Configurational Paths And Performance Of Cross-border Majority Acquisitions Of Chinese Firms

More and more Chinese firms choose majority acquisitions in cross-border mergers and acquisitions(CBM&A),that is,acquiring majority or even the entire equity of the target enterprises.However,the results are not satisfying.Therefore,in this realistic context,two core issues of great practical value and theoretical significance are worthy in-depth study: Are there different triggering paths for Chinese firms to choose majority acquisitions in CBM&A? Does the majority of CBM&A caused by different paths have a differential impact on post-merger performance?Focusing on the above research questions,this paper displays the following three interlocking and progressive research chapters: first chapter comprehensively and systematically reviews the research literature on CBM&A equity selection,summarizes the existing research progress,identifies the existing limitations and points out the future research direction,so as to pave the way for the following two research chapters.Second chapter explores the different antecedent configurations(paths)that cause Chinese enterprises to choose majority acquisitions and reveals the theoretical logic behind the different antecedent configurations.Third chapter continues to explore the differentiated impact of different antecedent configurations on post-merger performance.By the above three research chapters,this paper mainly obtains the following achievements:(1)Through systematic literature review methods,from the perspective of antecedents and consequences,this paper reviews the academic articles of past 15 years(2004-2018)on ownership selection in CBM&A,and proposes the overall research framework and future research direction;(2)Using qualitative comparative analysis(QCA)method,based on CBM&A events implemented by China's manufacturing enterprises in the past ten years(2006-2015),this study takes the industry relatedness,cultural distance,local firm size,host country risk,host governments restriction and M&A experience as six factors and reveals the formation of four configuration(or path): Expert,giant,newbie,and buyer;(3)Using weighted least squares(WLS),step by step analyzes the influence of four different configuration of majority acquisitions on post-merger performance.The results show that the expert,newbie,and giant have significantly negative and positive relationship with post-merger performance.However,there is no significant relationship between buyer and post-merger performance.In general,by answering the above research questions,this paper has made four research contributions as follows:(1)the first comprehensive and systematic review of the research on ownership selection in CBM&A,and propose feasible future research directions;(2)it reveals the substitutional relationship between multiple theoretical interpretations of CBM&A,thus expanding the existing assertion of complementary relationship;(3)the integrated research design of qualitative comparative analysis(QCA)method and weighted least square(WLS)method provides a new solution for the future simultaneous study of the causes and consequences of specific behaviors;(4)the research conclusion "different paths have different effects" in this paper alleviates the arguments of inconsistent relationship among equity selection,cultural distance and post-merger performance in CBM&A.