Synopses & Reviews
Each collection of articles that makes up a volume of Advances in Mergers and Acquisitions paints a picture of contemporary research on this topic. In this volume, we have seven contributions from scholars in North America, Europe, and Asia, and these papers collectively address acquisition strategy and acquisition integration, successful deals and unsuccessful ones, ownership structure and managerial structure, risk and return, knowledge preservation and knowledge transfer, building trust and cultivating emotions, and alliances and networks. This breadth of attention across the spectrum of research possibilities on mergers and acquisitions is remarkable in that it suggests both that this topic has morphed in recent years to encompass a broad array of issues that go far beyond what earlier generations of scholars concerned themselves with, and that there is still so much more to be learned about the processes and performance of mergers and acquisitions.
One of the benefits of an edited volume of articles on a core topic is the opportunity it presents to bring together not only the diversity of topics described above, but a diversity of methods as well. The insights that emerge from these multiple methods may well be more varied than might otherwise be the case, and offer an additional potential contribution.
In bringing together a set of seven different papers by scholars from different disciplines, with different research agendas, and hailing from different countries yet all of whom are tackling the same general phenomenon this volume offers something that cannot be easily replicated in other forums. The diversity of disciplines, perspectives, and countries is remarkable, butso are the diversity of topics, issues, methodologies, and research questions they bring to bear to shed light on the same fundamental, and critical, feature of organizational life mergers and acquisitions.
*Provides a diverse explanation of topics and methods
*Seven different papers are provided by scholars from around the world
*An excellent resource for researchers, students and practitioners
Synopsis
Mergers and acquisitions continue to be a primary vehicle of growth for companies around the world. Not only in the United States and Europe, but also in Japan, China, India, Brazil and elsewhere, senior executives are making huge bets on the future of their firms. With such intense scrutiny in the world of business, it is not surprising that academic research on mergers and acquisitions has been similarly robust. The topics range from strategy, to organizational integration, culture, leadership, human resource planning, and financial analysis. Similarly the theories brought to bear to help understand mergers and acquisitions range from upper echelons theory to the resource based view of the firm, competitive analysis, organizational trust, networks, knowledge management, and others. What makes the Advances in Mergers and Acquisitions series stand out is its focus on all three characteristics that make up this research field - studies from scholars in different countries, with different research questions, relying on different theoretical perspectives. Such a broad, and inclusive, approach to mergers and acquisitions is not easily replicated in academic journals, with much narrower mandates and metrics. The collections published each year provide cutting edge ideas by leading scholars on a global scale. Doing so not only broadens the questions being studied, but also helps researchers consider the inter-relationships among different perspectives.In the final analysis, the best way to build understanding around a topic as diffuse as mergers and acquisitions is to be both integrative, and expansive, in choice of research questions and theoretical underpinnings. Advances in Mergers and Acquisitions offers this unique perspective, not easily found elsewhere, that will help scholars think about mergers and acquisitions in new ways, building our knowledge base on this critical topic. In light of the enormous sums being invested in growth-via-acquisition strategies around the world, academic research on mergers and acquisitions has never been more important.
Synopsis
Mergers and acquisitions are a primary vehicle of growth for companies around the world. This book contains topics that range from strategy, to organizational integration, culture, leadership, human resource planning, and financial analysis.