ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses where merger and acquisition (M&A) research has gone and where M&A research can make progress. The overall implication drives the need for a box-breaking perspective on M&A research. A crucial point in research attempting to establish the drivers of M&A performance is to compare acquisitions, but most M&A research is cross-sectional. There is a need for M&A research to explicate how M&A affects surrounding stakeholders, drives industrial change and competitor responses, or even contributes to larger shifts in society. M&A research has acknowledged the importance of a process perspective on acquisitions. A firm’s acquisition logic, history, strategy, structure, and culture determine organizational choices toward acquisition approaches. Stock market measures are future-oriented, but they only apply to publicly listed firms that represent only a minor share of all firms conducting acquisitions. Acquisition performance needs to align with corporate strategy of adapting a firm’s portfolio of businesses that can support strategic agility, or a firm’s renewal and flexibility.
