Business has seen tremendous growth through internationalization over the last several decades.  As  one  of  the  strategies  for  companies  to  internationalize,  acquisition  has since then been a well-studied subject. Various steps have to be gone through in order to  acquire  a  company.  Afterwards,  companies  need  to  take  different  measures  to ensure  the  success  of  the  acquisition.  Culture  is  usually  considered  as  the  most important  aspect  which  determines  post-acquisition  success.  The  purpose  of  this master dissertation is to thus investigate company’s internationalization via acquisition regarding    the    pre-acquisition    decision-making    and    post-acquisition    cultural management. The  theoretical  framework  consists  of  literature  of  pre-acquisition  decision-making process and post-acquisition culture management. These theories are put together in an analytical  model  where  possible  connections  are  intended  to  achieve.  It  will  also  be used as a foundation in gathering and analyzing the empirical data.   In  a  qualitative  approach,  the  empirical  data  was  gathered  through  semi-structured interview with the president of Getinge International Group. These findings were also complemented with secondary data such as corporate websites, documents and various scientific articles. The findings of the study show that planning, evaluating, negotiating, making the deal and    integration    are    the    five    essential    steps    concerning    the    process    of internationalization  through  acquisition.  The  authors  find  out  that  identifying  of acquisition  candidates  is  not  necessarily  a  part  of  pre-acquisition  as  the  theory  may suggest.  The  distinction  between  bolt-on  and  platform  acquisition  is  of  critical importance to determine the different criteria and procedure certain company is going to take. This proves to be much more practical, where theoretical support has not been fully established. Both national and corporate cultures are of crucial importance for the success of company’s post-acquisition culture management. According to the finding of this research, two factors seem to link pre and post acquisition process; one is the planning of how future organization is managed; the other is the appropriate choice of managing director.

Background: In the context of rapid market development and globalization, the role of corporate governance has become crucial in determining firm’s direction, control and performance. No substantial investigation has been made to explain the role of corporate governance in the context of widely used strategy for organizational growth – mergers and acquisitions (M&A). Acquisitions of distressed firms represent a particular area within the field of M&A. Distressed firms are characterized by existence-threatening decline in financial performance, and therefore, require  special attention from corporate governance actors in turning the company around from bankruptcy and resuming its normal operations. Despite the fact that a substantial body of literature has been developed on turnaround theory during the last four decades, researchers have mostly been focusing on the content of turnaround strategies and have been studying the cases of single firms. Aim: The purpose of this master thesis is to provide a better conception of the role of corporate governance mechanisms in managing the turnaround process in the context of a distressed firm after its acquisition by a foreign company, and the necessity for corporate executives in initiating post-acquisition integration between these merged companies.  Completions and results: A model of corporate governance within the context of international acquisitions of distressed firms was designed. According to the model, corporate governance mechanisms should assure close communication, clear leadership and its continuity, vision and proper choice of the corporate governance actors. Moreover, corporate governance should reinforce post-acquisition integration between the distressed company and the acquirer. It is important to find a proper level of integration according to each particular case. The major focus in international acquisitions should be on managerial and socio-cultural integration. Consequently, proper post-acquisition integration can facilitate the turnaround process and gaining synergies from combining two organizations.

<p>In business today efforts are being taken in order to grow, while some firms slowly grow organically others decide to perform a merger or an acquisition (M&A). Firms performing M&As have a high failure rate and many times this is caused by a poorly handled post-acquisition process. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have, according to researchers, not the same ambition to grow compared to large firms, and the research area concerning the post-acquisition process is often from a large firm perspective. However, SMEs do perform M&As as well and therefore it is in our interest to investigate the post-acquisition process in SMEs and see how the post-acquisition process is performed in these firms.</p><p>The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the post-acquisition process in SMEs, this to highlight the SME characteristics in a post-acquisition process.</p><p>Our methodological approach in this study is hermeneutic. To collect empirical information we performed an interview study, where semi-structured interviews with the managing director or a member of the management team in four SMEs have been conducted. A model for analyzing has been constructed, which helped us to process the empirical information from a hermeneutic perspective.</p><p>The reason why the studied firms performed a M&A was to get access to a new customer base and to strengthen their market positions. The focus in the post-acquisition process has been on external value creation since the customers are highly valuated, and this can be related to the uncertain financial and environmental situation that SMEs experience. All firms in the study have chosen a high level of integration, though the planning in the firms has not been that extensive as the post-acquisition literature suggests. Further, several elements within the human resource area have been neglected in their planning, despite this three of the firms experienced a limited amount of resistance to change and this ought to be related to their SME characteristics. The employees are willing to follow the direction stated by the managing director, who has a high influence on the organization’s culture. In the firms we studied the centralization of power is one important element and the acquiring firms have preferred a unicultural organization, and in most cases a congruence con-cerning culture have occurred.</p>

