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Keywords

windows of opportunity, integration after reverse transnational M&A, latecomer firms, catch-up process, dynamic mechanism

Abstract

According to the windows of opportunity theory, the transformation of technology paradigm and the change of market demand bring uncertainty and even subversive influence to the industry. Although it has a serious impact on the incumbent leaders, it provides rare strategic opportunities for the latecomers. From the perspective of the integration mechanism in reverse transnational M&A, due to the core technology and high-end brands have been monopolized by a few leading enterprises in developed economies for a long time, reverse transnational M&A is an important way or even the only way for latecomers to obtain such scarce resource heterogeneity. However, the dynamic nature of the windows of opportunity has been neglected in previous studies, and it has not been integrated with reverse transnational M&A. In fact, the catch-up of latecomer firms not only benefits from the windows of opportunity at the industry level, but also can not be separated from the reverse transnational M&A integration at the enterprise level. Therefore, the research question of this paper is: How can latecomers catch up with the dynamic changes of the windows of opportunity through reverse transnational M&A? This paper adopts the longitudinal single case study method to analyze the changes of Cixing. During the three stages, the windows of opportunity has changed dynamically, and the technological gap with leading enterprises has been narrowing. The reverse transnational M&A integration of latecomer firms has experienced the continuous evolution of the mechanism of light-touch integration, symbiotic integration and absorption integration. When the windows of opportunity is opening and the technology gap is large, light-touch integration is adopted to meet the functional requirements of products; when the window of opportunity is flowing and the technological gap is medium, symbiotic integration is adopted to meet the requirements of product stability; When the windows of opportunity is specific and the technology gap is small, absorption integration is adopted to meet the comprehensive requirements of the product. There are two theoretical contributions in this paper:Firstly, this study emphasizes the dynamics of the windows of opportunity, which enriches the related research on catching up. In the process of catch-up, this study found that the windows of opportunity changed continuously from “opening” to “flowing” until “specific” at the industrial level, which deepened the understanding of the dynamics of the windows of opportunity. Secondly, this study deepens the understanding of the micro-mechanism of latecomer firms’ reverse transnational M&A integration. This study not only points out that the windows of opportunity is the external context of the integration model, but also makes it clear that the technology gap is the internal context of the integration model. On this basis, this study also analyzes one by one how the specific windows of opportunity and technology gap lead the latecomer firms to adopt a certain M&A integration model. The findings of this study provide some practical enlightenment to latecomer firms. Firstly, it is a prerequisite for latecomer firms to catch up with the opportunities. Latecomer firms should adjust their catch-up strategies with the times, such as adopting adaptive strategies such as “breaking the window”, “expanding the window” and “locking the window” in turn. Second, reverse transnational M&A integration is an effective and radical way for latecomers to catch up.

DOI

10.16315/j.stm.2023.04.001

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