Employee productivity, employment growth, and the cross-border acquisitions by emerging market firms

Ataullah, Ali; Le, Hang; Sahota, Amandeep S.

Abstract

We examine the impact of the cross‐border acquisitions made by firms from emerging markets on employee productivity and employment growth. The literature suggests that cross‐border acquisitions enable emerging market firms to obtain new skills and knowledge‐intensive assets, which, in turn, may increase productivity. However, our empirical analysis suggests that cross‐border acquisitions reduce employee productivity and have a limited impact on employment growth. Moreover, we find that cross‐border acquisitions in less‐developed countries and in culturally distinct countries reduce productivity. Overall, our findings cast doubt on the idea that cross‐border acquisitions enable emerging market firms to improve the productivity of one of their most important resources—namely, their human capital.

Citation

Ataullah, A., Le, H., & Sahota, A. S. (2014). Employee productivity, employment growth, and the cross-border acquisitions by emerging market firms. Human Resource Management, 53(6), https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21619

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Dec 5, 2013
• Online Publication Date: Jul 31, 2014
• Publication Date: Dec 1, 2014
• Deposit Date: Mar 26, 2018
• Journal: Human Resource Management
• Print ISSN: 0090-4848
• Electronic ISSN: 1099-050X
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 53
• Issue: 6
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21619
• Keywords: cross‐border acquisitions; employee productivity; employment; culture distance
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/993389
• Publisher URL: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/hrm.21619
• Contract Date: Mar 26, 2018