Leadership Strategies for Improving Mergers and Acquisitions Performance

Leadership Strategies for Improving Mergers and

Acquisitions Performance

Section 1: Foundation of the Study

All business leaders want to grow their business in terms of size, market share,

product line, and profitability (Farhan, Aneeta, & Shafique, 2018). Merger and

acquisition (M&A) is a key process that business leaders use for this purpose. However,

the majority of M&As fail to deliver the expected value to the acquirers (Du & Jaw,

2018). Increasing the success rate of M&As is essential to foster the stability of the

healthcare industry, the creation of more job opportunities, and the acceleration of new

globalization of business (Bauer, Matzler, & Wolf, 2016). The volume of these M&A

deals stands in sharp contrast to the actual sustainability of M&As. Business leaders who

execute M&A processes expect to create synergy and increase the efficiency of work,

but, according to Olcay, Öner, and Olcay (2019), there is a 70 to 90% failure rate of

M&A. There are numerous reasons for the poor performance of the majority of M&As.

Addressing the strategies that business leaders use to conduct successful M&A processes

may aid in understanding ways to improve the outcomes of M&As.

Problem Statement

M&As are among the most important events in a company's lifecycle and have a

significant impact on the firm’s ability to grow faster, penetrate new markets, buy

The purpose of this qualitative single-case study was to identify and explore the

strategies business leaders used to conduct successful M&As. The population for this

study consisted of eight business leaders from a global leading healthcare company who

have been successful in executing M&As. The implementation of successful M&As

might improve the stability of the healthcare industry leading to positive social change for

communities and for individuals. The potential benefits of such stability for individuals

who consume healthcare products include improved health outcomes, wellbeing,

longevity, and quality of life. Additionally, improved profitability may lead to increased

incomes and job opportunities for members of the communities the healthcare

organizations serve.

provide precise, unbiased estimates of parameters of interest for the entire population

the study phenomenon (Bansal, Smith, & Vaara, 2018). Researchers use the

mixedmethod approach, in which they combine quantitative analysis and qualitative

methods, because of the strengths of cross-grained methods (Angwin, & Meadows,

2015). The quantitative approach was not suitable for this study as I did not examine the

relationship or differences among variables using statistical data analysis. The mixed-

method approach was also not applicable to my study as I did not combine quantitative

data with qualitative data. I used the qualitative methodology for this study because this

approach is applicable to explore a specific and complex phenomenon within its real-

world context (Yin, 2015).

When using the qualitative case study as the research design, the intention is to

select two or more cases that they believe are a literal replication of the same conditions

from case to case (Yin, 2018). Researchers use a qualitative single-case study design to

represent the critical test of a significant and known theory (Yin, 2018). Additionally, Yin

successful M&A processes.

Research Question

What strategies do business leaders use to conduct successful M&A processes?

1. What strategies have you used to conduct successful M&As?

2. What processes did you develop and implement for formulating the M&As strategies

3. Please share your organization’s vital few learnings that may have influenced,

7. What else would you like to share that we did not address about your organization’s

Researchers need to communicate their ideas and identify the concepts and

linkages they want to understand; the use of conceptual frameworks helps them to meet

The effectual theory has five principles: means orientation, affordable loss, building

partnerships, leveraging contingency, and logic (Sarasvathy, Kumar, York, &

Bhagavatula, 2014). Entrepreneurs use the effectuation theory both in static and dynamic

environments that require constant changes and adjustments (Sarasvathy et al., 2014). I

selected the effectuation theory as the conceptual framework for the study because in

using this theory’s concepts, I was able to identify and explore the strategies that key

business leaders use when they face an uncertain situation such as a M&A. The ability to

explore strategies that leaders used successfully to conduct M&As may support business

was that the eight business leaders from a global healthcare company who have been

successful in executing M&As would be an adequate number of participants to evaluate

the strategies to conduct successful M&A processes. The second assumption was that the

participants in the study would be honest and truthful and provide accurate responses to

the interview questions. The third assumption was that the interview questions would

allow me to collect enough data, in tandem with the review of organizational documents,

to answer my research question.

