Meta‐analyses of post‐acquisition performance: indications of unidentified moderators

TLDR

Empirical research has not consistently identified antecedents for predicting post‑acquisition performance. The study uses meta‑analysis to assess how commonly studied antecedent variables affect post‑acquisition performance. The authors applied meta‑analytic methods to evaluate the influence of frequently studied antecedent variables on post‑acquisition performance. The meta‑analysis shows that, on average, acquisition activity does not improve acquiring firms’ performance and may modestly reduce it, and that unidentified variables likely explain significant variance, highlighting gaps in theory and methodology. © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Abstract

Abstract Empirical research has not consistently identified antecedents for predicting post‐acquisition performance. We employ meta‐analytic techniques to empirically assess the impact of the most commonly researched antecedent variables on post‐acquisition performance. We find robust results indicating that, on average and across the most commonly studied variables, acquiring firms' performance does not positively change as a function of their acquisition activity, and is negatively affected to a modest extent. More importantly, our results indicate that unidentified variables may explain significant variance in post‐acquisition performance, suggesting the need for additional theory development and changes to M&A research methods. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.