Are Advisors an Asset or Redundant in SME Mergers and Acquisitions?

Paper presented at the RENT XXV conference. The point of this paper is to improve our understanding on the added value of M&A advisors in SMEs, an important segment of the economy and merger industry. To predict the added value of professional advice we contrast two theories: the agency theory and the Resource Based View. The results indicate that the involvement of advisors have no effect on or even increases the obstacles during or after M&A, but positively influences innovations after M&A.