%0 Journal Article
%T Selecting Legal Advisors in M&As: Organizational Learning and the Role of Multiplicity of Mental Models
%A Bastian Westbrock
%A Katrin Muehlfeld
%A Utz Weitzel
%J Journal of Management
%@ 1557-1211
%D 2019
%R 10.1177/0149206317753292
%X Management scholars have identified a variety of firm characteristics as antecedents to organizational learning. In this study, we conceptualize intraorganizational multiplicity of mental models as a complementary element that facilitates shifting from lower- to higher-level learning. Specifically, we investigate whether multiplicity of mental models¡ªproxied by four measures¡ªhelps acquirers to categorically adapt selection rules for legal advisors in mergers and acquisitions (M&As) from domestic toward international settings. In developing our conceptual framework, we integrate resource-based, social network, and organizational learning perspectives. Empirically, we draw on 11,511 acquisition attempts announced from 1998 to 2010 (completion/abandonment assessed as of January 10, 2015, at the latest). The results largely support our theory: First, choosing legal advisors in domestic and international deals calls for different selection rules. While in domestic deals, network-related characteristics are more important drivers of lawyers¡¯ performance relative to their country-specific expertise, the comparative relevance of these attributes is reversed in cross-border deals. Yet, initially, acquirers fail to recognize this. Also, they do not initially adjust their selection criteria appropriately in response to accumulating M&A experience of their own. Only after having attempted a substantial number of cross-border M&As, they reach a turning point at which they rebalance their selection criteria such that they reflect the predominant relevance of country expertise in cross-border settings. Finally, recognition of the need to categorically reassess selection criteria in international deals is significantly facilitated by an acquirer¡¯s multiplicity of mental models
%K organizational learning
%K experiential learning
%K social networks
%K legal advisors
%K cross-border vs. domestic M&As
%K acquisition completion
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0149206317753292