| Abstract: | This paper reexamines Pfeffer’s (1972) classic study on interindustry merger patterns by replicating and then extending his findings. Pfeffer argued and found that resource dependencies, as measured by interindustry economic transactions, explained merger patterns. The replication investigates how robust the resource dependence explanation for interindustry mergers is when more precise methods are applied to a data set that essentially recreates Pfeffer’s. The extension examines the strength of the resouce dependence effect over time, and offers hypotheses that seek to explain both longitudinal and cross-sectional variation in the strength of this effect. Results indicate that while the significance of the resource dependence effect is once again observed, after applying more refined analytical methods to the data the explanatory power of resource dependence is greatly diminished. In addition, variation in the strength of the resource dependence effect suggests some boundary conditions for the theory, at least with respect to its ability to predict interindustry mergers. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. |
