IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v12y2020i20p8622-d430697.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Rethinking the Role of M&As in Promoting Sustainable Development: Empirical Evidence Regarding the Relation Between the Audit Opinion and the Sustainable Performance of the Romanian Target Companies

Author

Listed:
  • Roxana Manuela Dicu

    (Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi, 11 Carol I, 700506 Iaşi, Romania)

  • Ioan-Bogdan Robu

    (Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi, 11 Carol I, 700506 Iaşi, Romania)

  • George-Marian Aevoae

    (Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi, 11 Carol I, 700506 Iaşi, Romania)

  • Daniela-Neonila Mardiros

    (Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi, 11 Carol I, 700506 Iaşi, Romania)

Abstract

External growth strategies face crucial barriers when taken into consideration for investing if the involved companies are not audited. The integrity of a company’s financial information, its control systems, and its sustainable behavior represent cornerstones when participating in mergers and acquisitions (henceforth M&As). Thus, the audit function became a must and its role increased over the years, becoming an intrinsic part of faithfully disclosing financial and nonfinancial information (sustainable reporting included). M&As are ideal when the need for rapid innovation is required, in order to maintain or develop a sustainability policy. Given the environmental issues, we analyzed a sample of 1491 target companies listed on Bucharest Stock Exchange, clustered into three categories: polluters, medium polluters, and low polluters. The study reveals that the investors’ decision to purchase a certain amount of stake in target companies is influenced by the audit opinion and the sector in which they operate, depending on their pollution status.