Limitations

The limitations of a study provide avenues for future research (Xin, Yucheng, &

Chih-Hsing, 2017). In the case of this study, the first potential limitation was relying on a

small sample of business leaders from a global healthcare company that has been

can and what cannot be concluded based on the restricted field they have chosen to study

and the methods they will adopt. I examined the way that business leaders used strategy

to execute successful M&As in the healthcare industry only. I did not include interviews

Business leaders seek to improve growth and profitability through M&As.

Therefore, business leaders seek to minimize failure rates of M&As to maximize growth

and profitability. This study may be considered as significant to business practice in that

it may provide a model for understanding strategies and key processes that business

leaders by providing better strategies to conduct M&As and improve activities to foster

successful outcomes for their M&As. The implications for positive social change include

better stability of the healthcare industry, potentially increased efficacy of health care,

continued job creation, and economic growth of local communities.

leaders are under constant pressure to grow in the face of increased competition,

changing conditions, and increasingly relaxed country and currency regulatory

environments (Bhagwan, Grobbelaar, & Bam, 2018). According to Bhagwan et al.

(2018), to remain a dominant player or an industry leader companies must achieve real

growth, and M&As are an external mechanism for organizations to achieve this growth.

Business leaders use the M&A process to expand their company portfolio of products and

processes and to enter new technologies and regions. However, because of information

asymmetry and dynamic change of environment, it is difficult to arrive at the expectable

purpose of growth through M&A (Hongjiu, Qingyang, & Yanrong, 2019). There is a

to companies’ continues growth. The purpose of this qualitative single-case study was to

identify and explore business leaders’ strategies to conduct successful M&A.

In this section, I review the literature on the study topic. Researchers perform

literature reviews to provide an overview, synthesis, and critical assessment of previous

research and knowledge available on the topic to provide clarity and promote

understanding by the reader (Adedayo, 2016; Baker, 2016; Boell & Cecez-Kecmanovic,

2015). Conducting a literature review allows the researcher to identify the literature

relevant to the subject of the study, covering everything on the subject published in

and dissertations (Adedayo, 2016). Researchers use the literature review to present past

business leaders use to grow their company either organically (e.g., by using a new

product development process) or inorganically (e.g., by undergoing M&A). I reviewed

the general process, concepts, and factors that can influence M&A outcomes. Business

I focused on the effectuation theory (Sarasvathy, 2001). I did so because I think that

business leaders use this theory to guide their decision making in the uncertain and

complex environment that exists during the M&A process.

Researchers use literature reviews to reveal topics that researchers have already

studied, to clarify the gaps in the current body of knowledge, and also to comment on

what the future research agenda should include (Chen et al., 2017). In my review of the

professional and academic literature, I reviewed the following topics: (a) effectuation

theory, (b) the general M&A process, and (c) the factors that may contribute to M&A

many variables objectively exist, which makes the M&A process open to considerable

University Library to obtain relevant peer-reviewed and seminal articles. The search

included business and management databases such as ABI/INFORM Complete,

Entrepreneurs organize efforts needed to create, discover, and exploit new

entrepreneurship literature, and one of the key innovation input that entrepreneurs use is

business acquisition (Mawson & Brown, 2017). An M&A offers firms the possibility to

foster innovation and allows access to external knowledge, which is more difficult and

slower to generate internally (Bauer et al., 2016). Business leaders use M&A as a process

that allows them the opportunity to develop new markets or to seek the transfer of

technology and innovation to keep pace with the globalization of business (Bauer et al.,

2016). Furthermore, M&A is a focal strategy for organizations to ensure a sustainable

competitive position by acquiring technological or managerial know-how (Trapczynski,

Zaks, & Polowczyk, 2018).

There are many operations, factors, and interdependencies that are involved in

leaders need to function, such as uncertainty and dynamics in the focused market.

