Abstract

On the basis of their review of extant research in the field, Olimpia Meglio and Annette Risberg (2010) argue that research on mergers and acquisitions (M&As) is in dire need of methodological rejuvenation. They suggest that real-time, multiple-level longitudinal studies, which employ ethnographic methods such as observations in addition to interviews, are particularly called for. We heed this call by introducing institutional ethnography, developed by Dorothy Smith and her colleagues (2006b), as a promising alternative method of inquiry that enables us to address questions of managing, organizing, and coordinating as well as of politics, power, and resistance in the M&A context in new and meaningful ways.