Business relatedness and performance: a study of managerial perceptions

Understanding of business relatedness and performance effects is the foundation of any diversification decision, but we have limited knowledge of how managers consider relatedness. This study identified relatedness classes and performance effects using perceptual survey data from top industrial executives. Four classes with significant variable differences were found: high, technology, customer, and low relatedness. Technology relatedness had a strong positive performance effect and high relatedness had a negative effect. The findings confirm that perceptions are multidimensional, but may include five key factors rather than the previously identified attribute categories of product–markets, resources, and value chains. Contributions to diversification literature are discussed. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

多元化理论与现代企业战略思想的演进

多元化理论研究与现代企业战略思想的演进和发展有着极为密切的关系。本文通过对一些多元化经典理论文献的回溯和评析,试图明晰多元化理论与现代企业战略思想发展、演进的脉络。     

Crop Insurance as a Strategy for Adapting to Climate Change

Financial insurance for extreme events can play an important role in hedging against the implications of climate change. This paper combines a comprehensive estimation strategy and a unique panel dataset to study the role of financial insurance in farmers' welfare under uncertainty. Data are drawn from a large Italian farm panel dataset. We find that (i) demand for insurance products is likely to increase in response to climatic conditions, and (ii) that the use of insurance reduces the extent of risk exposure. We also find that farms growing more crops are less likely to adopt the insurance scheme. This confirms what is found in the theoretical literature. Crop diversification can be a substitute for financial insurance in hedging against the impact of risk exposure on welfare.     

产品和地理多样化对农产品贸易的影响分析

[目的]农业在中国经济发展中一直处于基础产业地位,其既是人类赖以生存的物质基础,同时也是重要的工业原料。另外,在世界农产品贸易中,中国也扮演着十分重要的角色。因此,农产品的进出口对中国的农业生产有着深远影响,农产品进出口的稳定性直接决定了中国农业生产的稳定性。为此,将从产品和地理多样化视角,探究中国农产品进出口的稳定性。[方法]利用标准化赫芬达尔指数对中国农产品出口(进口)的地理多样化和产品多样化进行了测度,并在此基础上,进一步利用回归方法对出口(进口)地理多样化和产品多样化对农产品出口(进口)波动性的影响进行了检验。[结果]无论是出口还是进口,地理多样化和产品多样化都存在不同程度的行业异质性;无论是出口还是进口,地理多样化和产品多样化对农产品贸易波动性的影响存在着不同程度的行业异质性。[结论]在产品结构和地理结构方面,根据不同商品类别采取多样化或专一化政策以减少中国农产品进出口的波动性。     

Diversification Strategies and Corporate Coherence Evidence from Italian Leading Firms

This paper investigates the determinants of coherence and coherence change usinga sample of Italian leading firms in the period 1993–1996. Consistently with thehypotheses advanced by Teece et al. (1994), the econometric analysis highlightsthat relatedness between pairs of sectors and coherence of diversification strategiesare higher when firms are active in sectors sharing similar technological and marketingcharacteristics, and when they are positioned at different stages of the productive chain.Moreover, the findings that firms which enter the group of top 5 industry leaders aremore coherent than the average and that coherence is increasing for firms active insectors more sensitive to EU integration are consistent with the prediction that coherentfirms tend to outperform less coherent ones and that coherence is increasing in morecompetitive environments. Finally, the results show that a deepening of vertical integration strategies is good for coherence change, while an increase of diversification brings a reduction in coherence.     

企业多元化的新模式：基于核心能力的虚拟经营

本文研究了企业多元化经营的科学含义，创建了一个二元作用定性模型来论证企业发展到一定阶段多元化经营的必然性，研究了现代企业虚拟经营的背景，含义以及企业深化，培育核心能力与开展虚拟经营之间的本质联系，考察了多元化成功与失败的众多企业案例，当代多元化经营成功的企业大多是基于核心能力的战略相关多元化，而虚拟经营也是核心能力培育，深化的产物，借助于基于核心能力的虚拟经营以实现相关多元化发展，是企业多元化的一条新途径，相对于传统多元化而言，它更具竞争优势。     

Inter‐temporal economies of scope,organizational modularity,and the dynamics of diversification

The question of whether corporations add value beyond that created by individual businesses has engendered much debate in recent years. Some of this debate has focused on the pros and cons of related vs. unrelated diversification. A standard explanation of the benefits of related diversification has to do with the ability to obtain intra‐temporal economies of scope from contemporaneous sharing of resources by related businesses within the firm. In contrast, this paper deals with inter‐temporal economies of scope that firms achieve by redeploying resources and capabilities between related businesses over time, as firms exit some markets while entering others. The transfer of resources due to market exit distinguishes our treatment of inter‐temporal economies of scope from standard intra‐temporal economies of scope. In addition, these inter‐temporal economies can benefit from a decentralized and modular organizational structure. This ability to obtain inter‐temporal economies of scope via organizational modularity and recombination suggests that corporations do not necessarily need a high degree of coordination between business units in order to benefit from a strategy of related diversification. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Did the Federal Crop Insurance Reform Act Alter Farm Enterprise Diversification?

We estimate how much United States farms changed enterprise diversification in response to a marked increase in crop insurance coverage brought about by the 1994 Federal Crop Insurance Reform Act, which substantially increased insurance subsidies. The analysis exploits farm‐level panel census data to compare farm‐specific changes in enterprise diversification over time. By examining diversification decisions of the same farms over time, we control for time‐invariant unobserved individual heterogeneity. We then use pooled cross‐sectional data from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Resource Management Survey to estimate the relationship between farm diversification and average returns. We find that the insurance subsidies caused a modest increase in enterprise specialisation and production efficiency. Estimated efficiency gains are far less than the subsidies.     

基于结构调整的青岛市海洋休闲渔业发展初探

由于近海渔业资源的减少,青岛市传统渔业面临困境,急需进行海洋渔业结构调整。基于青岛市海洋渔业调查分析,发展休闲渔业是缓解传统渔业困境,促进渔业转型的重要措施。青岛市休闲渔业有了较大的发展,但存在规划、管理、资金等方面的问题。可通过构建多元化对策体系,促进青岛市休闲渔业的健康可持续发展。