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The purpose of this paper is to unpack the black box of post-merger and acquisition (M&A) integration of reverse M&A by Chinese multinational enterprises (MNEs).

This research adopts multiple cases of Chinese reverse M&A. Data are collected using the approaches of in-depth interviews, storytelling and narratives.

This research identifies various antecedents underlying Chinese post-M&A integration, such as asymmetries in resources, capabilities, vision and status between Chinese MNEs and acquired firms. The post-M&A integration process of Chinese reverse M&A consists of a top-down effortless integration initiated by Chinese MNEs with both benefits and problems, and a bottom-up reverse integration conducted by acquired firms.

By linking the pre-M&A phase and the post-M&A phase, this research builds a new model of post-M&A integration of Chinese reverse M&A from an indigenous Wu Wei paradigm. The new model counterpoises extant literature, shifting from the task and efficiency-focussed view to the people and harmony-focussed view.

The purpose of this study is to follw the process perspective approach in post-M&A (mergers and acquisitions) integration studies, with a focus on human resource function, to make the research literature relevant to HR integration process up to date.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, limited systematic literature review and study in this interface has previously been published.

Therefore, this conceptual study filled in the research gap by pointing out a clear framework on HR integration in cross-border post-acquisitions, reviewing both the content and process of HR integration. This paper contributes to future research on the HR integration process perspective in theoretical directions.

It addresses the gap in research and opens the avenues for M&A researchers to consider HR as the strategic partner during M&As and to study HR aspects in an integrated process perspective view. This approach complements socialized reviews and it suggests a process perspective on how to dispersed themes and interrelate topics. It provide a clear process perspective helps to develop a concurrent research agenda, which can guide future work in the field.

This paper aims to investigate the relationships between the strategic type of cross‐border mergers and acquisitions (M&As) and enterprise growth, and the moderating role of Chinese companies' organizational factors, including organizational structure, organizational experience, cultural distance and relative size.

The authors, as researchers, have mixed the strategic choice and post‐M&As integration into a comprehensive framework while building the theoretical model of “Strategic Type of Cross‐border M&As‐Organizational Factors‐Enterprise Growth” (ST‐OF‐EG). In this paper, they have empirically examined the model using hierarchical regression by analyzing 76 cross‐borders M&A events of overseas‐listed Chinese companies over the 2000‐2007 period.

The analysis shows that: related cross‐border M&As are better for enterprise growth than unrelated diversification cross‐border M&As; and among the organizational factors, studied organizational structure and organizational experience show a positive significance in terms of the relationship between the strategic type of cross‐border M&As and enterprise growth. The moderating role of cultural distance and relative size is non‐significant.

In this paper, the moderating effect of cultural distance was found to be insignificant. However, further research is encouraged.

Chinese companies should pay attention to strategic choices before cross‐border M&As. They should expand abroad to markets step by step. They should merge the companies that have the higher relevance on a product, industry or market first. On the basis of specialization, Chinese companies should make themselves stronger and then develop from specialization to proper diversification, which is a robust path to achieve enterprise growth. Besides, Chinese companies should accumulate international experience as soon as possible and organizational structure should match the strategic choice.

This paper would be immensely helpful to Chinese companies to plan their cross‐border M&As strategy in a way that would enhance growth and core‐competence.

The paper aims to provide both academics and practitioners a strategic framework for integrating brands in horizontal mergers and acquisitions (M&As) in order to create and deliver value.

A conceptual framework developed from a review of the existing literature and pilot case studies.

The paper first discusses the importance of brand integration for value creation in horizontal M&As from a practical perspective. The paper then reviews three related bodies of existing literature that are critical to this research – M&As, product and brand management, integration approach. This review leads to the identification of the research gap in the area of brand integration in M&As. The paper then develops and proposes a strategic framework for integrating brands in horizontal M&As based on the pilot case studies and existing literature.

The paper structures and classifies the fragmented existing literature in the domain of product and brand management into four major views – customer (market) perspectives, supply (manufacturing) concerns, product development (innovation and technology) considerations and value creation. This classification can be a useful approach for future research in reviewing the diversified product and brand management literature. The strategic framework developed here consolidates the four perspectives of product and brand management and the two views of strategic management (positioning and resource‐based) and presents four major strategies and a process for the successful integration of brands in post‐horizontal M&As. The paper also provides an overview of overseas M&A activities on the part of Chinese companies in terms of trend and motives and considers some implications of the brand integration strategic framework for Chinese companies when they acquire international brands. Future research priorities are also discussed and research methods recommended.

The increasing number of cases of developing country multinational enterprises (MNEs) buying assets from developed countries through merger and acquisition (M&A) calls for more systematic evidences on this area. As a typical and representative developing country, China has already drawn the world's attention with several high-profile cross-border M&As in recent years. By examining the recent evidences of Chinese outward M&A, this chapter reviews the main motivations of outward M&A among state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and non-SOEs, and presents an overall picture of China's outward M&A in the last decade. In doing so, this chapter intends to explore the crucial role played by the Chinese government in orchestrating its internationalization activities and the long-term implications on the competitiveness of Chinese firms in the global marketplace.

