Research On The Characteristics' Influence Of The Board Of Directors On The Performance Of Cross-border M&A

In recent years,the number and amount of overseas M&A by Chinese companies have both shown an increasing trend,and peaked in 2016 and 2017.The surging tide of cross-border M&A(Mergers and Acquisitions)is supported by national policies,such as the "going abroad" and "One Belt One Road" initiatives;on the other hand,it is due to the rise of China's private economy.In recent years,China's private enterprises have occupied the main position in the cross-border M&A market,such as Geely,Goertek and so on.We found every company has their own financial performance after finishing the cross-border M&A.but why?The thesis,based on the perspective of board governance,study the influence of different types of board characteristics on the performance of transnational M&A,so as to make suggestions for the construction of the boards in cross-border M&A.The thesis proposes eight assumptions based on the theoretical analysis,such as high-level echelon theory,resource-based theory,resource dependence theory,and principal-agent theory.Then,the thesis takes 148 cross-border M&A which happened in SSE(Shanghai stock exchange)and SZSE(Shenzhen stock exchange)from 2012 to 2015,and using the software Stata 12.0 to conduct empirical analysis.In terms of the characteristics of the boards,the thesis selects characteristics date from the year of transnational M&A taking place,namely,dividing the characteristics into four major dimensions,social characteristics(gender,age,internationalization),professional characteristics(education background,average tenure time,functional heterogeneity),independence characteristics,and shareholding ratio characteristics.In terms of measurement of the performance of cross-border M&A,the thesis selects the EVA(economic value added)of 2 years after the completion of transnational M&A to measure the performance of transnational.The thesis concludes that the social characteristics,independence characteristics and shareholding ratio of the boards have a significant impact on the performance of cross-border M&A.Among them,the ratio of women in the boards in cross-border M&A has a significant which is at the level of 10%on the cross-border M&A performance;the number of boards with overseas backgrounds has a significant positive impact on cross-border M&A performance at the 5%level;the number of independent boards has a significant positive impact on cross-border M&A performance at the 10%level;The shareholding ratio of the boards has a significant positive effect on cross-border M&A performance at the 5%level.Summarily,the thesis argues that in order to enhance the performance of cross-border M&A,the following measures can be taken during the establishment of a boards:maintain a proper proportion of female board members,select board members with overseas background as many as possible,and to configure the number of independent boards slightly more than the legal proportion,and to give the board members continued equity incentives.