Business Groups Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

- by
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- Corporate Governance, Business Groups
- by Frederic Godart
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- Talent management, Business Groups, Luxury, Luxury Brands

We clarify what business groups are and analyze their various types. We first distinguish business groups from other types of firm networks based on the strategic relationships among companies; business groups are defined as those networks that exhibit unrelated diversification under common ownership. We then separate business groups into three types based on their ownership: family-owned, widely-held, and state-owned. We argue that each type has different agency costs and diversification logics. As a result of these differences, their performance varies, with family-owned business groups outperforming widely-held ones, and these in turn outperforming state-owned business groups.

- by Alvaro Cuervo-Cazurra
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- Agency Theory, Emerging Markets, Business Groups, State Ownership

Motivated by the growth and internationalization of business groups, this paper reviews the business group literature and presents a future research agenda, highlighting their implications for international strategy. The paper identifies theoretical tensions and empirical ambiguities around three key business group features—corporate governance, internal markets, and corporate strategy—and three key outcome variables—performance, economic impact, and innovation—that have generated significant debate. We conclude with three methodological concerns relevant to these debates: generalizing business group research across countries, endogeneity in business group research, and performance measurement in business groups.

- by Tim R. Holcomb
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- Business Groups
- by Andrea Lluch
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- Family Business, Business History, Argentina, Business Groups

The article analyzes the national cement industry from a fundamentally microeconomic perspective, paying particular attention to the presence and behavior of business groups operating in this market. A clear segmentation of the market into three geographic regions -north, central and south-, in each of which dominated a particular economic group, is evident. This situation means that competition is not a feature of this market, that is, the industry has an oligopolistic structure with little presence of competition. Price series do not show any competition between regions, which reinforces the hypothesis that business groups have helped to consolidate the natural geographical barriers that divide the cement market in Peru.

- by Víctor Torres Cuzcano
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- Business Groups
- by Katerina Galani
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- Ottoman History, Greek Diaspora, Business Groups, Constantinople
- by Josnei Di Carlo and +2
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- Sociology, Brazilian Studies, Brazilian History, Political Science
- by Martín Monsalve Zanatti
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- Business, Family Business, Chile, Business Groups

The article seeks to explain how policies affect business groups’ decisions to stay or leave a sector of activity in a liberalized economy. The article utilizes a comparative historical approach to explain how business groups in six Central American countries decided to enter, remain in or leave the banking sector. Using case studies of the main banks belonging to business groups in the region, the article seeks to identify the impact of three policies: nationalization, privatization and liberalization. It argues that the sequence and idiosyncrasies of the policies each country adopted created divergent, path-dependent trajectories and different sets of incentives for business groups. As the analysis shows, government policies are not exclusive determinants of business strategies. However, they shape the environment in which business decisions are made. Therefore, understanding the divergent paths of different business groups in the region calls for studies that combine structural and micro-level analysis.

From 1880 to 1914, Argentina was one of the main destinations of the British investment abroad. Most of the investment in the River Plate was carried out by Free Standing Companies, frequently grouped under the control of a main company. 1 In this British-based investment groups, the managerial control of the firms was exercised by the board of the parent company, whose members headed a network of overlapping directories. This organizational pattern resulted from the development of property advantages based on the financial and commercial networks between Britain and Argentina. The early specialization of British agents in finance and trade gave origin to specific advantages in the administration of intangible assets such as knowledge and managerial abilities, allowing a fluent access to capital that strengthened the British managerial networks in the region.

- by Norma S Lanciotti
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- Argentina, Business Groups

This chapter explores the role of family firms in Spanish interlocking directorates. We studied a sample of the 396 largest Spanish firms and their 2417 directors, and found that family firms are less central in the Spanish interlocks than non-family firms. Family firms avoid the creation of direct links among them by sharing independent directors. Nevertheless, the network of the top family firms is denser than expected thanks to a few directors that span family firms and non-family firms. We conclude by developing a set of propositions on the factors that explain the construction of interlock networks in family firms.

