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This study aims to identify which elements of the vending marketing mix are the main sources of competitive advantage for the industry, how they impact vending profitability, and what are their related synergistic effects.

A full factorial experiment was developed to determine the effect of eight marketing mix scenarios on the profitability of a new vending channel in a French university library and assess the synergistic effects among three elements of a marketing mix (i.e. product quality, payment system, internal location) identified in a focus group as new sources of industry competitive advantage.

Although the main effects of product quality and payment system were weak-to-modest and insignificant, their interaction effect significantly impacted the daily net profit of the vending channel and generated the highest net synergy. The results partially challenge the marketing synergy axiom as internal location separately had a stronger impact on profitability than product quality and higher-order interaction effects do not necessarily translate into higher synergistic effects.

This research was conducted in a real-life setting and has its limitations, which future researchers can overcome by extending the temporal, geographic and product scope of the study.

The distinction that we introduced between gross and net synergy allowed us to partially challenge the prevailing marketing mix assumption that synergy is always positive (i.e. that a vending retailer can achieve synergy by selecting a combination of marketing mix elements instead of relying on them separately). Moreover, by demonstrating that marketing synergy is not a uni- but a bi-dimensional concept, we provide vending retailers with a better methodological understanding of why they may have already fallen into the synergy trap and how to avoid it in the future.

The purpose of the article is to identify and systematize the terms of successful acquisitions on the enterprise market, along with making their classification into the necessary (which enable reaching synergy) and additional conditions (increasing the level of synergy or optimizing the process of obtaining it).

The methodology is based on direct interviews with the CEO, CFO and COOs. The surveys were carried out between the year 2000 and 2010 in a few tens of companies conducting acquisitions. The aim was to answer the question of whether the individual conditions of successful transactions were carried out and what were the results of acquisitions from the perspective of changes in the expected value (or observed) by the buyer. There has also been used the personal experience of the authors as participants in the acquisition on the sides of both, the buyer and the purchased.

The results allowed us to identify key conditions for success at each stage of the transaction process (critical success factors (CSF)). They also made it possible to classify the terms according to the criterion of their significance. The results clearly show that the cost-effective acquisition processes at the same time require fulfilling a number of conditions. The lack of synergetic effects of these conditions may decide not possible to obtain the expected increase in value in the purchasing process.

The research was conducted in a wide spectrum of companies, regardless of the ongoing activities in the industry, mainly on the Polish market. This means that the findings and recommendations are universally applicable, provided that some of the proposals may relate in particular to the so-called emerging markets.

The practical application of recommendations given in the paper will allow to reduce the risk and abridge the scale of failures in the acquisition processes. The attention is drawn to the practical implications of the pitfalls to which the managers who decide on and carry out complex processes of capital investments may be exposed.

As a result of literature and empirical research as well as the article's authors' own experience as experts, there has been proposed a comprehensive model of the most important behaviors conditioning the success of the acquisition in the context of building the shareholder value. This very model organizes the past experience of the M&A market, classifies the important factors in the M&A processes according to their effect on the value, and it supplements them with new elements, allowing the construction of a sustainable competitive advantage of the organization.

While going for mergers and acquisitions (M&A) management smell financial synergy or/and operating synergy in different ways. But actually are they able to generate that potential synergy or not, is the important issue. The aim of this study is to find out whether the claims made by the corporate sector while going for M&As to generate synergy, are being achieved or not in Indian context.

This empirical study is based on secondary financial data and tabulation, ratio analysis, correlation etc. is being used for analysis.

The results indicate that in many cases of M&As, the acquiring firms were able to generate synergy in long run, that may be in the form of higher cash flow, more business, diversification, cost cuttings etc.

The research shows that management cannot take it for granted that synergy can be generated and profits can be increased simply by going for mergers and acquisitions. A case study based research parallel to this study could be initiated to get nearer to reality show.

This study is an extension of M&A performance research, which has been conducted mostly in developed nations on their firms, to Indian firms by taking substantially large number of cases.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the implications of the target valuation uncertainty on the wealth distribution between the target and acquirer firms in successful mergers. The paper specifically analyzes the division of the total dollar gains between the two parties and also whether the target and/or the acquirer experience a positive/negative gain in mergers when valuation of the target company is more uncertain.

