Together forever? Examining post-acquisition performance and exploration in alliance partner M&A

Many theories suggest a link between alliances and acquisitions across time given the hybrid nature of alliances that represents an intermediate step toward hierarchy. Although studies show alliance transition to M&A is rare, the scarce work examining the outcomes of partner M&A support theoretical predictions of performance advantages when firms have prior alliances. This suggests a need to reopen inquiry on partner M&A to gain knowledge on the conditions fostering post-acquisition outcomes. We draw on behavioral and knowledge views to theorize on the effect of alliance strength, performance and partner relatedness on postacquisition outcomes. We employ a fuzzy sets comparative qualitative analysis of 72 partner M&As in the life sciences to explore the combination of factors leading to high post-acquisition performance and exploration.