技术并购与再创新——来自中国上市公司的证据

Technology M&A and Re-innovation——Evidence from Chinese Listed Companies

获取外部技术已成为企业当前愈发重要的并购动机,但技术并购对企业创新的作用受到越来越多的关注与质疑。中国企业的技术并购是只获取了短期技术,还是能够据此促使其未来的再创新呢?本文基于中国上市公司技术并购事件研究发现,虽然技术并购带来的异质性知识有助于企业再创新,但技术并购占用的企业资源以及带来的整合动荡都会影响企业原有技术进程,并由此减少企业未来再创新的可能。控制内部研发的替代作用后发现,技术并购的意义在于提高企业未来创新成果的新颖性,而非提高创新效率。此外,使用文本分析技术得出的结论表明,当新知识带来的收益大于随着知识距离增加而提高的知识整合成本时,技术并购仍然是经济的。在进一步的研究中,本文展开分析技术整合的作用机制,并深入探究技术并购的创新动机以及制度环境的异质性。本文的结论不仅拓展了开放式创新理论和知识基础理论在技术并购中的应用边界,而且为创新引领下中国企业技术并购战略决策提供了重要理论支撑,也为进一步优化创新激励环境提供参考。

With the increasing demand for firm innovation,acquiring external technology has become an increasingly important motivation for M&A.In this situation,two different sources of value in technology M&A are receiving increasing attention:acquiring existing technology products from the target party;alternatively,on this basis,the technical resources of both parties in the M&A can be restructured,thereby permanently affecting firm innovation capability.In the recent wave of M&A,the role of technology M&A in innovation has received increasing attention and questioning.Innovation is not a ready-made commodity that can be freely traded in the factor market.Firms without active R&D may lack the ability to integrate new knowledge,and therefore cannot enhance innovation by purchasing technology.It should be considered that even if M&A are profitable,they may have a negative impact on more important long-term innovation.Can firms only acquire existing technologies of the target party through technology M&A,or effectively integrate the knowledge of both parties,thereby improving firms’future innovation performance?Based on technology M&A of listed companies in China from 2008 to 2020,this paper finds that although the heterogeneous knowledge brought about by technology M&A contributes to firm re-innovation,the resources occupied by technology M&A and the integration turbulence affect firms’own technological processes,thereby reducing the possibility of future innovation.This means that the impact of technology M&A on enterprise innovation depends on the comprehensive effect of integration costs and innovation benefits.Compared with internal R&D,the significance of technology M&A is more reflected in improving the novelty of future innovation achievements.The conclusion of the text analysis technology indicates that although the knowledge distance between the M&A parties increases the integration pressure,it also brings more innovative knowledge to enterprises.When benefits created by new knowledge exceed the cost of knowledge integration,technology M&A are still economic.This conclusion can explain why some firms have achieved significant success in innovation through technology M&A,while others have suffered losses after technology M&A.The conclusion not only responds to people’s concerns about the negative impact of technology M&A on enterprise innovation,but also provides further theoretical support for innovation-driven decision-making in technology M&A.In the current competition pattern that increasingly emphasizes high-quality innovation,the conclusion strongly supports the ability of technology M&A to acquire innovative knowledge,thereby promoting disruptive innovation of firms.Finally,this paper constructs a new explanatory mechanism for the impact of knowledge base differences on the heterogeneity in enterprise technology M&A.The conclusion is conducive to grasping potential relationships between different dimensions of enterprise knowledge base under technology M&A,and helps firms understand how to achieve excellent innovation performance through technology M&A.