Chapter 4: Integrating Strategy and Change Management Theory on Mergers and Acquisitions

In this chapter, we argue that it is important to consolidate knowledge from the strategy implementation literature and the change management literature to delineate common themes and unique insights offered by these two bodies of work in relation to mergers and acquisitions (M&As). Researchers’ inability to consistently explain M&A outcomes may occur, at least in part, because researchers have tended to operate in fairly strict discipline silos such that the strategy implementation and change management literatures have developed independently and have only marginally informed one another. We develop an integrated framework of the key processes driving M&A outcomes based on these two bodies of work. We build an integrated model which identifies a number of feedback effects among strategy implementation decisions, change management decisions, employees’ perceptions of change management processes and practices, employee attitudes, and M&A outcomes over time. Discussion focuses on the need to consider change management implementation decisions at the organizational level, which is an important novel aspect of our model.