Post-Acquisition Innovation Performance of EMNEs: Evidence from Turkish-MNEs

Emerging Market Multinational Enterprises (EMNEs) increasingly rely on cross-border acquisitions (CBAs) to enhance innovation capabilities and overcome competitive disadvantages. While prior research highlights the strategic importance of CBAs, limited attention has been paid to EMNEs' post-acquisition innovation performance. Drawing on the Springboard perspective, the Resource-Based Theory (RBT), and the National Innovation System (NIS) framework, this dissertation examines four interrelated analytical dimensions of CBAs: (1) the temporal evolution of post-acquisition innovation performance, (2) the location of CBAs, (3) internal EMNEs' resources and capabilities, and (4) external host-country NIS.
The study analyses 198 CBAs by 103 Turkish MNEs from 1998-2023, using patent output as a proxy for innovation, and estimating relationships via negative binomial regression. Data are collected from multiple Orbis databases and the Global Innovation Index.
This research has shed new light on the post-acquisition innovation performance of EMNEs, making four contributions to the IB literature: Firstly, CBAs have a significantly positive impact on innovation performance over a three-year period. This indicates that CBAs generate gradual and cumulative gains in innovation performance over time, as EMNEs access external strategic assets through CBAs.
Secondly, although CBAs in both developed and emerging markets yield positive effects, CBAs in developed markets result in superior innovation outcomes. This indicates that EMNEs pursue capability upgrading in DM while reinforcing capabilities and improving efficiency in EM.
Thirdly, EMNEs' intangible assets are more influential than their tangible assets in enhancing post-acquisition innovation performance, particularly over the long term. Also, EMNEs' R&D expenditure plays a more critical role than R&D intensity in fostering innovation performance. These findings reveal that EMNEs' pre-existing internal factors play an asymmetric role in innovation outcomes.
Finally, host-country NIS factors moderate the relationship between CBAs and innovation performance. In particular, institutions, human capital and research, and business sophistication are positively significant, while infrastructure and market sophistication show no significant effects. This indicates that innovation performance is not solely firm-driven but is embedded within broader systemic environments.