Reimagining MA Integration: A Project-based View on MAs

The management of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) has long been recognized as crucial for their success. To develop its theorizing, M&A research needs to connect with developments in adjacent research areas. We bridge M&A research with project studies to create a broader research agenda that focuses on the transient nature of organizing by mobilizing projects, programs, and portfolio concepts to organize M&A before and after deals. As a project, M&As should be “completed” on time and within budget. As a program, M&As converge yet never reach full integration between organizations. As a portfolio, an individual M&A transaction can be considered as one among an ongoing series of M&As integrating at different tempos and degrees that together form the firm. We contribute to M&A research by offering alternative perspectives to organizing M&As, and we conclude with a research agenda and an initial conceptualization of a project-based theory of the firm.