Essays on Emerging Multinational Enterprises' Acquisitions in Developed Economies

Authors

Faisal R. Harahap, Florida International UniversityFollow

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Major/Program

Business Administration

First Advisor's Name

Mary Ann Von Glinow

First Advisor's Committee Title

Committee chair

Second Advisor's Name

Sumit Kundu

Second Advisor's Committee Title

Committee member

Third Advisor's Name

Karen Paul

Third Advisor's Committee Title

Committee member

Fourth Advisor's Name

Hai Guo

Fourth Advisor's Committee Title

Committee member

Keywords

emerging multinationals, mergers and acquisitions, cross-cultural management, cultural change, cultural distance, liabilities of foreigness, control model choice, seller's view, performance, organizational learning

Date of Defense

8-25-2017

Abstract

This dissertation investigates emerging multinational enterprises (EMNEs)’s acquisitions of firms in developed economies (DE) through three distinctive but interrelated essays. Despite costs EMNEs must offset from the obvious cultural distance (CD) they encounter with limited exploitable advantages, EMNEs have continued to aggressively acquire firms in DE, suggesting there are ways for the EMNEs to effectively overcome CD. In Essay 1, using insights from the symbolic interaction paradigm in sociology, I developed the Dynamic Socio-Cultural Model (DSCM), to uncover the general process of cultural creation and change. At the core of the DSCM is the process of collective learning and adaptive interaction in every social system. Viewing EMNEs’ acquisitions in DE as a cultural event that leads to new shared cultural resources, DSCM shows culture is not as rigid as was typically conceptualized in the cross-cultural management literature. While the negative effect of CD may initially impede EMNEs, CD may be positively moderated by certain conditions of the involved cultures. In Essay 2, I extended DSCM and combined it with insights from the organizational learning literature to focus on EMNE’s choices of control mode and their performance implications. Performing event study and endogenous switching regression on 1157 EMNE’s acquisitions in 21 advanced economies, I found EMNEs have, on average, a positive post-acquisition performance. I also found being an EMNE from an emerging economy that underwent rapid industrialization and targeting a high-tech firm increases the probability for choosing a low-control mode. Moreover, EMNE acquirers choose control mode by strategically considering their unique characteristics to optimize performance. In Essay 3, using the same theoretical approach, I examined the target firms’ sources of value creation. Applying an event study on 167 acquisitions in North America made by EMNEs from 11 countries, I found EMNEs’ partial acquisitions in DE generate, on average, a positive target’s cumulative abnormal returns (CAR). There is also empirical support for several determinants of target’s value creation and moderation effects. In particular, I found target’s international experience attenuates the negative effect of CD on target CAR, while acquirer’s state-owned status exacerbates it. Overall, the three essays collectively contribute to research streams in EMNEs, seller’s view of M&A, and cultural change.

Identifier

FIDC004026

Recommended Citation

Harahap, Faisal R., "Essays on Emerging Multinational Enterprises' Acquisitions in Developed Economies" (2017). FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 3540.
https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/3540