2011 Awards for Excellence

Article Type: 2011 Awards for Excellence From: Journal of Strategy and Management, Volume 5, Issue 1

The following article was selected for this year's Outstanding Paper Award for Journal of Strategy and Management

"Performance effects of corporate divestiture programs''

Matthias Brauer, Markus SchimmerInstitute of Management, University of St Gallen, St Gallen, Switzerland

Purpose - The paper aims at extending extant research on sources of divestiture gains by suggesting a novel program-based perspective on divestitures and analyzing the performance of program divestitures in comparison to single ``stand-alone'' divestitures.Design/methodology/approach- Based on event study methodology, the authors analyze the abnormal returns of 160 divestiture announcements within the global insurance industry between 1998 and 2007. In contrast to prior research which relied on ex post statistical clustering to identify transaction programs, ad hoc corporate press releases issued with the divestiture announcements are used to categorize program divestitures.Findings - Empirical results suggest that program divestitures generate higher abnormal returns than stand-alone divestitures. Further analyses into the sources for these higher gains, however,do not provide support for experience effects as significant explanatory factors. Instead, results suggest that the scheduling of divestitures significantly impacts announcement returns.Research limitations/implications - The scope and single industry setting of the study suggest future cross-industry research on the influence of divestiture program characteristics on divestiture performance and the conditions under which these programs improve divestiture performance.Practical implications - Managers are advised to refrain from piecemeal divestiture behavior lacking clear strategic focus. Instead, they are encouraged to bundle their divestitures as part of a divestiture program with a clear strategic intent and shared business logic.Originality/value- While prior research on divestitures has treated divestitures as isolated events, the paper directs attention towards the analysis of divestiture programs. Further, experience and timing effects, which have been widely absent from prior divestiture studies, are considered.Keywords Insurance companies, Divestment, Strategic managementwww.emeraldinsight.com/10.1108/17554251011041760

This article originally appeared in Volume 3 Number 2, 2010, pp. 84-109, Journal of Strategy and Management

The following articles were selected for this year's Highly Commended Award

"Management perspectives of high technology strategic alliance outcomes''

Thomas L. Powers, Rachel C. Wilson

This article originally appeared in Volume 3 Number 1, 2010, Journal of Strategy and Management

"Business cycle management and firm performance: tying the empirical knot''

Peter Navarro, Philip Bromiley, Pedro Sottile

This article originally appeared in Volume 3 Number 1, 2010, Journal of Strategy and Management

"The black and white and grey of strategy''

Andrew Campbell, Phil Renshaw, Staffan Engstrom

This article originally appeared in Volume 3 Number 4, 2010, Journal of Strategy and Management

Outstanding Reviewer

Dr Mujtaba AhsanPittsburg State University, USA