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Purpose What determines the level of acquisition premium? This paper aims to investigate the effect of acquirers’ social capital as reflected through their network position (structural holes and network density) on the level of acquisition premiums. Design/methodology/approach This study predicts acquisition premiums using a panel data set of 324 mergers and acquisition (M&A) transactions including 161 unique acquirers over a 21-year timeframe. M&A and alliance information are obtained from the securities data company platinum database; firm financial data are obtained from the COMPUSTAT database. Findings The results show that alliance network social capital provides acquiring firms with information benefits, thus, reducing the acquisition premium. However, such information benefits are also contingent on target valuation uncertainty and acquirers’ structure exploitation tendency. Practical implications Different types of network structures provide different social capital influences: managers should be aware of their advantages and pitfalls when engaging in M&As. The findings suggest that firms should pay close attention to social capital when making decisions regarding acquisition premiums. Originality/value Past research has indicated that acquiring firms tend to overestimate the value of target firms. Still, little attention has been paid to organizational-level social capital in analyzing the determinants of acquisition premiums. This study offers insight into the effect of network structure on M&A acquisition premiums.

Purpose The social media industry has entered a new stage with intensifying competition and heightened uncertainty about future directions. The purpose of this paper is to provide analyses of the current challenges and to identify industry-wide trends that may offer a roadmap for the future. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on publicly available key performance metrics, company reports and press reports, this paper offers critical analyses of the challenges facing the major social media platforms and new trends in the social media industry. Findings This study identified five major trends in the current social media industry: 1) content is king, and that content is moving to visual; 2) artificial intelligence is key to competitive advantage; 3) network effects still matter, but business model innovation can overcome that barrier; 4) the need to broaden revenue sources; and 5) the strive for the everything app. In this changing environment, social media companies need to adapt and innovate their business models proactively to stay ahead. Originality/value This paper not only sheds light on the current challenges of individual social media platforms but also identifies industry-wide trends that may apply across all platforms. Taken together, these insights paint a comprehensive picture of the current industry landscape, as well as offer clues about its future directions.

Purpose Past research on transactive memory systems (TMS) often treated the focal team as an isolated entity. Previous literature overlooked two aspects of TMS: its existence beyond the boundaries of the focal team (further referred to as out-group TMS) and the way the out-group TMS helps teams adapt and remain effective when the circumstances change. This study aims to fill this gap by exploring the overlooked aspects of TMS on the dynamics of team effectiveness. Design/methodology/approach This study adopts a theoretical perspective and proposes two sets of propositions. First set explores the overlooked construct of out-group TMS and defines the boundaries of its applicability by building on Lewis’ (2003) dimensions of TMS. Second set explores ways in which out-group TMS can combine with in-group TMS to enable higher team effectiveness in fast-paced settings facing uncertainty and change. Findings The study’s conceptual perspective builds the grounds for improving scholars’ understanding of the drivers of team effectiveness in relation to the locus of TMS. The study investigates ways to combine in-group and out-group TMS and conceptually discusses their effects on team effectiveness: a mediation, an interaction and an additive model. The investigation concludes that out-group TMS plays a critical role and that overlooking its impact can be devastating for organizations in fast-paced environments. Originality/value This study unveils the unique and previously underexplored dynamics of transactive memory in teams with looser boundaries. Further, it extends scholars’ understanding of team cognition in contemporary, fast-paced business environments.

PurposeThis study examines what motivates firms to go and remain abroad despite uncertain profit potential. In a departure from probing traditional market-seeking, profit-driven motives, the authors explore how domestically driven, sociocultural motivations may shape the foreign market entry decisions of Korean commercial banks (KCBs). The authors argue that, due to the power imbalance between KCBs and their chaebol clients within the historical and cultural contexts of their relationships, KCBs' foreign market entries may depend more on their clients' presence in these markets than on their profit potential.Design/methodology/approachThe authors focus on the foreign market entries of KCBs and their client firms. Using the data of 8 KCBs and their client firms belonging to the 60 business groups (chaebols) of Korea, the authors analyze 6,577 observations involving the dyadic relationship between a KCB and its client firm in 15 host countries from 2005 to 2014.FindingsThe authors find that the number of clients' subsidiaries operating in foreign markets may increase the likelihood of KCBs entering these markets. Moreover, when KCBs earn more domestic profit from client firms, the potential Korean market in the host country is greater, and the institutional distance between the host country and Korea is smaller.Practical implicationsIn addition to the critical role of a bank-centered financing system in advancing a developing country and its firms, the authors’ findings suggest that firms should pay attention to the local diaspora and the institutional distance between the host and home countries in order to manage power-imbalanced relationships and make them sustainable.Originality/valueThe study contributes to the literature on foreign market entry by demonstrating how the home country's sociocultural factors may worsen the power imbalance, thereby pushing firms to make seemingly irrational decisions to go and stay abroad. That is, KCBs' foreign operations may be a way of seeking relational benefits with client firms, which would serve as a source of long-term domestic market profits. The authors’ findings thus highlight the need to consider how sociocultural factors may also shape firms' decision-making in their international business.