| Merger and acquisition strategies remain popular as a means of firm growth nowadays. Although acquisition can increase firm’s value, optimize the allocation of social resources, and bring the great opportunity to the firm, in most cases anticipated synergies were not fully realized. The primary cause for this phenomenon can be attributed as inefficient post-acquisition integration. Even there exists a huge synergistic potential between acquiring and acquired firms, if resources/capabilities transfer process is not smooth, synergy realization and value creation will be severely hampered. Among all the post-acquisition integration activities, team integration involving employees coming from both sides was found to be the single most important predictor of post-acquisition performance along with employees’ acceptance and satisfaction of acquisition in itself. Based on a critical review of previous research, this study systematically analyzed firm’s post-acquisition team integration processes from group dynamics and leadership theory perspective.On the whole, this study focused on three theoretical questions. First, the special structural characteristics of post-acquisition newly formed teams and the underlying interpersonal interaction pattern within the team were analyzed which demonstrated to be a start for our study. Second, the dynamic mechanism of post-acquisition newly formed teams was explored from a micro perspective. Third, the effects of change leadership within post-acquisition context were examined. We carried out four interdependent and progressive empirical studies to solve those three key questions mentioned above.Study1analyzed the collective self-verification mechanism in post-acquisition team integration. Drawing upon previous literature about diversity and subgroup typology, this study conducted in-depth interview in two firms with many acquisition experience to collect data. We extracted identity, resource, and knowledge as the main determinants of post-acquisition team structure. Correspondingly, we classified group faultlines within post-acquisition team into identity-based faultline, resource-based faultline, and knowledge-based faultline. Then we analyzed how team members strive for collective self-verifying feedback under three different faultline types respectively from configurational perspective, and we elaborated team leader’s role in the mean time.Study2developed a new way to measure the core concept of our study, group faultlines. Aiming at the inadequacy of previous objective faultline strength indices, this study constructed a new integrated group faultline strength index (abbr. IGFS). We used ten evaluation criteria to test the effectiveness of new index and result indicated that IGFS was more powerful than FLS, Fau, and PMD which had been frequently adopted in previous literature. After that, we developed a new scale for group faultlines. Based on the typological framework of group faultlines proposed in study1and rigorous scale development procedures, we ran exploratory factor analysis using93samples to form a scale with three dimensions manifested in nine items. The following confirmatory factor analysis using another375samples validated three-dimension structure of the model. Besides, test of indicators like Cronbach alpha, composite reliability, convergent validity, and discriminant validity showed that group faultlines scale had good reliability and validity.Study3explored the group interaction and sharing mechanism in post-acquisition team integration. This study examined the effects of group faultlines and team member’s diversity orientation on group interaction and sharing processes and decision quality based on self-verification theory. An experiment of46three-person groups using a2(strong/weak group faultlines)×2(high/low diversity orientation) factorial design revealed that group faultlines hampered team member’s endeavor for acquiring self-verifying feedback, which in turn impaired member’s sense of connectedness to the team, and cut off information sharing among them. Finally, all these processes loss were related to poor decision quality. Three parallel statistical approaches showed that self-verification fully mediated the relationship between group faultlines, group interaction and sharing processes, and decision quality. In addition, team member’s diversity orientation moderated the effect of group faultlines on team member’s self-verification, group interaction and sharing processes, and decision quality. Specifically, the negative effects of group faultlines on these variables would be reduced when people believed that diversity was beneficial to the team.Study4examined the team change leadership mechanism in post-acquisition team integration. This study conducted two surveys to explore the role of team leader’s change leadership in promoting employees’ outcomes after a merger. Results of survey1showed that employee learning orientation was positively related to employee creativity, group faultlines within the newly formed teams stimulated team members to unlock their creative potential. Furthermore, team leader’s integration leadership would amplify these effects. Results of survey2showed that team leader’s transformational leadership fostered team learning, which in turn enhanced employee job performance. Data were collected from237employees in37teams within12firms which had at least one acquisition experience before. Due to the multilevel structure of our data, we adopted a cross-level three-way interaction model to test the moderating effects in survey1, and used a multilevel structural equation model to test the mediating effect in survey2.Finally, the main research findings of this study were systematically summarized, along with the theoretical advances and methodological innovation. Implications for limitations, future research directions, and effectively managing the post-acquisition team integration process were discussed. |
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