Table 116 Aug 2026From “The playbook study never asked who made the tools”

Three perspectives on codified integration playbooks

How empirical management research views codified integration tools, and where the consultant market parts company with the evidence.

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Table 1Three perspectives on codified integration playbooks

Study / Source	Sample & Scope	What was measured	Headline finding
Zollo & Singh (2004)	228 US bank acquisitions	Sum of acquisition tools developed by the acquiring firm	Knowledge codification strongly predicts performance (b = 0.207, p < 0.001); deal experience alone does not (ns)
Heimeriks, Schijven & Gates (2012)	85 active corporate acquirers	Codified routines vs higher-order risk management practices	Routine codification creates organizational rigidity; benefits vanish unless mediated by active customization
Graebner et al. (2017)	Systematic review, AOM Annals	Synthesis of decades of PMI empirical research	Explicitly states: the performance impact of externally sourced tools (consultants) is completely unmeasured
Consultancy Market (e.g. Bain 2026)	Vendor promotional material	Proprietary methodologies ("Signal", "Integration Thesis")	Asserts 75% higher synergies and 16% TSR lift; zero published methodology or sample data

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Source: Author's synthesis of Zollo & Singh (2004), Heimeriks et al. (2012), and Graebner et al. (2017).

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From the essay

Growth that compounds

The playbook study never asked who made the tools

Consultancies sell M&A playbooks as repeatable capability. The study that proved playbooks work measured tools the acquirer built: buying is unmeasured.

16 Aug 2026

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Isoglu, S. (2026). Three perspectives on codified integration playbooks [Table]. isoglu.com. https://isoglu.com/insights/exhibits/isoglu-2026-the-playbook-study-never-asked-who-made-the-tools-fig01/

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@misc{isoglu-2026-the-playbook-study-never-asked-who-made-the-tools-fig01,
  author = {Isoglu, Sinan},
  title = {{Three perspectives on codified integration playbooks}},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {Table 1, isoglu.com},
  url = {https://isoglu.com/insights/exhibits/isoglu-2026-the-playbook-study-never-asked-who-made-the-tools-fig01/},
  note = {From the essay {The playbook study never asked who made the tools}}
}

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