Acquisition experience, board characteristics, and acquisition behavior

Literature on acquisition places more concern on the consequence of an acquisition event and pays less attention to what factors influence the motive for initiating the acquisition strategy of a firm. Through the lenses of organizational learning and corporate governance theories, the study examine whether the prior acquisition experience and board characteristics affect firms' acquisition behavior. Hypotheses are tested on a sample of 92 acquisition events of Taiwanese electronics firms during the period from 1997 to 2007 by employing the survival function model. Empirical results indicate that business acquisition experience positively influence the inclination of the acquirer adopting a subsequent acquisition, while board characteristics do not relate to the likelihood of the acquirer making a subsequent acquisition. These findings provide theoretical and managerial implications for organizational learning and corporate governance theories in general and acquisition management in particular.