ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book begins to integrate merger and acquisition research that has a tendency for silo thinking and path-dependent development in different research streams. It summarizes acquisition research and outlines areas that it can advance by taking a broader perspective. The most common accounting measures, short-term stock market measures, long-term stock market measures, and managerial assessments of acquisition performance display low correlations. While organizational change and regular acquisition activity can increase firm survival, the primary focus of acquisition research is on financial performance. Existing academic research offers limited insights and firm acquisition performance hovers around zero. This belies a wide variance in acquisition performance with some spectacular failures and other firms having experienced consistent success. While the impact to employees internal to combining firms is well recognized, acquisitions also change relationships with competitors, suppliers, and customers.
