A Study Of The Impact Of Technology Acquisition Type On The Creativity Of Key Researchers And Developers In Manufacturing Main Merger Firms

Under the dual pressure of increasingly fierce market competition and the development of enterprise technology innovation,more and more manufacturing enterprises choose to acquire technology through M&A.For firms,the post-merger changes in the creativity of key developers,as the core force of corporate innovation,are crucial to the innovative development of firms after technology acquisitions.However,existing studies have neglected the key issue of how the type of technology M&A experienced by the key developers of manufacturing firms affects the change in the creativity of key developers,and it is difficult to identify the mechanism of the change in creativity of key developers who experienced different technology M&As after the M&As.Therefore,based on the patent data of domestic electronic and communication equipment manufacturing listed companies involved in 37 technology mergers and acquisitions,this paper constructs an innovation cooperation network of 147 key developers in manufacturing companies’ main mergers and acquisitions to deeply analyze the mechanism of the influence of different technology mergers and acquisitions experienced by key developers on the creativity of key developers.Firstly,this paper uses the international patent classification number as the basis to classify the types of technology mergers and acquisitions(technology substitution mergers and acquisitions,technology enhancement mergers and acquisitions,and technology irrelevant mergers and acquisitions)experienced by the key developers of the main merging companies,and then analyzes how the different technology mergers and acquisitions experienced by the key developers of the main merging companies affect the changes of individual creativity.Second,two dimensions of network location(network centrality and structural hole)are introduced to explore how the types of technology M&As experienced by key R & Ds in the main mergers affect the changes in the network location of key R & Ds.Finally,two dimensions of network location(network centrality and structural hole)are innovatively used as mediating variables to explore the mediating role of network location based on the previous analysis.The following conclusions are drawn from the empirical tests and results analysis:(1)The types of technology mergers and acquisitions experienced by the key developers of the main merging firms have different effects on the creativity of key developers,with technology substitution mergers and acquisitions significantly negatively affecting the creativity of key developers,technology enhancement mergers and acquisitions significantly positively affecting the creativity of key developers,and technology irrelevant mergers and acquisitions significantly negatively affecting the creativity of key developers.(2)The type of technology M&A experienced by the key developers of the main merging firms significantly affects the network centrality and structural hole of key developers.Among them,technology substitution M&A significantly and negatively affects the network centrality of key developers,technology enhancement M&A significantly and positively affects the network centrality of key developers,and technology irrelevant M&A significantly and negatively affects the network centrality of key developers.Technology-enhanced M&A significantly and positively affects the structural hole of key developers.Technology-independent M&A significantly and negatively affects the structural hole of key R&D players.(3)The type of technology M&A experienced by the key developers in the main merging firm influences the change in creativity of key developers after the M&A through the mediating role of network location.Network centrality negatively and partially mediates between technology substitution M&As experienced by key developers and key developer creativity,positively and partially mediates between technology-enhancing M&As experienced by key developers and key developer creativity,and negatively and fully mediates between technology-independent M&As experienced by key developers and key developer creativity;structural hole negatively and fully mediates between technology-enhancing M&As experienced by key developers and key developer creativity;structural hole negatively and partially mediates between technology-enhancing M&As experienced by key developers and key developer creativity.The structural hole plays a positive partially mediating role between the technology-enhancing M&A experienced by the key developer and the creativity of the key developer,and a negative fully mediating role between the technology-unrelated M&A experienced by the key developer and the creativity of the key developer.(4)Regardless of the type of technology-enhanced M&A experienced by key R&D personnel in the main merging firm,the increase in key R&D personnel network location(structural hole and network centrality)promotes key R&D personnel creativity.The findings of this paper enrich the research on the types of technology M&A at the researcher level and answer the key question of "why does key R&D creativity change in technology M&A? Overall,this paper extends the study of social network theory in technology M&A,analyzes the role of the types of technology M&A experienced by key R&D personnel of the main merging companies on the change of key R&D personnel creativity and its underlying mechanism,discusses how high-tech manufacturing companies can effectively improve their core competencies in the M&A process,and provides targeted suggestions for manufacturing companies to optimize their decisions before technology M&A and improve key R&D personnel creativity after M&A.It provides targeted suggestions for manufacturing companies to optimize their pre-M&A decisions and enhance the creativity of key R&D personnel after M&A.