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State-owned firms play important roles in Chinese cross-border acquisition (CBA) activities. However, compared with private firms, state-owned firms have a lower likelihood of acquisition completion and take longer to complete a deal. This paper aims to determine why this phenomenon exists and how state-owned firms can overcome the constraints of their identity.

By integrating organizational learning theory with institutional theory, this paper attempts to answer the research questions from a legitimacy perspective. Employing Chinese CBA data from 1982 to 2014, the authors use a logit model and a random effects model to test the hypothesis.

The results show that a state-owned identity easily causes legitimacy concerns among host country regulatory agencies; thus, it may result in longer and more uncertain evaluation behaviors, which lead to a lower likelihood of CBA completion and a longer deal duration. Only experience with failed acquisitions can increase CBA completion probability. Furthermore, in very complex decision-making environments, such as that surrounding deal duration, only specific types of experience (i.e. experience of failed international acquisitions) can trigger learning behavior, whereas general experience (i.e. failed acquisition experience) has little influence. Favorable bilateral relationships may not improve the completion rate and efficiency of state-owned firms, but high-quality host country institutions lead to a higher likelihood of CBA completion among state-owned firms; however, this may be not conducive to decreasing the time needed to complete an acquisition deal.

First, by discussing the completion rate and duration of CBAs conducted by state-owned firms and analyzing the factors that influence them, this paper enriches and develops the theory of organizational overseas mergers and acquisitions (M&As). Second, by adopting a legitimacy perspective and integrating institutional theory, the authors theorize how state-owned status influences firms’ M&A completion rate and time and test the hypotheses empirically; thus, this paper improves and deepens institutional theory. Third, by discussing how different types of experience (i.e. successful experience vs failed acquisition experience) influence the acquisition completion rate and duration and how general experience and specific types of experience affect these two dependent variables differently, this paper explains how state-owned firms can learn effectively from experience, contributing to organizational learning theory.

The purpose of this study is to provide a broad understanding of the pre-completion stage and subsequent abandonment of mergers and acquisitions (M&As).

A total of 117 peer-reviewed, English language articles published in scholarly journals were considered in the review. The approach includes a descriptive evaluation of the literature, coupled with content analysis. The paper uses both positivist and constructivist approaches to qualitative research. The analysis is conducted with the help of R programming and Gephi visualization software. The authors organize the work around the event of outcome/closure of deal proposal.

It is found that earlier studies sampled on domestic M&As in developed economies (DEs). However, the interest of scholars has increased in cross-border deals and emerging economies (EEs) in the last decade. Various factors interact and facilitate the completion/abandonment of good and bad deals. The authors find that complex non-linear relationships exist, and there is a need for studies with other classification techniques focusing on predictive accuracy.

The literature review is limited to articles available to the researcher using search terms related to M&A completion/termination. The databases accessed were: ProQuest, Scopus and Web of Science. However, backward snowballing was performed to avoid the omission of relevant articles.

The findings and subsequent discussions familiarize researchers and practitioners with an overview of research undertaken in the field of M&A abandonment. The authors find voids within the literature and suggest future research agendas.

The purpose of this paper is to draw attention to the significant lower completion rate of mergers and acquisitions (M&As) by firms from emerging economies (EEs) (China in particular) compared with firms from advanced economies, and identify the country- and industry-level factors that affect the completion of cross-border M&As by Chinese firms.

This study explores the effects of economic, cultural and institutional distances and target firms in technology- and knowledge-intensive industries on the completion of cross-border M&As by Chinese firms. It also examines the interplay between distance factors and technology- and knowledge-intensive industries on cross-border M&A completion. This study adopts a quantitative approach and is based on a sample of 768 announced cross-border M&A deals by firms in China between 2000 and 2015.

The results indicate that economic distance increases the likelihood of the completion of cross-border M&As when the target is in a more developed economy than China, but decreases when the target is in a less developed economy. Cultural and institutional distances have a significant, negative impact on the completion of cross-border M&As. In addition, target technology-intensive industries have a significant direct negative effect on cross-border M&A completion and moderate the relationship between the distance factors and the likelihood of cross-border M&A completion.

