Business and Management Practices in Cross-Culture Mergers and Acquisitions - a Case Study of UK and Middle East

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER 01: INTRODUCTION1

Aims and Objectives1

Research Questions1

CHAPTER 02: LITERATURE REVIEW2

Organizational Culture Findings2

CHAPTER 03: METHODOLOGY6

Research Design6

Literature Search7

Pitfalls and Problems7

REFERENCES8

CHAPTER 01: INTRODUCTION

Aims and Objectives

The main aim behind this research is to find the impacts of the differences in the cultures on the cross border mergers and acquisitions by comparison of the cases in UK and Middle East. Additionally, this research will be analysing factors and variables associated with the culture that are more likely to impact the success and failure of cross cultural mergers and acquisitions.

Research Questions

Does differences in the national culture impact the Mergers and acquisitions failure and success, particularly in UK and Middle East?

What are the areas, in mergers and acquisitions that are significantly impacted by the impacts of differences in the national cultures of UK and Middle East?

What methods and techniques could be used for management of the impacts of differences in the national culture of UK and Middle East on the outcome of mergers and acquisitions?

CHAPTER 02: LITERATURE REVIEW

To date, the overwhelming majority of published studies on the role of culture and M&A performance have emanated from the U.S. and the U.K. (Cartwright, 1998). Furthermore, although some of this research has begun to incorporate national dimensions of culture in the operationalization of culture clash, they have nonetheless almost exclusively focused on investigations of domestic M&A and the role of organizational culture similarity/dissimilarity in predicting their success. Therefore, as previously noted, with very few exceptions, the issue of national culture clash in cross-border M&A remains largely under-investigated, regardless of the interesting fact that such M&A are cross-cultural at both the organizational, as well as the societal levels of analyses (Ashkanasy 2004 282). Nevertheless, much has been learned from psychological studies of organizational culture clash in the context of domestic M&A. Therefore, although the focus of the current investigation is on national culture, in order to build the hypotheses, as well as to establish the procedure, the literature review will begin with a critique of some of the key studies in organizational culture clash and M&A performance as they pertain to the current investigation. It will then turn to a critique of the national culture studies of M&A that have been published to date, as well as a critique of the one known study to date to include both organizational and national manifestations of culture in an investigation of M&A.

Organizational Culture Findings

Lubatkin, Schweiger, and Weber (1999) used a two-stage data collection process to investigate the effects of organizational culture incompatibility on top management turnover. In stage 1, they mailed questionnaires to all members of the acquired top management team of 185 firms that had participated in related M&A between the years of 1985 and 1987. Responses were received from 69 of the 185 firms surveyed, yielding a response rate of 35%. Of the 69 firms that responded, 17 returned surveys from only one member of the top management team, while 52 returned responses ...