Employee Reviews, Human Capital, and Private-Target Acquisitions

15:40-17:00, Thursday, October 22, 2026

I-206, Boxue Building

Dr. Jianfei Zhu is an Assistant Professor at the College of Business, Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech). She received her Ph.D. in Finance from The University of Hong Kong. Her research primarily examines pharmaceutical firms and broader issues in corporate and household finance, with particular emphasis on financial regulation, informal finance, and healthcare markets.

We examine the role of employee reviews in private-target acquisitions. Using Glassdoor ratings and review text for U.S. private-target deals announced between 2008 and 2023, we find that higher employee ratings are associated with more positive acquirer announcement returns, stronger post-acquisition stock and operating performance, and a greater likelihood of being selected as an acquisition target. These relations are stronger when review coverage is more extensive, consistent with reviews reducing information asymmetry about otherwise opaque private firms. The effects are also more pronounced in human-capital-intensive settings, suggesting that employee reviews convey value-relevant information about human capital. Finally, using a human-supervised Generative-AI classification (based on DeepSeek-R1), we identify eight firm- and human-capital-related topics in employee reviews and show that greater employee attention to these topics is positively associated with acquirer announcement returns. Overall, our findings highlight employee reviews as an informative signal for evaluating private targets and predicting acquisition outcomes.

For more information of the seminar, scan the following QR code(s) to join Tencent QQ group (904 544 292) or WeChat group named "IAER Seminar", please.

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(QR code is valid until October 27, 2026)