IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/corfin/v35y2015icp389-406.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Employee–management trust and M&A activity

Author

Listed:
  • Bargeron, Leonce
  • Lehn, Kenneth
  • Smith, Jared

Abstract

We examine the relation between the trust that employees have in management and the M&A activity of firms. We measure this trust by using rankings compiled by the Great Place to Work Institute (GPWI) from 1998 to 2011. Although the volume of M&A activity is not significantly different for firms with strong cultures of trust (“SCT firms”) versus other firms, the relative size of acquisitions announced by SCT firms is significantly smaller than the size of acquisitions announced by other firms. Furthermore, when SCT firms announce relatively large acquisitions, bidder returns and the percent change in the combined values of bidders and targets are lower than the corresponding returns for other firms. Finally, when SCT firms make large acquisitions, they are significantly more likely to suffer a loss in their GPWI ranking as compared with other SCT firms. Overall, the results are consistent with the conclusion that the M&A policies of firms are influenced by a culture of trust between employees and management.

Suggested Citation

  • Bargeron, Leonce & Lehn, Kenneth & Smith, Jared, 2015. "Employee–management trust and M&A activity," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 389-406.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:corfin:v:35:y:2015:i:c:p:389-406
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2015.07.012
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0929119915000851
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2015.07.012?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. Smith, Clifford Jr. & Watts, Ross L., 1992. "The investment opportunity set and corporate financing, dividend, and compensation policies," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 263-292, December.
    2. Malmendier, Ulrike & Tate, Geoffrey, 2008. "Who makes acquisitions? CEO overconfidence and the market's reaction," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(1), pages 20-43, July.
    3. Guiso, Luigi & Sapienza, Paola & Zingales, Luigi, 2015. "The value of corporate culture," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(1), pages 60-76.
    4. Edmans, Alex, 2011. "Does the stock market fully value intangibles? Employee satisfaction and equity prices," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(3), pages 621-640, September.
    5. Sanjeev Bhojraj & Charles M. C. Lee & Derek K. Oler, 2003. "What's My Line? A Comparison of Industry Classification Schemes for Capital Market Research," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(5), pages 745-774, December.
    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. Zhu, Bing & Xia, Xiaoxue & Zheng, Xiaojia, 2021. "One way out of the share pledging quagmire: Evidence from mergers and acquisitions," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    2. Ralf Bebenroth & Kashif Ahmed, 2021. "Japanese firms' overpayments for cross‐border acquisitions," International Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(2), pages 257-273, August.
    3. Becker, Mary & Cardazzi, Alexander & McGurk, Zachary, 2022. "Employee satisfaction and stock returns during the COVID-19 Pandemic," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 33(C).
    4. Doukas, John A. & Zhang, Rongyao, 2021. "Managerial ability, corporate social culture, and M&As," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    5. Alexandridis, George & Hoepner, Andreas G.F. & Huang, Zhenyi & Oikonomou, Ioannis, 2022. "Corporate social responsibility culture and international M&As," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(1).
    6. Ongsakul, Viput & Chatjuthamard, Pattanaporn & Jiraporn, Pornsit & Chaivisuttangkun, Sirithida, 2021. "Corporate integrity and hostile takeover threats: Evidence from machine learning and “CEO luck”," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(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. Benmelech, Efraim & Frydman, Carola, 2015. "Military CEOs," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(1), pages 43-59.
    2. Amal Aouadi & Sylvain Marsat, 2018. "Do ESG Controversies Matter for Firm Value? Evidence from International Data," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 151(4), pages 1027-1047, September.
    3. Karl V. Lins & Henri Servaes & Ane Tamayo, 2017. "Social Capital, Trust, and Firm Performance: The Value of Corporate Social Responsibility during the Financial Crisis," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 72(4), pages 1785-1824, August.
    4. Chen, Jie & Leung, Woon Sau & Evans, Kevin P., 2016. "Are employee-friendly workplaces conducive to innovation?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 61-79.
    5. Servaes, Henri & Amiraslani, Hami & Lins, Karl & Tamayo, Ane, 2017. "A Matter of Trust? The Bond Market Benefits of Corporate Social Capital during the Financial Crisis," CEPR Discussion Papers 12321, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    6. James Bannister & Harry Newman & Joseph Weintrop, 2011. "Tests for relative performance evaluation based on assumptions derived from proxy statement disclosures," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 37(2), pages 127-148, August.
    7. Plaksina, Yulia & Gallagher, Liam & Dowling, Michael, 2019. "CEO social status and M&A decision making," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 282-300.
    8. Barnes, Spencer & Cheng, Yingmei, 2023. "Employee approval of CEOs and firm value: Evidence from Employees' choice awards," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    9. Wu, Qiang & Dbouk, Wassim & Hasan, Iftekhar & Kobeissi, Nada & Zheng, Li, 2021. "Does gender affect innovation? Evidence from female chief technology officers," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(9).
    10. David Tsui & Marshall Vance, 2023. "Sorting Effects of Broad-Based Equity Compensation," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 69(7), pages 4240-4258, July.
    11. Zifeng Feng & William G. Hardin & Zhonghua Wu, 2022. "Employee productivity and REIT performance," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 50(1), pages 59-88, March.
    12. Phillip J. Quinn, 2018. "Shifting corporate culture: executive stock ownership plan adoptions and incentives to meet or just beat analysts’ expectations," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 23(2), pages 654-685, June.
    13. Servaes, Henri & Tamayo, Ane, 2015. "Social Capital, Trust, and Firm Performance during the Financial Crisis," CEPR Discussion Papers 10399, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    14. Ferreira, Daniel & Athanasakou, Vasiliki & Goh, Lisa, 2017. "Changes in CEO Stock Option Grants: A Look at the Numbers," CEPR Discussion Papers 12318, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    15. Chakravarty, Sugato & Hegde, Prasad, 2019. "The joint entrance exam, overconfident directors and firm performance," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 298-318.
    16. Liu, Xin & Yin, Chengxi & Zheng, Weinan, 2021. "The invisible burden," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    17. Chenyu Shan & Dragon Yongjun Tang, 2023. "The Value of Employee Satisfaction in Disastrous Times: Evidence from COVID-19," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 27(3), pages 1027-1076.
    18. David Hillier & Patrick McColgan & Athanasios Tsekeris, 2022. "How did the Sarbanes–Oxley Act affect managerial incentives? Evidence from corporate acquisitions," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 58(4), pages 1395-1450, May.
    19. Bao, May Xiaoyan & Cheng, Xiaoyan & Smith, David, 2020. "A path analysis investigation of the relationships between CEO pay ratios and firm performance mediated by employee satisfaction," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 48(C).
    20. Amin, Md Ruhul & Kim, Incheol & Lee, Suin, 2021. "Local religiosity, workplace safety, and firm value," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Culture; Trust; Mergers; Acquisitions;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G34 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Mergers; Acquisitions; Restructuring; Corporate Governance

    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:corfin:v:35:y:2015:i:c:p:389-406. 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/jcorpfin .

    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.