Why Cultural Integration Matters：the Case of Citibank's Acquisition of Guangdong Development Bank

摘要

Researchers have found that 80％ of all mergers and acquisitions (M&As) prove unsuccessful. One of the most common reasons for failure is the human factor; specifically, the inability to culturally integrate two separate organizations. This paper examines Citibank's November 2006 acquisition of Guangdong Development Bank (GDB), a leading South China bank. The cultural integration of these two banks has been especially difficult, because it involves a cross-border integration between Citibank, an American commercial bank, and GDB, a Chinese state-owned giant.The aim of this research was to examine how management deals with the cultural integration aspects of a cross-border M&A, in order to provide recommendations for future practitioners. Through interviews and surveys, the author gathered opinions and comments (in the pre- and post-deal stages) from GDB and Citibank's top management as well as lower-level employees about the progress of cultural integration. In the end, I discovered that Citibank is another example where the process of cultural integration was not taken seriously. Citibank failed to provide good communication and enough training to GDB's employees dealing only with the top-management level of the acquiring bank. On the positive side, Citibank realized that after trying to change GDB's structure, GDB's resistance was too high. Consequently Citibank slowed down the cultural integration process. The question remains what will happen with the future culture.

目录

英文文摘

声明

Chapter 1:Introduction

1.1 Statement of the Problem

1.2 Goals, Objectives, and Suppositions

Chapter 2:Literature Review

2.1 Mergers and Acquisitions Defined

2.2 Organizational (Corporate) Culture Defined

Chapter 3:Research Methodology and Results

3.1 Method of Research and Data Collection

3.2 Corporate Culture in the Pre-acquisition Period

3.3 The Cultural Integration Process

3.4 Summation of the Results

Chapter 4:Discussion of the Results

4.1 The Current State of GDB's Corporate Culture and its Expected Path

4.2 How do Companies Shape a New Culture?

Chapter 5:Recommendations and Conclusion

References

APPENDLX

Acknowledgements