Knowledge is a vital source of competitive advantage and renewal for contemporary organizations. However, to date, few studies have scrutinized how mergers and acquisitions (M&As)—processes dependent on knowledge sharing—offer a valuable inter-organizational context through which to understand the attainment of customer knowledge sharing following M&As. Applying an integrated theoretical perspective from customer relationship management and M&A performance research, we study a Chinese–Finnish acquisition and customer firms of the acquired party across four advanced Western countries. We find that customer knowledge sharing is an active relationship management process that relies on the factors of customer dedication-based motivation vs. customer concerns about M&As to maintain relationships after acquisitions. In addition, and more importantly, we find that the promise management mechanisms—making promises, enabling promises, and keeping promises—of the M&A parties reinforce the motivational factors to maintain customer knowledge sharing in cross-border M&As. We propose a conceptual framework of customer knowledge sharing in cross-border M&As.

知识是当代组织竞争优势和更新的重要来源。但是，迄今为止，很少有研究仔细研究过合并与收购（M＆A）（依赖于知识共享的过程）如何提供有价值的组织间环境，通过该环境来了解并购后客户知识共享的实现。运用客户关系管理和并购绩效研究的综合理论观点，我们研究了四个先进西方国家的中芬收购方和被收购方的客户公司。我们发现，客户知识共享是一个活跃的关系管理过程，它依赖于基于客户奉献动机的因素以及客户对并购的担忧，以在收购后保持关系。此外，更重要的是，我们发现并购各方的承诺管理机制（做出承诺，实现承诺和遵守承诺）加强了在跨境并购中保持客户知识共享的动机因素。我们提出了跨境并购中客户知识共享的概念框架。