Introduction

Abstract

Volume 7 of Advances in Mergers and Acquisitions brings together a terrific set of articles on a broad spectrum of issues related to M&As. This year, the two papers that are most strategic in outlook both touch on alliances as a part of corporate strategy. In the first, by Prescott and Shi, they explicitly take a temporal lens to M&A in what may be the early stages of an important research stream within the wider field. A temporal perspective focuses on when and under what conditions firms should seek different types of growth, and the pattern of these strategic actions over time. The idea that patterns are important to understanding strategy is implicit in the most fundamental conceptualizations of the field – Mintzberg's view of strategy as a stream of decisions – yet it is seldom taken much further in other work. Prescott and Shi take up this challenge and identify seven different “sequence types.” Each of these types has a different “rhythm” and each presents different strategic challenges and requirements. This work is very exciting as it offers an opportunity to understand in a more dynamic framework the process of engaging in M&As, a topic that is likely to generate considerably more work to come.

Citation

Finkelstein, S. and Cooper, C.L. (2008), "Introduction", Cooper, C.L. and Finkelstein, S. (Ed.) Advances in Mergers and Acquisitions (Advances in Mergers and Acquisitions, Vol. 7), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 1-3. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1479-361X(08)07001-4