Dr. Riikka M. Sarala

Dr. Riikka M Sarala holds the position of Professor (with Tenure) of International Business Management at UNC Greensboro. She is the former Senior Associate Editor of Journal of Management Studies, a Financial Times 45-listed general management journal. Her work focuses on examining the effect of social and cultural processes on mergers & acquisitions, multinational corporations, innovation ambidexterity, and strategic agility. Dr. Sarala has been a visiting scholar at Columbia University in NYC, EM Lyon Business School in France, and Aalto University in Finland. Her research has been published or is in press in renowned management and international business journals, including Journal of Management Studies, Journal of Management, Strategic Management Journal, Journal of International Business Studies, Academy of Management Perspectives, Academy of Management Learning and Education, Human Resource Management, British Journal of Management, and others. She is also a co-editor of the management book “Mergers and Acquisitions in Practice” by Routledge. She is/has been co-guest editing several special issues for academic journals, including Journal of Management Studies, Journal of World Business, Human Resource Management Review, and Group & Organizational Management. She was a keynote speaker at the “Knowledge Transfer and Cultural Diversity in Multinational Corporations” conference in Neuchatel, Switzerland. Her M&A related book chapters have been published in the Handbook for Mergers and Acquisitions Research, Wiley Encyclopedia of Management, and Advances in Mergers and Acquisitions. She is an Editorial Board member of British Journal of Management and others. Dr. Sarala enjoys helping to develop the work of PhD students and junior scholars, which includes serving in the thesis committees in the US and in Europe as well as organizing doctoral colloquia (Journal of Management Studies Conference Doctoral Colloquium in Warwick, UK) and professional development workshops (a PDW on “The Human Side of Collaborative Partnerships" at the Academy of Management Meeting), serving as a track chair (AIB South-East Conference, Journal of Management Studies Conference), and participating as an organizer/mentor in international paper development workshops (Journal of Management Studies Online Paper Development Workshops; Journal of Management Studies Paper Development Workshops at Renmin University, China; Copenhagen Business School, Denmark; University of Uppsala, Sweden; Aalto University, Finland). Her awards include Bryan School Teaching Excellence Award, Bryan School Research Excellence Award, Bryan School Dean's Research Scholar Grant Award, and UNCG Undergraduate Research Assistant Grant Award. Also, she is winner of Citibank Best Thesis Award and AIB Insights Outstanding Article Award, runner up for Best PhD Paper Award (Strategic Management Society Conference) and finalist for several Best Paper Awards (e.g. Academy of International Business Conference; AIB South-East Conference; Journal of World Business, Strategic Management Society Conference). Her interests range from attempts at English gardening to binge-watching Korean drama and playing Chopin’s nocturnes on the piano.

There are 29 included publications by Dr. Riikka M. Sarala :

