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On the role of communication and management engagement for acquisition success: A study of Israeli startups

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this paper is to shed light on the effects of communication and management engagement on start-up acquisition success.

Research Design & Methods: The present paper adopts a behavioural perspective and uses a set of quantitative data collected from start-up companies from Israel, which were taken over by international firms, in order to explore the role of acquired firm’s management. Particular emphasis is put on communication and the managerial engagement in the post-acquisition stage.

Findings: Partial empirical support for these relationships can be found. Subsequently, a number of avenues for future research are discussed.

Implications & Recommendations: Specifically, it is argued that communication and management engagement mediates the influence of a number of employee-related and organisational factors on acquisition performance.

Contribution & Value Added: Taking into account the significant failure rate of international acquisitions, the identification of their critical success factors is an important issue. This pertains also to the acquisition of start-ups by established firms, for which it is a strategy for enhancing their technological base. The paper also contributes to extant literature by adopting the acquired firm’s perspective.

Keywords

international mergers & acquisitions, performance, start-ups, post-merger integration, communication; management engagement

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Author Biography

Jan Polowczyk

Habilitated doctor, Associate Professor at the Poznań University of Economics and Business, Department of International Competitiveness. He spent 15 years in the corporate sector, holding senior managerial positions in Polish affiliates of international companies. The main field of his interests is strategic management. He is a member of Strategic Management Society.

Ofer Zaks

PhD, lecturer and researcher at the Department of “Management of Service Organizations” in the Jerusalem Hadassah college, Israel. He was previously employed as a management team member (VP HR) in various firms – low & high-tech. In his research he concentrates on factors that influence the success of M&A processes- mainly in high- tech & start-ups companies & on Industry 4.0.

Piotr Trąpczyński

Habilitated doctor, Associate Professor at the Poznań University of Economics and Business, Department of International Competitiveness. He acts as one of directors at the Knowledge Transfer Company of the same university, supporting firms in their international expansion. In his research work, he concentrates on the performance outcomes of firm internationalisation. His work has been published inter alia in the Journal of Business Research, Journal of World Business, International Business Review, or the European Management Journal. He is board member and co-founder of the AIB-CEE Chapter.


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