Managing the post‐merger aftermath by default remodelling

This paper is a grounded theory study of how a recently merged bank remodelled its relationships with its smaller corporate clients. The bank redesigned its relationships with these clients in three main ways by supporting, terminating or neglecting. In the post‐merger aftermath there is only one of the parties which emerges as being in the ascendancy. Clients of the organisation, in this study, were treated very differently according to whether they were clients of the ascending or descending partner in the post‐merger context.