My Research
My Research
Working Papers:
Innovative Intangible Assets in M&A: The Impact of Radical and Incremental Innovations on Acquirer Firms
Abstract: In mergers and acquisitions, the acquirer must value the target’s innovative intangible assets at deal closure and disclose them to investors. I build a novel database and classify these assets, which include patents but also other technological innovations, into two categories. Radical innovations represent breakthrough technologies, and incremental innovations build on existing technologies. My empirical findings indicate that both radical and incremental innovations are valuable for acquiring firms. Acquired incremental innovations are associated with cost reductions, while acquired radical innovations contribute to valuable future patents. The market however appears to discount the value of acquired innovations at the deal announcement date.
Keywords: Innovation, R&D, Radical and Incremental technologies, Acquisitions, Mergers
Presentations: AFA poster session 2025 (scheduled), SFI Job Market Workshop 2024 (scheduled), SFI Research Days (Switzerland) Best Paper Award 2023, International Conference Computing in Economics and Finance 2023 (France)
Why do startups become unicorns instead of going public?
with Rüdiger Fahlenbrach, Leandro Sanz, and René M. Stulz
Abstract: Unicorns are startups that choose to stay private even though they are large enough to go public. We propose an efficiency explanation for their existence. Startups relying highly on organization capital are more vulnerable to expropriation of their organization capital if they go public before their position is sufficiently secure. Our main empirical findings are that shocks to the fragility of organization capital decrease the IPO likelihood, unicorn status enables startups to stay private longer by giving them access to new sources of capital, and unicorns and their industries have higher organization capital intensity than other startups.
Keywords: Unicorns, Organization Capital, Scale and Scope, Venture Capital, Private vs. Public
Media: Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance, NBER Digest