Impact of Top-Management Characteristics on the Efficiency of M&A Deals

The performance of M&A deals is the actual research topic for many years, both in academic literature and practical field. According to prior research, despite firms hire directors with acquisition experience regardless the effec-tiveness of the deal, only prior positive experience is creating additional positive returns. Those studies examine the firms operating in developed coun-tries, mainly USA traded companies. In this article the effect of management’s experience is analyzed in emerging countries, where the management plays a greater role in decision making and value creation, on the example of Russia over 2007 – 2018. Based on the sample of 206 acquisitions exceeding 1 mln dollars, performed by public acquirers, we find that in Russia several management’s experience related characteristics, such as industry and political expertise, prior acquisitions experience, with respect to performance quality, significantly and positively affect deal outcomes in acquisitions for bidder company.