Suggested Citation

  • Roxana Manuela Dicu & Ioan-Bogdan Robu & George-Marian Aevoae & Daniela-Neonila Mardiros, 2020. "Rethinking the Role of M&As in Promoting Sustainable Development: Empirical Evidence Regarding the Relation Between the Audit Opinion and the Sustainable Performance of the Romanian Target Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(20), pages 1-17, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:20:p:8622-:d:430697
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/20/8622/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/20/8622/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mara Faccio & Ronald W. Masulis, 2005. "The Choice of Payment Method in European Mergers and Acquisitions," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 60(3), pages 1345-1388, June.
    2. Halme, Minna & Huse, Morten, 1997. "The influence of corporate governance, industry and country factors on environmental reporting," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 13(2), pages 137-157, June.
    3. Sanjukta Datta & Devendra Kodwani & Howard Viney, 2013. "Shareholder wealth creation following M&A: evidence from European utility sectors," Applied Financial Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(10), pages 891-900, May.
    4. Laura Sierra-Garcia & Maria Antonia Garcia-Benau & Helena Maria Bollas-Araya, 2018. "Empirical Analysis of Non-Financial Reporting by Spanish Companies," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 8(3), pages 1-17, July.
    5. Henrik Cronqvist & Fredrik Heyman & Mattias Nilsson & Helena Svaleryd & Jonas Vlachos, 2009. "Do Entrenched Managers Pay Their Workers More?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 64(1), pages 309-339, February.
    6. Amrita Nain & Yan Wang, 2018. "The Product Market Impact of Minority Stake Acquisitions," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(2), pages 825-844, February.
    7. Deng, Xin & Kang, Jun-koo & Low, Buen Sin, 2013. "Corporate social responsibility and stakeholder value maximization: Evidence from mergers," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(1), pages 87-109.
    8. Mariana Hatmanu & Christiana Brigitte Sandu & Elisabeta Jaba, 2019. "A Comparative Study on Drivers for Corporate Environmental Responsibility, EU15 vs. EU-NMS13," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(22), pages 1-27, November.
    9. David Hillier & Scott C. Linn & Patrick McColgan, 2005. "Equity Issuance, CEO Turnover and Corporate Governance," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 11(4), pages 515-538, September.
    10. Elena Alexandra Nenu & Georgeta Vintilă & Ştefan Cristian Gherghina, 2018. "The Impact of Capital Structure on Risk and Firm Performance: Empirical Evidence for the Bucharest Stock Exchange Listed Companies," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 6(2), pages 1-29, April.
    11. Patrick Beitel & Dirk Schiereck & Mark Wahrenburg, 2004. "Explaining M&A Success in European Banks," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 10(1), pages 109-139, March.
    12. Elena Ionașcu & Marilena Mironiuc & Ion Anghel & Maria Carmen Huian, 2020. "The Involvement of Real Estate Companies in Sustainable Development—An Analysis from the SDGs Reporting Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-24, January.
    13. Marco Pagano & Paolo F. Volpin, 2005. "The Political Economy of Corporate Governance," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(4), pages 1005-1030, September.
    14. John Dumay & Cristiana Bernardi & James Guthrie & Paola Demartini, 2016. "Integrated reporting: A structured literature review," Accounting Forum, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(3), pages 166-185, September.
    15. A. F. M. Mainul Ahsan, 2013. "Can Roe Be Used To Predict Portfolio Performance?," Journal of Academic Research in Economics, Spiru Haret University, Faculty of Accounting and Financial Management Constanta, vol. 5(1 (June)), pages 5-20.
    16. Berkovitch, Elazar & Narayanan, M. P., 1993. "Motives for Takeovers: An Empirical Investigation," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 28(3), pages 347-362, September.
    17. Anju Seth & Kean P Song & Richardson Pettit, 2000. "Synergy, Managerialism or Hubris? An Empirical Examination of Motives for Foreign Acquisitions of U.S. Firms," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 31(3), pages 387-405, September.
    18. Pearce, David G. & Stacchetti, Ennio, 1998. "The Interaction of Implicit and Explicit Contracts in Repeated Agency," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 75-96, April.
    19. Xiaoting Hu & Ximing Yin & Zhanming Jin & Jizhen Li, 2020. "How Do International M&As Affect Rival Firm’s Sustainable Performance? —Empirical Evidence from an Emerging Market," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-17, February.
    20. Liao, Rose C., 2014. "What drives corporate minority acquisitions around the world? The case for financial constraints," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 78-95.
    21. Camelia-Daniela Hategan & Nicoleta Sirghi & Ruxandra-Ioana Curea-Pitorac & Vasile-Petru Hategan, 2018. "Doing Well or Doing Good: The Relationship between Corporate Social Responsibility and Profit in Romanian Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-23, April.
    22. María Sarabia & Fernando Crecente & Rafael Castaño, 2019. "Why Do Sustainable Mergers Fail to Manage Entrepreneurship?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-9, January.
    23. Schmidt, Klaus M. & Schnitzer, Monika, 1995. "The interaction of explicit and implicit contracts," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 48(2), pages 193-199, May.
    24. Sorin Gabriel Anton & Ionel Bostan, 2017. "The Role of Access to Finance in Explaining Cross-National Variation in Entrepreneurial Activity: A Panel Data Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(11), pages 1-16, October.
    25. Luc Bernier & Massimo Florio & Philippe Bance, 2020. "The Routledge Handbook of State-Owned Enterprises," Post-Print hal-02613944, HAL.
    26. Chang, Jui Chin & Sun, Heuy Lian, 2009. "Crossed-listed foreign firms' earnings informativeness, earnings management and disclosures of corporate governance information under SOX," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 44(1), pages 1-32, March.
    27. Cohen, Jeffrey & Krishnamoorthy, Ganesh & Wright, Arnie, 2008. "Waste Is Our Business, Inc.: The importance of non-financial information in the audit planning process," Journal of Accounting Education, Elsevier, vol. 26(3), pages 166-178.
    28. Stefan Zeisel, 2020. "Is sustainability a moving target? A methodology for measuring CSR dynamics," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(1), pages 283-296, January.
    29. Rikard Larsson & Sydney Finkelstein, 1999. "Integrating Strategic, Organizational, and Human Resource Perspectives on Mergers and Acquisitions: A Case Survey of Synergy Realization," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 10(1), pages 1-26, February.
    30. Stuart L. Gillan & Jay C. Hartzell & Robert Parrino, 2009. "Explicit versus Implicit Contracts: Evidence from CEO Employment Agreements," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 64(4), pages 1629-1655, August.
    31. Jensen, Michael C. & Meckling, William H., 1976. "Theory of the firm: Managerial behavior, agency costs and ownership structure," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 305-360, October.
    32. Grunert, Jens & Weber, Martin, 2009. "Recovery rates of commercial lending: Empirical evidence for German companies," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 505-513, March.
    33. Hankir, Yassin & Rauch, Christian & Umber, Marc P., 2011. "Bank M&A: A market power story?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(9), pages 2341-2354, September.
    34. Croci, Ettore & Petmezas, Dimitris, 2010. "Minority shareholders' wealth effects and stock market development: Evidence from increase-in-ownership M&As," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 681-694, March.
    35. Giacomo Manetti & Simone Toccafondi, 2012. "The Role of Stakeholders in Sustainability Reporting Assurance," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 107(3), pages 363-377, May.
    36. Roll, Richard, 1986. "The Hubris Hypothesis of Corporate Takeovers," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 59(2), pages 197-216, April.
    37. Antonio Salvi & Felice Petruzzella & Anastasia Giakoumelou, 2018. "Green M&A Deals and Bidders’ Value Creation: The Role of Sustainability in Post-Acquisition Performance," International Business Research, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 11(7), pages 96-105, July.
    38. C. Edward Fee & Charles J. Hadlock & Shawn Thomas, 2006. "Corporate Equity Ownership and the Governance of Product Market Relationships," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(3), pages 1217-1251, June.
    39. Michael Polonsky & Rachid Zeffane & Patrick Medley, 1992. "Corporate environmental commitment in Australia: A sectorial comparison," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 1(2), pages 25-39, June.
    40. Evangelos Drymbetas & George Kyriazopoulos, 2014. "Short-term Stock Price Behaviour around European Cross-border Bank M&As," Journal of Applied Finance & Banking, SCIENPRESS Ltd, vol. 4(3), pages 1-3.
    41. Julia Swart & Charles van Marrewijk, 2011. "The Pollution Effects of Mergers and Acquisitions: Asymmetry, Disaggregation, and Multilateralism," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 11-073/2, Tinbergen Institute.
    42. Huang, Peng & Officer, Micah S. & Powell, Ronan, 2016. "Method of payment and risk mitigation in cross-border mergers and acquisitions," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 216-234.
    43. Thais González-Torres & José-Luis Rodríguez-Sánchez & Eva Pelechano-Barahona & Fernando E. García-Muiña, 2020. "A Systematic Review of Research on Sustainability in Mergers and Acquisitions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-18, January.
    44. Christa H. S. Bouwman & Kathleen Fuller & Amrita S. Nain, 2009. "Market Valuation and Acquisition Quality: Empirical Evidence," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(2), pages 633-679, February.
    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. Ionel Bostan, 2021. "Special Issue “Audit and Financial Control Tools Aimed at Ensuring the Sustainable Performance of Organizations”," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-4, September.
    2. Ying Sun & Li Liu, 2022. "Green Credit Policy and Enterprise Green M&As: An Empirical Test from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-22, November.
    3. Karolis Andriuškevičius & Dalia Štreimikienė, 2022. "Sustainability Framework for Assessment of Mergers and Acquisitions in Energy Sector," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-20, June.