Additionally, the ability of the entrepreneur and the business leaders to lead processes

and strategies is dependent on the information, data, resources, and tools that they can use

to aid them in making their decision (Sarasvathy, 2001). Effectuation is an emerging

et al. (2017), because the entrepreneur is not familiar with the goal, he or she will utilize

the resources available to meet the demands of the flexible market. The effectuation

theory focuses on the creation of new products and markets (Sarasvathy & Dew, 2005),

which is similar to the M&A process and deliverables. I used the concepts of the

effectuation theory to support my exploration of the potential strategies and derivative

key business processes that business leaders may use to support their strategy decisions

for executing a successful M&A.

The General M&A Process

find an improved mechanism for the performance of the acquisition, researchers spent

investing outside of the company by executing M&As.

NPD has become an increasingly highlighted topic in both practical and

enable their firms to tap into their human capital resources through organic growth,

instead of relying on the purchase of other firms (and new human resources) via M&As

(Connaughton, Meikle, & Teerikangas, 2015). Many studies on NPD focused on

demonstrating the benefits of NPD by discussing the ability of NPD engineers to

diversify risk and share uncertainty, lower the cost of innovation, speed up the innovation

process, and grow revenue (Yan & Azadegan, 2017). Organization’s leaders prefer to use

NPD activities to grow their business organically. In using organic growth, the business

leaders are keeping the activity within the organization control by using internal

resources, internal and subject matter experience (SME) knowledge, as opposed to using

the M&A process that is bringing new capabilities, new companies, and uncertainties.

Some business leaders prefer not to deal with those factors to avoid adding more

complexities and delays in product or process launches. The ability to deal with the

known and better control the resource and processes is an opportunity that some business

leaders prefer to pursue and use to mitigate some of the challenges evolve when

Large organizations have been actively engaged in M&A activity to pursue

business growth (Sinclair & Keller, 2017). The use of inorganic growth modes, such as

M&A, provides the firm immediate access to new clients, and as such, they can be a

quick way to achieve additional client relations and projects needed for revenue growth

developed and is already exist in the market. In using this option, the time to market is

fast and can benefit immediate actions and profits to the acquired company. Researchers

characterized mergers as a combination of two organizations into a new single

organization (Haeruddin, 2017). According to Sinclair and Keller (2017) acquisitions are

frequently regarded as the purchase of an organization where the buyer or acquirer directs

the power over seller or acquired organizations. M&A’s have been confirmed to be a key

method in achieving the organization’s growth, diversity, and profitability (Haeruddin,

2017). Since the 80s, M&As have increased considerably on a worldwide scale and

continue to be a critical part of the global business landscape (Warter & Warter, 2017).

The M&A process makes it possible for an enterprise to increase the company’s capital

quickly and expand the scale of the company (Feng, 2016). Business leaders also use

cross-border M&As activities as a corporate strategy to expand in international markets

(Frynas, Child, Tarba, Ahammad, & Scola, 2017). Additionally, M&As are aspects of

corporate strategy and corporate finance that deals with the integration of different

Every leader aims that his business will grow, expand, and improve performance,

and business leaders use M&A strategies for performing this role for organizations over

the last four decades (Bari, Fanchen, & Baloch, 2016). According to Bari et al. (2016)

of M&A strategies will determine the future of the newly developed organization. M&As

have become primary vehicles of strategic renewal and expansion, as firms seek

worldwide reach and positioning in a competitive global arena (Connaughton et al.,

2015). There are common elements that make up every M&A deal, including strategy

development, systematic selection, and screening of possible targets, due diligence,

negotiations, and integration (Bhagwan et al., 2018). Business leaders are following these

steps when acting on M&A and receive close escort by the legal team and internal

processes that guide them through this M&A activity.

breath and used as though they were synonymous, the terms merger and acquisition mean

use to gain financing from external sources to grow and expand their organizations. There

are five motives that leaders look in cross-border M&A - value creation, improvement in

efficiency, market leadership, marketing, and strategic motives, and synergistic gains

emerging economies has grown massively and has become an important engine for global

economic growth (Deng & Yang, 2015). According to Deng and Yang (2015) the

majority of OFDI from emerging economies is created through cross-border M&As, a

fast track of international growth strategy that is driven by diversified objectives.

