In this paper we investigate the motives of high-tech acquirers by analysing their revealed preferences in terms of the high-tech companies they acquire. Using a large sample of acquisitions involving publicly traded firms from various countries we ask whether high technology acquisitions are...

We investigate the prevalence of the motive to source technological knowledge externally through corporate acquisition. Drawing on make-or-buy and organizational learning theories, we infer the implications of this explanation for the acquirers’ pre-acquisition innovative characteristics....

Drawing on organisational, managerial and financial theories, we explore whether acquirers become more innovative and the factors that can enhance their absorptive and financial capacity to benefit from acquisition. Over a three year post-acquisition window, our sample of 2624 high technology US...

We explore conditions under which collaboration between pharmaceutical firms from 'advanced' and emerging countries becomes preferable to rivalry. We show that that when agreements, such as Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (IP) Rights, allow advanced country firms to take legal...

Unlike previous work on the vertical integration–performance relationship, we investigate the performance consequences of vertical disintegration. We offer a theoretical justification for the disintegration decision and we condition the disintegration effect on performance on the initial...

We examine the announcement and post‐acquisition share returns of UK acquirers in over 4,000 acquisitions of domestic, cross‐border, public and private targets. Domestic public acquisitions result in negative announcement and post‐acquisition returns, whilst cross‐border public...

This study explores the patterns of growth, acquisition and failure amongst a sample of UK small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) over the period 1997-2002 using the 1997 panel data collected by the Centre for Business Research at Cambridge University. The research explores the determinants...