Home country’s economic and political institutions: firms’ ownership decisions in cross-border acquisitions

Christine M. Chan (), Lei Shi () and Jingtao Yi ()
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Christine M. Chan: University of New South Wales
Lei Shi: University of International Business and Economics
Jingtao Yi: Renmin University of China

Journal of International Business Studies, 2024, vol. 55, issue 8, No 5, 1020-1037

Abstract: Abstract The influences of a home country’s economic and political institutions on acquirers’ cross-border acquisitions (CBAs) ownership strategies remains unexplored. Acquirers face endogenous uncertainty (i.e., uncertainty that can be resolved in part by acquirers) when transferring headquarters resources to foreign target firms and exogenous uncertainty (i.e., uncertainty that cannot be resolved by acquirers) when there is an unpredictable policy change. We argue that well-developed economic and political institutions in a home country play a market-supporting and constraining role in mitigating endogenous and exogenous uncertainty respectively, enabling acquirers to seek high ownership stakes in CBAs. We also argue that the importance of a home country’s well-developed economic and political institutions for acquirers’ CBA ownership strategic decisions depends on mutual trade dependence between the acquirers’ home country and the target firms’ host countries and also on the economic capabilities of the acquirers developed in different industries and political capabilities developed in different host countries. To test these arguments, we analyze 133,623 CBAs between 2000 and 2020 and find support for the distinct roles played by a home country’s economic and political institutions.

Keywords: Institutional economics strand of institutional theory; Home country’s institutions; Cross-border acquisitions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1057/s41267-024-00714-6

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