The results reveal factors that affect the completion of cross-border M&As by emerging market firms (EMFs). Further research, however, is needed to discover how distance factors affect how EMFs find, evaluate and negotiate international bids. To broaden the scope of the research, data for firms from other EEs would also be required.

The study expands the literature that considers the effects of major distances on cross-border M&A completion. In addition, the importance of defining and measuring distances in the context of cross-border M&As is highlighted. Finally, the study expands knowledge on how cross-border M&As affect the internationalization strategies of EMFs by conceptualizing and testing how target industries affect cross-border M&A completion.

Mergers and acquisitions (M&As) are important strategic actions undertaken by firms to access resources and markets. However, firms face substantial challenges in M&As during deal completion. While prior literature reviews synthesize the studies on the post-merger consequences of M&As, the literature on deal completion is largely fragmented. In this paper, the authors synthesize prior literature on deal completion into the antecedents and consequences framework and map various studies across the international business and management, finance and accounting literature at the macro-, meso- and micro-levels.

The authors adopt a content analysis-based methodology to conduct the review. First, the authors identify existing literature on deal completion based on keyword searches. Next, the authors propose a framework that integrates the extant literature from a multi-theoretic perspective across four broad themes: concepts, antecedents, implications and moderators. In this study, the authors consider not only empirical but also conceptual papers to strengthen the theoretical foundations of M&A literature. Finally, after synthesizing various studies, the authors highlight a future research agenda on deal completion.

Based on the review, this study provides important avenues for future research on M&A deal completion.

This study theoretically integrates multi-disciplinary and multi-country research on acquisition completion.

Many announced cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&As) are never brought to completion despite potential negative consequences to acquirers and targets. This paper presented evidence on the dynamic effects of spatial distance and two industry-level characteristics, namely industry relatedness between the two firms and technological intensity, on the completion likelihood of cross-border M&A deals. Based on a sample of 8,489 M&A transactions we found that the completion likelihood of cross-border M&As increases with spatial distance. The effect is more pronounced for deals across technology-based industries, evidence for related deals is inconclusive.

This paper aims to investigate the consequences of mergers and acquisitions (M&As) on information asymmetry in the banking sector. Specifically, the authors look at whether specific firm or deal characteristic influence information asymmetry levels between insiders and investors, as well as the impact of recent regulation such as the Dodd–Frank Act.

The authors decompose the M&A process into three periods (pre-announcement, negotiation and post-completion period) and document changes in the information asymmetry levels between insiders and investors through the M&A process. The authors capture changes in information asymmetry using six different spread-based information asymmetry measures.

The authors find evidence that information asymmetry increases following M&A announcement and decreases following deal completion. These findings are more pronounced for acquisitions involving a private target, all-cash deals and for mergers, as opposed to acquisition of assets. We find that overall, successful mergers improve the quality of the information environment, while failed deals degrade it. Additionally, the enactment of Dodd–Frank reduced the magnitude of the changes in information asymmetry during the M&A process. The results are important to regulators, policy makers and investors.

To authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that looks at the effect of bank M&As on information asymmetry as well as the effect of regulations on information asymmetry.

The purpose of this paper is to reveal how the host and the home countries’ formal institutions may affect mergers and acquisitions (M&A) abandonment by Russian multinational enterprises (MNEs), and how MNE industry can influence the results. The second objective of the study is to have a separate look at the negative experience, and to uncover its influence on M&A deal completion.

In the study, a sample of 446 international M&A deals initiated by Russian MNEs in the period of 2000–2014 is empirically tested by means of logistic regression analysis.

The empirical analysis indicates that better business environment in the host country is crucially important whereas development of business freedom at home may make the international M&A less attractive and increases the likelihood of M&A deal abandonment. Thus, the larger the institutional distance by this indicator the more likelihood the deal is completed. Contrary results are implied for property rights: the larger the distance between Russia and host country, the lower likelihood of M&A deal completion. Failure experience decreases the likelihood of acquisition completion whereas international experience increases.

The study has number of limitations: individual-level variables were not included in the model; and a limited number of factors were tested due to availability of data and moderate sample size.

