Mergers of regional credit institutions in Germany

Influencing factors and interdependencies of post-merger integrations

Credit institutions are under significant pressure to act due to increasing regulatory requirements, low interest rates, digitalization and fiercer competition. Therefore, successful mergers and integrations are of paramount importance also for regional credit institutions in Germany. However, companies don’t always develop as expected after mergers. Unsuccessful integrations or a too optimistic view might be reasons for that. Thus, a successful integration is considered a key success factor for mergers.

Against this backdrop, this analysis aims at identifying the influencing factors and interdependencies of the integration stage relevant for successful mergers. Regional credit institutions—i.e. savings banks and cooperative banks—in Germany are particularly focused on.

At the beginning of his analysis, the author specifies the current market situation in the German banking industry as well as the resulting challenges and explains particularities for regional credit institutions. A possible strategy for mastering this challenge is a merger which is analyzed in detail with regard to its strategic importance.

This paper focuses on the empirical analysis of which role specific factors assume during the post-merger integration. First, the author explains the general methods and operationalization of success factors which he then uses as a basis for the empirical analysis after having analyzed them in detail in theory in Chapter three. Afterwards, he illustrates the data collection process by means of a structured questionnaire and shows particularities of the data set.

In the end, he interprets the results and clearly defines the limits of interpretation before he argues which implications follow the results of the empirical analysis for the corporate practice.

This paper is a major contribution to a question from the field of strategic management of banks which hasn’t been dealt with so far. The contents are also highly relevant for practice since mergers are often considered to be unsuccessful which is said to be due to poor integration. The detailed empirical analysis and the transparency of the method underline a precise handling of this question in academic research which at the same time creates a tangible added value for practice.

By Dr. Michael Willeke.
2018. 268 pages, hardcover, EUR 64.-
ISBN 978-3-8314-0893-1

This publication is only available in German.

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