本研究探討的是在控制公司國家文化背景之下，經理人文化背景對於進行併購相關決策之影響。使用Hofstede所提出的個人主義文化價值分數去計算經理人與公司的文化差距，而樣本使用S&P 1500公司有利於控制公司國家文化背景。本研究亦探討經理人文化背景形成是否具有不變性，將經理人文化背景分成生涯三階段，分別為幼年階段(出生地)、後青少年階段(就讀大學)以及工作階段(前一份工作)，透過針對生涯三階段的實證分析可以檢測出經理人文化認同形成於哪個階段。 本研究分別探討對於公司三種併購決策之影響。第一，探討公司併購與否，發現經理人三個階段的個人主義對於公司是否進行併購並沒有顯著的影響力；第二，探討公司跨國併購與否，發現幼年階段與後青少年階段形成的個人主義，其經理人進行跨國併購的機率較低；最後，研究公司多角化併購與否，發現工作階段形成的個人主義，其經理人進行多角化併購的機率較高。由此可知，對於三種不同的併購決策，經理人個人主義認同形成於不同階段，因此個人主義的形成會因為身處環境改變而有所不同。 本研究的實證結果在考慮下列因素依然大致穩健。將經理人資料有遺漏值的部分刪除，控制經理人權力，將樣本控制為已知有進行併購的公司，最後，使用工具變數發現除了幼年階段的個人主義對於是否進行多角化併購的結果，由不顯著轉變為顯著為正，其他的個人主義與三階段的各項併購決策皆為不顯著。 ;In this paper, we investigate the impact of the CEO’s individualism on the Mergers and Acquisitions related decisions after controlling the individualism of the company. We utilize culture dimensions proposed by Hofstede to calculate the cultural distance between the CEO and the company based on individualism. We use the S&P 1500 index listed companies as our main sample which is advantageous in controlling the individualism of the company. We also investigate whether the time of cultural identity formation matters. We build three different stages of the CEO’s lifetime: the childhood period (the country of birth), the late adolescent period (the country of university), and the working period (the country of the previous job). The empirical findings utilizing the three lifetime stages can tell when the individualism related to M&As is formed.
We investigate three M&As decisions. First, we do not find the cultural distance based on individualism has significant effect on whether the firm announces a M&A bid. Second, we find that the individualism formed in childhood period and late adolescent period is negatively related to probability of the firm engaging in cross-country M&As. Third, the individualism formed in the working period has a positive impact on engaging diversifying M&As. In sum, we find evidence that implies that the personal cultural identity may change over time.
Our findings are qualitatively similar if we delete the data with missing values, controlling for the CEO’s power, and conditional on firm have announced a M&A bid. Finally, we utilize instrumental variables and find the significance disappeared except individualism formed in the childhood period has a significant positive impact on the CEO’s decision of companies’ diversifying M&A.
