LAUSR

acquisition has been regarded negatively because the demand of the product decreased in the post-acquisition phase. However, it can be argued that a decrease in demand would affect the firms irrespective of whether it expands into foreign countries through acquisitions or greenfield investments. The standard approach in academia considers the firm’s foreign expansion a two-stage decision. At the first stage, the firm decides whether to export or to produce abroad. Subsequently, if the firm chooses to produce abroad, the firm then chooses between acquisition and greenfield investment in the second stage. Having said this, the broader approach taken by the author also has its benefits in terms of maintaining simplicity in explanation for a wider audience and thus of broad relevant impact on the reader. Thirdly, while formulating the general success criteria for M&A investments, the author uses accelerated profit growth as the third-stage condition which in essence compares the company’s performance in the post-acquisition period with its pre-acquisition period. While acknowledging the relative benefits of this approach, this reviewer recommends that business scholars and practitioners in the future seek to identify, formulate and apply alternative criteria of ‘differential’ profit growth with respect to major competitors or industry means. By using this approach, exogenous factors such as decrease in demand might automatically be neutralized and thereby give clearer shape to assessments of probable M&A success or failure. To summarize, this book enlightens readers about why Japanese firms regularly fail in their outbound acquisitions despite conducting lengthy due diligence procedure. The author argues that managers should critically evaluate typical theories about the benefits of crossborder acquisitions and identify usual pitfalls that lie on the way of these benefits. Additionally, CEO commitment has a major impact on the outcome of the deal such that the deals in which CEOs stay longer with the company tend to become successful. Third, firms should conduct acquisitions and divestures in parallel to achieve the ultimate goal of accelerated profit growth. These are some of the key lessons that readers can draw from this timely and insightful book.