Acquisition integration capabilities and organizational design

Research has yet to explain how firms with acquisition experience can improve their success with acquisitions. With a multi-national sample, we study how acquisition experience can lead to integration capabilities that impact acquisition outcomes. We argue that different types of knowledge (tacit or explicit) and organizational designs (more centralized vs. less centralized) influence the development of integration capabilities. We demonstrate that tacit and explicit knowledge provide multiple paths to acquisition success for acquiring firms, and this can explain conflicting findings in existing research. More specifically, less centralized organizational designs lower the effectiveness of tacit knowledge in developing an integration capability, but centralization is effective for explicit knowledge. Additional implications for management research and practice are provided.