IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/aug/augsbe/0307.html

Entrepreneurial Human Capital, Complementary Assets, and Takeover Probability

Author

Abstract

Gaining access to technologies, competencies, and knowledge is observed as one of the major motives for corporate mergers and acquisitions. In this paper we show that a knowledge-based firm’s probability of being a takeover target is influenced by whether relevant specific human capital aimed for in acquisitions is directly accumulated within a specific firm or is bound to its founder or manager owner.We analyze the incentive effects of different arrangements of ownership in a firm’s assets in the spirit of the Grossman-Hart-Moore incomplete contracts theory of the firm. This approach highlights the organizational significance of ownership of complementary assets. In a small theoretical model we assume that the entrepreneur’s specific human capital, as measured by the patents they own, and the physical assets of their firm are productive only when used together. Our results show that it is not worthwhile for an acquirer to purchase the alienable assets of this firm due to weakened incentives for the initial owner. Regression analysis using a hand collected dataset of all German IPOs in the period from 1997 to 2006 subsequently provides empirical support for this prediction.This paper adds to previous research in that it puts empirical evidence to the Grossman-Hart-Moore framework of incomplete contracts or property rights respectively. Secondly, we show that relevant specific human capital that is accumulated by a firm’s founder or manager owner significantly decreases that firm’s probability of being a takeover target.

Suggested Citation

  • Thorsten V. Braun & Sebastian Krispin & Erik E. Lehmann, 2009. "Entrepreneurial Human Capital, Complementary Assets, and Takeover Probability," Discussion Paper Series 307, Universitaet Augsburg, Institute for Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:aug:augsbe:0307
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://opus.bibliothek.uni-augsburg.de/opus4/files/71120/307.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Lehmann, Erik, 2018. "Corporate governance," UO Working Papers 01-18, University of Augsburg, Chair of Management and Organization.
    3. Signori, Andrea & Vismara, Silvio, 2018. "M&A synergies and trends in IPOs," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 141-153.
    4. Michele Meoli & Stefano Paleari & Silvio Vismara, 2019. "The governance of universities and the establishment of academic spin-offs," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 52(2), pages 485-504, February.
    5. David B. Audretsch & Erik E. Lehmann, 2013. "Corporate governance in newly listed companies," Chapters, in: Mario Levis & Silvio Vismara (ed.), Handbook of Research on IPOs, chapter 9, pages 179-206, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    6. Erik E. Lehmann & Manuel T. Schwerdtfeger, 2016. "Evaluation of IPO-firm takeovers: an event study," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 47(4), pages 921-938, December.
    7. Svenja Jarchow & Andrea Röhm, 2019. "Patent-based investment funds: from invention to innovation," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 44(2), pages 404-433, April.
    8. Suman Lodh & Nitin Deshmukh & Alireza Rohani, 2024. "Stemming the tide: Does climate risk affect M&A performance?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(2), pages 858-881, February.
    9. Signori, Andrea & Vismara, Silvio, 2018. "Does success bring success? The post-offering lives of equity-crowdfunded firms," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 575-591.
    10. Andrea Signori & Silvio Vismara, 2017. "Stock-financed M&As of newly listed firms," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 48(1), pages 115-134, January.
    11. Mattia Cattaneo & Michele Meoli & Silvio Vismara, 2015. "Cross-border M&As of biotech firms affiliated with internationalized universities," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 40(3), pages 409-433, June.
    12. Niccolò Ghio & Massimiliano Guerini & Erik Lehmann & Cristina Rossi-Lamastra, 2015. "The emergence of the knowledge spillover theory of entrepreneurship," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 44(1), pages 1-18, January.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill
    • D23 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Organizational Behavior; Transaction Costs; Property Rights
    • G34 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Mergers; Acquisitions; Restructuring; Corporate Governance

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:aug:augsbe:0307. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Dr. Simone Raab-Kratzmeier (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ivaugde.html .

    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.