M&A process used by managers as a tool for expansion and this has not just

become extensive but also become of great practical importance in strategic, monetary,

and social terms for sustaining the firms’ growth (Degbey & Pelto, 2015). The research

of M&A started over half of the century ago, but still, the research data lacks a

Weber, & Tarba, 2013). The ability to conduct M&A process successfully can enable

particular area. Also, business leaders use M&A to strengthen current products by uniting

complementary product portfolios and vertically or horizontally integrate into new

potential growth or low-cost technologies and market segment (Haeruddin, 2017).

According to Gomes et al. (2013), M&As are essential for companies to improve

the engagement and support of business leaders to find ways and better techniques to

improve this process and achieve a better outcome that will contribute to their

organization's growth. M&A processes attract multiple researchers who investigate failed

performance with the goal of effective integration (Krug, Wright, & Kroll, 2015).

Factors That Contribute to M&A Outcomes

share, and product portfolio. Business leaders are actively engaged with M&A activity to

resources, and NPD methodologies. By relying on NPD and internal capabilities and

M&A can get an already approved and marketed product and add it to their company

portfolio relatively easy and fast. The most commonly used methods to evaluate M&A

performance in the business domain include event studies, cash flow analysis, and market

direction to focus on market value and efficiency, and this implied to a new business

conception that emerged in the organization’s strategic planning (Versiani, Loureiro

Rezende, Novaes Magalhães, & Vaz, 2018).

Large organizations have been actively engaged in M&A activity to pursue

business growth (Sinclair & Keller, 2017). During the process of evaluating the factors

that can contribute to M&A outcomes, I reviewed the study of Daniliuc, Bilson, and

Shailer (2014) who investigated the influence of the acquisition and integration

management processes on the long-run post-acquisition performance. In their research,

the key markets in the world. Also, Daniliuc et al. (2014) suggested the critical role and

importance of working across interdisciplinary groups, ensuring a high level of trust,

reduce stress, increased job satisfaction, strengthening of relationships, and fostering of

ownership. Leadership style can greatly affect employees’ well-being, employee

performance, and employee psychological safety (Rao-Nicholson, Khan, & Stokes,

The leadership style is especially important in M&As that involve cross-border deals that

have high cultural distance between the targets and the acquirers, both institutional as

well as organizational distance (Rao-Nicholson et al., 2016). There is a positive impact

when using effective leadership in the M&A process. The ability of business leaders to

use leadership capabilities and techniques may enable them to execute M&A successfully

and improve their expected outcomes.

The cultural impact is an additional factor that may impact M&A performance.

The research literature on M&As has attributed the failure of deals primarily to

examined the acquisition process of a Dutch company by a leading Japanese company.

cultural differences. The researchers showed that cross-border M&A outcomes, along

with melding of several cultures, demonstrated that approaching such circumstances with

a simplistic view of differences is an error and that the best direction would be to

understand the complexities of different cultures. The outcome of this understanding of

companies, and this may have significant consequences for the negotiation of crossborder

M&As deals. The cultural aspect in M&A is critical when business leaders execute the

M&A process cross-countries since this entitle difference in behavior, process and may

lead to execution challenges that evolve from the cultural difference. Similar to

leadership, the cultural aspect is a factor that business leaders need to assess, improve

their knowledge to allow them to handle it as part of the M&A process better.

Friedman, Carmeli, Tishler, and Shimizu (2016) also noted in their study that

researchers reveal that many of the M&A deals produce a negative return to the acquired

M&A and found that communication plays a vital role that can improve M&A

the company that was acquired. I find that the connection between leadership and

communication was interesting, and I was looking to find other factors that can

individually or connected can contribute to M&A success. The adding of culture to the

data that he or she is collecting (Yin, 2018). Additionally, the researcher needs to have

organize, and interpret the data acquired. In addition to that, as the primary data

collection instrument in this study, I followed ethical principles and guidelines to protect

human subjects during the research study.