    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. Dong, Yizhe & Li, Chang & Li, Haoyu, 2021. "Customer concentration and M&A performance," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    2. Renneboog, Luc & Vansteenkiste, Cara, 2019. "Failure and success in mergers and acquisitions," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 650-699.
    3. Renneboog, Luc & Vansteenkiste, Cara, 2019. "Failure and success in mergers and acquisitions," Other publications TiSEM 9baa3ffc-67cb-4647-9da5-a, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    4. Andrey Golubov & Dimitris Petmezas & Nickolaos G. Travlos, 2013. "Empirical mergers and acquisitions research: a review of methods, evidence and managerial implications," Chapters, in: Adrian R. Bell & Chris Brooks & Marcel Prokopczuk (ed.), Handbook of Research Methods and Applications in Empirical Finance, chapter 12, pages 287-313, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    5. Sheikh, Shahbaz, 2018. "Corporate social responsibility, product market competition, and firm value," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 40-55.
    6. Ayton, Julie & Rao-Nicholson, Rekha, 2018. "Cross-border arbitrage and acquirers’ returns in the Eurozone crisis," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 87-102.
    7. Malcolm Arnold & David Parker, 2009. "Stock market perceptions of the motives for mergers in cases reviewed by the UK competition authorities: an empirical analysis," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(4), pages 211-233.
    8. Sanjukta Brahma & Agyenim Boateng & Sardar Ahmad, 2023. "Board overconfidence and M&A performance: evidence from the UK," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 60(4), pages 1363-1391, May.
    9. Neelam Rani & Surendra S. Yadav & P.K. Jain, 2013. "Market Response to the Announcement of Mergers and Acquisitions: An Empirical Study from India," Vision, , vol. 17(1), pages 1-16, March.
    10. Feito-Ruiz, Isabel & Menéndez-Requejo, Susana, 2011. "Cross-border Mergers and Acquisitions in different legal environments," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 169-187, September.
    11. Dang, Man & Henry, Darren, 2016. "Partial-control versus full-control acquisitions: Does target corporate governance matter? Evidence from eight East and Southeast Asian countries," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 40(PB), pages 251-265.
    12. Chowdhury, Rajib & Doukas, John A. & Park, Jong Chool, 2021. "Stakeholder orientation and the value of cash holdings: Evidence from a natural experiment," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    13. Sehleanu Mariana, 2015. "Creating Or Destroying Value Through Mergers And Acquisitions?," Annals of Faculty of Economics, University of Oradea, Faculty of Economics, vol. 1(1), pages 593-600, July.
    14. Hwang, Hyoseok (David) & Kim, Hyun-Dong & Kim, Taeyeon, 2020. "The blind power: Power-led CEO overconfidence and M&A decision making," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    15. Taher Hamza, 2011. "Determinants of short-term value creation for the bidder: evidence from France," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 15(2), pages 157-186, May.
    16. 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).
    17. Jongmoo Jay Choi & Hoje Jo & Jimi Kim & Moo Sung Kim, 2018. "Business Groups and Corporate Social Responsibility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 153(4), pages 931-954, December.
    18. Alexandridis, G. & Antypas, N. & Travlos, N., 2017. "Value creation from M&As: New evidence," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 632-650.
    19. Chakraborty, Atreya & Gao, Lucia Silva & Sheikh, Shahbaz, 2019. "Managerial risk taking incentives, corporate social responsibility and firm risk," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 58-72.
    20. Patrick Velte & Martin Stawinoga, 2017. "Empirical research on corporate social responsibility assurance (CSRA): A literature review," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 87(8), pages 1017-1066, November.

    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:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:20:p:8622-:d:430697. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.