Seminario di Francesco Lissoni

19.01.2017

Seminario di Francesco Lissoni, GREThA-Université de Bordeaux & CRIOS-Università Bocconi

Highly skilled and well connected: Migrant inventors in Cross-Border M&As (co-authored by Diego Useche and Ernest Miguelez)

We investigate the role of migrant inventors as bridging ties in Cross-Border Merger & Acquisitions (CBM&As), based on firm level data and patent-based information on inventors’ nationality and residence. We perform logistic regressions on a large matched sample of CBM&A deals and control cases, and find that migrant inventors affect their employers’ choice of targets, by favoring those located in their home country. Evidence is stronger for CBM&As in high-tech or knowledge-related sectors, innovative targets, and full vs. partial acquisitions, after controlling for sources of transaction costs such as diversity in language, physical and cultural distance. We suggest that migrant inventors mitigate acquiring firms’ liability of foreignness, by tapping into relevant social networks in their home countries and reduce information asymmetries.