Li Chang, Yang Lianxing
School of Economics, Shanghai Merger & Acquisition Financial Research Institute, East China Normal University, 3663, North Zhongshan Road, Shanghai, China.
Econ Model. 2020 Dec;93:354-364. doi: 10.1016/j.econmod.2020.08.014. Epub 2020 Sep 1.
Existing studies have demonstrated the necessities of formal institutions and negativity of cultural distance in international investments. Surprisingly, China's exponential increase of cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&As) and its low-quality institutions and distinct cultural norms contradict these studies. This paper aims to tackle this puzzle by examining the role of cultural imports in cross-border M&As. Our empirical evidence suggests that the trade of cultural goods significantly increases the volume and realized economic gains of M&As from importing to exporting countries. Our results are robust to alternative measures and an instrumental variable approach. On exploring potential channels, we find that imported cultural goods could drive cultural convergence between countries and also mitigate the adverse effect of cultural distance on merger outcomes. We further show that cultural imports could help firms in overcoming contractual barriers at target countries. This paper provides practical implications for cross-border investments in the current world with intensified cultural conflicts.
现有研究表明了正式制度在国际投资中的必要性以及文化距离的负面作用。令人惊讶的是，中国跨境并购的指数级增长及其低质量制度和独特文化规范与这些研究相矛盾。本文旨在通过考察文化进口在跨境并购中的作用来解决这一难题。我们的实证证据表明，文化产品贸易显著增加了从进口国到出口国的并购交易量和实现的经济收益。我们的结果在采用替代度量方法和工具变量法时依然稳健。在探究潜在渠道时，我们发现进口文化产品能够推动国家间的文化趋同，也能减轻文化距离对并购结果的不利影响。我们进一步表明，文化进口有助于企业克服目标国家的合同障碍。本文为当前文化冲突加剧的世界中的跨境投资提供了实际启示。
