Riding on information-based advantages: Business group affiliation and cross-border acquisition completion
研究了商业集团关联如何影响跨境并购完成概率，发现集团关联企业更易完成交易，但监管质量距离和文化距离会削弱这一优势，对研究新兴市场企业国际化有参考价值。
This study examines the impact of business group affiliation on the likelihood of completing cross-border acquisitions. Drawing on information asymmetry theory, we hypothesize that business group–affiliated firms are more likely to complete cross-border acquisition deals than standalone firms. Recognizing the role of formal and informal institutions in shaping information asymmetry in cross-border acquisition transactions, we also investigate the contingent effects of regulatory quality distance (a formal institutional factor) and cultural distance (an informal institutional factor) on the above relationship. Our empirical analysis, based on a sample of 1293 cross-border acquisition deals announced by Indian firms between 2000 and 2017, offers interesting insights. Specifically, we find that business group affiliation positively influences the likelihood of cross-border acquisition completion and that regulatory quality distance between the home and host countries attenuates this effect. However, contrary to our expectations, cultural distance also attenuates the positive impact of business group affiliation on cross-border acquisition completion, challenging the expectation that business group affiliation advantages would mitigate information asymmetry across all contexts. Thus, our study underscores the context-dependent nature of business group affiliation advantages, which are shaped by formal and informal institutional factors in cross-border acquisitions.