ABSTRACT
Mergers and acquisitions (M&As) have been increasingly used in the past decade as a strategic means for companies to gain competitive advantages (Lakshman 2011), such as knowledge capital management and international market penetration. Economic synergies obtained through domestic or international M&As are considered particularly important in the current global business environment (LupinaWegener 2013; Weber and Fried 2011). Notwithstanding this, M&As also come with challenges. It is well recognized that M&As are one of the most extreme forms of organizational change (Hogan and Overmyer-Day 1994). Research shows that approximately half of all M&As fail to achieve their anticipated outcomes and that the consequences of M&A failure are detrimental (Cartwright and Schoenberg 2006; Rees and Edwards 2009; Thanos and Papadakis 2012). The dysfunctional impact of M&A failure is not only evident in organizational outcomes, such as reduced productivity and market reputation (Paruchuri et al. 2006), but also in the reduced well-being of organizational members, as reflected in increased job insecurity and stress (Schweiger and Denisi 1991; Terry et al.1996).
