Entrepreneurial and Small Business Operations Commons^™

Role Reversal: Exploring The M&A Process When The Family Firm Is The Acquirer, Darin Dredge

PhD in Business Administration Dissertations

Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are a popular strategy to grow a firm. The prevalent view is that large, publicly traded non-family firms acquire much smaller, usually privately held firms, many of which are family owned. This view neglects, however, that family firms also utilize M&A to grow. Moreover, the vast majority of companies – even the largest – are family controlled. However, we know little about why and how family firms use M&A as a growth strategy. Furthermore, the M&A process – defined as pre-acquisition decision making and post-acquisition integration – is different when families take on the role of …