The study indicates that better development of business freedom and moderate property rights protection in the host country are the most favorable factors for an M&A deal completion. Russian policymakers should realize that development of property rights protection in Russia ensures success of MNEs abroad, and development of business freedom reduces the outflow of capital from the economy.

The paper makes several theoretical and practical contributions: it contributes to institutional international business literature, indicating in which particular cases institutional distance has positive or negative effect on M&A completion. It also contributes to organizational learning literature, confirming that failures inhibit learning, and firms tend to repeat previous mistakes. Finally, the paper widens the scarce research on Russian MNEs, and on the role of the home country institutions for MNE’s behavior abroad.

The purpose of this study is to examine the differential impact of qualitative and quantitative informational signals within the merger and acquisition (M&A) press releases on deal completion and duration. A significant percentage of deals by emerging market acquirers get abandoned before completion, and those that are completed have a longer duration. The limited information about the operations of acquirers from emerging markets creates suspicion among the stakeholders involved in deal resolution, hindering the completion of deals. Thus, using the signal-feedback paradigm, authors investigate how informational signals in the M&A press release impact the deal resolution.

The study employs content analysis on M&A press releases announced by firms from five emerging economies: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The technique is applied based on the exploration-exploitation framework developed by March (1991) to categorize the announced deal motives (qualitative information). Next, the authors identify the percentage of relevant quantitative information disclosed in the press release, following which results are obtained using logistic and ordinary least square regressions.

The study reports that deals with declared exploratory motives take longer to complete. Additionally, deals disclosing higher percentage of quantitative disclosure exhibit lower completion rate and increased deal duration.

This is the first study to provide evidence that familiarity bias impacts deal duration as relative to exploitation deals that are familiar to the stakeholders; exploratory deals take longer to conclude. Further, our analysis indicates that a greater percentage of quantitative disclosure may not always reduce information risk but rather be interpreted negatively in the form of the acquirer’s overconfidence in the deal’s potential.

This study takes a dyadic approach to explaining merger and acquisition (M&A) deal outcomes. Acknowledging the socio-cognitive (e.g. intangible and macro-environmental) idiosyncrasies, the authors theorize that some acquirer–target dyads have a superior ability to complete complex relational transactions in an M&A deal. Specifically, deals are successful when an acquirer and a target: are similar considering their sectoral characteristics, have contextually-informed deal-making competencies, and are familiar with one another given their sectoral and institutional features.

This study uses logistic regression analysis to examine how sectoral and institutional characteristics in the acquiring and target company dyads relate to the likelihood of merger and acquisition deal completion.

Analyzing a sample of 37,560 M&A deals, the authors find empirical evidence in support of the dyadic to deal completion. The authors find that sectoral similarity and institutional familiarity in an M&A dyad can predict the likelihood of deal completion. Specifically, service multinational acquirers are more competent than their manufacturing counterparts in general, and in same-sector and same-country deals in particular. In contrast, service sector acquirers also are at a relative disadvantage vis-à-vis their manufacturing counterparts in cross-national deals.

Considering the theoretical and managerial implications, the authors identify new avenues for future research on service and manufacturing M&A dyads that can deepen the knowledge of inter-firm transaction processes.

First, the authors draw on the socio-cognitive, behavioral, and relational models to explain M&A deal process in both domestic and cross-border settings. Drawing on service vis-à-vis manufacturing sector business models, the authors predict deal completion. Second, the authors propose that familiarity between the acquiring and target companies in the form of sectoral and cross-national factors becomes pivotal to the inter-firm processes. Finally, the authors empirically demonstrate how inter-firm dynamics in a dyad can pose complex deal-making challenges, which make some acquirers especially susceptible to contextual shocks.

A matrix is a Q0-matrix if for every k∈{1,2,…,n}, the sum of all k×k principal minors is nonnegative. In this paper, we study some necessary and sufficient conditions for a digraph to have Q0-completion. Later on we discuss the relationship between Q and Q0-matrix completion problem. Finally, a classification of the digraphs of order up to four is done based on Q0-completion.