Keenan Liam, Wójcik Dariusz
University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK.
National University of Singapore, Singapore.
Environ Plan A. 2023 Sep;55(6):1618-1627. doi: 10.1177/0308518X231190091. Epub 2023 Aug 15.
Mergers and acquisitions (M&As) are on the rise. Interlocking processes of globalization and financialization have increased their attractiveness and incentivized an upward spiral of M&A activity in recent years. This rise is profoundly spatial, as M&As reshape the geographies of production, consumption and finance, while aggravating uneven power-geometries through the concentration of corporate control. Despite this growth and inherent spatiality, economic geography research into M&As has waned. The aim this article is to demonstrate the value of M&As to economic geographers and highlight avenues for future research. This is achieved by explaining how qualitative and quantitative research into the motivations, outcomes and geographies of M&A activity can provide fresh empirical and conceptual insights surrounding wider geographical debates.
并购活动正在增加。全球化和金融化的相互关联进程提高了并购的吸引力，并在近年来促使并购活动呈螺旋式上升。这种增长具有深刻的空间性，因为并购重塑了生产、消费和金融的地理格局，同时通过企业控制权的集中加剧了权力几何分布的不均衡。尽管并购活动在增长且具有内在的空间性，但经济地理学对并购的研究却有所减少。本文旨在向经济地理学家展示并购的价值，并突出未来研究的方向。这是通过解释对并购活动的动机、结果和地理格局进行定性和定量研究如何能够围绕更广泛的地理辩论提供新的实证和概念性见解来实现的。
