IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/finlet/v58y2023ipbs1544612323007948.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Sustainability as a stumbling block in closing acquisitions? The joint effect of target and acquirer ESG performance on time to completion

Author

Listed:
  • Just, Ruben
  • Sommer, Friedrich
  • Heubeck, Tim
  • Meckl, Reinhard

Abstract

Sustainability is currently a major concern in business and society. As environmental, social, and governance (ESG) aspects are also considered in acquisitions, e.g., through time-consuming ESG due diligences, we investigate whether differences in ESG performance delay the closing of acquisitions. Using a sample of global M&A transactions, we measure ESG performance using the Refinitiv Eikon ESG scores and time to completion (TTC) as the number of days between the announcement and closing of a transaction. Our results show that larger differences in ESG performance between acquirer and target lead to shorter TTC when acquirer ESG performance exceeds target ESG performance.

Suggested Citation

  • Just, Ruben & Sommer, Friedrich & Heubeck, Tim & Meckl, Reinhard, 2023. "Sustainability as a stumbling block in closing acquisitions? The joint effect of target and acquirer ESG performance on time to completion," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 58(PB).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:58:y:2023:i:pb:s1544612323007948
    DOI: 10.1016/j.frl.2023.104422
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1544612323007948
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.frl.2023.104422?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    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. Sol Kim & Geul Lee & Hyoung‐Goo Kang, 2021. "Risk management and corporate social responsibility," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(1), pages 202-230, January.
    2. Mathieu Luypaert & Wouter De Maeseneire, 2015. "Antecedents of time to completion in mergers and acquisitions," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(4), pages 299-304, March.
    3. Desislava Dikova & Padma Rao Sahib & Arjen van Witteloostuijn, 2010. "Cross-border acquisition abandonment and completion: The effect of institutional differences and organizational learning in the international business service industry, 1981–2001," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 41(2), pages 223-245, February.
    4. Vineet Bhagwat & Robert Dam & Jarrad Harford, 2016. "The Real Effects of Uncertainty on Merger Activity," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 29(11), pages 3000-3034.
    5. Bereskin, Fred & Byun, Seong K. & Officer, Micah S. & Oh, Jong-Min, 2018. "The Effect of Cultural Similarity on Mergers and Acquisitions: Evidence from Corporate Social Responsibility," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 53(5), pages 1995-2039, October.
    6. Gunnar Friede & Timo Busch & Alexander Bassen, 2015. "ESG and financial performance: aggregated evidence from more than 2000 empirical studies," Journal of Sustainable Finance & Investment, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 5(4), pages 210-233, October.
    7. Adesoji O. Adelaja & Ramyani Mukhopadhyay, 2022. "Time‐to‐completion for mergers and acquisitions in the food and agribusiness industry," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 38(3), pages 579-607, July.
    8. Gavin Duke, 2015. "Sustainable Private Equity Investments and ESG Due Diligence Frameworks," CSR, Sustainability, Ethics & Governance, in: Karen Wendt (ed.), Responsible Investment Banking, edition 127, pages 349-358, Springer.
    9. Ephraim Kwashie Thompson & Changki Kim, 2020. "Post-M&A Performance and Failure: Implications of Time until Deal Completion," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-31, April.
    10. Patty Bick & Matthew D. Crook & Andrew A. Lynch & Brian R. Walkup, 2017. "Does Distance Matter In Mergers And Acquisitions?," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 40(1), pages 33-54, March.
    11. Deng, Xin & Kang, Jun-koo & Low, Buen Sin, 2013. "Corporate social responsibility and stakeholder value maximization: Evidence from mergers," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(1), pages 87-109.
    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. Guidi, Marco & Sogiakas, Vasilios & Vagenas-Nanos, Evangelos & Verwijmeren, Patrick, 2020. "Spreading the sin: An empirical assessment from corporate takeovers," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    2. Ephraim Kwashie Thompson & Changki Kim, 2020. "Post-M&A Performance and Failure: Implications of Time until Deal Completion," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-31, April.
