IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ete/msiper/752913.html

Technology differentiation, product market rivalry and M&A transactions

Author

Listed:
  • Samuel Arts
  • Bruno Cassiman
  • Jianan Hou

Abstract

We study how unique firm technology influences M&A activity. Using a text-based network approach, we map each firm’s position relative to every other firm in technology space to measure the uniqueness of its technology portfolio. Our findings indicate that firms with more unique technology portfolios become prime acquisition targets, particularly for close competitors within the same product market segments. These competitors seek to reduce competition and incorporate unique technologies to strengthen their competitive advantage. Furthermore, firms with unique technology portfolios tend to attract acquirers with closer technological proximity, facilitating the evaluation and integration of these technology assets. Our study underscores unique technology as a critical asset in the market for corporate control and a key driver of M&A transactions.

Suggested Citation

  • Samuel Arts & Bruno Cassiman & Jianan Hou, 2024. "Technology differentiation, product market rivalry and M&A transactions," Working Papers of Department of Management, Strategy and Innovation, Leuven 752913, KU Leuven, Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB), Department of Management, Strategy and Innovation, Leuven.
    • Handle: RePEc:ete:msiper:752913
    Note: paper number MSI_2411
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://lirias.kuleuven.be/retrieve/02d3f144-1272-4d29-9012-03bcf4fa2ae3
    File Function: Published version
    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. Jiang, Wenbo & Hong, Yong & Cui, Miao & Qu, Yongyi, 2026. "To be similar or unique? Exploring firms' pursuit of optimal technological relatedness to enhance technological impact: The role of firm size and competitor density," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 222(C).
    3. Zhou, Jiaxin & Liang, Yaojia & Sun, Zhendong & Zhang, Qianqian, 2025. "Synergistic integration in the digital economy: The impact and mechanisms of digital M&A on corporate technological diversification," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 108(PA).
    4. You, Li & Xu, Jingwei & Qiu, Wenkang & Liao, Bing, 2025. "Signaling legitimacy for technology differentiation: the distinct roles of government subsidies," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 86(PB).

    More about this item

    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:ete:msiper:752913. 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: library EBIB (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://feb.kuleuven.be/MSI .

    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.