Redeployment of corporate resources: A study of acquisition strategies in the US defense industries, 1978–1996

How are excess resources redeployed when an industry declines? These resources can be redeployed within the firm through diversification and across firms through a market interface. Acquisitions can play an important role in either of these mechanisms. First, acquisitions can provide new complementary resources and facilitate the redeployment of excess resources within the firm through recombination. Second, horizontal acquisitions can facilitate consolidation and disposal of excess or redundant resources that can be redeployed elsewhere through a market interface. I study both these kinds of acquisitions in the US defense industries (1978–1996), and explain the choice between the two acquisition strategies on the basis of the business environment, underlying resources of the firm, and to a lesser extent, as a consequence of agency forces within the firm. I derive implications for strategic transformation of firms, and the resource‐based and evolutionary perspectives.