The  new face of global M&A. Intercultural issues in banking industry

Iulian  Warter; Liviu  Warter

Published : 2015-03-14

Vol. 3 No. 1 (2015)

The new face of global M&A. Intercultural issues in banking industry

Iulian Warter

Liviu Warter

Abstract

In today’s multi-polar world, the complexity of mergers and acquisitions (M&As) in the banking sector has increased dramatically. The likelihood of cultural clashes, which may cause a planned merger to fail, is higher for M&As in the banking industry operating in different countries. Bank of America’s acquisition of Merrill Lynch stands out as a testament to a criti-cal issue in many failed mergers: the company cultures of the two financial institutions simply aren’t compatible.Our paper aims to focus on the intercultural issues, which have been inves-tigated by only limited number of studies in the banking industry. The un-derstanding of intercultural issues in the pre-merger stage will make future M&As in the banking industry less problematic. It is of vital importance for the banks to learn from their mistakes, which include not avoiding in-tercultural conflicts, underestimating management, employees and cultural issues and hence the integration process in the post-merger stage will be more efficient and smooth.

Keywords:

mergers and acquisitions (M&As), intercultural, cultural differences, banking industry

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Warter, I. ., & Warter, L. . (2015). The new face of global M&A. Intercultural issues in banking industry. Forum Scientiae Oeconomia, 3(1), 127–138. Retrieved from https://ojs.wsb.edu.pl/index.php/fso/article/view/277

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Iulian Warter

iulian@warter.ro

Affiliation:

“Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University, Iaşi, Romania

Liviu Warter

liviu@warter.ro

Affiliation:

“Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University, Iaşi, Romania