Serial acquirers take on multiple acquisitions as part of an acquisition program. Recently, serial acquirers have received scholarly attention from several streams of research. In this chapter, the authors review this research, focusing on the antecedents, processes, and performance of serial acquisitions. The authors develop a conceptual model that integrates the various streams of research. Based on this review, the authors argue that future research on serial acquirers should consider the complexity of integrating multiple acquisitions, by broadening the scope to include the organizational implications and long-term consequences when evaluating the performance of serial acquirers.
Colman, Helene Loe; Rouzies, Audrey & Lunnan, Randi (2023)
Social integration in subsidiary-building acquisitions
We identify and conceptualize the phenomenon of subsidiary-building acquisitions. International acquisitions provide a powerful means for multinational corporations (MNCs) to grow their existing subsidiaries. The integration of subsidiary-building acquisitions involves a triad of actors: the MNC, the existing subsidiary, and the target. However, extant research emphasizes international acquisitions as a cross-border phenomenon, focusing in a limited way on the foreign acquirer–local target dyad, thus ignoring the complexities of subsidiary-building acquisitions. Through a qualitative study of a Norwegian target acquired by a French MNC with an existing Norwegian subsidiary, we find that subsidiary-building acquisitions involve tensions between autonomy and integration in two distinct and interrelated integration processes: local integration and cross-border integration. We uncover how pressures for autonomy in one process counter-intuitively trigger pressures for integration in the other. These dynamics fuel headquarters–subsidiary relationships and subsidiary cohesion, the two components of social integration in subsidiary-building acquisitions. By unearthing the underexplored phenomenon of subsidiary-building acquisitions, we provide novel insights into the complexities of international acquisitions. We bridge the merger and acquisition (M&A) and MNC literatures, thus paving the way for research on international acquisitions to move beyond the acquirer–target dyad to understand their implications for MNCs.
Stensaker, Inger G.; Colman, Helene Loe & Grøgaard, Birgitte (2023)
The dynamics of union-management collaboration during postmerger integration
Collaboration between unions and management may facilitate postmerger integration, however collaboration can also be time-consuming and challenging. Using a qualitative case study, we examined union–management collaboration in the integration of two Norwegian firms. The integration was split into two processes, involving different business units. While both processes were designed according to similar principles of collaboration, we observed the emergence of two diverging integration trajectories. Whereas the first process was characterized by a virtuous cycle of trust and constructive collaboration that facilitated integration, the second process turned into a vicious cycle of mistrust and conflict, causing disruption, and impeding integration. Based on our inductive analysis, we identify four distinctive features characterizing the emerging mode of collaboration. We develop a model to illustrate the dynamics of union-management collaboration in postmerger integration. These findings expand the current understanding of merger and acquisition (M&A) dynamics to include a broader set of actors and potential conflict factors in the integration process. Furthermore, our study suggests that collaborative integration processes require careful management while also potentially posing challenges for unions, particularly in the context of historical conflicts.
Colman, Helene Loe & Lunnan, Randi (2022)
Pulling Together While Falling Apart: A Relational View on Integration in Serial Acquirers
n this paper, we bring to the fore the role of relationships in serial acquirers. Through an in-depth, qualitative, longitudinal study, we explore how engaging in sequential and overlapping processes of postacquisition integration impairs the integration capabilities of serial acquirers. We identify how the relational dynamics that follow each individual integration initiative impede the ability of acquiring firms to operate business as usual, as well as to integrate new targets. Our study offers deep insight into the complexities of serial acquisitions, by conceptualizing the nature and composition of integration capabilities, and the role of relationships in organizations undergoing frequent changes. Based on our findings, we assert that relationships deserve more attention in serial acquisitions; they serve as mechanisms that provide the social fabric of coordination and capability development.
