This study by a research team including Professor Roman Matousek of Kent Business School focuses on bank mergers and acquisitions (M&As) and applies a DEA based procedure that allows us to pre-evaluate technical efficiency gains from possible M&As in the Japanese regional banking sector.
This approach provides a strategic tool for policy-makers to pre-evaluate possible M&As decisions based on performance criteria that are measured in terms of technical efficiency gains. The results clearly show that possible M&As formed by the smaller banks performed better compared with the possible M&As formed by the larger banks. Moreover, our findings imply that small regional banks will have possible efficiency gains when they merge with neighbouring banks, whereas larger banks appear to have efficiency gains from merging with distant banks.
This research was published in the May 2014 issue of the Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting.