Technology - Based Mergers and Acquisitions

Rapid technological changes, shortened product life cycle, limited resources, and increasingly intensive competition have forced many companies to source and develop their technology and innovation capability quickly and externally. “Successful organizations are constantly seeking ways to foster innovation and new product or service development” (Kennedy, Payne, & Whitehead, 2002, p.149), especially in technology-intensive industries. Given the high level of uncertainty, time-consuming nature, and inertia of technology exploration/exploitation through internal Research and Development (R&D), the strategic use of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) to obtain new technological knowledge/capabilities has become a common corporate phenomenon. Therefore, this article reflects on the current state of knowledge concerning the technology-based mergers and acquisitions (TBM&As) with regard to the following issues: (1) How do TBM&As perform? (2) What are the contingency factors and how do they impact TBM&A performance? (3) What kind of analytical approaches and theories are adopted in the research? (4) How can the TBM&A phenomenon be studied in the future in order to further develop knowledge concerning TBM&As? These questions are the focus of this article.