The researcher develops narratives rather than narrations of participants’ life

stories, provides space for interaction among participants’ views, and grasps the material

and analyzes it from multiple perspectives (Karagiozis, 2018). I used the interview

protocol in the study as the secondary data collection instrument (see Appendix B). While

conducting the interviews, I followed the interview protocol to avoid potential biases

provide open and honest responses during the interview. Interviews are the main data

Human Services, 1979). The 1979 Belmont Report includes a summary of ethical

principles and guidelines (respect for persons, beneficence, and justice) for how to protect

humans, and it is essential that researchers follow the guidelines in the report (U.S.

Participants

Choosing a suitable sample size in qualitative research is an area of conceptual

debate and practical uncertainty (Vasileiou, Barnett, Thorpe, & Young, 2018). The

challenge in this study was to identify a suitable organization with business leaders who

interview process and share their perspective on the factors that contributed to this

success (see Yin, 2015). The participants were key business leaders from a globally

leading healthcare organization. This global healthcare organization had several

companies and the participants were acting as presidents in those companies and

routinely conducted M&As. Those business leaders used M&A to benefit their company

with different cultural values and to share the control of a joint entity with another owner

(see Farhan et al., 2018).

I sent the business leaders in the healthcare organization an invitation to

participate in the study. The interviews included seven open questions. To gain access to

the participants, I sent a cooperating letter to the organization’s leader to request

permission to interview the identified participants who were acting as the company’s

president at the time of the study. I included in the cooperating letter the names and

contact information of the suggested participants. The organization’s leader gained a

better understanding of the study’s purpose and the needed participation and agreed to

introduction call to promote a cooperative environment during the interview process to

allow building trust in which the participants felt comfortable sharing their authentic

opinions (see Kornbluh, 2015).

Research Method and Design

strategies for improving M&A performance. The following subsections include my

rationale for selecting the research method and design for this study.

Research Method

this study. Additionally, this method enabled me to explore business leaders’ experience

groups’ differences and provide precise, unbiased estimates of parameters of interest for

the entire population (Hannigan, 2018). Mixed-methods studies contain both qualitative

and quantitative studies methodologies to achieve both breadth and depth of phenomena

understanding (Etikan, 2016). I did not intend to collect or analyze numerical data nor to

generalize from a portion of a target population. As such, both the quantitative and

mixed-methods approaches were not appropriate for my study.

cases, drawing comparisons between them to allow for a deeper understanding of how the

different data will contribute to the varied results among the cases (Kramer et al., 2017).

Researchers use a qualitative single-case study design to represent the critical test of a

conduct successful M&A processes. I choose the single case study design as it best fits

the structure of this study.

When deciding on study design, the researcher should aim for one that is explicit

(Fusch & Ness, 2015). Because qualitative samples are relatively small, they must be

adequate (Morse, 2015). According to Morse (2015) to allow the researcher to achieve

data saturation, the sample size should be adequate and appropriate. Adequate sample

size refers to a large enough sample size that enables for replication to occur and to

enable the researcher to collect sufficient information. An appropriate sample size refers

to the need to include individuals who must be experts in the phenomenon of interest

(Morse, 2015). I interviewed eight participants who I thought make a proper sample and

allowed reaching data saturation.

Saturation is a core guiding principle to determine sample sizes in qualitative

research, but there is no definition of the needed sample size; the sample size should be

large enough to achieve data saturation (Hennink, Kaiser, & Marconi, 2017). Still,

successful M&A. The selected target population consisted of eight business leaders from

and researchers need to demonstrate how they plan to protect human subjects (Yin,

the data collection process (Walden, 2016). The IRB covered the objectives and design of

the study and the way that the researchers plan to protect the human subject in it (Yin,

208). Additionally, the IRB assessed the proposed human subjects research so that

investigators acknowledge research actions that might increase the risk of harm to

research participants and strategize to minimize research-related risks (Biros, 2018).

research process did not impact their day-to-day interaction (U.S. Department of Health

me to meet the required timeline that I needed to complete the study on time.