Acquisitions have become an increasingly used tool for corporate growth during the lastdecade. Even so, most acquisitions fail, due to a lack of focus on the human elements of the integration process. This research sheds light on the human integration process of acquisitions and more specifically, three of its critical elements; culture, structure and humanresources management. However, when investigating acquisitions at Atlas Copco it becomesapparent that these elements are emphasized and prioritized differently in differentacquisitions. By conducting 22 interviews with managers from both Atlas Copco and managers and employees from three of its acquired organizations, this paper seeks tounderstand how the acquirer should choose an appropriate human integration strategy and what factors that determine that choice. Furthermore, it examines how the acquirer should manage the employees of the acquired firm to facilitate the implementation of changes duringthe integration process. The results shows that the acquirer choose to emphasize and prioritize the aspects that are most important to reform in order to allow the implementationof future changes in the integration process. In these cases, the prioritized aspects are alsoconsidered critical to improve by the employees, therefore the prioritization creates a perception of the acquirer’s good intentions with the integration as a whole. Furthermore, the results reveals that it is important that the acquirer invest in resources for communication,trainings and additional personnel to help the employees understand and support the changesduring the entire process.

The amount of acquisitions has been increasing over the last decades and has been used as a growth strategy by firms all over the world. However, more than fifty percent of all acquisitions never deliver the initially expected value, which in many cases is due to poor integration management of the organizational culture in the post-acquisition phase. Where, in contrast, acquisitions which are integrated into the organizational culture of the acquirer, can see a decrease in social conflicts and receive a higher employee commitment. Which in turn can help the acquisition to provide and remain its human capital and value.  With the support of a Swedish business consulting firm, this study hopes to shed light upon how firms integrate organizational culture in the post-acquisition phase, and which integration management tools are used in the process. This study uses a single opportunistic case study combined with a qualitative and an inductive approach, to gather and handle the data. Where the empirical data was mainly collected through interviews. The results of this thesis show that integration of organizational culture in the post-acquisition phase, is mainly managed through supportive leadership and training, in the business consulting firm. Where those main management activities consist of several different integration management tools.

In this study, we test the assumption that the way target firm employees respond to a takeover is contingent on their national origin. The antecedents of target firm member trust in the acquiring firm management were examined in a cross-national sample of German and Singaporean employees using a policy-capturing design. Five factors hypothesized to affect target firm member trust after a takeover were found to be significant influences on employees' trust judgments in a decision-making simulation: (i) combining firms' collaboration history, (ii) mode of takeover, (iii) whether it was a domestic or cross-border acquisition, (iv) degree of autonomy removal, and (v) attractiveness of the acquiring firm's human resource policies and reward system. Further analyses suggest that the relative importance of these factors in predicting target firm employees' reactions to a takeover varies depending on their national origin. We conclude that companies engaged in cross-border acquisitions need to consider contingencies in the cultural and institutional contexts in which the acquired firms are embedded and adapt their approaches for integrating them accordingly.

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Although M&amp;A’s have the greatest probability of failure in organizations, the major reasons for this outcome is the integration process. M&amp;As have been a popular strategy for accessing new markets, introducing new products, expanding their knowledge base, and enhancing competitive advantage. In this study, we explore a case of technology acquisition, and we propose a theoretical framework based on literature that identifies phases in post-acquisition process. The process involves three stages: knowledge absorption, operational phase and commercial phase that is explored and evaluated with the empirical data of the case study. Then, thematic analysis was utilized in this study to identify common themes related to the role of acquisition. The related functions and benefits were grouped under acquisition roles. Since the case study was a successful acquisition, it was easy to figure out the roles and dimensions of integration from it. Both the methods contribute in addressing, the necessary phases that need to be organized with integration and deriving different functionalities to achieve common goals. Finally, we present a discussion and bring out the relationships that emerged from this study from different themes and have been mapped to stages in the post-acquisition process, resulting in outcomes from each role. Thus, this study puts an emphasis on the range of factors that create value from successful technological acquisition and conclude as post-acquisition process with integration elements is the initial pivotal position for the consequences.

