Reputation Spillover Effects and Post-Acquisition Performance: A Customer Perspective

Abstract

Research on acquisition performance has not considered the customer perspective for a long time. Based on associative network theory, we propose two spillover effects – forward and reverse – to reflect the effect of acquirer and target reputation on customer responses toward a horizontal acquisition. The reputation of both the acquirer and target can transfer to acquisition and affect customer attitudes toward the post-merged corporation and target customer retentions. However, the influence of the acquirer reputation (forward spillover effect) is stronger than that of the target reputation (reverse spillover effect). Because of asymmetric spillover effects from the acquirer and target, we suggest that the performance effects of A acquiring B may not be the same as that of B acquiring A, given that A and B are highly related firms. The level of post-acquisition brand integration moderates the asymmetric spillover effect on acquisition performance. A higher level of post-acquisition brand integration indicates a stronger asymmetric spillover effect on acquisition performance.