Influence of Target's Digital Executives Retaining Their Posts on Acquirer's Digital Innovation Performance in a Digital Mergers and Acquisitions Scenario
Digital talent resources has become a key resource for firms to achieve digital transformation and digital innovation,and is a key digital resource for the acquirer firm to absorb and retain in digital mergers and acquisitions(M&A).In the context of digital M&A,this paper,taking new generation information technology firms as the research object,considering the digital background executives of the target absorbed by the acquirer's firm as a digital resource based on the resource orchestration theory,and dividing digital transformation into two dimensions,digital technology integration and digital technology application,examined the interaction mechanism of retained target's digital executives,digital transformation,and digital innovation performance after M&A.It also conducted an empirical test using regression analysis,taking the digital M&A events as the research sample.It is found that retained target's digital executives have a positive impact of on the acquirer's digital innovation performance in both the short and long term.Both digital technology integration and digital technology application have a mediating effect.In the relationship between the retained targets digital executives and the acquirer's short-term digital innovation performance,digital technology integration plays a stronger mediating role than digital technology application.However,in the relationship between the retained target's digital executives and the acquirer's long-term digital innovation performance,the mediating effect of digital technology application is stronger than that of digital technology integration.This paper helps to clarify the mechanisms for achieving digital innovation performance in the context of digital M&A and helps firms to achieve their digital transformation and digital innovation goals.
digital mergers and acquisitions(M&A)digital background executivesdigital transfor-mationdigital innovation performanceresource-based view