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"The companion workbook to Dartmouth professor Sydney Finkelstein's acclaimed Superbosses: How Exceptional Leaders Master the Flow of Talent. Superbosses explained how industry legends like football coach Bill Walsh, television executive Lorne Michaels, restaurateur Alice Waters, and fashion pioneer Ralph Lauren find, nurture, and lead employees. Now, The Superbosses Playbook shows readers how to apply the tactics of these "superbosses" in their own organizations. The Superbosses Playbook features assessments, case studies, and exercises designed to help anyone recruit talent, lead performance, inspire teams, and even part with great people like a true superboss. For instance, Finkelstein includes assessments of your superboss score and templates for interviewing and evaluating new hires. This workbook will help you learn and apply the secrets of iconic business leaders"--

Advances in Mergers and Acquisitions stands out from the competition due to its focus on three key characteristics: studies from scholars in different countries, with different research questions, relying on different theoretical perspectives.

Drawing on work from transfer theory at the individual unit of analysis, this study examines positive and negative transfer effects in organization acquisitions. Data from 96 organizations reveal that, consistent with theories on positive transfer of industry knowledge, similar acquisitions are positively related to acquisition performance. In addition, consistent with theory on negative transfer of past acquisition knowledge, second acquisitions underperform first acquisitions, particularly when first and second targets are from different industries. In combination, these findings suggest that the routines and practices established in prior situations transfer to new situations, and that the effect of such transfer depends on the similarity of industrial environments.

Drawing on work from behavioral learning theory in psychology, this study examines the influence of prior organizational acquisition experience on the performance of acquisitions. This theory, which examines both the conditions preceding organization events and organizational responses, predicts that experience effects may range from positive to negative. Consistent with this theory, data from 449 acquisitions show an overall U-shaped relationship between organization acquisition experience and acquisition performance. In addition, the more similar a firm's acquisition targets are to its prior targets, the better they perform. These findings suggest that relatively inexperienced acquirers, after making their first acquisition, inappropriately generalize acquisition experience to subsequent dissimilar acquisitions, while more experienced acquirers appropriately discriminate between their acquisitions. Behavioral learning theory, then, may enhance understanding of organization experience effects.

Mergers and acquisitions are complex events in organizational life for which we have incomplete understanding, in part because researchers have tended to consider only partial explanations of them. The authors addressed that problem by developing a conceptual framework that integrates theoretical perspectives from economics, finance, and especially strategy, organization theory, and human resource management to offer a broader process-oriented integrative model. The integrative model explicitly describes how synergy realization is a function of the similarity and complementarity of the two merging businesses (combination potential), the extent of interaction and coordination during the organizational integration process, and the lack of employee resistance to the combined entity. The approach differs from traditional methods of studying mergers and acquisitions in three ways: (1) the success of a merger or acquisition is gauged by the degree of synergy realization rather than more removed and potentially ambiguous criteria such as accounting or market returns; (2) the key attribute of combination potential is conceptualized not only in terms of the similarities present across businesses, as in most studies of mergers and acquisitions, but also in terms of the production and marketing complementarities between the two businesses; and (3) the data are derived from a case survey method that combines the richness of in-depth case studies with the breadth and generalizability of large-sample empirical investigations. The framework was tested empirically across a sample of 61 mergers and acquisitions. The extent to which a merger or acquisition resulted in synergistic benefits was related to the strategic potential of the combination, the degree of organizational integration after the deal was completed, and the lack of employee resistance to the integration of the joining firms. Furthermore, the analysis revealed that (1) independent of any similarities across joining firms, the presence of complementary operations increased the probability of acquisition success by boosting synergy realization, (2) organizational integration was the single most important factor in explaining synergy realization, even to the extent that M&As with high combination potential were significantly more successful when coupled with high organizational integration than when integration efforts were less forceful, and (3) mergers and acquisitions that were dependent on gains from combining similar production and marketing operations tended to elicit more resistance from employees than M&As focused on realizing complementary benefits. Overall, the findings provide strong support for an integrative theory of mergers and acquisitions.

The chapters published in this volume provide cutting edge ideas by leading scholars, and help to inform mergers and acquisitions research around the world.

What makes the Advances in Mergers and Acquisitions series stand out is its focus on all three characteristics that make up this research field - studies from scholars in different countries, with different research questions, relying on different theoretical perspectives. Such a broad, and inclusive, approach to mergers and acquisitions is not easily replicated in academic journals, with much narrower mandates and metrics. The collections published each year provide cutting edge ideas by leading scholars on a global scale, broadening the questions being studied and helping researchers consider the inter-relationships among different perspectives. The best way to build understanding around a topic as diffuse as mergers and acquisitions is to be both integrative, and expansive, in choice of research questions and theoretical underpinnings. Advances in Mergers and Acquisitions offers this unique perspective, not easily found elsewhere.