The impacts of human capital on the value creation by Mergers and Acquisitions: An event study in software industry

Abstract

The source of value creation from Mergers and Acquisition (M&A) is an enduring research question. Prior studies have identified quite a few variables that may affect M&A performance. In addition to traditional measures of human capital, we are interested in how professional social networking variables could affect the M&A performance in the software industry. We also hypothesize that the similarity of human capital, turnover rate, and relatedness of business may have significant moderating effects on post-M&A performance. Specifically, this study employs event study to examine how M&A synergy correlate with the education background, work experience, and professional social network connection of employees in the software industry. Our study contributes to the literature by empirically examining the impacts of human capital on M&A using professional social website data.