Research On The Impact Of Reverse Cross-border Mergers And Acquisitions On Enterprise Innovation Performance

Under the background of globalization of competition,emerging market companies are belatedly overtaking developed market companies in the fragmentation of global value chains due to their lack of key technologies,research and development capabilities,and brand influence..In order to get rid of this dilemma,the latecomers,represented by Chinese enterprises,have shown a strong motivation to catch up with technology.They try to search,absorb and transform cutting-edge innovation resources globally through mergers and acquisitions of enterprises in developed countries,so as to seek leapfrog development of technology and realize high-end leap of the current value chain.As an important means to promote the technological progress of latecomers and reconstruct their competitive advantages,reverse cross-border M&A,which is "weak and strong",is increasingly active on the world economic stage.However,the existing research mostly adopts qualitative research to evaluate and discuss the innovation effect of reverse cross-border M&A at the macro level and industrial level,neglecting the role of enterprises as the decision-making subject of M&A,failing to accurately identify the relationship between reverse M&A and R&D innovation at the micro level.Therefore,it is difficult to accurately judge the real utility and potential impact mechanism of reverse cross-border M&A on technology catching up of latecomers.For this reason,this paper takes Chinese manufacturing listed companies as research samples.First,combining the springboard theory,resource based view and social network theory,this paper analyzes the effect and mechanism of reverse cross-border mergers and acquisitions of latecomers on their innovation performance from the perspectives of organizational learning,platform building and cost sharing.Secondly,based on the spiral view of knowledge management theory and springboard theory,this paper examines the impact of knowledge base and knowledge distance on the relationship between reverse cross-border M&A and enterprise innovation performance,so as to clarify the boundary role of internal and external M&A environment in the innovation effect of reverse M&A.Furthermore,the contingent combination of knowledge base and knowledge distance under two-dimensional division is included in the research framework of "reverse cross-border M&A-innovation performance",and the complementary relationship between internal and external M&A environments in the innovation effect of reverse M&A is analyzed to explore the integration impact and functional logic of different levels of M&A environments on the innovation effect of reverse M&A,thus revealing the integration boundary role of multi-level M&A environments.The research results show that: first,the overseas M&As implemented by latecomers to enterprises in developed countries can promote the improvement of enterprise innovation performance,that is,reverse cross-border M&As have innovation driven effects.Secondly,the innovation driving effect of reverse cross-border M&A is affected by the internal and external M&A environment of the organization.In terms of internal conditions,compared with specialized knowledge base,diversified knowledge base can enhance the identification and absorption efficiency of enterprises to multi-source heterogeneous knowledge elements,thereby strengthening the promotion of reverse mergers and acquisitions on innovation performance.In the external environment,the expansion of knowledge distance will damage the willingness of enterprises to use cross-border M&A to achieve technology catch-up,thereby weakening the innovation driving effect of reverse M&A.Finally,the interaction and combination of M&A environments at different levels can have an integrated boundary effect on the innovation effect of reverse M&A."Low knowledge distance M&A based on diversified knowledge" and "high knowledge distance M&A based on specialized knowledge" can effectively support the innovation driven effect.The research contributions of this paper are as follows: First,clarify the effects and mechanisms of cross-border M&A reverse on innovation performance at the micro level,to enrich the research on the value effects of cross-border M&A and firms’ innovation drive,and to provide theoretical guidance and empirical evidence for the transformation,upgrading,and innovation catch-up practices of firms in least developed emerging countries,such as China.Secondly,based on the M&A environment perspective,we examine the boundaries of the impact of cross-border reverse M&A on firms’ innovation performance and clarify the relationship between firms’ internal knowledge conditions,external knowledge environment and the innovation driving mechanism of reverse M&A.This extends the relevance of knowledge management theory to international innovation research,helping firms create positive M&A environments from the knowledge base and knowledge distance levels,thereby effectively driving innovation in late-stage firms.This allows firms to create a positive M&A environment from the knowledge base and knowledge distance levels,thereby effectively driving innovation and value chain leapfrogging in latecomer firms.