- by Erica Salvaj
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- Social Networks, Social Sciences, Family Business, Interorganizational Relationships

Merchants formed an important component of British foreign direct investment before 1945. Locating in parts of Asia, Latin America and other developing economies, they often diversified into non-trading activities, including the ownership of plantations. This article examines three such British firms active initially in Asia, though with operations also in North America, Europe, and Africa. Often regarded as handicapped by managerial failings, especially from the early twentieth century, the authors cast these firms as more entrepreneurial and possessing greater managerial competencies than has been suggested. The article argues that their business strategies continued to evolve in the interwar years and that, when viewed as business groups, their organizational forms were robust, though considerable diversity in the performance of the three British firms can be observed. This evidence is shown to have implications for wider debates about the competencies of British management as a whole.

- by Geoffrey Jones
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- Business Groups

This article examines the emergence and development of what became the largest
business group in Turkey, the Koc Group. This venture was an important actor in the
emergence of modern business enterprise in the new state of the Republic of Turkey
from the 1920s. After World War II it diversified rapidly, forming part of a cluster of
business groups which dominated the Turkish economy alongside state-owned firms.
This article examines how the founder of the Group, Vehbi Koc, formulated his
business model, and analyses how his firm evolved into a diversified business
group. Although the case supports prevailing explanations of business groups related to
institutional voids, government policy and the importance of contact capabilities, this
study builds on and extends the earlier suggestions that entrepreneurship needs
incorporating as an explanatory factor. The article shows that Koc acts as both a
Kirznerian and Schumpeterian entrepreneur to build his group, both in its formative
stages and later in its subsequent growth into a diversified business group.

- by Geoffrey Jones and +1
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- Entrepreneurship, Business History, Turkish History, Turkey

Los cambios macroeconómicos e institucionales producto de la salida del régimen de convertibilidad en el año 2002 dieron lugar a importantes transformaciones al interior de la cúpula empresarial argentina, entre los que se destaca la consolidación de nuevos grupos económicos locales que hasta entonces tenían un peso pequeño o eran inexistentes. Uno de estos nuevos grupos es Pampa Energía. Su crecimiento y desarrollo durante estos años lo convirtieron en una de las novedades que tuvo la renovación del empresariado argentino. El objetivo del artículo es analizar la estrategia desarrollada por el grupo tanto en su carácter económico como político, la inserción sectorial alcanzada y los resultados en la implementación de esta estrategia corporativa. Entre las conclusiones a las que se arriba se sostiene que Pampa Energía se constituyó como un grupo económico especializado en el sector energético con participación en los tres segmentos del mercado de energía eléctrica, así como en el de la producción de hidrocarburos y el transporte de gas, que buscó adquirir empresas en una débil situación financiera y con la perspectiva de futuros incrementos tarifarios, junto a la inserción en sectores que contaban con programas estatales de incentivo a la producción.

- by Leandro Navarro
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- Economic Sociology, Energy, Business Groups
- by Balazs Vedres
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- Sociology, Economic Sociology, Creativity, Innovation statistics

The internationalization of Japanese business groups (JBG) have been subject to intense scrutiny since JBG shot to world stage in the 1980's. Studies on the internationalization of JBG have been fragmented in scope and have mainly focused on specific behaviors e.g. mode of market entry, knowledge creation, knowledge flows between headquarters and overseas subsidiaries, overseas market development and sales strategies, to name a few. Little attention has been paid, however, to explaining the reasons behind these behaviors. This literature review aims to contribute to filling this gap by recognizing the internationalization's embeddedness in the country's institutional environment, thus providing a more nuanced understanding of the drivers behind these behaviors as well as the intrinsic obstacles that may hinder the outcomes of these internationalization efforts. This study also hopes to answer the theoretical question called for by (Zaheer, Gözübüyük and Milanov, 2010) in their excellent work "It's the connections: The network perspective in interorganizational research: "How do organizations balance the benefits of trust and embeddedness with the costs of lock-in and inflexibility with the same set of partners?" The holistic perspective of this review has wide ranging managerial implications in terms of effective intra-organizational dialogue, stakeholder management, organizational knowledge management, among others.

