The boisterous behaviour of Societas Europaea in Czechia – a proximity analysis of mergers and acquisitions
Abstract
Czechia is known for a relatively high number of European Companies (SE) registrations. In order to clarify the enormous popularity, the aim of this study is to describe the behaviour of SE in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity and to detect differences from other listed companies.
In particular, the emphasis is put on the role of geographical and cognitive proximities between SE and their targets. The empirical assessment using logistic regression benefits from a large dataset comprising of 7,798 deals from years between 2004 and 2017 with an SE as an acquirer.
The results show that the majority of deals involving SE are connected to the practice of ready-made companies for sale, while the internationalization is weak and statistically insignificant. The pattern of cognitive proximity effect on M&A provides a strong empirical evidence for the theory of related variety.