TitleDateViewsBrief Description
Advancing conceptualisation of university entrepreneurial ecosystems: The role of knowledge-intensive entrepreneurial firms 2019 1452 University entrepreneurial ecosystems are increasingly important in facilitating innovation and entrepreneurial opportunities in today’s knowledge-based economies. However, we have an incomplete understanding of the demand side of university entrepre...
Advancing theory with review articles 2020 542 Reviewing a body of work presents unique opportunities for making a theoretical contribution. Review articles can make readers think theoretically differently about a given field or phenomenon. Yet, review articles that advance theory have been histo...
Ambidextrous orientation and performance in corporate venture units: A multilevel analysis of CV units in emerging market multinationals 2019 337 The aim of this article is to examine absorptive capacity and innovation-oriented corporate culture as moderators of the relationship between the ambidexterity of a CV unit and its performance. Accordingly, we propose that the absorptive capacity of ...
Attributional tendencies in cultural explanations of M&A performance 2014 1031 This paper focuses on managers' attributions of M&A performance. Our analysis indicates that there is a linear association between performance and attributions to cultural differences, which is moderated by prior experience. Furthermore, our results ...
Beyond Merger Syndrome and Cultural Differences: New Avenues for Research on the “Human Side” of Global M&As 2019 313 This paper focuses on research on the “human side” of global mergers and acquisitions (M&As). We argue that there is a need for a more fine-grained understanding of the “human side,” which requires conceptualizing M&As as practice-oriented processes....
Causal Ambiguity, Cultural Integration, and Partner Attractiveness as Determinants of Knowledge Transfer: Evidence from Finnish Acquisitions 2011 3122 This study aims to explain knowledge transfer in acquisitions by examining the impact of causal ambiguity of knowledge, partner attractiveness, and organizational cultural integration (convergence and crossvergence). We test our model on quantitative...
Changing the Face of International Business Education: The X-Culture Project. 2012 3992 Studying International Business in a classroom is a bit like learning how to swim on a grass field. Even if the instructor provides detailed explanations and uses technologically advanced media, the students will not fully grasp the concept of swimmi...
Connecting Eastern and Western Perspectives on Management: Translation of Practices across Organizations, Institutions, and Geographies 2019 155 The exchange of academic knowledge increasingly flows in both directions, from West to East and East to West. The result is a rich and ever increasing development of theory and understanding of practice, which is expected only to gain further momentu...
Cultural differences, cultural convergence and crossvergence as explanations of knowledge transfer in international acquisitions 2010 8890 In spite of the proliferation of research on cultural differences in international mergers and acquisitions, we lack systematic analyses of the impact of cultural factors on knowledge transfer. In this paper, we argue that both national and organizat...
Editorial: State-of-the-art of knowledge management in inter-organizational relationships 2019 235 The knowledge-based view suggests that firm-specific knowledge constitutes the most strategically important source of competitive advantage (Spender and Grant, 1996) and that firms are platforms where processes of creation and application of knowledg...
Employee Perspective on Mergers and Acquisitions (M&As): A State-of-the-art Literature Review and Synthesis 2021 3466 This chapter presents a review of the state-of-the-art in the employee perspective on mergers and acquisitions (M&As). Our aim is to enhance the understanding of the role of employees in M&As. The chapter contributes by presenting a synthesis of how ...
Human Side of Collaborative Partnerships: A Microfoundational Perspective 2017 260 The research on collaborative partnerships has accumulated a vast body of knowledge, which has assisted us with comprehending several complex organizational phenomena, including mergers and acquisitions, strategic alliances, joint ventures, and entre...
An Ideology of IT Occupational Culture: The ASPIRE Values 2018 1206 Many have conjectured that people in the IT occupation are different from non-IT business users and that such differences can lead to negative organizational outcomes. This study investigates how to measure these differences by developing a new, expa...
The impact of cultural differences and acculturation factors on post-acquisition conflict 2009 10317 The importance of cultural factors as antecedents of post-acquisition conflict has been recognized in previous research. Nevertheless, this recognition has translated itself into relatively little wide-scale empirical research. Therefore, this paper ...
The Impact of Entry Mode on Outward Knowledge Transfer in MNCs: International Greenfield Investments and Acquisitions 2005 223 Despite of the acknowledged individual importance of both entry mode and knowledge transfer, the interaction between these two issues has rarely been studied. In this paper we set out to examine the impact of entry mode, i.e. greenfield investments a...
The Impact of Organizational and National Cultural Differences on Social Conflict and Knowledge Transfer in International Acquisitions 2012 4435 The purpose of this paper is to elucidate the effects of organizational and national cultural differences on international acquisitions. We argue that cultural differences prompt social identity building that leads to ‘us versus them’ thinking and th...
Knowledge development in MNC subsidiaries: The influence of MNC internal and external knowledge and control mechanisms 2008 3103 In this study, we examine the influence of control mechanisms and internal and external knowledge on multinational company (MNC) subsidiary knowledge development. Previous research stresses the importance of these factors for subsidiary behavior, but...
Mergers and Acquisitions in Practice: A State-of-Art and Future Directions 2017 606 The frequency and scale of cross-border and domestic mergers and acquisitions have significantly increased during the past two decades in spite of continuous reports on their high failure rates (e.g., Cartwright and Cooper, 1996, 2000; Gomes, Weber, ...
Opposite Ends of the Same Stick? Multi-Method Test of the Dimensionality of Individualism and Collectivis 2013 2710 The construct of individualism–collectivism (IND-COL) has become the definitive standard in cross-cultural psychology, management, and related fields. It is also among the most controversial, in particular, with regard to the ambiguity of its dimensi...
The Role of Absorptive Capacity in Acquisition Knowledge Transfer. 2013 3883 This article examines the role of absorptive capacity in acquisitions. We propose that absorptive capacity is an important determinant of acquisition knowledge transfer. Also, we identify antecedents of absorptive capacity in the specific context of ...
The Role of Cultural Learning and Collective Teaching Initiatives in M&A Knowledge Transfer 2012 2445 This paper focuses on the roles of collective learning and teaching initiatives in mergers and acquisitions. We examine how these managerial processes influence different types of knowledge flows. We also explore the antecedents of these managerial p...
The Role of Human Resource and Organizational Factors in Ambidexterity 2015 1590 Ambidexterity is a growing field of management research. However, the role of human resources (HR) and organizational factors needs further exploration because of the fragmented nature of prior work and the subsequent lack of a unifying framework. Ou...
The Role of Leadership in Mergers and Acquisitions: A Review of Recent Empirical Studies 2014 13283 In this chapter, we examine the role of M&A (mergers and acquisitions) leadership by conducting a review of recent empirical studies on M&A leadership. Our aim is to provide an overview of the current state of knowledge concerning M&A leadership. Mor...
The Role of Strategic Agility in Acquisitions 2015 5280 The aim of the present study is to examine the role of strategic agility as a component of the acquisition process by investigating its constituent elements and effects on knowledge transfer in the context of acquisitions. The study also elaborates o...
The Role of Target Firm Power in M&A Knowledge Transfer 2018 315 This study examines the role of target firm power in mergers and acquisitions (M&As). We investigate the effects of the position, referent and expert bases of power of the target firm on reverse knowledge transfer. We test our hypotheses on a sample ...
Sociocultural Integration in Mergers and Acquisitions: Unresolved Paradoxes and Directions for Future Research. 2013 5667 Despite decades of research, the key factors for success in mergers and acquisitions (M&As) and the reasons why M&As often fail remain poorly understood. While attempts to explain M&A success and failure have traditionally focused on strategic and fi...
A Sociocultural Perspective on Knowledge Transfer in Mergers and Acquisitions 2016 3531 Sociocultural factors are important determinants of merger and acquisition (M&A) outcomes. Despite advances in this field, our understanding of sociocultural factors in M&As remains incomplete. In particular, the roles of sociocultural interfirm link...
Strategic Talent Management in Emerging Markets 2017 2404 Since a group of McKinsey consultants coined the phrase the “war for talent” in 1997 (Axelrod, Handfield-Jones, & Michaels, 2002), academic and practitioner interest in strategic talent management continues to grow, and business leaders consider the ...
Tracing the evolution of the literature on knowledge management in inter-organizational contexts: a bibliometric analysis 2020 438 Purpose: Based on the growing interest devoted to knowledge management (KM) in inter-organizational contexts, the purpose of this paper is to systematize existing literature and understand how it developed over time, thus tracing its roots and evolut...