Mergers and Acquisitions in Practice

4Strategic Mergers in the Public Sector

Comparing universities and hospitals

Rómulo Pinheiro, Timo Aarrevaara, Laila Nordstrand Berg, Lars Geschwind, and Dag Olaf Torjesen

Introduction

This chapter addresses the following research question: what can be learnt from public sector mergers that could assist in the planning and execution of successful strategic mergers more broadly? In so doing, we have undertaken a comprehensive literature review across two sectors of the economy – health and higher education – by investigating merger dynamics involving public hospitals and universities. Earlier reviews of mergers and acquisitions in different sectors have identified several gaps of knowledge. A meta-analysis of post-acquisition performance does ...