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On the discursive contest of an international M&A relationship development process within financial services

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  • Gebert Persson, Sabine
  • Lundberg, Heléne
  • Elbe, Jörgen

Abstract

The global liberalisation of national regulated financial services’ sectors has opened up a wave of international mergers and acquisitions processes. To succeed with such processes, a positive relationship needs to be developed between involved parties. But actors within and outside involved companies in international mergers and acquisitions may have conflicting interests, not least because of national resistance to changes in domestic financial sectors. In order to study the discourse among such actors, this paper presents a theoretical view based on business relationships, highlighting the concept of legitimacy. The aim is to analyse how different actors communicate in and through the media, in order to legitimise their own actions or to delegitimise the actions of their opponents in the relationship development process. The empirical investigation is a longitudinal study of an acquisition process between two insurance companies from Sweden and South Africa. A discourse analysis shows that the relationship development process is not only a matter of rational arguments. It is rather a struggle between actors drawing on discourses that change over time, as a means to affect perceptions of legitimate behaviours to reach the preferred outcome.

Suggested Citation

  • Gebert Persson, Sabine & Lundberg, Heléne & Elbe, Jörgen, 2014. "On the discursive contest of an international M&A relationship development process within financial services," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(6), pages 1064-1073.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:iburev:v:23:y:2014:i:6:p:1064-1073
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ibusrev.2014.06.012
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Magnus Lindmark & Lars-Fredrik Andersson & Mike Adams, 2006. "The Evolution and Development of the Swedish Insurance Market," Accounting History Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(3), pages 341-370.
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    5. Eero Vaara & Janne Tienari & Ingmar Björkman, 2003. "Global capitalism meets national spirit : Discourses in media texts on a cross-border acquisition," Post-Print hal-02311661, HAL.
    6. Joutsenvirta, Maria & Vaara, Eero, 2009. "Discursive (de)legitimation of a contested Finnish greenfield investment project in Latin America," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 85-96, March.
    7. Eero Vaara & Philippe Monin, 2010. "A Recursive Perspective on Discursive Legitimation and Organizational Action in Mergers and Acquisitions," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 21(1), pages 3-22, February.
    8. Frances A Katrishen & Nicos A Scordis, 1998. "Economies of Scale in Services: A study of Multinational Insurers," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 29(2), pages 305-323, June.
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    Cited by:

    1. Simon Segal & James Guthrie & Johannes Dumay, 2021. "Stakeholder and merger and acquisition research: a structured literature review," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(2), pages 2935-2964, June.

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