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The utilization of mergers and acquisitions has over the years become a central part of expanding and growing an organization. To acquire or merge with another firm is often described as a way to facilitate better and faster organizational development, in ways that organic growth cannot. In conjunction with the increase in popularity of mergers and acquisitions, the academic attention towards this area has also grown subsequently. According to scholars, due diligence can be used as a tool to ensure that the acquiring firm and the target firm are a good match, as well as ensuring that any seller statements are consistent with reality. The academic attention towards due diligence is, however, described as surprisingly limited. Previous researchers are calling for an increased and deeper understanding of due diligence in general. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to further develop theoretical knowledge and expand the understanding of due diligence. More exactly, we have targeted Swedish small and medium-sized firms that have acquired another firm recently by asking the following research questions; What are the drivers and challenges of pre-acquisition due diligence for Swedish SMEs? and; How is the pre-acquisition due diligence process managed by Swedish SMEs? and; How are the results of the pre-acquisition due diligence applied? Semi-structured interviews with CEOs, founders, managers, and heads of M&As from seven Swedish SMEs were conducted, based on both scholarly suggested evaluation procedures and a literature review within the field of due diligence. All interviews were conducted and recorded through an online tool which facilitated the process of transcribing, analyzing, and producing the empirical findings. By using qualitative thematic analysis the respondents’ answers, thoughts, and insights were accordingly categorized into one of four main themes and subsequent sub-themes. The findings showed that due diligence brings overall value and that it is a necessity in the process of acquiring, even though it is a rather expensive and time-consuming process that can interrupt the everyday agenda at the acquiring firm. Furthermore, the findings also showed that the management of the due diligence process and the utilization of the results differed considerably between the investigated firms. Lastly, the findings indicate a need for future technological development in the field of due diligence, to achieve a more cost- and time-effective process.

[pt] Essa tese é composta por 3 artigos. O primeiro estuda a relação entre política monetária e a disponibilidade de crédito direcionado. Com esse propósito, estimamos as respostas de variáveis macroeconômicas setoriais a choques de política monetária identificados com restrições de sinal e restrições de igualdade em um factor-augmented VAR (FAVAR). Nossos resultados mostram que a política monetária perde potência em setores com maior proporção de crédito direcionado. O segundo artigo propõe a introdução de novas restrições para identificação de choques de política monetária. Em particular, além das restrições de sinal usuais sobre taxas de juros e inflação, nós propomos como restrição de identificação que a política monetária não tenha efeitos reais dez anos após o choque. Esse artigo apresenta evidências de que essa restrição é consistente com o modelo novo-keynesiano canônico de 3 equações e com o modelo proposto por Smets and Wouters (2007). Em uma aplicação empírica simples, esse artigo mostra que essa restrição pode ser importante para recuperar efeitos reais de política monetária. O terceiro artigo mostra que bancos estrangeiros podem mitigar barreiras informacionais vis-à-vis bancos privados nacionais a partir da observação do comportamento de seus pares. Dado um pedido de empréstimo por parte de uma firma pequena ou média, a existência de empréstimos bancários passados desta firma com bancos privados nacionais constitui um preditor mais importante da probabilidade de que o empréstimo seja concedido para bancos estrangeiros, em comparação a bancos privados nacionais. Nossos resultados são compatíveis com a visão de que a maior habilidade de bancos privados nacionais em aferir o risco de crédito de firmas pouco transparentes torna os empréstimos anteriores com esses bancos um sinal mais valioso para bancos estrangeiros. / [en] This thesis is composed of three papers. The first one studies the relation between monetary policy power and the availability of earmarked loans. To that end, we estimate the responses of sectoral macroeconomic variables to monetary policy shocks identified through sign and equality restrictions in a factor-augmented VAR (FAVAR). We find that monetary policy loses power in sectors with a larger share of earmarked loans among its bank debt. The second paper proposes the introduction of new restrictions to identify monetary policy shocks in SVARs. In particular, besides standard sign restrictions on interest rates and inflation, we propose to add as an identification restriction the inability of monetary policy to have real effects ten years after the shock. This paper presents evidence of the model consistency of this neutrality restriction both for the canonical 3-equation new keynesian model and the Smets and Wouters (2007) model. In a simple empirical application, this paper shows that this restriction may be important to recover real effects of monetary policy. The third paper shows that foreign banks can mitigate informational barriers vis-a-vis private domestic banks by observing their peers behavior. Conditional on a loan application being filed by a SME firm, we find that the existence of past loans of this firm with private domestic banks constitute a more important predictor that a loan will be granted by foreign banks in comparison to private domestic banks. Our results are compatible with the view that the higher ability of private domestic banks to access informationally opaque business credit risks makes past loans with these banks a more valuable signal for foreign lenders.