Ethics of Mergers and Acquisitions

Ho, William W. L (2001) Ethics of Mergers and Acquisitions. MPhil(R) thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

I was puzzled by the frenetic mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activities in business in the last two decades. I witnessed through direct experience many negative impacts on people and society as a result of M&A. Therefore, I wanted to find out whether M&A is ethical. I started the investigation by looking at M&A activities - their nature, volume of activities, development trend and their impacts on various stakeholders in business. I tried to understand the basics of business ethics and then established the relationship between ethics of M&A and business ethics. I then examined all the major contemporary ethical theories and applied them to the investigation of ethics of M&A. Through detailed analysis, I found that a clear cut statement on the ethics of M&A is impossible as a judgement will depend on the ethical principles applied, the time scale within which the impacts of M&A is assessed, the stakeholders involved and how they have been treated. Nevertheless, I claimed at the end that M&A is unethical due to the creation of inequalities in the distribution of social primary goods. The ethical position of M&A could be improved by making sure that the redistribution of social primary goods resulted from M&A are to be done equitably and the stakeholders who are negatively affected are treated with care. One way to make sure that M&A will be carried out ethically is through a change in the institutional values in society, one that takes into account the interest of all stakeholders in business, especially the least advantaged, rather than just the shareholder.

• Item Type: Thesis (MPhil(R))
• Qualification Level: Masters
• Additional Information: Adviser: Elizabeth Telfer
• Keywords: Ethics, Management
• Date of Award: 2001
• Depositing User: Enlighten Team
• Unique ID: glathesis:2001-76089
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 19 Nov 2019 16:51
• Last Modified: 19 Nov 2019 16:51
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/76089