When The South Takes Over The North: Dynamics Of Up-Market Integrations By Emerging Multinationals

Abstract

This article deals with emerging multinationals post-acquisition integration approaches in developed countries. It confronts theoretical hypotheses and anecdotal evidence with unpublished empirical data. Analyzing four cases of French entities acquired by EMNE, it confirms that EMNE often adopt a partnering approach after these up-market acquisitions. Yet this approach is likely to develop in a dynamic way over time, and the path of this inflection may run in opposite directions, depending on the result of the first coordination of activities. It also seems that EMNE that are already experienced in up-market acquisitions may directly adopt a more interventionist approach. From these results we discuss several theoretical and practical consequences: the complexity of the antecedents of integration choice, for which we recommend an integrated approach, the reliability and definition of the “emerging multinationals ” category, and the role of the target in the deployment of the relationships with the acquirer in a partnering integration.