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While existing literature extensively explores manufacturing firms expanding into services, little is known about the modes of servitisation, the means by which they carry it out. This paper concentrates on acquisitions as a mode of servitisation. Post-acquisition integration is when the potential of an acquisition is realised. The paper therefore aims to categorise types of integrations following the acquisition of servitised firms and discusses their consequences for servitisation.

The empirical part of the paper is based on two case studies, each involving the acquisition of servitised firms. Both acquirers changed their integration approach over time.

The paper conceptualises three types of integrations: rhetorical, insulated and transformative integrations, indicating whether and how the acquirer becomes servitised following the integration. These highlight the analysis of integration based on business models and customer orientation in relation to servitisation.

This paper contributes to research on servitisation by emphasising acquisitions as a mode of servitisation and conceptualising three integration types related to business models and customer orientations. Furthermore, the paper highlights how an acquirer's servitisation leads to new offerings targeting new customers, as opposed to strengthening existing relationships.

Drawing on organizational design theory and organizational learning theory, this paper aims to examine component technology (CT) and the interaction between CT and experiential learning (EL) effects on the degree of integration (DI) of cross-border technological acquisitions.

Using a sample of 267 firms consisting of 229 acquirer firms who started cross-border technological acquisitions from developed economies and 38 acquirer firms who initiated cross-border technological acquisitions from emerging economies over the period of 1993–2016, this study adopts a value chain framework to measure the acquirers’ acquisition integration degree for the investigation of the effects of CT and the interaction between CT and EL.

First, this paper finds CT in cross-border technological acquisitions exerting a positive influence on the acquirer firm’s likelihood of the DI implementation, in line with the organizational design theory. Second, in view of organizational learning theory, this study finds EL and the combined effect of CT and EL to have an inverse influence on the DI.

The results imply that the moderating role of EL significantly optimizes decision choices for an acquirer firm for integration implementation strategies in the form of DI, such as full integration (structural integration), partial integration and no integration (structural separation), which appears to be crucial for cross-border technological acquisitions.

This study contributed to international business strategies by shedding light on the importance of the DI for an acquirer firm that undertakes a cross-border technological acquisition with a CT target firm. This study explains why structural integration might be necessary in cross-border technological acquisitions regardless of the costs of disruption it imposes, as well as the contexts in which it becomes less important or unnecessary. The study disclosed that the increase in the likelihood of DI because of CT depends on the EL of the acquisition company in the host country environment and fluctuates with the prior acquisition knowledge and EL of the host country. Combining two cross-border technological acquisition’s literature streams, such as CT and EL, this study enlightens the importance of organizational learning theory and theory of organization design strategic direction making on acquisition integration implementation strategies.

The primary aim of this study is to resolve a longstanding debate concerning the impact of takeover premiums on post-acquisition performance. Specifically, we aim to examine how acquirers' marketing capabilities and payment methods moderate the relationship between takeover premiums and post-acquisition performance.

This study employs linear regression to examine the relationship between acquirers' marketing capabilities, payment methods, takeover premiums and post-acquisition performance in the Chinese manufacturing industry. Data for the analysis were collected from both mergers and acquisition (M&A) announcements and the China Stock Market & Accounting Research Database (CSMAR), covering 1,169 acquisitions from 2012 to 2021.

The results indicate that acquirers' marketing capabilities moderate the impact of takeover premiums on post-acquisition performance. When acquirers possess strong marketing capabilities, takeover premiums increase post-acquisition performance. Conversely, when acquirers lack strong marketing capabilities, takeover premiums are not significantly related to post-acquisition performance. Additionally, it is noteworthy that takeover premiums show a positive correlation with post-acquisition performance, irrespective of the payment methods employed by acquirers for target firms.

Given that takeover premiums are essential for acquiring resources from target firms, it is crucial to maximize the value of these acquired resources. Our findings suggest that acquirers with weaker marketing capabilities before the deal should consider a more conservative approach to pricing target firms.

