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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.

Report of a lecture by Mr Koh Kikuchi, Chairman of Yaskawa Electric Corporation of Japan, which reviews the development of mechatronics by Yaskawa. It traces the history of the company in its involvement with robotics from the first simple single‐function hand in the 1960s to the latest supermechatronic robots used in semiconductor manufacture. Details are given of two new robots designed for operation in clean rooms down to Class 1. An account is also given of the activities of Yaskawa’s UK company which, in common with the majority of Yaskawa’s overseas operations, started as a joint venture partnership. The lecture concluded with a plea to encourage international co‐operation to solve the current global problems, particularly the effect of manufacturing on the environment.

In the last four years, since Volume I of this Bibliography first appeared, there has been an explosion of literature in all the main functional areas of business. This wealth of material poses problems for the researcher in management studies — and, of course, for the librarian: uncovering what has been written in any one area is not an easy task. This volume aims to help the librarian and the researcher overcome some of the immediate problems of identification of material. It is an annotated bibliography of management, drawing on the wide variety of literature produced by MCB University Press. Over the last four years, MCB University Press has produced an extensive range of books and serial publications covering most of the established and many of the developing areas of management. This volume, in conjunction with Volume I, provides a guide to all the material published so far.