Adaptation of cultural norms after merger and acquisition based on the heterogeneous agent-based relative-agreement model

Abstract

The subject of norm formation and diffusion has gained lots of attention in social science and organizational science in the last decade. This paper explores how public dissenters in acquired firms can affect success or failure of merger and acquisition (M&A). In the classical relative-agreement model, all individuals observe their neighbors' behavior and update their own opinion and behavior following the same rule. This paper proposes a new heterogeneous relative-agreement model where individuals update their behavior following different rules after M&A. Simulation experiments show that the time shortly after acquisition is a key period to guide the acculturation in a way consistent with the intent of the acquiring firm, and that the risk of cultural norm reversing after acquisition is influenced by several important factors. Some suggestions for guiding the acculturation process after M&A are also provided.

A cultural integration path for cross-border mergers and acquisitions from the perspective of acculturation

“…language barriers, senior manager changes or poor communication skills, leadership style differences, employee behaviors in the acquired company, intention to maintain cultures and the degree to which an acquiring company successfully attracts an acquired company) (Sarala, 2010; Jöns et al , 2007; Quah and Young, 2005). Cultural differences are perceived to influence cultural integration outcomes more than other factors (Zhu et al , 2013).…”

“…Recently, some Chinese enterprises have achieved cultural integration via the acculturation method. Acculturation is a critical success factor that supports post-merger integration (Yu et al , 2005) and helps to reveal processes of cultural integration (Zhu et al , 2013; Faulkner et al , 2014). Previous studies have not discussed ways to accomplish cultural integration through acculturation, and this area of inquiry is currently in its infancy (Hurst, 2012).…”

Evolution of employee opinion in a crowdsourcing logistics company: a catastrophe-embedded RA model

“…Opinion dynamics is used to capture the mechanism of change in opinion, especially extreme opinion, 6,7 different clusters of opinion, and convergence opinion. 8,9…”

“…16 Collected from social media, the most influential factor in the logistics industry is employee income. 9 In China’s crowdsourcing logistics industry, customer delivery price per order is now the most important factor for employee opinion. On the contrary, employees have their working zone of responsibility and are familiar with their delivery routes.…”