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How Swiss small and medium-sized firms assess the performance impact of mergers and acquisitions

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  • Spyros Arvanitis
  • Tobias Stucki

Abstract

While previous studies on mergers and acquisitions (M&As) mostly relied on large firms, our study is based on a sample that includes all Swiss M&As that took place in the period 2006–2008, mostly of which have been SMEs. We investigate the firm characteristics that determine the innovation and economic performance of M&As. The performance measures are based on firms’ assessments. These measures are regressed on a series of possible determining factors as postulated in existing theoretical and empirical literature. M&A performance is primarily affected by specific M&A characteristics, but not by general market characteristics such as demand development or competition conditions. Rather astonishingly, it is also not affected by firm characteristics such as capital intensity, human capital endowment and firm size. There is an interesting exception: innovation activities. This means that, with the remarkable exception of innovation activities, the level of M&A performance is determined primarily by factors of the M&A process itself. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014

Suggested Citation

  • Spyros Arvanitis & Tobias Stucki, 2014. "How Swiss small and medium-sized firms assess the performance impact of mergers and acquisitions," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 42(2), pages 339-360, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:sbusec:v:42:y:2014:i:2:p:339-360
    DOI: 10.1007/s11187-013-9482-z
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    Cited by:

    1. Pavlova, Elitsa & Signore, Simone, 2021. "The European venture capital landscape: An EIF perspective. Volume VI: The impact of VC on the exit and innovation outcomes of EIF-backed start-ups," EIF Working Paper Series 2021/70, European Investment Fund (EIF).
    2. Alexandra Tsvetkova & Jean-Claude Thill & Deborah Strumsky, 2014. "Metropolitan innovation, firm size, and business survival in a high-tech industry," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 43(3), pages 661-676, October.
    3. Jinho Choi & Sunghun Chung & Yong Sik Chang, 2019. "Is M&A Information Useful for Exploring Promising Industries and Technologies?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-19, December.
    4. Liviu WARTER & Iulian WARTER, 2017. "The Phenomenon of Merger and Acquisition within the Automotive Industry," North Economic Review, Technical University of Cluj Napoca, Department of Economics and Physics, vol. 1(1), pages 208-215, October.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Mergers and acquisitions; Economic performance; Innovation performance; Micro-data; L20; O31; L26;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L20 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - General
    • O31 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives

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