Symbiotic Acquisitions: The Drawbacks of a Rational Approach

Abstract

Despite their popularity, acquisitions have proved disappointing. The reason for this is that economic analyses have prevailed over the managerial dimension of the acquisitions. Although there is currently some agreement about the importance of post-acquisition management, divergences remain as to what the guiding principles should be. Our work, based on the case study method, tests the relevance of competing propositions when the acquiring firm adopts a symbiotic type of insertion policy. The proposition that a rational approach is unsuitable for managing symbiotic acquisitions is corroborated. This result can be explained by the nature of symbiosis policies, which are aimed at developing innovative practices and/or product lines in a cooperative framework. In the cases observed, such joint innovation has an emerging character which is inconsistent with a rational approach.