Before starting the interview process, there is a need to obtain informed consent

for the research participants to secure the ethical rights for potential research participants

(Biros, 2018). Once I received from Walden University IRB the approval number 09-

2519-0758532, I distributed the consent form that included this number and expiration

date to the interview participants, followed by an invitation letter to participate in the

study (see Appendix A). Additionally, I kept the data maintained from the interview in a

safe place for five years to protect the rights of participants.

interview approach, the interviewer remains free to expand a conversation within a

I used member checking to ensure the accuracy of my interpretation. According to

FitzPatrick (2019) researchers who use member checking reduce the possibility of

misinterpreting the meaning of what participants say and do and the perspective they

have on what is going on. Also, according to FitzPatrick (2019) researchers who use

member checking can identify any potential biases and misunderstandings of what they

observed during the interview. Lastly, member checking also involves giving data and

interpretations to the participants so they can confirm credibility (FitzPatrick, 2019). As

part of the member checking, I provided the participants with a summary consisting of

two pages that describe my interpretations developed from the interview responses of the

The data collection techniques that I used in the study included a semistructured

interview. The use of a semistructured interview allows researchers to use the questions

in the same way and systematic order, but also to have the freedom to diverge slightly

from the script (McIntosh & Morse, 2015). This freedom allowed the interviewee to be

open and better share their experience rather than being pressured to reply to specific

questions.

participant with a variety of options concerning the meeting date and time. I made sure to

To gain the required explanations and insights into the information needed from

the interviewer, it is essential that the researchers will conduct the interview process

professionally and effectively (Yin, 2018). Face to face interaction can allow researchers

to create greater rapport and get the ability to note non-verbal signals of the interviewer.

One of the activities that the researcher can do during an interview is to acknowledge,

repeat and empower the feedback that the interviewer is providing to allow more

confidence in the interview process and a more open environment.

I transcribed all interviews and created a summary that described my

I maintained and stored the interview logs and transcripts from each participant in

locked safe for five years. After the five years, I will destroy all data, backup drive, and

erase the Internet cloud-based data.

I performed data analysis using the data that I collected from the semistructured

doing case studies (Yin, 2018). According to Yin (2018), the researcher is encouraged to

collect information from multiple sources that can validate the same findings, and by

using this data triangulation, the researcher can strengthen the validity of the case study.

During this study, I collected information from the following sources: the information

provided during the interview, company financial data such as corporate annual reports,

and documentation that the participants allowed me to use, such as relevant procedures

that can support some of their feedback. Also, as part of the interview, I generated

According to Navidi, Hassanzadeh, and Zolghadr (2017) researchers use a

thematic analysis for identifying, analyzing, and reporting patterns (themes) within the

review process and the organizational governance, which I did not find as part of the

participation; strong commitment; and enhanced collaboration, trust, ownership.

Participant BL05 expressed the importance of leadership focus to providing a clear

business strategy and focus on the right company targets. According to Participant BL05,

the alignment of the M&A strategy with the overall business strategy will enable the

commitment of the supporting groups in the organization and better clarity of the

A key obstacle for us is the speed of decision making within our company

corporation, and it slows us down. This is why it is important to have aligned and

clear strategy so that when you ask for approval to pursue a deal, the corporation

can easily sign off as it fits the aligned strategy.

According to BL02, early involvement created better engagement, improved awareness,

aligned and on the same page to work collaboratively and through issues.” Other

of leadership to be clear and confident in strategy was highlighted as an enabler to drive

M&A deal success.