This edited volume brings together the latest research on the business history of Turkey and its predecessor the Ottoman Empire from the nineteenth century until the present day. It places the distinctive characteristics of Turkish capitalism in a global and comparative perspective. Chapters span a range of topics including politics and the development of capitalism in Turkey, the role of business groups, Islamic capitalism, governance and social responsibility, and ethical business and corruption.

- by Geoffrey Jones
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- Business Ethics, Ottoman History, Business History, Governance
- by Pradyot Sen and +1
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- Corporate Governance, Agency Problem (Corporate Governance), Economic Theory, Business Groups

Firms can be conceived as political entities in which various stakeholders struggle against each other to reach goals. From this standpoint, the organizational structure of a firm, together with the power relations and strategies deployed by stakeholders, constitute a governance regime. It is understood that the economic performance of a firm is impacted by the type of governance regime which is at play among its different stakeholders, but little is known on the effects of governance regimes on organizational creative performance. Adopting a center/periphery perspective, we look at business groups, a well-known type of business firm in creative settings. A salient question is thus to know how firms affiliated to various types of business groups perform vis-a-vis unaffiliated firms, and what are the underlying political processes. We define three different regimes of governance—empires, federated arrangements, and kingdoms—each characterized by specific regulation and integration features. Regulation refers to the type of rule (from the center to the periphery), to the autonomy of peripheral entities, and to the regime’s level of flexibility; integration captures the extent to which projects of the center and the periphery are consonant as well as the local elites’ type of mobility. We devise empirical tests for a realm of the creative economy by employing organizational and network analysis of 293 fashion houses over seven seasons. Overall we find that, although both empires and federated arrangements perform better than kingdoms, federated arrangements perform best in creative contexts because they are hybrids of empires and kingdoms.

- by Frederic Godart and +1
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- Organizational Behavior, Management, Creativity, Corporate Governance

Business groups has been one of the popular topics in organization theory in the last decade. This organizational form emerged in Turkey after the Second World War as the private sector began to take a greater part in the industrialization process. The aim of this article is to reveal whether business groups are reproduced in different economic, politic and social contexts. To this end, business groups that have emerged in the pre- and post-1980 liberalization periods are compared with respect to their present-day characterisitcs. Our findings show that pre-1980 and post-1980 business groups are differentiated in the extent of unrelated diversification and inward-oriented internationalization dimensions.

- by Karayormuk Kemal and +1
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- Business Groups
- by Yovanna Pineda
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- Argentina, Business Groups, Strategies, Profits

Objective: One of the main characteristics of emerging economies is the important role of business groups. Business group affiliation can bring about various positive consequences for the firms related to such groups. This study aims to examine the effects of business group affiliation on corporate sustainability reporting level. Method: The checklist developed by the Global Reporting Initiative, GRI, was used to measure the level of corporate sustainability reporting. The research hypothesis was applied to 102 firms listed in the Tehran Stock Exchange for the years 2013-2017, and then was tested, using multivariate regression based on panel data model. Result: The findings suggest that business group affiliation is likely to improve the corporate sustainability reporting level. Moreover, the results of additional analysis reveal that the relationship between business group affiliation and sustainability reporting level is more pronounced in larger firms. Conclusion: Affiliated companies to business groups have more incentives for sustainability reporting due to less concern for short-term financial interests.