Colman, Helene Loe; Grøgaard, Birgitte & Stensaker, Inger G. (2022)
Organizational identity work in MNE subsidiaries: Managing dual embeddedness
This paper adopts an organizational identity work perspective to examine how MNE subsidiaries manage dual embeddedness to strategically position themselves in both their local context and in the global MNE. Prior research suggests that although dual embeddedness provides benefits, it also brings challenges, as subsidiaries must effectively balance external pressures and expectations with internal ones. Through a qualitative case study of organizational identity work in the subsidiaries of a Norwegian MNE we reveal the process through which subsidiary members manage dual embeddedness in their day-to-day work. We develop a model that conceptualizes organizational identity work in MNE subsidiaries as an ongoing process, one that enables the subsidiary to position itself as a legitimate actor across contexts, while reproducing the perceived tensions of dual embeddedness. This combination thus continually fuels organizational identity work. Our findings have both theoretical and managerial implications. We provide important theoretical insight into how MNE subsidiaries achieve flexibility to position themselves as globally and locally embedded. For managers, this implies that trying to remove the tensions of dual embeddedness—for instance, by privileging the global above the local—may hinder flexibility.
Friesl, Martin; Stensaker, Inger G. & Colman, Helene Loe (2020)
Strategy implementation: Taking stock and moving forward
Strategy implementation (SI) is a significant managerial, and organizational challenge as many practitioners struggle to make strategies actionable and to achieve intended results. Moreover, there is no unified body of research on SI. This is problematic for academics aiming to contribute to a research-based body of knowledge on implementation. To remedy this problem, we draw on the strategy-as-practice perspective and conceptualize SI as a particular type of ‘strategy work’, manifest in the activities, actors, and tools through which strategy is executed. This conceptual framework allows us to synthesize the fragmented literature into five implementation practices: structure and process matching, resource matching, monitoring, framing, and negotiating. We show how these implementation activities operate at different levels and involve different actors and tools. With its emphasis on what managers (and other people) do within specific structural, temporal, and material arrangements, the strategy-as-practice perspective offers exciting opportunities for future implementation research.
Grøgaard, Birgitte; Colman, Helene Loe & Stensaker, Inger G. (2019)
Legitimizing, leveraging, and launching: Developing dynamic capabilities in the MNE
Multinational enterprises (MNEs) face simultaneous pressures for global integration and local responsiveness. While the extant literature acknowledges that most MNEs are neither entirely geared towards achieving global integration nor local responsiveness, scarce attention is given to how MNEs develop organizational flexibility to address multiple and shifting strategy pressures over time. In this paper, we draw on the dynamic capabilities literature to explore how the MNE develops the capabilities needed to achieve this flexibility. Through a qualitative, longitudinal case study spanning 12 years, we identify three recombination capabilities – legitimizing, leveraging, and launching capabilities – through which the MNE develops organizational flexibility. We find that these recombination capabilities improve the MNEs ability to sense and seize new opportunities and enable the MNE to overcome organizational impediments to achieve flexibility. Our study offers a process perspective that shows how the three capabilities together nourish the MNEs resilience to continuously balance between global integration and local responsiveness. Our findings have managerial implications, illustrating that launching new strategic initiatives may fail if the MNE does not have the capabilities to legitimize the new initiatives and to ensure that existing organizational strengths are properly leveraged to support the new initiatives.
Colman, Helene Loe (2019)
Facilitating integration and maintaining autonomy: The role of managerial action and interaction in post-acquisition capability transfer
Through acquisitions, firms can access resources and capabilities they cannot develop on their own. Post-acquisition, a key managerial challenge is balancing the need for integration, to transfer capabilities, with the need for autonomy, to preserve knowledge-based capabilities. Drawing on extensive qualitative data, I find that this balancing involves managerial perceptions and actions that unfold in a reciprocal and dynamic process, resulting in capability transfer. I identify two distinct trajectories of capability transfer, one driven by the acquiring managers’ perceptions of valuable capabilities in the target, and one driven by the target managers’ desire to shield their capabilities from deterioration. This study contributes to the post-acquisition integration literature by conceptualizing the role played by target and acquiring firm managers in the dynamic, reciprocal, and sequential process of post-acquisition capability transfer.
Teerikangas, Satu & Colman, Helene Loe (2019)
Theorizing in the qualitative study of mergers & acquisitions
This paper focuses on theorizing in the study of mergers and acquisitions (M&As), a globally significant inter-organizational phenomenon. We analyze 76 qualitative papers on M&As published in leading management journals between 1966–2016. We identify five modes of theorizing in the study of M&As. We find that M&A scholars make theoretical contributions using different theoretical positioning and research design strategies. The majority of the papers offer a contribution to middle-range theorizing (i.e., the literature on M&As), while a third of the papers also contribute to higher-order, or grand theories in management. In closing, this leads us to call for a rejuvenation of middle-range theorizing in management research.
