Cross-border acquisition performance of emerging market multinational enterprises: The moderating role of state-ownership and acquisition experience

This paper draws on the resource-based view and organizational learning theory to analyse the moderating role played by state ownership and acquisition experience in the performance of emerging market multinational enterprises (EMNEs). We contribute to the evolving literature on state-owned EMNEs by identifying various post cross-border acquisition (CBA) strategies, which have an impact on the performance of such firms that differs for the one they have on privately owned EMNEs. We test our hypotheses by performing a panel regression analysis on a large firmlevel dataset spanning 43 emerging markets over the 2006-2015 period. Overall, our findings point at an inverted U-shape relationship between diversification through CBAs and firm performance. More specifically, this concave relationship is greater when the diversification occurs in developed countries, as opposed to emerging ones. Furthermore, there is evidence that stateownership and EMNE acquisition experience moderate these relationships both in domestic and foreign markets, albeit with different intensities.

Automated summary

This paper analyzes the impact of state ownership and acquisition experience on the performance of emerging market multinational enterprises (EMNEs) using the resource-based view and organizational learning theory. It finds an inverted U-shape relationship between diversification through cross-border acquisitions and firm performance, with greater impact in developed countries. State ownership and EMNE acquisition experience moderate these relationships in both domestic and foreign markets.