Cross border mergers and acquisitions: The benefits, risks and an agenda for future research

Mergers and acquisitions within any industry attract business analysis commentary, widespread media attention, public interest and the attention of other trades that are affected by these mergers. The scale of changes, the number of employees involved and the number of redundancies, the sums of money involved, share prices, changes occur in consumers' shopping habits, affects on suppliers and affect on small scale retails all provoke interest. Fundamental changes have occurred in the balance of power in the vertical chain following the substantial consolidation in retail markets now dominated by a very limited number of multiple retail chain store groups wielding enormous buying power and driving through aggressive own label strategies.