Spatial strategy of family firms in domestic acquisition based growth

Strategic decisions like mergers and acquisitions have a spatial dimension, since firms seek information and choose among geographically scattered alternatives. In this study, we evaluate the impact of distance on the likelihood of family firms undertaking M&A, in an emerging market context. We also investigate some of the factors and how they might influence the decision of family firms to undertake M&A over long distances. We examine 924 domestic acquisitions announced between 1991 and 2015 by 405 Indian chemical manufacturing firms. We find that the difficulty of search with geographical distance is greater for family businesses. However the availability of resources eases the impact of geographic distance on family businesses.