Open this publication in new window or tab >>2017 (English)In: Small Business Economics, ISSN 0921-898X, E-ISSN 1573-0913, Vol. 49, no 1, p. 163-187Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
Using Swedish microdata, we find no evidence for the concerns circulating in the public debate that foreign acquisitions lead to reductions in both R&D expenditures and high-skilled activities in targeted domestic firms for either MNEs or non-MNEs. Previous studies have only focused on larger firms. In this paper, we are able to study the impact on smaller firms (fewer than 50 employees), which is important because 90% of the firms acquired meet this criterion. For this group of firms, there is no information on R&D, but by using the register of educational attainment, we obtain data on the share of high skilled labor in all Swedish firms irrespective of size. Interestingly, we find that among smaller firms, foreign enterprises tend to acquire high-productive, skill-intensive firms (cherry-picking). After the acquisitions, skill upgrading appears in acquired smaller, non-MNE firms, particularly in the service sector.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Springer, 2017
Keywords
foreign acquisition, skill upgrading, R&D intensity, propensity score matching
National Category
Economics
Research subject
Economics
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:oru:diva-58059 (URN)10.1007/s11187-016-9815-9 (DOI)000405395600009 ()2-s2.0-85007524899 (Scopus ID)
Projects
Global value chains and the costs of structural change
Funder
Forte, Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare, 2012-0859
2017-06-152017-06-152017-10-18Bibliographically approved