Do Firms Learn More From Small or Big Successes and Failures? A Test of the Outcome-Based Feedback Learning Perspective
研究从反馈学习视角出发，基于美国企业并购样本，发现成功经验会推高后续并购溢价，失败经验则降低溢价，且四种经验（小/大成功、小/大失败）的影响并非对称相反。
It has been recognized that previous experiences can provide different types of feedback. However, it has not been systematically explored why firms are more likely to learn effectively from certain types of experience than others. From a feedback-based learning perspective, we argue that it is useful not only to focus on feedback valence (success or failure experiences) but also to examine feedback saliency (the magnitude of the experience’s influence). Based on a sample of acquisitions by U.S. firms, our results indicate that a firm’s success experience drives up the premium that it pays for a subsequent acquisition, whereas a failure experience reduces this subsequent premium. Moreover, we find that the magnitude of the effects of the four types of experiences—small failure, big failure, small success, and big success—does not follow a symmetrical pattern of inverse effects.