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Extant studies have focused on conceptualizing and measuring the general quality of the institutions and their impact on an array of firms’ strategies. We distinguish two dimensions of institutional inefficiencies in a host country – generalized and arbitrary – and theorize from a knowledge perspective their impact on the acquirers’ ownership decisions in cross-border acquisitions (CBAs). Our empirical examination of 5522 CBAs by firms entering emerging economies reveals that, when exposed to a higher level of host-country generalized institutional inefficiencies, the acquirer tends to take a lower ownership in a CBA. When exposed to higher levels of arbitrary institutional inefficiencies, however, the acquirer tends to take a higher ownership in a CBA. We further find that these relationships are contingent upon the acquirer’s experience in the host region and technological nature.

Business enterprises lie at the core of ecosystems that drive economic development and growth in market economies; yet, until recently, mainstream economics has mostly treated firms like homogeneous black boxes run by opportunistic managers. The field of strategic management has developed a more nuanced approach to the understanding of how firms are created, organized and grow, how they innovate and compete and how managers manage. One of the leading paradigms in the field is the dynamic capabilities framework. In this paper, contrasts and complementarities are drawn between dynamic capabilities and economic theories of the firm, including transaction cost economics and agency theory. Connections to the Cambridge school are highlighted, including the duality between Keynes's 'animal spirits' and the dynamic capabilities entrepreneurial owner/manager. Leibenstein's x-inefficiency is juxtaposed here with d-ineffectiveness. Knowledge-based theories of the firm consistent with Cambridge conventions emerge. Intellectual exchange between strategic management and economics is encouraged to help improve the intuition behind models of firms and the economy.

Drawing on institutional and signaling theories, this study examines how environmental corporate social responsibility (ECSR) affects firm performance in a dysfunctional institutional environment. We extend the ECSR literature by suggesting that ECSR indirectly influences firm performance through the mediating effects of business and political legitimacy. Based on a dataset of 238 firms in China, we find that ECSR affects business and political legitimacy followed by firm performance. Moreover, legal incompleteness weakens and legal inefficiency strengthens the effects of ECSR on business and political legitimacy.

Unexplained exertional dyspnoea or fatigue can arise from a number of underlying disorders and shows only a weak correlation with resting functional or imaging tests. Noninvasive cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) offers a unique, but still under-utilised and unrecognised, opportunity to study cardiopulmonary and metabolic changes simultaneously. CPET can distinguish between a normal and an abnormal exercise response and usually identifies which of multiple pathophysiological conditions alone or in combination is the leading cause of exercise intolerance. Therefore, it improves diagnostic accuracy and patient health care by directing more targeted diagnostics and facilitating treatment decisions. Consequently, CPET should be one of the early tests used to assess exercise intolerance. However, this test requires specific knowledge and there is still a major information gap for those physicians primarily interested in learning how to systematically analyse and interpret CPET findings. This article describes the underlying principles of exercise physiology and provides a practical guide to performing CPET and interpreting the results in adults.

Objective: The main aim of this paper is to highlight the principal-agent tensions that are associated with mismanagement, inefficiency and corruption in State-owned entities (SOEs)and Privately-owned entities (POEs). Mismanagement, inefficiency and corruption are some of the key factors that lead to energy crisis in Nigeria and South Africa. Policy reforms in Nigeria and South Africa have been drafted and passed yet, the two states are still experiencing energy crisis. In addition, these issues of mismanagement, inefficiency and corruption affect both SOE’s and POE’s ability to discharge their services. Hence the need to undertake the study.   Theoretical Framework: The paper relies on the principal-agency theory to understand the inefficiency, mismanagement, and corruption of SOEs and POEs in South Africa and Nigeria.   Design/Methodology/Approach: The paper employed a qualitative research method through books, journal articles and institutional reports to examine the principal-agency theory and policy reforms in both SOEs and POEs.   Findings: The paper findings relate to political interference, racialised, othered energy poverty and private interests for self-enrichment in POEs and SOEs are the centre of principal-agent tensions which lead to the inefficiency of these institutions.   Research Implications: The paper provides insights that good governance, anti-corruption, infrastructural development, and sustainable development (policy formulation and implementation) are key to attain sustainable energy supply in SOEs and POEs. Similarly, energy racism, infrastructure degradation, and political intervention needs to be addressed to attain sustainable energy supply.   Originality/Value: The paper deduced that South African and Nigerian SOEs have taken significant measures toward sustainable energy supply. In addition, the vast existing literature has proven that SOEs and POEs do not significantly differ in management and operations. Therefore, privatisation does not necessarily mean that the entity will function efficiently.

