We investigate whether having a CEO with an international background affects U.S. firms’ cross-border merger and acquisition (M&A) activities. By defining international background as having either non-U.S. nationality, overseas education, or foreign work experience, we provide robust evidence that when a CEO possesses these characteristics, a firm is more likely to acquire international targets, and these deals are more value-enhancing. Moreover, our results indicate that when a firm's CEO has all of these international characteristics (compared to just one), both the likelihood of cross-border deals and announcement returns increase. The observed gains are related, at least in part, to CEOs with this background being associated with lower acquisition premium and mitigating the negative impact of paying for these deals with equity.

中文翻译：

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CEO 国际背景与跨境并购

我们调查了拥有国际背景的首席执行官是否会影响美国公司的跨境并购（M＆A）活动。通过将国际背景定义为具有非美国国籍、海外教育或国外工作经验，我们提供了强有力的证据表明，当首席执行官具备这些特征时，公司更有可能收购国际目标，并且这些交易更能增值。此外，我们的结果表明，当一家公司的首席执行官具备所有这些国际特征（与仅具有一种特征相比）时，跨境交易和公告回报的可能性都会增加。观察到的收益至少部分与具有这种背景的首席执行官相关，这些首席执行官与较低的收购溢价有关，并减轻了用股权支付这些交易的负面影响。