WHAT IS CULTURAL INTEGRATION IN CROSS-BORDER ACQUISITIONS?
Niina Nummela, Professor, International Business, Department of Marketing, Turku School of Economics, Finland
Mélanie Raukko, International Business, Department of Marketing, Turku School of Economics, Finland

Abstract
The context of cross-border acquisition brings additional challenges to the post-acquisition integration, as the parties represent different nationalities and, thus lack a common cultural frame of reference. From the managerial perspective the primary target after acquisition is to integrate the companies into well-functioning – but not necessarily single – unit sharing similar organizational culture. It can even be argued that the success of an acquisition depends how well the managers manage this difficult integration process at the newly purchased company (Legare 1998). The relationship between culture and outcome of an acquisition is very complex, and the research findings remain contradictory (e.g. Teerikangas & Very 2006; Stahl & Voigt 2008). This is partly due to the ambiguous use of key concepts and overlapping constructs. This paper attempts to clarify the conceptual basis of cultural integration in cross-border acquisitions and make suggestions how it could be analysed in future studies.
Keywords:  cross-border acquisition, cultural integration, cultural fit, acculturation