IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/pacfin/v49y2018icp200-212.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Speak out your risk: Dialectal effects on merger decisions

Author

Listed:
  • Jiao, Yang
  • Rao, Xi
  • Guo, Shijun
  • Alhaj-Yaseen, Yaseen S.

Abstract

The “biological code” of a language can be measured by tone patterns and pitch heights, which are recognized to foster and promote certain personal traits like self-confidence and risk tolerance. Guided by linguistic and financial research, this study examines the impact of Chinese dialects on CEOs' merger decisions. We hypothesize that CEOs in China who speak different dialects may have different tendencies to engage in risky activities, like mergers and acquisitions (M&As). Results suggest that CEOs who speak dialects with fewer rising tones and higher pitch are more likely to undertake M&As, while CEOs who speak dialects with more rising tones and lower pitch are less likely to undertake M&As. The results are robust to various specifications, including the impact of local economic and regional cultural factors. Additionally, firms' performances after M&As are evaluated. The results suggest that CEOs' overconfidence and high-risk tolerance are likely to cause M&As to be less successful in the long run.

Suggested Citation

  • Jiao, Yang & Rao, Xi & Guo, Shijun & Alhaj-Yaseen, Yaseen S., 2018. "Speak out your risk: Dialectal effects on merger decisions," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 200-212.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:pacfin:v:49:y:2018:i:c:p:200-212
    DOI: 10.1016/j.pacfin.2018.04.007
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0927538X17303025
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.pacfin.2018.04.007?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Stulz, Rene M. & Williamson, Rohan, 2003. "Culture, openness, and finance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(3), pages 313-349, December.
    2. Hilary, Gilles & Hui, Kai Wai, 2009. "Does religion matter in corporate decision making in America?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(3), pages 455-473, September.
    3. Luigi Guiso & Paola Sapienza & Luigi Zingales, 2004. "The Role of Social Capital in Financial Development," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(3), pages 526-556, June.
    4. Luigi Guiso & Paola Sapienza & Luigi Zingales, 2009. "Cultural Biases in Economic Exchange?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 124(3), pages 1095-1131.
    5. Guiso, Luigi & Sapienza, Paola & Zingales, Luigi, 2015. "The value of corporate culture," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(1), pages 60-76.
    6. Walters, Bruce A. & Kroll, Mark J. & Wright, Peter, 2007. "CEO tenure, boards of directors, and acquisition performance," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 60(4), pages 331-338, April.
    7. Alberto Alesina & Paola Giuliano, 2015. "Culture and Institutions," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 53(4), pages 898-944, December.
    8. John A. Doukas & Dimitris Petmezas, 2007. "Acquisitions, Overconfident Managers and Self‐attribution Bias," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 13(3), pages 531-577, June.
    9. M. Keith Chen, 2013. "The Effect of Language on Economic Behavior: Evidence from Savings Rates, Health Behaviors, and Retirement Assets," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(2), pages 690-731, April.
    10. Chen, Shimin & Cronqvist, Henrik & Ni, Serene & Zhang, Frank, 2017. "Languages and corporate savings behavior," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 320-341.
    11. Daniel Kahneman & Dan Lovallo, 1993. "Timid Choices and Bold Forecasts: A Cognitive Perspective on Risk Taking," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 39(1), pages 17-31, January.
    12. Levi, Maurice & Li, Kai & Zhang, Feng, 2014. "Director gender and mergers and acquisitions," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 185-200.
    13. Marianne Bertrand & Antoinette Schoar, 2003. "Managing with Style: The Effect of Managers on Firm Policies," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 118(4), pages 1169-1208.
    14. Mitchell A. Petersen, 2009. "Estimating Standard Errors in Finance Panel Data Sets: Comparing Approaches," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(1), pages 435-480, January.
    15. Barry Chiswick & Paul Miller, 2001. "A model of destination-language acquisition: Application to male immigrants in Canada," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 38(3), pages 391-409, August.
    16. Brookman, Jeff & Thistle, Paul D., 2009. "CEO tenure, the risk of termination and firm value," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 15(3), pages 331-344, June.
    17. Hackbarth, Dirk, 2008. "Managerial Traits and Capital Structure Decisions," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 43(4), pages 843-881, December.
    18. Cai, Ye & Sevilir, Merih, 2012. "Board connections and M&A transactions," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(2), pages 327-349.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jin, Ming & Chen, Fanglin & Chen, Zhongfei, 2023. "Cultural barriers in China's corporate loans," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    2. Fang, Tian Jin & Han, Jianlei & He, Jing & Shi, Jing, 2021. "Property rights protection and mergers and acquisitions," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    3. Evans Opoku‐Mensah & Yuming Yin, 2023. "Controlling shareholders' influence on acquisition decisions and value creation: An empirical study from China," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(2), pages 1965-1980, April.
