The “Bridge” over Troubled Water: Exploring the Emergence of Cross-unit Collaboration in the Technical Core of Acquired Firms

Much of the M&A literature emphasized the negative and passive consequences for acquired employees, leaving post-merger human integration largely underexplored. Given the crucial role that collaboration plays in innovation, we focus on cross-unit collaboration between inventors from merging entities—a strategic yet understudied behavior that individuals engage in as they navigate new organizational structures. We theorize that a loss in relative standing, triggered by shift in reference groups after acquisition, may motivate acquired inventors to collaborate with inventors from the acquiring firm to improve their situation. As collaboration depends on mutual recognition, we further examine how two integration mechanisms—collaborative integration and structural integration—shape acquiring inventors’ perceptions of their counterparts, influencing whether they view them as collaborators or competitors. Drawing on patent coauthorship data for 5,448 acquired inventors across 231 technological acquisitions in the United States, we find that status change plays a significant role in driving post-acquisition collaboration. Specifically, collaborative integration amplifies the positive effect of status loss on cross-unit collaboration, while structural integration dampens it by intensifying competition. This research contributes to the M&A literature by shifting attention from passive adjustment to proactive strategies employed by acquired employees. It also offers practical insights into how different integration approaches can foster or hinder value creation through cross-boundary collaboration.