Modeling the factors that influence knowledge transfer in mergers and acquisitions

This paper constructs a model on the factors that influence knowledge transfer in mergers and acquisitions(M&A) and validates it via questionnaire surveys. Using 125valid collected questionnaires, multiple linear regression analysis and hierarchical regression analysis showed that five out of the ten factors had a positive effect on knowledge transfer effect. The ranking of factor importance, from high to low, was knowledge explicitness, relationship quality, learning intent, advanced transfer activities, and learning capability, which is fairly consistent with positive factors observed in other interorganizational knowledge transfer researches. Our results also showed that one of the control variables(size of acquired firm) had neither a direct or indirect effect on knowledge transfer in M&A. Additionally, our research found that knowledge distance and degree of M&A integration had a positive influence on knowledge transfer effect at the early stage after M&A, but had a negative influence at the late stage. Based on this research, several suggestions for knowledge transfer in M&A are proposed.

Economic Policy Uncertainty and Corporate Mergers and Acquisitions

In recent years,the frequent adjustment of the government’s economic policies and the uncertainty of foreign economic situations have made the degree of uncertainty of China’s economic policies rise continuously.The increasing degree of policy uncertainty will inevitably affect the investment and financing decisions of micro enterprises.Then,how does economic policy uncertainty(EPU)affect mergers and acquisitions(M&A)behavior?What’s the mechanism?Based on the above questions,this paper uses the data of non-financial listed companies in the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges from 2008 to 2018 as a sample to explore the relationship between EPU and M&A.The study shows that rising EPU will promote corporate M&A behavior,and this effect is more significant in slow-growth companies.The relationship between EPU and M&A is affected by corporate governance,stock price volatility and financing constraints.Specifically,the company’s M&A size is more sensitive to EPU with higher level of corporate governance,higher level of stock price volatility,and lesser financing constraints.Further research shows that the rise of EPU will significantly promote the improvement of M&A performance in the short-term,but this effect does not exist in the long-term.Various robustness checks do not change the empirical results of this paper.

Financing Constraints and the Mode of Outward Foreign Direct Investment:Cross-Border Mergers and Acquisitions or Greenfield Investment

In this paper,two investment modes,greenfield investment and cross-border mergers and acquisitions,are introduced on the basis of Manova(2008),and it is found that enterprises with less financing constraints tend to choose cross-border mergers and acquisitions.Therefore,this paper takes Chinese industrial enterprises that conducted cross-border mergers and acquisitions and greenfield investment in 2003−2010 as examples to test the above hypothesis.The result shows that enterprises with lower financing constraints are more likely to choose cross-border mergers and acquisitions,while those with stronger constraints choose greenfield investment.More specifi cally,a 1%reduction in financing constraints raises the probability of choosing cross-border mergers and acquisitions by 2.51%.The authors also find that the influence of financing constraints varies under different investment motivation.For business service and production-related investment,enterprises with lower financing constraints tend to choose cross-border mergers and acquisitions;while for R&D investment,financing constraints have no impact on the choice of investment mode.

Cultural Integration in M&A Enterprise

This thesis aims at studying the cultural integration of M&A enterprises,mainly involved with the manifesta-tion,process,type,method,risk and countermeasures of cultural integration in M&A enterprises.It intends to provide a complete set of management and operation sys-tem on cultural integration for M&A enterprises.Keywords:cultural integration,M&A(merger and acquisi-tion).

Russian M&A Market:Dynamics and Current State

We identify five phases in the formation of M&A from the beginning until the newest developments when economic sanctions were imposed.The paper summarizes the results of empirical analysis of mergers and acquisitions(M&A)of Russian companies over the period 1995-2013.To capture the time series behaviour of M&A processes,we fit an autoregressive integrated moving average(ARIMA)model.We further analysed co-integration of M&A processes in Russia and US,China,and Germany.The results indicate German and Chinese M&A series have a long-term influence on Russian series,while no significant causal links were evidenced in the dataset between US and Russian series.

Testing Operating Performance of Chinese Listed Firms before and after Cross-border M&As: The Role of Entrepreneurial Orientation

At a time when China encourages its firms to go overseas,especially to countries and regions involved in its"Belt and Road Initiative",and sets up a favorable domestic environment for innovation and entrepreneurship,this paper is a first trial looking along both the two dimensions to test whether Chinese firms’operating performance changes after cross-border merger and acquisition(CBM&A)activities,using entrepreneurial orientation(EO)as a moderating factor.The paper combines data from Chinese listed firms’annual reports,Chinese stock market financial statements database and the Zephyr database from 2001 to 2015 to examine how acquirers’operating performance changes after CBM&A activities using EO as a moderating factor.In order to test whether the results are affected by the stock market,this paper also defines abnormal return on equity(ROE)to detect abnormal operating performance.After these,the paper divides the sample into separate industry groups to see whether results will change.The results obtained for the whole sample show that the performance of Chinese listed firms is fluctuant after CBM&As within the sample years.It increases one year after the acquisition but drops two years later and then follows an increasing trend again.The moderating factor of EO is not significant for the sample as a whole.However,after dividing the sample into separate industry groups,it becomes clear that different industries have their own characteristics.EO helps Chinese listed firms to adjust to the post-acquisition situation and even to improve their performance to some extent in the metal mining industry and the business services industry.When ROE is substituted with abnormal ROE,the results do not change much.

The Evolving Economic Role of Accounting Standards： Evidence from Bilateral Cross-Border M＆A Flows

Cross-border M＆As are important to the participating countries. I posit that mandatory International Financial Reporting Standards （IFRS） adoption lowers the systemic information noise embedded in countries＇ accounting standards. This reduces the associated information processing costs and enhances the economic role accounting standards play on cross-border M＆A flows. After mandatory IFRS adoption, a 1% increase in accounting standards disparity suppresses bilateral M＆A flows by around 2%; a decrease in accounting standards disparity helps promote bilateral M＆A flows when paired countries＇ governance infrastructure gaps are relatively wider. I do not find that these associations were significant prior to mandatory IFRS adoption. Overall, this paper documents an evolving economic role accounting standards play on bilateral cross-border M＆A flows and sheds light on the economic benefits of adopting IFRS for policy makers.