Title: Innovation Similarity and Employee Satisfaction

Speaker: Feng Hongrui, Associate Professor of Finance, Pepperdine University, USA. His main research fields include empirical corporate finance, natural language processing, and environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG). His papers have been published in authoritative finance and accounting journals such as "Journal of Banking and Finance" and "Journal of Management Accounting Research". Associate Professor Feng Hongrui obtained his Ph.D. in Finance from Oklahoma State University, USA in 2017. He received his bachelor’s degree and master’s degree from Zhejiang University and the Georgia Institute of Technology, USA, respectively. He once served as an Assistant Professor at the Behrend College of Pennsylvania State University.

Abstract: Capturing the innovation similarity between acquirers and target firms through discussions in conference calls, we find that the more similar the acquirer-target firm pairs, the lower the innovation quality, and we explore the reasons from the perspective of employees. These transactions lead to a decrease in employee satisfaction across various topics. Tests using the abolition of non-compete agreements as an identification method show that innovation similarity amplifies the impact of employee turnover on employee satisfaction. Further analysis reveals that dissatisfaction tends to disappear within 3 years. This impact is more significant among departing employees, senior employees, researchers, and target firm employees. After mergers and acquisitions, employees pay more attention to their own interests and development. Our results cannot be explained by technological overlap between enterprises (Bena and Li, 2014) or corporate innovation culture (Li et al. 2021), indicating that innovation similarity captures a unique aspect of corporate culture that has a profound impact on post-merger employee satisfaction.

Date & time: 25 July 2025, 16:00

Venue: B336, Zhixin Building, Central Campus, Shandong University