High-tech acquisitions: How acquisition pace, venture maturity, and founder retention influence firm innovation

Technology acquisitions are one of the most popular, yet difficult means of responding to competitors new technologies. However, decades of acquisition research cautions against an overly acquisitive strategy. To understand this, we build on organizational renewal research and organizational learning theory to examine whether and when firms benefit from the acquisition of entrepreneurial technology ventures in response to technological change. We theorize that heterogeneity among firm’s acquisition activities (i.e., pace, venture maturity, and retention of the ventures’ founders) plays an important and nuanced role in new knowledge creation. Using data on US mobile operating systems following the introduction of the iPhone (2006–2015), we find that, all else being equal, firms with a higher acquisition pace benefitted and those that acquired mid-maturity ventures in response to technological change were more likely to have positive outcomes relative to firms that acquire nascent or older ventures. Further, our findings suggest that founder retention is not equally beneficial for all ventures—founder retention is most beneficial for mid-maturity ventures.