How does integration affect industrial innovation through networks in technology-sourcing overseas M&A? A comparison between China and the US

Abstract

Overseas mergers and acquisitions (M&A) integration is an effective way to promote home-country industrial innovation. However, much remains unknown about this mechanism. We provide a comprehensive understanding, by taking a resource-based view, focusing on the role of internal and external networks as bridge, and exploring the moderating effect of home-country institution. Based on 119 samples in China and 311 samples in the U.S. of technology-sourcing overseas M&A, structural equation model analysis reveals that in a more developed home-country institution, American acquirers’ appropriate integration matched with resource relatedness significantly improves internal network cohesion and external network position, promoting industrial innovation. In contrast, constrained by a less developed home-country institution, Chinese acquirers’ internal network cohesion improvement is only significant in low-degree integration matched with high-resource-complementarity and low-resource-similarity, and the mediating effect of external network position improvement is significantly weaker than that of American. Research conclusions provide insights into the catching-up of latecomers.