Abstract
Although corporate capability has been recognized as a key factor affecting corporate acquisition performance, the role of R&D capability in acquisition performance has not been fully explained. The aim of this paper was to research the impact of internal R&D on acquisition performance according to a sample of 215 acquisitions of Chinese listed pharmaceutical companies from 2012 to 2016. First, it was found that R&D has a significant negative effect on acquisition performance. Furthermore, it was confirmed that the acquisition motive and the ownership of the acquiring firm have a moderating effect on the relationship between R&D and acquisition performance. Compared to non-technical acquisitions, the negative effect of internal R&D on acquisition performance was reduced for technical acquisitions. Compared with non-state-owned-enterprise acquisition, the negative effect of internal R&D on the acquisition performance of state-owned enterprises was weakened. Our study enriches the research of the path dependence theory on the acquisition performance of enterprises and also the interpretation of acquisition performance on the basis of internal and external innovation and the institutional theory.
Highlights
Acquisition is one of the important ways for companies to restructure, expand production and operation channels, and achieve the goal of rapid expansion and sustainable development and is effective in managing the current international economic situation [1,2]
We can see that there was a negative correlation between the nature of enterprises and the acquisition performance, which indicates that the acquisition performance of state-owned enterprises is relatively poor
On the basis of the path dependence theory, this study explains the negative effect of internal R&D on the acquisition performance of pharmaceutical enterprises
Summary
Acquisition is one of the important ways for companies to restructure, expand production and operation channels, and achieve the goal of rapid expansion and sustainable development and is effective in managing the current international economic situation [1,2]. In 2017, the acquisition market of China had a total amount of 8016 acquisition transactions, which corresponded to 3.29 trillion yuan, and 4018 acquisition transactions were completed, which represents an increase by 34% compared to the previous year and involved an amount of 1.51 trillion yuan. It is extremely uncertain whether acquisitions can meet companies” expectations [3]. Current mainstream researchers roughly consider three aspects to analyze this question: Firstly, the problem is firmly related to the characteristics of the acquiring company, including competence, scale, ownership, sector, ownership structure, acquisition experience, etc. Current mainstream researchers roughly consider three aspects to analyze this question: Firstly, the problem is firmly related to the characteristics of the acquiring company, including competence, scale, ownership, sector, ownership structure, acquisition experience, etc. of the acquiring company [4,5]; Secondly, it is related to the characteristics of the acquired company, including performance, business relevance, relative scale, Processes 2019, 7, 292; doi:10.3390/pr7050292 www.mdpi.com/journal/processes
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