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

Antonios Siganos () and Isaac T. Tabner ()
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Antonios Siganos: University of Glasgow
Isaac T. Tabner: University of Stirling

Journal of International Business Studies, 2020, vol. 51, issue 2, No 6, 263-273

Abstract: 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.

Keywords: Eurovision Song Contest; societal affinity; cross-border mergers (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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DOI: 10.1057/s41267-019-00271-3

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