In the literature review, I discussed the role of leadership and its influence on

accountability and led to better outcomes of M&A. In the study of Rodríguez-Sánchez,

Ortiz-de-Urbina-Criado, and Mora-Valentín (2019) the authors identified the importance

of leadership to the success of M&A by facilitating, gaining trust, and developing of their

employees. Lastly, Bashan and Armon (2019) also mentioned in their study the

importance of leadership as a driver to develop strategies for continued improvement.

The participants highlighted the importance of having alignment and clear strategy from

leadership to drive successful outcomes of M&A.

The leadership focus theme was aligned with the pilot in the plane principle that is

entrepreneurs do not see history running on autopilot, but rather consider themselves one

M&A.

Value Creation

to expand on valuable capabilities, to access assets that are costly to imitate, and to

reduce competition (Brueller et al., 2018). The expected outcome of M&A should be

reflected in creating value for the organization. According to participant BL04, they

planned the M&A value creation in terms of what is needed for the company to enable

growth, what are the market's needs, how to integrate this product of the new company

into the existing company’s pipeline, and the connection to the overall strategy of the

company. According to BL04,

We look at what we need to enable the growth of our company and growth in the

important for us to be in the future.

tend to go after two types of value creation - revenue synergies or cost synergies?

Participant BL06 also added that they reflected the value creation in terms of strategic fit

synergies that can bring value to the acquired company. According to BL08, The M&A

process starts with an asset evaluation and a market review. We are sitting in focus

groups with functions from finance, legal, operations, and marketing. In these focus

groups, we are focusing on three areas to assess specific synergies – access to customer,

operations efficiency, and innovation.

Participant BL08 mentioned that “the assessment of synergies allowed the M&A team to

focus on the current capabilities of the potential acquired company and check if those

capabilities fit the company's long term strategic goals.”

financial outcomes, and social terms. Olcay et al. (2019) linked the M&A expected

successful transaction of an M&A and the evaluation of the success of it.

Integration Strategy

progress and completion of the M&A process. The next phase of the M&A transaction is

to plan the integration process of the two companies. When referring to the integration

process, the meaning is how to combine two separate companies that have different

cultures, pace, processes, and other differences to act jointly in a defined time frame. The

participants highlighted the importance of integration planning and execution as a key

contributor to the overall M&A success. According to BL08, the integration execution

has a bigger influence on the success of M&A than the strategies developed before the

M&A completion. Similar to BL08, other participants agreed on the importance of the

integration strategy as an enabler step to allow the ability to scale the two companies

the timing and the need to find the right balance of how much to integrate to optimize the

chain risk. A number of things that can create much bigger problems for the

business but also for our company reputation and credibility. So it's finding the

right balance of how much to integrate to optimize the success. The participants

business to grow. BL07 mentioned the importance of having good infrastructure

for executing the integration process with internal and external expertise.

Additionally, BL07 mentioned the importance of getting the level of attention

they need, even on top of the existing business priorities. BL05 highlighted the

importance of alignment and understanding of the integration strategy to enable

quick and fast decision making. BL05 added the importance of having leadership

involvement in this phase of developing an integration strategy to assure that the

team members understand the overall company strategy so that they can execute

this strategy accordingly.

As part of the literature review, I covered the integration strategy and the

cultural differences and leadership (Rao-Nicholson et al., 2016; Rottig et al., 2017). There

was a link between the integration performance, integration strategies, and the

management control systems in terms of influencing the overall success of the integration

process (Razi & Garrick, 2019). The participant's comments on the connection between

The integration strategy topic that I covered in the literature review, along with

the participant's response, showed the importance of planning the integration process and

proper execution of it on the overall success of the M&A process.

Review Process

The review process is related to the process that the acquired company core team

is performing before they decide whether to progress with the acquisition or not.

