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This article investigates the moderating effect of political affinity between countries on investors' reactions to the premium in cross-border acquisitions (CBAs).Based on a sample of 1,183 CBAs between 1999 and 2018, we find that political affinity positively moderates the relationship between the acquisition premium and the acquiring and target firms' stock market return. We argue that investors use political affinity to assess the reliability of the premium (i.e., management's overall perception of a given deal's synergistic potential). This is in line with prior literature reasoning that, unlike strong political affinity, weak political affinity increases the likelihood of government intervention, decreases the likelihood of deal completion, and results in higher premiums to mitigate the previous effects, thus potentially increasing the likelihood of value destruction.

This paper examines the relationship between the presence of employee representatives and female directors at the board level and a firm’s environmental and corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance. Using an international sample of firms from 23 developed countries between 2001 and 2014, we provide evidence that the presence of labor representatives and a larger proportion of women as well as female labor representatives at the board level are positively related to CSR and environmental performance. Furthermore, we find no substitutional relationship between female board members and labor representation when we include an interaction term between the two. Our findings illustrate that the relevant legislation in some non-Anglo-Saxon countries is beneficial and could be introduced in Anglo-Saxon countries where employee representation rights are limited and female board members are still a minority.

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