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The aim of this paper is to look at why and how HRM may take on a more strategic role within mergers and acquisitions (M&As) processes.

The paper discusses the ABN AMRO Bank case. The Dutch bank first acquired one of the largest Brazilian banks and, later, the Brazilian subsidiary of an Italian bank. The paper seeks to understand to what extent the successful integration of the acquired banks by the acquiring one was determined by the consistency among three factors: the determining reason for the acquisition; the integration strategy adopted; and the HRM policies for the management of people.

The case has evidenced that, in processes of radical change, such as acquisitions, the president, as well as the top management of the acquiring company, has a critical role of establishing an understanding that people constitute, in fact, a key asset of the company, thereby opening avenues for HRM to assume a strategic role within companies.

Even though the HR managers should seek to undertake a more active and strategic role in M&As, contributing effectively to the performance of the organization, their actions are shaped by the consistency between discourse and practice of CEOs regarding the importance of people within organizations. Any disparity between this discourse and practice is likely to affect the role played by HRM within organizations.

This paper will be valuable for those attempting to link both streams of literature – HRM and post‐acquisition integration.

It has been argued in the international business literature that companies begin their internationalization trajectories by entering countries that are geographically and psychically closest to the country in which their home market is located before entering more distant ones. This paper aims to verify whether this assertion is correct for Brazilian companies. If it is correct, the companies would be expected to begin their international expansion in countries within the Latin America region. Not only is this region closest in geographical distance, but also it is most similar to Brazil in many other important dimensions.

This paper is an exploratory and quantitative research undertaken with a sample of 109 national capital companies selected from the 1,000 largest Brazilian companies in 2001 net revenues.

Empirical findings indicate that countries in Latin America have been most frequently chosen by Brazilian companies for their first expansions into international markets. Nevertheless, some companies choose divergent trajectories, initially entering markets that are geographically and psychically more distant. Those companies enjoyed structural features of certain sectors (commodities or global sectors), in which the importance of psychic distance is smaller in the face of economic transactions.

An important limitation of this paper is the impossibility to test the hypotheses in specific countries or markets. The authors are forced to analyze the psychic distance effect among regions, with the risk of not accounting for important intra‐regional differences.

The data presented in this paper have clarified some patterns and trajectories of Brazilian companies in international markets.

This paper aims to examine why and how HRM may take on a more strategic role in mergers and acquisitions.

Discusses Dutch bank ABN AMRO's acquisition of one of the largest Brazilian banks (Banco Real) and, later, the Brazilian subsidiary of an Italian bank (Banco Sudameris).

Highlights major differences in the two acquisitions, but also the common agreement that top management of the acquiring and acquired companies must fully understand the vital role of employees in the M&A process.

Contends that the team or executive leading the post‐acquisition process should establish the most appropriate policies, including those for HRM, so that the results of the chosen integration strategy result in value creation.

Demonstrates that a major challenge in acquisition processes that adopt different integration strategies is to match the reason that determines the acquisition, the integration strategy and the management of people.

Because women ' s status in Latin American countries appears comparable to their status in organizations of more economically advanced nations, this paper probes the mystery of how and why these women fare relatively well in their careers, given that socioeconomic and cultural factors could limit their possibilities of achieving higher management positions. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Exploratory study of 162 Latin American women who demonstrated exceptional success by attaining first and second level positions in private organizations. They responded to a semi-structured interview of 49 closed-ended questions about career challenges and barriers, leadership style, ambition, personal goals and work-life balance, plus two open-ended questions about men and women ' s leadership differences and how they understand their success.

Interviewees disagreed on issues of discrimination, recognized few serious professional career barriers and regarded work-life balance as their main challenge. They understood their success in terms of individual factors such as personality characteristics, performance and results, and their own leadership traits. Most admitted that machismo limits women ' s access to upper level positions. They recognized their ambition to attain power positions mainly for personal satisfaction, and their main goal was personal development and fulfilment.

Given the sample size per country, future research could include a more representative and large sample or concentrate on one country per region to establish relationships between women ' s personal characteristics and organizations ' sector, or challenges faced and leadership style. Also family-owned companies as well as women entrepreneurs could contribute knowledge about women ' s leadership in these countries. Studying only national companies, a more neatly description of local culture and gender awareness in its organizational practices that hinder or promote women ' s leadership and participation in decision-making positions may be obtained. Transcultural studies that compare women ' s rise and upper management performance in countries where support from domestic help and extended family as well as cultural values are very different, could permit to understand more fully what it takes to reach top management positions and the weight that these particular cultural conditions have.

This study is unique in shedding light on a multinational sample of Latin American female executives and their perceptions of their success, leadership style and barriers and challenges faced.

The purpose of this paper is to present a framework for analyzing home and host country determinants and outcomes of emerging multinationals (EMNCs).

The paper applies a conceptual approach combined with analyses of statistics and secondary material.

The paper identifies changing trends and features of outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) from emerging economies and identifies in particular differences between outflows from Brazil, Russia, India, and China (BRIC).

The paper puts forward a framework for analyzing determinants and outcomes of structures and strategies of multinational companies from emerging economies and surveys contemporary trends and features of outward FDI from these economies.

The purpose of this study is to follw the process perspective approach in post-M&A (mergers and acquisitions) integration studies, with a focus on human resource function, to make the research literature relevant to HR integration process up to date.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, limited systematic literature review and study in this interface has previously been published.

Therefore, this conceptual study filled in the research gap by pointing out a clear framework on HR integration in cross-border post-acquisitions, reviewing both the content and process of HR integration. This paper contributes to future research on the HR integration process perspective in theoretical directions.

It addresses the gap in research and opens the avenues for M&A researchers to consider HR as the strategic partner during M&As and to study HR aspects in an integrated process perspective view. This approach complements socialized reviews and it suggests a process perspective on how to dispersed themes and interrelate topics. It provide a clear process perspective helps to develop a concurrent research agenda, which can guide future work in the field.