International M&A and HRM

今天给大家带来一篇优秀的论文  主要讲述的是随着营商趋势的不断变化，世界各地的并购活动显著增加，尤其是中小型企业，尽管文化和制度因素存在显著差异。goPuff是美国最大的便利快递公司之一，计划收购Fancy，Fancy也是英国境内的一家便利快递公司。本报告以不同章节为基础，对美国和英国之间的文化和制度差异进行了批判性研究。此外，本研究还探索了goPuff获取花式的合理整合策略。为此，本研究应用了各种理论概念，如霍夫斯泰德文化维度、哈斯佩斯拉赫和杰米森整合类型学以及其他理论。据确定，两国在长期方向上存在显著差异。一起来看看吧 有论文需要帮忙的亲亲可以联系我们的专属客服 Even100100进行咨询喔~


Abstract
With the continuously changing trends of doing businesses, there has been a significant increase in the mergers and acquisitions around the world, particularly at small and medium scale, irrespective of significant difference in cultural and institutional factors. goPuff being one of the largest US-based convenience delivery company, is planning to acquire Fancy, which is also a convenience delivery company within the UK. This report was based on the different sections, in which it critically examined the cultural and institutional differences between the USA and the UK. Moreover, the study explored the rational and integration strategy of goPuff for acquiring Fancy. For this purpose, the study applied various theoretical concepts, such as Hofstede Cultural dimensions, Haspeslagh and Jemison integration typology and other theories. It is identified that there is a significant difference in the long-term orientation between both countries. Additionally, various challenges were identified for goPuff before going into the acquisition. Therefore, this report has provided effective recommendations in order to have a successful acquisition. 
1.Introduction 
With the increase in changing lifestyles around the world, convenience is becoming one of the leading and most sought aspects of any delivery experience. The convenience delivery service is rapidly growing, because it offers whatever and whenever facility to the consumers for buying the products, specifically grocery items, pharmaceutical and other various products. This type of service industry is fully technology-based, as it offers a lot of choices within one single app to the consumers. Companies working in the industry are coming up with effective strategies and features, such as personalisation and optimisation, for providing more competent logistics and faster delivery times. 
This report aims to examine the ongoing acquisition planning of goPuff, US to acquire Fancy, UK. goPuff is a private digital-based delivery service in the USA that was founded in 2013 by Yakir Gola and Rafael Ilishayev. The company is operating in more than 500 cities of the USA, in which, the consumers order items through an online channel or through goPuff app. In October 2020, the company was valued at $3.9 billion and had more than 4000 employees (Ha, 2020). Under the investment strategies, the company has recently announced to acquire Fancy, which is the UK-based company offering similar services. Fancy is an emerging private company founded in 2020 by Arnie Englander and Jack Wilson with the accelerated amount of $150,000, which is currently operating in 5 cities of the UK. The company employed only three employees (Fancy Delivery, 2021). Since the acquisition is planning to take place between two companies of different countries; therefore, this report aims to explore the cultural differences and the role of IHRM in implementing effective acquisition at the pre-acquisition and post-acquisition stages. 
2.Main Body 
2.1. Cultural Analysis of the United States America and the United Kingdom 
The UK and the US may share the common language; however, there are significant differences between cultures and the way of doing business, which makes the two places feel as if they are a world apart. In order to have a critical analysis of culture, the theory of cultural dimension by Hofstede (2007) is applied for providing better insights. This cultural dimension theory is a framework that is used to understand the differences in cultures across the countries and to discern the manners in which the businesses are conducted across the different cultures. For this purpose, the differences are determined on various dimensions, including power distance, collectivism vs individualism, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity, short term and long term orientation and indulgence (Favaretto et al., 2016). Therefore, the cultural analysis is better explained in diagram 1 below;
Diagram 1: Cultural Analysis between the US and UK
Source: (Made by Author, 2021)

The insights from the Hofstede cultural dimension shows no significant difference between the major cultural dimensional factors, as the factual data collected in diagram 1 highlights no significant difference between the scores of both countries. Despite the fact, there is a significant difference between the long term orientations, as the long term orientation in the UK is scored at 51; however, the long term orientation in the US is scored at 26. Hassan et al. (2011) argued that the long-term orientation is an important cultural value that has been shown to meaningfully affect the behaviours of persons. The cultural differences between the USA and the UK, such as the difference in long term orientation, is negatively influencing the overall cross-border acquisition performance (Ahammad et al., 2016; Chulliat et al., 2015). Moreover, the cultural differences are resulting in the downward curvilinear slope, which is impacting the overall organisational behavioural for performing in other countries (Bauer et al., 2016). 
