Researching Mergers & Acquisitions with the Case Study Method: Idiographic Understanding of Longitudinal Integration Processes

The purpose with this paper is to highlight the comparative advantages of using case study research to contribute to the Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) field and provide some recommendations how this can be done well. Based on three reviews of the case study methodological literature, influential M&A case studies, and the methodological case survey of 55 M&A cases, we conclude that the case study method is a powerful, yet much underutilized method in M&A research. Even though there seem to be perhaps more than 20 times as many M&A surveys as case studies (Haleblian at al, 2009), we find that especially influential M&A case studies contribute unique value to M&A research in terms of the rich idiographic understanding of the complex combination and especially integration processes where the longitudinal, multi-aspect, and multi-level strengths of the case study method excel.