[go: up one dir, main page]

IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/respol/v38y2009i6p1021-1031.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Effects of foreign acquisitions on R&D activity: Evidence from firm-level data for France

Author

Listed:
  • Bertrand, Olivier
Abstract
This paper investigates the causal effect of foreign acquisitions on the research and development (R&D) activities of domestic target firms over the period 1994-2004. Using accounting data on French innovative manufacturing firms, we implement appropriate difference-in-difference estimation techniques associated with a matching propensity score procedure. We find that the acquisitions of French firms by foreign companies boost R&D spending. There is a simultaneous rise in the external and in-house R&D expenditures of French acquired firms. R&D is more contracted out to local research providers, in particular to local public laboratories and universities. The increase in internal R&D spending benefits to development, but also basic and applied research. Finally, the growth of the R&D budget is not only financed by internal resources but also receives financing from external partners, especially parent companies. Thus, our results call into question the idea that foreign takeovers hamper the R&D development of target firms and are detrimental to the national innovation system of the host country. First, acquisitions appear to bring efficiency gains enough to counterbalance the various costs of integration and market power effects, pushing firms to invest more in R&D. Acquisitions do not seem to incite managers to take shorter term and more financial driven decisions at the expense of R&D. Second, when motivated by technology sourcing and overseas R&D development, acquisitions might be used to access the specific know-how of target firms and to tap into the knowledge of the national innovation system. Then, purchaser firms could be more likely to develop the innovative capability of target firms and to strengthen their linkages with local partners than to reduce them and relocate R&D abroad.

