Including Customers and Suppliers in the Understanding of Mergers and Acquisitions

• Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) is a common foreign market entry mode. The M&A-literature is multi-disciplinary and the understanding of M&As is the result of many different perspectives, e.g. economics, finance, strategy and organizational management. Both internationalization and M&A are closely related to growth, and share many challenges.The Uppsala-model of internationalization showed how the business network is a key factor in the choices and process during internationalization. With M&As being important to internationalization, the M&A research should have a similar view of companies and markets. In this paper, we review articles on M&As to find out in what way customers and suppliers are recognized. To what extent are customers and suppliers included in the M&A literature? And how are their roles and stakes in M&As described?Based on an analysis of 1,632 articles, the study builds a categorization of six ways of including customers and suppliers in M&A literature. It is shown that customers and suppliers, when included in M&A literature, are predominantly treated as passive and reactive stakeholders. There seems to be a need for a clearer theoretical framework of the role customers and suppliers can have in M&As.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Ekonomi och näringsliv -- Företagsekonomi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Economics and Business -- Business Administration (hsv//eng)

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ref (ämneskategori)

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