Capturing the role of societal affinity in cross-border mergers with the Eurovision Song Contest

Siganos, A. and Tabner, I. T. (2020) Capturing the role of societal affinity in cross-border mergers with the Eurovision Song Contest. Journal of International Business Studies, 51, pp. 263-273. (doi: 10.1057/s41267-019-00271-3)

Abstract

This paper demonstrates the effectiveness of voting bias in the Eurovision Song Contest as a means of capturing societal affinity. More than 180 million viewers from more than 40 countries watch the Eurovision Song Contest every year and vote for their favorite songs. Societal affinity between participating countries leads to systematic bias in voting patterns as each song represents a country. Using cross-border mergers as a proxy for international business exchanges, we demonstrate how voting bias provides a simple, freely available, and dynamic means of capturing societal affinity between countries that complements other metrics of affinity and distance.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Tabner, Dr Isaac and Siganos, Professor Antonios
• Authors: Siganos, A., and Tabner, I. T.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > Adam Smith Business School > Accounting and Finance
• Journal Name: Journal of International Business Studies
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• ISSN: 0047-2506
• ISSN (Online): 1478-6990
• Published Online: 22 October 2019
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2019 Academy of International Business
• First Published: First published in Journal of International Business Studies 51:263-273
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher