Introduction Mergers and acquisitions have become popular in the current market economies. This has seen many a researcher petitioning for a portion of knowledge to establish the reasons for their popularity. Points of interest are the reasons for their causes. Their causes have associated outcomes. The outcomes can be positive or negative. Despite their popularity, some mergers do not hold-they fail. Interest is directed towards strategic and operational management issues related to mergers and acquisitions. The question of interest has been to research the causes of mergers. While learning the causes, we shall not be limited to present-day case studies of mergers. Therefore, research must cover the history of mergers and acquisitions over a discernible period. The choice of the period, therefore, is critical to making comparisons in differences, if any, between the present-day mergers and early mergers. Comparisons will help to establish the trends in improvements of mergers and acquisitions. If there are improvements, some question to ask or answer is, are there lessons to learn from the mergers. Literature review Mergers and acquit ions are important strategies in a market. Early research has provided substantial information on mergers and acquisitions. Such writers are Weston and Weaver (2004) put forward the theory and practice of mergers and acquisitions. They argued that there are dimensions that considerations of mergers are put in place. One such consideration is, as put by the two authors’, puts in mind the benefits of small market players that practice on a market. Besides, postulates have been put forward concerning mergers and acquisitions concerning tax incentives. It is clear from the explanation of Auerbach (1991) that more tax benefits accrue at a corporate level for firms merging as opposed to a company operating alone. Operational and tax issues affect mergers to a substantial extent. There is a risk of combining companies of firms, observed by PricewaterHouseCoopers (2006), which must consider the benefits of increases in income of the merged firms with a critical analysis resulting tax changes. Some income increments that lead to doubling or near doubling in taxes render mergers unsuccessful. In the perspective of strategic issues, planning is usually viewed as a growth strategy for small companies. This is usually an option of a firm that views internal growth as having a slow pace (Rock, Rock, & Sikora, 1994). These authors extend their arguments by outlining the strategies that companies adopt for possible mergers. Operational management in acquisitions is handled concerning systems and data drawbacks. Difficulties always emerge when marketing and sales units call for combination (Cheverton, Foss, Hughes & Stone, 2005). Despite the difficulties put forward above, literature provides suggestions to ways of reducing them to make a merger successful. An acquiring company is advised to retain key staff from the acquired company. This has the benefit of retaining expertise within the merger (Daniel & Metcalf, 2001). Research question What are the causes, benefits and challenges of mergers and acquisitions in market economies? Design and methodology This research will e