Corporate diversification and the value of individual firms: A Bayesian approach

Research summary: Prior theory suggests that the performance effects of a firm's diversification strategy depend on a firm's individual resources and capabilities and the setting within which it is operating. However, prior tests of this theory have examined the average diversification‐performance relationship across all firms, instead of estimating the diversification‐performance relationship at the individual firm level. Efforts to estimate this average relationship are inconsistent with a central assumption of much of strategic management theory—that firms maximize value by choosing strategies that exploit their heterogeneous resources and individual situation. By adopting an approach that allows an evaluation of the diversification‐performance relationship for individual firms, this article shows that firms, both focused and diversified, tend to choose that diversification strategy—focus, related diversification, or unrelated diversification—that maximizes value. Managerial summary: Instead of a universal diversification discount or premium, this article shows that the effect of diversification on performance is heterogeneously distributed across firms and that firms tend to be rational in their diversification decisions. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

With or Without You? Building a Case for Further MICE (Meetings,Incentive Travel,Conventions, Exhibitions) Development in Macao

Macao's gross gaming revenues have increased considerably in the past decade since casino liberalization to more than 6 times that of the Las Vegas Strip (Nevada). Macao's global dominance in gaming revenues is in contrast to Macao's meetings, incentive travel, conventions, and exhibitions (MICE) development. With comparisons to the Las Vegas Strip model of a balance between gaming and conventions, Macao's MICE industry has not advanced in tandem with Macao's casino expansion. Macao's bolstering gaming revenues have presented little incentive for most gaming operators to move beyond, with conventions and exhibitions remaining on the fringes of hospitality offerings as a supporting unit to casino product positioning.

As the Cotai Strip enters its second wave of integrated resort construction an increasing number of MICE, as well as other nongaming venues, will be included within the resort designs. A key vision behind casino liberalization, as well as an expressed wish by the Chinese authorities, is for Macao to diversify its tourism portfolio to include more MICE development. Examining Macao's casino tourism growth trajectory, this article suggests this limited growth in MICE could continue. Isolating key limiting factors, strategic actions are presented in the paper as approaches to further involve and potentially advance MICE development along Macao's Cotai Strip.     

企业剩余资源与多元化扩张战略

企业资源剩余在企业中是普遍存在的 ,但并不是所有的剩余资源都可以用于企业的多元化扩张。许多企业多元化失败的原因之一在于将不具有竞争优势的剩余资源用于扩张战略上。以海尔为案例就如何识别企业剩余资源和利用剩余资源进行多元化扩张作了理论上的探讨。     

Diversification,Refocusing and Firm Value

At any point in time a firm faces three restructuring choices: diversify, refocus, or do nothing. This study analyses the causes and the consequences of these actions in a unified framework using the appropriate methodologies. Various factors, such as firm's characteristics and multinational nature, its industry's characteristics, its exchange and index inclusion, and divested (or acquired) segment(s)' industry conditions, are considered as the determinants of the diversifying and the refocusing decisions. The estimation results from the corresponding multinomial logit model suggest that refocusing occurs generally due to firm‐specific reasons, and diversification due to outside factors, such as industry and economic conditions. Added or dropped segment's industry profitability, its relationship to the core business of the firm, and its relatedness to the businesses of the conglomerate's other segments have a nontrivial effect on either decision. In a related analysis, the paper explicitly models and estimates the valuation consequences that are sustained by the firm after it undertakes a refocusing or a diversification action. To isolate the changes in firm's value that are due to these decisions only, a 2SLS estimation is used to control for endogeneity that arises because the factors that affect a firm's value are likely to have also induced the firm to make the corresponding decision. The novelty of my approach is in its inclusion of variables measuring the consequences due to both actions, the diversification and the refocusing, in the same valuation equation. Contrary to some earlier findings, I find no evidence of ‘diversification discount’ or ‘refocusing premium.’ The choice of this paper to analyse all corporate restructuring decisions in a unified framework yields valuable business insights into the reasons for undertaking such corporate events.     

