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

Siganos, Antonios; Tabner, Isaac T.

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.

Citation

Siganos, A., & 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(2), 263-273. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41267-019-00271-3

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 27, 2019
• Online Publication Date: Oct 22, 2019
• Publication Date: 2020-03
• Deposit Date: Jul 6, 2021
• Journal: Journal of International Business Studies
• Print ISSN: 0047-2506
• Electronic ISSN: 1478-6990
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 51
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 263-273
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41267-019-00271-3
• Keywords: Eurovision Song Contest, societal affinity, cross-border mergers
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/2785027