Understanding the Relative Strength of the Motives that Influence Acquisition Strategy: Evidence from an Emerging Market

Abstract

In the strategic management field, Acquisition is one of the key strategies most organizations use as a development strategy. Yet, literature suggests that most Acquisitions fail to realize the expected benefits that drive the strategy. This paper argues that part of the reason why most Acquisitions fail is because the motives that drive the strategy are not critically examined. Based on this, the paper examines the relative strengths of the motives that drive Acquisitions from the Ghanaian context. Using a purposive sampling of 105 managers drawn from the four mobile telecommunication companies in Ghana, a descriptive statistics based on the mean rankings of the respondents' average scores is used as the main diagnostic tool to analyse the data. The results indicate that in line with the literature review, various motives influence Acquisition. Of the12 motives that were found from the study, the three most important ones were profitability, foreign markets and increased in market power. Based on the findings, implications on practice and policy are suggested.

Keywords: Mergers, Acquisition, Ghana, Motives