MOMENTUM AND SERENDIPITY: HOW ACQUIRED LEADERS CREATE VALUE IN THE INTEGRATION OF TECHNOLOGY FIRMS.

Abstract

This article discusses how acquired leaders create value in the integration of technology firms. Many acquisitions fail to achieve their desired ends because of ineffective post-deal implementation. Implementation may be especially difficult in technology acquisitions, which are often motivated by the desire to obtain and transfer tacit and socially complex knowledge-based resources. Since these forms of knowledge are difficult to transfer, a high degree of post-deal integration may be required in technology acquisitions. Yet paradoxically, integration may also lead to the destruction of the acquired firm's tacit knowledge through employee turnover and the disruption of organizational routines. Studies have generally viewed post-merger integration as a process that happens to the acquired firm, rather than as an activity in which the acquired leaders are active and essential participants. Value creation from acquisitions can be conceptualized in terms of two distinct dimensions: realization of expected value, and realization of serendipitous value. Expected value refers to those benefits that motivated the buyer to undertake the acquisition. Serendipitous value, in contrast, refers to value that was not anticipated by the buyer prior to the deal.