The Impact Of Corporate Social Responsibility On Cross-border Mergers And Acquisitions Performance

Cross-border M&A is a form of corporate foreign direct investment(FDI).With the development of economic globalization,the number of cross-border merges and acquisition(M&As)has grown dramatically in recent years.Accordingly,it has become an important component and implementation of internationalization.The latest global investment report of the United Nations Trade Development Council explains that cross-border M&As are increasing around the world every year,and the transaction volume has exceeded one billion US dollars.Such a wide range of cross-border M&As made it inevitable for enterprises and society to encounter problems about how to balance economic and social benefits.This study mainly focuses the impact of CSR on cross-border M&As.In the existing research,the discussion on the ethics of mergers and acquisitions and the internationalization of corporate social responsibility provide theoretical supports for the study of the relationship between CSR and cross-border M&As.Among them,the related research on M&A ethics mainly focuses on the protection of the rights and interests of the employees of the target companies.It is believed that the multinational companies must abide by business and social ethics,along with providing humane care and proper resettlement to the employees of the target firms.The research on social responsibility is relatively rich.Scholars discuss the necessity and specific methods of implementing CSR on a global scale,and use the large sample data of different countries and enterprises to influence the motivation and influence of CSR of multinational corporations.A lot of researches have been done on specific issues such as factors,methods,and effects.However,there exists little on the relationship between CSR and cross-border M&As.Most of the researches are based on case studies and qualitative analyses.However,the empirical research about the impact of CSR on the completion of cross-border M&As is fragmentary.Therefore,to make up the gap of existing research,this paper discusses the impact of CSR on crossborder M&As.In this paper,we clarifies acquirer firm's CSR and target firm's CSR in cross-border M&As,because of acquirer firm's CSR and target firm's CSR are played different role in the cross-border M&As.This study summarizes the status of CSR and cross-border M&As theme through literature review,and then integrates the relevant research on the relationship between CSR and cross-border M&As.The context summarized the shortcomings of current research and proprsed the specific direction of future research are proposed.Specifically,this study discusses the impact of CSR on cross-border M&As through three main essays.In the first essay,integration stakeholder theory with institutional theory,we investigate the impact of acquirer firm's CSR on the completion of cross-border M&As.Based on the global sample of 3,996 cross-border M&As from 1993 to 2016,using regression to analysis whether acquirer firm's CSR effect on the completion and duration of cross-border M&As.In addition,this study combines the characteristics of different institutional environments related to cross-border M&As.This study suggests the institutional factors that influence the relationship between acquirer firm's CSR and the successful completion of cross-border M&As,with three moderate variables—institutional distance,cultural distance,and the number of fellow cross-border M&As by other firms in the home country—three aspects have discussed the effects of institutional environment.This study finds that there is a positive correlation between the acquirer firm's CSR and completion rate of cross-border M&As.At the same time,there is a negative correlation between the acquirer firm's CSR and the duration of cross-border M&As.In addition,the greater cultural distance between home country and host country will weaken the positive impact of acquirer firm's CSR on duration of cross-border M&As.In the second essay,utilizing resource-based view and institutional theory,this research examines the impact of target firm's CSR on cross-border M&A premiums.Based on 252 cross-border M&As in the world from 1993 to 2015,and regression analysis was used to study the relationship between target firm's CSR,institutional factors and cross-border M&A premium.The research shows that the target firm's CSR is positively correlated with the cross-border M&A premium,and the institutional distance and cultural distance will negatively moderate the relationship between the target firm's CSR and the cross-border M&A premium.The number of fellow crossborder M&As by other firms in the home country will also negatively moderate the relationship between the target firm's CSR and the cross-border M&A premium.In the third essay,based on the resource-based view,we focuses on the impact of CSR distance between acquirer firm and target firm on cross-border M&A completed,duration,premium,and long-term performance.This study takes 42 cross-border M&As as the research object,and uses the analysis of variance(ANOVA)to discuss whether the magnitude and direction of the distance between acquirer firm's CSR and target firm's CSR lead to differentiation cross-border M&As outcomes.This study finds that when there is a larger distance between acquirer firm's CSR and target firm's CSR,the duration of cross-border M&As often longer.And considering the direction of distance between acquirer firm's CSR and target firm's CSR,we found that when both acquirer firm and target firm have good CSR,the duration of cross-border M&As becomes shorter,and long-term performance becomes higher.The aim of this study was to investigate how CSR affects the cross-border M&As,and through three essays to study that.The findings from this study make several contributions to the current researches and practices.First,it extends existing research on the importance of CSR and sheds new light on the role of CSR played in the setting of cross-border acquisitions In addition,the findings of this study show that all regulative,normative,and congnitive pillars influence magagerial perceptions and evaluations of CSR.Finally,it offers practical insights for corporate managers that a socially responsible firm is more likely to successfully completed and intergrate in a cross-border M&As.