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Logistics in its broader definition first came into use at the end of World War II. But it was not until the 1960s that the definition began to be understood. Walter Finkelstein of FAI, based in Maryland, USA, traces the history and how the topic has emerged as a systems concept.

The M&A literature lacks coherence and consistency when explaining the role of CEO power in influencing post-acquisition firm performance in both theoretical and empirical terms. This study uses meta-analytic techniques to quantitatively synthesize and evaluate the impact of 11 CEO power constructs (CEO duality; compensation; ownership; founder CEO; acquisition experience; functional area experience; outside directorship; elite education; CEO celebrity; age; and tenure) on acquiring firms’ post-acquisition performance. Results of 85 independent studies show that CEO ownership, functional area experience, and tenure are significantly positive predictors for better acquisition performance. At the same time, CEO duality and CEO elite education are significantly negative predictors of different measures of acquisition performance. These findings indicate the importance of integrating different theories to enhance our understanding of the nature of strategic leadership in acquisition performance.

The purpose of this study is to explore post-acquisition compensation management and examine how the two most commonly used theories to explain CEO stock option exercise, agency theory and CEO overconfidence, expect CEOs to manage their stock options following an acquisition.

Using logistic regression analysis, the authors investigate whether CEOs are more or less likely to exercise options following an acquisition, and the effect which CEO tenure and acquisition history may have on option exercise.

The results suggest that CEOs are more likely to exercise options following an acquisition. The authors also find that CEO tenure and acquisition experience are both linked to an increase in option exercise.

The findings suggest that future research should expect agency effects to outweigh overconfidence effects when considering CEO stock option exercise behavior within the post-acquisition firm context.

This paper advises directors and shareholders about whether agency concerns or overconfidence are of greater concern and how CEO tenure and past acquisition history may influence post-acquisition CEO stock option exercise behavior, offering information valuable in designing effective corporate governance.

This paper is among the first to explore how CEOs manage their options following an acquisition and finds that CEOs are more likely to exercise stock options following an acquisition. Post-acquisition compensation management is an important, though overlooked, consideration in improving acquisition performance.

Value is one of the most central concepts in mergers and acquisitions (M&As); however, a broad and systematic examination of value’s various connotations and respective uses is yet to be developed. The chapter canvasses wider theory on value and illustrates how its varieties across economics and ethics share common roots through which they supplement each other. It reviews how these forms of value have been used in research on M&As. Studies in strategic management have predominantly used ‘value’ to address shareholder value or have left it undefined by assuming a common understanding of value creation. Research in organisational behaviour and human resources has addressed ‘values’, often through culture, but the focus is largely with the utility of values to value. The authors outline an agenda for future research on value(s) in M&As, whereby it is theorised in integrative, relational, dynamic and pluralistic terms. Studies need to: (i) clearly articulate value(s): for whom? how? and to what effect?; (ii) examine value relations in both social and economic terms, and address the value(s) that are good for a range of internal and external stakeholders; (iii) recognise that at the heart of both value and values are processes and practices of evaluation whereby value(s) are regenerated through multiple contextual positions and contingent relationships, and (iv) explicate the contestation that shapes which values ought to be valued and articulate the ethics inherent in the varieties and values of value and their consequences for a range of M&A constituents.

We consider conditions under which firms hire an intermediary advisor in acquisition deals. Although acquirers pay large advisory fees to investment banks for their assistance in acquisitions, we know little about the conditions under which acquirers form a relationship with an investment bank for an acquisition deal. Specifically, we examine the role of overall acquisition experience, acquisition experience specific to the target’s industry, prior relationship-specific experience, and deal size in relationship formation and continuation. We test their hypotheses using a dataset of US-based acquirers and targets between 1991 and 2015. Our findings provide nuanced insights into the role of acquisition experience for acquirer–investment bank pairing up on acquisition deals.

The PMI Risk Framework (PRF) is introduced as a guide to classifying and identifying risks which can be the source of post-merger integration (PMI) failure — commonly referred to as “culture clash.” To provide managers with actionably insight, PRF dissects PMI risk into specific relationship-oriented phenomena, critical to outcomes and which should be addressed during PMI. This framework is a conceptual and theory-grounded integration of numerous perspectives, such as organizational psychology, group dynamics, social networks, transformational change, and nonlinear dynamics. These concepts are unified and can be acted upon by integration managers. Literary resources for further exploration into the underlying aspects of the framework are provided. The PRF places emphasis on critical facets of PMI, particularly those which are relational in nature, pose an exceptionally high degree of risk, and are recurrent sources of PMI failure. The chapter delves into relationship-oriented points of failure that managers face when overseeing PMI by introducing a relationship-based, PMI risk framework. Managers are often not fully cognizant of these risks, thus fail to manage them judiciously. These risks do not naturally abide by common scholarly classifications and cross disciplinary boundaries; they do not go unrecognized by scholars, but until the introduction of PRF the risks have not been assimilated into a unifying framework. This chapter presents a model of PMI risk by differentiating and specifying numerous types of underlying human-relationship-oriented risks, rather than considering PMI cultural conflict as a monolithic construct.

Following the cultural distance and the acquisition cultural risk propositions, I study the impact of organizational culture differences among merging companies on their short-term stock performance following merger announcement. I assume that on announcement the market cannot access companies’ organizational culture detailed information, that it focuses on its exposure risk, and that it is inefficient. Using public information available prior to merger announcement, I construct proxies of organizational culture differences among the merging companies and a proxy of a factor mitigating the acquisition cultural risk. Analyzing 6,742 merger announcements released by publicly traded U.S. companies between 1984 and 2005, I show that following merger announcement the market prices a factor mitigating the acquisition cultural risk rather than the magnitude of specific organizational culture differences. Moreover, the market prices stocks of companies involved in high-risk mergers lower than of companies in low-risk mergers. Results are robust to size and period controls.

This paper examines how differences in management styles impact the performance of cross-border acquisitions. Two principal findings are reported. First, the study focuses on the individual dimensions of management style and highlights the particular influence that differences in risk orientation exert on acquisition outcome. This result, although unexpected, is argued to be consistent with prior literature that places risk orientation in a central role within organisational behaviour. Second, the relationship between management style compatibility and cross-border acquisition performance is found to be contingent upon the level of organisational interaction imposed by the post-acquisition process. Implications are drawn for both researchers and practitioners.

This study examines the moderating effect of international involvement on the relationship between two dimensions of managerial tenure and firm performance. Data for 89 Fortune 500 firms of varying levels of international involvement were gathered and analyzed. The results of the empirical examination provided significant support for the moderating effect of internationalization on the relationship between top management team tenure and firm performance. In general, in firms with relatively higher levels of foreign involvement, teams with higher organizational tenure and lower job tenure realized superior performance outcomes.