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M&A Advisors: Padding Their Pockets or Source of Expertise?

Advances in Mergers and Acquisitions

ISBN: 978-1-78973-600-7, eISBN: 978-1-78973-599-4

Publication date: 17 June 2019

Abstract

Advisors play a key role in the mergers and acquisitions (M&A) process, but research to date has rarely focused on how their influence impacts these transactions. The present chapter takes stock of the present literature on M&A advisors from finance, economics, and management in order to integrate the currently diverging research traditions into a coherent framework. The current research has focused on proximal acquisition outcomes, like acquisition premiums or expected performance in the form of cumulative abnormal returns, but there is limited theoretical understanding of the advisors impact on the post-acquisition period. Moreover, while the role of advisor reputation has been highlighted on both the management and finance literatures as an important aspect of the role advisors play in the M&A process, there seems to be much to be addressed. Furthermore, and perhaps most importantly, the nature of the relationship between the advisor and the acquirer or target presents challenges to researchers where the advisor acts both as a provider of expertise in the M&A process, but may be simply acting on their own best interest. The new framework that the authors present here provides management scholars with a roadmap into a cohesive research agenda that can inform our theoretical understanding of the role of M&A advisors.

Keywords

Citation

Gordon, J.M., Sieiro, G.M., Ellis, K.M. and Lamont, B.T. (2019), "M&A Advisors: Padding Their Pockets or Source of Expertise?", Cooper, C.L. and Finkelstein, S. (Ed.) Advances in Mergers and Acquisitions (Advances in Mergers and Acquisitions, Vol. 18), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 27-49. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1479-361X20190000018003

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2019 Emerald Publishing Limited