Mergers and Acquisitions (M&amp;As) are crucial strategies for global business expansion, but they often face high failure rates due to complex integration challenges, especially in cross-border deals. Cultural misalignment is a substantial factor in these failures, underscoring the need for effective cultural integration. This research investigated the impact of cultural alignment on the post-acquisition integration phase in cross-border M&amp;As, aiming to provide insights into managing cultural dynamics to foster successful integrations and mitigate associated risks. The results of our analysis revealed that cultural alignment is highly influential on the success or failure of cross-border M&amp;As. Three main aspects, leadership, communication, and employee engagement require specific attention as they are the most influential factors when blending the culture of two different companies into one unified entity. This study contributes to the literature on the impact of cultural alignment during the integration process of two companies, suggesting that new research in this field can be conducted to understand more in depth the effect of cultural variables during this integration process and to offer practical guidance for future merging companies.

Product innovation, a crucial source of competitive advantage, is a company’s lifeblood to thrive in global, dynamic markets. M&A enable firms to access new markets faster and acquire complementary technologies, knowledge, and resources to facilitate product innovation. Despite global disruptions such as the COVID-19 pandemic, supply chain shortages, and M&A failure rates of 70% to 90%, firms continue to invest in M&A. Scholars seek to shed light on the conditions that create and destroy value in M&A, specifically the post-acquisition integration phase. While the effects of acquisitions on customers are an underexplored field today, customer relationships are engines for insights into changing expectations that drive product innovation. Today’s economy enables customers to switch to the competition faster than ever, and on top of that, firms see changes in customer networks after acquisitions. Research discusses the antecedents and outcomes of customer orientation but overlooks the role of customers in M&A. The post-M&A integration stage is the M&A phase where the ultimate value is destroyed or created. This study focuses on customer orientation and organizational complexity and their moderating effect on the post-M&A integration and product innovation performance relationship, concentrating on 188 innovation-centered majority acquisitions. It addresses the research question: How and to what extent do (1) customer orientation and (2) organizational complexity impact the relationship between post-M&A integration and product innovation performance? With that, this research uniquely connects the well-defined constructs of product innovation performance, post-M&A integration, customer orientation, and organizational complexity, and uses a mixed-method approach to investigate the research questions and conceptual model.Quantitative study one provides evidence that post-M&A integration had a significant positive effect on product innovation performance, especially for firms with high customer orientation, which positively moderated the main effect. Organizational complexity negatively moderated the post-M&A integration-product innovation performance relationship. When organizational complexity was relatively high with mean customer orientation, the effect of post-M&A integration on product innovation performance flipped from positive to negative. Under the conditions of relatively high customer orientation with mean organizational complexity, the effect of post-M&A integration on product innovation performance flipped from negative to positive. The results indicate that post-M&A integration was positively related to product innovation performance only for organizations with low organizational complexity. To a certain extent, customer orientation helped alleviate this negative impact of organizational complexity. Overall, study one has shown that a balanced approach of customer orientation and organizational complexity would be recommended. Study one also suggests combining the, in the literature separately considered, efficiency (synergy) and stakeholder theories. The inductive, qualitative study two, conducted with 25 semi-structured interviews, provides insights into how complexity resulting from acquisitions and the relationship with customers should be effectively managed during acquisition integrations to enable product innovation. The findings suggest that acquisitions are inflection points for customers, and customer trust is a crucial influencer of customer decisions. The themes drawn from this study reveal several areas acquirers can proactively manage to impact customer trust: the acquirer’s brand, and reputation, early customer involvement, communication, familiarity with and proximity to the customer, and the responsiveness and reliability to customer inquiries. The confidence in the business partner, that their interactions are based on integrity and reliability is critical and affects the customer-acquirer relationship; even more so when the acquirer is not known to the customer of the acquired firm. While customers should have a seat at the table, the timing of their involvement is critical. Leading innovation-driven acquisition integrations with a customer-centric mindset entails change initiatives that target employees, customers, and partners of the involved firms. The effective interplay of people, agile business processes, and connected, compatible technology between organizations is the foundation for achieving the anticipated value and synergies from integrating the acquired firm into the acquirer’s business. All of that cannot be done without evaluating the impact on the external business environment. Unfavorable decisions taken earlier in the acquisition cycle contribute to challenges later, requiring mitigation plans to be able to achieve the anticipated acquisition goals. The developed management framework guides practitioners to drive product innovation with a well-orchestrated post-acquisition integration process that balances customer orientation and organizational complexity. / Business Administration/Strategic Management