Vos, E and Kelleher, B: Mergers and Takeovers: A Memetic Approach.
Motivation & reason for the paper and how it fits into the overall context of the literature: In the following paper the authors describe a new understanding of the motive phenomena for manager’s initiating M&As. Previous research strongly agrees with the stance that M&As are not a financially sound investment for companies, however, it seems that managers are willing to continue to practice M&As regardless of the negative long-term effect it will have on both the acquiring and target company. This goes against the theoretical view that managers are there to increase the value of shareholders. If managers understand this, their human behaviour to continue with M&As is irrational and can’t be explained by some mathematical model. Vos and Kelleher agree that the traditional theories and models of finance are irrelevant in describing managerial motives (particularly towards M&As), as it is the human behaviour that we must study. Their thesis is that managers are not acting so as to maximise shareholder wealth (agrees with agency theory) and their primary motivation behind M&As is to gain power.
The data and methodology used by the paper: This diagnostic paper provides a literature review of previous research and then looks forward by applying behavioural ideas of ‘memetics’ to explain the motivation behind managers’ actions.
The results of the paper and meaning of the results, in your own words: Findings reveal that efficiency based theories do not adequately explain corporate M&A behaviour and suggest with the explanatory use of memes (assuming we all know what they are), suggests that it’s not financial returns or reasoning that often drives managers to make decisions, but power. Increased power, increases a managers ability of transferring ideas or stories to others around them – influence is control. This is true both for managers as it is for organisations as a whole and the transfer of organisational power.
Your impressions of the paper: As a very relational human being, I agree that traditional financial models and theories cannot be applied to describe how unique individuals and companies work. I believe there is more going on behind the scenes than ‘rational behaviour’ and ‘efficient markets’. Therefore I resound with this paper and agree with the approach it takes and find the idea of memetics very interesting and explanatory. I agree with the notion that managers are driven by power in a lot of the decisions they make. I would be interested to see some research that clearly defines the relationship between power (in a corporate sense) and the size of executive salaries and bonuses.

References
Vos, E. and Kelleher, B. (2001). Mergers and Takeovers: A Memetic Approach. Journal of Memetics (Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission) 5.