Paper Info
Title
The Paradox of Post-Acquisition IS Integration Preparation: Preparing Under Incomplete Information
Abstract
In this paper, we propose the paradox of preparation as a salient dilemma facing IT organizations in firms anticipating acquisitions or acquisition activity. The paradox of preparation originates in the need to start preparations for post-acquisition IS integration long before the legal combination is concluded, and the contradictory observation that only after the deal is concluded will it be known to the acquirer what they should have prepared for. Based on an in-depth, explorative study of how a large multi-national company prepared for an anticipated and later enacted acquisition with another large multi-national company, we develop a process theory depicting how this paradoxical tension impacts IS integration preparation activities in the period leading up to the acquisition. Initially, preparations are based on assumptions about the future challenge. As assumptions are confirmed or rejected, focus of preparation activities are recurrently revised. To handle uncertainty of assumptions, the firm actively considered the scope of possibilities and the universality of activities to manage the paradox of preparation.
Year
DOI
Venue
2018
10.1109/CBI.2018.00015
2018 IEEE 20th Conference on Business Informatics (CBI)
Keywords
Field
DocType
Mergers and acquisitions, Preparation activities, Information Systems Integration, Integration method
Positive economics,Task analysis,Dilemma,Universality (philosophy),Mergers and acquisitions,Process theory,Complete information,Salient,Business
Conference
Volume
ISSN
ISBN
01
2378-1963
978-1-5386-7017-0
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
0
0.34
0
Authors
2
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Peter Wynne100.34
Stefan Henningsson221825.17