关键词: 纵向并购, 技术创新, 高新技术企业

Abstract:    In the new stage of development, Chinese high-tech enterprises are not only faced with increasingly fierce technological competition, but also confronted with continuous tests of uncertainties such as the tide of anti-globalization and COVID-19. Promoting vertical merger and acquisition (M&A) can not only promote technological innovation of enterprises, but also guarantee the security and stability of the industrial chain and supply chain. It has become the focus of the work of Chinese high-tech enterprises and governments at all levels. This paper collected the panel data of Chinese A-share high-tech enterprises from 2007 to 2020, and used the PSM-DID method to empirically analyze the influence of vertical M&A of Chinese high-tech enterprises on technological innovation and its mechanism. It further explored whether this effect will be caused by the growth of enterprises, the power structure of senior executives, the nature of enterprise property rights and the degree of industry competition. The results showed that: (1) Vertical M&A can promote technological innovation of enterprises. After a series of robustness tests, this conclusion is still valid. (2) Vertical M&A mainly promotes technological innovation of enterprises through transaction cost saving effect and productivity improvement effect. Compared with the density of intangible assets, the shortage of human capital density makes vertical M&A fail to form the agglomeration effect of knowledge capital, which cannot bring the sustainable technological innovation ability for enterprises. (3) The higher the growth of enterprises, the stronger promoting effect of vertical M&A on technological innovation. No matter whether the enterprises in which the positions of chairman and CEO are separated or the enterprises in which the positions of chairman and CEO are integrated, vertical M&A can improve the quantity of technological innovation, and there is no significant difference between them, but vertical M&A of enterprises in which the positions of chairman and CEO are separated are more conducive to improving the quality of technological innovation. Compared with non-state-owned enterprises, vertical M&A of state-owned enterprises play a stronger role in promoting technological innovation. Vertical M&A carried out by enterprises in regulated industries can only improve the quantity of technological innovation, while vertical M&A carried out by enterprises in competitive industries has stronger promoting effect on the quantity and quality of technological innovation. Based on the above research conclusions, this paper puts forward the following policy suggestions: (1) The government should adhere to the strategic positioning and establish a sound policy system to support vertical M&A of Chinese high-tech enterprises. (2) The government should help Chinese high-tech enterprises strengthen the construction of talent team. (3) The government should support Chinese high-tech enterprises to carry out vertical M&A according to the characteristics of enterprises, so as to maximize the innovation performance of vertical M&A. The possible contributions of this paper are as follows: (1) Although there are abundant empirical studies on how M&A affects technological innovation of enterprises, the research on how vertical M&A affects technological innovation of enterprises is mainly theoretical. This paper empirically examines how vertical M&A affects technological innovation of enterprises and makes up for the deficiency of relevant empirical studies. (2) Most of the existing literature considers that efficiency improvement is an important channel for M&A to promote technological innovation of enterprises. This paper finds that in addition to the productivity improvement effect, transaction cost saving effect is another important channel for vertical M&A to promote technological innovation of enterprises. (3) This paper also found that vertical M&A of high-growth enterprises, enterprises in which the positions of chairman and CEO are separated, state-owned enterprises and enterprises in competitive industries are more conducive to promoting technological innovation of enterprises, which further enrich the existing literature. In conclusion, this paper expanded the research on the influence of vertical M&A on technological innovation of enterprises, and provided some empirical evidence and decision supports for rationally using vertical M&A to effectively improve technological innovation of enterprises.

Key words: vertical M&A, technological innovation, high-tech enterprise