Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to examine the post-merger operating performance of acquiring companies involved in merger activities during the period 1999-2002 in India. It attempts to identify synergies, if any, resulting from mergers. Design/methodology/approach -This paper uses the operating performance approach, which compares the pre-merger and post-merger performance of companies using accounting data to examine merger related gains to the acquiring firms. Findings -It is found that the post-merger profitability, assets turnover and solvency of the acquiring companies, on average, show no improvement when compared with pre-merger values. So it seems that, contrary to common beliefs and expectations, mergers usually do not lead to improve the acquirer's financial performance.Research limitations/implications -Further studies may develop some alternate measures of merger-related gains as financial measures have limitations to capture the full impact of merger on corporate performance. Moreover, a study providing detail insights into the reasons and patterns of post-merger corporate performance across the types of mergers and industry would be useful. Practical implications -The results show that mergers are not aimed at maximizing wealth of owners. This result suggests the need for managers to better focus on post-merger integration issues in order to create merger-induced synergies, rather than simply acquiring bigger size and achieve hidden objectives. Originality/value -The value of this research is its extension of the mergers and acquisitions performance research, which has been conducted on mostly American and European firms, to Indian firms.

This study examines the impact of firms' environmental, social and governance (ESG) initiatives on financial performance. It also compares the valuation effects of corporate social performance initiatives in developed and emerging market firms. The study was based on ESG ranking scores in the Thomson Reuters database, and the sample comprised 1317 emerging market firms and 3569 developed market firms. In comparison with developed market firms, emerging market firms had higher ESG combined scores, ESG Controversy scores, category scores of resources use, workforce, human rights and corporate social responsibility strategy scores. This study finds that stakeholder initiatives positively impact valuation effects, based on all sample results. Firm-generated controversies may decrease valuation effects in the stock market. Results indicated that ESG initiatives have a significant positive to the firm performance. The presence of independent board members and ownership by investors is a positive determinant for value creation. The adoption of best practice corporate governance principles is an important determinant of the valuation of firms. Firms' propensity to use defence mechanisms decreases valuation effects. Developed market firms received positive valuation effects due to ESG initiatives.Sustainability 2020, 12, 26 2 of 21 pollution abatement, which would lead to value creation in the form of improved productivity, corporate reputation and market share. The stakeholder theory assumes much significance to define the appropriate casual relationships between CSP and CFP [4,5]. The trade-off hypothesis indicates that resource allocation aimed at achieving social goals may add to the costs for the firms and prevent profit maximisation. Traditional theorists indicated that CSP and CFP are negatively related [6,7].In a modern context, firms must focus on profitability, growth potential and social relationships to emerge successful [8,9]. A social relationship reflects a firm's diverse commitment to its stakeholders other than profitability and growth potential. It encompasses diverse relationships, such as social, governance and environmental initiatives. The firm's investment in socially responsible behaviour, such as investments directed towards pollution reduction efforts or energy saving technologies, positively impacts financial performance.The principles of CSR indicated that firms have moral obligations towards society, which are beyond the concept of profit maximisation [10]. Firms create environmental costs through their business operations and are responsible for alleviating these problems [11]. Firms' socially responsible actions can serve business interests and enhance financial performance [12,13].Social responsibility has great significance and relevance in academia and business management. About 50% of the global institutional asset base was managed by Principles for Responsible Investment signatories, demonstrating the commitment of financial markets towards the adoption of ESG criteria for investment de...

This study examines the effect of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) activities on firm performance of 4,887 global companies. Mean difference test shows that firms with a high level of ESG activities are different from their low-ESG counterparts. The two-stage least square results suggest that ESG activities on (a) the welfare for internal stakeholders and best corporate governance practices are beneficial for firm performance and (b) antitakeover mechanisms (pollution control) adopted by firms are negatively (positively) valued by market players. Overall, this is the first study to examine the effects of ESG on the market-based and accounting-based performance of global firms.

Brayton heat engine model is developed in MATLAB simulink environment and thermodynamic optimization based on finite time thermodynamic analysis along with multiple criteria is implemented. The proposed work investigates optimal values of various decision variables that simultaneously optimize power output, thermal efficiency and ecological function using evolutionary algorithm based on NSGA-II. Pareto optimal frontier between triple and dual objectives is obtained and best optimal value is selected using Fuzzy, TOPSIS, LINMAP and Shannon's entropy decision making methods. Triple objective evolutionary approach applied to the proposed model gives power output, thermal efficiency, ecological function as (53.89 kW, 0.1611, À142 kW) which are 29.78%, 25.86% and 21.13% lower in comparison with reversible system. Furthermore, the present study reflects the effect of various heat capacitance rates and component efficiencies on triple objectives in graphical custom. Finally, with the aim of error investigation, average and maximum errors of obtained results are computed. Ó 2015 Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams University. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

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