Suggested Citation

  • Bertrand, Olivier, 2009. "Effects of foreign acquisitions on R&D activity: Evidence from firm-level data for France," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(6), pages 1021-1031, July.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:respol:v:38:y:2009:i:6:p:1021-1031
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048-7333(09)00049-3
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. d'Aspremont, Claude & Jacquemin, Alexis, 1988. "Cooperative and Noncooperative R&D in Duopoly with Spillovers," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 78(5), pages 1133-1137, December.
    2. Bruce Kogut & Udo Zander, 1992. "Knowledge of the Firm, Combinative Capabilities, and the Replication of Technology," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 3(3), pages 383-397, August.
    3. Walter Kuemmerle, 1999. "The Drivers of Foreign Direct Investment into Research and Development: An Empirical Investigation," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 30(1), pages 1-24, March.
    4. Gugler, Klaus & Mueller, Dennis C. & Yurtoglu, B. Burcin & Zulehner, Christine, 2003. "The effects of mergers: an international comparison," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 21(5), pages 625-653, May.
    5. Gooroochurn, Nishaal & Hanley, Aoife, 2007. "A tale of two literatures: Transaction costs and property rights in innovation outsourcing," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(10), pages 1483-1495, December.
    6. Kogut, Bruce & Chang, Sea Jin, 1991. "Technological Capabilities and Japanese Foreign Direct Investment in the United States," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 73(3), pages 401-413, August.
    7. Ornaghi, Carmine, 2009. "Mergers and innovation in big pharma," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 70-79, January.
    8. McAfee, R Preston & Simons, Joseph J & Williams, Michael A, 1992. "Horizontal Mergers in Spatially Differentiated Noncooperative Markets," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(4), pages 349-358, December.
    9. Andrei Shleifer & Lawrence H. Summers, 1988. "Breach of Trust in Hostile Takeovers," NBER Chapters, in: Corporate Takeovers: Causes and Consequences, pages 33-68, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Jensen, Michael C, 1986. "Agency Costs of Free Cash Flow, Corporate Finance, and Takeovers," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(2), pages 323-329, May.
    11. Todd R. Zenger, 1994. "Explaining Organizational Diseconomies of Scale in R&D: Agency Problems and the Allocation of Engineering Talent, Ideas, and Effort by Firm Size," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 40(6), pages 708-729, June.
    12. Bertrand, Olivier & Zuniga, Pluvia, 2006. "R&D and M&A: Are cross-border M&A different? An investigation on OECD countries," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 401-423, March.
    13. Neven, D. & Siotis, G., 1996. "Technology sourcing and FDI in the EC: An empirical evaluation," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 14(5), pages 543-560, July.
    14. Cassiman, Bruno & Perez-Castrillo, David & Veugelers, Reinhilde, 2002. "Endogenizing know-how flows through the nature of R&D investments," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 20(6), pages 775-799, June.
    15. Patricia M. Danzon & Andrew Epstein & Sean Nicholson, 2007. "Mergers and acquisitions in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(4-5), pages 307-328.
    16. Nilsson Hakkala, Katariina & Bertrand, Olivier & Norbäck, Pehr-Johan & Persson, Lars, 2008. "Should RD Champions be Protected from Foreign Takeovers?," Discussion Papers 459, VATT Institute for Economic Research.
    17. Reinganum, Jennifer F, 1983. "Uncertain Innovation and the Persistence of Monopoly," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 73(4), pages 741-748, September.
    18. Alan J. Auerbach, 1988. "Corporate Takeovers: Causes and Consequences," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number auer88-1.
    19. Richard Blundell & Monica Costa Dias, 2000. "Evaluation methods for non-experimental data," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 21(4), pages 427-468, January.
    20. van Beers, Cees & Berghäll, Elina & Poot, Tom, 2008. "R&D internationalization, R&D collaboration and public knowledge institutions in small economies: Evidence from Finland and the Netherlands," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 294-308, March.
    21. Cohen, Wesley M & Levinthal, Daniel A, 1989. "Innovation and Learning: The Two Faces of R&D," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 99(397), pages 569-596, September.
    22. Frey, Rainer & Hussinger, Katrin, 2006. "The role of technology in M&As: a firm-level comparison of cross-border and domestic deals," Discussion Paper Series 1: Economic Studies 2006,45, Deutsche Bundesbank.
    23. Shimizutani, Satoshi & Todo, Yasuyuki, 2008. "What determines overseas R&D activities? The case of Japanese multinational firms," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 530-544, April.
    24. Nathan ROSENBERG, 2009. "Why do firms do basic research (with their own money)?," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Nathan Rosenberg (ed.), Studies On Science And The Innovation Process Selected Works of Nathan Rosenberg, chapter 11, pages 225-234, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    25. Quélin, Bertrand & Duhamel, François, 2003. "Bringing Together Strategic Outsourcing and Corporate Strategy:: Outsourcing Motives and Risks," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 21(5), pages 647-661, October.
    26. Levy, David T & Reitzes, James D, 1992. "Anticompetitive Effects of Mergers in Markets with Localized Competition," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 8(2), pages 427-440, April.