Many real matching markets are subject to distributional constraints. These constraints often take the form of restrictions on the numbers of agents on one side of the market matched to certain subsets on the other side. Real-life examples include restrictions on regions in medical matching, academic master's programs in graduate admission, and state-financed seats for college admission. Motivated by these markets, we study design of matching mechanisms under distributional constraints. We show that existing matching mechanisms suffer from inefficiency and instability, and propose a mechanism that is better in terms of efficiency, stability, and incentives while respecting the distributional constraints.

Abstract Rationale Several studies in mild chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) have shown a higher than normal ventilatory equivalent for carbon dioxide (V.  e/V.  co2) during exercise. Our objective was to examine pulmonary gas exchange abnormalities and the mechanisms of high V.  e/V.  co2 in mild COPD and its impact on dyspnea and exercise intolerance. Methods Twenty-two subjects (11 patients with GOLD [Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease] grade 1B COPD, 11 age-matched healthy control subjects) undertook physiological testing and a symptom-limited incremental cycle exercise test with arterial blood gas collection. Measurements and Main Results Patients (post-bronchodilator FEV1: 94 ± 10% predicted; mean ± SD) had evidence of peripheral airway dysfunction and reduced peak oxygen uptake compared with control subjects (80 ± 18 vs. 113 ± 24% predicted; P < 0.05). Arterial blood gases were within the normal range and effective alveolar ventilation was not significantly different from control subjects throughout exercise. The alveolar–arterial O2 tension gradient was elevated at rest and throughout exercise in COPD (P < 0.05). V.  e/V.  co2, dead space to tidal volume ratio (Vd/Vt), and arterial to end-tidal CO2 difference were all higher (P < 0.05) in patients with COPD than in control subjects during exercise. In patients with COPD versus control subjects, there was significant dynamic hyperinflation and greater tidal volume constraints (P < 0.05). Standardized dyspnea intensity ratings were also higher (P < 0.05) in patients with COPD versus control subjects in association with higher ventilatory requirements. Within all subjects, Vd/Vt correlated with the V.  e/V.  co2 ratio during submaximal exercise (r = 0.780, P < 0.001). Conclusions High Vd/Vt was the most consistent gas exchange abnormality in smokers with only mild spirometric abnormalities. Compensatory increases in minute ventilation during exercise maintained alveolar ventilation and arterial blood gas homeostasis but at the expense of earlier dynamic mechanical constraints, greater dyspnea, and exercise intolerance in mild COPD.

The relationship between farm size and production cost, especially inefficiency cost, has been a hotly debated topic for decades, but no general conclusion has been reached. This subject has particularly important implications for agricultural policies in China, which is in the course of rapid structural change. We decompose the production cost into frontier cost, technical inefficiency cost and allocative inefficiency cost with a primal system approach, and we demonstrate that technical inefficiency cost increases but allocative inefficiency cost decreases as farm size increases. In addition, large-scale farms gain the overall cost advantage due to their lower allocative inefficiency cost. We also find that a minimum purchase price higher than all farm costs impedes the enhancement of scale and masks the competitiveness of China. Moreover, the determinants of inefficiency costs imply that region-specific market imperfection holds a considerable explanatory power for the allocative inefficiency costs.

This paper proposes a dynamic multidirectional inefficiency analysis approach within the context of Data Envelopment Analysis to measuring input-and investment-specific managerial and program inefficiency for groups of firms characterized by different technologies. Dynamic managerial inefficiency refers to the distance to the firms’ group-specific dynamic frontier of best practices, and dynamic program inefficiency measures the difference between the group-specific dynamic frontier and the pooled dynamic frontier. The empirical application focuses on panel data of large meat processing firms in Eastern, Western and Southern Europe over the period 2005–2012. The results show that Eastern European firms have the highest dynamic managerial inefficiency for all inputs, but have the smallest values for dynamic program inefficiency. Western European firms perform worst in terms of program inefficiency for all inputs, while Southern European firms are the best with regard to dynamic managerial inefficiency. The results also reveal that regardless the dynamic inefficiency dimension considered, investments is the most inefficient input, followed by labor, and materials.