Abstract: The correlation between the assets of both parties in a merger and acquisition transaction can affect the difficulty and effectiveness of subsequent integration, which in turn affects the performance of the target company. Therefore, it is of great significance to study the impact of asset correlation and integration on the achievement of performance commitments in mergers and acquisitions. Based on the manually collected performance commitment data of mergers and acquisitions of listed companies from 2009 to 2019, this paper employs the input-output method to construct an asset correlation index for mergers and acquisitions. Then it explores the impact of asset correlation between the two parties in the merger and acquisition transaction on the achievement of performance commitments and its mechanism. The findings show that the stronger the asset correlation between the two parties in the merger and acquisition transaction, the better the achievements of the target company’s performance commitments will be. The stronger the correlation between M&A assets, the more conducive it is to the integration of the target enterprise, and the higher the degree of M&A integration. The degree of integration in mergers and acquisitions plays a mediating role between the correlation of assets acquired and the achievement of performance commitments. Further analysis reveals that share based payment, share based compensation, two-way performance commitments, and lower degree of aggressive performance commitments will enhance the positive correlation between the asset correlation and the achievement of performance commitments in mergers and acquisitions. Therefore, the listed companies should prioritize the mergers and acquisitions for the assets related to their own industries, so as to enhance the degree of integration and promote the achievement of performance commitments.

Key words: asset correlation in mergers and acquisitions, degree of integration in mergers and acquisitions, performance commitment