This paper aims to explore how the effect of knowledge sharing through mergers and acquisitions (M&As) on new product development (NPD) performance is contingent upon two different types of control mechanisms: behavior control and outcome control.

Leveraging the theory from transaction cost economics, this study provides answers regarding the roles of behavior and outcome controls. The hypotheses were tested empirically across a sample of 143 UK cross-border M&A firms.

The results provide the increasing call for an integrative perspective and theory in the M&A literature in that knowledge sharing through M&As is deemed decisive for NPD performance, and while both control mechanisms are effective, behavior control is more effective in enhancing NPD performance than outcome control.

The relevant M&A studies lack insights into the use of control mechanisms as a way to monitor the target firm’s behavior and performance and reduce the risk of its opportunistic behavior. Appreciating the need for M&A literature that elaborates control strategy and structure, this study incorporates behavior control and outcome control into M&A mechanisms.

This study aims to address a significant gap in the literature by exploring the individual nature and microfoundation perspective of cultural friction during the integration phase following cross-border mergers and acquisitions (CBMAs). It focuses on the role of face, a pivotal facet of interactions within Asian organizations, elucidating its importance in post-M&A integration outcomes.

Using a conceptual approach, this study draws on three bodies of literature, namely, cultural friction, microfoundations and face concerns. It reconsiders cultural friction as a microfounded construct and introduces face concerns as a pivotal element to understanding the challenges faced by managers at the forefront of CBMAs involving Asian companies. The conceptual approach is illustrated with examples for the world of practice.

This research makes two significant contributions to the fields of CBMAs and cultural friction. First, it demonstrates the relevance of the concept of cultural friction at the individual level, shedding light on the complex post-CBMA integration process. Second, this study demonstrates the critical role of face concerns in the sociocultural integration following CBMAs. This is underexplored in extant literature.

The crucial role of face is well known to those working in Asia. Yet academic inquiry remains underdeveloped on this issue for CBMAs. The friction derived from face concerns provides additional insights into the nature of the cultural challenges confronting managers during sociocultural integration and elucidates the micro-mechanisms influencing individuals’ responses to cultural friction. This research responds to calls to examine the human side of M&As uncovering previously neglected issues within intercultural managerial encounters.

By providing equal weight to buyers and sellers, the purpose of this paper is to enhance our understanding of the determinants underlying successful mergers and acquisitions (M&As) involving a specific segment of firms involved in such undertakings, i.e., knowledge-intensive innovative and entrepreneurial (KIE) firms.

A multiple case study, based on eight semi-structured interviews with CEOs representing acquirers and the acquired firms, investigates the focal phenomenon this study addresses.

The results suggest that knowledge-intensive, innovative and entrepreneurial firms promote entrepreneurial intentions and allow value creation of M&As through four overarching measures. These are buyer–seller fit, aligned incentives, long-term thinking and perpetual alliance.

The outcomes of this research may have limited generalizable due to the chosen research methodology. Therefore, this study recommends future studies testing the validity of these findings.

The authors have clarified the drawbacks of integration when being involved in M&As with KIE firms. These drawbacks primarily revolved around not eliminating the entrepreneurs’ autonomy and their routines, but it is also partly related to letting them keep their identity (i.e. their brand) as well as retaining employees’ trust in the new owner.

Contrary to most papers, this study has taken an approach giving equal weight to both buyers and sellers. In doing so, this study clarified the drawbacks of integration when it involves M&As with KIE firms.

Skillful management of employees after a merger or acquisition (M&A) is one of the key aspects to ensuring a successful deal, and most notably to ensure talent retention. This paper aims to describe how Bristol Myer Squibb (BMS) efficiently integrated Celgene after it bought the company for a near-record $74bn in 2019. The authors explain the structural elements applied during the premerger phase (acquisition experience, partner location and portfolio alignment) and the subsequent postmerger decisions to ensure rapid integration (choice of the leadership team, cultural integration and the communication strategy).

