Essay from the year 2020 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, grade: 75%, The University of York, course: Cross-Cultural Managemnet & Negotiation, language: English, abstract: The automotive industry has been facing increasing problems over the last years and COVID-19 accelerated the situation. Changes in the industry are challenging the automotive manufacturers to defend their position and adapt to constantly changing conditions. Some manufacturers, such as PSA and FiatChrysler already announced mergers to be jointly successful in the future (European Commission, 2020). Since Chrysler was part of several M&A activities, it is interesting to take a look at past Chrysler mergers and consider which factors regarding cross-cultural management influenced the merger outcome. The example of the DaimlerChrysler merger will be used for this purpose in order to analyse the merger towards cultural differences and behaviour of both parties under consideration of cross-cultural management theory which had an influence on the failure of the merger by means of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions.

Inhaltsangabe:Abstract: In the last decade many companies on a global basis are going international in order to become global players. The opening of global markets (e.g. the establishment of the Single European Market and the ratification of the Maastricht Treaty in 1992) was a key driver for international mergers and acquisitions. Companies form international mergers and acquisitions to achieve the competitive position of global advantage and local responsiveness as well as to grow rapidly. Mergers create synergies for all involved companies as various tangible and intangible assets will be combined whose value is greater than the sum of their individual worth. Additional factors of production offering competitive advantage can be found. Employees play an essential role for the success of merging companies, therefore it is crucial already to deal with cultural aspects as a component of the due diligence process. This creates an understanding of different national and organizational cultures for all involved cross-border merging companies. The national culture is an integral part of the overall corporate culture of the firm, which is applicable for all merging partners. The merger of DaimlerChrysler in 1998 which created one of the biggest car companies is used as an example in this study to underline cultural implications within the merging process of global players. Cultural difficulties occurred between the more easy-going and more flexible style of Chrysler and the well structured and bureaucratic style of Daimler-Benz. This was the basis of different working styles, decision making and communication processes within the company. This incompatibility of the two different cultural aspects was realized too late and became very difficult to be overcome. That is why at the end it was no merger of equals but one company dominating over the other. The complexity of the DaimlerChrysler merger shows the different aspects of cultural difference awareness. The reader of this study will get a deeper insight into the issues of culture and its importance to be considered in cross-border merger processes. In this context further different national culture models will be analysed as well as the cultural implementation into organisations in general. Furthermore after presenting the merger process of DaimlerChrysler and its reasons, failures in management and cultural implementation by both companies will be discovered which caused the cultural [...]

Research Paper (undergraduate) from the year 2010 in the subject Organisation and Administration, grade: 1,7, Northumbria University, language: English, abstract: The Merger of DaimlerChrysler in 1998 is regarded to be the biggest merger in the automotive industry. In academic literature there is consensus about the fact that cultural issues had a major impact on the merger's failure. Bearing in mind the importance of organisational culture on the success of M&A, this study aims to provide an in-depth analysis of the famous DaimlerChrysler merger. The researcher will reveal the organisations' cultural issues which arose during and after the merger and she will explain the impact of these issues on different organisational levels. The analysis will be conducted with the help of the theoretical frameworks of Schein (1984) and Hofstede (2001). Findings show that cultural differences have had an impact throughout all organisational levels. Due to this finding it is concluded that the merger was about to fail from the beginning on.

Seminar paper from the year 2003 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, grade: 1, - (Fachhochschule fur Wirtschaft), language: English, abstract: Introduction (English) On 6 May 1998, Daimler-Benz of Germany signed a merger agreement with Chrysler Corporation of the United States. The merger marked the beginning of the ambitious goal of merging two styles of auto-making, two approaches to busine

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2016 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, grade: 1,0, University of Linz (International Management), course: Current Issues in International Management, language: English, abstract: This thesis will provide a clear understanding of how and why company culture is such an important factor in M&A. First of all, mergers, acquisitions and company culture will be defined. Then, different types of company cultures are analysed regarding their mutual compatibility. This is followed by an explanation of how cultural integration can take place and how managers can facilitate it. Finally, important findings are summarized and discussed. As globalization progresses, so does the internationalization of companies. In the course of this development, over the last 30 years, the forming of mergers and acquisitions has become very popular. One of the greatest challenges in a merger or an acquisition is aligning the company culture of the merging partners before, during and after the merger. Company culture – or the lack of an integrated company culture - can crucially influence the success or failure of a merger or acquisition. However, in spite of the fact that there are a lot of ways to facilitate cultural integration, it is something that is often neglected in the planning phase, which makes it all the more difficult to accomplish successfully further along in the process.

Seminar paper from the year 2016 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, grade: 1,2, University Witten/Herdecke, language: English, abstract: In times of globalisation, mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are an important and common tool for companies in order to expand their operations as well as to face changing market conditions and increased competition. Over the past three decades, M&A have therefore become a truly global phenomenon: While in 1985 there were only 2,675 M&A transactions worth 347 billion USD, there were more than 46,000 global transactions, worth more than 4.5 trillion USD in 2015. In comparison to 2014, the number of deals increased marginally by 2.7 percent in 2015, while the value of the transactions grew by 16 percent. Nevertheless, and despite the increasing popularity of M&A transaction worldwide, several studies yield that mergers actually have a high rate of failure. Depending on whose research results one relies on, the failure of M&A-deals varies between 60 and 75 percent. In this context, it should however be distinguished between the failure of creating any business benefit (especially shareholder value) and the total failure of the merger (and a segregation afterwards, as e.g. Daimler-Chrysler did) which most likely will be a much lower percentage. As one recent study found out, culture has been identified to be the cause of 30 percent of failed integrations. These cultural differences between the merging companies become even more important in cross-border mergers where people from different cultural groups with different opinions, attitudes and values interact with each other. Although it is known that culture plays a key role in the integration process and therefore also for the success of the whole merger, it is often given relatively little attention to by the managers. After building a theoretical background on M&A and organizational culture, the paper will focus on the role of culture in a

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2012 in the subject Leadership and Human Resources - Miscellaneous, grade: 1,7, ( European University of Applied Sciences Hamburg ), course: Integration, language: English, abstract: Merger and acquisition activities have become an integral part of today’s businesses world. They are considered as strategic component to gain market share and extend product portfolios. Still, these transactions have a huge impact on an organization. This paper looks specifically at the M&A impact on company culture. Based on an analysis of identified key elements, which drive an M&A process, a cultural integration toolkit will be developed to solve identified cultural problems. Secondary data serves as source data for an inductive approach. Cultural problems and key drivers will be identified based on systematic research. The implantation of these key drivers in existing integration models will be further studied. Findings prove that not all of the identified key drivers are implemented in the models. Therefore, existing models solve the identified cultural problems semi-efficient. This leaves the need for a basic integration tool, which implements all key drivers, serves as guideline through an M&A process and provides specific instruments for realization of single steps. This paper develops such a basic integration toolkit in chapter 5. The toolkit meets all these requirements and proves that “managing culture clashes in M&A’s” is possible.