Challenges and opportunities in mergers and acquisitions: three international case studies – Deutsche Bank‐Bankers Trust; British Petroleum‐Amoco; Ford‐Volvo Available to Purchase

Explores the challenges and opportunities in integration processes, and the factors responsible for the success of cross‐boarder acquisitions within related industries. Emphasises the corporate strategies the three partnered companies used to maximise synergies, and to minimise the negative effects of the unavoidable, but necessary and complex, acculturation process. Evidence extracted from these case studies highlights that successful co‐operation between the firms resulted from the learning process developed by the partners. Knowledge acquisition and the subsequent organisational learning were the important desirable outcomes of the acquisition processes experienced by the organisations under study. The paper is structured as follows: a literature review on integration strategies and cultural impact on mergers and acquisitions precedes the three success stories. Accounts originating from semi‐structured interviews with top executives of Deutsche Bank – Bankers Trust; British Petroleum – Amoco; and Ford – Volvo are compared and contrasted with the literature. Outlines the results achieved in this self‐contained initial stage of an ongoing research project.