Download This PaperHow Does Hedge Fund Activism Reshape Corporate Innovation?
85 Pages Posted: 17 Mar 2014 Last revised: 5 Jul 2017
There are 2 versions of this paper
How Does Hedge Fund Activism Reshape Corporate Innovation?
How Does Hedge Fund Activism Reshape Corporate Innovation?
Date Written: July 3, 2017
Abstract
This paper studies how hedge fund activism impacts corporate innovation. Firms targeted by activists improve their innovation efficiency over the five-year period following hedge fund intervention. Despite a tightening in R&D expenditures, target firms increase innovation output, as measured by both patent counts and citations, with stronger effects among firms with more diversified innovation portfolios. Reallocation of innovative resources, redeployment of human capital, and change to board-level expertise all contribute to improve target firms’ innovation. Additional tests help isolate the effect of intervention from alternative explanations, including mean reversion, sample attrition, voluntary reforms, or activist stock-picking.
Keywords: Hedge fund activism, Innovation, Resource allocation, Human capital redeployment
JEL Classification: G23, G34, O31
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Alon Brav
Duke University - Fuqua School of Business ( email )
100 Fuqua Drive
Durham, NC 27708-0120
United States
919-660-2908 (Phone)
919-684-2818 (Fax)
European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI) ( email )
c/o the Royal Academies of Belgium
Rue Ducale 1 Hertogsstraat
1000 Brussels
Belgium
Song Ma (Contact Author)
Yale School of Management ( email )
165 Whitney Ave
P.O. Box 208200
New Haven, CT 06511
United States
HOME PAGE: http://faculty.som.yale.edu/songma/