(The) impact of AI adoption on firm strategy in M&A

Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI) is currently viewed as one of the most disruptive and important technologies in organizations. While past streams of research regarding AI have focused on its impact on the economy, labor, and firm performance, attention has been relatively neglected in the strategic perspective of AI knowledge acquisition, such as M&A. Thus, this study investigates how AI adoption affects a firm’s strategic choices on M&A strategy, and specifically how the past innovation intensity of those firms affects their acquisition choices. The study shows that the number of M&A increases after AI adoption, which confirms the importance of M&A as strategic means of acquiring relevant knowledge. In addition, we also find a negative relationship between the past R&D intensity of firms and the number of technology M&As. This implies a substitutive relationship between acquirer research efforts and technology acquisitions. Through the lens of AI, these findings broaden the scope of literature on firm strategy in external technology sourcing.