Influence of Intellectual Capital on the Performance of M&A Deals in the Developed Capital Markets

This study contributes to the literature by assessing the influence of intellectual capital and its components for target and acquirer companies on the performance of the M&A deals. The sample used for the research includes 155 completed M&A deals with acquirers from developed capital markets for the period 2004-2019. To achieve the goal of the study the Market-to-Book Value model was used for the measurement of intellectual capital, cumulative abnormal returns were used to assess the performance of M&A deals, and multiple linear regression analysis was used to identify the influence of intellectual capital and its components for target and acquirer companies on the performance of the M&A deal. As a result of the study, it was revealed that the intellectual capital of the target company, as well as the intellectual capital of the acquirer company, positively affects the performance of the M&A deals. The structural and relational capital of the target company and the structural and human capital of the acquirer also have a positive influence. The target’s human capital and the acquirer's relational capital were found to negatively affect the performance of M&A deals.