Although Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) are potential value-creation opportunities, why they tend to occur in waves is a mystery to scholars and managers alike. Most models of M&A waves are unilevel, reductionist, and Gaussian, whereas wave patterns are arguably multi-level, emergent, and...

This study draws upon organizational learning in the management domain and analogical reasoning in the psychology arena to examine the antecedents of acquisition success in a study of 655 firms from 54 industries that conducted 2622 acquisitions from 1991 through 2005. Where previous work in...