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We propose a model to explain how and why merger & acquisition (M&A) can affect firms' technological performance. The model presents two key novel features. First, we conceptualize technological performance as a bi-dimensional construct that includes both the quantity of innovations produced as well as their quality (or type). Second, we characterize the outcome of the innovation process as essentially dependent on two variables: the resources available in the process and the organizational incentives that govern the use of these resources. We then argue that two types of resources are particularly relevant to explain technological performance: technological resources and complementary assets. Moreover, we contend that not only do incentives influence the propensity of firms to innovate (i.e., the quantity of innovations produced), but they also shape the type of innovations pursued. Our thesis is that M&A influence technological performance by altering simultaneously the resources firms' can use in their innovation process as well as the incentives firms undergo in the innovation process. Some preliminary empirical findings along these lines are also discussed.

Despite the fundamental role that digital social media could play in the process of consumer co-creation, academic research on this topic is still in its infancy. The overall aim of the chapter is to consider how digital social media can be used by firms to encourage and sustain co-creation behavior.

We draw a multiple case analyses, focusing on the insurance industry, particularly on the Italian insurance market.

We particularly extend the literature on value co-creation by proposing a composite framework that enables us to grasp the different strategies that firms implement in their different manners of employing digital social media.

We set forth a research agenda for managerial scholars that can help understand how social media should be incorporated in the day-to-day operations of insurance companies.

We are celebrating our sixth annual volume of the Advances in Mergers and Acquisitions. We have attempted over the years to include a range of disciplines and orientations from occupational psychology to economics, to corporate strategy, to corporate finance, to marketing. This volume is no exception with academics from a range of disciplines and a number of countries (e.g. Germany, Finland, UK, Canada, Italy, US, and Mexico). The unimpeded growth in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity globally means that research and practice in this field is likely to become even more significant as large developing countries such as China, India, and Brazil begin to go globally and influence markets in a different but dynamic way.