The observed large number of mergers and alliances – both at the national and international level – highlights their importance as social phenomena.  Mergers may be necessary to reap the benefits of economies of scale.  On the other hand, however, increased concentration may prevent the benefits of competition and even innovation.  But merger motives are more numerous and more diverse, as the periodical occurrence of merger waves show.  Also, the merging process and its consequences are not completely understood: mergers often fail.  Our research covers a wide range of both theoretical and empirical topics. In particular, the following issues are being investigated by CIG:

• the determinants of merger waves
• merger failures
• behavioral motives of merging
• the impact of mergers on rivals