The performance prism to boost M&A success

In an age of an ever‐increasing number of mergers and acquisitions, why do so many fail? Throughout the 1990s, and on into the 2000s the newspapers are full of reports of frenetic M&A activity. Yet horror stories highlighting failed mergers and acquisitions – AT&T, Quaker Oats, Disney, Sony, Compaq, General Electric (yes, even GE) – abound. It is almost as if the excitement of the deal consumes management’s passion. In the run up to the merger or acquisition, energy levels are intense. Yet, afterwards planning and post‐merger activities are weak and ineffective. There are of course numerous reasons why M&As fail – poor strategic concepts, personality problems at the top, cultural differences, poor employee morale, incompatible information systems, etc. The one explored in this article is post‐merger integration. Specifically, we ask how managers can track whether their post‐merger integration efforts are working.