An Overview of Three Decades of Mergers and Acquisitions Research

Nuno Rosa Reis; Fernando Carvalho; José Vasconcelos Ferreira

doi:10.5585/ijsm.v14i2.2222

Authors

Nuno Rosa Reis School of Technology and Management globADVANTAGE – Center of Research in International Business & Strategy Polytechnic Institute of Leiria Morro do Lena - Alto Vieiro 2411-901 Leiria, PORTUGAL
Fernando Carvalho Faculty of Economics University of Coimbra Avenida Doutor Dias da Silva 165 3004-512 Coimbra, PORTUGAL
José Vasconcelos Ferreira Department of Economics, Management and Industrial Engineering University of Aveiro Campo Universitário de Santiago 3810-193 Aveiro, PORTUGAL

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5585/ijsm.v14i2.2222

Keywords:

mergers and acquisitions, corporate takeovers, bibliometric study, literature review

Abstract

Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) have long attracted managers’ attention and have been researched in different perspectives and using different theories. In this study we grasp the wealth of extant research in the field of M&As. We conducted a bibliometric study of 635 articles on strategic management and international business research published in 34 highly ranked management journals between 1983 and 2012. We performed citation, co-citation and factor analyses to uncover the issues examined by scholars, the main theoretical approaches and themes researched. The results show a relative shift from economic and financial approaches to knowledge-based and organizational learning perspectives in recent years. There was also an evolution from assessing the performance of firms after an M&A to seeking an understanding of what may drive synergy creation after the integration process. Furthermore we observed an increasing interest in cross-border M&As. We discuss our findings, identifying gaps and suggesting paths for future research.