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1. Introduction
Globalization changes the operational environmental structure and creates a system of processes and products that cross-borders and states. Changes in the international regulatory environment, especially in the areas of information technology and communication, and economic growth in most regions of the world are driving many companies to go global in order to remain competitive (Caiazza and Volpe, 2015). Global expansion beyond the local system and into other geographical sites gives rise to an international operations system – an array of products and processes at disparate sites that exhibit varying dependence relations. Varied relatedness and mutual relational levels develop between the operational units or the different businesses.
Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) have become one of the central strategies of obtaining strategic goals and objectives; to the point that it seems that a company cannot become a major player in the competitive global market without engaging in M&A at some point in its development. The volume of cross-border M&A activity is steadily growing in the 21st century (Capaldo et al., 2008). Most companies that have global success in their respective markets have performed multiple acquisitions as part of their development strategy (Carbonara and Caiazza, 2010).
The global quality system of a global corporation, like other functional systems, is affected by changes in the structure of the operational system and the new markets to which the company is exposed as a result of these changes. It is composed of organizational sub-systems, which are the local quality systems spread across a distributed operational landscape.
When a corporation is undergoing processes of M&A, the quality system, as a functional unit within the corporation, can find itself in one of two states. Either it is the quality system of an entity that is being purchased and becomes a subsidiary, or it is the quality system of an acquiring entity that must now work in concert with the quality systems of the companies being merged, acquired, or joining the corporation through some strategic cooperation (Carbonara and Caiazza, 2009). In either case, one needs to deal with the dynamics of the expansion of the integrated quality system that represents the global quality system of the entire corporation.
A multinational company needs to implement global quality management (GQM) (Kim and Chang,...