Rouzies, Audrey; Colman, Helene Loe & Angwin, Duncan (2018)
Recasting the dynamics of post-acquisition integration: An embeddedness perspective
M&A scholars have generally assumed that post-acquisition integration is a self-contained process. However this ignores that this process rarely unfolds as the only ongoing initiative in an organization. We contend that post-acquisition integration is not detached from other simultaneous change processes in the organizational context and this has important implications for Our understanding of how integration dynamics actually evolve. To further understand this embeddedness we examine the unfolding of a post-acquisition integration process in a Company faced with an unanticipated drop in demand due to the global economic crisis. Through a qualitative,longitudinal study conducted over three years, we carried out 151 interviews to uncover
the unfolding of the post-acquisition process. We find that post-acquisition integration is embedded in a set of co-evolving processes. We highlight four mechanisms coordination, cohesion, disconnection, alienation) that arise from the co-evolution of processes that either facilitate or impede integration. Our findings contribute to our understanding of post-acquisition integration dynamics by recasting the integration process as embedded in a set of co-evolving processes that shape its unfolding.
Colman, Helene Loe & Rouzies, Audrey (2018)
Postacquisition Boundary Spanning: A Relational Perspective on Integration
Many multinational enterprises (MNEs) seek to strengthen their competitive positions through internal integration. Socialization is a key integration mechanism to leverage advantages spread across MNEs’ geographically dispersed organizational units. Parent organizations often communicate a set of values intended to guide action throughout the MNE, referred to as espoused values, to initiate a socialization process. However, we have limited insights into how espoused values are endorsed and subsequently contribute to MNE integration. Through a case study, we analyze how espoused values are interpreted by the foreign subsidiaries and influence subsequent subsidiary behavior. Our findings suggest that the socialization process is complex, where the local context and perceptions of headquarter nationality provide the frames for interpretation. We identify that even though the espoused values may differ in their operationalization in local contexts, they can still contribute to MNE integration. This study contributes to existing MNE literature by conceptualizing the role of interpretive frames and the endorsement of values in achieving integration through espoused values.
Stensaker, Inger G.; Colman, Helene Loe & Elter, Frank (2015)
Jakten på effektiviseringsgevinster : global integrering og standardisering
18(7) , s. 34- 45.
Colman, Helene Loe (2014)
Organisasjonsidentitet
Falkum, Eivind; Colman, Helene Loe & Bråten, Mona (2014)
This study tells the story of two acquisitions made by a company the authors call Multifirm. Multifirm acquired two targets, Datagon and Teknico. The Datagon employees immediately identified with Multifirm, and the integration process was characterized by few conflicts and satisfied employees. The Teknico employees, on the other hand, failed to identify with Multifirm, and the integration process was fraught with disruptions and conflicts. Contrary to the conventional wisdom of identity threats, Multifirm reported that more value was created from the acquisition of Teknico than from Datagon. In this article, we try to understand why this was the case.
Vo, Thao; Grøgaard, Birgitte & Colman, Helene Loe (2024)
It Takes Two to Tango: MNE Recombination in the Energy Transition
[Conference Lecture]. Event
Vo, Thao; Grøgaard, Birgitte & Colman, Helene Loe (2024)
Advancing the Energy Transition Through MNE Recombination
[Conference Lecture]. Event
Stensaker, Inger G.; Colman, Helene Loe & Elter, Frank (2019)
Global Integration in the MNE: Sensemaking, Sensegiving and Stakeholder Management during Implementation of Strategic Change
[Conference Lecture]. Event
Colman, Helene Loe; Rouzies, Audrey & Lunnan, Randi (2019)
