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A Study On Knowledge Integration After M&A Of Enterprises

Posted on:2011-10-22Degree:DoctorType:Dissertation
Country:ChinaCandidate:J M ZhangFull Text:PDF
GTID:1119360305473741Subject:National Economics
Abstract/Summary:PDF Full Text Request
It is a consensus in both academic and practical fields that knowledge is a valuable resource and the core of wealth in the era of knowledge economy where everything is knowledge-based. The development of enterprises increasingly depends on the effective integration and utilization of knowledge which is the key to the fulfillment of knowledge management, the basis of the survival of enterprises, and the critical factor for enterprises to gain access to competitive advantage. In current highly competitive environment where professional competence is valued and the product's life cycle is shortened, it is difficult for an enterprise to obtain all the necessary knowledge entirely on its own. So, to merge a part of or the whole enterprise with specific knowledge is an effective means to develop further. Therefore, acquisition has become an important way for enterprises to acquire knowledge. Since the chances of failure for acquisition remain great, domestic and foreign scholars have carried out a substantial amount of research on the reasons for the failure of merger and acquisition (M&A) of enterprises, many of which are related to the integration after M&A. Therefore, how to learn from the past successful cases of M&A so as to avoid the failure has become an important issue for China's enterprises. In the integration process, combination of the knowledge of enterprises to be merged is a vital means to improve the corporate performance. Based on the studies of conduction mechanism of knowledge integration after M&A, the paper is aimed at providing theoretical guidance for the enterprises; through a case study of factors affecting integration after M&A, the paper proposes corresponding countermeasures and suggestions for enhancing the performance of businesses.The paper, based on the analysis of literature about M&A published in China and abroad, introduces variables of organizational learning orientation, knowledge-integration capabilities, core competencies and the performance of M&A, and establishes a post-merger conduction mechanism of knowledge integration model. Through measurable and feasible implementation of the operational scale, and a questionnaire-based survey, the paper analyzes the post-merger integration of knowledge in China. Typical cases are employed to study the mode, content and process of knowledge integration, based on which a set of evaluation system is established to further check the effect of the post-merger integration of knowledge.This research shows that there exist remarkable correlations among knowledge integration capability, organizational learning orientation and the core competence, and that knowledge integration capability and core competence have a remarkable, direct and positive impact on M&A performance. Enterprises, during the post-merger integration process, should enhance the effect of the knowledge integration through such measures as giving strategic attention to the importance of knowledge integration, setting organizational learning orientation, building a knowledge integration platform, a learning organization and effective communication systems, and attaching special importance to man power. The originality of this paper lies in the following aspects:1, it is a pioneering research into the knowledge integration after M&A, focusing on implicit knowledge with academic and theoretical significance; 2, it propose an in-depth analysis of the correlations among variables of organizational learning orientation, knowledge-integration capabilities, core competencies and the performance of M&A, as well as integrating these variables into one frame, which proves to be effective in specifying the relations. Although the correlations between certain variables have yet been identified by some scholars, the approach of integrating these variables into one frame is rarely adopted in the given research.3, it establishes a theoretical model for the post-merger integration of knowledge, and evaluates the effect of knowledge integration of the enterprises in study by means of a parallel-mode performance evaluation index system for knowledge integration. Nevertheless, some matters still need further research:1, the correlations among the variables, especially the causal relationship between certain variables should be more clearly defined; 2, the characteristics of industries and their various influence on knowledge integration could be taken into account in future research, presenting case studies with more definite and specific results; 3, the scope of merged enterprises being studied should be enlarged to include more cities and areas in order to collect comprehensive samples to guarantee stability of the conclusion.
Keywords/Search Tags:M&A, knowledge integration, organizational learning orientation, core competence, M&A performance
PDF Full Text Request
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