Experience of Canadian and Chinese acquisitions in Kazakhstan

Our intention is to explore and describe the nature and the role of social integration mechanisms that moderate relationships between cultural distance and social integration. We followed one company, currently named KazOil, over 10 years and during two consecutive acquisitions by very different MNCs (Hurricane and CNPC) from two different national cultures (Canada and China, respectively). We found differences in the levels of post-acquisition social integration of the two acquisitions. Surprisingly, a more culturally distant MNC from a national culture perspective was more successful in achieving post-acquisition social integration than a culturally close one. We ascribe this to the fact that although both acquirers made extensive use of both formal and informal social integration mechanisms, they favored different types. We also specify other contextual variables which may explain the above findings.