    27. James D. Reitzes & David T. Levy, 1995. "Price Discrimination and Mergers," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 28(2), pages 427-436, May.
    28. Bronwyn Hall, 2004. "The financing of research and development," Chapters, in: Anthony Bartzokas & Sunil Mani (ed.), Financial Systems, Corporate Investment in Innovation, and Venture Capital, chapter 2, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    29. Meyer, Bruce D, 1995. "Natural and Quasi-experiments in Economics," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 13(2), pages 151-161, April.
    30. Kumar, Nagesh, 2001. "Determinants of location of overseas R&D activity of multinational enterprises: the case of US and Japanese corporations1," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 159-174, January.
    31. Jacquemin, Alexis & Slade, Margaret E., 1989. "Cartels, collusion, and horizontal merger," Handbook of Industrial Organization, in: R. Schmalensee & R. Willig (ed.), Handbook of Industrial Organization, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 7, pages 415-473, Elsevier.
    32. Capron, Laurence & Mitchell, Will, 1998. "Bilateral Resource Redeployment and Capabilities Improvement Following Horizontal Acquisitions," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 7(3), pages 453-484, September.
    33. Norback, Pehr-Johan & Persson, Lars, 2007. "Investment liberalization -- Why a restrictive cross-border merger policy can be counterproductive," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(2), pages 366-380, July.
    34. Norback, Pehr-Johan, 2001. "Multinational firms, technology and location," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(2), pages 449-469, August.
    35. Petit, Maria-Luisa & Sanna-Randaccio, Francesca, 2000. "Endogenous R&D and foreign direct investment in international oligopolies," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 339-367, February.
    36. James J. Heckman & Hidehiko Ichimura & Petra E. Todd, 1997. "Matching As An Econometric Evaluation Estimator: Evidence from Evaluating a Job Training Programme," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 64(4), pages 605-654.
    37. Veugelers, Reinhilde & Cassiman, Bruno, 1999. "Make and buy in innovation strategies: evidence from Belgian manufacturing firms," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 63-80, January.
    38. Cassiman, Bruno & Colombo, Massimo G. & Garrone, Paola & Veugelers, Reinhilde, 2005. "The impact of M&A on the R&D process: An empirical analysis of the role of technological- and market-relatedness," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 195-220, March.
    39. Francesca Sanna-Randaccio & Reinhilde Veugelers, 2007. "Multinational knowledge spillovers with decentralised R&D: a game-theoretic approach," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 38(1), pages 47-63, January.
    40. Harris, Robert S & Ravenscraft, David, 1991. "The Role of Acquisitions in Foreign Direct Investment: Evidence from the U.S. Stock Market," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 46(3), pages 825-844, July.
    41. Rajeev H. Dehejia & Sadek Wahba, 2002. "Propensity Score-Matching Methods For Nonexperimental Causal Studies," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 84(1), pages 151-161, February.
    42. Caves, Richard E., 1989. "Mergers, takeovers, and economic efficiency : Foresight vs. hindsight," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 7(1), pages 151-174, March.
    43. James Love & Stephen Roper, 2002. "Internal Versus External R&D: A Study of R&D Choice with Sample Selection," International Journal of the Economics of Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(2), pages 239-255.
    44. Wilbur Chung & Juan Alcácer, 2002. "Knowledge Seeking and Location Choice of Foreign Direct Investment in the United States," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 48(12), pages 1534-1554, December.
    45. Lori Rosenkopf & Paul Almeida, 2003. "Overcoming Local Search Through Alliances and Mobility," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 49(6), pages 751-766, June.
    46. Lori Rosenkopf & Atul Nerkar, 2001. "Beyond local search: boundary‐spanning, exploration, and impact in the optical disk industry," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(4), pages 287-306, April.
    47. Paola Criscuolo & Rajneesh Narula & Bart Verspagen, 2005. "Role of home and host country innovation systems in r&d internationalisation: a patent citation analysis," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(5), pages 417-433.
    48. Veugelers, Reinhilde, 1997. "Internal R & D expenditures and external technology sourcing," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 26(3), pages 303-315, October.
    49. Ashish Arora & Marco Ceccagnoli & Marco Da Rin, "undated". "Corporate Restructuring and R&D: A Panel Data Analysis for the Chemical Industry," Working Papers 173, IGIER (Innocenzo Gasparini Institute for Economic Research), Bocconi University.
    50. Kamien,Morton I. & Schwartz,Nancy L., 1982. "Market Structure and Innovation," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521293853, December.
    51. Ebersberger, Bernd & Johansson, Börje & Lööf, Hans, 2006. "Does Ownership Matter? The Impact of Foreign Takeovers on Innovation and Productivity Performance," Working Paper Series in Economics and Institutions of Innovation 69, Royal Institute of Technology, CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies.
    52. B. Douglas Bernheim & Michael D. Whinston, 1990. "Multimarket Contact and Collusive Behavior," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 21(1), pages 1-26, Spring.