    4. Hu, Huiting & Yu, Gangning & Xiong, Xueli & Guo, Lijia & Huang, Jiashun, 2022. "Cultural Diversity and Innovation: An Empirical Study from Dialect," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    5. Faff, Robert & Prasadh, Shyaam & Shams, Syed, 2019. "Merger and acquisition research in the Asia-Pacific region: A review of the evidence and future directions," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 267-278.
    6. Jiang, Jiaoliang & Chen, Yulin, 2021. "How does labor protection influence corporate risk-taking? Evidence from China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chen, Shimin & Cronqvist, Henrik & Ni, Serene & Zhang, Frank, 2017. "Languages and corporate savings behavior," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 320-341.
    2. Ines Gharbi & Mounira Hamed‐Sidhom & Khaled Hussainey & Janet Ganouati, 2021. "Religiosity and financial distress in U.S. firms," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(3), pages 3902-3915, July.
    3. Pevzner, Mikhail & Xie, Fei & Xin, Xiangang, 2015. "When firms talk, do investors listen? The role of trust in stock market reactions to corporate earnings announcements," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(1), pages 190-223.
    4. Quentin Dupont & Jonathan M. Karpoff, 2020. "The Trust Triangle: Laws, Reputation, and Culture in Empirical Finance Research," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 163(2), pages 217-238, May.
    5. Olayinka Oyekola & Olapeju C. Ogunmokun & Martha A. Omolo & Samuel Odewunmi, 2023. "Gender, Legal Origin, and Accounting Disclosure: Evidence from More Than 140,000 Firms," Discussion Papers 2313, University of Exeter, Department of Economics.
    6. Dudley, Evan & Zhang, Ning, 2016. "Trust and corporate cash holdings," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 363-387.
    7. Lina Mao & Chongluan Lu & Guangfan Sun & Chunyan Zhang & Changwei Guo, 2024. "Regional culture and corporate finance: a literature review," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-12, December.
    8. Gul, Ferdinand A. & Khedmati, Mehdi & Shams, Syed M.M., 2020. "Managerial acquisitiveness and corporate tax avoidance," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    9. Brandon N. Cline & Claudia R. Williamson, 2020. "Trust, regulation, and contracting institutions," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 26(4), pages 859-895, September.
    10. Guoqiang Hu & Jason Zezhong Xiao & Yuhan Zhen, 2022. "The Effect of Dialect Sharing on Corporate Cash Holdings in China," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 58(3), pages 393-431, September.
    11. Massa, Massimo & li, zhe & xu, niahang & Zhang, Hong, 2016. "The Impact of Sin Culture: Evidence from Earning Management and Alcohol Consumption in China," CEPR Discussion Papers 11475, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    12. Ulrike Malmendier, 2018. "Behavioral Corporate Finance," NBER Working Papers 25162, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Wei Huang & Jaehyeon Kim, 2020. "Linguistically Induced Time Perception and Asymmetric Cost Behavior," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 60(5), pages 755-785, October.
    14. Gropp, Reint E. & Radev, Deyan, 2017. "Social centralisation, bank integration and the transmission of lending shocks," IWH Discussion Papers 18/2017, Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH).
    15. Ho, Kung-Cheng & Yen, Huang-Ping & Gu, Yan & Shi, Lisi, 2020. "Does societal trust make firms more trustworthy?," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 42(C).
    16. Bedendo, Mascia & Garcia-Appendini, Emilia & Siming, Linus, 2023. "Managers' cultural origin and corporate response to an economic shock," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    17. Feng Chen & Xiaolin Chen & Weiqiang Tan & Lin Zheng, 2020. "Religiosity and cross‐country differences in trade credit use," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 60(S1), pages 909-941, April.
    18. Gropp, Reint & Radev, Deyan, 2017. "Social centralization, bank integration and the transmission of lending shocks," SAFE Working Paper Series 174, Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE.
    19. Keswani, Aneel & Medhat, Mamdouh & Miguel, Antonio F. & Ramos, Sofia B., 2020. "Uncertainty avoidance and mutual funds," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    20. Núria Rodríguez‐Planas, 2018. "Mortgage finance and culture," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(4), pages 786-821, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Language; Dialect; Mergers and acquisitions; Risk-taking behavior;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G31 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Capital Budgeting; Fixed Investment and Inventory Studies
    • G34 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Mergers; Acquisitions; Restructuring; Corporate Governance
    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:pacfin:v:49:y:2018:i:c:p:200-212. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/pacfin .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.