Language Similarity and M&A Transactions

Xiaofei Pan and Jin Zhang

European Accounting Review, 2024, vol. 33, issue 3, 741-770

Abstract: We investigate how language similarity between acquirers and targets affects post-M&A performance using a large sample of M&A transactions in China. We hypothesize and find that acquirers achieve higher post-M&A operating performance when they acquire targets that share the same native languages. We provide evidence that language similarity enhances post-M&A performance via the communication channel. Additionally, we show that the impact of language similarity is more pronounced when acquirers are not controlled by government agencies and when they are not related parties of targets. This study indicates an important role of native language similarity on post-M&A performance.

Date: 2024
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/09638180.2022.2117221 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:euract:v:33:y:2024:i:3:p:741-770

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/REAR20

DOI: 10.1080/09638180.2022.2117221

Access Statistics for this article

European Accounting Review is currently edited by Laurence van Lent

More articles in European Accounting Review from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().