Macquarie Business School, Macquarie U., Australia
Fit in time horizons of acquirers and targets implies more compatible institutional logics and, in turn, easier understanding, more aligned goals and smoother organizational integration. As family firms have an especially pronounced long-term perspective, we argue that family firms have thus an incentive to undertake acquisitions in more long-term oriented countries than nonfamily firms. We also contend that this incentive is stronger for family firms from long-term oriented countries but it weakens when environmental uncertainty is low. We argue, indeed, that when acquisitions’ riskiness is low due to environmental stability, family firm acquirers from short-term oriented countries can afford to take on the additional risk of acquiring targets in less long-term oriented countries. With overall supporting empirical results from an analysis on a global sample of 964 international acquisitions undertaken between 2011 and 2016 by 606 family and nonfamily firms, this study contributes to the growing literature on family firms’ acquisitions by shedding light on how family control affects target selection choices.
