The effect of CSR on acquirer returns of cross-border M&As in an emerging market – a bane or a boom?

ABSTRACT

The enterprise in emerging markets attaches increasing importance to social responsibility with economic development. However, literature still lacks study on the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and acquirer returns of cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&As). Taking 214 cross-border M&As in China from 2010 to 2019; this paper divides CSR into four parts. The results find that the supplier and consumer responsibility, and the social contribution of enterprises could significantly promote the acquirer returns of cross-border M&As. In contrast, shareholder responsibility and environmental responsibility have negative effects. This conclusion may be related to the particular situation of cross-border M&As in China.

KEYWORDS:

• CSR
• cross-border M&as
• acquirer returns
• emerging market

JEL CLASSIFICATION:

• F21
• F22

Acknowledgments

Thanks to the editor of Applied Economics Letters and the anonymous reviewer for their valuable comments and careful guidance.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

¹ We adopted the Kogut-Singh index to calculate the institutional distance.

Additional information

Funding

This research is supported by the National Social Science Fund of China [12AZD034]; the National Social Science Fund of China [18VDL016].