Top Management Team Diversity and Merger & Acquisition Performance: Examining the Moderating Effect of Firm-level M&A Experience

Abstract

Mergers and acquisitions are a widely used tool for strategic growth. However, their performance remains debated, and prior research provides mixed evidence on the role of top management team diversity. This thesis examined the relationship between TMT diversity and M&A performance and investigated whether firm-level M&A experience moderates this relationship. A quantitative and deductive research design was used to analyse completed M&A transactions by US-listed acquiring firms between 2016 and 2025. The data were collected from Orbis M&A, LSEG Workspace, and BoardEx. M&A performance was measured as short-term market-based performance using cumulative abnormal returns around the announcement date. The hypotheses were tested through hierarchical multiple regression analysis. The results showed that TMT educational diversity and TMT gender diversity were negatively and significantly associated with M&A performance, while TMT tenure diversity was not significantly associated with M&A performance. Firm-level M&A experience was not found to significantly moderate any of these relationships. Overall, the results of this thesis suggest that TMT diversity has a dimension-specific and complex role in M&A performance.