Journal
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Volume 40, Issue 4, Pages 439-453Publisher
ELSEVIER SCI LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijproman.2022.03.005
Keywords
Mergers; Acquisitions; Theory of the firm; Project studies; Theory development
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This paper discusses the connection between M&As and project management, proposing the use of projects, programmes, and portfolios as alternative modes of managing M&As. The research positions projects, programmes, and portfolios as managerial choices for shaping strategic change initiatives, such as M&As.
Although the management of mergers and acquisitions (M&As) and of projects are connected in practice, they remain disjoined in academia. In this paper, we conceptually bridge the literature on projects and M&As to discuss the transitory nature of organisations by mobilising the concepts of project, programme, and portfolio as alternative modes of organising M&As. As a project, the managerial effort in M&A focuses on completion on time and budget. As a programme, M&As are managed as complex processes of convergence between organisations. As a portfolio, M&A management is part of the ongoing integration efforts within organisations that have grown via M&As. Our contribution to project studies is to position projects, programmes, and portfolios as modes of organising, hence, not as phenomena but as managerial choices used to shape strategic change initiatives, such as M&As. We conclude with implications beyond project studies, thereby drafting a project-based theory of the firm.
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