知识宽度与深度对被并购企业关键研发者创造力变化的影响

The Impact of the Breadth and Depth of Knowledge on the Creative Changes of Key Developers in Merged Companies

现有的并购情境研究忽略了关键研发者个体知识基础对目标企业关键研发者创造力的影响,且较少涉及动态视角下关键研发者知识基础与创造力变化关系。鉴于此,基于技术并购的50家医药制造业企业2000—2020年专利数据,深入分析并购发生在目标企业关键研发者处于研发生涯不同阶段时,关键研发者知识宽度和深度对其创造力变化的影响。结果表明,当并购发生在目标企业关键研发者处于研发生涯上升阶段时,关键研发者知识宽度对其创造力变化存在负向影响,关键研发者知识深度对其创造力变化存在正向影响;当并购发生在目标企业关键研发者处于研发生涯衰退阶段时,关键研发者知识宽度对其创造力变化存在正向影响。该研究结论扩展了知识基础理论研究边界,验证了知识宽度与深度在关键研发者处于研发生涯不同阶段时存在的异质性作用,为企业提高并购前的风控能力以及并购后的创新能力提供了针对性建议。

As an indispensable catalyst for the technological development of enterprises,technology M&A is an important means for enterprises to improve their innovation capabilities.It can bring complementary innovation resources to enterprises and promote their improvement of innovation performance.However,it is often difficult for merged companies to achieve their expected goals.The academic community has carried out discussions from multiple perspectives to explain the dilemma.Most of them explore if the success of mergers and acquisitions lies in the retention or improvement of technological innovation capabilities of the acquired companies.Existing research shows that companies often rely on key developers to achieve technological innovation,and the changes in the working environment between organizations brought about by technology mergers and acquisitions will have a huge impact on the working environment of key developers in target companies,resulting in creativity decline of key developers.This will undoubtedly increase the risk of technology mergers and acquisitions.At the same time,some scholars have found that knowledge base,as an important part of network content,is the main factor affecting the creativity of developers,and the breadth and depth of knowledge can positively promote the creativity of developers.However,the breadth and depth of knowledge at different stages may have different effects on creativity,and the stage characteristics of developers should be considered when conducting relevant research.In this context,it is of great significance to analyze how the breadth and depth of knowledge exert different effects on the creativity of key developers in the merged companies based on the two-stage R&D career of developers.This paper focuses on the key developers of the acquired companies,and analyzes the influence of the breadth and depth of knowledge on the creativity of key developers in the merger when technology mergers and acquisitions occur at different stages of the key developers'R&D career from the acquired companies.The purpose is to explore the following two questions.Will the individual knowledge attributes of developers have an impact on the creativity of developers when technological mergers and acquisitions bring about environmental changes?How do the stage characteristics of developers act on the influence of individual knowledge attributes on creativity during technology mergers and acquisitions?By answering the above questions,it will help to analyze the change mechanism of the creativity of the key developers of the acquired companies in the process of technology mergers and acquisitions,and provide reference for the active M&A enterprises to optimize the decision-making before M&A and improve the innovation performance after M&A.The M&A samples are from the ISI Emerging Market Deal database and Zephyr's global M&A deal analysis database.This paper selects the initial data of 50 target companies in the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry.All the invention and utility model patent data of these 50 target companies from 2000 to 2020 is downloaded from the China Intellectual Property Office.At the same time,the paper screens the key developers with reference to Ernst(the dual-indicator method of patent quantity and quality).Moreover,it uses the relevant patent data three years before and three years after the acquisition to construct the innovation cooperation network of key R&D personnel of the target enterprise to calculate the corresponding indicators for analysis.The results show that when mergers and acquisitions occur in the rising stage of the R&D career of the key developers of the target enterprise,the knowledge breadth of key developers has a negative impact on the changes in the creativity of key developers,and the depth of knowledge of key developers has a positive effect on the creativity changes of key developers.When the merger occurs in the declining stage of the R&D career of the key developers of the target company,the knowledge breadth of the key developers has a positive impact on the creativity changes of the key developers.In this study,only network indicators such as structural holes are added to the analysis as control variables,but the impact of network structure on the changes in the creativity of key developers in target companies in technology mergers and acquisitions is not discussed in depth.Moreover,there are many factors influencing the creativity of key developers,and this study chooses the perspective of individual attributes,leaving other aspects untouched.These deficiencies require further research.