Two decades of cross-border mergers and acquisitions research: A bibliometric analysis

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this study is to present the overall trend and dynamics in global mergers and acquisitions activity while suggesting future research avenues in this domain. The analysis covers two aspects to examine the main contours of the domain, that is performance analysis followed by thematic cluster analysis. Design/methodology/approach Bibliometric analysis has been used for examining 1,433 publications extracted from the Scopus database to identify the research trend between 2000 and 2021. With the help of VosViewer (a bibliometric software), bibliographic coupling, citation, co-authorship, keyword and network analysis have been carried out. Findings The analysis reveals that most of the research on cross-border mergers and acquisitions (CBMA) is concentrated in the context of developed markets, USA and UK being the largest. Most of the research till date is confined to wealth effects, value creation, corporate governance, socio-cultural aspects and various determinants of CBMA, all from the standpoint of the acquirer. Practical implications The present study highlights numerous opportunities for future research based on empirical analysis. There exists a dearth of studies around CBMA in the context of emerging nations which provides a relatively unexplored field to carry out research work. Originality/value The study makes use of a comprehensive list of keywords to have an extensive analysis. This is a pioneering study that has used bibliographic coupling of documents for content analysis and to the best of authors’ knowledge, no previous works on cross-border acquisitions have performed bibliographic coupling for this.