Post-M&A technological capability-building of emerging market firms in China: the case of Lenovo

Technological acquisitions have become a strong motivation for cross-border merger and acquisition (M&A) activities by firms in emerging countries. However, whether these companies achieve their objectives remains an open question. This article presents a case study of Lenovo’s acquisition of IBM’s PC division with a focus on inventor productivity after acquisition. Our case study suggests that while a ‘light-touch’ integration approach helped avoid the all-too-common post-M&A productivity drop, intra-firm knowledge transfers to veteran inventors of the acquirers remained difficult due to the knowledge gap. However, M&A events create other opportunities to improve the technological capability of the acquiring company by sourcing new talent globally, offering unignorable merit that justifies outbound M&A activities by emerging market firms.