Brand Integration After Cross-border MA Evidence From China Hotel Industry

摘要

Each cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are faced with the choice of brand integration strategy.These strategies act as an important part of the whole strategy for firms to implement after cross-border M&As.The paper analyzes four different strategies for integrating brands: 'Swallow up', 'combined', 'Coexistence' and 'Innovation' and try to combine these four strategies with different industries.Few studies have evaluated the brand image effect of an M&A from a marketing perspective.The contribution is to help managers understand whether the acquirer should preserve the obtained brand and focus on increasing brand equity of the acquired brand to avoid the loss of customer loyalty.The paper is structured as follows.First, we provide an overview of the related the concept and theory on cross-border M&A.Next, we analyze how different industries should do during the process of brand integration and.Finally, in the concluding section, we associated it with the hospitality industry and propose some advices towards China hotel industry specifically.