Although there is substantial and accumulating evidence on the link between market entry modes and performance, evidence regarding their impact on employee’s perceptions and thereby their commitment is scarce. This is more so in mergers and acquisitions (M&As) where employee’s commitment has a significant impact on post-entry performance. The purpose of this paper is to examine the association between perceptions of justice and organisational commitment in cross-border M&As.

The authors draw on market entry and M&As’ literature and studies on the link between perception of justice and commitment to develop the hypotheses. The authors test the hypotheses with survey data from a merger of two culturally different partners – British and Japanese. A total of 128 responses were received, out of a sample of 151 non-managerial employees within the firm.

The results show a strong association between employees’ perceptions of justice during the merger and commitment to the new organisation. Surprisingly, the results do not support the widely reported interaction effects between different organisational justices and employees’ commitment.

Obtaining data from a single M&A is a potential limitation of this study.

The study underscores the importance of post-market entry. The results suggest that particular attention needs to be paid to the way employees of the acquired firm are treated during their interactions with their counterparts.

The link between market entry and performance is well documented. However, little progress has been made in understanding the antecedents/factors that influence commitment in foreign market entry and in particular cross-border M&As. This study helps close this gap.

Most merger and acquisition strategies are still dominated by financial analyses, legal considerations and power plays by dominant groups as individuals jockey for position and influence. Rather than focusing on the inherent dysfunctions that can emerge in the combined organization due to the informal power held by organizational members – low productivity, poor quality, reduced commitment, voluntary turnover, and related hidden costs and untapped potential – far too many companies seem to meander through the post‐combination integration process.

This study investigates the extent to which structural equivalence between acquiring and target firms is associated with post-merger and acquisition (M&A) performance—a relationship that is proposed to be moderated by industry-level vertical relatedness between acquiring and target firms.

Applying social network analysis and regression, this study analyzes a buyer–supplier relationship network dataset of 279 M&A deals completed between 2010 and 2017 to test the hypotheses. Structural equivalence is measured as the proportion of common customers and suppliers between an acquiring firm and a target firm.

Supporting a view about the importance of supply chains in explaining M&As outcomes, the results suggest that the structural equivalence in the supplier network is positively associated with post-M&A firm performance. The results also show that the effect of the structural equivalence in the customer network is moderated by vertical relatedness between two merging firms (i.e. structural equivalence contributes to post-M&A performance when vertical industry relatedness is high).

This study contributes to the M&A and supply network literature by investigating the performance implications of structural equivalence in supplier and customer networks, demonstrating the importance of taking a supply chain view when explaining M&As outcomes. Specifically, the authors suggest considering structural equivalence as a new type of relatedness between merging firms (i.e. relatedness in network resources in explaining post-M&A performance). It also indicates how industry-level vertical resource relatedness, which is about relatedness in internal resources between the two firms, could interact with firm-level network resource relatedness, which is about relatedness in external supply chain resources between the two firms, in affecting post-M&A performance.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of diversity management on postmergers and acquisitions (M&A) performance. Building on prior literature, it investigates whether a firm ability to harmonize people with different backgrounds and to deal with uncertainty and dynamics in the diverse work environment will affect post-M&A performance either directly or through its interactions with acquirer-target characteristics.

This paper used panel regression analysis on a sample of 218 M&As conducted by listed large US firms across industries.

Results show that the diversity management of an acquiring firm positively influences post-M&A performance. This paper also finds support for diversity management having a more significant moderating role where merged firms have a bigger size difference and higher industry relatedness.

The primary contribution of this study is in testing and finding evidence to support the claim that diversity management is a useful factor in predicting post-M&A performance. The success of post-M&A integration should be considered alongside the extent of firm capabilities to manage internal diversity.

This study aims to investigate three organizational-level factors (geographical proximity, technological similarity and organizational identity integration) that influence the likelihood of post-mergers and acquisition (M&A) joint knowledge creation between inventors from the target and acquiring firms.

Analyzing post-M&A joint patent filing activities from 136 M&A deals in high-tech industries, the authors conduct a zero-inflated negative binomial regression analysis to estimate the likelihood of joint knowledge creation.

The results indicate that close geographical proximity and technological similarity are positively associated, whereas the integration of organizational identity is negatively associated with post-M&A joint knowledge creation.

Managers searching for an ideal acquisition target firm for joint production of new technologies or products should consider factors such as location, prior knowledge base and post-acquisition integration strategies.

The proposed model is a comprehensive framework that considers physical, cognitive and identity dimensions as antecedents of post-M&A joint knowledge creation. This study analyzes joint patenting activities to measure post-M&A joint knowledge creation between target and acquiring firm inventors.