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The purpose of this paper is to focus on the pre-acquisition process and, specifically, how the complexity involved in the transaction may drive the temporal gap between the formal announcement and the completion of the deal. The authors emphasize the time (in days) between announcement and completion.

The empirical setting consists of the cross-border acquisitions (CBAs) of Brazilian firms by multinational corporations announced between 2008 and 2012. Using a sample of 741 acquisitions, the authors examine how institutional (cultural and regulatory) and technological complexity and the predictable mitigating effect of prior acquisition experience in Brazil all impact on the time needed for evaluating the target and negotiating.

The results show that these complexity factors do matter for hastening the process and that recent experience with acquisitions in Brazil shortens the time needed to completion.

This study contributes to the literature on the acquisition process and the uncertainty and complexity factors in CBA in an emerging economy.

Better management of the pre‐acquisition decision‐making and the post‐acquisition integration processes can improve an acquisition's potential to contribute to strategic renewal.

The purpose of this paper is to understand whether managerial behavior in impairing goodwill arising from M & As has changed after the adoption of IAS/IFRS, searching for evidences of earnings management (EM) practices. Thus, our goal is to provide a response to the following research questions. Are goodwill impairments used by listed firms’ managers to manipulate earnings? If so, what kind of EM practice is mostly used?

In this paper the authors tested the following hypothesis: H1. In the year of the deal’s closure and in the following four years, the management detects impairment of goodwill in difformity with the previous Italian regulations and related accounting practices. Moreover, the authors tried to determine, for each considered firms, potential symptoms of typical DEM practices widely debated in the financial accounting literature (income smoothing, income minimization, income minimization, or big bath accounting).

Our analysis does not prove evidence of certain EM practices, but it highlights very clearly that, after the adoption of IAS/IFRS, managers’ behavior has deeply changed. Moreover, the analysis shows that there is no univocal choice in favor of a specific EM practice and that every firm pursues its own “strategy.”

Considering the importance of the topic from both the perspectives of managerial (with regard to M & As valuation processes) and financial accounting (with regard to intangibles valuation fulfilled by applying the impairment test instead of the amortization), this work aims to provide a multi-dimensional contribution to the current debate.

The purpose of this paper is to advance a conceptual comprehensive framework to analyze synergy management pitfalls in mergers and acquisitions (M & As). The framework highlights the main dimensions of synergy management, the most relevant synergy pitfalls and the ways to overcome them.

A greater recognition of synergy management literature in M & As is developed. A framework is provided integrating the compatible elements of previous broad areas of research and the main findings of studies on several topics related to synergy.

Prior literature has suggested that synergy is an important motivation of M & As, has tended to be overestimated and has been difficult to achieve. Specifically, there are three relevant synergy pitfalls: the “mirage,” a tendency to overestimate synergy potential, the “gravity hill,” the underestimation of the difficulties in synergy realization and “amnesia,” a dangerous lack of attention to the realization of synergy. An effective synergy management requires an analysis of five dimensions: the steps of the M & A process, the several values of synergy, the forbidding effects of poor synergy management, the potential causes of synergy inflation and the selection of solutions to synergy pitfalls.

The comprehensive framework suggests insights and guidelines to help managers to overcome pitfalls in synergy management. Managers will learn the following lessons: “when” pitfalls should embrace synergy management; “where” pitfalls may occur; “why” pitfalls may occur; “what” consequences can result in a value of “realized synergy” lower than the “expected synergy”; and “how” actions, tools and behaviors can overcome hidden dangers in synergy management.

The study changes the focus from a single, generic synergy trap to three more analytical, useful synergy pitfalls: the mirage, the gravity hill and the amnesia. By shedding light on synergy management pitfalls, this paper enriches M & A literature and enhance practical solutions to reduce pitfalls in synergy decision making.

Property often forms the biggest component of household wealth and assets. Irrespective of landowners’ willingness, the act of compulsory acquisition abruptly ceases the security that this ownership carries. This often induces dissatisfaction among affected landowners over the: loss of “property rights”; loss of commodity, or property; and loss of future opportunities associated with the property. Though there have been attempts in various land acquisition laws and a practice to compensate acquirees for their loss, the dissatisfaction of acquirees has persisted. The persisting resistance of landowners compels deeper insight into the process of compulsory purchase and the compensation mechanism to understand underlying causes for resistance. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent of involvement of these different stakeholders, at various stages in the compulsory purchase process, using stakeholder interaction analysis. Results obtained from this research will be helpful in identifying the gaps in the process of compulsory purchase of land for public projects in Australia.

A survey of ten different stakeholder groups has been conducted to inquire the level of interaction of different stakeholders at various stages of compulsory purchase process. A comparative study was then performed to identify the gaps between the advocated process (suggested in the literature) and the process adopted by stakeholders.