- by Journal of Accounting Knowledge and +1
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- Sustainable Development, Business Groups, Sustainability Reporting

This article reviews the research on the significance of director interlocks for corporate decision-making. Some interlocks represent corporation-corporation connections that facilitate formal coordination. Others represent... more

In this paper we examine the relationship among business groups (BGs) in Chile in the long run, focusing on the relations between the state viewed as a BG and privately-owned BGs from 1970 to 2010. Our analysis proceeds within the methodological perspective of interlocking directorates (IDs) analysis. Working with a unique database of the boards of affiliated firms to BGs, we consider IDs as a way to learn about the cohesion and relation between these BGs. We include a period of political change and institutional and economic modernization in Chile, which also involved a transformation in the character of the entrepreneurial class in the country. We find that the state BG has played an important role in the networks of Chilean capitalism. Our work complements the literature on BGs and state capitalism, showing the rich nature of social networks in a capitalist society.

- by Erica Salvaj
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- Business, Business Administration, History, Economic History
- by Christian Lechner
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- Entrepreneurship, Business Groups, Growth
- by Hakki Okan Yeloğlu
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- Business Groups

This research deals with the contribution of good board practices to perceived business continuity in Tunisian corporate groups. This paper aims to identify the components of good board governance that can promote business continuity in Tunisian corporate groups through the study of the directors ’ perceptions. Large Tunisian business groups form the pillars of the country economic development and reflect the ownership structure as well as the management style of Tunisian companies. In this regards, corporate governance and continuity issues are particularly important for Tunisian corporate groups. In this regards, Family-controlled businesses remain the predominant form of corporate groups in Tunisia. Good corporate governance can be a driver of business continuity by introducing good management practices allowing corporate groups to face succession problems and to improve company performance and its sustainability. The conceptual study has allowed us to identify the components of ...

- by Wajdi Ben Rejeb
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- Business, Management, Corporate Governance, Developing Countries

Can small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Sub-Saharan Africa overcome market imperfections to get the resources needed for exporting? We hypothesize that in many emerging economies, domestically-owned SMEs address the hurdle of imperfect markets by creating private governance systems in the form of long-term business relationships in business groups (BGs). Our data is collected from the World Bank's Enterprise Survey and comprises 8,885 SMEs in 33 Sub-Saharan African countries. We find that the export intensity of BG-affiliated SMEs is superior to independent firms, and that financial, human, and technological resources mediate the intensity of the BG affiliation-export relationship.

- by Mahdi Tajeddin
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- Business Groups, Sub-Saharan Africa, internationalization of SMEs

El presente artículo analiza cómo una serie de grupos de capitales argentinos que a fines de la década del ´90 estaban por fuera de las 100 empresas de mayores ventas lograron importantes crecimientos de facturación en un contexto general signado por la extranjerazación de varios de los grupos de mayor tamaño. Más allá de la alta atención recibida por parte de la prensa no especializada, en especial por la vinculación de parte de estos grupos con el gobierno de turno, desde el ámbito académico no existen trabajos que analicen su crecimiento en forma exhaustiva. El objetivo de este artículo es dar cuenta de este fenómeno, identificando y analizando los vectores de crecimiento de los nuevos grupos.

- by Joel Rabinovich
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- Business Groups

This article examines the interlocking directorates' structure of prominent Argentine business groups at the end of the import substitution period (1970–72), identifying corporate relations among and between business groups and the largest companies, during a period characterised by high institutional and macroeconomic instability. Applying social network analysis, it seeks to clarify how business groups can contribute to the cohesion of a corporate network structure, through their ability to create links among firms not only within their boundaries but also external to them. The article contributes to both corporate network and business groups' literature, highlighting a role of business groups that extant literature has failed to identify as relevant.

- by maria ines barbero and +2
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- Business, History, Economic History, Sociology
- by Erica Salvaj
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- Business, Latin American Studies, Political Economy, Social Networks

This paper compares the corporate network strategies between mul-tinational corporations of two different origins (United States and Spain), business groups, and state-owned enterprises in the public utility sector of a developing country going through economic and political transitions. The transitions we consider are from an import substitution industrialization model to an open market economy and from a democratic regime to a dictatorial one and back to democ-racy. We analyze the Chilean telecommunications sector between 1958 and 2005 and find that during a democratic regime all firms sought to build more networks with each other, while incentives decrease under an authoritarian regime. In the protectionist era, US investors built links with Chile’s corporate elite, while in times of an open economy, Spanish investors built these links with the gov-ernment. State-owned corporations did not attempt to build links with other actors at any time, and business groups sought to build most networks among members of the group. Our findings chal-lenge two commonly held assumptions: first, that open economies decrease incentives for domestic actors to build links with each other and, second, that close political regimes increase incentives to build networks among economic actors.

