Pacing international acquisitions: emerging markets as the new success stories

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate how to manage the pace of international expansion through acquisitions based on a case study of a Chinese conglomerate, Wanda Group. Design/methodology/approach The paper is a qualitative study based on the analyses of the series of international acquisitions made by Wanda Group in the global cinema and film studio markets from 2012 through the middle 2017. Comprehensive qualitative data have been collected from public sources, including company press releases, media reports and interviews, for each and every major acquisition made by Wanda during this period. The collected materials are then analyzed to reveal the patterns of Wanda’s serial acquisitions. Findings When expanding globally through acquisitions, firms need to carefully pace their different types of acquisitions; managing the speed of post-acquisition integration can be critical; and managing public relations and communications in host countries is also important. Research limitations/implications The research is limited to one single case, so the generalizability of its findings needs further validation. The research contributes to cross-border acquisition studies by discussing the pacing of acquisitions and their affiliated activities. Practical implications The research offers an example of how firms pace their series of international acquisitions, whose lessons are potentially transferrable to other global acquirers. Originality/value The research takes a rarely used angle by studying serial acquisitions as a whole and focuses on the pacing of them. It is one of the very few in the acquisition literature to highlight the temporal patterns among serial acquisition moves.