, 2004, p. 40722). Selling the same product at different price to different buyers is considered illegal if no actual savings in cost is reflected, or if there is no valid need to compete with the lower price of a rival (, 1995, p. 164).
On December 29, 1950, the Celler-Kefauver Act was enacted. The change in the wordings of section 7 of the Clayton Act is the most significant modification by Celler-Kefauver amendment (, 1995, p.20). The change was necessary so that in addition to acquisition of intangible shares, purchasing the hard assets of the competitor may also be subject to the act. Ironically, instead of minimizing merger activities, another larger merger movement occurred within the period 1951 to 1968, following the enactment of the Celler-Kefauver Act (., p. 21).
Overview of M&A
Merger and acquisition has been clearly defined in the multitude of business literatures. From simple definitions, the literal meaning can be grasped, but a deeper appreciation of the concept was given by a journal article written by . He used the metaphor of “family” to illustrate the M&A experience (, 2004). In his metaphor, mergers were compared to marriage, acquisitions were likened to adoption, and businesses were associated with artificial life (.).
The comparison was sensible and logical. Like marriage, a straight merger is a combination of equals, two firms agreeing to enjoy equal privileges, make equal sacrifices, accept equal liability, and exercise equal control after they combine their companies. Under friendly terms, they may agree that one party may cease its existence (.) or both of them would leave previous identity and be identified as a new entity. Acquisition, like adoption, is not the joining of equals. One of the companies would assume a parent status to the adopted firm (.) This inequality is evident since the parent firm is usually a larger company than the adopted, and the acquired company becomes a mere subsidiary of the acquiring firm (.).
Overview of Other Questionable Business Practices
Mergers and acquisition takes more attention among other business practices that promotes or has the potential to promote monopoly and/or restraint of trade. Still, some business strategies pose enough threat to business fairness, that provisions in business laws had been initiated to address them. Some of the practices that will be discussed in this section include price discrimination, tying transactions, tying, and bundling. The reader should refer to the definition of terms for the said practices as additional information.
The variance in views of price discrimination was discussed in detail by s’ article “Teaching Price Discrimination”. The majority of literatures reviewed by the authors define price discrimination as a situation wherein a particular good is sold at a price that is not related to differences in production cost (, 1999, p. 466). The purpose of that article is to provide some suggestions as to how the concept of price discrimination should be taught to students in the face of the differences and inconsistencies of literatures that discuss it.
The inconsistencies are evident from the way that authors point out the existence of price discrimination. For example, (1998,p. 361) and (1997, p. 305) shows that the mere difference in price for an identical good by a particular vendor is enough to show price discrimination, while (1997) insist that it cannot be shown by price variance alone. In addition, believe that price discrimination is a phenomenon exclusively associated with monopoly, while (1999) observed that differential pricing can also be implemented by firms which has small market power, and thus it may exist in both oligopoly and monopoly.
Price discrimination had been classified into first, second and third degree ( 1997). It can be considered as first degree if the vendor sets the price of the good to the extent of the buyer’s willingness and ability to pay; Second degree involves different schemes of pricing by which consumers are induced to pay higher if they have high valuation; and the third degree occurs when the pricing varies according to consumer groups formed by difference in characteristics and traits (.). Although it is not always the case, the threat seen from price discrimination is due to the fact that it can be used extensively by monopolies since they are in a better position to control product price, and that it might be used to take advantage of the consumers..
“Tying transaction” is another business concept that has been viewed as an anti-competitive move. It has also been called by such terms as “exclusivity” and “exclusive deals”. Aside from pressuring the buyer of a good to refrain from buying the same from other manufacturers, firms exercising exclusivity may also prevent the customer from going to independent service operators providing after-sale services (, 2005).
Exclusivity may be achieved indirectly by other means, for example a manufacturing firm may refuse to communicate technical specifications to spare parts producers so that they will not be able to create compatible component (.) Tying, wherein consumers have to buy a “tied” product before it can buy a “tying” product, may also contribute to indirect exclusion of competition. There are factors that decide whether tying would result in minor impact to competition in the tied product or a major consequence to the point that competitors are totally excluded (.). These factors include 1) The tied product’s marginal production cost, 2) the ability of the rivals to implement vertical or horizontal differentiation in the tied product, and 3) consumers’ flexibility to multi-home. Related to tying is the concept of bundling, another innocuous practice that could easily be utilized to bring about a pseudo-monopoly effect.
The difference between pure bundling and tying is that pure bundled products cannot be bought separately, while the tied product in tying is available for individual purchase (.). Mixed bundling may allow the individual sale of the bundle components, but a sufficiently high price set for these individual components effectively simulates a pure bundle situation (, 2003). Bundling, after all cannot always be forced to a consumer, that is, a consumer may actually use the both the bundled goods or discard one. In this regard, bundling can be viewed as either contractual bundling or technological bundling. One may opt not to avail of the bundled goods in contractual bundling, but doing so in a technological bundle may cause one of the bundled goods to be unsatisfactory (.).
Like most common practices targeted by business laws, bundling have purposes which can be considered valid and some which falls into the questionable category (.). For example, if the object of bundling is to create artificial scale economies or to raise competitors’ cost, then it is questionable (.).
The Impact of M&A Activities
The Enforcement of Anti-trust Laws
CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY
Approach
Research, on the basis of objective, may be pure or applied. A pure research involves a new discovery; its main goal is to investigate and bring out a knowledge not known before. Clearly, that is not the case in this paper since the issues being tackled here have existed for a long time and has been the center of numerous studies before. Applied research pertains to the usage of existing research in order to develop, extend, and clarify the existing knowledge and applications. This paper would take the form of applied research.
