From Working Capital To Workforce Integration: A Retrospective Longitudinal Case Study of the Temporal Multifinality of a Broad-Based Equity Program in a Serial Acquirer

Sammanfattning

This thesis examines how an existing management control is repurposed to address new organizational challenges. It investigates how a broad-based equity program (BBEP), initially introduced to improve working capital management, was repurposed and redesigned as an ideological control supporting organizational culture and post-acquisition personnel integration. Based on a retrospective longitudinal case study of INDUCO, a pseudonymized U.S. industrial company, the study analyzes the BBEP across three organizational episodes: an IPO, a mega-merger, and a shift toward an acquisition-based growth strategy. Based on interviews and documentary material, the thesis uses institutional work theory to examine how managers theorized new control problems, legitimized the BBEP as a solution, and embedded it within the organization. The findings show that the BBEP evolved from a performance-oriented incentive mechanism into an ideological control associated with INDUCO's 'ownership mindset'. The thesis contributes to research on management control systems (MCS) evolution by showing how prior institutional work shapes later managerial problem framing and control design, and to literature on management controls in merger and acquisitions (M&A) settings by suggesting that extending an acquirer-side control can be perceived as successful by management when the control carries symbolic meaning and is reinforced through active institutional work.