Acquisition target selection and technological relatedness: The moderating role of Top Management Team demographic faultlines
研究高管团队内部基于人口统计特征形成的子群体分化（断裂带）如何影响收购方对目标技术相关性的重视程度，发现中等强度的断裂带会促使团队更关注技术互补性。
We investigate why some acquirers value targets’ technological relatedness (i.e. similarity and complementarity) more than others. We propose that the importance of technological relatedness as a target selection criterion is influenced by the extent to which an acquirer Top Management Team is divided into subgroups based on managers’ demographic characteristics (i.e. faultlines). That is because an acquirer Top Management Team’s understanding of technological relatedness depends on the team’s information processing capabilities, driven primarily by Top Management Team faultlines. Our analysis of 94 realized acquisitions among 2082 potential acquisition matches in high-technology industries shows that while both technological similarity and complementarity increase the likelihood of an acquisition match, only the impact of technological complementarity is affected by Top Management Team faultlines. Specifically, we find that Top Management Teams with moderately strong divisions between subgroups pay more attention to technological complementarities between their firm and potential acquisition targets than Top Management Teams with very strong or weak divisions.