Based on orientation of analysis, a research may be quantitative or qualitative. Quantitative research is more inclined to use statistical data, and strict research instruments. Qualitative research does not focus on using numbers and equations. It tends to be philosophical in orientation (, 1992, p.9). The qualitative approach will be adopted in this paper.
There are different ways that a research can be conducted, but the four major research methods are: Historical/Case Study Method, Descriptive Survey Method, Analytical Survey, and the Experimental Method. The research method that would be used for this paper is the Historical/Case Study method. It was defined as Yin defines the case study research method as an empirical investigation wherein a phenomenon is analyzed within the context of reality and actual events using different sources of evidence (, 1984, p. 23).Case study simplifies the understanding of complex issues by means of these actual examples.
Data Gathering Method
Instead of collecting new information through initiating a survey or questionnaire distribution, statistical data to be used in this paper would be retrieved from existing sources. It will not be feasible to initiate a new data collection method for a phenomenon that may take a long time to observe. As mentioned in the “Approach” section of this paper, this paper is an applied research and thus, previous reports and findings may be used to illustrate this paper’s main thought. In a way, the method used is similar to a meta-analysis. A meta-analysis research method refers to a process by which previous research findings were collected and analyzed, thus it was often called “analysis of analyses”. The similarity ends there since meta-analysis is more of a quantitative research, making use of mathematical formulas and numbers, while the case study approach used in this paper utilize interpretative analysis.
Numerous examples and observation has been done already and there is only a need to collect them and bring them together to accomplish a single aim: illustrate the complete metamorphosis in all aspect that firms deciding to join the M&A fray undergoes.
Database of the Study
The information and data required for analysis would be taken from academic journals, reference books, magazine articles, news clippings, and official statistical reports. Some of these literatures may be hard copies (print materials) or electronic versions from the web. For the case studies, the details are taken from existing accounts of the events instead of the researcher’s notes and observation because the aim is to collect as much illustrations/examples as possible, and it would be more feasible to study the past company experiences and business events rather than follow up a new ongoing situation.
Since this paper makes intensive use of case study methodology, the sample population is not as large as a sample that quantitative survey method requires. It is only required to choose the cases that portray M&A transactions at a wide variety of situations so that the interpretation and analysis of this database could be considered applicable to a broader scope of the topic.
Validity of Data
The information and statistical data obtained and presented in this paper can be considered reliable because great care is taken in the selection of sources. For printed materials, only academic books and journals were considered as authoritative sources. For references that came from the internet, editable sites (like ), forum, non-copyrighted contents, web contents that are being updated from time to time and sites that accepts open contribution were avoided to ensure that information are factual and opinions are significant.
Originality and Limitations of Study
Since this is an applied research, originality and uniqueness of this study is indeed a concern. A line must be drawn to separate which came from other’s view points and which is original. The cases and arguments presented here may have been reported by previous sources. For accuracy of details, data has to be taken from actual, reliable sources; however, the paper makes its own interpretation and analysis of the data. In cases where use of other opinions cannot be avoided, all efforts were made to cite them properly.
As mentioned before, the main method to be used in the analysis is gathering and presentation of examples and case studies. Despite the fact that these events may have been common knowledge to most, the outline and objective of this paper makes it somewhat unique from some previous studies. Since this paper aims to collect and integrate the findings of individual cases, the inclusion of different examples with similar thought (and even those with conflicting ideas) promotes diversity in point of view so that a more objective and unbiased conclusion can be made. The usual aim of previous reports of individual cases illustrates a single point, whereas here in this paper, the collective ideas will reinforce the point.
It is admitted that diversity of data may be limited by unreported merger events. There may be M&A activities not given much publicity because the transaction value may not be high enough or the participant not prestigious enough to attract attention. On one side, this may make it easier for readers to relate with such examples if they recognize the companies involved. However, it is better to provide examples that cover a broader field, from small organizations to the largest, in order that analysis and conclusion may be generalized confidently.
CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS
Under construction………..
The exact instructions for this section is as follows……
To be properly formatted and meet existing requirements Chapter 4 must include the following:
Heading: Chapter 4: Data Analysis
Subheadings: none required
Content Requirements – Bachelor of Science
In Chapter 4 of the final paper, students will need to present an overview of their analysis including such items as factors that can limit the data, where possible omissions/errors could occur and the reliability of the data. In addition, any significant findings should be presented without discussion of the conclusions drawn. Chapter 4 must be written in such a way that there is no use of first person, the findings are completely objective (focused on fact and devoid of subjectivity) and the findings presented must be accurate, unbiased and exclusive of trivia. Students should view this chapter as a specific analysis of all data required for the summary and conclusion in Chapter 5
CHAPTER 5: SUMMARY, RECOMMENDATIONS
AND CONCLUSIONS
Under construction………..
The specific instruction for this section is as follows…………
Format Requirements
To be properly formatted and meet existing requirements Chapter 5 must include the following:
Heading: Chapter 5: Summary, Conclusions and Recommendations
Subheadings: none required
Content Requirements – Bachelor of Science
Chapter 5 of the final paper will consist of summaries and conclusions as well as the proposed recommendations for resolution. The results should not be generalized or interpreted beyond that which the data supports. Students should view Chapter 5 as the answer to the problem statement set forth in Chapter 1. Students need to seriously consider and answer all of the following questions in Chapter 5.
Does the study support or reject the hypothesis?
Does the study support or contradict previous research?
Is the study conclusive or is further research needed?
What are the implications of this research to the discipline?
Should relative practices be redefined?
Do the findings support or reject the hypothesis?
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com
0 comments:
Post a Comment