What Factors Influence Structure Change of Mergers and Acquisitions?

Abstract

ABSTRACT Merger and acquisition (M&A) has become the main vehicle for firms to share resources and increase competitive advantages especially for multinational firms As more and more firms engage in M&A the relationship between acquirers and targets has become a popular issue Interestingly previous research has viewed M&A as a single transaction This study instead considers M&A a collaborated organizational structure where a partial acquisition is actually an equity-based alliance i e joint venture Based on the resource-based view and transaction cost theory this paper illustrates M&A structure in details There is a high possibility of ownership change in the equity-based structure Therefore this paper investigates how both internal and external factors influence M&A structure change Specifically internal factors include culture fit resource similarity and ownership imbalance and external factors comprise environmental uncertainty and industry maturity that also serve as moderators In all nine hypotheses are developed in this study Drawing on a sample of 1035 M&A transactions I used logistic regression analysis and ordinary least square (OLS) regression analysis to examine a variety of effects on M&A structure For the results of logistic regression culture fit and resource similarity have significant effects on M&A structure As to the results of OLS regression resource similarity and ownership imbalance have significant effects on M&A structure Moreover environmental uncertainty has a moderating effect on the relationship between culture fit and M&A structure change and industry maturity has a moderating effect on the relationship between resource similarity and M&A structure change The empirical results provide rich implications for both scholars and managers Keywords: M&A structure; Ownership change; M&A relationship management

Date of Award	2017 Aug 2
Original language	English
Supervisor	Chiung-Hui Tseng (Supervisor)