Decision support for selecting an application landscape integration strategy in Mergers and Acquisitions

Marie Lena Eckert, Andreas Freitag, Florian Matthes, Sascha Roth, Christopher Schulz

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

7 Scopus citations

Abstract

Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) represent a powerful strategic instrument increasingly applied in today's business environment. Besides juridical, financial, and organizational challenges, it is crucial to rapidly integrate the existing application landscapes in order to capitalize the aspired synergies. Literature documents four commonly agreed strategies: 'best-of-breed', 'absorption', 'co-existence', and 'new-build'. However, no consolidated set of criteria exists to ease the selection of an integration strategy most suitable for the merger or the acquisition. Based on the results of a literature study, this paper proposes four integration profiles enabling a structured decision support for selecting the appropriate application landscape strategy during M&A. Each profile comprises relevant driving factors and resulting consequences as selection criteria. The identified literature statements regarding the criteria are validated by means of 12 confirmatory interviews with M&A experts. Furthermore, collected findings from an additional exploratory interview part with the practitioners complement the devised strategy profiles.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationECIS 2012 - Proceedings of the 20th European Conference on Information Systems
PublisherAssociation for Information Systems
ISBN (Print)9788488971548
StatePublished - 2012
Event20th European Conference on Information Systems, ECIS 2012 - Barcelona, Spain
Duration: 10 Jun 201213 Jun 2012

Publication series

NameECIS 2012 - Proceedings of the 20th European Conference on Information Systems

Conference

Conference20th European Conference on Information Systems, ECIS 2012
Country/TerritorySpain
CityBarcelona
Period10/06/1213/06/12

Keywords

  • Absorption
  • Application landscape
  • Best-of-breed
  • Co-existence
  • Decision support
  • Integration
  • Mergers & acquisitions
  • New-build
  • Strategy

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