Aik Nai ChiekM. Kabir HassanTaufiq HassanShamsher Mohamed2024-11-042024-11-042015-03-16http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/pdfplus/10.1108/MRR-07-2013-0178https://dspace-cris.utar.edu.my/handle/123456789/6052<jats:sec> <jats:title content-type="abstract-heading">Purpose</jats:title> <jats:p> – This paper aims to examine the productivity and spillover effect of Malaysian horizontal merger and acquisition (M&amp;A) activities in the long run. </jats:p> </jats:sec> <jats:sec> <jats:title content-type="abstract-heading">Design/methodology/approach</jats:title> <jats:p> – In terms of analytical tools, economic value added (EVA) and data envelopment analysis (DEA) are used. </jats:p> </jats:sec> <jats:sec> <jats:title content-type="abstract-heading">Findings</jats:title> <jats:p> – The results of this study reveal that M&amp;As in the absence of antitrust laws could be driven by managerial self-interest to create market power instead of realizing synergistic gains. Also, in Malaysia, the non-merging rival firms have significantly higher productivity improvement than the control bidder firms, and therefore, this study has identified the spillover effect as a behavior of M&amp;A reaction. </jats:p> </jats:sec> <jats:sec> <jats:title content-type="abstract-heading">Originality/value</jats:title> <jats:p> – This paper differs from previous studies in that it attempts not only to examine the real long-term gains of horizontal M&amp;A activities in Malaysia but also the spillover effects of M&amp;A activities on similar but non-merging firms.</jats:p> </jats:sec>journal-article