Strategic resources: a missing role in understanding integration speed in international acquisition

Abstract

It has long been debated whether integration speed positively or negatively contributes to acquisition performance. Drawing on the resource‐based view, this study addresses this controversy in the literature by investigating how integration speed for specific categories of strategic resources affects the integration process by capturing the expected value of an acquisition. With six in‐depth case studies, it concludes that the relationship between integration speed and acquisition performance cannot be understood quantitatively; instead, the focus should be on the interaction between integration speed and three broad groups of strategic resources (managerial, customer‐oriented, and supplier‐oriented) post acquisition. The study further finds that the understanding of integration speed should not be from a stand‐alone viewpoint but rather from a dynamic perspective—a viewpoint combined with time of integration. The findings of this study also complement the existing understanding of integration by extending the knowledge of task integration and its interaction with human integration. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.