Supervisors: Ingo Kleindienst & Yulia Muratova
Discussants: Panos Mitkidis & Pernille Smith

Abstract
The completion duration of cross-border mergers and acquisitions (CBMAs) is crucial for acquirers because longer durations are often related to higher risks and costs for acquirers. While previous research has shown that home country characteristics can influence the completion duration of CBMAs, to date there is limited understanding of how presidential visits affect the completion duration of CBMAs. Drawing on personal projection and social identity theory, this study posits that people form opinions about a foreign president and extend these perceptions to the president's country and, by extension, to the firms from that country. Notably, presidential visits reinforce and solidify these perceptions within the visited country. We propose that the perceptions that were reinforced and solidified through the presidential visit subsequently affect the completion duration of CBMAs by shaping the host country's regulatory attitude. Specifically, we argue that as the visiting president is viewed more favorable, the completion duration declines and vice versa. We test our reasoning using 572 CBMAs from US firms in 70 host countries and the visits of US presidents in these host countries between 2013 and 2021. Leveraging a natural experiment, we find broad support for our reasoning. The initial results show that after Trump became the incumbent president, the completion durations were significantly prolonged. Our study contributes to the literature on cross-border mergers and acquisitions by highlighting the role of presidential visits.

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