The analyses contrast the implications of the uncertainty in three well‐known merger hypotheses; the market‐for‐corporate‐control, hubris and synergy.

The results are supportive of the implications of the synergy hypothesis. As target valuation uncertainty decreases, it is more likely that both parties experience positive gains from the transaction although more of the gains from the merger significantly shift towards the target company.

Results suggest that both parties are bargaining on the synergy gains and the target is able to negotiate a greater portion of the synergy gains when the value of the target becomes more predictable.

M&A success and synergies are regularly discussed in the practical literature, but synergies are typically treated as a static concept (how do you get them?) with little discussion of financial bet acquirers create in paying an up-front premium. We describe the importance of investor reactions, the nature of the challenge, and discuss synergies as a process with five rules of the road covering M&A strategy, diligence, culture, leakage, and validation and reporting. Potential acquirers must be better prepared before they commit these major capital investments, involving multiple stakeholders throughout the process of creating the value they are promising with M&A.

We report the important results of our 24-year study on acquirer performance, the persistence of investor reactions, and the role of the acquisition premium to support our position that synergies must be trackable and defendable before and after deal announcement. From our collective author experience of advising on many hundreds of synergy programs over the years, we distilled our experience based on the common lack of understanding of what is required by executives, and when, and what we have seen greatly improve the odds of success in achieving sufficient M&A synergies.

Major findings include: 1. Initial market reactions are good predictors of the future, most deals persist, positive or negative, and there is a big spread of returns between winners and losers with losers paying the highest premiums; 2. Premiums additions to target’s growth value and may require larger performance increases than acquirers expect; 3. Synergies are a dynamic process involving multiple stakeholders from becoming a prepared acquirer in M&A strategy, building an early synergy roadmap during diligence, understanding that culture and change issues launch at announcement and preparation must begin long before, anticipating leakage, and validating and reporting post-close.

Our study is original covering three waves of mergers over 24 years; we formalize the synergy challenge created by paying a premium with respect to the already existing growth expectations for the target; we make clear that ultimately validating synergies begins with M&A strategy and diligence through to the workings of an Integration Management Office, anticipating synergy leakage, and preparing employees for change.

This conceptual paper examines the need for viable theoretical models of international learning alliances in the light of cooperative games and complexity in two distinguished educational settings. Game theory is used to demonstrate the need for the top managerial executives to acquire a detailed understanding of decision makers' behaviours and trigger the deployment of complex analytical methods. The paper scrutinizes Russia's pursued aggressive approach using shock therapy, also suggest the critical need to reform policy.

Combining the critical analysis of (1) cooperative games and (2) adaptive systems structures, a dependable model is derived, which sets the baseline for determining the role of costs and gains. The analysis is supported using a real-world example of an alliance between British University (the X and Y alliance) and Russian University. It also emphasizes the importance of both internal and external pressure variables closely connected with the cooperative games, adaptive system and shock therapy.

Two features of alliances have been emphasized. The first is the importance of informal relationships in the evolution of partnerships and of cooperation. This is a well-known factor in the success of any relationship. Especially in international partnerships, empathy at the individual level is perhaps necessary to bypass the influence of historical and cultural differences that are barriers at the macro level, preconditions rather than consequences of successful policies and contractual arrangements at the level of organizations and governments. The second feature is interdependence at the cost–benefit level and in the domain of decisions. The cooperation of both partners is required to realize payoffs.

The implication of this paper is a guideline for regulators and policymakers designing worldwide alliances in higher education. In addition, this paper covers an interesting domain that could be of interest to organizations involved in forming strategic alliances, developing and re-engineering policies for strategic coalitions and setting future profitable payoff relationships within the contextual limitations of X and Y.

This paper creates new knowledge by concisely examining the meaning of strategic alliances in the context of the global education industry.

Making an M&A deal “work” is one of the hardest tasks in business. A handful of best practices can reduce the risk and give the deal a fighting chance. The inherent danger in due diligence is not that companies fail to do it, but that they fail to do it well. The deals that are being struck today are far riskier than those of the 1990s. Four “best practices” separate the winners from the losers in the M&A playoffs. Call on the experts (internal and external) who have experience in helping companies identify and realize cost and revenue synergies. Trust but verify. Focus on what matters – such as: create an aggressive market penetration strategy; devise an innovative plan for product launches; realign the sales force; rationalize the supply chain network and IT applications and create a shared services organization. Identify the high priority, complex initiatives, determine the associated risks and craft risk mitigation plans. Orchestrate the unveiling – smart acquirers know that analysts react more favorably to an announcement of an acquisition if it is followed up with a cogent discussion about the acquirer’s high priority integration initiatives, key risk factors and risk mitigation plans (including timing of each).