Therefore, it is argued that organisations are needed to analyse cultural similarities that are more beneficial within the case of innovation and technology-driven M&A`s, such as the acquisition between goPuff and Fancy. 
2.2. Institutional Analysis of the United States America and the United Kingdom
Institutions play a primary role in the ways in which the societies distribute the benefits and bear the cost of development strategies and policies, and it influences the investment decisions and the organisation of production. For this purpose, organisations are required to consider the political, economic, technological and social institutes, which could impact the labour market in which they are entering (Mazzucato, 2016). Therefore, the Neo-institutional model is identified as effective for understanding and developing IHRM practices. The model defines the institutional approach as the incorporation of institutionally mandated elements, which allows organisational actors to portray the organisation as legitimate through enhancing its likelihood of survival (Björkman & Gooderham, 2012). There are three institutional pillars, including regulatory, normative and cognitive pillars, which simultaneously influences how businesses are conducted (Valdez & Richardson, 2013). 
There are various institutes, such as political, economic and social institutes, which impacts the IHRM practices. In the USA, the development of IHRM practices is dependent on the rules and policies proposed by the political and economic institutes, including the Government of US, Internal Revenue Service and Federal Reserve of the US. Similarly, social institutes, including healthcare and education, also impacts the IHRM practices for developing employees` laws. Under the concept of Isomorphism theory, the perceptions and the underlying physiological representation of both countries are similar, because there are similar institutions, including the government, education, healthcare and other governing bodies, in both countries; however, the significant difference is in the development and implementation of policies and regulations (Mason, 2012). Similarly, there are isomorphic pressures, including mimetic, coercive and normative, which forces the organisations to reconsider their international human resource strategies before implementing in other countries.  For instance, the social enterprise governance in the UK acts as an institute for developing structural similitude to support the social enterprise initiatives from the organisations. 
Therefore, international companies are required to develop the IHRM practices as per the requirements of institutions of the UK and vice versa. Hence, it is evident from the discussed theories that the institutes of any country plays a central role in developing and implementing the IHRM practices for any organisation initiating to operate within that country. 
2.3. M&A Rationale and Integration Strategy 
goPuff is one of the famous delivery company with a valuation of $3.9 billion and has announced to raise more than $380 million within the recent funding round led by different investing companies, including D1 Capital Partners and Accel. Therefore, the company seeks to have the acquisition of Fancy, which is an incubating start-up within the UK. The reason for acquiring the Fancy delivery company is to enhance the global efficiency. According to the report of Pymnts (2021), these two companies are essentially integrated, with the both contracting their own fleets of drivers and operating their own micro-fulfilment centres that are known as dark stores, mainly used for online deliveries and ultra-local deliveries. Further, it is identified that if this acquisition deal gets successful, then it can allow goPuff to expand its business within the markets of the UK by adopting the strategy of acquiring local start-ups, such as Fancy, instead of initiating from the beginnings. 
The research by Brakman et al. (2013) explored the important implication of oligopolistic international trade modelling for the forecasted patterns of cross-border acquisitions and mergers. The researchers argued on the benefits of acquisition and mergers, as it is identified that acquiring the companies allow the acquirer to have competitive advantage and power to grab the market. Additionally, the study identified that the concept of international trade modelling focuses on strategic motives and efficiency. The merger and acquisition strategies are often based on the acquisition of knowledge and other various intangible resources, such as brand name and service offerings. Gupta & Roos (2001) discussed the conditions surrounding the trade of intellectual capital and their effect on value creation aspects.
