International growth of Italian acquired mid-sized firms: an analysis of post-acquisition performance

Michela Matarazzo, Gabriele Barbaresco and Riccardo Resciniti

International Journal of Globalisation and Small Business, 2020, vol. 11, issue 2, 200-223

Abstract: The purpose of the paper is analysing the performance differences (labour productivity, employment and wages) of all the mid-sized firms acquired in the period between 1999 and 2009, compared with purely domestic firms (non-acquired), with two specific research focuses: 1) differences between industrial and financial investor; 2) geographic distance between acquirer and target firm. This study conducts a t-test analysis by using firm-level accounting data from the Italian Mediobanca Research Department database. Results suggest that the performance of the acquired firms improve. Furthermore, the results show prospective industrial and European acquirers adopt a cherry picking approach and tend to keep pre-acquisition performance levels unchanged, whereas financial and non-European acquirers take the opposite approach with an explicit view to increase post-acquisition performance. This study for the first time analyses the performance implications of cross border acquisitions of all the acquired mid-sized firms, which carry remarkable economic weight within the Italian economy.

Keywords: mid-sized firms; growth strategies; cross-border acquisitions; post-acquisition performance; foreign direct investments; foreign market entry modes; industrial and financial investors; Italy. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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