Strategic similarity and acquisition outcomes at the target: Evidence from China’s beer industry

This study investigates the effect of horizontal acquisitions on target firms in China’s context. We examine how competitive and organizational similarity jointly affect cost savings, revenue growth and profitability improvement at the target in horizontal acquisitions. Using a dataset containing information on acquired firms in China’s beer industry, we find that the way in which competitive similarity impacts on cost savings at the target depends on organizational similarity and the type of cost that is examined. In addition, competitive dissimilarity is found to result in higher revenue growth and profitability improvement at the target.