Research On Knowledge Transfer And Knowledge Integration In Mergers And Acquisitions

In the era of knowledge economy, knowledge becomes the core resources which have the most strategic value in enterprises. With the increasing development of technological change and market competition, enterprises can not have all the necessary knowledge resources to maintain a competitive edge and can not completely rely on their accumulated knowledge to achieve internal growth. In this context, mergers and acquisitions become an important way to gaining access to external knowledge resources and external growth of enterprises. However, the transfer of property rights is only the beginning of acquisition, does not mean the effective transfer of knowledge resources, and the integration of physical resources does not represent the organic integration of knowledge resources. So many researchers and administrators focus on how to create value in M&A through the effective knowledge transfer and organic knowledge integration.In this paper, the method of literature research,comparative research and empirical research have been adopted to analyze the knowledge transfer and knowledge integration in M&A. Mainly as follows:First of all, enterprises gain the core knowledge resources needed to competitive become a key driver of strategic acquisitions. Neither to achieve economies of scale, nor to reduce transaction costs, the profit mechanism of this type of M&A is different from the horizontal and vertical M&A. This paper attempts to explain the problem from the perspective of knowledge governance. The profit mechanism of M&A based on knowledge can be interpreted as achieving synergies and creating value through the effective knowledge transfer and organic knowledge integration.Secondly, the knowledge transfer in M&A has been discussed. This paper summarize the main features and implementation path of knowledge transfer in M&A, then analyze knowledge transfer in different stages which is divided into pre-acquisition including the strategy development and due diligence, mid-acquisition including transaction negotiation and post-acquisition integration management. Finally analyze the knowledge transfer in M&A from the organizational level including organizational structure and enterprise culture and individual level including the structure perspective, relations perspective and cognitive perspective.This paper empirically analyzes the influence factors on the performance of knowledge transfer in M&A in chapter V. Based on theoretical analysis of Chapter IV, the paper constructs an initial multi-factor model of knowledge transfer in M&A. The model consists of knowledge ontological characteristics, knowledge sender characteristics, knowledge receiver characteristics, acquiring company and acquired company compare context and merger integration implementation as intermediary variables. the assumptions of the models are tested by statistical methods such as structural equation mode. The empirical results show that the knowledge transfer performance are negatively correlated with tacit knowledge, knowledge distance, relationship distance and are positively correlated with Knowledge sending capacity, knowledge absorption capacity, retaining the core staff. Merger integration speed can full mediate Knowledge send will; the relative degree of autonomy can full mediate cultural differences; retaining the core staff can full mediate complex knowledge.The knowledge integration process and modes in M&A are divided in chapter VI. Firstly, The knowledge integration process are divided into four stages including knowledge clustering, knowledge decomposition, knowledge reconstruction and knowledge activation, then analyze the knowledge integration process from the perspective of entropy flow. The knowledge integration modes include knowledge transplantation,knowledge importing, knowledge merging, knowledge concatenating, knowledge independent according to the M&A type and knowledge distance. The knowledge conflict between the acquired company and the acquiring company increases with the deepening of knowledge integration. The knowledge integration mechanisms in M&A are discussed in chapterâ…¦, including the knowledge-sharing mechanism for "not-shared here" and "not-invented here", knowledge protection mechanisms avoiding the loss of intellectual capital; knowledge complementary mechanisms according to knowledge characteristics and knowledge distance; knowledge conflict regulation mechanism for knowledge conflict caused by knowledge heterogeneity and so on. The main innovations of this paper are as follows:Firstly, building a profits mechanism model in M&A based knowledge from the perspective of knowledge governance to clarify the acquired company and acquiring company can achieve synergies and create value through effective knowledge transfer and organic knowledge integration. The model also reflects the internal relations between knowledge transfer and knowledge integration.Secondly, constrcting a framework model including multiple influence factors to enhance the knowledge transfer performance and tested the direct effects and indirectly effect caused by the intermediate variables on knowledge transfer performance through structural equation model (SEM).The interactions within the main factors was also analyzed.Finally, the knowledge integration mechanisms in M&A are discussed based on the characteristics of acquiring and acquired company, including knowledge sharing, knowledge protection, knowledge complementary and knowledge conflict regulation mechanism. Knowledge sharing is subdivided into organizational learning, mutual trust and task-oriented mechanisms; knowledge protection mechanisms is subdivided into border infiltration, crisis management and optimal configuration of knowledge; knowledge complementary is subdivided into systematic integration mechanisms for the type of additional knowledge complementary, procedural integration mechanisms for the type of sequence knowledge complementary and collaboration integration mechanisms for the type of interactive knowledge complementary, knowledge conflict regulation mechanism is subdivided into knowledge expand, Unified coordination and active competition mechanisms.