Determinants of Inter Country Investments Through Merger and Acquisition in Emerging Asian Markets

This research used an augmented gravity-type model to investigate the determinants of Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) of multinational firms in 13 emerging Asian countries. A multiple case study approach was adopted in this study and data was from year 2000 to 2010 was analyzed using stepwise regression model. The results revealed that investments in mergers and acquisitions in Asian firms are directly dependent upon: 1) financial variables; 2) market-seeking and natural-resource-seeking motivations; 3) the characteristics of emerging Asian countries and 4) both physical and cultural distance. It has been found that any bilateral real exchange rates and the volatility of the bilateral real exchange rate and global factors had no significant influence on M&A flows.