Geography and Innovativeness of Strategic Alliances and Mergers and Acquisitions

This study sets itself the task of evaluating the performance of strategic alliances and mergers & acquisitions of high-tech companies whose main activity is focused on the US market. The OECD methodology is used to determine high-tech companies. According to this methodology high-tech companies are companies which are involved in the following industries: information technology, pharmaceuticals or health care equipment, aerospace, telecommunications. The sample consists of data on 2,904 mergers and acquisitions transactions and on 757 strategic alliances made in the period from 01/01/2009 to 01/01/2019. An event study methodology was used for hypotheses testing. According to the results of the work, it was found that both strategies demonstrate positive performance in the short term. At the same time, the effect of mergers and acquisitions lasts longer. Nevertheless, in the short term, strategic alliances proved to perform better, but with the expansion of the considered event window, mergers and acquisitions show better performance.