Organizational Structure Dimensions and Their Impact on JVs and Acquisitions

Managers pursuing transformational growth through inorganic routes typically rely on joint ventures and acquisitions, basing their choices on factors such as target availability, risk propensity, and desired control over operations. This paper theorizes that managers can increase the likelihood of success in such transformations by aligning growth mode choices with the constraints and capabilities of their existing organizational structures, alongside other established determinants of joint venture and acquisition outcomes. Focusing on three dimensions of organizational structure, standardization, specialization, and managerial span of control, the paper explains how these dimensions shape firms' decisions between joint ventures and acquisitions and influence the feasible level of post‐acquisition integration. Specifically, it argues that integration may range from stand‐alone acquisitions to targeted integration to full integration, depending on structural configurations spanning bureaucratic to adhocratic forms. By advancing a structure‐contingent view of growth mode choice, the paper positions organizational structure as a key boundary condition that shapes the feasibility and effectiveness of integration strategies. In doing so, it complements, rather than replaces, existing explanations based on alliance capability, knowledge transfer effectiveness, monitoring quality, and opportunism control.