IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecmode/v158y2026ics0264999326000581.html

Accumulating cross-border M&A experience and its impact on enterprise innovation: Evidence from China

Author

Listed:
  • Li, Jing
  • Ding, Yibing
  • Fu, Yingjie

Abstract

Accumulating cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&A) experience reflects a dynamic learning process for firms, yet its impact on innovation remains uncertain. Using data on Chinese firms involved in cross-border M&A from 2009 to 2020, this study investigates how accumulated M&A experience influences corporate innovation. The findings show that M&A experience significantly enhances innovation performance. Mechanism analyses suggest that accumulated experience promotes innovation by easing growth pressure and strengthening resource competitiveness, while R&D manipulation weakens this positive effect. Heterogeneity analyses reveal that the impact is stronger for state-owned enterprises, firms with low R&D capacity, and those undertaking M&A within the same industry. Both technology-oriented and non-technology-oriented M&A experience are found to contribute to innovation. Overall, this study enriches the literature by offering new evidence on how accumulated cross-border M&A experience fosters innovation and provides insights for firms seeking to enhance innovation through international expansion.

Suggested Citation

  • Li, Jing & Ding, Yibing & Fu, Yingjie, 2026. "Accumulating cross-border M&A experience and its impact on enterprise innovation: Evidence from China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecmode:v:158:y:2026:i:c:s0264999326000581
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econmod.2026.107529
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264999326000581
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.econmod.2026.107529?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

    for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • F21 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Investment; Long-Term Capital Movements
    • F23 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - Multinational Firms; International Business
    • G34 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Mergers; Acquisitions; Restructuring; Corporate Governance
    • L2 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior
    • O31 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives

    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:ecmode:v:158:y:2026:i:c:s0264999326000581. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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/inca/30411 .

    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.