    3. Deepak Kumar & Keya Sengupta & Mousumi Bhattacharya, 2023. "M&A Negotiations: Role of Negotiation Process, Ownership and Advisors on Deal Completion," Group Decision and Negotiation, Springer, vol. 32(5), pages 1083-1115, October.
    4. Rama Krishna Reddy & Frances Fabian, 2020. "Information Asymmetry and Host Country Institutions in Cross-Border Acquisitions," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 60(6), pages 909-938, December.
    5. Omesh Kini & Mo Shen & Jaideep Shenoy & Venkat Subramaniam, 2022. "Labor Unions and Product Quality Failures," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(7), pages 5403-5440, July.
    6. Arouri, Mohamed & Gomes, Mathieu & Pukthuanthong, Kuntara, 2019. "Corporate social responsibility and M&A uncertainty," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 176-198.
    7. Liu, Xianda & Hou, Wenxuan & Main, Brian G.M., 2022. "Anti-market sentiment and corporate social responsibility: Evidence from anti-Jewish pogroms," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    8. Gillan, Stuart L. & Koch, Andrew & Starks, Laura T., 2021. "Firms and social responsibility: A review of ESG and CSR research in corporate finance," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    9. Akdoğu, Evrim & Simsir, Serif Aziz, 2023. "Are blockchain and cryptocurrency M&As harder to close?," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    10. Thomas J. Chemmanur & Dimitrios Gounopoulos & Panagiotis Koutroumpis & Yu Zhang, 2022. "CSR and Firm Survival: Evidence from the Climate and Pandemic Crises," Working Papers 935, Queen Mary University of London, School of Economics and Finance.
    11. Samuel Jebaraj Benjamin & Pallab Kumar Biswas, 2022. "Does winning a CSR Award increase firm value?," International Journal of Disclosure and Governance, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 19(3), pages 313-329, September.
    12. Renneboog, Luc & Vansteenkiste, Cara, 2019. "Failure and success in mergers and acquisitions," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 650-699.
    13. Bu, Luofan & Chan, Kam C. & Choi, Ahrum & Zhou, Gaoguang, 2021. "Talented inside directors and corporate social responsibility: A tale of two roles," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    14. Bofinger, Yannik & Heyden, Kim J. & Rock, Björn, 2022. "Corporate social responsibility and market efficiency: Evidence from ESG and misvaluation measures," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    15. Fairhurst, Douglas (DJ) & Greene, Daniel T., 2022. "Too much of a good thing? Corporate social responsibility and the takeover market," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    16. Hossain, Ashrafee T. & Masum, Abdullah-Al, 2022. "Does corporate social responsibility help mitigate firm-level climate change risk?," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 47(PB).
    17. Krishnamurti, Chandrasekhar & Shams, Syed & Pensiero, Domenico & Velayutham, Eswaran, 2019. "Socially responsible firms and mergers and acquisitions performance: Australian evidence," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    18. Arturo García & Mariel Leal & Sang‐Ho Lee, 2020. "Welfare‐improving cooperation with a consumer‐friendly multiproduct corporation," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 41(7), pages 1144-1155, October.
    19. Doukas, John A. & Zhang, Rongyao, 2021. "Managerial ability, corporate social culture, and M&As," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    20. Lei Ruan & Heng Liu, 2021. "Environmental, Social, Governance Activities and Firm Performance: Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-16, January.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ESG; M&A; Sustainability; Time to completion; Due diligence;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D22 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Empirical Analysis
    • G34 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Mergers; Acquisitions; Restructuring; Corporate Governance
    • M14 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - Corporate Culture; Diversity; Social Responsibility
    • M41 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Accounting - - - Accounting

    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:finlet:v:58:y:2023:i:pb:s1544612323007948. 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/frl .

    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.