A Behavioral Theory of the Merger Dynamics of the integration process

During the idiosyncratic process of post-merger integration, how do the pre-existing characteristics of the two merging organizations influence the behavioral dynamics of the combined entity? This thesis proposal describes an investigation into the dynamics during the complex and vulnerable integration process along three fundamental dimensions: (a) knowledge transfer, (b) culture transmission, and (c) organization performance. While each has been studied intensely in the broad realm of organization research, there remains a void of comprehensive research in the particular context of a merger. This thesis takes an attribute-based view of the pre-merger organizations to investigate the post-merger organizational dynamics. To explore the post-merger behavioral dynamics, I will examine organizational constructs such as: structural complexity; cultural complexity; team interdependence, infrastructure support; actor specialization orientation; cultural adaptation pressure; cultural fit tolerance, and organization performance. The methodological approach to exploring these dynamics is to conduct virtual experiments using computer simulation. The controlled experiments are designed and grounded according to prior empirical research and theoretic literature on organization behavior. The computational model for the simulation is based on the Construct model of social behavior, which has an established history of use in the social and organizational research realm. The Construct model applies the agent-based paradigm, which equips the model for incorporating the representational structures and theoretic dynamics of the social theory collectively known as the Carnegie School, i.e., Dynamic Network Analysis and the Information-Processing theory of social exchange. Construct embodies concepts such as social exchange theory, transactive memory, organizational routines, acculturation, and group decision-making, among relevant other established principles. The various processes and outcomes of these experiments will be validated by subject-matter experts and involve an extensive comparison to prior scholarly works. This study will make substantial contribution to the knowledge about post-merger integration dynamics. Beyond the fresh findings about post-merger integration dynamics, this thesis will be the first scholarly work to undertake the development of a comprehensive computational model of the organizational merger-integration process. Moreover, it will break new ground by providing the first detailed and comprehensively complete dataset of the merger integration. This work will enable future scholars to study integration dynamics at a resolution impossible in an empirical or human-laboratory study. Furthermore, the data produced in this proposal will allow for substantiated hypothesis development and extensive data analysis that, in the future, may provide additional insight and further support for previous, traditionally-based post-merger integration research.