Larger firms are increasingly acquiring innovative new ventures at an early stage. Despite significant integration challenges with these acquisitions, the elongated pre-acquisition process of aligning buyers’ and sellers’ different objectives is rarely studied. By studying nine academic spin-off acquisitions, we develop a three-phase model outlining the temporal dynamics of the pre-acquisition process. In each phase—namely, strategic fit, synergy confidence, and deal structure—a specific buyer-seller tension emerges. By showing how each of these tensions needs to be overcome prior to an acquisition event, our dialectical model complements the dominant focus on post-integration activities in the acquisition literature.

较大的公司越来越多地在早期阶段收购创新的新企业。尽管这些收购面临着重大的整合挑战，但很少研究调整买家和卖家不同目标的冗长的收购前过程。通过研究九项学术衍生收购，我们开发了一个三阶段模型，概述了收购前过程的时间动态。在每个阶段——即战略契合、协同信心和交易结构——都会出现特定的买卖双方紧张关系。通过展示在收购事件之前需要如何克服这些紧张关系，我们的辩证模型补充了收购文献中对整合后活动的主要关注。