Antitrust holdup source, cross‐national institutional variation, and corporate political strategy implications for domestic mergers in a global context

Managers are increasingly uncertain over the source (home nation or foreign nation) of antitrust holdup for domestic mergers with significant international implications. I propose a conceptual framework that predicts the source of antitrust holdup for domestic mergers. I find an industry's global competitiveness to be the primary driver behind holdup source. Further, I factor institutional conditions to yield more precise predictions tailored to the cross‐national environment for antitrust policy. Exploratory empirical tests based on the merger policies of 27 antitrust jurisdictions over the 1992–2000 period provide support for baseline predictions. Finally, I generate prescriptive propositions that yield implications for effective political strategies. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.