The relationship between pre-acquisition alliances and post-acquisition performance has been widely recognized, but there are differing explanations from existing theoretical perspectives. On the one hand, organizational learning emphasizes that prior strategic alliances allow the acquiring firm to learn from the target company, gaining new technological knowledge and skills. On the other hand, relational learning focuses on the acquiring firm's understanding of the target firm's working methods, culture, leadership styles, and overall organizational dynamics, i.e., learning about the target, facilitating the formation of psychological contracts and mutual understanding. To reconcile these perspectives, we explore the moderating role of familiarity. While recognizing the importance of acquiring new knowledge and skills in all alliances, we argue that building trust and understanding with the target firm is especially important in pre-acquisition alliances. As a result, post-acquisition performance will be largely influenced by the acquiring firm's familiarity with the partner's context, thereby enhancing the conditions for learning about the partner. We hypothesize that cultural and market familiarity positively moderate the relationship from pre-acquisition alliances and post-acquisition performance. Using data from SDC Platinum, EIKON, and ORBIS, covering 712 majority or full acquisitions, we find strong support for our hypotheses. Specifically, pre-acquisition alliances are most effective in domestic and industrially related acquisitions. Additionally, the benefit of previous strategic alliances diminishes as cultural distance increases. These findings hold up under various matching techniques and have substantial implications for both scholars and practitioners.

收购前联盟与收购后绩效之间的关系已得到广泛认可，但从现有的理论角度存在不同的解释。一方面，组织学习强调先前的战略联盟允许收购公司向目标公司学习，获得新的技术知识和技能。另一方面，关系学习侧重于收购方对目标公司的工作方法、文化、领导风格和整体组织动态的了解，即了解目标公司，促进心理契约的形成和相互理解。为了调和这些观点，我们探讨了熟悉度的调节作用。虽然认识到在所有联盟中获取新知识和技能的重要性，但我们认为，与目标公司建立信任和理解在收购前联盟中尤其重要。因此，收购后的绩效将在很大程度上受到收购公司对合作伙伴背景的熟悉程度的影响，从而增强了了解合作伙伴的条件。我们假设文化和市场熟悉度正向调节收购前联盟和收购后绩效之间的关系。使用SDC Platinum、EIKON 和 ORBIS 的数据（涵盖 712 项多数收购或全部收购），我们发现我们的假设得到了强有力的支持。具体而言，收购前联盟在国内和工业相关收购中最为有效。此外，随着文化距离的增加，先前战略联盟的好处也会减少。这些发现在各种匹配技术下都成立，对学者和实践者都有重大影响。