Cross-Business Synergies

Currently, the realization of cross-business synergies is one of the most pressing strategic issues on the corporate agenda of multi-business firms.


Sebastian Knoll investigates what cross-business synergies actually are and how they are realized successfully. In a first step, a theory-based typology of cross-business synergies is developed and two new types of synergies are conceptualized: (1) Growth synergies, i.e. profitable growth advantages from recombining complementary operative resources across businesses, and (2) corporate management synergies, i.e. performance advantages from leveraging corporate management capabilities across businesses. In a second step, the author focuses on growth synergies and inducts a framework for their continuous realization from a longitudinal in-depth single case study. He suggests that the successful realization of growth synergies is associated with a selective focus on specific growth opportunities, decentralized cross-business collaboration that motivates productive business unit self-interest, and a corporate management approach that guides and balances this self-interest in an evolutionary fashion.