The results illustrate that: affected landowners seek involvement at the initial stage when the project plan is under preparation and compulsory purchase declaration are not finalised; objectors (from the public) seek opportunities to convey, to the public agency, their views even though the accountability of public agencies towards this stakeholder is nil; and strong interactions are established during negotiation over the compensation amount thus signifying the urge of acquirer and acquirees to avoid monetary losses and time delays.

This research will be useful in identification of pain points in the compulsory purchase process for public projects. This shall help in evolution of fairer mechanism of land acquisition.

Presents a case study of an intervention in a technology‐based acquisition. Conceptualizing the technology transfer process as the integrated movement of people, capabilities and knowledge, the analysis examines the development and implementation of the acquisition plan. The discussion focuses on the acquiring company’s integration strategy and the ramifications for intervening in such strategic endeavours.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of specific variables, that are strategic orientations, organizational model and prior acquisitions experience, in the management of acquisitions that are not motivated exclusively by financial objectives.

Multiple cases have been developed, selecting frequent acquirers and analysing the dynamics of acquisitions implementation. Within‐case analysis was aimed at describing the acquisition and integration processes experienced by the selected firms, identifying the role of the researched variables in each phase and their impact on the acquisition outcomes. Thereafter, cross‐case analysis was used to look for the presence of similarities across multiple cases. The organizational characteristics under investigation are proposed as hallmarks of the effective acquirer in knowledge‐intensive industries.

Characteristics such as the market orientation, the entrepreneurial orientation, the organizational model, the experience in acquisitions management and the investments in knowledge codification emerged from the cases as critical in managing acquisitions that are mainly motivated by the need of the acquirer to have access to knowledge‐based resources of the target.

The paper gives a contribution to the debate going on in literature about the role of new variables in explaining the acquisitions success or failure and the non‐financial motives for acquisitions. It tries to bring the expertise showed by certain firms in managing acquisitions in knowledge‐based industries to specific and, until now, under‐researched features that characterize them. The main limitation of the study is the generalizability of the developed framework, due to the bounded number and the nature of case studies. All the examined firms operate in the field of IT services and all the considered acquisitions are horizontal.

Even if literature has long emphasized the need to prioritize the multiple aspects of the acquisition process and discussed the role of multiple variables in explaining the variance in acquisitions outcomes, empirical research has not completely identified the antecedents of the acquisitions performance and has traditionally overlooked the non‐financial motives for acquisitions. This study focuses on high‐tech industries, where acquisitions are motivated mainly by motives other than financial, and investigates the role of specific and under‐researched characteristics of the acquirer firms.

The purpose of this paper is to develop an effective synergy measurement model to support the decision-making process in mergers and acquisitions (M&A).

Relevant literature is reviewed and critically assessed. An interpretive methodology is used to analyse empirical data from a questionnaire survey and interviews of M&A experts. A framework is provided with the objective to support the process of synergy measurement and the success of pre-deal planning.

The authors find several mismatches in synergy measurement practices. The strategic factors, which are considered very relevant to generating reliable forecasts, are surprisingly not adequately quantified. On the contrary, a synergy measurement model may integrate the assessment of these factors: the type of synergy, the size of synergy, the timing of synergy and the likelihood of achievement.

The paper offers interesting implications for firms, advisors and consultants, pointing out that synergy measurement issues are related to the analysis of strategic factors affecting synergy. These findings suggest that the pre-planning process should integrate people and tools from different backgrounds, from strategy to accounting, to effectively measure the synergy value. The authors also suggest the development of new tools in response to the needs of practitioners for best practices in M&A.

This paper highlights that the effective use of synergy measurement models are critical to improve the success of M&A due diligence.

The purpose of this paper is to operationalise the collaborative cross-border innovation process employed by multinational corporations in their effort to penetrate new markets.

The paper is based on the case study of a leading European telecommunications group (OPERACOM). Methodologically it relies on 32 interviews, observation and secondary data analysis, and is theoretically founded on an extensive (mostly narrative and partly meta-synthetic) literature review.

The findings show that two new activities merit inclusion in the collaborative cross-border innovation process: strategic marketing anticipation and pre-opportunity studies. In this context, three strategic marketing levers are elucidated: subsidiaries’ knowledge integration, communication/coordination mechanisms, and collaboration-governance; interrelating on the way the activities and elements comprising the breadth and depth of the process’ continuum.

These stem from and are inherent to the very nature of the research (case study), which proscribes generalisations. Additionally, the research’s long-term span subjects the results to some inevitable potential temporal distortions.

The research findings, owing to their detailed and activity-specific disposition, constitute a case prototype towards further and/or corresponding application to organisations of this and/or other industries; presenting executives with an existing and market-tested positive paradigm of the innovation aspect of the collaborative market-entry mechanism.

Carrying significant scholarly and executive value, the research substantially and specifically enhances the understanding of innovation as an integral part of the internationalisation process, describing and prescribing explicit processes and actions throughout the horizontal and vertical organisational axes.

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.