Hence, goPuff is also using a similar acquisition strategy for enhancing its global efficiency by acquiring Fancy, which will help the company to have long-term growth within the markets of the UK. 
2.4. Role of IHRM in implementing effective M&A
There are various potential HR challenges at the pre-acquisition stage, identified by the cultural and institutional analysis, which could arise during the pre and post stages of acquisition. Based on Hall`s theory of cross-cultural communication, the first challenge for HR is to identify and communicate the reasons behind the acquisition to employees that is because this can dislocate and upset the employees and could create the negativity within the organisation. The second challenge is the formation of an acquisition team and selecting the leaders, as this could be sensitive to cultural differences and could create challenges for leading the change processes. The third challenge is to assess the corporate cultures of the acquiring company, as every organisation has its own organisational cultures and structures. The fourth and the most important challenge during the acquisition is deciding on the HR policies, compensation and benefits packages for the newly acquired company (Liu & Meyer, 2020). Therefore, the conceptual theory Haspeslagh and Jemison integration typology could be feasible for overcoming such challenges. 
This theory states that the acquiring company needs to consider two criteria, i.e., the need for strategic independence and the need for organisational autonomy. These needs can allow both companies to have resource sharing, general management skill transfer and to preserve the strategic capabilities at post-acquisition stage (Angwin & Meadows, 2015). Hence, it is important for the acquiring companies, such as goPuff, to consider the IHRM practices for implementing the effective acquisition, which is because, the acquiring company would probably have to face potential challenges at various stages of acquisition, including at both pre and post-acquisition stages.
Thus, the strategies proposed through the conceptual frameworks of Haspeslagh and Jemison integration typology and Hall`s theory of cross-cultural communication can enable the company to enhance its global efficiency by acquiring start-ups in different countries. 
3.Conclusion 
This report critically examined the ongoing acquisition deal between goPuff and Fancy, under which, goPuff being one of the largest convenience delivery company in the USA is planning to acquire the Fancy delivery start-up company of the UK. It is analysed that goPuff is planning to acquire the already established company instead of going for the new one. It is believed that this strategy would enable the company to enhance its global efficiency by growing its services in other countries and regions as well. Despite the fact, there are some potential challenges due to the cultural and institutional differences between the two countries. According to the Hofstede Cultural Dimensional, both countries have similar cultural aspects; however, there is a significant difference in the long-term orientation between countries, which makes them apart from one another. Similarly, it is identified through isomorphism theory that both countries share the same institutions; however, there is a significant difference in the rules and regulations. goPuff will have to face various challenges within the HR practices at different phases of acquisition. However, in order to have a successful acquisition, goPuff is required to develop various effective strategies. Therefore, this report has provided various effective recommendations that could be useful for goPuff for having a smooth acquisition process with Fancy. 
Since goPuff is initiating the acquisition for the first time; however, there are various potential challenges identified to the company. Therefore, the company is suggested to consider the following recommendations. Firstly, goPuff is required to have extensive due diligence of the organisational structure of Fancy. Secondly, the company is required to get familiarised with the cultural and institutional differences of the UK, which would be helpful in developing HR policies at post-acquisition stage. Thirdly, the company should estimate the running cost and performance of Fancy for having a successful acquisition. In fourth, the company is required to consider the core values of Fancy, which could be helpful for goPuff to retain the existing employees as well as consumers of the Fancy. Hence, the suggested recommendations could be helpful for goPuff to understand the cultural and institutional differences of Fancy, to understand the organisational difference, and to develop effective IHRM practices that would result in the successful and smooth process of acquisition.  

51due留学教育原创版权郑重声明：原创优秀代写范文源自编辑创作，未经官方许可，网站谢绝转载。对于侵权行为，未经同意的情况下，51Due有权追究法律责任。主要业务有essay代写、assignment代写、paper代写、作业代写、论文代写服务。
51due为留学生提供最好的论文代写服务，亲们可以进入主页了解和获取更多代写范文提供论文代写服务，详情可以咨询我们的客服QQ：800020041。