Does corporate ownership structure affect its strategy towards diversification?

We claim that there is a link between corporate control structure and managers’ strategy towards unrelated mergers and risk diversification. Companies with greater ownership concentration are less diversified. Evidence also shows that corporate diversification generally results in value loss while focussing is value increasing. This highlights the potentially detrimental effect of agency problems on corporate strategy. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

渠道与产品：多元化经营如何提升农村商业银行经营绩效

随着金融科技和数字经济的发展,以渠道多元化和产品多元化为核心的多元化经营不仅成为商业银行竞争优势的重要来源,也是改善经营绩效的有效路径。以广东省75家农村商业银行为样本,采用 2013—2021年季度面板数据的分析表明：渠道多元化促进了农村商业银行的经营绩效增长,并能抑制经营绩效波动,这种经营绩效提升效应对发展水平较高的农村商业银行和非县域农村商业银行更为显著;产品多元化对渠道多元化影响经营绩效具有调节作用,其中贷款产品多元化发挥正向调节作用（对渠道多元化促进经营绩效增长和抑制经营绩效波动均有强化作用）,而存款产品多元化总体上发挥负向调节作用（对渠道多元化促进经营绩效增长的调节作用不显著,弱化渠道多元化对经营绩效波动的抑制作用）;渠道多元化可以通过增加客户忠诚度、提高竞争防御能力两条路径来抑制经营绩效波动,产品多元化对该中介机制具有调节作用,其中贷款产品多元化发挥“正—正”的正向调节作用,存款产品多元化发挥“正—负”的负向调节作用。农村商业银行应采取渠道多元化和产品多元化“双轮”驱动策略,通过渠道与产品的有效配置协同促进经营绩效提升。     

Agency problems as antecedents to unrelated mergers and diversification: Amihud and Lev reconsidered

Amihud and Lev (1981) are widely cited as providing evidence that managers, unless closely monitored by large block shareholders, will attempt to reduce their employment risk through unrelated mergers and diversification. These corporate strategies, however, may not be in shareholders' interests. Reconsidering the agency assumptions underlying Amihud and Lev's study and the methodology they used, we develop hypotheses regarding the association between ownership structure, board vigilance, corporate strategy, and corporate performance from management theory and test them using Amihud and Lev's data from the 1960s and new data from the 1980s. Neither study supports the conclusions of Amihud and Lev, nor the agency theory belief that monitoring efforts by principals affect the strategic behaviors of agents or the performance of firms that they manage. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

出口专业化能否驱动经济增长？——基于长三角两省一市的实证分析

本文利用长三角两省一市1998—2013年非平衡面板数据,研究了出口专业化、出口多样化与经济增长的非线性关系,探究长三角地区出口专业化、出口多样化的动态演进过程及其经济增长效应。研究结论表明,长三角两省一市出口专业化、水平出口多样化与经济增长之间存在显著的U型关系,垂直出口多样化与经济增长之间存在倒U型关系但在统计上不显著;随着劳动力价格优势逐渐消失,在其他影响因素中,相比普通劳动力,人力资本对江浙沪经济增长的推动作用更显著。与两省一市的经济发展水平和人均收入水平紧密相关,上海和江苏出口专业化水平较高,且与经济增长具有正相关关系,目前已处于U型关系右侧,浙江的出口专业化水平较低,且与经济增长具有负相关关系,尚处于U型关系左侧。     

分类改革提升了竞争类国企的投资效率吗?

本文以2015年国企分类改革为准自然实验,考察分类改革对竞争类国企投资效率的影响.研究发现,分类改革显著提升了竞争类国企的投资效率,且投资效率的改善主要表现为对过度投资的抑制.考虑行业竞争程度的差异后发现,分类改革对竞争类国企投资效率的提升仅存在于低竞争行业中,并且这些公司的经营业绩在改革后也得到了显著提高.考虑地区差...