LBOS, DEBT AND RESEARCH-AND-DEVELOPMENT INTENSITY

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: LONG, WF; RAVENSCRAFT, DJ
• 署名单位: University of North Carolina; University of North Carolina Chapel Hill
• 刊物名称: STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT JOURNAL
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0143-2095
• DOI: 10.1002/smj.4250140910
• 发表日期: 1993
• 页码: 119-135
• 关键词: research-and-development; LBO; buyout; debt

摘要

This paper deals with the impact of debt on R&D intensity for firms undergoing a leveraged buyout (LBO). We develop seven hypotheses based on capital market imperfection theories and agency theory. To test these hypotheses, we compare 72 R&D performing LBOs with 3329 non-LBO control observations and 126 LBOs with little or no R&D expenditures. The regressions yield four statistically significant major findings. First, pre-LBO R&D intensity is roughly one-half of the overall manufacturing mean and two-thirds of the firm's industry mean. Second, LBOs cause R&D intensity to drop by 40 percent. Third, large firms tend to have smaller LBO-related declines in R&D intensity. Fourth, R&D intensive LBOs outperform both their non-LBO industry peers and other LBOs without R&D expenditures.