IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/tjisxx/v30y2021i1p3-26.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Digital M&A, digital innovation, and firm performance: an empirical investigation

Author

Listed:
  • André Hanelt
  • Sebastian Firk
  • Björn Hildebrandt
  • Lutz M. Kolbe

Abstract

Aiming to support digital innovation endeavours, industrial-age companies increasingly acquire firms that heavily build upon digital technologies. Related research has raised serious concerns regarding the prospects of such plans, yet has not focused the particular context of digital mergers and acquisitions (M&A). Drawing on a knowledge-based perspective as well as the particularities of digital technologies and the context of digital innovation, we theorise the link between digital M&A, a digital knowledge base on the part of the acquirer, and the consequences for digital innovation and firm performance. We employ panel data regressions to a longitudinal dataset of the world’s largest automobile manufacturers. Our findings suggest that executing digital M&A contributes to building the digital knowledge base of industrial-age firms, which in turn enables them to drive digital innovation. Our findings further indicate that digital innovation improves firm performance of industrial-age firms. We discuss implications for information systems research about M&A and digital innovation as well as recommendations for managerial practice.

Suggested Citation

  • André Hanelt & Sebastian Firk & Björn Hildebrandt & Lutz M. Kolbe, 2021. "Digital M&A, digital innovation, and firm performance: an empirical investigation," European Journal of Information Systems, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(1), pages 3-26, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:tjisxx:v:30:y:2021:i:1:p:3-26
    DOI: 10.1080/0960085X.2020.1747365
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/0960085X.2020.1747365
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/0960085X.2020.1747365?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.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Tiwari, Sunil & Sharma, Pankaj & Jha, Ashish Kumar, 2024. "Digitalization & Covid-19: An institutional-contingency theoretic analysis of supply chain digitalization," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 267(C).
    2. Zheng, Panpan & Li, Zhen & Zhuang, Ziyin, 2023. "The impact of judicial protection of intellectual property on digital innovation: Evidence from China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 58(PA).
    3. Ding, Yibing & Li, Jing & Song, Yang & Sahut, Jean-Michel, 2024. "How does the cross-border M&A network affect digital innovation? Empirical evidence from Chinese listed companies," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 70(PB).
    4. Dong, Xiao & Yu, Mingzhe, 2023. "Does FinTech development facilitate firms' innovation? Evidence from China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    5. Liao, Zhongju & Xu, Lijun & Zhang, Mengnan, 2024. "Government green procurement, technology mergers and acquisitions, and semiconductor firms’ environmental innovation: The moderating effect of executive compensation incentives," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 273(C).
    6. Abadie, Amelie & Roux, Mélanie & Chowdhury, Soumyadeb & Dey, Prasanta, 2023. "Interlinking organisational resources, AI adoption and omnichannel integration quality in Ghana’s healthcare supply chain," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    7. Yuan Feng & Changfei Nie, 2024. "Digital technology innovation and corporate environmental, social, and governance performance: Evidence from a sample of listed firms in China," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(5), pages 3836-3854, September.
    8. Xie, Weihong & Zou, Yukun & Guo, Haizhen & Li, Zhongshun, 2024. "What drives digital innovation cycles? Evidence from manufacturing enterprises in China," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 204(C).
    9. Mancuso, Ilaria & Messeni Petruzzelli, Antonio & Panniello, Umberto, 2023. "Innovating agri-food business models after the Covid-19 pandemic: The impact of digital technologies on the value creation and value capture mechanisms," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    10. Pujadas, Roser & Valderrama, Erika & Venters, Will, 2024. "The value and structuring role of web APIs in digital innovation ecosystems: The case of the online travel ecosystem," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(2).

    More about this item

    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:taf:tjisxx:v:30:y:2021:i:1:p:3-26. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/tjis .

    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.