Knowledge Distance And Innovation Performance Of Cross-border M&A Of Manufacturing Enterprises

Innovation is the driving force of development,and the core competitiveness of manufacturing enterprises comes from innovation.With the rapid development of China’s economy and the active investment of Chinese manufacturing enterprises,many manufacturing enterprises obtain innovative resources through mergers and acquisitions to improve their innovation performance.Among the M&A targets of China’s manufacturing enterprises,enterprises from countries with better manufacturing development such as Germany and the United States account for the majority.Due to the knowledge gap between developed countries and developing countries,this provides a new way for the late-developing countries,represented by China,to acquire relevant innovative knowledge of innovative countries through M&A as a springboard.By reviewing relevant studies,we found the research on knowledge distance not focusing on the manufacturing industry."Made in China 2025" continues to encourage Chinese manufacturing enterprises to improve their innovation capabilities,and whether the knowledge distance existing in the process of mergers and acquisitions can effectively promote the improvement of innovation performance of Chinese manufacturing enterprises has important guiding significance.Therefore,the research on the knowledge distance of manufacturing industry and the innovation performance of cross-border mergers and acquisitions has practical significance.This thesis takes the cross-border M&A events of listed manufacturing enterprises in China during 2013-2019 as a sample,and combines the springboard theory,Hofstede’s cultural dimension theory,institutional theory and absorptive capacity theory to explore the impact of knowledge distance on innovation performance of Chinese manufacturing enterprises in the process of cross-border M&A,as well as the regulatory role of cultural distance,institutional distance and absorptive capacity on the relationship between knowledge distance and innovation performance.The research results show that the knowledge distance between countries is that China’s manufacturing enterprises obtain more innovation resources through cross-border M&A,and through learning and transformation effects,China’s manufacturing enterprises’ M&A innovation performance is significantly improved;The cultural distance between countries is a potential obstacle to the effective use of innovation resources after mergers and acquisitions.Cultural distance will weaken the promotion of knowledge distance on innovation performance;The gap of institutional distance provides different business environments for enterprises and strengthens the positive correlation between knowledge distance and innovation performance;The moderating effect of absorptive capacity on knowledge distance and innovation performance is not significant.The research industry also found that the positive correlation between knowledge distance and M&A innovation performance is different when the absorptive capacity of enterprises is different,and the regulatory effect of cultural distance and institutional distance on knowledge distance and innovation performance is also different.Based on the above research conclusions,this thesis puts forward relevant policy recommendations.Finally,according to the shortcomings of the research,the future direction is proposed,which can provide reference for the next research on the communication technology and other industries in the manufacturing sector.