Board’s Knowledge and Skills around Mergers and Acquisitions Deals in SAARC Region

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to examine the board’s knowledge and skills before and after mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in emerging and frontier markets of the SAARC region. Sample of study is consisting of 104 domestic M&A deals from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, occurred during 2000 to 2020. The sample includes only those M&A deals whose board members’ data is available for 3 years before and 3 years after M&A deals. Univariate analysis (paired sample t-test) is used to compute mean difference of variables related to board knowledge and skills in pre-and post-M&A period. Findings of the study show that board busyness decreased, and growth is observed in board size, independence and vigilance in post-M&A period. Board accountancy knowledge, business knowledge, managerial experience, technical knowledge, audit experience, gender diversity shows an increase in the post-M&A period compared to the pre-M&A period. The current study uses exclusively domestic M&A deals and ignore cross-border M&A deals. This study does not consider the influence of highly skilled board on post-M&A financial performance of acquiring entities and future researchers are encouraged to examine it. Future researchers are encouraged to include cross-border M&A deals to examine its impact on national firms’ governance standards.

Keywords:  

Board’s Knowledge and Skills, Mergers and Acquisitions, Accountancy Knowledge, Board vigilance, Gender diversity