绿色创新能否助力中国企业跨国并购?:组织合法性视角

Does Green Innovation Promote the Completion of Cross-Border Mergers and Acquisitions by Chinese Firms:An Organizational Legitimacy Perspective

随着世界各国对节能减碳关注度的不断提升,绿色创新作为企业可持续发展的重要实践,能否提升中国企业跨国并购成功率,进而实现高质量走出去值得关注。文章从合法性视角出发,基于中国上市企业跨国并购数据,讨论了绿色创新对企业跨国并购实现的影响。研究发现,绿色创新作为一种合法性获取策略,改变了东道国对于中国企业并购行为的推理,缓解了东道国对并购交易的合法性担忧,提升了跨国并购的成功率。机制分析发现,绿色创新通过提升企业社会责任绩效,进而促进跨国并购交易顺利完成。当企业承受的合法性压力不同时,绿色创新作为合法性获取策略的实施效果也有所不同。具体地,当东道国为发达国家,并购方为重污染行业,并购方未通过质量认证或分析师关注度较低时,绿色创新对跨国并购成功率的正向影响增强。文章的研究结论不仅丰富了绿色创新与跨国并购的相关研究,深化了对合法性理论的理解,而且为中国企业应对国际绿色规则和确立绿色竞争优势提供了理论指导。

Considering the rising concern for energy saving and carbon reduction around the world,it is worthwhile to know whether green innovation,as an important practice of sustainable development,can increase the likelihood of cross-border M&A completion and realize high-quality development in the global market.From the legitimacy perspective,this paper collects data of crossborder M&As conducted by Chinese public-listed firms to study the role of green innovation in affecting cross-border M&A completion.Results show that,as an important part of legitimation strategy,green innovation can change the theorization by host country stakeholders and ease their legitimacy concerns of cross-border M&A transaction.Thus,green innovation can increase the likelihood of M&A completion.Moreover,a mechanism analysis demonstrates that green innovation affects M&A completion by improving corporate social responsibility.When firms are faced with different levels of liability of legitimacy,the implementation results of green innovation are also different.Specifically,this paper shows that when the target firm is located in a developed country,or the acquirer is in pollution-intensive industry,or the acquirer doesn't have any quality certification,or analyst attention is low,the positive influence of green innovation on cross-border M&A completion will be strengthened.This paper not only enriches the research about green innovation and cross-border M&As,and deepens the understanding of legitimacy theory,but also has implications for Chinese firms to deal with green rules and establish green competitive advantages during the process of internationalization.