Ownership in cross-border acquisitions and entry timing of the target firm

We examine how the entry timing of targets influences the initial and the post-entry percentage of ownership acquired by multinationals. We argue that targets that have entered earlier into the market launch signals of lower uncertainty in contexts where first-mover advantages exist. As a consequence, multinationals are willing to buy higher levels of ownership in these early entrant targets and to increase their participation in the subsidiary equity in the post-entry stage. Finding support for these relationships, we study how market age and innovative behaviour of the target reduce the importance of leading time as determinant of the ownership decision.