Research On Internal And External R&D,Organizational Slack And Post-merger Innovation Performance

Innovation is critical both at the corporate and national levels.By enhancing their ability to innovate,companies can enhance their competitiveness in the industry.Innovation is also the first driving force for national development.There are two main ways for enterprises to enhance their innovation capabilities.One is independent research,that is,internal R&D.Enterprises use their own technical resources and internal researcher to complete technological innovation.The other is the external R&D.In this way,companies use capital advantages to break through organizational boundaries and seek new technologies outside.The most common way to obtain external R&D is directly purchasing the technical results or the equity of the target company,thereby enhancing the influence in the industry.The way to get external R&D is called technology merger and acquisition.There are two different conclusions about the relationship between these two ways that may enhance innovation.Therefore,whether technology merger and acquisition(external R&D)and internal R&D are synergistic or alternative are the focus of this paper.At the same time,because external R&D and internal R&D both require enterprise resources,the regulatory role played by the organizational slack in the final innovation output of the two is also worth studying.This paper studies the role of technology M&A and internal R&D capital stocks in innovation performance after M&A.At the same time,it validates the synergy between internal and external R&D on innovation performance after M&A.In addition,this study explores the role of different types of slack in the above relationships.This paper takes the 2013-2015 China high-tech listed company mergers and acquisitions as a sample.This paper proposes research hypotheses based on dynamic capability theory,transaction cost theory,principal-agent theory and innovation theory.These assumptions have been verified through rigorous empirical research.This study has three innovations.First,this paper examines technology M&A,internal R&D capital stocks,and their role in innovation performance after M&A.Second,this paper incorporates organizational slack as a regulatory variable into the research framework.Further,organizational slack is divided into absorbed slack and unabsorbed slack in this paper to ananlyze the different adjustment effects in the relationship between R&D and post-merger innovation performance.Third,based on the characteristics of the sample enterprises,this paper makes an innovative adjustment to the absorbed organizational slack.This article considers that the sample company's management fees include a large amount of R&D expenses,so the management costs are removed from the three major costs.This paper draws the following conclusions.First,technology merger and acquisitions and internal R&D can improve post-merger innovation performance.Second,internal and external R&D is complementary and synergistic for the post-merger innovation performance.Thirdly,the absorbed slack and unabsorbed slack play different regulatory roles in the relationship between internal and external R&D and post-merger innovation performance.The empirical results show that the existence of high-tech enterprises has absorbed slack.The absorbed slack is an embodiment of the management's inefficient investment,which is not conducive to the reconfiguration of innovation resources.It reduces the positive efifects of internal and external R&D on innovation performance after M&A.Finally,unabsorbed organizational slack has no obvious regulatory role in the relationship between internal and external R&D and innovation performance after mergers and acquisitions.The reasons may be as follows:First,managers are more willing to invest the remaining disposable resources in the non-real economy.Secondly,it may be due to the difference in the level of unabsorbed organizational slack of the sample companies.Managers believe that operating in accordance with conventional methods without innovation can still maintain a steady stream of cash.In addition,there may be reasons for the limited use of funds raised in the secondary market,and ultimately the adjustment effect of unabsorbed organizational slack is not obvious.Based on the above research,the corresponding policy recommendations are proposed.First,companies should increase their internal R&D investment.Second,companies need to allocate innovative resources to maximize the synergy between internal and external R&D.Third,companies should reduce the level of absorbed organizational slack and inefficient investments.Finally,companies should make full use of the role of unabsorbed organizational slack in the promotion of innovation.