Processes adopted to integrate intangible resources in global acquisitions among container lines: Perceptions of acquirers and the acquired

This paper is based on an empirical study conducted during July-August 2010 researching how intangible resources were integrated in six global acquisitions among container lines. The nine senior managers representing global container lines based in Sri Lanka were the main participants of this study. Five of them represented an acquired container line, and four represented the acquirer container line. The paper explains their experiences of the processes adopted to integrate intangible resources during acquisitions. The processes adopted to integrate intangibles resources are categorised into two subgroups - task integration and human integration. The paper suggests that the success of a merger or acquisition depends on successful execution of these two sub processes. This empirical study focuses on identifying the occurrence of these processes in the acquisitions between global container lines during the last two decades. Further, the paper discusses the contribution of intangible resources to post organisational and economic performance of the merged or acquired container lines. In the paper, organisational performance refers to the level of success of human integration while economic performance discusses the market performance of the container lines after the merger or acquisition.

The paper has six sections. The first section introduces the topic and provides the context of the research. Section 2 explains the aims and objectives of the paper and identifies the processes adopted by container lines to integrate intangible resources and achieve post strategic co-operation and both organisational and economic performance. Section 3 provides a comprehensive literature review of mergers and acquisitions among container lines and the contribution of intangible resources to the performance of container lines. Section 4 discusses the issues that may arise when intangible resources are not fully integrated.

Section 5 discusses the empirical study conducted including the stratified sampling method, the question dimensions used for the in-person interviews, and the profile of the sample. Section 6 concludes the paper by identifying the importance of developing processes to integrate intangible resources during a merger or acquisition and the contribution to post M&A performance that can be achieved by the appropriate integration of intangible resources. Limitations of the research and opportunities for future research are also discussed.