A Dual View on IT Challenges in Corporate Divestments and Acquisitions

Acquisitions of new businesses and divestments of existing ones are frequently components of large organizations’ corporate strategies. In both acquisitions and divestments, corporate IT infrastructure plays a critical role for realizing business objectives. In this paper, we take a dual view of the IT-related challenges in divestment and acquisition strategies, studying them as a single integrated transaction between a buyer and a seller and investigating how the IT carve-out and IT integration strategies influence each other. The extant literature on the interaction between carve-outs and integration strategies is an empty set. Here, we begin to shed light to the limitations of the carve-out contract, the processes of carving out a business unit from one and integrating it into another multi-business organization, asymmetries in both parties’ preferences for an IT transaction process and its influence on arising challenges and organization performance

TAKING STOCK AND LOOKING FORWARD: A SCIENTOMETRIC ANALYSIS OF IS/IT INTEGRATION CHALLENGES IN MERGERS

The last decade has seen a rise in research on the topic of challenges associated with information systems (IS) in corporate mergers and acquisitions (M&As). Although this proliferation of research has the potential to significantly improve our understanding of IS challenges in M&A activity, absent is the necessary step of consolidating and integrating extant knowledge. In this paper, we review the domain of IS integration in M&As with focus on the theory building in the area. We identify and analyse 48 articles, published in 13 journals and 5 conference proceedings based on their theoretical contribution. Based on the analysis we point out gaps in the literature and suggest directions for future research

An introspection for the field of IS integration challenges in M&A

The last decade has seen a rise in research on the topic of challenges associated with information systems (IS) in corporate mergers and acquisitions (M&As). Although this proliferation of research has the potential to significantly improve our understanding of IS challenges in M&A activity, absent is the necessary step of consolidating and integrating extant knowledge. In this paper, we review the domain of IS integration in M&As with focus on what have been studied and how it has been studied. By reviewing 37 articles, published in 13 journals, 5 conference proceedings this paper identifies patterns and gaps, and provides directions for future research

IT-based Value Creation in Serial Acquisitions

The extant research on post-acquisition IT integration analyzes how acquirers realize IT-based value in individual acquisitions. However, serial acquirers make 60% of acquisitions. These acquisitions are not isolated events, but are components in growth-by-acquisition programs. To explain how serial acquirers realize IT-based value, we integrate and model the findings on individual acquisitions from the extant literature, and extend that model to explain the effects of sequential acquisitions in a growth-by-acquisition strategy. This extended model, drawing on the Resource-Based Theory of strategy, comprises seven propositions that affect post-acquisition IT integration. The model proposes that successful acquisitions are contingent on the acquirer’s IT capabilities, business and IT alignment, and infrastructure scalability. We begin the process of validating this model by investigating a longitudinal case study of a growth-by-acquisition program

Proactively Building Capabilities for the Post-Acquisition Integration of Information Systems

To gain the strategic benefits of acquisitions, firms must successfully execute post-acquisition IS integration. Unfortunately, a key reason acquisitions regularly fail is because firms fail to successfully leverage the post-acquisition IS integration capability. This capability is not found in non-acquisitive firms. Although research has shown that this capability must be built during the years preceding an acquisition, it has not comprehensively explained what the capability is, nor how it is proactively developed. Through an engaged scholarship learning partnership, this PhD examines how Maersk, proactively built their post-acquisition IS integration capability prior to their first acquisition. By adopting the resource-based view and its extension into dynamic capabilities this PhD contributes mid-range theory that describes and explains this proactive capability building process. Firms can leverage this useful knowledge when building their own IS integration capability to become capable of executing post-acquisition IS integration