Does executive compensation affect firms’ acquisition decisions? Evidence from China

Exploiting regulatory changes in China that govern the use of stock options, we investigate whether executive compensation affects acquisition decisions and post-acquisition performance from 2005 to 2014. We find that acquisitions are not driven by stock options. Managerial stock ownership promotes acquisitions at low levels of ownership – but leads to less frequent acquisitions at higher levels, implying a non-linear relationship. Similarly, we also find a non-linear impact of managerial stock ownership on long-term post-acquisition performance. However, neither stock options nor stock ownership determine short-term post-acquisition performance. Finally, state ownership has a significant impact on the compensation-acquisition relationship in that the above relationships only exist in private enterprises.