Mergers, MNES and innovation - The need for new research approaches

• A merger wave on an unprecedented scale has recently been sweeping through the Western world. Many studies have demonstrated the unimpressive economic outcome of most mergers. This article argues that an important reason for disappointing long-term performance is the underestimated difficulties of integrating idiosyncratic technologies in unified product platforms. Instead of focusing on new product development, engineers and designers are drawn into lengthy harmonisation issues. An expanded research agenda is proposed, including the role of special interests in driving merger proposals, the impact of mergers on engineering creativity and innovation, and the identification of industries in which firm trajectories of scale and size, ultimately ending in mergers can be compared with the alternative dynamics of de-mergers, knowledge-based networks and research-based start-ups. © 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keyword

Cross-border

Innovation

Merger makers

Merger motives

Merger performance

Mergers & acquisitions

TECHNOLOGY

TEKNIKVETENSKAP

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