This paper adopts a single-case approach of the second largest acquisition in the pharmaceutical industry. It analyzes the management and talent retention decisions taken to ensure rapid integration of Celgene while ensuring that employees felt engaged in the process. This was achieved despite the consideration challenges posed by the COVID-19 global lockdown.

M&As are well known for the HR challenges they generate such as change management, cultural clashes and increased employee turnover. This paper demonstrates how BMS was able to overcome these hurdles, combining a fast speed of integration with managerial dexterity.

This paper offers a concise and clear outline of the management strategies used by BMS to ensure a successful integration strategy. This approach included a strong respect for the human as well as financial and strategic aspects of the deal. For even greater clarity, this paper offers a diagrammatic representation of the strategy of BMS to improve the speed of integration.

Digital technologies create myriad innovation opportunities and have inspired the establishment of many new start-ups in recent years. Despite the growing knowledge on digital entrepreneurship, few studies explore how start-ups exploit these opportunities to achieve entrepreneurial success. The purpose of this paper is to explore start-ups’ capabilities for successful delivery of digital artefacts in a cloud computing infrastructure.

Empirical data were collected during a qualitative case study of an established start-up in the Chinese market by interviewing 41 interviewees. Informed by the notion of dynamic capabilities and using the Gioia methodology, the case firm's life cycle was analysed in detail.

The study identifies start-ups’ ordinary and dynamic capabilities for successful development and delivery of digital services. The findings provide insights into a portfolio of start-ups’ capabilities, namely adaptation, networking, reengineering and refinement.

The study suggests that start-ups’ capabilities and underlying entrepreneurial actions determine the degree to which adoption of digital technologies create and transfer value to customers. The study offers specific insights into how start-ups successfully develop and deliver digital artefacts in a cloud infrastructure based on entrepreneurs' prior expertise, vision and accumulated experience.

This study aims to examine the multidimensional nature of institutional distance as a driver of acquisition decisions in emerging markets. Then, this study aims to offer a nuanced perspective on the role of its various formal and informal dimensions by taking into account the potential contingency role played by a firm’s context experience.

Building on institutional economics and organizational institutionalism, this study explores the heterogeneity of institutional distance and its effects on the decision to enter emerging versus advanced markets through cross-border acquisitions. Thus, institutional distance is disentangled into its formal and informal dimensions, the former being captured by regulatory efficiency, country governance and financial development. Furthermore, our framework examines the moderating effect of an acquiring firm’s experience in institutionally similar environments, defined as context experience. The hypotheses are analyzed on a sample of 496 cross-border acquisitions by Italian companies in 41 countries from 2008 to 2018.

Findings indicate that at an increasing distance in terms of regulatory efficiency and financial development, acquiring firms are less likely to enter emerging markets, while informal institutional distance is positively associated with such acquisitions. Context experience mitigates the negative effect of formal distance and enhances the positive effect of informal distance.

This study contributes to institutional distance literature in multiple ways. First, by bridging institutional economics and organizational institutionalism and second, by examining the heterogeneity of formal and informal dimensions of distance, this study offers a finer-grained perspective on how institutional distance affects acquisition decisions. Finally, it offers a contingency perspective on the role of context experience.

This research is an empirical study that addresses whether knowledge resources impact on, or do not impact on, innovation development and if this impact is mediated by dynamic capabilities in the medical tourism sector in Mashhad city, Iran.

A quantitative research methodology was applied and questionnaires were used for data collection in this study. A total of 108 questionnaires were collected of which 102 questionnaires were valid. Data were analyzed using structural equation modelling technique.

Empirical evidence obtained from the study reveals that the dynamic capability of learning plays a significant role in transforming knowledge resources into innovation in the medical tourism sector. The mediating role of coordinating capability in the relationship between explicit and tacit knowledge and innovation is considerable and it influences human capital, as well. Sensing capability also exhibits some degree of a mediating role; however, integrating capability is not influential and its role in transforming explicit knowledge to innovation is rejected.

Most studies on innovation in medical tourism focused on market and its typology, and neglected the role of knowledge resources and dynamic capabilities. The current study bridges this gap and thus contributes to the scientific literature.