Yu A;Haiyan Haiyan;Weifa Liang;Zhanpin

knowledge transfer;influence;knowledge;mergers and acquisitions;transfer effect;the factor

This paper constructs a model on the factors that influence knowledge transfer in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and validates it via questionnaire surveys. Using 125 valid collected questionnaires, multiple linear regression analysis and hierarchical regression analysis showed that five out of the ten factors had a positive effect on knowl-edge transfer effect. The ranking of factor importance, from high to low, was knowledge explicitness, relationship quality, learning intent, advanced transfer activities, and learning capability, which is fairly consistent with positive factors observed in other inter-organizational knowledge transfer researches. Our results also showed that one of the control variables (size of acquired firm) had neither a direct or indirect effect on knowledge transfer in M&A. Additionally, our research found that knowledge distance and degree of M&A integration had a positive influence on knowledge transfer effect at the early stage after M&A, but had a negative influence at the late stage. Based on this research, several suggestions for knowledge transfer in M&A are proposed.