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In this paper, we hypothesize that acquisitions undertaken during low market cycles will exhibit better performance than other acquisitions for two key reasons: lower likelihood of overpayment due to hubris and ease in implementing restructuring initiatives such as retrenchment. We define performance as the cumulative abnormal returns surrounding the acquisition event and deploy a trend-based measure for market cycle. Based on an analysis of 115 acquisitions by Singapore firms between 1990 and 1999, we find strong support for the hypothesized relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic reform in China has attracted growing attention from around the world owing to its significance for theory and practice. What has been largely missing in the literature is the temporal dimension, i.e., the changes over time in key variables such as organizational environment, firm strategic adaptations, and the performance implications. In this study, we investigate environment and strategic adaptations 12 years after Tan and Litschert examined these issues in 1990. Following a staged model, the study found that (1) organizational environment and firm strategic adaptations have co-evolved over time, (2) a new configuration has emerged and is related to improved performance, and (3) such a relationship is moderated by the stage during transition in which firms were founded. Specifically, firms founded since 1990 are more proactive and innovative than firms that had existed in the previous stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A model of cultural control is developed and contrasted with the more familiar bureaucratic control model. This model is used to explain processes of strategic adaptation as observed in Japanese cultural control and American bureaucratic control firms. A discussion of the strategic costs and benefits to the organization associated with each type of control is then presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]