In vino vanitas: Social dynamics and performance of Chinese château acquisitions in the Bordeaux vineyards

This paper seeks to identify the social dynamics underlying ″socially driven″ acquisitions and their effect on post-acquisition performance. Drawing on research into social stratification, we formulate hypotheses on how these socially driven acquisitions perform in relation to both the position held by the acquirers’ top managers (CEOs and owners) in the social hierarchy and the extent to which the acquisition context is socially loaded (prestigious). We examine these hypotheses empirically using a sample of 123 Bordeaux châteaux acquired by Chinese companies between 2008 and 2015. Our results show that social dynamics substantially influence post-acquisition performance: socially driven acquisitions can lead to positive performance when their aim is (social) status enhancement, while those that target elite-membership reassertion, defined as conspicuous acquisitions, perform less well. These results encourage the acquisition literature to reconsider the assumed negative post-acquisition performance of self-interest acquisitions. The paper also proposes a broad view of acquisitions, which includes social dynamics.