Acquisition of knowledge and knowledge of acquisitions

The phenomenon of mergers & acquisitions has been sweeping both the academic and the practitioners' agenda. However, there are still many questions to address with regards to the overall understanding of the merger success. Harrison, O'Neill and Hoskisson (1999), propose that case research might lead to a grounded theory of merger success. Rich Bettis (1991), in a very provocative editorial essay, encourages more comparative studies, multicultural studies. Accordingly, a multicultural and comparative case study, using the grounded theory approach is pursued in this study. CEMEX, the third largest cement company in the world is the subject of this study. CEMEX, almost a decade ago started an aggressive process of acquisitions and it has achieved outstanding financial and marketing results. A variety of literature perspectives have been considered to find relevant traits for the successful post-acquisition process in CEMEX, such as complexity theory, modes of acculturation, organizational culture fit, cultural distances in nations, synergies creation, resourced-based view/reservoirs of knowledge, transactive memory system, competitive-positioning strategy, international strategy and process perspective. Among the unique characteristics of this study are the integrative, holistic approach for understanding the post-acquisition process, as well as the incorporation of different literature perspectives such as complexity theory, reservoirs of knowledge (in the context of transferring knowledge), and the transactive memory system. The incorporation of these perspectives to the understanding of the merger success places the platform to propose an overall model of Learning and Knowledge transfer.;The cultural distance in nations perspective, by itself, did not show enough strength to predict the mode of acculturation, neither the fitness in the organizational cultures, but the interplay among the different cultural constructs as a whole, could work as a better predictor of the mode of acculturation. Finally, it is also important to note that the other perspectives addressed in this study, traditionally included in the literature of M&A, have still a great relevance, as long as these perspectives are considered in a holistic context of the explanation of merger success.