Graduation Year

2020

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree

D.B.A.

Degree Granting Department

Business

Major Professor

Grandon Gill, D.B.A

Co-Major Professor

Robert Tiller, D.B.A

Committee Member

Loran Jarrett, D.B.A

Committee Member

Sunil Mithas, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Mark H. Taylor, Ph.D.

Keywords

Cultural integration, Meeting format, Mergers and acquisitions, Organizational culture

Abstract

In 2020, the United Sates mergers and acquisitions (M&As) had a total value of $1.2 trillion. Organizations engage in M&As for a variety of reasons, such as to gain economies of scale and scope, obtain technologies, enter new markets, or gain competitive advantage by eliminating competitors or combining forces. However, studies indicate that less than half achieve their stated strategic and financial goals. Two factors cited within the M&A literature that contribute to the failure rate are cultural clashes and post-merger integration activities. This three-paper dissertation explores the influence organizational cultures and post-merger integration activity (post-merger meetings) may have on M&As.

The first paper involves a systematic literature review on the impact cultural integration has on M&As. From this research, nine critical themes emerged: acculturation, sociocultural integration, organizational culture, M&A success, integration, integration success, integration failure, and M&A failure. The second paper is a qualitative study consisting of 18 interviews with practitioners who have experienced a post-merger integration meeting. Four key themes materialized from the study: decision-making process, meeting format, customer prioritization, and financial focus. These first two papers laid the foundation for the post-merger meeting framework constructed in the third paper. The post-merger framework is intended as a job guide that integration leaders and senior managers may choose to review before conducting post-merger integration kickoff meetings.

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