Navigating challenging contexts

Despite its intuitive appeal, acquisition experience has not shown a clear benefit to acquirers, and we argue the applicability of acquisition experience depends on goals and context. Using survey data, we consider the effects of applying codified experience for two common acquisition goals involving knowledge transfer and market expansion. Our findings reveal a ‘double-edged sword’ effect, where on one hand, codification mitigates negative effects of industry rivalry on knowledge transfer. However, on the other hand, codification amplifies negative effects of industry rivalry on market expansion and internal turmoil on knowledge transfer. Beyond demonstrating the importance of goals and context contingencies for determining acquisition experience effect, our results reconcile conflicting research findings to identify when codified experience is beneficial in acquisitions.