This paper investigates how earnings non-synchronicity impacts associated with firm-level research and development (R&D) investment vary as a function of industry-level mergers and acquisitions (M&A) intensity. Investing in R&D enables firms to differentiate and gain competitive advantages; differentiation strategies increase idiosyncratic variation in firms’ earnings. We introduce an industry-level contextual variable, industry-level M&A, to capture variations in innovation novelty. We show that the positive relationship between R&D investment and earnings non-synchronicity is increasing in the intensity of inside-industry M&A but not outside-industry M&A. This is consistent with our conjecture that M&A within an industry facilitate knowledge base expansion and induce more innovative R&D through complementary effects.

中文翻译：

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创新与盈利不同步：来自行业并购活动的证据

本文研究了与公司层面的研发 (R&D) 投资相关的收益非同步性影响如何随着行业层面的并购 (M&A) 强度而变化。投资于研发使公司能够实现差异化并获得竞争优势；差异化战略增加了公司收益的特殊变化。我们引入了行业级别的上下文变量，行业级别的并购，以捕捉创新新颖性的变化。我们发现，研发投入与收益非同步性之间的正相关关系在行业内并购的强度上增加，而在行业外并购的强度上则没有。这与我们的推测是一致的，即行业内的并购有助于知识库的扩展并引发更多的创新研发。