Managing the It Integration of Acquisitions by Multi-business Organizations
Year: 2011
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: Acquisitions are standard components of the growth strategies of many organizations.\nFrequently, acquisitions raise important questions concerning how and to what extent\nthe acquisition’s information technology (IT) needs to be integrated into the IT of the\nacquirer. We investigate how the initial conditions of business and IT alignment in the\nacquirer and the acquisition affect the complexity of the post-acquisition IT integration\nprocess, in acquisitions of business units by multi-business organizations. Adopting an\nIT alignment model for multi-business organizations, we explain the complexity of IT\nintegration paths in two acquisitions made by the industry group Trelleborg AB. We\nidentify four initial business and IT strategic alignment conditions where the IT\nintegration process is a simple one-step process exploiting existing business and IT\ncapabilities. Low compliance with these conditions leads to increased complexity\nbecause additional business and/or IT capabilities have to be developed to leverage the\nfull potential of the acquisition.
Authors: Stefan Henningsson, Philip Yetton
Institutions: Copenhagen Business School, UNSW Sydney
Language: English
Subfield: Management Information Systems
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2119879310