The choice of insider or outsider top executives in acquired companies

There is considerable debate amongst academics and practitioners over whether top executives of acquired or merged companies should stay or go, post-deal, as studies exploring the link with organisational performance show mixed results. This may in part be due to such studies failing to recognise that there are a number of distinct post-acquisition strategies which may require the deployment of different types of top executive. This paper addresses this limitation by bringing together the longstanding Insider/Outsider debate with a post-acquisition integration framework, in order to investigate whether there is a link between top management type and post-acquisition integration strategy. Using a dual methodology of survey and cases drawing on UK M&A data, clear associations are found between top executive type and particular post-acquisition styles. Underlying these patterns, the value-creating/value-capturing distinction of the Resource-Based View appears to have a greater influence over top executive deployment than do issues of Organisational Fit. This suggests strategic intentions have ascendancy over organisational constraints in the selection of top executives for managing post-acquisition integration

The dynamics of organizational autonomy: Oscillations at Automobili Lamborghini

Through a 21-year longitudinal study of the relationship between Italian supercar manufacturer Automobili Lamborghini and its parent, German carmaker Audi AG, we examine how a unit’s degree of organizational autonomy is renegotiated over long periods of time. Using detailed empirical data, we develop a process model of the dynamics of organizational autonomy in a unit–parent relationship. This process model shows an ongoing dialectical tension between parent managers’ autonomy-reduction efforts and unit managers’ autonomy-extension efforts, and it reveals oscillations in the unit managers’ discretion over resource-orchestration decisions. Driving this dialectic are parent managers’ appraisal respect for the unit, their search for firm-wide strategic integration, and unit managers’ organizational identity and concern for distinctiveness. Our process model captures concurrent feedback loops that endogenously produce these oscillations between lower and higher autonomy. We then conceptualize a harmonic domain in the unit–parent relationship, in which these oscillations persist without deviating toward amalgamation or separation. Finally, we develop a theory of change in autonomy by identifying a theoretical link between resource orchestration and specific dimensions of organizational identity. Our study highlights the dialectical, dynamic, and ongoing nature of organizational autonomy

New Integration Strategies for Post-Acquisition Management

The post-acquisition integration phase is widely recognized as critical to the M&A process. However post-acquisition typologies suffer from inadequate empirical support or lack of comprehensiveness. This empirical paper responds to calls for methodological pluralism in M&A research, and uses a mixed method to assess the robustness of a leading post-acquisition integration typology. Through multiple cluster analyses, different post-acquisition strategies are identified and qualitative techniques allow them to be further explored. This approach overcomes some imitations of single method research in M&A and results in a more robust, fine-grained and extended postacquisition typology. It enables a more nuanced perspective on the coexistence of exploration and exploitation gains with implications for practitioners and researchers

From Fit to Fitting: A Routine Dynamics Perspective on M&A Synergy Realization

Many mergers and acquisitions (M&A) fail to achieve anticipated synergistic benefits. The combination of resources and processes is particularly difficult. This paper uses a routine dynamics perspective to study an acquisition in the consultancy sector where the strategy of combining two routines, designed to commercialize a new offer, failed. Zooming in on the micro dynamics of synergy realization, we show how the envisioned design was challenged only once the combined routine was enacted. The joint performance of the routine revealed incompatibilities at three levels: within the combined routine; with adjacent routines; and across the merging organizations. We identify two mechanisms that drive these incompatibilities: conflicting actors' intentions and conflicting organizational norms. We discuss how synergy realization requires both the converging of intentions and norms and the interweaving of actions, routines, and organizations. Our paper contributes to M&A research by challenging the notion of ‘fit’ as a prerequisite for success and by developing the notion of ‘fitting’ as an unfolding process, i.e., through a design-action loop in which sources of incompatibilities are revealed and adjusted. We elucidate the dynamic and iterative nature of synergy realization and argue for a rethinking of pre- and post-acquisition periods as fundamentally interlinked. We also contribute to research on routine dynamics by enhancing the understanding of routine interdependencies and the intentionality of routines in cross-organizational settings.Peer reviewe

Floristic and phytogeographical study of the southernmost part of the Plánický hřeben phytogeographical district

A pilot survey of contemporary state of flora of vascular plants in the southernmost part of the Plánický hřeben uplands (western Bohemia, district Klatovy) was carried out during the vegetation season 2007. In total, 476 taxa of vascular plants were recorded in the year 2007, 18 of these taxa are mentioned in the Red List of the vascular plants of the Czech Republic {--} 13 as {\clqq}endangered`` (cathegory C3) and 5 as {\clqq}rare or scattered, requiring further study and monitoring`` (cathegory C4). On the other hand, presence of 6 species of invasive neophytes was revealed. All records of taxa and detailed descriptions of their localities are stored in the Microsoft Access database. The data with potential importance for conservation of nature and biodiversity (localities of rare and endangered plant species or vegetation types, occurences of invasive neophytes) were also converted to the set of layers in geographical information system (GIS)

Boundary spanning and boundary breaking research in M&A: Taking stock and moving forward to reinvent the field

The boundaries of Merger and Acquisition (M&A) research demarcate both what is known about the phenomenon and the areas where further enquiry is deemed warranted. By understanding the boundaries of M&A, researchers can define and contextualise their knowledge for precision and depth of inquiry to ‘stand on the shoulders of giants’ by building upon previous findings

How the Multimedia Communication of Strategy Can Enable More Effective Recall and Learning

Many claims have been made about the learning benefits of communicating strategies in multimedia picture-plus-text formats, rather than monomedia text-only formats. However, there is little theorization and empirical evidence to support these claims. Drawing upon cognitive load theory to develop learning-related hypotheses, this manuscript reports on a multicountry experiment that tests the effects of different modes of strategy communication on student learning. The results show the learning benefits to students of multimedia presentations of strategy and suggests how strategy professors should further encourage students to draw strategies in class

Speeds of post-merger integration:The roles of chronos and kairos in M&As

Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are major events in organizational development and the post-merger phase is widely recognised as being crucial for value creation. One of the most important decisions in this process is the speed of integration. However, despite a growing body of literature on this subject, conclusions remain a source of persistent equivocality. In fact, this debate has been dominated by diametrically opposed, and often highly normative, views advocating either fast or slow post-merger integration (PMI). One commonality within this discussion though, is the shared assumption that integration proceeds at a linear, constant rate, whatever the speed. We challenge this assumption. We undertook a 30-month, longitudinal study of two merging, not-for-profit, organisations. Using detailed and multiple sources of process data, we were able to identify and track periods of comparatively rapid and equally comparatively slower integration during the two-and-a-half- year PMI process. We thus offer a novel empirical demonstration of the changes in speed during the PMI process. We support this with a theoretical discussion using the temporal concepts of chronos and kairos. We analyse the determinants and mechanisms of changes in speed, asking why and how these variations occur. We call this mechanism the kairotic switch and discuss its theoretical and managerial uses and implications. Keywords M&APost-merger integrationSpeedRhythmChronosKairo