We examine whether resource adjustment costs, such as installation and disposal costs for fixed assets, or hiring and firing costs for employees, impede value creation in mergers and acquisitions (M&A). We focus on M&A deals because they are major corporate investment decisions. As a proxy for adjustment costs, we use a firm-level measure of cost stickiness. We predict that acquirers with high adjustment costs have less flexibility in restructuring resources following the acquisition and will find it more costly to merge the target firm's operations. Consistent with this prediction, we find that the acquirer's adjustment costs are negatively associated with abnormal returns around the acquisition announcement. Additionally, adjustment costs are also negatively associated with deal synergies. Relatedly, we find that acquirers with high adjustment costs purchase targets with high adjustment costs. In accordance with this finding, we show that acquirers with high adjustment costs purchase intangible-intensive targets. Collectively, our results highlight the important implication of adjustment costs in M&A deals for managers and capital market participants.

中文翻译：

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并购中的资源调整成本、成本粘性和价值创造*

我们检查资源调整成本，例如固定资产的安装和处置成本，或员工的雇用和解雇成本，是否会阻碍并购 (M&A) 中的价值创造。我们专注于并购交易，因为它们是重大的企业投资决策。作为调整成本的代理，我们使用企业层面的成本粘性度量。我们预测，调整成本高的收购方在收购后重组资源的灵活性较低，并且会发现合并目标公司的业务成本更高。与这一预测一致，我们发现收购方的调整成本与收购公告前后的异常回报呈负相关。此外，调整成本也与交易协同效应呈负相关。相关地，我们发现调整成本高的收购方会购买调整成本高的标的。根据这一发现，我们表明具有高调整成本的收购方会购买无形密集型目标。总的来说，我们的结果强调了并购交易中调整成本对管理者和资本市场参与者的重要影响。