Abstract: Based on the cases of 76 Chinese multinational firms’ acquisition of and integration with firms in developed countries from 2001 to 2017, this paper makes a clear-set qualitative comparative analysis to explore the linkage effects of various factors such as M&A experience, corporate control, corporate ownership attributes, M&A motivation, industry relevance, formal institutional distance, cultural distance, and other factors on Chinese firms’ choice of post-reverse-M&A integration models, and further dynamically compares the possible paths for the evolution of different integration models. The study finds that: (1) there are four equivalent paths for “light-touch” integration model choice, i.e., unrelated M&A with exploratory M&A or experience-led high control M&A in the institutional constraint context, and low control M&A with exploitative M&A or experience-led exploratory M&A in the institutional shortage context; (2) there are two equivalent paths for the “do-nothing” integration model, i.e., exploitative M&A with a low control motive or unrelated M&A with a resource disadvantage in the context of institutional shortcomings prefer the “do-nothing” integration model; (3) there are three equivalent paths for the “supportive partner” integration model, i.e., related M&A in an institutional arbitrage context, or M&A experience-driven high-control M&A in a cultural diversity context, or high-control M&A in a cultural diversity context; and (4) there are two equivalent paths for the “re-touch” integration model, i.e., experience-driven exploratory M&A with high control in the institutional arbitrage context or high-control M&A with high control in the cultural diversity context. In the case of institutional arbitrage, the “re-touch” integration model is preferred for experience-led exploratory M&A with high control or resource-advantaged M&A with high control. The findings of this study enrich the research results on post-merger integration model selection and provide practical insights for firms to choose the appropriate integration model.

Key words: reverse cross-border M&As, post-M&A integration model, driving mechanism, configuration path, qualitative comparative analysis