Exploring Competence-Based Synergism in Strategic Collaborations: Evidence from the Global Healthcare Industry

Abstract

One of the most essential issues in business partners’ collaboration is whether the integration of their businesses creates a collaborative synergy and adds market value to merging companies. This paper aims to develop a methodological framework that will be convenient for managerial praxis and helpful for scholars’ research in forecasting explicit synergy and valuing tacit synergy in strategic collaborations. The paper theoretically and empirically contributes twofold to strategic foresight. It employs the ARCTIC framework as an extension of the VRIO model to predict an explicit synergy and real options methodology to measure tacit competence-based synergies in M&A deals. The paper makes several theoretical contributions and managerial implications to corporate finance and strategic management disciplines. Finally, the paper discusses research limitations and future work.