Social Network Mixing Patterns In Mergers & Acquisitions - A Simulation Experiment

Abstract

In the contemporary world of global business and continuously growing competition, organizations tend to use mergers and acquisitions to enforce their position on the market. The future organization’s design is a critical success factor in such undertakings. The field of social network analysis can enhance our uderstanding of these processes as it lets us reason about the development of networks, regardless of their origin. The analysis of mixing patterns is particularly useful as it provides an insight into how nodes in a network connect with each other. We hypothesize that organizational networks with compatible mixing patterns will be integrated more successfully. After conducting a simulation experiment, we suggest an integration model based on the analysis of network assortativity. The model can be a guideline for organizational integration, such as occurs in mergers and acquisitions.

Keywords

• mergers & acquisition
• social network analysis
• mixing patterns
• assortativity
• organizational design