An analysis of the impact of selected predictors for cross-border M&A activity within the European area

Abstract

This paper provides a comprehensive overview of European M&A activity from 1998-2021. It examines trends and drivers of cross-border mergers and acquisitions, examining how European integration has affected M&A activity and the critical characteristics of M&As in the European Area. The ambition is to contribute to the existing literature on M&A activity in Europe. The paper aims to analyze the impact of advancing integration processes in Europe through our selected predictors on capital reallocation through cross-border M&As as a whole and also separately in the manufacturing sector and the service sector in the examined period in the countries of the European area through a generalized regression model and identify peculiarities in both industries. To achieve this goal, we investigated a new dataset of all completed M&A between 1998 and 2021 in 19 sources and 28 target countries of the European Area.