- by Erica Salvaj and +1
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- Business, Business Administration, Latin American Studies, Development Economics

To study the persistence of non-market strategies and associated governance structures during a transition from a limited political and economic system to a more open one, this article analyzes the network strategies of domestic business groups, multinational corporations, and state-owned enterprises in Chile, relative to its historical context of institutional transitions between 1970 and 2010. We argue that (a) the effects of transitions at the institutional environment level are historically determined and require historically informed methodologies and analyses; (b) a transition from limited to open economic and political environments does not necessarily eliminate market imperfections but could change them from transactional to structural; and (c) open political and economic systems do not decrease incentives for non-market strategies but instead create new incentives to use them.

This article examines the interlocking directorates’ structure of prominent Argentine business groups at the end of the import sub-stitution period (1970–72), identifying corporate relations among and between business groups and the largest companies, during aperiod characterised by high institutional and macroeconomic instability. Applying social network analysis, it seeks to clarify how business groups can contribute to the cohesion of a corporate network structure, through their ability to create links among ﬁrms not only within their boundaries but also external to them. The article contributes to both corporate network and business groups’ literature, highlighting a role of business groups that extant literatura has failed to identify as relevant.

- by Erica Salvaj
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- Business, History, Economic History, Sociology

El presente artículo analiza cómo una serie de grupos de capitales argentinos-que a fines de la década del 90 estaban por fuera de las cien empresas de mayores ventas-lograron importantes crecimientos de facturación a partir del año 2003. Esto resulta llamativo, teniendo en cuenta que el contexto general estuvo signado, durante buena parte del mismo, por la extranjerización de varios de los grupos de mayor tamaño. Más allá de la alta atención recibida por parte de la prensa, en especial por la vinculación de parte de estos grupos con el gobierno de turno, desde el ámbito académico no existen trabajos que analicen su crecimiento en forma exhaustiva. El objetivo de este artículo es dar cuenta de este fenómeno, identificando y analizando los vectores de crecimiento de los nuevos grupos.

- by Joel Rabinovich
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- Argentina, Business Groups, Grupos Econômicos

This research deals with the contribution of good board practices to perceived business continuity in Tunisian corporate groups. This paper aims to identify the components of good board governance that can promote business continuity in Tunisian corporate groups through the study of the directors’ perceptions. Large Tunisian business groups form the pillars of the country economic development and reflect the ownership structure as well as the management style of Tunisian companies. In this regards, corporate governance and continuity issues are particularly important for Tunisian corporate groups. In this regards, Family-controlled businesses remain the predominant form of corporate groups in Tunisia. Good corporate governance can be a driver of business continuity by introducing good management practices allowing corporate groups to face succession problems and to improve company performance and its sustainability. The conceptual study has allowed us to identify the components of g...

- by Wajdi Ben Rejeb
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- Business, Management, Corporate Governance, Developing Countries

This paper has compared the big business groups in China with both nongroup firms in China and big business groups in Korea, chaebols. The comparative analysis show that big business groups in China tend to have more state shares, be more heavily indebted, less profitable, and accumulating capital more slowly than non-group firms. This is some contrast to the Korean case that Chaebols tend to be more heavily indebted, to pursue faster growth at the expense of profitability, compared to non-chaebol firms. Compared to ...

- by Keun Lee
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- Business Groups
- by Marco Antonio M Rocha and +1
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- Brazilian Political Economy, Business Groups, Brazilian Economy

with Dr. Richard Sherman, World Economy. Vol.29, no. 4 (2006), pp.473-489.

- by L. Johan Eliasson
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- International Trade, Business Groups, Lobbying