This study presents and analyses opinions of 5 seasoned professional M&A advisers on merger failures. It integrates the perspectives of business strategy, economics, finance, organisation theory, and HR management on performance and success factors of mergers and acquisitions. The author modelled the factors of M&A failures and interplay between them into an integrative framework based on thematic analysis of participants' narratives. To ensure research validity, the author triangulated findings with existing literature. In conclusion, the author identified three major themes across data -- potential for dis-synergies stemming from misalignment of merging businesses, knowledge and planning efforts as a determinant of strategic rationale and post-merger integration, and psychological factors influencing key decision-makers.

Cette thèse explore l'effet du leadership sur la richesse des actionnaires et sur les décisions des dirigeants de la firme acquéreuse. Les deux premiers chapitres de cette thèse examinent l'effet de deux leaderships (le style de leadership libérateur et le style de leadership orienté vers les employés) sur le succès des opérations de F&As à court terme et à long terme. Le premier chapitre met en évidence que les dirigeants qui accordent principalement l'autonomie et favorisent le développement des employés durant le processus de F&A permettent de réaliser le succès des opérations de prise de contrôle. Le deuxième chapitre montre que le dirigeant qui manifeste une plus grande préoccupation pour employés a un impact négatif sur la richesse des actionnaires et que le succès des opérations de F&As peut être expliqué par la théorie d'agence. Le troisième chapitre étudie l'impact du style de leadership du pays de la cible sur les décisions de l'acquéreur en termes de sélection de la cible potentielle et de la prime d'acquisition. Les résultats suggèrent que la probabilité de prise de contrôle et les primes d'acquisition sont significativement liées au style de leadership du pays de la cible. Particulièrement, les entreprisesappartenant à des pays dotés d'un style de leadership charismatique, participatif ou humain élevé ont plus de probabilité d'être des cibles potentielles et de recevoir des primes élevées. / We study the effect of CEO leadership on shareholders' wealth and bidders’ takeover decisions. First and second chapters examine the effects of liberating leadership style and CEO leadership behavior on short-run and long-term M&As success. The first chapter provides evidence that liberating leaders granting autonomy and developing the confidence and skills of employees are more likely to produce short-term success. The second chapter shows that CEO people oriented leadership behavior exhibits an inverted relationship with long-term shareholders' wealth and that M&A failure can be explained by agency conflicts. The third chapter explores the effect of target’s country leadership style on the probability of being a potential target and on the takeover premium. The results of this chapter suggest that takeover likelihood and acquisition premiums are significantly related to the target's country leadership style. Specifically, firms located in countries embedded with higher charismatic, participative or human-oriented leadership style are more likely to receive higher premiums and to be potential targets

Do renminbi (RMB) exchange rate fluctuations affect cross-border M&A activities of enterprises at the micro level? This paper centers on this major issue, and we study and analyze the impacts of RMB internationalization on the magnitude and success of cross-border M&As. We investigate the impacts of exchange rate changes on the magnitude and success of enterprise-level cross-border M&As by developing nominal exchange rate (NER) and real exchange rate (RER) volatility indicators using data from the Thomson Financial SDC Platinum Merger and Acquisitions database. By applying a variety of indicators and subsample estimates in the study, we find that exchange rate volatility (of either NER or RER) is significantly negatively correlated with enterprise-level cross-border M&As, suggesting that RMB exchange rate movements deter cross-border M&As to some extent; fluctuations in RMB exchange rate have a significant negative impact on the success of cross-border M&As, and the exchange rate risk induced by exchange rate changes increases the risk of cross-border M&As; meanwhile, exchange rate fluctuations have a significant inhibitory effect on conglomerate M&As in addition to horizontal cross-border M&As. In addition, exchange rate fluctuations have a significant inhibitory effect on the profit-oriented cross-border M&As of enterprises in non-state-owned-or-controlled industries. Therefore, we should take prudent actions to prevent the impacts of RMB exchange rate movements on cross-border M&As, actively tap the potential of bilateral investment treaties in securing cross-border M&As, promote coordination between RMB exchange rate regulation iimechanisms and the “go global” strategy, and improve the level of internationalization and competitiveness of Chinese enterprises. / Business Administration/Finance