Chinese foreign acquisitions aimed for strategic asset-creation and innovation upgrading: The case of Geely and Volvo Cars

Ramsin Yakob, H. Richard Nakamura and Patrik Ström

Technovation, 2018, vol. 70-71, 59-72

Abstract: The acquisition and integration of Western companies into Chinese business groups, the impact of host country region innovation dynamics, and the consequences for Chinese firms' innovation capabilities represent a void in the existing literature. This study applies an in-depth longitudinal case study of a cross-border M&A and links the strategic asset-augmentation literature and location theories to address the influence of target firm characteristics on the acquiring firm's innovation capabilities. Results show how the acquisition decision is influenced by post-acquisition accessibility to, and leverage of, firm-level capabilities, macro-level conditions, and the ability to draw advantages from host country regional innovation dynamics to leverage global innovation capabilities. The study extends the asset-augmentation literature to include the notion of strategic asset-creation as a motive for M&A and demonstrates the dynamics of strategic asset-creation in the automotive industry. This study makes three contributions. First, it provides a definition of strategic asset-creation in the automotive industry; Second, it provides a more comprehensive explanation of the importance of spatial dynamics in regional attractiveness in strategic asset-creation processes of emerging market MNCs (EMNCs); Third, it demonstrates how EMNCs harness, absorb, and create new strategic assets.

Keywords: Chinese cross-border M&A; Automotive industry; Innovation capability; Innovation clusters; Asset-augmentation; Asset-creation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (23)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:techno:v:70-71:y:2018:i::p:59-72

DOI: 10.1016/j.technovation.2018.02.011

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