The national vs the local: Dual social integration in cross-border acquisitions
[Conference Lecture]. Event
Colman, Helene Loe; Grøgaard, Birgitte & Stensaker, Inger G. (2019)
Organizational Identity Work as Ambiguous Imagery: Sustaining Tensions and Developing Flexibility in MNE Subsidiaries
[Conference Lecture]. Event
Grøgaard, Birgitte; Colman, Helene Loe & Stensaker, Inger G. (2018)
Addressing Multiple Competitive Pressures in the MNE through Recombination
[Conference Lecture]. Event
Friesl, Martin; Stensaker, Inger G. & Colman, Helene Loe (2018)
Implementing Strategy: The Design, Meaning Making and Political Perspectives of Strategy Implementation Work
[Conference Lecture]. Event
Grøgaard, Birgitte; Colman, Helene Loe & Stensaker, Inger G. (2017)
Building dynamic capabilities for organizational flexibility in MNEs to combine global integration and local responsiveness
[Conference Lecture]. Event
Grøgaard, Birgitte; Colman, Helene Loe & Stensaker, Inger G. (2017)
DEVELOPING ORGANIZATIONAL FLEXIBILITY IN A MULTINATIONAL ENTERPRISE: THE KEY TO COMBINING GLOBAL INTEGRATION AND LOCAL RESPONSIVENESS
[Conference Lecture]. Event
Stensaker, Inger; Colman, Helene Loe & Elter, Frank (2016)
From Local Autonomy Towards Global Integration: An Identity Perspective on MNE Strategic Change
[Conference Lecture]. Event
Grøgaard, Birgitte; Colman, Helene Loe & Stensaker, Inger G. (2016)
The Journey to Become a Transnational: A Case Study of the ‘Forgotten’ Strategy
[Conference Lecture]. Event
Colman, Helene Loe; Stensaker, Inger G. & Grøgaard, Birgitte (2015)
Navigating Through the Jungle: Integration in the Multinational Enterprise
[Conference Lecture]. Event
Teerikangas, Satu; Rouzies, Audrey & Colman, Helene Loe (2015)
What actually is post-deal integration following M&A?
[Conference Lecture]. Event
Colman, Helene Loe; Rouzies, Audrey & Lunnan, Randi (2014)
Social integration; the role of local and national identity claims
[Lecture]. Event
Colman, Helene Loe & Lunnan, Randi (2014)
Between acquisition experience and performance: impediments to acquirers’ integration capabilities
[Lecture]. Event
Stensaker, Inger G.; Colman, Helene Loe & Grogaard, Birgitte (2014)
Who do we think we are. How Identity Influences Strategic Change
[Lecture]. Event
Colman, Helene Loe & Grogaard, Birgitte (2013)
MNE Integration Processes: A Subsidiary Perspective
[Lecture]. Event
Teerikangas, Satu; Rouzies, Audrey & Colman, Helene Loe (2013)
What actually is post-deal integration following M&As? Towards a synthesis and reconceptualiz<tion of the field
[Lecture]. Event
Grøgaard, Birgitte & Colman, Helene Loe (2012)
Identifying international strategies through content analysis
[Conference Lecture]. Event
Grøgaard, Birgitte & Colman, Helene Loe (2012)
Implementing Normative Integration in MNEs: The Impact of Organizational Identity
[Conference Lecture]. Event
Colman, Helene Loe; Rouzies, Audrey & Lunnan, Randi (2012)
Social integration post-acquisition: how identity claims demarcate and compound
[Conference Lecture]. Event
Stensaker, Inger G.; Colman, Helene Loe & Grogaard, Birgitte (2012)
PERCEPTIONS OF FAIRNESS IN A MERGER OF EQUALS: THE ROLE OF INTERACTIONAL JUSTICE
[Conference Lecture]. Event
Colman, Helene Loe; Grøgaard, Birgitte & Stensaker, Inger G. (2012)
SUBSIDIARY IDENTITY CONSTRUCTION: MANAGING BOUNDARIES, DISTINCTIVENESS AND RELATIONSHIPS
[Conference Lecture]. Event
Colman, Helene Loe; Hydle, Katja Maria & Lunnan, Randi (2012)
Who we are and what we do: strategizing and identity work in post-acquisition integration
[Conference Lecture]. Event
Colman, Helene Loe & Teerikangas, Satu (2011)
Inductive theory-building approaches in the study of mergers and acquisitions
[Conference Lecture]. Event
Colman, Helene Loe; Stensaker, Inger G. & Grøgaard, Birgitte (2011)
Integration Practices and Perceptions of Justice in a Merger of Equals
[Conference Lecture]. Event
Colman, Helene Loe & Hydle, Katja Maria (2011)
Who we are and what we do: A strategy as practice perspective on identity in post-acquisition integration
[Conference Lecture]. Event
Colman, Helene Loe; Falkum, Eivind & Rouzies, Audrey (2011)
Union representatives ' participation as post-acquisition integration facillitation
