This paper examines the relationship between national culture differences and five-day cumulative abnormal returns of acquirers around cross-border merger announcements. The sample consists of 1,200 cross-border deals by frequent acquirers from emerging countries for the period of January 1, 1985 to June 30, 2008. The main objective is to analyze the relation between the difference in Hofstede (1984)’s four cultural dimensions --- power distance, individualism, masculinity, and uncertainty avoidance and the merger performance. The results imply the compatibility of some cultural dimensions, individualism in particular, that result in gains in merger. The results also show that the cultural effects vary with the firm size. In addition, the evidence provides support for the hubris hypothesis by Roll (1986).

Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are an important part of many companies’ strategic plans, yet they often fail to meet expectations. Part of this failure may be due to a lack of understanding of the risks present during the important period after the initial agreement to merge has been struck and the failure to apply a practical framework for managing these risks. The literature outlines many of the risks managers face and explains risk resolution techniques that can be used to mitigate these risks. Risk management techniques or frameworks have been developed for use in projects involving mergers and acquisitions (M&A), construction, strategic alliances, software requirements development, distributed software projects, and post-merger implementation of information systems. However, to our knowledge, no integrated framework has been developed to manage risks during the post-selection phase of mergers and acquisitions. In this dissertation we identify risks present and the risk resolutions available at this stage of the M&A process via a review of the literature and interviews with experienced managers of mergers and acquisitions. We then develop a practical framework for managing post-selection phase risks in M&A. We analyzed published case studies to evaluate the framework and confirm issues raised in the literature review. Hence, this research contributes to the M&A and risk management literature by identifying and classifying the risks in the post-selection phase of the M&A process, identifying and developing a classification of risk resolution actions linked to those risks, and providing a practical framework that can be used to more comprehensively identify risks and potential risk management strategies.

The aim of this Master’s thesis is to analyze the performance of Air Bank a. s. in the period 2012 – 2017 using indicators typical for the banking sector. The results are compared with three selected competing banks. Then from publicly available information assesment is made for the two scenarios of the future development of Air Bank a. s. on the basis of the results of the economic evaluation. In the discussion part the scenarios are evaluated and then deducted the implications of Air Bank a. s. in case of fulfillment of the scenarios. The merger scenario is more advantageous in terms of economic and long-term competitiveness.

Cross-country comparisons have been at the heart of the field of international business, both in a theoretical and practical sense. Nevertheless, these kind of comparisons are ever difficult because the interpretation and understanding of concepts and dimensions used for comparison can be different across different countries. In order to prevent comparing the figurative apples with pears, the understanding of some concepts has to be examined in more detail. The first part of this paper addresses this issue by outlining the understanding of community across different societies. Four countries are evaluated, China and South Korea are found to have a similar in- versus out-group understanding of community whereas Sweden and South Africa have a more open idea of community. The second part focuses on the more practical aspect of the field of international business. The development of a new community, through social integration processes, after a merger or acquisition is important for the performance of the said merger or acquisition. Therefore, it is examined how the different understanding of community could have an impact on the performance of mergers or acquisitions. However, no statistical evidence is found for the expectation that performance differs across the acquirers from different nations. Thus, the effect of having a different understanding on the performance of mergers and acquisitions does not become clear in this paper.

在全球併購浪潮興起之時,併購活動可能受市場競爭的影響,促使強強合 併,但也可能發生不理性的追隨行為。本文係研究在併購動能中宣告併購,對 主併公司的短期與長期併購績效之影響,並且進一步討論在併購案採現金交易、 主併公司為成長型公司、主併公司過去有成功併購經驗三個條件之下,對主併 公司於併購動能下宣告併購的短期與長期併購績效是否有顯著影響。 本研究之貢獻為,採過去併購績效是否顯著作為併購動能之衡量,而非單 純採用市場上所累積的併購績效之規模。另外,除了探討每個變數與併購績效 之直接關係外,亦特別著重於該變數與主併公司在併購動能中宣告併購之交乘 作用,剖析對主併公司短期及長期併購績效的影響。 而本研究發現,在併購動能當中,若主併公司為成長型公司,能夠顯著提 升其宣告併購之短期與長期績效。因此,對於併購動能下指併公司的績效表現 而言,該公司特性為關鍵因素,特別是對長期的併購績效來說。 / When merger waves occur, the M&A activities may be affected by competitive market. This may cause the win-win cooperation, but also may result in blind following. The primary purpose of this paper is to test the correlation of mergers in momentum and the short-term and long-term merger performance. Furthermore, this paper is also focus on three conditions which may influence the above-mentioned correlation, including cash payment, glamour bidders and bidders’ past successful experience of M&A. The major contribution of this paper is using the significance of past merger performance to measure the merger momentum, instead of simply using accumulated performance. Second, in addition to the direct relation between variables and merger performance, this paper also aims to emphasize the interaction of those variables, analyzing its influence to short-term and long-term performance. It is reported in this paper that, in the merger waves, glamour bidders significantly perofrm better in both short-term and long-term period. Thus, “Glamour” is a key characteristic for the bidders, which would lead to better performance in merger wave, especially long-term one.

本研究使用組織學習理論(Organizational learning theory)來解釋併購經驗與負責併購之單位(M&A function)對於併購動機與併購績表現的影響。研究結果顯示，有越多過去併購經驗的公司，特別是過去有相同產業併購經驗者，其併購意願越高。其次，過去併購經驗與併購之宣告效果與長期持有報酬存在U型之關係，而有負責併購職能部門的收購公司則有助於減緩過去併購經驗所帶來的負面影響。