Participants referred to this process as due diligence. The participants discussed the

the selected target. According to BL01,

We are focusing our initial efforts on making the right decisions on the targets,

which targets to acquire, and what value they can create. For that purpose, we are

engaging the appropriate subject matter experts, both internal and external. We

There is key importance in doing the due diligence process at the appropriate time and

with the right process and team. The due diligence should cover, among

others, the manufacturing capabilities, quality systems, supplier relationships, and

model, expected outcomes, and to focus on the areas that the due diligence process

should cover. BL06 mentioned the need to bring the cross-functional group together at a

similar time to properly evaluate the target company. Participant BL08 shared the need to

have early planning and to estimate the future state of the target company to enable the

review of it during the due diligence. According to BL08, how early you start to engage

the broader organization is a key learning. It is better to early plan how we intend to

manage the asset and review it ahead of time during the due diligence process.

BL07 also reviewed the need to perform detailed checking before acquiring a target and

One of the principles in the effectuation theory is a bird in the hand. According to

investigation activity.

During the literature review, I did not discuss the due diligence process that is the

business decision on whether to proceed with the acquisition (Patel, 2018). Researchers

discussed the importance of the due diligence process as part of the common elements

that make up every M&A deal (Bhagwan et al., 2018). Galpin (2019) discussed the

importance of conducting the due diligence process to assess the cultural aspect before

and after the acquisition as a tool that can improve the outcome of the M&A process.

Patel (2018) also discussed the due diligence process and scope that included financial,

legal, cultural, and other focus areas.

As expressed by the participants, the effectuation theory, and the literature

the company aspects to enable success in the M&A process.

Relationship Development

The results of this study may bring to an improved rate of M&A transactions that

who are seeking to implement successful M&A process improvement strategies may also

find value in these results as the strategies are general and could apply cross-industry.

I intend to share the findings of this study with the eight companies’ presidents

who participated in the study as well as publish this study in Proquest. I plan to

communicate the findings of this study through various forums such as the American

Society of Quality (ASQ) and other business-related conferences. Also, I will

communicate the findings to scholarly journals and relevant training seminars.

The purpose of this single qualitative case study was to identify and explore

business leaders’ strategies to conduct successful M&A processes. Applying

methodological triangulation and data analysis, I identified six themes that business

leaders used to conduct successful M&A processes: (a) leadership focus, (b) value

creation, (c) integration strategy, (d) the review process, (e) relationship development,

and (f) organizational governance.

potential unavailability of the interview participants as they are considered senior

inputs from other organizations.

Reflections

I started the DBA program with a lot of hesitation and fear of the unknown. I was

not sure if I will be able to combine the study with my work, family, and community.

concerned with my ability to return to the school environment. I think that the DBA

program proved to be successful and one of a kind journey. I feel that I gained so much

learning and got the right guidance and confidence during the process of being an

independent scholar. The DBA program and Walden University offered an enriching

program, resources, and services that allowed me to gain information and knowledge.

The intense pace of the program was challenging but still allowed me to stretch my limits

and use the support of my family and colleagues to meet all the needed requirements. I

When I explored the research topic, I was happy to use many of the tools that I

reviewed in the Walden University website and practiced during the weekly forum

discussions. When I conducted the interviews, I made sure that I used a place that was

acceptable by participants to allow open, honest, and unbiased discussion. I feel that the

IRB process helped me a lot to conduct the interview process per the requirements.

learn how they managed this process in their company. I was also pleased to analyze the

results of my interviews and to identify themes that the participants used to conduct

M&A. I enjoyed connecting the findings with the literature and effectuation theory to be

able to provide examples that business leaders may use to improve their M&A process.

I feel that I got the guidance and tools from this DBA program to allow me to

continue exploring similar business topics and to help business leaders to improve their

companies performance. Also, this study exposed me to strategies and practices that I can

use to improve my workplace and my community.

The study results offered key elements that define successful, effective M&A

strategies that business leaders could deploy to increase the success rate of M&A in their

organization. Those key elements were (a) leadership focus, (b) value creation, (c)

integration strategy, (d) the review process, (e) relationship development, and (f)

organizational governance. I found that there is an alignment of the themes that I

identified with current literature and the conceptual framework of effectuation theory.