Content Design of Acquisition Streams : Balancing Exploration and Exploitation

While researchers have become increasingly interested in the performance consequences and external structural characteristics of acquisition streams, we know surprisingly little about the impact of their content design. In this study, we shed light on how strategic paradoxes, such as exploration and exploitation, may be manifested in the design of acquisition streams. Based on a sample of 21.264 acquisitions of 172 active U.S. acquirers during 21 years, we find that the integration and temporal separation of conflicting strategies within and across acquisition streams is beneficial for a firm's subsequent performance. Moreover, we find, unexpectedly, that a parallel separation of paradoxical objectives yields negative performance effects. We discuss contributions for theory on acquisition streams, strategic paradoxes, and organizational ambidexterity.