The paper's objective is to present a group decision support system (GDSS) for facilitating the process of core knowledge selection.

The proposed GDSS is developed by taking advantage of the characteristics of certain existing analytical and mathematical methods, including knowledge‐based SWOT analysis, knowledge audit instruments, gap analysis, synergy analysis, similarity measures, multi‐objective linear programming (MOLP), and fuzzy programming. A case study was performed to identify whether or not the GDSS achieves its designed purpose.

The results show that GDSS can be applied effectively in identifying core knowledge that should be developed.

The proposed GDSS provides a comprehensive procedure for top managers, using a strategy‐orientated perspective to determine suitable core knowledge to be developed by appropriately analyzing internal synergy and external gap effects on core knowledge. Top managers need not only be aware of the relationship between core knowledge and other factors but must also consider decision‐making problems related to this issue.

Few prior studies have provided a systematic approach for develops organizational core knowledge by using analytical and mathematical methods. This paper particularly focuses on the question of how firms can actually identify core knowledge and thus develop appropriate strategies.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an integrated group decision support system (GDSS) that will select the appropriate human resource (HR) capabilities for a firm by using existing decision algorithms and information technology (IT) software systems.

The proposed GDSS is constructed by taking advantage of the characteristics of some existing analytical and mathematical methods, including electronic focus groups, value chain, HR scorecard, synergy analysis, gap analysis, analytic hierarchy process based on genetic algorithms (GA‐AHP), similarity measures, fuzzy set theory, and fuzzy mathematics programming. A case study is performed to test and evaluate the performance and usability of the GDSS and to identify whether or not it achieved its designed purpose.

The results show that the proposed GDSS can create a flexible and user‐friendly environment that aids managers and other relevant staff members in evaluating all relevant factors in selecting a firm's HR capabilities.

HR capabilities have a significant effect on business performance in the long term. However, not every firm can easily develop suitable HR capability strategies due to lacking of the adapted support tool. The proposed GDSS is proposed to provide a complete procedure to support managers using a strategy‐oriented perspective to decide the right HR capability to be developed. As the result of using the proposed GDSS, tasks are simplified and the time for HR capability analysis can be significantly reduced.

Few studies have discussed the application of IT to the selection of HR capabilities in facilitating managers in the strategic formulation process. This paper particularly focuses on the question of how firms can actually identify HR capabilities. Thus, the model‐developing nature‐oriented support system is provided for managers in solving such decision‐making problems.

The purpose of this is to add both to the development of complex systems thinking in the subject area of operations and production management and to the limited number of applications of computational models and simulations from the science of complex systems. The latter potentially offer helpful decision‐support tools for operations and production managers.

A mechanical engineering firm was used as a case study where a combined qualitative and quantitative methodological approach was employed to extract the required data from four senior managers. Company performance measures as well as firm technologies, practices and policies, and their relation and interaction with one another, were elicited. The data were subjected to an evolutionary complex systems (ECS) model resulting in a series of simulations.

The findings highlighted the effects of the diversity in management decision making on the firm's evolutionary trajectory. The CEO appeared to have the most balanced view of the firm, closely followed by the marketing and research and development managers. The manufacturing manager's responses led to the most extreme evolutionary trajectory where the integrity of the entire firm came into question particularly when considering how employees were utilised.

By drawing directly from the opinions and views of managers, rather than from logical “if‐then” rules and averaged mathematical representations of agents that characterise agent‐based and other self‐organisational models, this work builds on previous applications by capturing a micro‐level description of diversity that has been problematical both in theory and application.

This approach can be used as a decision‐support tool for operations and other managers providing a forum with which to explore: the strengths, weaknesses and consequences of different decision‐making capacities within the firm; the introduction of new manufacturing technologies, practices and policies; and the different evolutionary trajectories that a firm can take.

With the inclusion of “micro‐diversity”, ECS modelling moves beyond the self‐organisational models that populate the literature but has not as yet produced a great many practical simulation results. This work is a step in that direction.