The one's acquisition, the other's ruin? : The impact of acquisitions on management control and organizational culture during the integration process

Corporate acquisitions have long been seen as contributing to financial success. Other motives for acquisitions are the longing for power, more competitive advantages and growth. However, the majority of business acquisitions fail in practice, and many argue that the most difficult process in an acquisition is the integration process. A company that has recently been acquired is a Swedish manufacturing company, which has just been acquired by its American competitor. They are in the midst of integration where problems often arise. Integration occurs on an operational and a cultural front, which can be problematic. It is therefore interesting to study how the management control and organizational culture are affected in the acquired company, and whether this supports or prevents the integration process and thus affects the success of the acquisition. The purpose of the study is to describe and explain how the acquired company's management control and culture are affected by acquisitions. The study further intends to explain whether the changes support or hinder the integration process. The study will contribute to an increased understanding of how management control and culture can be managed in order for a business acquisition to be successful. To fulfill the purpose, a qualitative research method was used and an explanatory case study was applied. Theory was collected from books, scientific articles, newspaper articles and internal material. Empiri was collected through semi-structured interviews, which were then transcribed, which were sent to respondents for review. The material was then analyzed by a thematic analysis. In order to ensure that the study was of good quality, various quality criterias and ethical considerations were also taken into account. The acquisition of the company has been shown to influence both the management control and the culture of the acquired company. Management control is affected by the acquired company becoming more centralized, detail-controlled, a changed focus in strategies, tougher rules and increased communication and performance measurement, which are factors that hinder and/or support integration. The culture of the acquired company is influenced by elements of the national culture that the buyer has, such as a changed way of working, cooperation spirit and developed into a more international company, which supports and/or hinders integration. Improvement suggestions on how manangement control and culture could be managed to promote integration are through; focus more on human aspects, leadership, introduce reward systems, gather information on both company cultures, pay attention to employees' emotions and that the changes introduced are similar to the original culture of the acquired company.