Biography
Anish Tiwari is a Marie-Skłodowska-Curie Research Fellow at Dublin City University. His research project seeks to explore the impact of the acquisition of Indian high-tech startups by multinational enterprises, on the economy. More precisely, to assess if such acquisitions supplement further entrepreneurial activity and job creation in India.
Before commencing his Ph.D., he has worked in EY and has been a part of two technology startups, in India. He is a V.V. Giri Global Excellence scholar and holds an MSc in International Business from UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School, Ireland. He also holds a Bachelor’s in Commerce with honors from the University of Delhi, India.
PhD Abstract
Bloomberg in an article published in 2018 reported that Indian start-up ecosystem produced the third highest number of start-ups (8) valued over $1 Billion, only trailing behind China (20) and USA (25). Besides producing billion-dollar start-ups greater than the UK (4) and Germany (2) combined, India in 2018 also witnessed the sale of its most valuable start-up – Flipkart to Walmart Inc. Given the well-documented concerns about the impact of this takeover on the Indian economy, it becomes increasingly important to assess such acquisitions in the context of the Indian economic development.
The thesis examines the impact of acquisitions of high-tech Indian firms, particularly cross-border acquisitions, on the regional entrepreneurial ecosystem and the level of job creation in the Indian economy. It seeks to explore if cross-border acquisitions negatively impact the regional entrepreneurial ecosystem by triggering job losses and intellectual property transfer, or if they nurture the ecosystem by injecting financial and intellectual resources in the acquired firms. It aims at addressing the broader concern related to effective policy formulation around high-tech entrepreneurship. The study focuses on the most significant entrepreneurial cluster driving entrepreneurship and innovation in India- Bangalore, Karnataka. It combines semi-structured interviews with the founders and executives of high-tech firms, electronic surveys targeted towards existing, young high-tech firms and running statistical analysis on secondary acquisitions data available in prominent national and international databases.
From these analyses, the study seeks to uncover the key factors hindering the expansion of the high-tech firms along with key motivations driving the decision of the management to exit via the route of acquisition. Furthermore, it will analyse the subsequent rate of change in employment in these firms, post-acquisition, to evaluate the acquisition’s impact on the regional economy. This study will contribute to the debate on regional economic implications of high-tech acquisitions in the context of India. The study will also explore the factors motivating multi-national enterprises (MNEs) to acquire high-tech start-ups in emerging markets (EM) and the role of cross-border acquisition in the diffusion of innovation across industries and countries. The findings of the study will make a significant contribution to the acquisition literature and will be instrumental in assisting policymakers to formulate effective policies that nurture and promotes high-tech entrepreneurship, thus catalysing job creation in the region.