Seminar (Dept. of General Management)

Theme：Corporate Social Responsibility and Acquisition Performance：The Role of Complementary Stakeholder Management Capabilities

Speaker：Ruxi Wang (Assistant Professor of Business School, Renmin University of China)

Time：2021-05-14 10:30

Address：Tencent Meeting

Language：Chinese/English

Tencent Meeting：https://meeting.tencent.com/s/g8ABGCb1ymt6

Meeting ID：889 343 706

Password：0514

ABSTRACT:

Combining insights from the resource-based view and capabilities literatures, we examine the effect of CSR complementarity between the acquirer and target firms on acquisition performance. We argue that greater CSR complementarity – defined as the differences in CSR strengths between the acquirer and target – offers potential for improvement and synergies in stakeholder management capabilities, less resource duplication, and greater reputational gains. Data from 479 acquisitions in the US reveal that high CSR complementarity has a positive effect on acquisition performance. Further, we also explore industry effects, finding that when acquiring firms operate in industries with low growth, this positive effect is strengthened. Taken as a whole, these findings suggest that shareholders consider the combined firms’ portfolio of stakeholder management capabilities and their ability to fully leverage this complementarity when evaluating the synergistic potential of a proposed acquisition