Exploratory Work: Strategies for Growth Synergies

Abstract

Growth synergies are an output effect (increased performance through profitable crossbusiness growth). Current research on growth synergies is based on highly abstract resource definitions that test this output (i.e. performance) effect (e.g., Tanriverdi& Venkatraman 2005). ⁷⁹ This brief chapter addresses this issue and aims to provide a more concrete understanding of growth synergies. Based on exploratory work that included 51 interviews with practitioners and a survey of 116 MBFs, we provide a systematic overview of generic strategies for achieving growth synergies. ⁸⁰The understanding of these strategies sets the stage for our in-depth discussion of the continuous realization of growth synergies in the next two chapters.