    53. Bruno Cassiman & Reinhilde Veugelers, 2006. "In Search of Complementarity in Innovation Strategy: Internal R& D and External Knowledge Acquisition," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 52(1), pages 68-82, January.
    54. Constatinos C Markides & Christopher D Ittner, 1994. "Shareholder Benefits from Corporate International Diversification: Evidence from U.S. International Acquisitions," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 25(2), pages 343-366, June.
    55. Deborah L. Swenson, 1993. "Foreign Mergers and Acquisitions in the United States," NBER Chapters, in: Foreign Direct Investment, pages 255-284, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    56. Kenneth A. Froot, 1993. "Foreign Direct Investment," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number froo93-1.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bertrand, Olivier & Zuniga, Pluvia, 2006. "R&D and M&A: Are cross-border M&A different? An investigation on OECD countries," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 401-423, March.
    2. Stiebale, Joel & Reize, Frank, 2011. "The impact of FDI through mergers and acquisitions on innovation in target firms," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 155-167, March.
    3. Schön, Benjamin & Pyka, Andreas, 2013. "The success factors of technology-sourcing through mergers & acquisitions: An intuitive meta-analysis," FZID Discussion Papers 78-2013, University of Hohenheim, Center for Research on Innovation and Services (FZID).
    4. Bertrand, Olivier & Betschinger, Marie-Ann, 2012. "Performance of domestic and cross-border acquisitions: Empirical evidence from Russian acquirers," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(3), pages 413-437.
    5. Frey, Rainer & Hussinger, Katrin, 2006. "The role of technology in M&As: a firm-level comparison of cross-border and domestic deals," Discussion Paper Series 1: Economic Studies 2006,45, Deutsche Bundesbank.
    6. Joel Stiebale & Michaela Trax, 2011. "The effects of cross‐border M&As on the acquirers’ domestic performance: firm‐level evidence," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 44(3), pages 957-990, August.
    7. Joel Stiebale & Michaela Trax, 2010. "The Eff ects of Cross-border M&As on the Acquirers’ Domestic Performance – Firm-level Evidence," Ruhr Economic Papers 0159, Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universität Dortmund, Universität Duisburg-Essen.
    8. repec:zbw:rwirep:0159 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Hussinger, Katrin & Grimpe, Christoph, 2008. "Market and Technology Access Through Firm Acquisitions: Beyond One Size Fits All," ZEW Discussion Papers 08-037, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    10. Hsu, Po-Hsuan & Huang, Peng & Humphery-Jenner, Mark & Powell, Ronan, 2021. "Cross-border mergers and acquisitions for innovation," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    11. Oldford, Erin & Otchere, Isaac, 2016. "Are cross-border acquisitions enemy of labor? An examination of employment and productivity effects," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 40(PB), pages 438-455.
    12. Peeters, T.J.G., 2013. "External knowledge search and use in new product development," Other publications TiSEM 300ebb34-b090-4210-b95e-f, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    13. Frank T. Rothaermel & Maria Tereza Alexandre, 2009. "Ambidexterity in Technology Sourcing: The Moderating Role of Absorptive Capacity," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 20(4), pages 759-780, August.
    14. René Belderbos & Bart Leten & Shinya Suzuki, 2017. "Scientific research, firm heterogeneity, and foreign R&D locations of multinational firms," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(3), pages 691-711, September.
    15. Szücs, Florian, 2014. "M&A and R&D: Asymmetric Effects on acquirers and targets?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(7), pages 1264-1273.
    16. Ralph Siebert & Zhili Tian, 2020. "Dynamic Mergers Effects on R&D Investments and Drug Development across Research Phases in the Pharmaceutical Industry," CESifo Working Paper Series 8303, CESifo.
    17. Marina Papanastassiou & Robert Pearce & Antonello Zanfei, 2020. "Changing perspectives on the internationalization of R&D and innovation by multinational enterprises: A review of the literature," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 51(4), pages 623-664, June.
    18. Lorena D’Agostino, 2015. "The neglected effects of R&D captive offshoring in emerging countries on the creation of knowledge at home," Economia e Politica Industriale: Journal of Industrial and Business Economics, Springer;Associazione Amici di Economia e Politica Industriale, vol. 42(1), pages 61-91, March.
    19. René Belderbos, 2006. "R&D Activities in East Asia by Japanese, European, and US Multinationals," Microeconomics Working Papers 21887, East Asian Bureau of Economic Research.
    20. van Rijnsoever, Frank J. & Kempkes, Sander N. & Chappin, Maryse M.H., 2017. "Seduced into collaboration: A resource-based choice experiment to explain make, buy or ally strategies of SMEs," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 284-297.
    21. Marcela Miozzo & Lori DiVito & Panos Desyllas, 2011. "Cross-border acquisitions of science-based firms: Their effect on innovation in the acquired firm and the local science," DRUID Working Papers 11-17, DRUID, Copenhagen Business School, Department of Industrial Economics and Strategy/Aalborg University, Department of Business Studies.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    M&A Takeover R&D Innovation;

    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:eee:respol:v:38:y:2009:i:6:p:1021-1031. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/respol .

    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.